Nalu's voice rose sharply after hearing Gu Liheng's words, "Why did he leave? Didn't he go back to the villa to look for you?"
Gu Liheng was silent for a moment, "There is no need to borrow the spiritual plant anymore. So, he moved out of the villa today."
Thinking of Su Ling's words when he left the store, Nalu couldn't help but worry, "You asked him to move out, right? He likes you, so he will definitely not leave by himself."
"You know he...likes me?" Gu Liheng pursed his lips slightly.
"Of course I know! I wasn't able to persuade him not to," Nalu said in an anxious tone, muttering to himself, "Did he go into hiding somewhere because he was sad?"
Nalu: "Please check the surveillance camera around your villa. I will try my best to contact him."
After Nalu finished speaking, he hung up and continued to call Su Ling.
Gu Liheng asked Domi to playback the surveillance after noon around the villa. He watched at four times the speed and pressed the pause button when Su Ling was looking at the 'map of the hole' in his bracelet. With Su Ling dressed in camouflage and checking a map, it is obvious what he wants to do. Gu Liheng went outside and dialled Su Ling's number, but no one answers it. His jaw tightened, not willing to think about the possibility of something terrible happening to Su Ling. Without hesitation, he called the search team and said, "We need to search for someone in the back mountain."
When the search team came to the villa, Gu Liheng roughly told them the story and shared the map. Next, he contacted Nalu to explain the situation. Soon, 2 aircrafts arrived on the sky over the villa. One of them landed in the back garden. After Gu Liheng went into it, it took off again. The 2 aircrafts activated its radar and thermal detectors and proceeded along the route of the red line.
...
Su Ling has been walking according to navigation. After going deep into the mountains, the vegetation is denser, and the road is getting harder and harder to walk. Fortunately, his pheromone is so powerful that there are no insects all the way, which is very safe and worry-free. Every hour he walks, he will rest for 15 minutes. Then, taking advantage of the rest, he would take out the 3 spiritual plants as bait to 'fish' for a certain spiritual plant. During this period, he reattached the isolator temporarily and smelling the fragrance of the 3 spiritual plants, his energy quickly recovered.
When it was almost 5 pm, Su Ling came upon a flowing stream. He looked back and forth and considered his route. Worried that he would lose sight of the stream if he continues, he decided to camp nearby. He took out the tent and assembled it swiftly. Then he leaned over and adjusted his sleeping bag. He was about to stand up when something caused him to stop. The airflow was disturbed when he wants to get up earlier, and at that moment, he smelled an extremely unpleasant and familiar smell.
It is the 'black threadlike stem' that sneaked into the spiritual plant room that day!
His heart starts to beat rapidly. Su Ling straightened up and turned around, then he saw two black stems waving towards him. He subconsciously raised his hand to block, but the black stems stopped in front of him. Instantly, a strong smell of rotten meat and bad eggs made him dizzy. He stepped back, but a black stem quickly circled his waist and bound him up. The bind was not strong, but at the moment of contact, countless images suddenly appeared in his head; rushing to get into his head. His mind overloads with the information, and he fainted to the ground.
The black stem loosened and then retracted, returning to the ground not far away. At first glance, it seemed that the 2 threadlike stems protruded from the ground all of a sudden. A gust of wind blew, the leaves swayed gently, but the young man was unconscious and wasn't aware of what's happening. After a while, more black stems came out from the ground not far away, and the colour of the ground became very dark in the blink of an eye, and it quickly collapsed and sunk to form a large hole.
The black stems that came out from the hole took root in the ground, then gradually straightened, and a flower rose from the hole. At the same time, the foul smell disappeared, replaced by an extremely attractive fragrance. The shape of the flower was similar to a sunflower, but it was much larger, with many black stamens in the middle and has 5 blood-red petals around it.
The black stamens waved at Su Ling's direction and then overlapped together to form a big net. Next, 4 roots stuck out from the ground and lifted Su Ling to the stamen net on the flower. The flower closed its petals to cover Su Ling and gradually disappear into the hole at the ground.
When Su Ling woke up, his surroundings were very dim. His body felt hot, and his mind was dizzy, but the back of his neck was cold. He moved his neck subconsciously, and soon realized that something is wrong; something is connected to the gland at the back of his neck. Feeling shocked, he wanted to push himself up from the ground. However, the touch under his hands got him stunned. It felt a bit too soft and bouncy. Su Ling was trying to guess where he was when countless images suddenly appeared in his mind, like a memory that was forcibly stuffed in. That caused his brows to furrow.
Out of nowhere, a soft and cool touch came to his forehead, as if trying to smooth his frown. The cooling sensation made his mind clearer. Su Ling was surprised to find that the smell of rotten eggs on his body has become much lighter, and at the same time, two different scents can be found in his body. An extremely fragrant scent that one would feel unreal after smelling it for a long time. While the other scent was a bit faint, like citrus mixed with mint, with a hint of coolness.
Su Ling sat up slowly, and the cold sensation on the back of his neck followed suit. He couldn't help but raise his hand and touch his back. It seemed to be a long strip of jelly; soft and cold to touch. Then, he tilted his head and saw a black silhouette in the dim light.
Spiritual plant?
That thought has just flashed through his mind when a black stem suddenly rose from the side. The end that opened up like a morning glory nodded up and down. Su Ling looked at the black stem in surprise. Does that mean it is answering his question? Suddenly, an image appeared in his mind. In the mental image, he is sitting on a large flower with 5 red petals while a stem from the flower is connected to the back of his neck. Su Ling was stunned but soon realized that this image should be reflecting his current state, and his eyes instantly widened.
"You... are Xian Mo Yu?" He couldn't help but ask.
The soft and elastic 'floor' under him shook slightly, and a very abstract, fuzzy smiling face appeared in his mind. The face was made up from 3 strokes of lines; 2 curved lines to make the eyes and 1 curved line for the mouth. ( ^ u ^ )
Su Ling was shocked. Did he just communicate with the spiritual plant? He tried to control his pheromones and shifted his attention to his gland. After a while, he realized something is different. He is very sensitive to scents and can easily distinguish various scents. Hence, he found that 2 scents were released from his body at this time. The smell of light rotten eggs and light citrus mint were both from him. Moreover, the smell of rotten eggs is getting lighter, while the citrus mint scent is getting stronger. Soon, the smell of rotten eggs disappeared, together with the cooling sensation at the back of his neck. At the same time, Su Ling sensed a happy and satisfied emotion.
A picture flashed in his mind. The 3 spiritual plants that are currently stored in his space storage are standing somewhere in the forest. They were surrounded by red petals, shivering. Suddenly, the red petals let go of them and disappeared into the sunken ground beside them.
Su Ling felt a cooling sensation at his wrist, and he saw a root lightly circling it. He glanced at it and asked, "Is this your memory?"
The roots that stood erected next to him nodded up and down again.
Su Ling touched the back of his neck with his other hand, "Did you absorb the thing that belonged to you from my gland?"
The roots swayed happily.
So happy? Su Ling blinked, "Is it important to you?"
The roots nodded up and down, and many images flashed in Su Ling's mind; various scenery flashed quickly, wasteland, forest, mountain, swamp...
He exclaimed, "You went to these places to find what you dropped?" And received a positive answer.
Su Ling silently sighed, no wonder it brought such a strong influence to him, whether it is his affinity or sensitivity to odours. Even his pheromone scent has a strong impact. He looked around, but the lighting was too dim. So he turned on the light function of his bracelet, and his surrounding brightened up. Su Ling wanted to stand up, but his feet were powerless. His body shook, and the black stems quickly supported him. The moment his hand made contact, Su Ling realized that the stems that were connected to the back of his neck are also its roots.
He glanced around to look at Xian Mo Yu again, it looked exactly the same as the big red flower that had appeared in his mind before. Then he thought of the black stamens on the soles of his feet and suddenly felt like he is damaging the flower, so he slowly moved aside to the 'floor' of the flower. Su Ling only moved a bit to the side, and the height difference was only 1 meter, but there's not enough space for him to stand up, so he had to sit cross-legged on the 'floor'.
At this moment, Su Ling felt like his body has been hollowed out, especially empty. Then, the image of Golden Baby's breath appeared in his mind, but the image was not showing a complete flower, but just the stem part of the flower. If he wasn't already familiar to the plant, he might not recognize it at first glance.
Su Ling froze for a moment and asked, "You want to eat it?" He persuaded, "They are particularly afraid of you. Don't eat them, I have nutrient solution here."
As he was talking, his bracelet rang, and he glanced at it, only to realize that it already 8 pm. And there were hundreds of missed communications in the communication record. Su Ling quickly connected the call.
Gu Liheng's voice was not as steady as usual, and his voice trembled slightly, "...Su Ling?"
Only then did Gu Liheng realize that he didn't seem to have ever called the young man officially by his name.