Jiang Ye frowned.
He had seen photos of the Great Mole Flower and this specimen on the beach was nothing like it.
But it wasn't impossible; the appearance of the same species could vary greatly. Take Chihuahuas and Tibetan Mastiffs, or Southern cockroaches and Northern cockroaches – many factors could lead to such drastic differences.
Jiang Ye forwarded Huang Bingyan's message to Li Nannan.
Li Nannan: "!!!"
Li Nannan: "Send troops back now and keep digging down. See if there's another part of this plant on the seabed."
Jiang Ye: "What do you mean? Is this the Great Mole Flower or not? What will we find if we dig deeper? The root system?"
Li Nannan: "This might be the Great Mole Flower's dad. I'm not sure. Let's dig and see."
Li Nannan didn't directly answer Jiang Ye's subsequent questions but sent a picture.
The picture was simple: a large pineapple.
Jiang Ye's scalp tingled. The plant blooming on the beach bore a striking resemblance to a pineapple's hairstyle.
Could it be an impossibly large sea pineapple fruit growing on the seabed?
Jiang Ye immediately ordered Huang Bingyan to dispatch troops to the original location for excavation.
Fearing she might not have enough personnel, Jiang Ye quickly mobilized nearby troops to provide support and ordered the exiled planet's army to stand by.
The grand excavation operation soon commenced. Without heavy machinery, tens of thousands of mechanical soldiers had to excavate by hand.
They hit something just two meters down.
The mechanical soldiers slowed their pace, carefully clearing the seabed sand, which resembled shattered porcelain powder. Their movements were as gentle as those at an archaeological site, as if unearthing a priceless ancient tomb rather than an alien life form.
Some mechanical soldiers carried holographic projection equipment, filming underwater.
The live feed was connected to many locations, with numerous people watching simultaneously.
At the beach camp, Huang Bingyan, in her crisp military uniform, watched with bated breath in the command center alongside over a dozen tense-faced officers.
In the space city of the exiled planet, Li Nannan and several military advisors sat silently on the sofa, watching.
Jiang Ye was the most relaxed, lounging on the sofa like a weary office worker catching up on shows after a long week. He held a pair of fair and delicate legs in his arms, while Cen Yemeng reclined beside him, holding a fruit platter. She ate one herself and fed another to her husband, resembling Daji serving King Zhou in a historical drama.
An hour later, the sea pineapple began to take shape.
It was a spherical, deep blue object with a rough, swollen outer skin, layered with dead skin like a shriveled onion.
Most bizarrely, beneath the dead skin were eyes.
Fist-sized eyes, countless in number, blinked at the mechanical soldiers, their pupils darting about.
This sea pineapple was covered in eyes!
The mechanical soldiers stopped their actions, somewhat at a loss. The emergence of so many eyes on a single plant was beyond their expectations.
"Poke one eye and see how the others react," Li Nannan messaged.
Jiang Ye immediately relayed the order.
The mechanical soldiers, upon receiving the command, found a triangular sharp stone on the seabed and aimed it at one of the eyes.
The eye visibly panicked, shaking desperately, but the stone still plunged in.
Blood gushed out, and the eye was instantly destroyed, like smashed fruit.
The surrounding eyes were filled with terror, staring intently at the mechanical soldiers as if they were plague gods.
"These eyes have independent sentience; their nervous systems are detached. The entire plant has matured," Li Nannan messaged. "This plant is commonly known as Thousand-Eyed Garlic. Its intelligence is a level higher than the Great Mole Flower. First, have your soldiers excavate the entire Thousand-Eyed Garlic and bring it ashore."
After issuing the order, Jiang Ye searched for information on Thousand-Eyed Garlic online.
It was also an dark energy plant with a peculiar structure.
Initially, it grew on the seabed as a large patch of single-eyed garlic, releasing pungent, toxic substances to kill passing fish, which became its nourishment. After ten years of development, the single-eyed garlic would detach from the seabed and combine with each other, forming a giant garlic bulb, known as the Thousand-Eyed Garlic seedling stage.
During the Thousand-Eyed Garlic seedling stage, all the garlics' consciousness would integrate, their intelligence rapidly increasing. They would gain the ability to send signals and begin attempting to control the brainwaves of passing fish schools. Simultaneously, more pathways would grow between each garlic bulb.
In the mature stage of Thousand-Eyed Garlic, consciousness would return to each individual bulb. All garlics' minds would be independent, yet their bodies inseparable, capable of making collective decisions, similar to conjoined twins.
The Thousand-Eyed Garlic unearthed by the mechanical soldier unit had likely just entered its mature stage.
Jiang Ye messaged Li Nannan, "How should we handle this giant garlic?"
Li Nannan: "Pull it to the shore and spray it with seawater every half hour to keep it half-dead. This thing is very valuable. I'll contact someone to transport it, and the money will be transferred to your account."
Jiang Ye: "Was this thing responsible for the beast tide on Meteorite Star? There should be more than one garlic, right?"
Li Nannan: "Of course, there's more than one. This thing's influence range is only a few kilometers. Send your troops to find other Thousand-Eyed Garlics. I'll help you sell them all, no matter how many you find. I want them all."
Li Nannan: "Try not to let human soldiers come into contact with Thousand-Eyed Garlic; it can cause hallucinations. Previously, a comrade of mine, out of curiosity, touched a wild Thousand-Eyed Garlic. He fell unconscious for over an hour and, upon waking, said he was trapped in a hallucination for ten years. Just use mechanical soldiers to handle it. As long as there's signal suppression, the mechanical soldiers won't be affected."
Jiang Ye: "What's the connection between Pei Yongxin's incident and this Thousand-Eyed Garlic? What they experienced on the train wasn't a hallucination; they genuinely aged."
Li Nannan: "We don't know that yet. Isn't Ink Clam still researching it? Anyway, the culprit has been found, and results will come soon. Just wait."
That evening, Jiang Ye convened another emergency military meeting.
The strategic plan was adjusted again during the meeting.
First, a large-scale withdrawal of human soldiers and an increase in mechanical soldiers.
Second, the combat mission changed from sweeping the beast tide and occupying key strongholds to directly searching for Thousand-Eyed Garlic.
Within a week, five hundred thousand mechanical soldiers were deployed to the Meteorite Star battlefield.
The grand search for Thousand-Eyed Garlic commenced.
The coastal areas yielded significant results. Within three days, 12 Thousand-Eyed Garlics were found, the smallest being only twenty meters tall, and the largest approaching sixty meters.
In addition to the mature Great Thousand-Eyed Garlics, many small single-eyed garlic fields were discovered. Countless single-eyed garlics were rooted on the vast seabed, growing quietly, surrounded by an astonishing amount of dead fish bones, resembling snowdrifts with thorns.
Both Thousand-Eyed Garlic and single-eyed garlic were sold at exorbitant prices.
The former fetched 2 billion each, while the latter cost 30 million each.
These prices were directly deposited into Jiang Ye's account. It was estimated that Li Nannan would take a cut, as would the interstellar merchants who came to collect the garlic, meaning the actual price would be even higher.
Besides the seabed, Thousand-Eyed Garlic and single-eyed garlic were found in many other unexpected locations.