Chapter 209: The ...... of the Golden Vine on the Iron Tree
Swords and guns are invulnerable to the iron bark, and death entangles the golden vines.
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Things are starting to get interesting again......
Bang!
There was a crisp crash, and once again, the dagger that flicked mercilessly off the gray-white skin told Xinglan the fact: her dagger could not pierce the bark of the big tree in front of her.
Why is that? Xing Lan narrowed her eyes slightly, looking at the two daggers in her hands that shimmered with cold light, although this was not a high-end thing such as a monomolecular blade or a high-frequency cutting knife, but it was also a relatively sharp high-carbon steel dagger, but it turned out that it couldn't even pierce the bark? That's weird.
Turning to look at a dark brown tree next to her, Xinglan casually threw the dagger out, slashing through an afterimage and striking at the trunk. There was no suspense, and the high-carbon steel dagger was directly submerged in the bark and firmly fastened to it.
It's not a matter of the dagger.
Xinglan pulled out the dagger again, looked at the gray-white giant tree with interest, pressed the blade against a bump in the trunk, pressed her wrist slightly, and then retracted it violently, so that a small piece of raised bark quickly collapsed.
Sure enough, even if the front could not be pierced, under the condition of repeated wear and fatigue of the material, these uneven places on the periphery were no match for daggers made of high-carbon steel, and some of the skin was still shattered.
"Very high calcium content...... "Xinglan held the tiny fragment between her fingers, her red eyes staring at its surface, "most of it is inorganic, and there is almost no cellular structure...... Interesting. ”
The absence of a plant cell structure means that the shell may not be the bark of the tree, but a shell in the literal sense of the word, but it does wrap around the surface of the tree and function in the same way as the bark.
Not caring about the damage that this method of use might cause to the dagger's own structure, Xinglan simply turned the dagger in her hand sideways, holding it firmly on the bark and pulling it back and forth, as if she was slowly cutting through the solid shell with a saw. After about half a minute, as if the depth of the dagger had suddenly pierced through the critical point between some of the interlayers, a gray-white liquid suddenly flowed out of the slender gap that had been cut. It didn't gush out like a fountain, but slowly seeped out, looking very viscous, slowly flowing down the trunk of the tree and rapidly dehydrating.
"It looks like a fluid, but it's not that flexible, it feels like a solid-liquid mixture......" To be on the safe side, Xinglan didn't reach out directly, but carefully dipped a dagger in a little gray-white slime and put it in front of her to observe it carefully.
In a very short period of time, perhaps only a dozen seconds, this drop of gray-white liquid completely solidified on the tip of the dagger, completely losing all the characteristics of fluid, and when Xing Lan looked up at the opening that was cut by the dagger, the gray-white slime that had changed after dehydration had also solidified and sealed the gap, and except for some traces of solidification, the gap was completely indistinguishable from the surrounding bark, and it was completely integrated.
In other words, the grayish-white bark may have been formed by the dehydration of this resin-like mucus, so the process is not different in nature, and naturally there is no sense of disobedience.
"This viscous liquid gives people a strong sense of immediacy, is it paint or cement?" Looking at the strange trees in front of her, Xinglan had a strong sense of familiarity, "Although the composition of the materials is definitely different, the process of change is really very similar." ”
If you use the trunk of this tree to build a house or something, it is definitely much stronger than any other wood, but this is also a disadvantage...... It's too hard to cut a small hole, and to cut this wood in its entirety is simply not worth the cost by manpower. However, the solidification characteristics of this resin made Xinglan have some other ideas, since it is a fluid, then there is the possibility of pouring and molding, the only problem is that its solidification time is too short and the amount of extraction at one time is very small.
It's not much to think about why the tree has evolved these strange traits compared to these interesting properties, because its survival advantages couldn't be clearer: its hard outer layer can withstand all kinds of pests and storms, and it also has a very strong self-healing ability, even if a part of the outer bark is stripped away, it can quickly return to its original state without affecting normal survival.
"Comparable to the hardness of metal...... Let's call you the Iron Tree. After a little thought, Xinglan recorded the name and characteristics of the tree in front of him into the signal sub database.
But soon, some unpleasant voices on the canopy interrupted Xinglan's thinking: "Sister, do you still want to come up!" If you want to study the trunk, you can study it on it, or can't you climb it up......
"Hmm, how can you not go up......" Xing Lan, who remembered that she needed to hide now, was a little embarrassed, and hurriedly withdrew the two high-carbon steel daggers from her waist and looked up at the canopy of seven or eight meters high.
Well, it's troublesome to climb up directly with your bare hands, but the trunk of this tree is not a smooth type, but an equally rough appearance, so you should still be able to do it, and what's even more interesting is that Xinglan actually saw some vines on the trunk of this tree...... Yes, it's the kind of vine that often parasitizes tall trees, but given the hardness of the tree's sturdy skin, it's not easy to parasitize it.
Of course, the erosion between plants is not a brute force such as slashing and axing, but a gradual process over a long period of time, and the power of life can far exceed that of any man-made tool, and when plant seeds germinate, they can even pry open rock crevices and jack boulders, so it is not impossible to erode this hard bark.
Reaching out to grab the bark, Xinglan used a lot of strength to ensure enough friction this time, so she simply climbed up the trunk neatly, and after the distance was enough, she decisively reached out and grabbed the thick vines that were wrapped around the trunk. You know, the height of this tree is seven or eight meters, and if you fall from that height, even a mechanical body will probably be choked enough.
Maybe it's also a good idea to simply install a set of geomagnetic levitation devices in the body like the tide junction? A strange idea suddenly popped up in Xinglan's mind, but after all, the circuits of mechanical bodies are different from living organisms, and when faced with a sudden burst of strong magnetic fields, they can easily burn out due to excessive induced currents, which is a relatively difficult problem to solve. The geomagnetic levitation of the Mystery Xin is the result of long-term natural evolution, the nervous system is not stunned by the strong magnetic field pulses, and these strong magnetic fields are also well confined to a very small range without causing chaos to the surroundings.
Even if she couldn't walk on the ground like Shioki, Xinglan was not slow, far faster than a climbing expert with a tow line, and the habit of not wearing boots turned into an advantage in this case, and in less than a minute she was already sitting on the top branch of the iron tree, dangling her feet in the air while looking with interest at the vines around her that were wrapped around the trunk.
Well, under your feet is seven or eight meters in the air, and you can clearly see the ground scattered with leaves in the forest below. In other words, ordinary people sit at such a height without any safety measures to protect them, but I am afraid that they will be scared to the point that their feet are a little weak.
From the previous climbing process, it can be seen that there are not many vines wrapped around this iron tree, but the same vine with rhizomes connected to each other, and its dense branches and leaves are wrapped around this iron tree, and the thickest part is even tens of centimeters in diameter, which is completely an unimaginable giant.
In this primeval forest, trees and other plants hide amazing power in their sheer size.
"Sister, these plants here are super sturdy." Xijie didn't honestly sit still, but ran around the canopy with an over-energy, she tried to cut through these extremely thick vines with her sharp little claws, and then looked at her paws with a puzzled expression, "Not at all, not at all." ”
"Well, that's already visible." Xinglan reached out and pinched the thick vines, which still maintained their soft properties instead of an indestructible structure like the outer layer of bark.
However, this vine is very tough, not to mention tearing, even a sharp knife is difficult to cut, and cutting it with a dagger will only give people the feeling of cutting a rubber band with scissors...... If the angle of force is not right, all the force will be directly discharged.
Xinglan had a feeling that this interesting vine might be stronger than the anchor grass, and that the thick vine in front of her alone could tie down a lure whale. Upon closer inspection, she even noticed that the vines were not simply emerald green, but had some dark veins that were barely visible on the surface. These regular, dark textures are not metals or crystals, but polymer fibers produced by the organism itself, which firmly hold the whole of the vine and form a composite hybrid structure...... Xinglan even felt that some of it gave her a carbon fiber feeling.
Cutting off this vine is even more difficult than cutting down the Iron Tree with a knife alone, but in a sense, it is much easier to use this vine material than the Iron Tree, because it still has a completely invincible enemy.
Flame.
The inorganic shell of the iron tree is very strong, and may even act as a fireproof, but this vine is completely incapable of resisting combustion, and it can easily be burned into sections with the help of torches and buckets.
As for the name, since it grew with the Iron Tree, Xinglan eventually named this strange parasitic vine: the Burnt Golden Vine.
That's right, parasitic plants. The golden vine and the iron tree are not in a friendly symbiotic relationship, and in some places where the golden vine is entangled, there are even some cracks on the surface of the bark of the iron tree, but the interior is not able to secrete resin to repair these damaged parts.
In the face of predators, it is completely powerless to resist.
(Hmph, the final exam or something is the most annoying!) )