Seeds of knighthood
Sometimes, being willing to risk your life for money described not just a certain kind of person, but a state of mind.
Aside from his initial wild joy over the crystal mine, Old Ode had spent the time since things went wrong caught between fear and anxiety over losing it.
But now, seeing that his mountain of gold might suddenly vanish, coupled with several nights of worry, sent his emotions plunging from one extreme to the other. For a moment, he forgot all about his own safety.
As Old Ode sprinted, he seemed to return to his younger days. The three police officers behind him could not even catch up.
"Mr. Ode, stop!"
The officers behind him could hardly believe that the three of them could not outrun an old man pushing sixty. They even fell several times during the chase, covering themselves in mud.
Stumbling to the edge of the "lake," Old Ode stared at the pool of muddy water in despair.
"It's over. It's all over..."
A Black officer rushed up beside him and grabbed him, keeping the old fellow from jumping in.
"Calm down, Old Ode. The mine only collapsed. The crystals are still in there! Just drain the water and dig them out."
"Right, right! It's just a cave-in, just a cave-in!"
Those words instantly rekindled hope in Old Ode's heart. He threw his arms around the officer and thanked him over and over.
"What's that?!"
One of the officers arriving behind them accidentally swept his flashlight over something. After a startled moment, he realized it was a naked person.
"It's a person!"
"There are a few floating in the pit, too!"
The figures floated motionlessly in the lake, making everyone who saw them feel their scalps prickle.
The mine really had been swallowing people!!!
"Are those the missing people?"
The officers fought the urge to turn and run, carrying out their duties.
But the sight of those naked bodies, and the figures in the lake reflecting their flashlight beams, gave rise to an irrepressible sense of dread.
Goose bumps rose uncontrollably as a chill traveled from their feet to the tops of their heads.
"First... first, call headquarters for backup!"
Natural weather conditions could no longer explain a situation like this.
In truth, the abnormal weather-a small pocket of fierce winds and heavy rain in the suburbs-had already drawn the attention of the local weather department, though they were still merely monitoring it.
Quite a few residents were watching the strange spectacle from the boundary between the curtain of rain and the world outside.
A raging storm within, but only scattered raindrops and a gentle breeze outside-such a weather phenomenon left people marveling at the wonders of nature.
For the Los Angeles police and the Hercules Corporation personnel who arrived beside the mine, however, it was far less delightful.
In the middle of the night, half the officers at the local precinct had been roused.
Of course, hospital ambulances and senior executives from the Hercules Corporation arrived as well.
The collapsed section of the mine was not a structure designed to hold water. With two pumps working continuously, it did not take long to drain the large pit.
Everyone present, whether police officers, security guards, or medical personnel...
...felt chills run through them at the sight of those bodies, covered in signs of crystallization.
Yes, the medical personnel had confirmed that all seven were beyond saving.
Actually, no medical confirmation was needed. Just looking at them, with holes in their heads sprouting crystals, no one could imagine they were still alive.
The six people remaining on the "shore," however, could probably still be saved, although they were covered in mud and most were barely breathing.
The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department had also hurried out of bed and rushed to the scene.
As he surveyed the scene and considered the weather department's earlier reports of abnormal weather, a conclusion beyond all common sense gradually formed in his mind.
It seemed certain that the mine had been swallowing people. Then there was the storm, which had come and gone just as abruptly, and the collapsed mine.
"Chief, how should we handle this case?"
A detective under him cautiously questioned the usually ill-tempered old man.
But any perceptive officer knew that a case like this was probably beyond them.
This was a supernatural incident!
The police cordon had been put up again, sealing off the entire recycling yard. Old Ode shouted that it was his property, but faced with the officers' firm stance, he fell silent, already troubled by his guilty conscience.
"Notify the Department of Homeland Security. We can't handle this."
At those words, every officer let out a deep sigh of relief.
The Hercules Corporation's security guards were in such a horrific state. Who knew what might happen to anyone who investigated?
Still, alongside their fear, quite a few experienced detectives felt another emotion stirring within them.
After the mine swallowed more than a dozen people, while we all still thought this was a missing-persons case or an act of revenge, some mysterious force appeared. It changed the weather to keep ordinary people from seeing what was happening, then destroyed whatever dangerous thing had been here in a very short time.
Yes, everyone who suspected this wanted to believe that the dangerous monster had already been destroyed.
It was not just the state of the scene. The officers who had stood watch here reported the same thing: that cold, sinister feeling had vanished.
Since they had four naked men with them, Su Su took everyone straight to her maternal grandmother's old house.
With no time to reminisce, everyone scrambled to lay the four men on the living room floor, then pulled the dust covers off the furniture to cover their private parts.
"Their souls and bodies have already been badly eroded. Medical treatment won't heal them."
Qin Xiaoxia tossed the small blue mineral wrapped in purple power to Doudou, who hurriedly caught it with a frightened expression, as though it might prick his hands.
Only after making sure Qin Xiaoxia's magic power was not attacking him did Doudou relax and begin curiously examining the mother crystal raw ore from the Corrupted Crystal Mine.
Meanwhile, everyone else had focused all their attention on Qin Xiaoxia, holding their breath.
A faint purple glow gathered in Qin Xiaoxia's hand. Like the ground in the sweltering heat, it made the surrounding space look especially distorted beneath the lights.
Qin Xiaoxia formed his gathered magic power into a surging tide, then gently swept it over the four men on the floor. He stripped all foreign substances from their souls and used his own magic power to restore them completely.
Back at the airport, he had discovered that when he projected a certain signal of intent, his magic power could produce a healing effect on souls-at least on the souls of humans from Earth.
Now, because the four men's souls were so badly damaged, the repairs made with his magic power were correspondingly extensive, gradually causing a certain change in their souls.
It did not feel like a true awakening of magic power, yet they were no longer quite like ordinary people.
No one had ever attempted anything like this. At least, Doudou knew of no one who had.
Qin Xiaoxia could not be certain how they would change in the future, but they would undoubtedly be far stronger than ordinary people.
Well, either way, I'm taking these four!
The process lasted only about a minute.
Jack, Joseph, Baru, and Otos woke from unconsciousness one after another.
The light before them made them squint, unable to see clearly. They could only make out the vague shapes of many people around them.
After taking a moment to adjust, they finally saw where they were and remembered what they had been through.
It was a chilling memory, but now, it seemed they had been rescued?
None of them noticed how calm they were upon waking. Even Jack and Joseph, seeing their friends, felt joy without any intense outward reaction.
"Greetings, newly born knights!"
PS: Thank you to Fuyuesheng for the 4,000-coin tip, Yunlu for the 500-coin tip, and Ye Xuchen and Yixiang de Feng for the 100-coin tips~~~ Thank you, everyone! Thank you for your generosity!!