Chapter 222: Evolution
The fire spread rapidly in all directions by the wind, because the spore fungus of the Soul Eater mushroom spread and multiplied in the rainforest, taking up a large amount of water on the surface, leaving the original vegetation in the rainforest in a semi-dry state, and these dry trees could not resist the same excellent resistance as they used to be when exposed to open fire. It was roasted by the fire, dried up quickly, and then turned into huge torches.
This caused the spark to spread out of control and quickly spread through the forest. This was something Murong Feng didn't expect at all, because in her cognition, she wanted to start a fire in a rainforest environment with high humidity unless it was ignited by a large-scale airdrop. Burning bombs can have such an effect, otherwise it would be pure nonsense to throw a cigarette butt and want to start a rainforest fire!
And now a fire has an unexpected effect, which is actually related to the fact that the Soul Eater Mushroom spreads too quickly through the jellyfish monster and reproduces too amazingly. If they weren't so domineering, they might have left more water for the nearby vegetation, and maybe it wouldn't have caused the fire to get out of control.
You must know that the military top brass did this in the early days of discovering the infection leak, but at that time, the Soul Eater mushroom had not yet flooded on such a large scale as it is now, and the vegetation in the rainforest itself was extremely resistant to fire, so the military's scorched earth policy had little effect.
I have to say that this is really a peck and a drink, there is karma. Similarly, Murong Feng and others were also retributed. The raging fire was like a devil being released from purgatory, as if he had identified the initiators, and was letting out bursts of hideous laughter that chased after everyone's buttocks. Chase them to escape.
"No! You can't run west anymore. The wind was clearly blowing to the west, and no matter how fast we ran, it certainly didn't burn as fast as the fire! Murong Feng felt that his back was hot, and he didn't dare to stop and look back. As he ran, he said urgently, "Run south." There's a lake over there. Water is abundant, and vegetation is not so easily ignited. I'll get out of the way, follow me! β
Murong Feng said as he spoke, directly popped out the light blade and jumped in front of everyone, and with a wave of his hand, several sword qi slashed out, directly opening a path in the lush thorn bushes, and then took the lead in jumping in. Everyone turned around and followed, and they didn't dare to go back and ran wildly.
The fire quickly spread, and everyone had to turn on their individual energy shields to keep out the heat. The worst thing is the smoke that blows with the wind. It is impossible to tell the direction at all. Murong Feng dragged Xue Ji to prevent her from getting lost, but the others couldn't care about it.
By the time they reached relative safety, there were only four people left in the eight-person group, and four of them didn't know where they had gone. Fortunately, the team channel has been in touch. Murong Feng quickly determined the new assembly coordinates and asked the four people who had been separated to rush to the assembly point.
At this moment, the fire has set fire to dozens of hectares of woodland, and the raging flames have turned this rainforest into a purgatory on earth. It also destroyed countless deadly Soul Eater mushrooms. The fire then spread in all directions, but the rate of spread decreased significantly. Because the vegetation in this rainforest contains a lot of water, it cannot be easily burned. As soon as the fire spread beyond the Soul Eater's breeding area, the fire began to weaken significantly. At this time, heavy rain fell in the night sky, which further brought the fire under control. It's also a blessing in misfortune.
Murong Feng was really afraid that a fire would burn the entire rainforest to the ground. What a sin that must be! It is estimated that the god of the system will have to appear to her in person to settle accounts! Of course, the benefits are also obvious, at least the proliferation of Soul Eater Mushrooms has been greatly curbed in this fire. Because the areas where the fire is most vigorous are basically the places where the Soul Eater mushrooms are most abundant.
After tossing for most of the night, Murong Feng led several teammates and finally arrived at the assembly point to meet the scattered people. All of them are gray-faced, and the camouflage combat uniforms have traces of smoke and fire all over their bodies, and they can hardly see their original appearance. And they were all tired, and obviously they couldn't continue to hurry.
Murong Feng had no choice but to order to rest in place and wait for dawn to return to the Frost Mountain Pass. The main thing is that they are lost. At that time, in order to avoid the direction of the spread of the fire, Murong Feng ran south in a panic, but now that it is safe, he doesn't know where he has run to. So I had to wait for dawn before acting.
Xue Ji seemed very excited, after all, she had experienced so many exciting things in one night, sticking to Murong Feng's side and chattering non-stop. But when the excitement passed, I couldn't sleep. After Murong Feng's repeated persuasion, he nodded and quit the game, went offline to rest.
Early the next morning, a slightly haggard Yukihime relogs back into the game and appears next to a fallen tree, which was last night's makeshift camp, with two veterans hiding in the canopy as sentries while the others hang up and rest. Murong Feng, on the other hand, sat cross-legged on the toppled tree trunk and meditated. Yukihime saw the novelty and sneaked up the tree trunk and leaned over.
"When a cultivator enters the meditation, it is most taboo to be disturbed, if you don't want to ask for trouble, it's best not to play such a trick again." Murong Feng opened her mouth without moving, as if Xue Ji's every move could not escape her six senses.
Xue Ji, who was posing in the shape of teeth and claws, pouted, "Cut!" With a sound, he turned over and jumped off the broken tree.
Murong Feng opened his eyes and stood up, moved his muscles and bones to give the order to gather. Two sentries and other resting veterans quickly assembled.
Murong Feng opened the map and compared the directions, and said, "We should have run to the southwest of the first target area, and to the east of us should be the center of the heavily infected area, 'Panlong Lake'." So it's highly likely that we've broken into a heavily infected area. Of course, this is just my guess. And now we have two paths before us. β
Murong Feng drew west on the map and said, "Keep going west, return directly to the Frost Mountain Pass, the mission failed." But there will be no more casualties. There is also a way to the south. Murong Feng paddled south along Panlong Lake, his fingertips until the edge of another heavily infected area, and said, "This is the fifth target area, and it is also the former lair of the mission boss. β
Murong Feng raised his head and looked around at everyone, and said lightly, "I want to ask your opinions!" β
"Sir!" The Shadow Blade first raised his hand to ask to speak, and Murong Feng nodded in approval, and then heard him ask, "Sir." I want to ask if the eight of us can kill that monster alone? β
"Can't!" Murong Feng's answer was unusually crisp. Then he changed his tone and said in a deep voice, "But I have something in particular. It should help us kill that monster! β
"What's that?" Yukihime said curiously.
"It's not meant to see the light, and it's a one-time thing. I won't take it out unless I have to. Murong Feng shook his head and said, "Don't pay attention." β
"Cut~! Cheapskate! Yukihime snorted and turned her head, pretending to be angry.
"In that case, I suggest going to the fifth target area!" The Shadow Blade muttered. Then all the veterans nodded in agreement. Without the pressure of life and death, this is actually an easy answer to choose.
Murong Feng saw that no one objected, so he clapped his hand and said, "Then set off immediately." Shadow Scouts go ahead to find the way. β
"Yes!" The Shadow Blade immediately got up and mobilized the scouts that were on guard and flew south.
Then everyone set off again in a team, and traces of fire could be seen from time to time along the way. However, the nearby surface water veins are abundant, and the vegetation surface has sufficient moisture, so the fire is not very serious.
Not long after the team had traveled, the forest was once again filled with fog. This time it's not a spore cloud, it's a real mist vapor. As a result, everyone's vision was severely affected, but fortunately, the scout that opened the way in front of them was working normally, and no threatening creatures were found nearby.
Not long after traveling in the fog, Yukihime, who was naturally jumpy, couldn't bear it at first, and relaxed her vigilance and looked around. Suddenly, as if she had noticed something interesting, she crouched down and shouted, "Come and see, everyone! These mushrooms are so strange! Looks like they're all dead? β
When everyone heard this, they stopped. Murong Feng walked up to Xue Ji and squatted down to take a look, and found that there were a few Soul Eater Mushrooms scattered on the ground, which had lost their original bright color. Cheng is showing a gray withered state!
Everyone was thrilled to see such a scene, and they all mistakenly thought that these Soul Eater Mushrooms had been attacked by some virus and began to die on a large scale. Only Murong Feng's expression became more and more solemn.
"This time it's trouble!" Murong Feng sighed, causing everyone to be surprised!
Yukihime was surprised, "Sister Moon Shadow, is there anything wrong with this?" Isn't it good for these Soul Eaters to die? β
Murong Feng sighed lightly, picked up a branch and picked up the soil underneath the mushroom, and everyone found that the soil where the Soul Eater mushroom was rooted was covered with white mycelium!
"These Soul Eaters aren't dead at all! They...... Evolved! Murong Feng stood up and sighed, "What I was most worried about has happened!" These sporophytes are highly resilient to disasters and will evolve themselves to cope with a deadly threat. Although a fire last night burned countless Soul Eater Mushrooms, the surviving Soul Eater Mushrooms must have produced a mutated evolution against flame resistance, while also emitting the same evolutionary pheromones to their own population. Then the entire forest of Soul Eaters will collectively evolve fire-resistant properties! And the entire evolutionary mutation process may be completed in less than three days! β
"No, it won't! Do these mushrooms defy the sky? Xue Ji was shocked, "Doesn't it take millions of years for natural creatures to evolve into new varieties?" How is it possible to do it in three days? β
"The world is so big! Just because you're incomprehensible doesn't mean it doesn't exist! Murong Feng waved his hand and said, "Okay, I'll continue on my way." It's not our turn to care about these things, so leave them to the military for a headache! β
The crowd continued to march south again, and as they went, they found that the fog became thicker and thicker, almost to the point where they could not see their fingers. Moreover, the thorn bushes and vines that had been ubiquitous were gone, and the road conditions in the direction of progress suddenly became unexpectedly better. There were only tall trees looming around, and nothing else.
Murong Feng's heart couldn't help but be suspicious, it stands to reason that it takes a lot of water vapor to form such a thick fog. And now they are heading south, they should be away from the lake, why is it that the fog is getting bigger and bigger as they go? Could it be that I have misremembered the direction? Or is it simply lost?
"Stop moving! Stay in place! Murong Feng immediately ordered: "Shadow, put a bee-type scout into the sky and take a look at the situation nearby!" β
Everyone stopped to stay on alert, and the Shadow Blade flew upwards with a bee-like scout, leaping out of the canopy and through the layer of mist to overlook the entire rainforest!
Everyone was shocked when they saw the picture transmitted back by the scout!
In the picture, there is no end in sight to the surging fog! And in the direction of the procession, there was a foggy lake!
"Oops! Lost! Murong Feng suddenly said in annoyance!
"That's not right!" The Shadow Blade suddenly let out a shocked voice and said, "Sir, the coordinates fed back by the scout show that we are on the south side of Panlong Lake!" I'm heading north! β
"How is that possible? My navigator shows that we're heading south! Yukihime was surprised. Everyone saw that the direction instructions on their navigators were all facing south! For a while, several veterans all looked at each other!
"Withdraw! Go back the way you came! Murong Feng immediately ordered, "The shadow is up there, show us the way!" β
"Yes!" The Shadow Blade obeyed.
The team immediately turned around and returned, and the group sped through the fog while watching the rector's feedback as they watched the instructions from the scout.
Suddenly, an unusually long arthropod hooked foot shot out of the sea of fog and pumped towards the screen, and then the signal of the scout disappeared!
Everyone was startled, and subconsciously stopped and put on a fighting posture!
By this time, the sun had risen high in the sky, emitting a warm glow, and began to disperse the dense fog, making everyone's vision gradually recover. It was only when the fog gradually cleared with the wind that the surrounding 'forest' was slowly revealed!
It was only then that everyone was shocked to find that what was growing around them was not a towering giant tree at all, but a mushroom forest formed by giant mushrooms!
These giant mushrooms are as big as towering giant trees, the tallest ones are more than ten zhang high, and the shortest ones are several zhang high, with thick and straight stems covered with mycelium, and the fan cover at the top is even more obscuring the sky. Everyone looked up and was shocked, only to see floating jellyfish monsters hiding under the umbrella of giant mushrooms, floating there quietly like large balloons.
At this moment, the spheres of these floating jellyfish monsters are covered with dark green mycelium, forming a cocoon-like shell. There seems to be some kind of drastic mutation going on within it.
At this time, in the fragmented sky covered by the giant mushroom umbrella cover, a huge monster could be faintly seen slowly floating over!
This behemoth monster has the appearance of a jellyfish monster, but the main body is no longer a fragile round sphere, but has evolved into an oval shape with a head and tail nearly ten zhang long, a diameter of three zhang wide, and thick armor spikes! The relatively small head, located below the front of the subject, has two rows of compound eyes, which obviously have strong dynamic vision. The tentacles that grow under the main body evolve into eight multi-arthropod hooked feet nearly ten zhang long and covered with barbs.
As this behemoth monster slowly floated above everyone's heads, its attribute name also appeared in everyone's eyes!
γFloating Jellyfish Kingγ
Elite Mutants
HP: 210000/210000
Level: 70 (To be continued......