Lin Qiao returned to the base with an intense vibe, looking stone-faced. Her first stop was the medical department. Under Shen Yujen's guide, she went to Lin Wenwen's room.
The others stayed outside and looked at her quietly.
She received the messages from the base when she was tens of miles away, learning about Lin Wenwen's disappearance, Yuan Tianxing's condition, and the fact that Strong brought his entire family to the rat nest to hunt in the middle of the day, without coming back.
None of those were good news for her. She already had a bad feeling when she saw a few different types of underground creatures out there. Little did she think that when she came home, more problems would be waiting for her.
The faint vibe and scent of Lin Wenwen were detected from the room, along with the scents of Lin Hao and Qiu Lili.
Shen Yujen met with Lin Qiao at the gate of the base and told the latter about how Lin Wenwen went missing. Lin Wenwen went missing not long after Lin Qiao left the base. It had been seven or eight days already, but Lin Feng and Yuan Tianxing never found a trace of hers in the base.
According to Lin Hao, the most likely possibility, which was also what people wished to be true, was that Lin Wenwen entered her own space when her superpowers were upgrading. She might come out by the time her upgrade finished.
Lin Qiao walked into the room but found no clue. However, the vibe that Lin Wenwen left behind gave her a feeling which was not dangerous, but not safe either.
That comforted Lin Qiao a little bit nonetheless. At least, she knew that Lin Wenwen wasn't in danger. Perhaps, she was having some kind of special experience. It might be like what Lin Hao said, that she was in her own space.
Lin Qiao could at least say for sure that Lin Wenwen was not in a life-threatening danger. So, she relaxed her tightened face slightly when she walked out of that room. The others fixed their eyes on her face, wanting to ask what she had found. Judging by the look on her face, she must have found something.
"How did it go? Did you find anything?" Lin Hao let out the question first.
Lin Qiao shook her head in response, "No. I just have a hunch that she should be safe. I think we don't need to be so worried. It might be like what you said, that she's in her own space now. Perhaps, she's in some unusual kind of condition. She might come out when she wakes up."
On hearing that, Lin Hao gave a sigh of relief. Of course, he had not relaxed completely yet. He wouldn't stop worrying about her until he saw Lin Wenwen come back herself.
Lin Qiao clapped her hand and said to the others who were still worried, "Don't worry! No one else has ever been in this room, so she wasn't taken away."
Next, she went to see Yuan Tianxing and furrowed her brows when she saw him, then closed her eyes and gave a sigh. "Eh, I knew it was like this when you guys told me what happened," she re-opened her eyes and said.
Seeing her frown and hearing her sigh, the people who knew her well all had a bad feeling. Lin Hao stared at her and asked, "What should we do? You can help him, right?"
Lin Qiao didn't answer the question, but put her hand into the water and sent the energy in the water into Yuan Tianxing's body. Then, she narrowed her eyes to observe the energies inside his body.
She squinted to see a shoulder and half the chest of his filled with black energy that was sparkling with a red light. The green energy of the lake water surrounded the dark energy, but couldn't cast it out, devour it, or neutralize it. The green energy had only one effect, that was to stop the sparkling dark energy from spreading. The dark energy was highly active and aggressive.
She took her hand out of the water and then said to Lin Hao, "Thankfully, you put him in the water. Otherwise, his whole body would become purple in two days."
"How is he?" Lin Hao asked her anxiously, "Can you remove that energy from his body?"
Lin Qiao shook her head and said, "No. The energy in the lake can only suppress that energy. I can boost the lake energy and wake him up. But, waking up isn't going to be a good thing for him, because he'd be suffering pain once he wakes up. I think we should let him sleep."
On hearing her words, the others in the room all wore a grim look. If even their Chief had no way cure him, who else could help him? The dark energy inside Yuan Tianxing's body was like a lethal poison with no cure.
Lin Hao looked at Lin Qiao with surprise and said, "How is that possible? Even you can't heal him? Then Deputy Chief Yuan is…"
'Is he going to stay like this?'
Lin Qiao explained, "The dark energy inside him came from something underground that had mutated after being infected by the zombie virus. It's different from everything on the earth's surface, but it's somehow similar to the virus energy. Therefore, the lake water from my space can only suppress it, but not neutralize it. To find whatever can neutralize that energy, I think we need to search underground. But now, the problem is that I don't know what it is yet."
Standing beside the large bucket that Yuan Tianxing was sitting in, she folded his arms and put a hand on her chin as she started thinking.
Yuan Tianxing was sitting in the bucket with his upper body bared. The area under his chin was soaked in the water, and his neck and one shoulder were purple. His beautiful chest muscles and abdominal muscles could be seen, and his handsome face was ghastly pale. His eyes were closed tightly, and brows were furrowed slightly.
He was unconscious, but his body still reacted to the pain.
People thought Yuan Tianxing would get better once Lin Qiao returned. Unexpectedly, no good change was happening. Hence, they were disappointed, and even despairing.
Filled with disappointment, they all sighed.
Lin Qiao turned and looked at Yuan Tianxing's perfectly handsome side face, wondering why Lin Wenwen went missing right before Yuan Tianxing went down into the cave. If she could foresee the danger, she might have stopped him from doing that.
Yuan Tianxing got injured not long after Lin Wenwen went missing. If she weren't missing, she would be so worried and anxious by now.
Lin Qiao only wished that Yuan Tianxing could hold on until Lin Wenwen came back. She might be able to foresee something crucial to help heal him when she saw him being injured and unconscious!
Little did Lin Qiao know that even though Lin Wenwen had traveled to another timeline, she still sensed Yuan Tianxing's condition. She wanted to help, but didn't know how. She couldn't come back to her family and friends immediately after all.