The encirclement broke. The Quartz Race lost interest in the Block before them.

They swarmed off in another direction, rushing toward a passage that led upward.

Mo Ling’s curiosity got the better of him, and he hurried after them.

He wanted to see what the group of Quartz Race was searching for.

Following the mine tunnel upward, the Quartz Race crossed a bridge and arrived at a platform beside the main ore vein.

A few other unmoving Quartz Race were here. They were very small and clung tightly to the ore vein—they must have been newborns, just recently formed.

But the newborns weren’t the center of attention. That role belonged to a Quartz Race member standing to the side, one with a strangely slender build.

Its once transparent and crystalline quartz body was now covered in cyan-colored spots. They were as conspicuous as drops of cyan ink blooming in clear water.

The Quartz Race member stared in shock at the changes on its own body, watching as the cyan specks slowly spread.

The cyan wasn’t simply replacing the original color; it was slowly staining the transparent quartz around it, the hue deepening as it spread.

It looked like a persistent contamination.

Mo Ling finally saw with his own eyes the Aberrant Vein Disease that Shibeng had spoken of.

’So this is a real patient.’

The sounds the Quartz Race made were like an alarm, warning that a patient with Aberrant Vein Disease had been found in their mining outpost.

Mo Ling had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and was mistaken for the source.

The Quartz Race member before him, slowly being corrupted by the cyan stains, was the true subject of the alarm.

The Quartz Race had now surrounded the patient. A few were waking the newborns, trying to get them away from the area.

The patient with Aberrant Vein Disease stood rooted to the spot, its entire body trembling. It seemed unable to accept what was happening to it.

"Aberrant Vein Disease! Get out of here!"

When faced with Aberrant Vein Disease, the Quartz Race showed no mercy. Their unanimous decision was to expel the patient.

To them, this was truly the only solution.

Not killing it on the spot was the best outcome it could hope for.

The patient stammered out an explanation, "An... another one with Aberrant Vein Disease touched me. There’s someone else. Someone else is here. Someone snuck in..."

’Someone snuck in? Looks like there’s more to this story.’

Mo Ling caught the patient’s hushed explanation.

’Could there be another carrier of Aberrant Vein Disease here?’

But the patient’s stammered words didn’t register with its kin. The sound of its explanation was drowned out by the harsh, metallic cries of the others.

The Aberrant Vein Disease might not actually spread this quickly, but the transparent quartz body certainly made the symptoms incredibly obvious.

In just that short amount of time, the strange cyan had begun to bleed from the surface deep into its body. The color’s diffusion was perfectly clear.

’What terrible luck.’

Seeing its kinsmen’s fear intensifying, the patient with Aberrant Vein Disease stopped trying to explain. It lowered its head and began walking downward, as if it had accepted its fate.

The circle of Quartz Race parted to create a gap, but they still watched the patient warily, afraid it might try something.

Under their intense scrutiny and fearful gazes, the patient descended the stone bridge and reached the open area at the very bottom.

The Quartz Race stood on the platform above, their eyes fixed on it.

It glanced back, taking one last long look at the ore vein, then trudged resignedly toward a passage at the edge of the clearing.

Once they were in the open area, Mo Ling relayed what he’d heard to Li Luo via his electronic screen.

"There’s someone else?"

Li Luo told Shibeng to wait, then she and Mo Ling hurried after the patient.

They had to figure out what was really going on.

The patient seemed reluctant to leave, glancing back every few steps at the mine that had once been its home.

But then it saw Mo Ling and Li Luo approaching.

"Is there something you want?" it asked listlessly, its head bowed.

Mo Ling was surprised to sense a feeling of dejection from it.

It said with a sense of resignation, "You should stay away from me. Aberrant Vein Disease might be contagious. I don’t know if it can infect humans, though."

With that, it even took a step back to put some distance between itself and Li Luo.

But Li Luo wasn’t concerned. She took another step forward and asked, "You said there was someone else? What was that about?"

The patient looked up, surprised. "You heard that?"

Then its resigned expression returned. "I was in a vacant state and felt someone touch me. I don’t know if it was just my imagination or not."

"It wasn’t until the alarm went off that I realized symptoms were appearing on the spot where I’d been touched."

It tilted its head and pointed to its left shoulder, where a large cyan patch was spreading.

All the little cyan dots inside the patient’s body were connected by fine threads to this patch. Judging by the network of veins, this patch was the source of the affliction.

It twisted its head to look at its shoulder again, the dejection on its face intensifying.

"This is lapis lazuli."

Li Luo walked right up to it, leaning in to examine the patient’s shoulder and capturing an image of the cyan patch with her recording device.

Her action took the patient by surprise. Its eyes widened in disbelief.

"Have you tried removing this part?" Li Luo asked.

The patient’s eyes brightened. With a shake of its shoulder, the area shattered. A crack appeared precisely along the border between the cyan patch and the normal quartz, severing the patch completely.

Immediately, the quartz on its body began to regrow, but as soon as it reached the affected area, it once again turned into lapis lazuli.

"It’s no use," the patient said, shaking its head in disappointment.

Li Luo asked, "How do you feel right now?"

"Incredible. I can feel the powerful energy of the lapis lazuli, my mind is exceptionally clear, and I’m experiencing many sensations I’ve never had before. It’s hard to describe."

The patient opened its palm, and a sharp lapis lazuli blade extended from its quartz hand.

The color contrast made the blade look strange, yet the seamless join proved the blade was truly a part of it.

"It’s like I’ve known how to do this forever."

Staring at the blade in its hand, the patient itself seemed confused.

It kept transforming the lapis lazuli in its hand into various shapes. The dejection on its face slowly faded, replaced by a spark of light in its eyes.

"This is... interesting. I’ve never felt anything like this since I was formed. It’s as if everything is new. I don’t feel so... empty anymore."

Although it was talking about the lapis lazuli in its hand, Mo Ling heard a deeper meaning in its words.

A word began to form in Mo Ling’s mind.

Just then, Li Luo voiced the question forming in her own mind. "Are you... feeling ’curiosity’?"

’That’s it. Curiosity.’

An emotion that was never supposed to exist in the Mineral Race had just appeared in this patient.

The patient froze at Li Luo’s question. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"Yes... ’curiosity.’ It seems my sickness is severe indeed if I can feel ’curiosity.’ Then... why was I so ’sad’ before? Was that the ’sorrow’ of parting?"

The lapis lazuli in the patient’s palm gradually morphed into the shape of a quartz mine. It stared silently at its hand.

It was its former home, a place where it was no longer welcome.

Without it realizing, its face was now etched with ’grief’.