ID No. 019 - Chapter 17.2

Chen Yang stared blankly at the young man in front of him. The medicine had run out and now the young man was starting to mutate. The situation was going from bad to worse.

Recalling the earlier moments when the young man lost control, Chen Yang felt a shiver of dread. “What time is it?”

“Ten minutes to nine,” replied Chao Jian.

Chen Yang’s tense mind eased slightly. Good. Less than two hours to go. Just need to hold out till then.

There wasn’t much left of Chao Jian’s hospital gown. It was in tatters after they had repeatedly torn strip after strip.

Chen Yang glanced at it, feeling a pang of guilt. “You’re supposed to go back to the hospital, right? What’ll you do with your gown all torn up?”

“I’m not going back,” Chao Jian replied, holding a wide strip of cloth. “Move your thumb.”

Chen Yang complied. “Then what about your leg injury? Are you just going to leave it untreated?”

Instead of answering, Chao Jian tied a bow and moved to the side. He pulled a handful of fertilizer from his pocket, and started eating it one grain at a time.

Chen Yang was speechless.

“Holy crap!” Zhao Yuan, still squatting by the bushes, gawked in shock. “Is he cursed too?!”

Chen Yang nodded. “Yeah.”

Zhao Yuan was dumbfounded. “Then you…”

“I’ve mutated too,” Chen Yang said. Just as he finished, they heard the sound of footsteps coming from behind, followed by Zhang Yan’s hoarse voice. “Is that so?”

Zhang Yan reeked of an overpowering stench, as though he had bathed in monster fluids. His gaze toward Chen Yang was sharp and probing. “You’ve finally mutated?”

Chen Yang said nothing. Instead, he reached into his clothes and pants pockets, pulling out handfuls of fertilizer to show Zhang Yan.

Zhang Yan fell silent.

Zhao Yuan stood petrified for a few seconds before sidling up next to him. “Yan-ge, looks like it’s just the two of us who are still normal.”

His words lacked confidence, though. He wasn’t entirely okay himself. He didn’t dare admit that his mouth started watering when he spotted the fertilizer just now. He even felt restless. It was a sensation eerily similar to the onset of an addiction.

Zhang Yan didn’t respond to Zhao Yuan. His gaze remained fixed on Chen Yang. “Did you go down the mountain?”

“No,” Chen Yang replied, understanding what Zhang Yan was getting at. “We found the fertilizer in the grass.”

“Then you’re lucky,” Zhang Yan said. “If you’d mutated without access to fertilizer, who knows what would’ve happened.”

“Exactly. When we saw the fertilizer, we decided to collect some, just in case,” Chen Yang explained, slumping his shoulders. “Not long after that, we mutated.”

“What does it feel like?” Zhang Yan asked.

“At the initial stage, the both of us only craved fertilizer, but it’s not constant. It comes and goes.” Chen Yang said. “When it hits, though, there’s no resisting it. It’s like an instinct.” This was something he had learned from Teacher Zhou.

Zhang Yan sighed and reassured him, “Don’t worry too much about mutating. We’ve got the key person now and we’re close to wrapping this up. There’s a good chance you’ll make it back before fully turning into plants.”

“I’ve made some discoveries too,” Chen Yang added, skipping over the details and focusing on the results. His words successfully diverted Zhang Yan’s excitement toward the task at hand and away from fixating on him and Chao Jian’s mutations.

Zhao Yuan, too, brightened considerably. They had a chance to go home.

Chen Yang sat down next to the young man and watched him eat fertilizer. The contents of all four of his pockets were prepared for him as well.

Lin Yue’s little episode taught Chen Yang a lesson and heightened his vigilance. To avoid any accidents in these last moments, he lied to Zhang Yan and Zhao Yuan. They couldn’t detect the smell of fertilizer in the saliva, so the lie was easy to pull off.

Chen Yang let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully, Lin Yue hadn’t met them before she died. The two of them weren’t as sharp as she was and hadn’t realized the so-called truth was wrong. Otherwise, it would have turned into chaos.

Chao Jian didn’t eat much.

Chen Yang knew that, even when faced with fertilizer, Chao Jian still retained some self-control. Although he himself wasn’t cursed, he understood how hard it was to resist.

“Just hang on a little longer. We’ll be able to go back soon,” Chen Yang said in a low voice.

Chao Jian calmly put the unfinished fertilizer back into his pocket. “What’s there to be afraid of?”

Chen Yang could smell the fertilizer on his breath. “I’m afraid that you’ll be talking to me one moment and turn into a plant the next.”

Chao Jian replied, “Then just dig me up and carry me with you. That way, when you go back, I’ll be there too.”

“… What if you turn into a huge plant?”

“So, in the end, you just think it’s too much trouble.”

After a moment of silence, Chen Yang quietly said, “Zhang Yan has too much liquid on his clothes. There’s a patch with a weird color. Something’s off about him. Stay away from him.”

“I stay away from everyone. Worry about yourself.”

“…”

While the four of them were talking in two separate groups, Ah Wu woke up.

The first person Ah Wu looked at was Zhang Yan. He didn’t speak, just smiled at him with a meaningful smile.

Zhang Yan’s face turned ashen and he suddenly shouted, “What the hell are you looking at?”

It was the first time Chen Yang had seen this side of Zhang Yan. His temper was so unpredictable.

Ah Wu stopped smiling, pointed at Chen Yang, and said, “He killed Miss Lin.”

Zhao Yuan didn’t believe a word of it. Furious, he snapped, “What the hell? When we asked you before, didn’t you say you hadn’t seen any other tourists? And now you’re saying this? Do you think we’re idiots you can mess around with whenever you want?”

But Zhang Yan was staring at Chen Yang.

“She turned into a seed. It’s in the southeast of the stone cave. Here’s her phone.” Chen Yang tossed the phone to Zhang Yan. “Want me to take you to see it?”

“No need.” Zhang Yan saw no point in wasting time. That woman wasn’t anyone important to him. He was just curious about what kind of conflict she had with Chen Yang.

Ah Wu hadn’t told the truth last night, but now he was. His intentions were obvious: he wanted to get rid of this group of taskers. He tried to drown him and Zhao Yuan in the swamp. As for why Lin Yue attacked Chen Yang, it was likely due to Ah Wu’s instigation.

In this team that completely lacked any form of trust, such manipulation wasn’t hard. But what was the motive?

Lin Yue wasn’t stupid. She had clearly mutated. So why did she try to kill Chen Yang?

Chen Yang silently observed Zhang Yan. His chest tightened when he noticed that Zhang Yan was on the verge of uncovering the truth.

He had to do something to disrupt Zhang Yan’s thoughts.

Striding over to Ah Wu, Chen Yang demanded, “Are you going to tell us willingly, or do we have to beat it out of you?”

Ah Wu simply smiled at him.

“Then let’s beat him,” Chen Yang said.

But before Zhang Yan and Zhao Yuan could make a move, a figure was already approaching Ah Wu.

When Chen Yang saw the hint of red in the young man’s eyes, cold sweat slid down his back.

Not good!

The effects of the two pills must have worn off. If they started a fight now, wouldn’t it turn into a full-blown murder scene?

Chen Yang hastily grabbed the young man and pinched his arm hard. “No need to fight. I’ve thought of a better way.”

“Zhao Yuan, drag Ah Wu into the cave,” Chen Yang yelled.

“Got it!” Zhao Yuan eagerly sprang into action.

Zhang Yan turned on Lin Yue’s phone and entered the cave to light the way.

Ah Wu was shoved inside the cave. The moment he saw the stone pillars, his perpetually indifferent, squinted eyes widened, and his slender frame wavered.

From behind, Chen Yang said, “The altar, the three murals—we’ve found them all.”

Ah Wu collapsed to the ground, his body limp.

Zhao Yuan shouted urgently, “Hurry up and tell us how to stop the curse!”

Zhang Yan kicked Ah Wu. “Speak!”

Chen Yang and Chao Jian stood at the entrance of the cave, silent.

A chuckle echoed in the cave. Ah Wu shook his head as he laughed. “There’s no curse,” he said, his thin shoulders trembling as his laughter grew louder. It was full of disdain and mockery, as if ridiculing the stupidity of the world. “It was never a curse.”

Zhang Yan and Zhao Yuan thought Ah Wu was still trying to provoke them.

But Chen Yang could see that Ah Wu wasn’t lying this time. If it truly wasn’t a curse…

His expression shifted, his heart pounding. His hand moved instinctively, clutching the young man’s crutch. “If it’s not a curse, then what is it?”

“What is it…” Ah Wu crawled toward the stone pillar, making a strange gesture as he sat down. Reverently, he began to caress the pillar. “It’s the ultimate honor.

“It’s a blessing. It’s immortality.”