When Luo Yuan had dived to a depth of 1,500 meters, he could already feel that it was not far away. It could be 20 to 30 meters away, or maybe it was only one step away. Luo Yuan could not pinpoint the exact location with his spiritual sense, so he could only make a rough judgment.
He immediately stopped and released the space bubble. A hole with a diameter of three to four meters appeared.
Due to the deep isolation of the ground and the influence of the geothermal, the nuclear winter did not affect the place at all. The temperature was more than 40 degrees Celsius which was similar to the temperature before the disaster. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why the clones stayed here for such a long time.
Luo Yuan carefully sensed the direction and immediately began to dig.
The geology here was made up of sedimentary rocks. The rocks looked like pages of a book and were relatively brittle. With Luo Yuan's great strength, it was almost effortless. He could occasionally see traces of shells and aquatic plants in the broken stones. Apparently, the Taklamakan Desert where the Reconstruction Area was located was still an ocean hundreds of millions of years ago.
After digging for a few meters, Luo Yuan noticed that the rocks nearby had been completely crushed by some kind of man-made force. The rocks had become extremely dense. He was delighted as it meant that the clones were not far away from him.
He immediately increased his speed and after digging for less than 10 meters, he heard a loud bang and dust flew everywhere.
In addition to the annoying dust, there was also a stench similar to that of corpses. He seemed to have thought of something, and his heart sank. He immediately lowered his body and entered the cave. It was a narrow and cramped cave, with a height of only 1.2 meters.
He had to crouch down to barely enter the cave.
This was not surprising to Luo Yuan as it was underground and the surrounding was sealed. The rocks could not be transported out and it was impossible to excavate normally. To open up a space, one could only compress the rocks nearby. Every inch of space that was opened up was a huge project that was time-consuming and laborious.
The cave was narrow and slightly twisted. It could only fit one person and the total area was only about two to three square meters.
However, this was not what Luo Yuan was concerned about. What he saw shocked him and his heart felt heavy.
He saw clones lying on the ground. There were a total of 13 of them. The youngest of them looked to be one or two years old while the oldest one was four to five years old.
Eight of them had completely lost contact with him, and all of them were small clones.
Luo Yuan felt guilty for thinking about the darkness of human nature. Their corpses were still mostly intact. However, their skin was slightly rotten and there was a faint stench coming from them.
Obviously, these dead individuals didn't have fusion bodies. Without air and food, they wouldn't be able to survive for long. Perhaps they wouldn't even last half a day here before dying.
Luo Yuan was curious as to why these relatively weak clones would escape to this place. However, he was not in a hurry to find out.
He looked at the other clones that were still alive. They were all skinny and looked like skeletons. They were lying together and they seemed to be in hibernation. They had completely stopped breathing and their heartbeats could not be felt. If Luo Yuan did not sense with his spirit, he would have thought that they were dead.
It had been three to four months since the disaster. Apparently, their bodies were on the verge of collapsing due to the lack of water and food for such a long time.
In fact, the lack of food was not the most important thing. The most important thing was the lack of water. Without water, cold fusion would not be able to happen. Apparently, there was no water in the cave. Due to the excessive pressure on the surrounding walls, a high-density absorbent layer was formed, causing the air to be extremely dry.
Luo Yuan used his Will to check on the condition of one of the clones. He was in a terrible condition. His cells were shriveled and a large amount of water had been lost in the cell fluid. The fusion reaction in the mitochondria was faintly discernible.
The blood in his body had almost solidified. Countless of red blood cells were squeezed together and most of them had died. The remaining water and nutrients had been depleted by the other cells. In other words, his body had entered a phase of cannibalism.
If this continued, his internal organs would be damaged and he would not be far away from death.
"Fortunately, I still have time!"
Luo Yuan felt heavy-hearted and relieved. Without hesitation, he immediately activated his space-time bubble and sent the survivors to the surface.
As for the corpses, he left them in the cave where no one would disturb them. There was no better grave than the one that was 1,500 meters underground.
At that moment, it was still raining. Luo Yuan thought that their bodies were extremely weak and they might not be able to withstand the cold outside. He did not stay and returned to Hope City.
...
At Luo Yuan's villa.
A group of people surrounded the five children who looked like dried corpses. They were curious and terrified at the same time.
"Mayor Luo, these children have been starving for a long time. Their consciousness is in shock and all their organs have stopped working. We can only slowly nurse their bodies by injecting nutrients into them. However, I'm afraid … the chances are slim." Ye Qiuyu put down her stethoscope and said to Luo Yuan with a pale face.
The condition of these children was beyond her understanding. They were not breathing, and they did not have a heartbeat. Even their bodies were cold and stiff. If Luo Yuan did not insist that they were still alive, she would have scolded him for being crazy for using corpses to entertain himself.
"You don't have to worry so much. Feed them some water first." Luo Yuan frowned and said.
Ye Qiuyu opened her mouth and wanted to stop him. As a professional doctor, she knew very well that those who were in shock did not have a reaction to swallow. If they had a reaction to swallow, water would only enter their trachea. However, in the end, she gave in to Luo Yuan and went to pour water for them. Forget it, since they had already come to this, they could only try their best.
"Luo Yuan, where did you find these people?" Huang Jiahui could not help but ask.
"Not far from New Capital City!" Luo Yuan said.
"Are there still people alive out there?" Zhao Yali was curious and asked.
"I'm not sure about that. Maybe there are still people alive!" Luo Yuan shook his head and said. Most of the people who were still alive were evolved people who used to live in the wild. However, these people either lived underground and rarely moved on the ground or stayed far away from the reconstruction area. It was almost impossible to find them. Even if Luo Yuan could find them, he would not want to look for them. These people had lost their basic humanity in the cruel life and were no different from beasts. Bringing them back to Hope City would only bring harm to them.
"This group of children is special. They are all my clones and have some kind of connection with me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to find them."
Luo Yuan continued to say. There was no need to hide this and he could not hide it. If he did not explain it now, he would have to explain it for a long time if they woke up and called him father again.
Everyone looked at each other and saw the shock and curiosity in each other's eyes. Luo Yuan had never mentioned this before.
Even Ye Qiuyu, who had just returned with the water, almost dropped the cup when she heard the shocking news.
Human cloning was too far for ordinary people. Unless they were at a certain level, they would not even have heard of it.
"There's nothing strange about it. Human cloning technology has been developed for a long time. With the current fertility rate, if we don't clone humans, we will die soon. I've been staying in the lab for a while because of this." Luo Yuan explained when he saw that everyone was in disbelief.
Soon, Ye Qiuyu took out a tool and started to pry open the mouth of one of the clones.
She was not a spoiled girl. She used to be a battlefield doctor. In that kind of environment, it was impossible for her to be pretentious. During times of war, she would sometimes have to carry hundreds of injured people in a day. Moreover, after consuming the energy crystal the day before, her strength had increased to the point that she could not be compared to an ordinary adult man.
However, this time, no matter how much strength she used, no matter how hard she tried, the child's teeth seemed to be fixed and could not move at all.
Ye Qiuyu blushed and said hesitantly, "Mayor … Mayor Luo, I can't pry open their mouths!"
Looking at her timid expression, Luo Yuan smiled and walked over, "Let me do it!"
He took the tool and walked to one of the clones. Without using any strength, he gently pried open one of the clones' teeth. He then said to Ye Qiuyu, "Can you pass me the water?"
Ye Qiuyu quickly passed him some water. Before Luo Yuan fed her, she mustered up her courage and reminded him, "Mayor … Mayor Luo, as a doctor, I have to remind you that when a patient is unconscious, they can't eat food. Otherwise, it will go into their trachea."
Luo Yuan was stunned for a moment. He looked at her and said, "Thank you for reminding me, but it's not a big deal for them."
Indeed, it was not a big deal. These clones did not need to breathe as they were severely dehydrated. As soon as water entered their bodies, it would be absorbed by their cells. Even their skin was slowly absorbing the moisture from the air.
This was a phenomenon that Luo Yuan had never noticed before.
Compared to the time when they first left the underground, the skin color of the clones was much better after they entered Hope City. It was not as dark and wrinkled as before, and it was gradually turning into a pale gray color.
Soon, Luo Yuan poured the water into the mouth of one of the clones. His action was simple yet violent. It was shocking to the onlookers.
"Get me a few more glasses of water!" Luo Yuan turned around and said.
Huang Jiahui and the rest were stunned for a moment and quickly went to get some water.
Next, Luo Yuan poured about 500 milliliters of water into each of the clones. When he saw that their stomachs were bloated and could no longer contain any more water, he stopped. This amount of water should be enough.
Just when Luo Yuan put down the glass, the body of the first clone who drank the water underwent a shocking change.
First, his gray skin that looked like it had been soaked in lime faded away and soon, his skin turned white. Immediately after, his body temperature began to rise.
From his body temperature that was close to zero degrees Celsius, it soon reached the body temperature of a normal person. However, it was just the beginning.
Their skin started to turn red and hot and their bodies were emitting hot air. The mutated woman could not help but touch them out of curiosity. She quickly retreated and hid behind Luo Yuan.
"Will he be alright?" Zhao Yali asked worriedly.
Luo Yuan touched their body temperature and estimated that it was around 70 to 80 degrees Celsius. It was a temperature that would have killed an ordinary person. However, it was normal for the Body Fusion. If he were to exercise vigorously, his body temperature could even ignite wood.
"Don't worry, they're fine. They've been lacking for too long and their mitochondria are temporarily out of balance. They'll be back to normal after some time."
Soon, the second, the third … and the fifth clone underwent an intense change.
Time passed by slowly. In less than five minutes, the skin of the clone that changed first had become rosy and glossy. His heartbeat had also begun to recover. Not long after, his breathing had also returned to normal. However, these changes were not of much use to him. They were merely left behind as an instinct.
After a few more minutes, the eyelids of the clone suddenly twitched. The next moment, a pair of bright eyes suddenly opened. He sat up and looked at Luo Yuan.
"You're … Our father!"
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