Ye An

When Xiao Yun arrived, Ye An was standing under a pipa tree, looking up at the numerous fruits hanging among the branches, eager to try, ready to climb up.

"Come on."

Hearing Xiao Yun's voice, Ye An turned his head, with a smile on his face, pointed to the surrounding fruit trees, and said, "There are still a few over there, let's split up."

"Okay." Xiao Yun didn't object, and didn't ask Ye An how he found these mature fruit trees.

The distance he walked just now wasn't too far, but it wasn't close either. He saw a lot of fruit trees, and without exception, the fruits on them were all blue in color.

Xiao Yun had picked two oranges, which had a faint fruity aroma, and looked very attractive, but when he peeled off the skin and ate it in his mouth, it made his teeth sore, with a bit of astringency, which was really hard to swallow.

The two moved separately, and Ye An put the rope on his back, walked around the trunk, and found a place where he could use his strength to climb. Using his hands and feet together, he quickly climbed towards the crown of the tree with the most fruit.

The closer you are to the canopy, the stronger the sweetness.

Ye An sniffed, feeling that the loquat on the tree was slightly different from what he remembered.Recalling the grapes growing on the rocky walls of the isolated island, I feel very normal again.Plants and animals are all mutating and evolving, and these loquats are no exception.

With less than half an arm's length away from the tree crown, Ye An suddenly became alert, and a premonition of danger suddenly enveloped him.

He didn't look back, relying on his intuition of repeated encounters with danger, he quickly tilted his head to the right to avoid the fatal blow from behind him.

The sound of breaking wind slid past his ears, and a sharp serrated knife grazed his ears, less than half an inch away from the earlobe, almost leaving a bloody gash.

Ye An stretched out his arms and grabbed a branch above his head. When the mantis sword attacked for the second time, he used his feet to borrow strength from the tree trunk, and his body rolled over on his back with his knees hanging on the branch, avoiding another danger.

The branches are strong enough to support his weight.But Ye An couldn't stay for a long time, exerted strength on his waist, turned his body upwards, and changed his sight instantly, from hanging upside down to standing on one knee, his eyes were stained black, and he precisely locked on the praying mantis hidden in the leaves.

The praying mantises that attacked him were not one, but a group.The body is emerald green and dark brown, which form an excellent camouflage, and it is difficult to be spotted when motionless in the tree.

These praying mantises vary in size, the small ones are no bigger than Ye An's fingers, and the big ones are nearly half the length of his forearm.Without exception, the forelimbs have sharp sawtooth, like big knives shining with cold light. Anyone who is hooked by these two big knives will be cut to pieces and dripping with blood.

Ye An pressed the trunk with one hand, released his will, and locked more than a dozen praying mantises in the canopy one after another.

They are not a population, but live together on the tree, preying on small animals, insects and individual birds attracted by the fruit.Occasionally they will kill each other, mostly when food is scarce.

The red squirrel is extremely powerful and is a frequent visitor here.

Mantis tried to sneak attack, nine out of ten times he would be counter-killed, and let the squirrel fight the tooth sacrifice.In the remaining escape by chance, most of them will also be injured. The injuries are not well recovered, and they cannot recover their combat effectiveness, so they still cannot escape death.

According to common sense, Ye An should not be the target of this group of praying mantises.After all, they form a habit and will not lock on prey that is too large.

Unfortunately, due to the continuous rainstorms recently, the number of small animals, insects and birds that come to look for food is decreasing day by day. The praying mantis group has not had a full meal for a long time. Driven by hunger, they can only take risks.

Hunger makes the mantis desperate, even if he can't take down the target, it's good to be able to tear off two pieces of flesh.

Knowing the purpose of the mantis, and without any positive feedback during the assimilation, Ye An naturally would not sit still.There is no way to solve it peacefully like communicating with water, so we can only do it.

The tricky thing is that praying mantis hides among the tree crowns. They are small in size and have a strong protective color. It is really difficult to get rid of them all at once.

unless……

An idea flashed in Ye An's mind, to tear off a loach tied to a rope, and throw it towards the densely populated place of praying mantises, to attract their attention, and at the same time activate the ability to contact the Osprey that was hunting near the high ground.

In order for the Osprey to arrive as soon as possible, his message is very simple: in trouble, there is food, please help.

While waiting, Ye An never let down his vigilance, and found many praying mantises on the canopy one after another.To make matters worse, the praying mantis on the nearby fruit tree was attracted and started flying towards his location.

Praying mantis groups vary in size, ranging from ten to hundreds.

These insects, which should have lived alone, have changed to live in groups due to evolutionary mutation, entrenched in this fruit forest, and it is really difficult to deal with.

Xiao Yun's situation was not much better than Ye An's. There were more praying mantises surrounding him, and they kept rushing towards him, but they were frozen and fell on the way, and soon a layer was covered under the tree.

"Closer to the trunk!"

Sensing the arrival of the osprey, Ye An raised his voice, waved to the crown of the tree where Xiao Yun was, and sent him a message.

A praying mantis took the opportunity to climb onto his arm, and Ye An slapped it off with the scabbard. The movement was fast enough, and the position near the wrist was still cut with two bloody wounds.

The smell of blood stimulated the praying mantises, and a large group gathered around Ye An, ready to move.

At the critical moment, the sound of flapping wings came from the sky.

Nearly a thousand ospreys are like black clouds, covering the sky above the fruit trees, forming a dark cloud.After circling for a week, locking on to the target, they covered them one after another.

The fruit tree where Ye An and Xiao Yun are located is the main target of Osprey.

Praying mantises were not originally in their diet, but no one stipulated that if they did not eat them, they could not eat them.They can even catch sea squirts, not to mention these praying mantises that don't look too bad.

Facing the siege of the osprey, the praying mantis group seemed helpless.

Their camouflage is useless against ospreys, nor are their sharp forelimbs.The Osprey suffered a lot and would avoid the attack when it moved. After two or three consecutive times, it was able to tear off the pair of swords of the mantis even more accurately, making them powerless to fight back, and fell into the opponent's stomach one after another.

Soon, the praying mantis on the loquat tree was swept away.

The Osprey continued to fly at low altitude, searched the entire fruit forest, and "dewormed" most of the fruit trees.

Ye An observed carefully, there were a few fruit trees, the Osprey never approached them, but deliberately avoided them, obviously there was a problem.

Silently keeping the locations of these trees in mind, Ye An didn't delay any longer, and motioned to Xiao Yun who was also out of trouble, then stood up from the branch, grabbed a branch full of fruits, and found the right location. Pick the fruits one by one and put them in your pocket.

The pocket is made of animal skin. It is not too big when folded, but it has a large capacity when unfolded.When the loquats were full, Ye An tightened the mouth of the bag and tried the weight, which was at least thirty catties.

Looking at the dense canopy again, it is still full of fruits, and it seems that it has not diminished at all.

Ye An and Xiao Yun came down from the tree one after another. After discussing with each other, they decided to go back the same way first, call more people, and collect as many fruits as possible before setting off, and store them on the boat.

"Pick some green fruits too." Ye An took out a loquat from the bag, easily tore off the soft skin, and bit off half of it.

Ripe loquat pulp is sweet and tastes very good, but the core is a bit big, which slightly affects the taste.

"Try it."

Ye An took another one out of his pocket and handed it to Xiao Yun who was standing opposite.

Xiao Yun didn't answer, just lowered his head and bit off half of the fruit in his hand, brushed his fingertips with the cold tip of his tongue, and took away the same sweet juice.

"It tastes good." Xiao Yun raised his head and wiped the corner of his lips with his thumb.

Ye An withdrew his hand, the expression on his face remained unchanged, he peeled off the loquat that was intended to be handed to Xiao Yun, ate it in two or three bites, and spit out the core, as if nothing happened just now.

"Let's go."

After eating three fruits in a row, Ye An clapped his hands, raised his chin towards Xiao Yun, carried his pocket on his back, and walked out of the dense forest first.