Chapter 115: Molting
The crystals attached to the head of the claws, as well as to the tail, begin to fall off. The tailed crystal scorpion sensed that something was coming. It has preyed on more than enough food. They turn into fat and store it all over the body.
However, this is not enough.
It needs a safe, small cave.
Six massive claws gripped the lower surface, and two pincers pierced into the dirt.
Wow!
A paw was inaudible, but it smacked three times on the ground with swiftness.
Three sound waves enter the ground, like sonar.
With the sound waves coming back, the tailed crystal scorpion accurately sensed the general appearance of underground.
Layers of solid earth and gravel are piled up, and there are no voids in the ground.
But it knew that the instinctive way of exploring the ground was not accurate. And another instinct tells it that it has to be continuously tapped to get the real subsurface.
Wow!
Switched to the other foot and struck three times.
The echo told it that there was a tunnel underground.
Well, only for gophers.
And then there was the tight dirt.
The row of eyes on the tail scorpion's face showed no emotion.
Soon, through the conduction of sound, the situation under the tunnel constructed by the gopher was revealed in the mind of the tailed crystal scorpion.
Countless pieces of rubble have framed the condition underneath the tunnels.
This is definitely not an overnight job, and the tailed crystal scorpion, which has reached a turning point in its life, is ready for a long time.
The sun is deflected, and the tailed scorpion has been here for hours, during which time the condition of the underground has been almost completed. During this time, the unbearable gopher burrowed out of the ground and angrily threw a stone into the knee of the tailed crystal scorpion.
The bouncing stone landed on the gopher's head, and the gopher burrowed into the ground in fear.
Moving slowly, heavily, the tailed crystal scorpion continued to search for the crypt of its beloved.
Day after day, night after night.
All the crystals on the tail crystal scorpion's body fell off, and the original black and shiny carapace on its body became gray and black. The bright purple veins that flowed through his body were all dimmed.
It's like life has come to an end.
Soon, it once selected a place.
It was a bare ground, with gravel exposed to the sun and no vegetation around it.
The tailed scorpion stepped among the rubble, its claws grappling at the ground once more, its massive pincers digging into the dirt.
Soon, the tail scorpion's claws struck the ground three times. The sound that came back told it what was going on underground.
Gravel and dirt.
Changed one foot and knocked three more times.
Wait a minute!
What's underground?
A mineral vein!
The tailed crystal scorpion doesn't care about the ore veins, it cares about the large, narrow cavities that usually appear in the ore veins.
After tapping the ground for a long time, the full picture of the veins was revealed in the mind of the tailed crystal scorpion.
A large vein runs downwards, but as the amplitude into the ground deepens, branches continue to break away from the main vein.
And the section of the vein closest to the ground happens to be a hole half the size and not small, and the right length and narrowness!
The tailed crystal scorpion tightened its pincers excitedly.
With a few screams, sharp pincers pierced the ground, digging up a cloud of dust, and then its body sank desperately as the sand continued to dig out.
Soon, the tail scorpion's thick tail was buried in the dirt.
Between the cavities of the veins, surrounded by bright yellow dabrolites, countless dabrolites almost illuminated the entire vein with the appearance of a glimmer of light.
The bright yellow color also illuminates the lilac eyes of the tailed crystal scorpion. It looked around and saw that it was indeed a good place to molt.
Drilling into the ore vein, it crushed countless dabrolites, and when he turned around, the podium on the cave was also swept away a lot.
Push out a huge rock and plug the hole that has been dug in. Clean the mine a little more. The tailed crystal scorpion did not move at all.
As the day passed, a strange fluid oozed from the joints of the body, which quickly condensed after leaving the body, completely locking all the joints of the tail crystal scorpion.
Over the next three days, the accumulated fat is rapidly consumed and transformed into a new carapace beneath the old carapace.
The old carapace slowly turned gray, and the streamer purple liquid on the surface of the body completely disappeared.
Another three days passed, and new carapaces continued to form all over the body. On the seventh day of molting, the tailed crystal scorpion was finally able to break free from the shackles of its old carapace, but it remained motionless.
Two days have passed, and the new carapace has grown thick enough to withstand a little of the ups and downs of nature. Of course, it is also because it does not have enough fat in its body to support it to completely complete the growth of the new carapace.
Instinctively, the tailed scorpion woke up from a long, nine-day sleep.
The tail crystal scorpion gradually woke up, and the outside of the new carapace obviously secreted a white viscous liquid. The extremely lubricated white viscous liquid quickly filled the tail scorpion's body, and also stretched open the new carapace and the old carapace that had been glued together.
When the tailed crystal scorpion completely woke up, the instinctive work of molting was all completed, and now it was up to the tailed crystal scorpion itself.
Finding itself trapped, the tailed scorpion began to struggle instinctively, and as it struggled, a crack appeared on the back armor of the gray old carapace.
Bigger and bigger, bigger and bigger.
Eventually, the fissures of the old carapace extend from the back up to the head and down to the base of the tail.
The creature instinct caused the tail crystal scorpion to break upward, and with the force of its six claws, the tail crystal scorpion squeezed a little open through the gap in the old carapace.
Then, combined with the exertion of two huge pincers, the tailed crystal scorpion finally squeezed its body out of the old carapace.
The hardness of the old carapace decreases as it fails, but strangely enough, its flexibility actually increases considerably! The fissure was squeezed extremely wide by the body of the tail crystal scorpion, and it hadn't broken the old carapace yet!
First its own body, after resting for a while, it continued to exert force, pulled out its two huge pincers, and rested for a while.
A simple molting action allows the tail crystal scorpion to deplete the little oxygen in the mine.
This time it rested for an hour.
Due to the lack of oxygen, the nutrients in the body can only provide weak energy by converting them into lactic acid, which can accumulate on the muscles and make them sore and weak. This creates an endless loop. Without the strength to molt, more energy is needed in exchange for strength, but the energy is also produced with lactic acid, which makes the muscles less energetic.
All the tailed scorpion can do is race against time.
Six legs were not enough, and the two pincers of the tail crystal scorpion tried to grasp something to assist in the force.
The large chunk of dabrolite on the wall is as thick as a human adult man's hug, but it is just the size of a pincer for a tailed crystal scorpion. Just fit one clamp at a time, and work together.
In the end, the tailed crystal scorpion finally succeeded in pulling its tail out of the old carapace, and the six legs also crawled out of the old carapace.
Molting complete.
The newborn tailed crystal scorpion stood in front of the old carapace, like two tailed crystal scorpions looking at each other, but one was gray-black, and a narrow crack on its back had white slime oozing out. The other tailed crystal scorpion has a milky white carapace all over its body, and its body is not dripping with white mucus.
There is no oxygen in the completely immobile air in the mine, and the lack of oxygen and the large amount of lactic acid accumulated in the muscles are slowly dragging down the tail crystal scorpion.
Glancing at his past self, it was too late to remember the past, and the tailed crystal scorpion had to fight for the present.
Two large, tender pincers laboriously moved away the massive stone, and it crawled out again along the hole it had dug as it got up.
Digging through the dirt and stones that had fallen on the ground, he swerved towards the ground.
Once again, a large bag of dirt protruded from the bare ground, which had been calm for a long time. A milky white pincer protruded from the dirt and gravel.
Then another pincer, then the torso, then the tail, and finally the six long legs.
The breeze blew through his body, and he shivered with excitement at the sight of the new carapace of the beautiful land for the first time, and so did the tailed crystal scorpion.
Milky eyes scanned the earth.
The sun rose and set quickly, during which there were many speed dragons looking greedily at the big guy in front of them, but before making enough preparations, the blue speed dragons in twos and threes could not fight against it at all. Soon, the spy Blue Speedy Dragon told the news of the big guy to the king of Blue Speed.
A long day of sun exposure, and the warmth of oxygen in the air. The milky carapace begins to turn brownish. The rapid pigmentation is not for the sake of good looking mimicry or anything. Rather, it is to increase its hardness.
And as the oxygen enters the lungs of the tail crystal scorpion again, the lactic acid in the tail crystal scorpion's muscles is finally completely decomposed, or it is the most prepared for the recombination into nutrients, or the subtle transformation of the tail crystal scorpion's carapace.
The first two large pliers to harden began to secrete a blue liquid on the back of the pliers, and as soon as the liquid seeped out of the carapace, it quickly dried when the wind blew, forming a thick layer of crystals attached to it.
And the same goes for the skull, and on the tail.
Instinctively, the tail scorpion should use its tail to eject some purple smoke to thicken the crystals on the pincers or head.
But hunger stopped it.
The tailed crystal scorpion is hungry, and what about the Blue Speed Dragons?
They looked greedily at the behemoth in front of them, but they didn't dare to move forward because of their size.
After jumping next to it for half an hour, the behemoth in front of me actually didn't move!
Is it dead?
A blue speed dragon walked up curiously, staring at one of the feet of the tailed crystal scorpion and nibbling on it violently.
Although he gnawed off two teeth, the behemoth in front of him didn't react at all!
"Hiccup!!"
Blue Athlon called.
The blue speed dragon group excitedly surrounded them, and they all bit the parts they were targeting.
The Blue Speed Dragon King stared at the head of the Tail Crystal Scorpion, and the eyes of the Tail Crystal Scorpion reflected the Red Red Head of the Blue Speed Dragon King.
As soon as the huge pincers moved, the Blue Speed Dragon King who was in front of him had no chance to react at all!
The two huge pincers exerted together, and the Blue Speed Dragon King in the pincers was completely split in two.
Sending the Blue Speed Dragon King into his mouth with relish, the tail crystal scorpion's physical strength continued to recover.