Chapter 704: The Source of Pollution

The next day after the iron embryo was carefully stored.

Something strange happened.

First, the person patrolling the edge of the camp came back to report;

saying the fog in the western woods had an abnormal color.

"Not grayish-white; it glows blue; it looks sickening."

Immediately after;

the person in charge of fetching water came running back, stumbling.

"The river… the bend! Something in the water is glowing! A dim blue!"

Zhu Yue immediately led people there.

Before reaching the river bend;

they smelled a faint, cloying sweetness mixed with a metallic stench.

The closer they got;

the stronger the smell became.

The river bend's surface was calm.

But under the noon sunlight;

a faint, unnatural blue glow could be seen beneath the water.

Not the whole thing;

but several specific areas of the riverbed were glowing.

"Fall back!"

Zhu Yue stopped Xu Da, who was about to step forward to check.

He crouched down;

and observed carefully.

The river water looked fairly clear;

but the blue glow seemed to be seeping out from the silt of the riverbed.

"Upstream or downstream?"

"Upstream!" the water-fetcher pointed west; "the fog there is thicker!"

Zhu Yue straightened up.

"Take your gear; follow me upstream."

"Tang He; you take half the people to guard the camp; increase vigilance."

"Xu Da; pick twenty bold and careful ones; come with me to scout."

The team quickly assembled.

Spears, bows and arrows, torches.

Zhu Yue specifically had people bring a few chunks of coal just picked from the furnace ruins, still retaining high-temperature embers.

Wrapped in thick cloth.

Along the riverbank heading west.

The fog indeed grew thicker.

The color shifted from grayish-white to a thin gray-blue.

The sweet-stench in the air also grew stronger.

The soil underfoot began to become damp and sticky.

The vegetation showed obvious changes.

Leaves turned yellow and wilted.

Grass stems twisted.

On the branches of some shrubs;

even grew tiny, bump-like dark blue protrusions.

"This place…" Xu Da lowered his voice; "it's sinister."

Zhu Yue said nothing.

He noticed;

the closer he got to those abnormal plants;

the embers of the coal wrapped in cloth in his bosom;

the faster the temperature dissipated.

as if something was actively absorbing heat.

They walked another roughly one li.

Ahead appeared a stretch of rocky shore that had been trampled.

The traces were fresh.

Chaotic footprints could be seen in the stone crevices;

as well as wheel ruts.

"Someone has been here." Xu Da crouched to examine; "not just one group; they were in a hurry."

Zhu Yue's gaze swept over the rocky shore;

toward a sparsely vegetated slope on the opposite bank.

The blue light there;

The strongest.

The sweet, foul smell almost makes one nauseous.

"Cross the river."

The river water is not deep.

Everyone waded across.

The cold, wet river water soaked through the pant legs.

The soil on the opposite bank's slope showed a morbid dark red.

Scattered about were many broken stones with sharp edges.

The stones' cross-sections;

Under the dim daylight;

Faintly twinkling were specks of a faint blue light.

"Ore?"

Xu Da picked up a piece.

The stone was heavy;

Its cross-section revealed a fine, crystal-cluster structure.

That faint blue light;

seeped out from inside the crystal clusters.

Zhu Yue took the stone.

It felt icy to the touch.

But soon;

a faint, chilling prickle traveled up from the fingertips.

like touching dry ice;

and like being continually pricked by extremely fine static electricity.

He immediately flung the stone away.

The area where the fingertips touched;

the skin had already turned slightly white;

it felt numb.

"This is not ordinary ore."

He shook his hand;

he said in a low voice.

"The source of the pollution; very likely is this thing."

He looked around.

The slope showed clear signs of digging.

Several pits of varying depth were scattered about.

At the edge of the largest pit;

lay more broken stones flashing blue light.

In the pit's depths;

the faint blue light pulsed like breathing.

A strong sweet‑foul smell kept emanating from there.

Zhu Yue approached the pit.

The pit's wall soil and rock;

had been coated with a dull, glaze‑like blue.

At the pit bottom, larger unbroken blue crystals could be vaguely seen.

Around the crystals;

the air was slightly distorted.

"It's a vein."

"It was dug open."

"And… it was deliberately dug open destructively."

Zhu Yue looked at the violent pry‑mark scars on the pit's edge.

This was not for mining.

It was for destruction.

To expose the vein;

to let what's inside… emanate out.

"Who would do such a thing?" Xu Da's face fell.

"Someone who doesn't want us to have an easy time."

Zhu Yue said slowly.

He recalled that invisible gaze;

He recalled the successive "coincidences" and "guidance."

This is the new method.

No longer a gentle push.

It directly pollutes the environment;

It fundamentally strangles the soil that sustains the camp's survival.

"These things…" a young adult pointed at the pit; "Is this the source that makes snakes turn evil and water glow?"

"Probably."

Zhu Yue crouched down;

He took out the coal ember that had already cooled completely from his bosom;

He threw it toward the pit.

The ember fell into the bottom of the pit;

It landed beside those blue crystals.

Sizzle—

A very faint sound.

The last dark red point on the coal ember quickly extinguished.

Even the surface condensed a thin, frost-like blue crystal film.

"It is absorbing heat; or… offsetting heat."

Zhu Yue's heart sank.

High temperature is the only method proven to resist corrosion.

But if this source ore itself can offset or absorb heat…

"Light all the torches!"

He gave the order.

Twenty torches were instantly lit.

Orange-red flames flickered in the gray-blue mist.

Zhu Yue had everyone bring the torches as close as possible to the edge of the pit.

Close to the soil and rubble emitting blue light.

Initially;

The flames were just burning normally.

But soon;

The flames near the blue-light area;

their color began to fade.

The flames seemed to be suppressed by an invisible force;

they became smaller.

The heat produced by combustion;

also seemed to be sucked away by something.

"Indeed."

Zhu Yue's face grew solemn.

"These ores; or what they emit; can suppress ordinary flames."

"We need higher temperature."

"More concentrated energy."

He recalled the snake in the laboratory.

He recalled needing continuous bellows to achieve a white-hot coal fire;

in order to completely burn away the gray-blue.

"We can't stay here."

"It must be dealt with."

"At least… we need to seal it."

He looked toward the pit.

"Xu Da; take people back."

"Bring all usable pottery jars."

"Fill them with the stickiest wet mud from the riverbank."

"Also bring some planks and rope."

Xu Da stared; "Elder brother; you want to…"

"Fill it."

Zhu Yue stared at the pit, which breathed a deep blue like respiration.

"Cover it with wet mud to seal it off from air."

"Then press it down with planks and cover with earth."

"Although we don't know how long it will work, we must try."

"Otherwise, this pollution will spread via water and air; the camp will eventually become uninhabitable."

Xu Da nodded heavily.

"I'll go right away!"

He turned around;

He led half the people sprinting back to the camp.

Zhu Yue remained where he was.

He had the remaining people retreat to the upwind side;

He himself stood at the edge of the pit;

He carefully observed the rhythm of the faint blue light's flickering.

Record.

Analyze.

Try to find the pattern.

He knew;

Just burying it;

It might only be a temporary measure.

But for now;

They lack the ability to completely destroy or purify this vein.

They can only seal it off first.

Buy time.

Time…

He raised his head;

Gazed at the sky shrouded in gray‑blue mist.

Before autumn.

The enemy hasn't arrived yet.

But the environment;

Has already become the enemy ahead of them.