Chapter 243 Venom Glands and Myokines
The Book of Mountains and Seas: Northern Mountains states: "There is a beast that looks like a rabbit but has a rat head. It flies on its back and is called a flying rat."
This kind of flying mouse also exists in the natural world on Earth. Its scientific name is flying squirrel. The largest cashmere flying squirrel can grow to about 1.2 meters including its tail.
Back then in the old forest of Gongshan, Chen Jue had seen Yun Xiaomei teasing a flying squirrel.
However, the group of flying squirrels from their second home that Chen Jue encountered now were almost as big as adult kangaroos.
Not only their body size, but also the muscles of these flying squirrels are similar to those of kangaroos. Their muscles are bulging like rocks, and they achieve gliding and short-distance flight by relying on the flat fur supported by their limbs.
If it was just a simple flight, Chen Jue would naturally not be afraid of them. He could just kill them like he did with those fat creatures.
However, these flying squirrels are not only huge in number, appearing in groups and flying in the air like a flock of fighter jets, they also carry a sense of threat that makes Chen Jue feel inexplicably uneasy whenever he approaches them.
Ever since he awakened his divine sense, Chen Jue has developed a keen sense of danger, almost like "the cicada senses danger before the wind blows", and naturally stays away from it when he senses a threat.
“Fuck!”
"I just picked a few fruits. Is it necessary to pursue them so relentlessly?"
"I'm not digging up your ancestors' graves!"
Seeing that the group of flying squirrels behind him was gathering more and more, Chen Jue had no choice but to grit his teeth, roll up his arms, and let his high-speed flying body spin in the air. While flying backwards, he faced the group of red-eyed flying squirrels.
Then Chen Jue took a deep breath, and the [Zhou Tian Xing Chen Sword Art] in his body started running at high speed. Qi, blood, and true Qi rushed in his acupoints. Countless golden sword lights condensed and stimulated in front of Chen Jue, turning into a large torrent of sword energy that swept out.
Wherever the sword energy reached, there were wails and screams from the rat group. The red-eyed flying squirrel flying in the front was instantly shot into a sieve as if it had been hit by a fighter jet's machine gun. Balls of blood mist exploded in the air, and dozens of flying squirrels turned into mud and fell from the sky.
Following such a violent attack, the pursuit momentum of the flying squirrels behind suddenly stagnated. At this moment, the group of mice seemed to be frightened and spewed out green oily mist from their tails, covering a large area in the air.
Taking advantage of the situation, Chen Jue twisted his body and flapped his wooden wings violently. He and the little parrot climbed higher into the sky, away from the area covered by the green air.
However, when climbing to a height of several thousand meters, Chen Jue used his [Clairvoyance] to overlook the area shrouded in green mist and found that all the grass and plants in the area covered by the green mist had withered and decayed, as if they had been sprayed with a high-concentration herbicide with a highly toxic effect.
"Biological weapons!"
"It turns out that their extraordinary ability is that they evolved their stink glands into venom glands!" Chen Jue sighed inwardly upon seeing this.
In Chen Jue's opinion, these exotic flying squirrels not only have the flying ability of Earth's flying squirrels, but have also evolved specialized glands similar to those on skunks.
The farts of skunks can make people faint directly. It is entirely due to the emission of special gases from two scent glands at the anus of the tail. Scent glands belong to skin glands. Humans also have similar scent glands, which are the sweat glands in the armpits. The sweat secreted from the sweat glands in the armpits, after being decomposed by bacteria, will form unpleasant body odor.
However, the glands of this group of flying squirrels have evolved more thoroughly under the high concentration of true Qi, directly overcoming the impact of the stench and developing into poison glands similar to the venom of venomous snakes.
Fortunately, I acted decisively and used sword energy to interrupt the pursuit of the group of flying squirrels.
Otherwise, the consequences of falling into the green gas would be disastrous. Even if he could rely on his strong physique to survive, the little parrot beside him would probably die here immediately.
…
The man and the bird flew high in the sky for a long time, completely getting rid of the group of flying squirrels, and then they found a seemingly calm top of a low hill and landed.
After taking off the wooden wings, Chen Jue let out a long sigh to cool down his body heat, then opened the backpack on his back, revealing two red papaya-shaped fruits inside.
In order to pick these two fruits, Chen Jue was chased by the flying squirrels for dozens of miles. It felt like when he was a child in the countryside, playing tricks and stealing watermelons that other people had worked hard to grow, and was discovered by the owner and chased and beaten with a broom.
"This fruit looks just a little big and ordinary, why are those flying squirrels so interested in it?" Chen Jue looked at it for a moment, then moved closer to smell it. The fruity fragrance filled his nose and made all the muscles in his body tremble.
"Hey! This feeling..." Chen Jue quickly took out the dagger on his calf and peeled the red fruit. The flesh inside was also bright red, moist and chewy. He used the dagger to cut a small piece and put it into his mouth to chew and swallow.
Chen Jue discovered through [inner vision] that as the fruit pulp was digested, a very special nutrient penetrated and transmitted from the gastrointestinal tract, and began to stimulate the growth of muscle cells in his body, and his body began to turn red and hot.
The feeling was extremely wonderful, just like Chen Jue had been lifting weights for several hours in his hometown with a pair of 200-kilogram dumbbells!
"Is this... the activity and concentration of myokines are increasing?" Chen Jue was shocked.
Muscle cells are extremely special cells in the human body. They are thin and long and have the ability to contract and relax that other human cells do not have, just like elastic rubber bands. In human anatomy, they are also called myofibroblasts.
In order to achieve the growth of muscle cells, in addition to effective exercise, a special substance called myofibroblast growth factor is also required.
This substance is derived from growth hormone secreted by the pituitary gland. Scientific research has shown that growth hormone can only exist in the human body for about 2 minutes. After reaching the liver through the blood, it is quickly converted into growth factor, thereby stimulating muscle cells.
Chen Jue had previously worn a bronze mask to observe the entire process of the pituitary gland secreting growth hormone, and had also felt the birth of this type of growth factor.
I just didn’t expect that there are growth factors in the nature of this strange planet that can be directly ingested through food!
Moreover, this growth factor contained in the fruit only works on muscle fibers and has little effect on other cells.
To be more intuitive, after eating the piece of fruit flesh just now, the strength attribute on the panel actually jumped out to +0.01!
The little parrot accompanying him saw Chen Jue peeling the fruit and whined twice. It was probably greedy, so Chen Jue peeled most of it and fed it.
After the little parrot ate the fruit pulp, its body began to tremble soon after, and the muscles on its wings and claws began to vibrate at a strange frequency. It was obvious that it was also stimulated by the nutrients in the fruit pulp, which was strengthening its muscles and increasing its physical strength.
Thinking of those exotic flying squirrels, each of them as strong as a kangaroo, with distinct muscle lines, Chen Jue couldn't help swallowing his saliva. He knew that he had accidentally picked something like a natural treasure in martial arts novels, so he swallowed the remaining half of the peeled fruit.
"No wonder those flying squirrels kept chasing me!"
"If I had known that this fruit had such a powerful effect, I would not have just picked two and ran away." Chen Jue secretly felt a little regretful and wondered whether he should go back and fight those muscular flying squirrels.
However, this thought had just arisen in his mind for a short while before it was dismissed by Chen Jue.
Because most of the fruit he had just eaten began to work in his body, the growth factor targeting muscle cells once again penetrated into his body and began to rapidly strengthen his muscle cells throughout his body. Chen Jue's whole body became red and hot like a red shrimp that had been blanched in boiling water.
The strength attribute on the attribute panel at this moment continued to show +0.01, until it increased to 8.42 (+0.44) and then stopped.
“Awesome!”
"If I can continue to increase my strength like this..." Chen Jue was a little excited.
Seeing that the strength-increasing effect had ended, Chen Jue anxiously peeled another fruit and cut a few small pieces of flesh and swallowed them again. However, this time, the strength-increasing effect began to decline sharply.
After the strength attribute increased to 8.52, no matter how much fruit Chen Jue ate, it would be completely ineffective.
After calculating the amount he had just consumed, Chen Jue found that he seemed to have just eaten a whole fruit. He thought to himself, "Is it completely ineffective after eating one? It is somewhat similar to the longevity fruit of the immortal tree, which has a one-time effect."
Seeing that there was still a small half of the fruit in his hand that was no longer useful to him, Chen Jue had no choice but to feed the rest to the parrot.
The little parrot had already grown a lot of muscle, and after swallowing half of the fruit, its body continued to develop and grow rapidly, and the muscles in its wings and legs became thicker and stronger.
In less than half an hour, the little parrot changed from its original slender cockatiel appearance to a devilish muscular bird of prey that looked like a harpy eagle. Chen Jue was slightly stunned and thought to himself: "If this fruit is transplanted to Earth, those guys who lift weights all day in the gym will definitely buy a lot of it!"
Recalling the appearance of the fruit tree from which the red fruit was picked, which was like a crabapple tree, and combining it with the fruit's unique muscle-building and strength-enhancing effects, Chen Jue soon thought of the corresponding exotic flowers and herbs in the Classic of Mountains and Seas: "Its shape is like a crabapple, with round leaves and red fruits, which are as big as papayas. It is called 櫰木, and eating it will increase strength."
"It turns out that tree that looks like a crabapple tree is an oak tree!"
"The role of this ash fruit is of strategic importance to humans... If it can be transplanted to Earth for large-scale cultivation, and made cheap so that everyone can have one, how many strong men will be born among ordinary people? How much will work efficiency be improved?"
"If used in conjunction with the Ten Body-Building Techniques, even if an ordinary person doesn't have my strength base, the strength attribute that can be increased by eating one pill is extremely limited, but it should be no problem to break the human body's upper limit of '1'!"
"Or we can directly extract and analyze the growth factor from it, and use medical means to synthesize similar drugs. This will definitely be more direct and effective than the medicinal properties of ancient prescriptions such as Shaolin Dali Pills..." Chen Jue took a look at the only two remaining fruit cores that looked like walnuts, and his mind was racing.
He felt that these two seemingly ordinary fruit cores now became extremely precious in his eyes, and they felt heavy and hot in his hands.
After carefully putting the two fruit cores into his backpack, Chen Jue planned to return to the base and plant them immediately after finding the colorful crystals to make up for his spiritual practice.
