Chapter 140 Ecological Mutation
Fresh wild boar carcasses lie scattered in the forest.
The internal organs mixed with blood slipped out from the abdominal wound and dripped all over the floor.
The rich smell of blood couldn't stop spreading in all directions, and the residual warmth of the flesh and blood was enough to drive the hungry beast crazy.
Yu Ke stood at the edge of the giant vine forest, holding a telescope, calming down his aura, and waiting quietly.
Not long after, snow covered Yu Ke's body, making his whole body melt into the wind and snow.
As a hunter, patience is the most basic quality.
Yu Ke's strong body is enough to support him being exposed to wind and snow for a long time, and he will not freeze even if he remains standing still.
Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes
The wild boar carcass was now covered in snow like Yu Ke, and the internal organs that were still steaming just a short time ago were turned into lumps of ice.
‘Is the timing wrong, the remains of the prey are only cleared after the hunt is over? ’
Yu Ke, who still had no results, could not help but feel confused, but he did not relax at all.
It was at this time that within the field of view of the telescope, the vine closest to the wild boar carcass, no, it should be said that the leaves growing on the vine suddenly began to tremble.
Not the swaying caused by the cold wind, but the trembling coming out of a deep sleep!
Slender jointed limbs poked out from under the thick leaves about the size of cattail leaves, swiping back and forth, and then pressed against the surface of the vines to pull out the stems. They were clearly the tentacles in front of their foreheads, exploring the source of the bloody smell.
Once the direction of the prey was identified, a crack appeared in the center of the blade. The translucent light cyan membrane wings unfolded and flapped rapidly. With its flat body, it broke away from the macrophage vine and headed straight for the wild boar's carcass.
Suddenly, there was no longer just flying snow over the forest, but hundreds of dark green "fallen leaves" falling all over the sky.
The green leaves and white snow are entangled, and the seemingly beautiful scene contains a chill that sends chills down one's spine.
They flocked to the boar carcass from all directions.
Soon it was completely surrounded, like a colony of ants that had discovered food and feasted on it.
Yu Ke frowned when he saw this scene. It was not that he was frightened by these fallen leaves, but that when he entered the giant vine forest, he maintained a high degree of vigilance throughout. With his perception ability, if there were other creatures Lurking nearby, you should be able to detect it immediately.
Recalling that he had passed these leaves at close range and attacked the flower bones, Yu Ke became more and more sure of his previous speculation.
Whether it is the "leaves" that suddenly come to life after smelling the smell of blood, or the giant vines that spread all over the forest, it is very likely that there are two forms, namely plant form and animal form.
This rotation between life states is undoubtedly extremely miraculous, somewhat like the Cordyceps sinensis in Yu Ke's previous life, except that such changes are more frequent, and the completely different living states before and after "metamorphosis" are even more incredible.
What's more important is that there seems to be a clear difference between the vine leaves and the macrophage vines.
The former will be attracted by the smell of blood and can actively "pervert", while the latter cannot do this, and will not react in any way even if it is attacked by a devastating attack when it is not in a hunting state.
Retracting the telescope, Yu Ke broke away from the frozen state, bent his bow and nocked an arrow, tilted his head and glanced at the position of the wild boar carcass, estimated the distance and the current environmental conditions in his mind, raised the arrow to a certain angle, and there was frost and snow around the arrow tip. The energy gathers.
Loosening the string, the arrow shot out, spanning a hundred meters in the blink of an eye, and directly hit the wild boar's carcass.
The next second, a ring of frost spread with the arrow as the center, freezing the flesh-devouring "leaves".
If you want to figure out the secrets of the giant vine forest, you can't just rely on long-distance observation. Yu Ke will take this opportunity to get some specimens.
Half an hour later, Yu Ke returned to the temporary camp on the cliff with several cold ice sculptures in his hands.
After closing the tent curtain to isolate the wind and snow, and adjusting the brightness of the lights, Yu Ke brought the frozen "blade" in front of his eyes.
Through the light, what Yu Ke saw was a carnivorous insect disguised as a vine leaf. It had a flat body with joints that could be retracted into leaf veins. Under the tentacles in front of its forehead, there were feeding organs that were somewhat similar to the mouthparts of a mantis, stained with different... Less flesh and blood.
Through comparative observation of multiple samples, Yu Ke noticed that this strange-looking insect seemed to have no eyes, or perhaps the eyes were too small, making them difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.
Putting down the same type of leaf insect ice sculpture, Yu Ke turned to pick up his unexpected harvest next to the wild boar carcass.
When Yu Ke picked specimens and brought them back, he would deliberately choose entities of different sizes. However, when he pushed aside many frozen leaf insects, he found a special individual that was different from leaf insects in the abdominal cavity of the corpse.
It looks a bit like a mutated and enlarged version of a gecko. It is larger than a leaf insect and has six short legs. At first glance, its skin looks like tree roots. It is dark and full of wrinkles, and you can see it in the gaps. There is a lot of dirt that must have just been drilled out of the ground.
Now that I think about it, they should be the ones responsible for cleaning up the remaining corpses after the giant vine hunting is over, and turning the hunting ground back into a place where nothing happened, so that they can disguise themselves before the next hunt.
Yu Ke held the ice sculpture of a special individual in his hands and looked through it. His eyes passed over the mouth full of sharp teeth, pausing for a moment on the left and right sides of the head. He noticed that its eyes were only the size of mung beans, and they were turbid, as if they had degenerated into ugly shapes. Dispensable organs.
Compared to the leaf insects that rely on macrophage vines to survive, this monster is undoubtedly more inclined to animals, and its degraded eyes are enough to prove that it should live underground all year round.
This discovery made Yu Ke realize that the macrophage vine is not a mutated individual that appears alone. A special ecological circle with it as the core has been formed, and various creatures in it are attached to it and perform their own duties, creating favorable conditions for its hunting. and profit from it.
The problem is that the growth of the giant vine forest from the explosive mutation to the present is less than half a month.
The hunting behavior of macrophage vines may be explained by mutation.
Did the leaf worm and this monster that emerged from the ground suddenly mutate after the former?
Under the special environment of the Cataclysm Era, biological mutations have never been uncommon, but cluster mutations of different types of organisms have formed a unique ecosystem in a very short period of time. This has never happened before.
Unless their mutations have existed for a long time, the ecosystem has been formed for a long time, but it has never been discovered!
Looking at the monster ice sculpture, Yu Ke half-squinted his eyes, sorting through the clues discovered so far in his mind. His eyes finally locked on the soil between the folds of the monster's back, and a flash of light suddenly flashed in his eyes.
The roots of the macrophage vine are hidden underground, and the flesh and blood energy obtained by Huaguduo's digestion after capturing prey is transmitted underground. This strange creature lives underground, and even the horse altar master draws energy from the macrophage vine underground.
Could this be a coincidence?
The powerful roots of the macrophage vine forest that is spreading wantonly on the surface deep in the Mirror Lake Forest are likely buried underground.
Realizing this, Yu Ke immediately contacted the Forestry Protection Bureau, first sending photos of the specimens he collected, and then asking them to quickly send a drone to bring the specimens back for further research before it completely fell into darkness.
At the same time, Yu Ke began to prepare for the heavy rain tomorrow morning.
By then the macrophage vines should start a new round of hunting.
He would take this opportunity to use a drone to observe the eating process of the macrophage vine up close.
Of course, the "close range" here does not mean that Yu Ke wants to rush into the hunting ground. He has no intention of personally experiencing the feeling of being surrounded by giant vines. Instead, he controls the drone purchased in advance to conduct close reconnaissance during the hunting process.
The Forestry Protection Bureau received the news and responded quickly.
Not only will drones be sent to pick up the ice sculptures, but two additional multi-functional drones will be dispatched to stand by above the giant vine forest, controlled by internal personnel from the Forestry Defense Bureau and obey Yu Ke's dispatch.
It's now around three o'clock in the afternoon, and there's still some time before the heavy rain will hit at two o'clock in the morning tomorrow morning.
Yu Ke had no intention of leaving the tent again. While waiting for the Forest Defense Bureau's drone to be in place, he began to debug his own drone.
After assembling the various accessories according to the instructions, Yu Ke put on the smart glasses and first conducted a test flight of the drone on a mountain cliff to test its reconnaissance effect in a low-temperature snowy environment. He was quite satisfied with the results.
As time goes by, the sky outside is darkening at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The drone from the Forestry Protection Bureau arrived at around five o'clock. Yu Ke simply packed the ice sculpture and took it back. At the same time, he contacted the people who controlled the other two multi-functional drones and told them to rest first and wait until the early morning. Get in position.
He took off his coat and lay down on the folding bed, took out a blanket to cover it, and placed the portable lamp at the head of the bed. Yu Ke lay on his side on the bed. The mobile phone with satellite signal could still connect to the Internet normally deep in the Jinghu Forest.
While reading the popular adventure novels of the Age of Catastrophe, the wood stove was burning not far from the end of the bed, continuously delivering heat. In my ears I could hear the howling wind and snow outside the tent and the rustling sound of tree branches colliding.
When you're hungry, there are snacks and drinks beside the bed. When you're tired, you lean on the pillow and squint for a while to regain your energy.
At this moment, Yu Ke felt extremely relaxed, and time seemed to flow faster.
When the dark night had completely fallen, Yu Ke stood up decisively, picked up the remote control and turned on the observation equipment installed on the cliff. He turned on the night vision mode and projected the scene of the area where the giant vine forest was located to the side of the tent.
The snow intensity has eased compared to the afternoon.
This is not to say that the weather is getting better, but that heavy rainfall is brewing.
The time was approaching the rain time in the weather forecast. Yu Ke paid attention to the situation in the giant vine forest and contacted the drone operator.
"When the hunting of giant vines begins, you control the drone to hover over the vine forest. You don't need to get too close. Just tell me which area has the largest number of ferocious beasts and the most frequent activities of Huaguduo. Without my instructions, Attacking the vine forest is prohibited."
The giant vines that enter the hunting state are extremely aggressive, and the multifunctional drones sent by the Forestry Protection Bureau are equipped with various modules, so they are not small in size. If they approach rashly, they may be regarded as dangerous birds by the giant vines. Beast attack.
Yu Ke may need them to help him control the drone to sneak into the macrophage vine forest, so naturally he cannot let them be destroyed in advance.
Dropdropdrop
The watch sounded an alarm, and the time came to two o'clock in the morning.
In the picture captured by the observation equipment, the fine snow has turned into raindrops, and the density is still soaring.
Heavy rainfall is coming, and the flower bones of the giant vines high above the jungle enter the state.
The hunt is about to begin.