Chapter 149 - 147: Purified Soil

The two arrived at an area enclosed by a wire mesh fence over two meters high, where Sev Steele immediately spotted a dozen or so stout trees shaped like giant umbrellas.

The heart-shaped leaves swayed in the autumn wind, the SWISH sounding oddly poetic. However, looking at this Purple Lime Wood and comparing it to the towering specimens she used to see on television, it felt like a tall, handsome heartthrob had devolved into a short, dumpy potato. It was truly bizarre!

Sev couldn’t help but complain inwardly, "This Purple Lime Wood mutated into such an ugly thing. Even its ancestors wouldn’t recognize it, right?"

But Hayden Hanson was right. After walking around the wire mesh fence, she found several large holes. The two repeatedly confirmed there were no lurking dangers before crawling through the largest gap.

The soil beneath the Purple Lime Wood was a rich, dark hue, looking incredibly fertile at first glance. Sev’s eyes instantly lit up. Grabbing a worn burlap sack and a shovel, she started digging.

Hayden also took out a sack to help. Every time a bag was filled, he tied the opening tightly with a rope and stuffed it into his Tactical Backpack. They didn’t just dig in one spot; instead, they skimmed a layer of soil and then moved on to another location. Whenever they encountered edible wild vegetables like shepherd’s purse, dandelions, or purslane, they naturally didn’t let them go, digging them up along with the soil and tossing them into the sacks.

However, she noticed something strange. The mutation level of the wild vegetables here was remarkably low; they weren’t much larger than normal ones. After scanning them with the needle-shaped detector, the announced radiation levels were all classified as low. Almost none of the values exceeded twenty!

"Hanson, have you ever gathered wild vegetables here before?" Sev asked.

"No," Hayden replied. "Back then, every time we came here, we had to be on guard against mutant wasp attacks. Everyone was on high alert, so who had the luxury to dig for wild vegetables?"

"So, don’t you find it strange that the radiation levels of the vegetables here are so low?" Sev pressed.

"You have a point. There must be something here that can purify the soil!" Hayden said, his expression turning serious.

But looking around, aside from the dozen peculiarly shaped Purple Lime Wood trees, there were only common wild vegetables. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Since she couldn’t pinpoint the cause, Sev simply gave up searching and resumed digging the soil.

Suddenly, her gaze landed on the centermost Purple Lime Wood. She noticed it was the thickest yet the shortest of the bunch. Tracing her eyes down the trunk to the ground, she suddenly caught a fleeting, faint glimmer of fluorescence. If one weren’t staring intently, that tiny speck of light would definitely go unnoticed.

Feeling a mix of nervousness and excitement, she drew her dagger and slowly approached the spot where the light had flashed.

When she was still a dozen meters away from the tree, she finally discovered the anomaly. There was actually a massive, "Black Carpet"-like substance covering the soil. Without a closer look, one would mistakenly assume it was just Black Soil, but upon closer inspection, it had a cloud-like shape. Because of its irregular edges, it simply looked like uneven patches of earth. Moreover, no other wild vegetables grew in this patch, so even scavengers who sneaked in would subconsciously overlook it.

Sev expanded her search area and noticed some trunk-like bulges beneath this "Black Carpet." She carefully peeled back a small section with her dagger, only to find that it was indeed covering a tree branch! Countless mycelium-like threads had pierced into the wood, clearly siphoning its nutrients.

A thought suddenly struck her: "Could this ’Black Carpet’ be a mutant black wood ear mushroom?!"

Sev couldn’t help but feel a chill run down her spine! She had seen honey mushrooms in the wasteland forests before, but they were just larger in size, and their taste was even more delicious than the ordinary ones she used to eat. In her memory, wood ear mushrooms could only grow on decaying wood. Yet, the branches this mutant fungus was parasitizing were visibly fresh, showing no signs of rot or decay.

After finding the first branch, Sev discovered several more in succession. Their distribution was quite even. For roughly every four square meters of the "Black Carpet," there was an arm-thick broken branch over a meter long. This could no longer be explained as a mere coincidence—it was clearly intentional!

She followed the "Black Carpet" and looked up toward the trunk of the central tree, making a new discovery. Although this tree was thicker and shorter than the rest, it clearly had numerous broken offshoots. Due to the lush foliage, these snapped ends were concealed by the surrounding leaves and branches. Without paying close attention, one wouldn’t notice them at all.

Therefore, this mutant black wood ear had already evolved to the point of breaking branches on its own! Furthermore, it understood the principle of peaceful symbiosis. It only severed a dozen or so branches to siphon Energy, which wouldn’t hinder the tree’s overall growth. On the contrary, it must have fed some unknown nutrient back into the host, causing this tree to grow far sturdier than the others.

As Sev walked over, Hayden silently followed, fearing a sudden accident. Once he got a clear look at everything, he suddenly spoke up, "Could this strange thing parasitizing the branches of the Purple Lime Wood be the very entity purifying the soil?"

Sev’s eyes lit up. His words were a brilliant wake-up call—why hadn’t she thought of that?

In the next second, she grabbed the needle-shaped detector and thrust it into the edge of the "Black Carpet."

Soon, an automated voice announced, "BEEP! Second Tier mutant fungal plant detected. Radiation level: 8. Toxicity: Unknown. Please submit a sample to a professional for analysis!"

Sev thought, "Whatever happened to the so-called omnipotent detector? How can it not even identify its original name or toxicity?"

Hayden was also dumbfounded by the voice prompt. It was his first time hearing the needle-shaped detector give such an ambiguous conclusion. He looked at Sev, his eyes filled with bewilderment.

Sev, however, quickly made a decision. "Hanson, this thing’s radiation level is near zero. It must be the great contributor purifying the soil! We should take some back and then chop a few Purple Lime Wood branches to provide it with nutrients. If we can keep it alive, we might just be able to grow ultra-low radiation potatoes!"

"If we’re going to take it, let’s bring back two portions," Hayden said, a bit of excitement creeping into his voice. "We can give one to Doctor Jenkins and ask him to take a look. If this thing gets into the hands of the experts at the Agricultural Science Institute, it might benefit the entire safe zone!"

Although the probability of successfully cultivating wild plants was minuscule, who knew—perhaps those experts could pull it off. If they actually succeeded, the children of District Nine might be able to eat low-radiation food in the future, and the chances of ordinary people falling ill would drastically decrease, wouldn’t they?

As for how to transport this thing back, Sev was in a tough spot. She didn’t dare cut it into small pieces randomly, so she simply chose the shortest broken branch and shoveled up the surrounding topsoil along with it.

To avoid damaging its integrity, the two first fashioned a makeshift stretcher out of branches. Using a shovel and wooden sticks, they carefully lifted an entire excavated piece of the "Black Carpet"—about 1.5 meters long and 60 centimeters wide—and set it onto the stretcher. They then carried it out through the large hole and placed it on the wheelbarrow.

Repeating the process, they scooped up a second piece of the "Black Carpet." Afraid of crushing the first one, they specifically built a simple, shoe-rack-like frame out of branches before gingerly resting the second "Black Carpet" on top.

While doing all this, the two remained constantly on guard, terrified that the mutant black wood ear might suddenly shoot out countless toxic threads to entangle their arms. However, facts proved that it wasn’t intensely aggressive. From beginning to end, it made no movement, acting just like a dormant, ordinary plant.

But both Sev and Hayden knew this was merely an illusion. The fact that it could snap the branches of the Purple Lime Wood was proof enough of its offensive capabilities.

So, the question remained: why hadn’t it attacked them?