Alien Dust

Chapter 374 Hindsight
"Listen to him." Levi said nothing more and led his team towards the library.

These two slopes are the highest in the entire town, but no one lives here. To the east where the sun rises is a library, and to the west where the sun sets is a stone temple.

The stone temple enshrines a swamp god in the style of Cthulhu. It was a statue that was created by some folk artist on a whim, and it inexplicably touched the weird spots of the residents of the town, so it was enshrined and a temple was built for it. In fact, this thing has no divine power at all, not even any weird power.

The library is also a very sacred and peaceful place in the town, but the books here are covered with dust, and in the past there was not even a person who came here to clean. Fortunately, the library has one more thing than the stone temple, that is, thick books.

The books also played a key role at this time, as they were brought down and used to block any entrances that might have seeped in the swamp mud water.

"More people are running over there. They think the stone temple can protect them." Hu Lu said, pointing towards the stone temple.

Wu Hen took a look and found that the stone temple was already crowded, while the library seemed a little empty.

This is the technological civilization ruled by Daxuan. Do you believe in superstition or science?
However, on second thought, I chose this library because of the omen of death, and I am not a serious person.

"Why did you choose this side? It feels like the terrain on the opposite side is higher, and the stone temple has a pointed roof. In theory, it has a small triangular eaves that is higher than ours." A team member asked in confusion.

"Stop talking nonsense, quickly block all the holes that may leak mud, including those sewers that may backflow, and tear down those pages." Levi cursed.

"That's not good. These are sacred books filled with precious knowledge of our human race. If we use them like this, we will be blamed by the saints."

"If you don't know at this time that the raw material of paper is wood pulp, and that its density is greater than swamp water when it comes into contact with water, and that it can provide an excellent sealing effect, the saint would not even be willing to acknowledge that a stupid and stubborn person like you is his descendant!" Levi scolded unceremoniously.

After hearing this, everyone realized that no matter how valuable the knowledge recorded in this library is, and even if it affects all of humanity's progress toward a higher dimensional state, its only function now is to be restored into wood pulp and paper to build a fortress of survival for everyone.

As more and more people gathered at the stone temple, some of those who had escaped to higher places gradually came to the library for refuge.

Unconsciously, the swamp water outside had already reached the two high slopes. Looking from here, only a few eaves were left in the entire town, and those eaves were slowly sinking, so that the people who hid on the roofs at the beginning could not escape.

As all the houses in the town sank into the swamp, the stone temple and library at the highest point were also soaked. Soon the water was more than a person's height, and it was basically impossible for those who stayed outside to survive.

Even so, the whole town is still sinking. Although the sinking speed is slower, it still gives people a suffocating feeling as if their whole body is immersed in swamp mud.

"Should we climb onto the roof?" someone suggested.

If they climbed onto the roof, they would be able to stand at least two meters higher. If the town's subsidence just submerged the roof of the library, then their bodies would at least be above the swamp mud.

"It's almost nightfall. There will be evil spirits at night. If you are outside, you will be eaten to death." Wu Hen shook his head and rejected it.

Although many things are uncertain.

But there are two ways to die: one is to be choked to death in the swamp, and the other is to be eaten by evil spirits. Anyone who often dies knows to choose the former.

As it was getting dark, no one dared to climb onto the roof anymore.

……

After nightfall, a black-red liquid began to seep out of the swamp, like silt water.

The town finally stopped sinking, but the silt was raising everyone's suffocation line higher.

"This seems to be dark energy earth vein fluid!" When Levi saw the black and red liquid coming out, a hint of excitement flashed across his face.

It really is a dark vein. Although this black and red color is not liquid gold, it is hundreds or thousands of times better than liquid gold!
To put it simply, the earth vein fluid is the spiritual energy that is concentrated to a certain level and gushes out like an underground spring. Wu Hen, whose sense of taste has reached the fourth level, can clearly feel these liquid spiritual factors overflowing. You must know that spiritual energy is a very stable dark matter. It will not move violently like volcanic magma and steam, and it even has a strong adsorption capacity to the terrain. If you can't learn to gather energy, you can't collect it at all.

But now they are gushing out of the ground like boiling magma, forming a considerable spiritual liquid field. It can be seen that there are even larger spiritual veins hidden in the deeper parts.

"But sooner or later we will be drowned by the dark liquid in the earth's veins." Hu Lu said.

This sentence made everyone fall from heaven to hell all of a sudden.

Now the outside of the library has been soaked in mud and water for more than half its height. A small amount of black water has seeped inside and has swallowed up the floor of the library.

It can be said that the entire library has sunk into the mud, and the only reason everyone is still alive and well is because the previous sealing was done well. The feeling of surviving in the only secret room of a sunken ship is actually very torturous and can easily lead to mental breakdown.

"Swamp water has seeped into the stone temple." Cheng Liang said in a low voice from a high window.

Some people in the team still felt that the stone temple was safer. Perhaps the strange god in the temple could dispel evil spirits and even isolate the swamp mud.

However, the stone temple had too many windows and there was no book pulp to seal them. As the terrain sank, the entire stone temple was filled with mud and water, and those who hid in the stone temple were all soaked in the black and red water.

The water level of the black and red water is still rising little by little, continuing to compress the living space of the entire stone temple.

Even though the black and red water still had a little buoyancy, it didn't cause them to sink into the mud right away...

But soon, Cheng Liang, who was standing by the window, saw a scene that frightened his soul:
All the people who hid in the stone temple were left with only their heads floating on the black and red water. The ceiling of the stone temple was a triangular pointed structure. As the black and red muddy water continued to rise, the entire stone temple was completely swallowed up, leaving only the extremely narrow area under the triangular eaves, which looked like a completely closed ditch.

And this ditch was filled with human heads!
The wanderers who hid in the stone temple had no choice.

Or the body will sink directly below, be covered by mud, and die in the swamp.

Or you can paddle your limbs and use the buoyancy of the black and red water to allow yourself to breathe as much as possible in the "ditch" space under the eaves.

But with so many heads needing to breathe, how much oxygen can there be in this narrow space?

The cruelest thing is that the town is no longer sinking and the black and red water is no longer overflowing.

The statues in the stone temple played a role, because its special shape made the roof of the stone temple not flat, but a long pointed roof...

This pointed roof is the only hope that this stone temple leaves for the residents of the small town.

But if there are only less than ten people left, they may be able to survive the night relying on the thin oxygen.

However, this ray of life was filled with nearly a hundred heads of all sizes, their throats all soaked in the cold muddy water, and they opened their noses and roared to grab the air in this closed and narrow space.

"They are all dead." Wu Hen's eyes passed through the window, looking at the suffocating scene opposite through the eerie night.

Even though there was plenty of oxygen in the library, Wu Hen felt it was becoming difficult to breathe.

He finally understood how the people in the town died in the end.

I also understand why only their heads are left.

"If the original residents of the town chose the library, would most of them be able to survive?" At this time, Cheng Liang also realized this and asked softly.

Wu Hen was silent.

What can save the townspeople is this dusty library and the books piled up in the warehouses and on the bookshelves.

But the residents of the small town have forgotten that paper is made of wood. Although it cannot be nailed to the wall like wooden boards, it can effectively block all intrusion points when it comes into contact with water. Even if the entire library sinks under the muddy water, the space inside is still relatively safe, allowing more people to survive.

"Let's wait until dawn." Wu Hen sighed.

"Bai Luobo, how do you know that the library can survive?" At this time, others asked in confusion.

The prison guards who had planned to hide in the stone temple also felt a chill down their spines.

If Wu Hen had not called out to everyone in time and asked them to hide in the library, their fate would have been the same as those wanderers and lost people, and they would all have died.

They didn't understand from what angle Wu Hen analyzed that the town's exit was in the library?

"Did you ever buy balloons when you were a child?" Wu Hen said.

"Yes, my parents would buy me different colors every holiday." said Hu Lu.

"Then you must have encountered a situation where you accidentally dropped the balloons you bought and they floated onto the roof of your house, right?" Wu Hen continued.

"Yes, a flat top is fine. You can just jump up and grab the balloon rope. But I'm afraid of a pointed top. The balloon will always get stuck in the sharpest gap. When I was a kid and was short, I could only ask adults to jump up to get it." Hu Lu nodded.

When describing this part, Hu Lu, who was slow to react, didn't realize anything, but the faces of the others changed, and their eyes couldn't help but look towards the pointed roof of the stone temple...

They finally understood why Wu Hen didn't choose the stone temple!
"No way, when you see that the evil spirits here only have heads, you think of this?" Le Wei looked at Wu Hen as if he were a monster.

The eyes of the others also became strange, staring at Wu Hen, whose thinking was a little abnormal.

"There's nothing I can do. When I was fourteen, I wanted to be a writer of supernatural novels, so I had a rich imagination. But later, my dream died because I was too timid to watch horror movies." Wu Hen shrugged.

Wu Hen was not a wise man after the event.

When faced with the choice between the stone temple and the library, he intuitively chose the library. The situation was so tense at the time that he did not have time to analyze the reasons in detail.

The emergence of the death omen actually saved the lives of Le Wei and the others. Without the evidence of the death omen, Wu Hen would not have dared to ask Le Wei and the others to follow him into the library.

The human brain actually makes some key decisions for us, even if we don't think about it at the time.

Of course, to enable the brain to reach this level, it is often necessary to study and read more on a daily basis. No matter how much you really remember, the brain neurons will suddenly light up when encountering some special situations. Otherwise, it will be closer to a mess than you in times of crisis.

(End of this chapter)