Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 139: Chapter 138: Mine Cave, Alive?!

Xu Xin didn’t know what was inside this mine, nor did he want to find out now.

Although these vine creatures weren’t very strong individually, their number was unknown, so he wouldn’t risk entering the cave.

Xu Xin waited outside for dozens of seconds, and the remaining two blood-patterned vines retracted back into the ground like creatures in a game losing their aggression.

Suddenly, a few of those vines emerged slightly from below the ground, their tips pointing in his direction, as if casting a glance at him, before swiftly retracting underground again, leaving only a few small holes.

Xu Xin let out a sigh of relief, ready to turn and leave.

”Chirp!” Keke nudged his face, pointing with its little paw at the holes left on the ground by the vines.

Following Keke’s direction, Xu Xin’s pupils suddenly contracted at the scene before him.

The holes and cracks on the ground were actually moving!

Indeed, the ground composed of stones and salt seemed to be writhing like flesh and blood!

Under Xu Xin’s shocked gaze, the holes and cracks gradually healed, and the crossbow arrow that had pinned a half vine to the ground wobbled slightly, toppled over with the half vine, revealing the now smooth ground beneath.

Eventually, the ground returned entirely to the state it was before the vines appeared, except for a few fragments of stone, salt debris, and some broken vine pieces scattered around. It seemed as if nothing had happened here.

This ground actually had regenerative abilities, slowly healing itself!

Before obtaining the golden treasure chest, when he had stepped out of the protection zone, vines had also emerged from the ground and attacked him, only to retract underground after failing to hit him.

At that time, the cracked ground definitely did not heal automatically!

He couldn’t help but step back a little.

This situation was like a living being automatically healing its wounds after being injured.

Xu Xin took a deep breath, and to test his theory, he loaded another crossbow arrow onto his crossbow and aimed at the wall of the salt cave, pulling the trigger.

”Whoosh—Clack!” The crossbow arrow embedded itself into the cave’s stone wall, scattering stone debris.

”Huff...”

Suddenly, a light breeze blew from deep within the cave, carrying a slightly strange fragrance. Though the scent was quite pleasant, for some reason, Xu Xin, who had a mild throat inflammation, gagged slightly, furrowing his brow and covering his nose.

At the same time, the crossbow arrow stuck in the cave wall wobbled, as if expelled from the wall, and then dropped to the ground.

The wall, which had a small pit from the crossbow arrow, also returned to its original state.

He had previously struck this cave wall with a pickaxe; they were just some ordinary green-grade stones, and back then, the struck wall did not restore itself like it did now.

Looking at the wall he had chiseled before, he eventually withdrew his gaze helplessly. He didn’t remember what the wall looked like after he had chiseled it the last time.

”...Could it be alive?” Xu Xin’s eyelids twitched, struggling to resist the urge to turn and run, ”Previously it wasn’t like this. Is it because it just woke up?”

The bursts of strange fragrance in the wind made his head feel a bit dizzy. He quickly took out an orange that could enhance spiritual power and a strawberry that could balance emotions and ate them.

His head cleared instantly, and his previously panicked emotion eased considerably.

He then ate a red berry to gain night vision and looked into the pitch-black depths of the cave.

The salt mine cave was not deep; one could see its end from the entrance, no more than a few dozen meters away.

What made Xu Xin a bit fearful was that on the floor of the deepest part of the cave, there was a large pit that previously wasn’t there at all.

From the entrance, this pit had a diameter of about two meters, surrounded by some fragments of rock and salt, evenly distributed around the pit as if something had emerged from beneath the ground and shaken itself off.

From the entrance, he couldn’t see how deep this pit was.

He had come here to collect salt twice and had thoroughly checked the interior, even using a pickaxe to dig around. He was very certain that previously the interior of the salt mine cave did not have such a large pit.

Xu Xin checked the map again. After those few vines retreated underground, there wasn’t a single red light spot left inside the salt mine cave.

A distance of a few dozen meters, perhaps Mimi could go in and take a look, its speed was fast enough that it wouldn’t be harmed by creatures suddenly emerging from the ground.

”Mimi, can you go over to that pit, see what’s inside or how deep it is?” Xu Xin asked Mimi. If it was unwilling, he wouldn’t force it. After all, it was dangerous inside.

Mimi glanced at him, then took a few steps in the opposite direction of the cave entrance.

Fine, it didn’t want to go in.

Just as Xu Xin thought so, Mimi, already far from the entrance, suddenly sprinted forward, accelerating like a flash of lightning into the mine!

Within less than a second, it reached the end of the cave, made a nimble turn, leaped up with its hind legs against the back wall, glanced into the pit on the ground, and quickly propelled itself out with the counterforce.

The entire process took just over two seconds, Xu Xin had yet to react, and Mimi had already landed more than ten meters outside the hole, sauntering towards him.

Even those strange underground creatures hadn’t reacted. It was only after Mimi exited the cave that a few vines burst through the soil.

”Eek!” Keke exclaimed in surprise.

”...That was too fast!” Xu Xin was equally stunned.

These few vines twisted above ground as if drawing a few question marks in the air, with a sense of perplexed questioning, as if several people were scratching their heads and asking each other, ”Did something just pass by? Did you see it?”

Xu Xin had never seen Mimi move so fast before. Probably the large pit inside the mine triggered a sense of danger, causing it to erupt into its fastest speed, becoming nothing more than a fleeting shadow.

The hole was about fifty meters deep, and Mimi took less than a second to reach the cave wall. Calculating the speed, it surpassed 200! The highway speed limit on Earth is only 120; if Mimi were to speed on the highway, it would immediately warrant 12 demerit points and a revoked license.

Absurd. This speed is truly absurd.

However, bursting such speed instantaneously is also a burden for Mimi. Xu Xin could distinctly hear its breathing becoming heavier as it approached.

Keke jumped down from Xu Xin’s shoulder onto Mimi. Mimi never minded the touches from Keke and Silver King, which made Xu Xin a bit envious; he always wanted to pet this big cat.

”Eek?” ”Meow.”

Keke and Mimi began to communicate.

Xu Xin asked, ”How is it? Is there anything in the pit?”

”Eek!”

Mimi didn’t respond, just lay down and started licking itself, while Keke was calling out, waving both its little paws at Xu Xin, but he really didn’t understand what it was trying to convey.

Xu Xin directly asked Keke many questions, telling it to answer with nods or shakes of the head.

After putting in lots of effort, he finally learned about the big pit that suddenly appeared in the mine.

The pit was indeed very deep, deep enough that Mimi couldn’t see the end. But it wasn’t empty—there was a faint reddish soil inside, and a very peculiar fragrance in the cave.

In the depth beneath the pit, something seemed to be emitting a soft white light, which made Mimi feel like the hole was deep; otherwise, if it were pitch black and there was no light inside, it wouldn’t be able to see at all, naturally not reaching the conclusion that the pit was deep.

”Faintly red soil...” Xu Xin’s expression changed.

Xu Xin had seen this type of soil in one place before.

At the entrance to the underground world where the golden treasure box was found, the entrance of the very long iron tunnel had this faint reddish soil!

”Polluted soil!” Xu Xin felt a bit cold.

He reflected on the faint bizarre fragrance he smelled earlier; it wasn’t exactly pleasant, but it was at least a fragrance, unlike the red fog pouring out of the underground world entrance which was so foul and stinky. But...

It’s not the same smell, but it doesn’t mean it’s not the same substance.

In fact, on Earth, there exists a quite magical substance, indole.

Indole is a key component in creating the distinctive fragrance of jasmine, magnolia, lotus, gardenia, and other flowers, used in making perfumes and even in various foods, but it also exists extensively in feces.

It has a floral scent that pleases at extremely low concentrations, yet at very high concentrations, it has a stench capable of suffocating.

Xu Xin feared that the strange scent he recently smelled had the same properties.

From the start, this smell felt inexplicably familiar, and upon learning that the soil at the entrance was faint red, he could almost confirm that this smell was that of the red fog from the tunnel diluted a thousand times.

The scent caused him the same heave feeling as the previous red fog, his mind a bit dizzy. Despite the fragrance, it still made him feel sick.

As for the soft white glow deep inside the pit, he had no clue; it might be some treasure or trap, but Xu Xin wasn’t about to dive in to find out like a fool.

With all the gathered information, Xu Xin’s gaze towards this mine changed.

This is likely the entrance to the second underground world!

Moreover, this entrance mine might even be alive! At the very least, it can automatically recover from ”injuries”!

No way, he had to find a way to block this salt mine!

But after thinking long and hard, Xu Xin couldn’t come up with any good idea to block the mine, so he simply moved a few big stones from the side of the mine to symbolically cover the entrance.

Although this method was basically like turning a blind eye, stones that he could move would hardly deter things emerging from underground, but leaving the entrance wide open made him really uneasy.

At least this way, whatever is inside couldn’t come out without making noise.

Looking at the blocked entrance, Xu Xin felt slightly better at heart.