Chapter 259: Entangled, the Red Sea II (2/2)

Ye Chong was in the middle of its way. His vision blacked out as he felt a heavy force dragging his entire body tumbling, the sudden wham caused him to lose control over Han Jia completely. The mech began sinking in the waves of strands, a muffling cry whispered throughout the darkened cabin, ”Y…Ye…”

After Ye Chong got back with the time, he realized he had lost the Coxcomb as his sight was flooded with these bizarrely-aggressive strands. He could feel the waves, bouncing him mischiefs as he tried pulling himself away, it almost felt like his limbs were bound by a bunch of wriggling springs.

Oh no. Ye Chong panicked.

Transmission would be nearly impossible to reach Mu as long as he was inside the depth of the sea. The red mist was sticky like a viscous layer of glue, visibility zero, and now with the kind assistance of these red strands, Ye Chong could barely tell his location.

Ye Chong calmed down shortly after, knowing that panic and fear would do him no good at the moment. Rather it would only worsen his situation, now he would need to find out where Mu and the Coxcomb were, since obviously the survivability of being in such environment alone would be subzero.

The red mist brewed and Ye Chong nearly was unable to find where his dagger located his body.

He rebooted Han Jia and piloted it towards the direction of the Coxcomb… by estimation and impression of course… although he remained confused, wondering what had hit him just now. The force could be said as colossal, which was not something a human like him could fight against. If there was not these strands to buffer the inertia, he could not imagine, without the friction of any form like the air, how far he would have been sent.

It’s here. It’s here?

No it should be… there?

No… I could not find it. I still could not find it. Han Jia was squirming through the waving gaps. Ye Chong had searched most parts of the area but he could not find the Coxcomb at all. The communicator had been dead silence ever since.

Goddammit! This bloody red mist! If it was not the mist, he could have contacted Mu despite the pulling of these strands. Even if he could not, Mu could at least get his coordination!

He carried on searching on a larger scope. Nope, no sight of the Coxcomb… This was getting nowhere. Ye Chong was forced to surrender. Practically, he should have given up way back, as he was in a foreign zone with nearly zero visibility and a waving structure. If he were to attempt marking the strands to identify his direction, it would be like marking the waves of seaweeds as one swam in the sea. It would be pointless.

Mu… Shang…

Ye Chong gave a wry smile. Mu Shang had always been by his side, through thick and thin, sharing joy and grief, then a sudden blow and he was stuck in this strange zone without them. Ye Chong was lost, feeling his heart empty.

Well… I have to at least survive. Bucked up Ye Chong.

Fortunately I retained that habit of bringing supplementary batteries and nutrition capsules with me all the time, or I would be living with non-existent possibility to leave this red sea. I would not want to be starved to dead, at a horrible place like this.

He then picked a direction to travel randomly. He flew straight, he would not bother anymore as all direction would hold the same odds for him.

Han Jia was not hindered by the red sea unexpectedly, there was no delay at all, as if its usual flights in the vacuum. Ye Chong thought it was him overthinking at first, but the reality was there, which was confusing as Mu had once reported that the thickening of red sea had obstructed the movement of the Coxcomb. The overlooked statement kept ringing in his head.

That was not all.

The strands were acting strangely towards Han Jia. They were rather… slippery, so slippery that they felt like completely lubricated as they slipped over Han Jia’s body as it moved. No strand had caught Han Jia, not even one.

But Ye Chong could still remember that horrendous scene of seeing how the Coxcomb was melting in the red sea by the grasp of strands like a piece of potassium into the water, as the red strands grew over the body of the Coxcomb at a horrifying speed. The Coxcomb started turning into a yarn ball since then.

Weird! Why would the strands not catch him?

Was it because of the material of Han Jia? Speculated Ye Chong promptly but he was not in any mood for researches, he just wanted to leave this mental-scarring place as soon as possible.

When one were to travel in the boundless space, the helpless loneliness could overwhelm one to one’s homicidal thoughts, as one could not help but to wonder on what would be lying ahead, which in the decade one would meet an actual person, to where exactly one would be heading, for how long one would have to travel. It would feel like days… weeks, months… or…

…

Nevertheless, Ye Chong flew on, with Han Jia remained at maximum velocity, as the universal law rang in his head - if you were to fight for the opportunity, you might not get the opportunity; but if you were never to fight for opportunity, you would never get the opportunity.

Although he must admit… traveling in a lubricated area of strands felt rather intriguing, assuming he was not in such endangered situation.

His eyes set upon the waves of red strands. They seemed to be growing again, even though they were not growing as horribly quick as the time he saw back in the Coxcomb, he could discern the growth, they were growing broader. Ye Chong hypothesized that both the red strands and the red sea should share the same matter, it could be a kind of solidification, de-solidification, condensation, vaporizing process like water but … Ye Chong was not really sure on what condition the process would be triggered.

Most of the strands in the red sea were floating with an outrageous diameter, where some hit about a few tens kilometers. That was annoying because Ye Chong could hardly see a thing in the front, at caution he only got to reduce his velocity gradually.

He felt inspired out of sudden as he discovered a way to preserve energy. Han Jia would act like an agile mutated ape, traveling in the woods of reddish vines around, but with way more alien elasticity. Han Jia grabbed the vines and swung to the following, this was a faster approach, more energy-saving too!

He had to save on energy since he could not reckon how far ahead he got to travel before he hit an opening, even though the travel with lower energy cost was sustained on the basis of a larger demand on his piloting.

At least he was a master pilot of some sort. The first two days were a little chaotic though as rushing through the vines would give him constant tension, which would wear him out quickly. Ye Chong was lucky to have a stronger physique than most men so the chaos only lasted for two days before Ye Chong finally adapted himself to the high tension execution.

Of course one could say that a man would have his most potential excavated at the drastic edge of death.

The red sea had lots of strands, much more than the area surrounding the Coxcomb, but the density was much smaller. No doubt, Ye Chong could confirm that something about the Coxcomb must have triggered the red mist there, which led to the aggressiveness. Well, he had yet reached the conclusion on what triggered it.

Twelve hundred and two hundred and seventy three. Counted Ye Chong.

His hands swung along with Han Jia upon the control panel, smoothly like a real mutated ape seesawing throughout the woods.

The travel seemed to be endless, and Ye Chong felt he was collapsing at any second but somehow his expression was depicting a hint of excitement.

And Ye Chong started to see the red mist fading out, the strands were retreating on his way.

Right! That means… I am right! I am going out!