Chapter 58 (1/2)

Chapter 58 Dodder

“Who knows, you just look skinnier and paler to me.” Chang looked at the young soldier up and down, but he didn’t find any signs of visible attacks, so he then asked, “Are you sick?”

“That’s impossible. If I were sick, I would have died in the Deadly Evolution period; I must have been attacked by something.” The young soldier loosened his gun and took off his camouflage uniform in a flurry. He touched every inch of his skin to check for anything strange. A moment after, when he got to his waist, he noticed there were lumps bulging from his skin.

“F*ck!” He shouted in panic. He further removed the camouflage on his upper body, exposing a tight t-s.h.i.+rt beneath the uniform.

“It seems like you tucked something underneath your t-s.h.i.+rt.”

“What?” The soldier took off his t-s.h.i.+rt in panic. When they saw clearly what had attached to his skin, they had gooseb.u.mps all over.

“What’s wrong?” The stir at the back alarmed Zhao; he stopped and moved back along the line, and was stunned by the strange scene.

“This is disgusting! What is this?” Zhao only saw the young soldier hastily plucking some sort of ta.s.sels from his skin – those stems and ta.s.sels had firmly attached on his body, as if a leech was sucking up his blood and fat.

“It looks like dodder.” Qing shui followed Zhao and pointed at the stems and ta.s.sel. “You didn’t feel it when it climbed onto you?”

“Of course he didn’t feel anything. Otherwise he would have known before these things got so plump.” Chang looked over the soldier again and his struggle made him nauseous. – those plants literally wrapped around his waist tightly, and the tiny p.r.i.c.kles penetrated into his muscles and blood vessels. The dodder kept taking his blood and fat through straw-like holes on each p.r.i.c.kle; perhaps the dodder had been on his body for quite a while, as the green membrane was now mixed with red and yellow from the color of blood and fat. The ta.s.sels were plump.

“Son of a b*tch, no wonder I felt dizzy just now; it turned out something was sucking my blood constantly.” He threw the dodder onto the ground angrily, and then stepped on it. The membrane was crushed by the pressure and the blood and fat splashed all over. As if the dodder could sense pain, it rolled around and attempted to drill downwards.

“They are dodder for sure.” Qing shui pinched at the “tail” of the dodder to pull it out from the ground, and it was still struggling on his palm.

“What exactly is dodder?” Chang also went ahead to check his body while he was asking, and sure enough he found a smaller one in his pants. Fortunately, it hadn’t been too long, and the plant sneak in so it hadn’t penetrated his skin yet.

“Dodder is a kind of parasitic plant, and can be rootless after it reaches adulthood; they usually parasitize on plants, but now, even animals can be their targets.” Qing shui stirred around the dodder on his palm, but carefully avoided the p.r.i.c.kles on the ta.s.sel. “The p.r.i.c.kles can be paralyzing, and like the mouth of a mosquito, it doesn’t really feel anything when it pokes into your body.”

“Sh*t, that was such a shock.” Chang ripped off the dodder on his leg and trampled this ghost-like plant, and then shouted, “Check if you have dodder on your body, it will drain your blood before you even know it!”

With his shout, the troop knew what had happened, so they all hurriedly removed their camouflage to check if there were any dodder on their bodies – about three or four soldiers discovered these horrifying ta.s.sels.

“Mr. Li, do you think this plant is venomous?” Asked a soldier who had suffered the most from this misfortune. His cheeks were sunken due to excessive loss of blood. He apparently was the most frightened – if this plant was venomous, he could have been dead.

“I don’t know…but it shouldn’t be venomous.” Qing shui carefully observed the p.r.i.c.kles on the ta.s.sel and asked, “Do you feel nauseous or have any muscle spasms?”

“No, I am just dizzy.” That man shook his head.

“Then that’s fine. You just lost too much blood; that’s likely the cause of your dizziness.” Qing shui threw away the dodder from his palm, and he shouted to the whole troop, “From now on, we need to pay extra attention to the surroundings. There are too many lurkers in the jungle, so you need to check if you are attacked once in a while.”

“Got it.”

“Understood.”

There were sporadic answers from the back and sounds from soldiers removing their uniforms. A moment later, all soldiers had finished checking their condition and the surrounding quieted down again.