Ancient Invasion [End Times]

The 140th day after the invasion. [Second update] "No, it's not pregnancy, it's laying eggs."

Zhang Jiuzhang couldn't hear Yangmucuo's shout, he could only hear the rumbling rumble like thunder.

He looked down and saw that the red willow, which was about five meters high and two stories high, suddenly opened its roots, and the yellow sand was rolled up by the red willow, rolling into the depression continuously, forming a small quicksand.

"Stand back!" Duan Yi shouted, quickly retreating a few meters, "Captain Zhang, don't let go!"

Zhang Jiuzhang said in his heart that he dared not let go.

He watched helplessly as a funnel-like small strip of quicksand was formed under the tree, and all the surrounding shrubs were sucked under the tree, sinking into the yellow sand in the blink of an eye.

The red willow below him seemed to wake up, turning its roots like a living thing.

It turned around in a circle slowly, and with a dull and heavy sound, it took root again.

Zhang Jiuzhang grabbed the tree trunk tightly.

When he climbed on a high place, a small tremor would be magnified many times, not to mention such a big movement of the red willow, he was almost thrown off the trunk.

Zhang Jiuzhang didn't relax until he felt that there was no movement coming from under him, as if he had returned to calm, and observed carefully.

This red willow seemed to have never moved, standing quietly in place, making people feel that the movement just now was like their own illusion.

Zhang Jiuzhang felt incredible.

He wanted to break a branch and throw it down to check the situation, but just as he stretched out his hand to the branch, he suddenly froze when he thought of the movement just now.

Fortunately, Duan Yi did what he thought, and picked up a stone and threw it near the red willow. The stone sank slowly, and it didn't take long for it to top.

Zhang Jiuzhang's face was not very good-looking.

"It's quicksand." Cheng Sheng said, "We have to find another way to get down."

If Zhang Jiuzhang fell into the quicksand, even if they had so many people around, it would be impossible to pull each other out.

Some research experts once conducted experiments and calculated that it would take about 10 Newtons of force to drag out a trapped person's foot at a speed of one centimeter per second, which is equivalent to almost lifting a medium-sized car. If there is a crane, there may be a way.

However, even if a crane is used to lift a person trapped by quicksand, the human body cannot bear such a strong force. I am afraid that before being pulled out, they will be torn into two by this powerful force. cut.

Zhang Jiuzhang took a deep breath and let it out slowly: "Okay, help me see where the soil around me is not loose, and where I can settle down."

Duan Yi and the others tested the surrounding sand with trekking poles, and finally circled three areas of quicksand less than three square meters in size.

Zhang Jiuzhang glanced at it, acknowledged it, and then geared up to jump from this red willow to another nearby tree.

Just as he was about to jump up, he saw the saxifrage on Du Nanrong's shoulders jumping onto the ground. It grew taller than the tamarisk willow, and its wide leaves directly covered Zhang Jiuzhang's head.

Zhang Jiuzhang: "?"

The saxifrage wrapped around Zhang Jiuzhang and plucked the man from the tree.

Cao put Zhang Jiuzhang back on the ground and shook the leaf petals again, looking a little proud.

Du Nanrong rubbed the saxifrage twice as a compliment, then looked at Zhang Jiuzhang, raised his eyebrows: "Are you okay?"

Zhang Jiuzhang waved his hand and said it was all right.

"Then you don't thank me for the grass?" Du Nanrong asked immediately.

Zhang Jiuzhang: "..." It turned out that when he asked if he was okay, he was waiting for his thank you.

Zhang Jiuzhang turned to the extremely proud saxifrage, and the corner of his mouth twitched.

The saxifrage waved its petals at him, as if waving at him.

Zhang Jiuzhang took a deep breath, even without the grass, he could still get down from the tree, but now he owes the grass nothing.

"...Thank you." After Zhang Jiuzhang finished speaking, he paused, "No, do you understand me when I say thank you?"

"It doesn't matter whether it understands it or not, as long as I understand it, I'm comfortable." Du Nanrong grinned.

Zhang Jiuzhang: "..."

The saxifrage obediently changed back to a reduced version, and then returned to Du Nanrong's shoulders, one person and one grass, which seemed to be in a panic.

Lin Qian still looked at the red willow with lingering fear, and asked, "What happened just now? Why did it suddenly..."

Duan Yi thoughtfully looked up at the position of the sun, it was now approaching evening, the sun was setting, the red willow turned in a direction that seemed to avoid a tree in front of him that blocked his sunlight.

It seems to have become fine.

This guess sounds a bit nonsense, but just a few years ago, some botanists believed that plants also have their own language and ideology, and launched a series of research and related reports around this topic.

The final result is very specious. They found that there is information transmission between plants, but they cannot confirm whether this information transmission can be summarized as consciousness and thought.

"However, what is known and proven so far is that it is a carnivorous fungus with active attack awareness and survival evolution awareness." Cheng Sheng said, "So it cannot be ruled out whether some red willows in this red willow forest also have related awareness. .”

Lin Qian swallowed, and asked, "Then we went in the wrong direction and missed the Populus euphratica forest, because the red willow forest is changing?"

If this is the case, how can they get out of this forest that will change at any time?

"It's unlikely to be the reason." Zhang Jiuzhang said with a frown.

Lin Qian looked at him.

Duan Yi said: "The movement is too loud. It will be noticed."

Lin Qian came to his senses.

The movement of the red willow tree just now was like thunder. If the whole red willow forest had shifted in such a large direction during their escape, it would be impossible for their group to become deaf and not hear anything.

Lin Qian frowned: "Then what's going on with the Populus euphratica forest? What if we follow the current route and find that it has changed after passing by, what should we do? We can't follow it around."

What's more, the closer they are to the border, the longer it will take them to detour and change direction, which is too much for them.

No solution.Even Duan Yi and Cheng Sheng were at a loss for what to do with the strangeness of this place.

Yang Mucuo was still murmuring in their ears inconceivably, and Lin Qian could only understand the word "Dun Zhe" that popped up from time to time, but these two words alone were enough to upset Lin Qian up.

Cheng Sheng pursed his lips and said, "Find a place to recover first, and we'll go on our way at night."

Most of the hiking in the desert will happen at night. The temperature during the day is too hot. Although the night is cold, it will not dehydrate you in a short period of time.

Originally, Cheng Sheng and Duan Yi avoided the hottest time period with the idea of ​​a quick battle, thinking that it would be best to return to the station before night, but at the same time, Duan Yi also made preparations for this trip. Second-hand preparations, specially exchanged supplies for headlights for driving at night.

Since there are headlamps and trekking poles suitable for traveling at night, and the current situation is not clear, it is difficult to get back to the car in time even if we set off immediately, so it is better to camp and rest temporarily, wait until the physical strength recovers, and move at night.

Lin Qian and Zhang Jiuzhang had no objections.

Although Du Nanrong was thinking about the daughter who stayed in the station, he also knew that no matter how anxious he was in the current situation, he would not be able to help, so he could only follow the team and move forward.

"No matter what, let's get out of this red willow forest first." Duan Yi said.

Lin Qian nodded in agreement: "That's right, I don't want to encounter red willows whose roots are pulled out suddenly again, I'm really afraid that I will step into quicksand while walking."

"The trekking poles changed by Duan team came into effect." Du Nanrong said.

Lin Qian twitched the corner of his mouth and looked at Du Nanrong: "Do you remember this?"

Before that, he also took a fancy to Yang Mucuo's self-made path-finding stick, and felt sorry for the three packs of compressed biscuits that Duan Yi replaced.

But Yangmucuo's tree sticks for exploring the road are not as easy to use as trekking poles, not to mention that when encountering quicksand, the tree sticks may get stuck and cannot get out, which is completely incomparable with professional trekking poles.

"Duan Dui is wise, Duan Duan is foresight." Lin Qian noticed Cheng Sheng's casual gaze, subconsciously tightened his legs and stood up straight, and said quickly.

Cheng Sheng just glanced casually, not paying attention to what Lin Qian said earlier, he raised his eyebrows a little puzzled, but didn't say anything, just skipped it.

Lin Qian breathed a sigh of relief.

Du Nanrong let out a "sneer", and he was scared.

A group of people continued to walk forward. Fortunately, the red willow forest was not big, and there were no accidents in the middle. They finally passed through the forest and arrived at a relatively open field.

Cheng Sheng stopped suddenly.

He frowned and looked forward, whispering to Duan Yi: "Look over there, it's a dead camel."

Right in front of them, but farther away, Du Nanrong saw only a slightly raised shadow, and couldn't tell whether it was a sand dune or a camel.

Duan Yi smelled the smell of blood in the air, paused and said: "It's very fresh."

A group of people quickly walked near the camel, and saw that the camel had been disembowelled, and almost all the viscera inside had been emptied.

"The bones are all crushed, the real culprit..." Du Nanrong took a look and said in a low voice.

"There are many bites on the body, and the bite marks vary in size. It seems that this camel has encountered more than one hunter." Cheng Sheng said, he observed, "It may be a group of spotted hyenas, usually with a group size of more than five, in the desert. The second largest carnivore, very dangerous."

"Then they're still around?" Lin Qian asked.

Duan Yi and Zhang Jiuzhang guarded their surroundings.

Cheng Sheng's eyes darkened, and he said, "Their eating habits are not likely to abandon the unfinished prey in the middle, unless they encounter a greater threat."

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Du Nanrong call out in a low voice: "Doctor, there is a spider in this camel's body!?"

Lin Qian also saw it, and his voice was broken: "So big?!"

Cheng Sheng looked over and saw a few gray-black spiders crawling slowly between the camel's skeletons, each about the size of a human face, with gray-yellow spots dotted on their bodies.

Cheng Sheng recognized it immediately. He was a little surprised, but quickly reminded: "This is the Sri Lankan giant tarantula. It is poisonous, but not fatal."

"Also infected by the virus?" Lin Qian asked immediately.

"No, it's that big..." Cheng Sheng said, "This tarantula was first discovered on a northern island in Sri Lanka in 03. For the sake of convenience, it was simply named after the place name. Of course, the official name is not this, but unimportant."

"This tarantula can prey on small mammals, such as hares, snakes or small lizards," Cheng Sheng said.

"Then this camel?"

"It's a masterpiece of spotted hyenas. It should have nothing to do with them." Cheng Sheng said, observing the busy Sri Lankan tarantulas, his brows were slightly frowned. It seemed that the state of these tarantulas was indescribably weird and unusual.

This judgment is based on Cheng Sheng's intuition and acumen as a biologist.

He paused, then picked up one of the tarantulas with his alpenstock, and Leng Buding pressed the sharp point of the stick against the tarantula's belly, preventing it from moving.

I saw that there was a large pus-like sore on the abdomen of the wolf spider, and the abdomen was bulging, as if something was moving.

"A pregnant female spider?" Duan Yi also noticed, and asked in a low voice.

Cheng Sheng took a deep breath and said quickly, "No, it's not pregnancy, it's laying eggs."

"Spawned?" Zhang Jiuzhang frowned, which was beyond his comprehension.

The tarantula that was held up by Cheng Sheng suddenly struggled violently a few times, its legs frantically writhed, and then suddenly stopped moving.

"Is this dead? The doctor stabbed him to death?" Du Nanrong asked.

"It's not me." Cheng Sheng said, staring at the abdomen of the tarantula.

I saw a larva slowly biting open the sore and crawling out of the tarantula's stomach bit by bit, revealing its full length and a pair of bright orange cicada wings.

When Du Nanrong and Lin Qian saw it, their scalps went numb, and they gasped: "Why is it again?!"

The crowd backed away slowly, for fear of disturbing the bunch of tarantulas in the camel's stomach.

Cheng Sheng spoke quickly: "The desert spider wasp often lays eggs in the body of the tarantula. Although its sting is not fatal to humans, it is enough to anesthetize a tarantula."

"The stinging needle penetrates the nervous system of the wolf spider, anesthetizes it, and then lays eggs in the abdomen of the wolf spider. After the larvae hatch, they grow by eating the meat of the wolf spider, and finally emerge from the body."

Even Zhang Jiuzhang couldn't help feeling his scalp tingle when he heard Cheng Sheng's explanation.

"No wonder those spotted hyenas were scared away." Cheng Sheng said, "Although the desert spider bee is not fatal, the pain of being stung is unbearable for ordinary people."

"Let's go too." Lin Qian swallowed and said.

Cheng Sheng responded.

At the stall where the group retreated, the tarantulas slowly crawled out of the camel's skeleton and crawled towards Cheng Sheng and his group.