Read Novel Full Chapter 173.1
Chapter 173.1
“As usual, I listened to that sound again.”
The youth neatly took the backpack off his back, put it on the ground, and then untied the rope that was wrapped around it. The backpack immediately spread out into a piece of linen, and many small fruits appeared on it.
The men took the fruit from the youth, bit into it, then turned their heads numbly and found a corner to eat quietly.
The only men left on the scene were the youth who was handing out the fruit and a skinny middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man’s hair was a mess, it was frizzy and looked like a dog had gnawed on it.
His face and clothes were covered with dirty sludge, and his thick beard covered half of his face.
Unlike the other numb men, this man’s eyes still had a sparkle, and he was able to have some basic conversation.
Hearing the youth’s reply, the bearded man gave him a deep look and couldn’t help but splash cold water: “Bai Lixin, it’s been fifty years since you were here. You should know by now that that is just an ordinary sound; it doesn’t mean anything.”
“Resign yourself to your fate, no one will ever get out of here.”
A few green fruits were left on the linen cloth in front of Bai Lixin. He took a few from it and stuffed them into the bearded man’s arms, looking cold but polite. “If you can get in, then there must be a way out, and I will get out of here.”
With that, he picked up the last two fruits, stuffed one into his mouth, and held the other in his left hand.
With his right hand, he picked up the piece of cloth and rope on the ground, turned, and headed in a direction.
The bearded man looked at Bai Lixin’s back as he left, then sighed and shook his head gently, “He’s still too young, I’m so envious sometimes, a newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger.”
The faint voice came to Bai Lixin’s ears from behind, he didn’t turn around, nor did he stop to retort anything.
He walked straight towards a large tree in the survival area, picked up a small piece of diamond that had been polished out of the edge of the tree, and scratched a “—” symbol on the tree.
When he had finished, the “—” was exactly the same as the previous mark, forming a “+”.
Bai Lixin looked up at the tree. The entire trunk of the tree was covered with neatly arranged “+” characters, one after another.
They were densely arranged above, silently displaying the long years.
Bai Lixin: [Escape system, s419M?]
He took a bite of the green fruit, and the fullness of the juice immediately overflowed into Bai Lixin’s mouth.
In an instant, his mouth was filled with a complex, multi-layered taste of bitterness that was both sweet and sour.
It tasted bad, but he had run out of food in his backpack to fill his stomach.
Bai Lixin shouted a few more times in his mind, and as expected, there was no response from him.
It had been 50 years since he came to [Time Cage—Eternal Diamond Mountain]. This place was like an endless abyss, forgotten by the system.
He could open his backpack and take out the daily necessities inside, but the prop cards had lost their effect, and the connection with the escape system and s419 had also been lost.
Although he had a lot of supplies and food stored in his backpack at the time, they were consumed day in and day out without replenishment and had long since been used up.
There were some others around, but they had already succumbed to stereotypical actions and lost their minds. Only daily feeding might prove that they were still alive.
It was already pitch black overhead, and there was silence all around, not even a whisper of wind.
Bai Lixin ate the green fruit in three bites, put the small diamond back in its place, turned, and sat down against the tree to rest.
He did not throw away the seeds left over from the green fruit, but dug out two small holes in the soil and put the seeds in them.
As he planted the seeds, he opened the taskbar.
Although he was cut off from the escape system and S419, the taskbar could still be opened.
There was only one task in the taskbar.
[Copy: Time Cage—Eternal Diamond Mountain]
[Task content: Leave the Time Cage, and receive the rare prop Diamond Heart after the mission is completed.]
[Time Limit: None.]
[Note: Night is the paradise of the abyss.]
[Friendly reminder: Break the Eternal Diamond Mountain to leave the Eternal Diamond Mountain.]
The system defined the time cage as a “copy”.
In that case, this world should also be a dimensional world that the system has linked from within like a connection. It was just that this world was too difficult to conquer, so it was used by the system as a punishment.
What interested Bai Lixin more was the task reward.
“Diamond Heart.” Looking at this name, it reminded Bai Lixin of a prop he had received before.
That item was called “Mermaid’s Heart.”
The “Mermaid’s Heart” was a black pearl-like pendant, a growth-type healing item. He was able to clear the copy with the undead thanks to the Mermaid’s Heart, which was a bug-like item.
Could Diamond Heart be a bug-like item similar to the Mermaid’s Heart?
……
In the distance, those numb human beings with stereotypical behavior finished eating the fruit, some of them continued to spin in circles, while others yawned and simply laid down to sleep.
The bearded man threw the seeds away after eating them, and after a moment’s hesitation, he still went to Bai Lixin.
The tree was at least a hundred years old and looked like a black, coffee-colored wall from afar. The bearded man held the trunk of the tree and sat not far from Bai Lixin in the same position.
The bearded man was one of the few men in the group who still had his wits about him.
Bai Lixin felt someone sitting next to him, he glanced at the bearded man and went back to staring at the ground in front of him.
The bearded man sighed. “Why do you believe that sound is a clue?”
“Maybe that’s just the most normal crustal movements in Diamond Mountain, it’s just a loud noise on a certain day every year.”
“I know it’s a lot of work to get out of here, but I still say that the more hope you hold on to, the more intense the disappointment will be when it’s dulled.”
“I used to be the same as you when I first came in, I would go use that rope every day to see what was going on out there.”
“I was just the same, trying to chisel my way through Diamond Mountain.”
“But it didn’t work; I persisted for more than twenty years and only chiseled a groove the size of a fingernail. If anything, it’s okay to keep chiseling, but we need to get back to the survival zone before dark every day.”
The ravages of time didn’t seem to have made a mark on Bai Lixin, his fingers were as long and slender as ever, still as clean as that jade.
Bai Lixin’s eyes were a little out of focus, and he was using a branch to draw something aimlessly on the ground.
The bearded man was right, the Eternal Diamond Mountain was not without its dangers, but it needed to be explored.
The Diamond Mountain was safe during the day, but once it was dark, the outside would become an abyssal paradise, and the only safe place was the survival zone.
If there were just monsters out there, that would be fine; maybe they could still take a chance.
But this was not the case.
The “abyssal paradise” was really an abyss.
The surroundings would be covered in darkness, and everything would be swallowed up by it.
The only way to get back to the survival zone was to make it back before dark.
Bai Lixin even felt that this place was like a bug in the code, but there was nothing that could be fixed, so he could only let it run wild.
It would take half a day to get from here to the edge of Diamond Mountain, but it would still take half a day to run back.
The time left in between to excavate the diamond mountain was only an hour or two.
Seeing that Bai Lixin did not answer him, the bearded man thought that Bai Lixin’s faith had slowly begun to cave in, and after a sigh, he continued, ” I used to listen to that sound too.”
“It is not just me,” the bearded man pointed to the numb men in the distance, “they also used to listen.”
“See that man,” the bearded man’s fingertip settled on one of the men circling in place, “when I first arrived, he was just like I am, still a little wise.”
“But a few decades later, he became that way too.”
The man rubbed his face with a bitter smile and said, “Soon, I’ll be like him too.”
“It’s sad to know what your future looks like and not be able to do anything about it, isn’t it?”
“How did I become like this now?”
Bai Lixin’s hands finally stopped moving, and he turned his head to look at the bearded man, his eyes still firm, saying, “I won’t.”
“A long, long time ago, I was in the same predicament, even more desperate and lonely than now, do you know how long I was in that situation?”
It was the first time the bearded man had heard the youth mention this, and his already numb heart had a few moments of curiosity, “How long?”
Bai Lixin: “Nearly ten thousand years.”
He was not as strong as he is now, he was once weak, helpless, and resigned too.
From the time he was bound to S419 to do the fast-paced missions, his fragile heart was slowly polished into a hard diamond.
He had never been a perfect person, nor was he the genius that others said he was.
He was just more hardworking and stronger than others.
All his abilities were gifts from his previous years of sharpening his skills. He was now able to cope with many things because of the unimaginable hardships of the past.
He also used to complain about God; he also used to resent the world. But it was only when he survived the valley of the shadow of death and became the man who was determined for his goals that he began to feel something.
When trials and tribulations are right in front of you, if you can’t avoid them, then carry them.
If you survive them, you become Kunpeng.
If you can’t, you’re silt.
*Kunpeng is a mythological beast, a fish that can turn into a big bird.
That’s why he helped newcomers whenever he could, not because he’s a saint, but because he’s a human being.
Wasn’t there a saying that went quite well with the situation? Only after getting wet will you know to pass an umbrella to someone else.
The bearded man froze, and two seconds later he suddenly burst out laughing. He hadn’t laughed like that in a long time, and his thick beard twitched wildly.
Bai Lixin just gave him a faint glance. He didn’t say anything more, but he put the branch aside, and with both hands, he wrapped the waterfall-like long black hair around himself and balled it up in his arms.