Chapter 227 Extraordinary Creatures
In the silent forest, Chen Jue passed by the lake where he scooped water yesterday again. This was the farthest point detected yesterday.
After observing the surrounding environment, I found that there were indeed only traces left by me passing by here yesterday. Apart from the earth pit that was broken by my stomping, there were no signs of life in other places.
He scooped some water with a cup and tested the water quality again. The result was the same as yesterday, so Chen Jue drank a few cups boldly to replenish the water needed by the human body. He also used a folding engineer shovel to dig a hole by the lake, put the backpack in it, and then pulled some leaves to cover it.
On the rest of the journey, Chen had no intention of carrying this cumbersome backpack. Instead, he traveled light the whole way, wearing aerospace combat uniform, carrying a Tang sword, and carrying eight retractable javelins for self-defense.
…
After bypassing the small lake which was more than 200 meters wide, Chen Jue walked at a leisurely pace and headed straight for the edge of the forest where there was a golden light curtain in the eyes of [Xuanmen Wangqishu].
With his current agility attribute of over 5, if he wanted to cover the 100-kilometer distance quickly, he could reach the destination in less than half an hour by sprinting the entire distance.
But Chen Jue wanted to conserve his energy, so he basically walked briskly.
Thanks to the bonus of [Speedy Speed], the undulating terrain in the forest was as flat as the ground for him to walk on. Moreover, the crowns of these alien trees were broad, with each tree more than ten meters apart, unlike the Gongshan Old Forest he had visited before, where the paths were narrow and there were many bushes.
However, the closer he got to the invisible light curtain, the quieter Chen Jue became. He emitted his body's magnetic field in a state of "harmony between man and nature" and coexisted harmoniously with the surrounding plants and trees.
He heard a series of rustling sounds behind an invisible light curtain a hundred meters away. Those were the sounds made by animals and insects in the woods.
"Finally, there is a breath of life!" Chen Jue secretly sighed. The bonus of [Clairaudience] allowed him to hear the slightest movement within a radius of hundreds of meters, especially in such a silent forest.
Those extremely faint noises, against the backdrop of the silent environment, became extremely harsh to his ears.
Slowing down his pace and coming to the edge of the invisible light curtain, Chen Jue observed it closely with the [Xuanmen Qi-Watching Technique] and found that the golden light curtain rising from the ground was like a dividing line.
On the inner side there are only signs of living plants and trees, and only at the other end are there traces of life and lingering breath.
"Is it a formation?"
"Or was it formed naturally?" Chen Jue squatted down to take a look, dug up the soil with his hands, and found that there were obvious differences in the soil and rocks on both sides.
Although there are also subtle dark gold lines on the rocks on the other side, they are not as rich as those on this side. It is like the gold content of the gold ore has dropped drastically.
Carefully crossing the invisible light curtain and coming to the other side, Chen Jue took a deep breath and found that even the concentration of the innate Qi in the air was dropping sharply.
"Such a clear dividing line... is it caused by the mountain that looks like Jianmu?" Chen Jue guessed secretly, and looked up at the new environment in front of him with his [Clairvoyance] vision.
It was also a forest composed of tall trees, but the growth of these trees was much worse than those within a hundred kilometers behind.
In addition to signs of insects and animals gnawing at the trees, as well as traces of damp moss on the ground, Chen Jue also saw burnt marks and holes as big as bowls on several trees.
There were also several large trees that were broken in half, but the broken parts were covered with mushrooms, moss and traces of weeds, so it was obvious that they were not caused recently.
"Was it struck by lightning? Or was it caused by something else?" Chen Jue looked at the broken trees and thought in his mind.
After walking slowly forward for more than 300 meters, Chen Jue discovered the first living creature on this strange planet.
They were a group of palm-sized insects with three-segmented bodies, black and red carapaces all over their bodies, two antennae on their heads, six slender legs covered with spikes and whiskers, and a long, pointed, serrated mouth. They looked very similar to ants on Earth, but were much bigger than the largest bull ants on Earth!
Moreover, the aura emitted made Chen Jue shudder, and he felt a faint sense of threat.
In particular, there were so many of them that they kept crawling in and out of the nest exit that spread from the tree trunk to the bottom of the roots, dragging fragments of the corpse of some animal and fragments of wild fruit.
Seeing this scene, Chen Jue concentrated, held his breath, and calmed his mind.
Using his celestial senses to sense the entrance to the nest, Chen Jue discovered that the ant nest buried deep underground was like a huge underground city, extending all the way to the invisible barrier not far behind him.
And in the deepest part of the nest, there was actually an ant that sent him back a mental magnetic field fluctuation that was filled with doubt, vigilance, and alertness!
The feedback from the fluctuation of this mental magnetic field made Chen Jue imagine in his mind the image of a giant queen ant that was as white as jade and nearly half a meter long.
The next second, the giant ants that were carrying food waved their antennae, twisted their bodies, and made a series of low-frequency "hissing" sounds towards Chen Jue.
Apparently, they were reminded by the queen ant underground and issued a warning to Chen Jue, a strange species that had intruded into their territory!
"What the hell!"
"Ants become spirits?"
"Wait... being able to mobilize the mental magnetic field... this queen ant should be considered an extraordinary life form?" Chen Jue's eyes showed a bit of solemnity, and he hurriedly conveyed his kind emotions to the owner of the mental magnetic field fluctuations.
Then another wave of mental magnetic field fluctuations emanated from the ground, and the alert giant ants calmed down a little and continued their transportation work.
Seeing this forbidden scene, Chen Jue couldn't help swallowing his saliva, as if he was facing an army, and said, "Sorry! Sorry for disturbing you!"
Then he moved his steps to avoid the entrance of the anthill and headed towards the forest farther away.
After walking several kilometers away, the figures of giant ants became fewer and fewer, and the mental magnetic field fluctuations of the underground ant queen also began to dissipate. Chen Jue knew that he must have walked out of their territory.
"call!"
"Fortunately, these giant ants are considered neutral creatures and did not suddenly attack me."
“If I get bitten by such a big ant…” Chen Jue secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but his scalp started to tingle just thinking about it, and he cautiously looked back at the invisible golden light curtain.
He felt that the invisible light curtain composed of the geomagnetic field not only separated the concentration of the innate Qi inside and outside the forest, but also isolated the danger outside the light curtain. It must have been formed for some special reason, otherwise the giant ants would not set up their nests underground around this light curtain.
"Is it possible that other creatures dare not approach the light curtain because of the existence of these giant ants?" Chen Jue had a thousand thoughts in his mind, but when he looked at the sky blocked by the big trees, he felt that this place might not be as simple as he thought.
…
After passing the giant ants' territory, Chen Jue became more cautious in his steps.
With the two modes of [Clairvoyance] and [Super Hearing] fully activated, he kept observing the changes in the surrounding environment. After walking forward for about five kilometers, he came to a river channel that was about ten meters wide and four or five meters deep.
The water in the river is quite fast, and there are large pebbles on the bottom of the river. Although the water is clear, you can see aquatic life such as moss and plankton. Occasionally, a few strange fish with slender bodies and scales with a silvery green luster swim by the bottom of the river.
The reason why they are called strange fish is that they are as long as an elbow, have two fleshy whiskers on their mouths, and have wide and slender fins on their abdomens, which are longer than the entire body of the fish, like two wings hanging on the sides of the body. With just a swing, the body will fly away quickly under the water like an arrow. Stirring up waves will disturb the water flow and create splashes on the river surface.
Chen Jue estimated the swimming speed of these strange fish, which was definitely over 40 meters per second. This speed has already exceeded that of the fastest known fish species on Earth, the sailfish.
Moreover, the river was obviously not deep. Seeing such fast-swimming fish in such a small river, Chen Jue felt that his eyes were almost not enough.
"Damn! I was just talking about having some fun yesterday. There were giant ants and strange fish... Could it be that the creatures on this strange planet were influenced by the innate Qi and evolved more thoroughly than the creatures on Earth?" Such a thought flashed through my mind.
Chen Jue stood by the river, staring at the strange fish swimming quickly at the bottom of the river. Their fins were not only powerful, but also had colorful scales that sparkled under the sunlight.
As I was watching, I heard a buzzing sound in my ears, as if something was flying over from upstream on the river.
Looking up in the direction of the sound, I saw a huge moth flapping its wings, chasing the light of scales on the fins of those strange fish at the bottom of the river, and flying closer.
But before the white moth as big as a washbasin could get close to the water, a strange fish underneath suddenly flapped its wings and jumped out of the water like a flying fish on Earth, biting the moth.
The white moth flapped its wings and suddenly flew several meters high, avoiding the attack of the strange fish.
Just as Chen Jue's trapping process, which was similar to the law of the jungle in nature, ended because the moth escaped, another larger strange fish jumped out of the water from behind. Its fins, as wide as wings, flapped violently, and it actually flew five or six meters high in the air.
While closing the distance with the white moth, the strange fish that flew into the air bulged and compressed its abdomen, opened its mouth and sprayed a stream of water like a high-pressure water gun that directly pierced the wings of the white moth. Countless wing feathers covered with water flew all over the sky, and the white moth lost its ability to fly and fell directly to the river.
Soon after, several strange fish jumped out of the water and shared the moth, showing that the team worked in perfect harmony.
However, just as one of the strange fish was about to fall into the river, a whooshing sound was heard, and a long, sharp black shadow shot out from the side of the river, passing directly through the body of the strange fish, and nailing it to a big tree on the opposite bank with a thud.
Seeing this scene, Chen Jue, who had just shot the javelin, showed a slightly satisfied smile, leaped up in one step, and flew over the river.
The strange fish that had been waiting at the bottom of the river to catch the white moths were now frightened by the inexplicable death of their own kind and disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.
Chen Jue jumped over the river and walked to the strange fish step by step. He looked at the bright red blood seeping out of its wound, then lowered his head to smell the fish's scent. He said with a strange look on his face, "It's a freshwater fish. It has a faint fishy smell and its blood also contains hemoglobin. It seems to be a carbon-based life form, but it has evolved in a different direction from the fish on Earth."
"The attack just now that spit out high-pressure water from the mouth should have strengthened the body structure for spitting water."
"I really miss the time on Earth. If I take a photo and send it to a fishing club, the fishermen will definitely identify what species it belongs to." Chen Jue pulled out the spear and weighed the dead fish. It weighed about 30 kilograms. He reached out and touched the fins and body of the fish, which felt smooth and soft.
"How about trying grilling it?"
“It’s all fish anyway, so it should be edible, right?” Chen Jue felt that the texture of the meat of this strange fish should be very good. After all, it exercises regularly and has absorbed the innate Qi of this strange planet. The protein content might be higher than that of 5A Wagyu beef.
Just as this thought arose, another sound similar to the flapping of wings came from the forest at the other end of the river.
Looking for the source of the sound, I saw a strange snake over three meters long flying out of the forest!
The strange snake had black and brown markings all over its body, and a pair of flapping fleshy wings on its cheeks, like an enlarged version of a king cobra. It had a black forked tongue coming out of its mouth, and it had obviously smelled the bloody smell emanating from the strange fish in Chen Jue's hand.
Chen Jue felt a sense of threat from the strange snake. It flew towards him very quickly, and before he could even open his eyes, it had already passed a hundred meters and was flying straight towards Chen Jue's face.
Moreover, from the other party's mental magnetic field emanating from the other party, Chen Jue sensed a negative emotion of cold-bloodedness, killing, and predation. He drew out the Tang sword behind him and threw the strange fish aside. Chen Jue stared at the strange snake.
The strange snake rolled its eyes, looked at the fish at Chen Jue's feet, and made a low hissing sound at him.
The other party had obviously never seen a strange creature like Chen Jue, and was somewhat wary of him.
However, as the bloody smell in the air became stronger and stronger, the strange snake's reason was gradually overwhelmed by the urge of being hunted, and the moment it opened its mouth, a ball of oily liquid spurted out from its fangs.
Chen Jue originally thought that the liquid contained some kind of corrosive venom and was about to dodge, but suddenly a spark similar to that when a gas stove is ignited flashed between the teeth of the strange snake. The splashing liquid was immediately ignited and turned into a fire dragon, rushing towards him with a rolling heat wave.
“Fuck!”
“Can spit fire???” Chen Jue was shocked when he saw this. He stomped his foot and retreated ten meters backward to avoid the flames.
Chen Jue did not foolishly use the Tang sword to fight the enemy. Instead, he made a gesture and pointed his finger . A golden sword energy burst out, splitting the ball of hot flames that had not yet dissipated, and at the same time cutting the flying and twisting strange snake into several pieces from head to tail.
