The Jelly Man's True Form

"Fragrant Dream, go and test their abilities."

Xue Ming carefully instructed the spirit—

"--Don't go too fast, don't use too much force. The submarine's pressure hull can only withstand water pressure from the outside in. If you go all out and cause a leak, we might be doomed here."

The steel cat emerged from its body, stretched its neck, and pressed its knuckles, looking quite spirited. "Understood, I can handle this kind of delicate work."

Looking at the two security guards, they had already left the dormitory area and were walking towards Xue Ming one after the other, leaning on the door frame. The way these two walked was exactly like that of the Canaanite lifeforms, and the slime on their bodies and grayish-white skin were exactly the same as the strange humanoid beings that Xue Ming had seen when he first came to Fang Feng.

It seems something has transformed the submarine's crew into Canaanite life forms, and these chunks of flesh appear to have lost their sight.

--Only when Xue Ming got closer could he see clearly that the two safety officers did not lack pupils; rather, their eyes had shifted, with the iris portion moving to another location in their eye sockets, making it appear as if they were unconscious with their eyes rolled upwards. Their expressions were terrifying, and their postures were strange.

"Call out!--"

Fragrant Dream exhaled like an arrow, unleashing a spring kick within a narrow space.

The armored calf slammed into the knee of the leading safety officer, precisely and powerfully destroying his lower limb. The officer's body swayed, revealing exposed meniscus and leg bone. Broken bones pierced through his trouser leg, spurting out along with thick, purplish-gray blood.

The unlucky fellow, struck by the Soul's might, crashed headfirst onto the steel plate of the storage box in his bunk. When his head hit the box, it was like jelly; his eyes popped out of their sockets, seemingly devoid of any resilience, and had turned into a limp mass of flesh!

But in the next second, he was like a strange roly-poly toy, his body trembling and quickly straightening up, as if electrified. His broken kneecap returned to its correct position once again. Like the Holy Mother, these life forms seemed to possess a very powerful self-healing ability.

Their life form is like that of social fungi, but Canaanites are smaller than fungi—physical attacks seem to be ineffective!

"Ah!" The safety officer opened his mouth, stretched out his hands, and blew out a cold, damp wind with a sweet smell. He continued to move slowly.

Fragrant Dream stared in disbelief. This was the first time it had fought such a bizarre jelly monster. Its previous opponents were either powerful, structurally sound monsters or cultists. Its physical form Flash Butterfly also possessed terrifying self-healing abilities, but compared to the Canaan Life form, which was almost immune to physical damage, it was like a small fry compared to a big fish.

"That's strange!"

SD raised his leg and unleashed a powerful Spartan kick!

The vicious kick landed squarely on the safety officer's face, nearly crushing his skull. This time, both eyes popped out, blue-gray blood and some connective tissue torn off, the round eyeballs spinning on the floor.

Then I saw the security guard fly backward, knocking down his colleague, and flying all the way to the end of the dormitory corridor, where he crashed solidly into the isolation door of the next room section. The two security guards were turned into two pieces of meat, piled up together, almost indistinguishable from each other.

"They seem unkillable!" Fragrant Dream covered her nose. "They smell so strange! I don't like them!"

Jiang Xueming braced himself on his knees, half-squatting down and peering into the dim light of the safety lamp. From this height, he could barely make out the injuries sustained by the two targets.

During the recent strike test, both safety officers exhibited signs of Canaanite life. Could it be that the Shichuan secretly collected the Canaanite substance from the golden egg?

The golden eggs near the volcanic hot springs are actually solar sails of Canaanite life forms, serving as their shells and temporary dwellings. What happened to these crew members? Did they drink the Canaanite life forms? Were they parasitized? Is it all because of the legend of Our Holy Mother?

No, that's not right.

Rumors about the Afterlife Sect have only begun to circulate in recent years.

Pixar Adriano, as Pope, had this guy under control at the Research Station long ago.

According to information provided by Uncle Han Zhi, the Shichuan was out of service for at least seven years. If these crew members were trying to obtain the power of Canaan life and ended up in this inhuman and ghostly state, it has nothing to do with the Afterlife Cult, and the blame cannot be placed on Xiao Pi.

Was this at the behest of Our Holy Mother? Did she want to control these humans and use Homo sapiens to understand human society?

"That's not how it is. It shouldn't be like this."

Xue Ming muttered to himself, urging Fragrant Dream to remain vigilant.

"If we follow this logic to speculate on the motives of the Holy Mother, her first test subjects should have been me and Meteor, as well as the people who arrived in Fang Feng even earlier. Unless someone later gave her such a bad idea, she would not have thought of kidnapping Homo sapiens and using Homo sapiens for live experiments, and would have clashed with the station's armed forces—this does not conform to the survival instinct of intelligent life, it is an act of self-destruction."

"Then why? Why do the crew members on this submarine appear to be parasitized by Canaanite life forms?"

"Fragrant Dream! These two guys have blood on them! It's red blood! Can you see any external wounds?"

The steel cat covered its nose and peered forward. The two safety officers were gradually recovering, and the eyeballs on the ground were slowly rolling back towards their bodies, trying to return to their pack.

The big cat finally saw it clearly--

"--The wounds are all near the heart! They seem to have healed!"

Xue Ming immediately said, "Blood in the ventricles can reach all parts of the body within twenty seconds. Were the clothes in these external wounds cut or torn? Were they gunshot wounds? Were there bullet holes?"

"No bullet holes! It was torn open!" Fragrant Dream replied nervously, preparing to raise her fist to subdue the two unconscious walking corpses once again.

"There must be something even more powerful," Xue Ming immediately realized that things were not simple. "It's about injecting Canaan life into these crew members, using a simple and brutal method, relying on the human body's cardiovascular system to circulate the Canaan life to any corner."

The "S" security guard struggled, writhing under the grip of Fragrant Dream's cat claws, a trickle of purplish-gray, foul-smelling blood escaping from his throat as he hoarsely cried out, "Stoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooop!"

Jiang Xueming: "Holy crap?!"

This startled Fragrant Dream, causing her to loosen her grip. "Holy crap! You can talk?"

The safety officer, who could speak in a human voice, plopped down on his colleague. It took him a while to get up, and he seemed to be in power-saving mode, with all his movements becoming weak and slow, including his speech.

"Listen toooooooooo me? (Do you understand? Can you listen to me?)"

After uttering those three words, the safety officer was almost completely drained of his mental energy; his tongue was stiff and moved slowly along with his vocal cords.

"Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurts"

That sounds painful.

"Fuuuuuck Chinese"

They couldn't understand Chinese and issued a strong protest.

Xue Ming opened his mouth wide, took several breaths before coming to his senses, and immediately switched to asking in English.

"How can I help you?! Bro? Are you still conscious?"

The safety officer didn't answer immediately, but the unfortunate guy behind him spoke first.

--This guy pointed to his name tag and read out his name, which had a very complicated background.

"Shichuan, Fang Feng Research Institute, Yiji Manhattan."

"I·G·G·Y-- Yiji."

As if that wasn't enough, the guy finished reciting each word and saluted the anonymous person.

"How can I help you?" Xue Ming didn't approach the two security personnel immediately. He didn't know if these two targets had been contaminated by the Spirit Calamity. At least from Fragrant Dream's spiritual senses, the big cat didn't like their scent.

Brother Yiji pointed to the bucket next to the bed and immediately said--

"--drink."

"Splash it over here"

"Fall down."

"SD!" Jiang Xueming and Fragrant Dream exchanged a glance. Xue Ming instructed the spirit to carry out the task of splashing water.

When a bucket of seawater was poured over the heads of the two safety officers, they seemed to come to their senses.

His eyes started to move nimbly, successfully returning to zero from various positions in his eye sockets, and gradually regained their sparkle.

The safety officer at the front had taken two heavy blows from Fragrant Dream, his name tag long ago obscured by dark brown blood. His body, like an inflated doll, suddenly turned a glossy, bluish-white, strange color mixed with the orange safety lights—it was quite frightening.

"I am the diesel engine engineer for the Shichuan's backup power system." The man in the safety officer's uniform was finally able to speak, and his tongue seemed to have become fluent again. "My name is cough cough cough."

He coughed violently, spitting out the fluid from his lungs.

"My name is Hazan Garawa. My father is Indian and my mother is United Kingdom."

The older man following behind the engineer helped himself up from the storage box and sat back down on his dormitory bed.

Mr. Hazan did not approach Xue Ming immediately. He seemed to know that he carried the Canaanite life within him, and he turned his head to the other side when he spoke.

"This place is contaminated, Anonymous. Did you bring protective clothing?"

The two had no intention of attacking; they found seats almost immediately, maintained a low and non-threatening posture, and tried to conserve their energy.

Jiang Xueming did not answer that question; instead, he asked directly about the cause of the Shichuan's sinking.

"Tell me the whole story clearly, and I won't hurt you."

Mr. Hazan was an impatient man, and also had a bit of a riddle-like quality. "You need to get out of here quickly; the oxygen concentrator stopped working a long time ago. I'm not sure how long you can survive here. I..."

Jiang Xueming wanted Fragrant Dream to gradually retreat, and then gave Hazan a threatening order.

"Answer my question, Mr. Hazan. I am a VIP from the station. Since you know the Nameless One, you should get to the point."

Hazan's face clearly showed impatience. People who work in diesel engine units year-round all have this kind of temper. They have to endure the noise and oil every day, and they also have to deal with the outdated electromechanical systems of nuclear submarines.

The anonymous man, Brother Yiji, rubbed his wet hair. The seawater had made him speak more fluently. "This is a complicated matter. It's difficult for me to explain it to you in a short time," he said.

Jiang Xueming: "Then tell me slowly."

"We first encountered a malfunction in the avionics signal. The avionics engineer said that a launch instruction came from the torpedo compartment of the 553 submarine, but where would our submarine get a torpedo?"

"So they got people to investigate! At first, several divers went in and out repeatedly, but they didn't find anything unusual. The fault signal was reported back and forth several times, but the circuit was fine."

"Later, these few divers..."

When Yiji spoke of this, his eyes were filled with fear.

"Their heads suddenly split open, just like the Blood-giving Monster! Their eyes, noses, and mouths were all separate! Along the way from the torpedo room to the warehouse, people were being killed. The tentacles and limbs extending from these monsters, carrying knives and spears made of bone, would immediately pierce the heart of any living person they encountered, and that person wouldn't live long either, turning into a new monster! It was like a plague!"

"Thank goodness for Brother Hazan!"

Yiji, gesturing wildly, slapped the sulking Hazan on the shoulder, making Hazan's entire body tremble like a gel mannequin.

"We took the captain to the medical room, only to find that he had died of fright on the spot. We then took a blowtorch and oxygen cylinders, and got a crowbar and wrench from the backup engine room. We fought our way out, and we were covered in injuries."

"I don't know why I didn't turn into a monster. These monsters pierced through Hazan hearts, but we didn't die, nor did we turn into any strange things."

Hazan raised his hand and explained to his brother Yiji, "It's seawater; you need to merge with Shiva—you need to drink seawater."

"Oh! Oh! It's probably seawater. I heard Brother Hazan say that during the Shichuan's underwater mission." Yiji a little embarrassed because the station had a rule for its employees to break superstitions. "We collected some seawater from the quarantine chambers and drank this stuff every day. We were vomiting and had diarrhea, dreaming of strange things, and hearing strange noises."

Hazan immediately clasped his hands together and prayed devoutly, "Shiva, grant me strength."

"So, you two survived by relying on your excellent tradition of drinking Ganges water?" Jiang Xueming didn't understand, not at all.

Yiji thought for a moment, then immediately changed his mind. "No! Maybe it knows."

"Who is it?" Jiang Xueming pressed. "It? Another one?"

Yiji tapped his temple. "I have something in my head, I can feel it, it's inside my body. It's the same for Brother Hazan, isn't it?"

Engineer Hazan immediately replied, "That's right, this is Shiva."

"Stop with the so-called 'gods' and get down to business." Jiang Xueming shouted across the distance, "Can you hear me? If you're hiding inside one of these two bodies, and you hear me speak, then you must respond!"

Yiji's head immediately started buzzing, his pupils trembled violently, and he immediately relayed the audio information in his head to Jiang Xueming.

"These two Homo sapiens were lucky enough to survive—anonymous."

"You smell like our mother, as if you had contact with our mother a long, long time ago? Is that right?"

"That makes things easier. How much do you know about us? I warn you, don't go near the door leading from the dormitory area to the armory and control center. That door seals away demons, seals away the most ferocious and evil clan among us—yes, we use clan to refer to different individuals. I am now residing in the bodies of these two Homo sapiens, gaining their knowledge, understanding their language, and helping them survive."

A small number of Canaanite beings live within the bodies of Hazan and Yiji, and these tiny beings protect these two humans.

Hazan covered his head. Whenever the Canaanite life began to convey its will, this engineer would fall into a trance and start kneeling and chanting.

Yiji, on the other hand, was much more normal; he completely relinquished his vocal organs to the Canaanite life, using them as a mouthpiece.

"Nameless, there's a familiar bioelectric pulse signal on your body. It seems to come from a demon, but it's very weak. Could it be that there are humans around you who have been parasitized by a demon?"

Before Jiang Xueming could answer, Fragrant Dream immediately jumped out.

"Who are you calling a demon?!"

The Canaanite life form within Yiji immediately retorted, "I wasn't talking about you."

Fragrant Dream suddenly realized. "Oh! Hasben Madison! Could it be..."

Jiang Xueming: "The Shichuan encountered an invasion by carnivorous Canaanites?"

"Carnivorous?" The Canaanite beings were hearing this new term for the first time and didn't quite understand its meaning. Yiji explained, "It's an interesting term. Among our many clans, they can indeed be called carnivores."

"All the disasters stem from the planet's terrible environment."

"Our mothers separated from us to help us adapt to our environment."

"Only by separating can she become a mother, continue to educate us, guide us, and teach us how to survive on this planet—this may be hard to understand, but that's the gist of it."

"For Canaanites, we were initially one and the same, without individuality, without even the need for language, and without the concept of clans."

"New life can be created simply through the fusion of communities and the exchange of ideas."

"And [individuals] changed all of this, including what you called [carnivorous clans] -- some of us [individuals] gradually learned from our mothers about this materially impoverished world, a world rife with desires, and also gradually learned about the dominant species on this planet, and gradually understood the behavior, thought processes, and logic of Homo sapiens."

"After that, they began to compete for and modify the primordial essence, strengthen the clan, leave the mother, adapt to the environment, and survive for a long time—because the mother became [the individual], and thus became sacred and powerful. So this clan must also become [the individual], the individual changes us, the individual shapes us, the individual becomes us."

"The psionic contamination of the Shichuan was the work of this clan. The bio-pulse signal I'm referring to—the one next to you, the one possessed by the demon—he also carries this clan's influence."

"If you don't believe me."

As Yiji was speaking, two tentacles suddenly emerged from his mouth, emitting unintelligible mutterings.

"Gurgle gurgle gurgle gurgle."

Jiang Xueming felt a chill run down his spine and didn't know what to say.

Yiji retracted his slippery tentacles.

The Canaanite creature within him offered a polite yet somewhat embarrassed apology.

"I'm sorry, I forgot that his vocal organs are so close to his mouth and nose. I wanted to exchange information with you before I finished speaking. It was really rude of me."

After staring at the Fragrant Dream for a long time, she finally managed to utter a single sentence.

"It's actually quite funny!"