Chapter 143: One Step Down on the ...... of Life and Death
The lush woods fade and vein leaves, and the forbidden area of life is killed step by step.
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Even though Mystery Xin has excellent hunting ability and can even use his agility to easily kill animals much larger than himself, that doesn't mean that he has such a big appetite...... After all, it was only that big after all, so even if Xijie was hungry, it would be impossible for him to eat this sunburst.
In general, for most animals, it is not a bad thing that the prey is too large to eat, and they can spend days waiting to eat next to the carcass of their prey that has not decomposed, and only need to deal with some speculators who are trying to steal the prey, which is much less effort than direct predation.
However, for Shioyuki, she couldn't spend days waiting next to the corpse of the Rising Sunmon. The journey across the continent was long, not that the hurried journey didn't leave her enough time to waste, but that she could no longer endure the boring life of repeating the same thing every time. She is no longer an ordinary animal who runs around every day to survive, and her biggest goal is to live to a natural death...... No matter how gorgeous the temples of the mortal world are, they can't really make the gods dwell on them.
Similarly, it is impossible to simply take this corpse on the road, and Mystery Xin is an agile animal, not a strength animal. The sheer size difference meant that she couldn't have dragged the Sunburst corpse, and it was definitely a cumbersome burden for long journeys.
Only a wealth of experience can truly precipitate extraordinary wisdom in a long time, so after hastily filling his stomach, Shio decided to abandon the corpse of the Rising Sun Beast, which was still more than half left, and continued to embark on the journey. She knew that nature would not waste these remaining resources, and that there would always be other animals that occasionally found the carcass and were ecstatic to treasure it for enjoyment.
……
As the dominant ecosystem of the Southern Yuan Continent, the wooded area is not as fast as the salt land can be passed through in just a few hours, so it is obviously impossible to reach the end of the woodland today, even with the running speed of the tidal knot.
However, as the distance progressed, the landscape of the woods changed significantly: the striated leaves were no longer the only tree species, the woods became an ecosystem of mixed trees, and the canopy began to become a large mixture of green and color.
Completely different from the barren salt fields, this is a forest full of life, and small animals such as woodrats can be seen running around the woods, and Shioyu even saw a fairy bird flying over the trees by chance...... That's right, it's clearly the same species as the fairy bird that was manipulated by the wind, and it seems that the creature's natural habitat is not far from here.
Even if predators are seen occasionally, they are part of the natural cycle and do not break this beautiful area of life. The unique vitality of spring makes the old trees bloom again, the new plants are vigorous, and everything looks so vibrant.
Yes, there was a lot of life everywhere at a glance, until Shioyu saw the place that seemed completely different.
In the midst of the green forest, there is such a sudden appearance of a ground without green...... But it's not that there are no plants growing here, on the contrary, the ground is also covered with all kinds of plants, the only problem is that there are only all kinds of decaying dead branches and dead weeds on the ground...... Instead of the green of spring, the grass is full of withered yellow and pale colors that can only be seen in the extreme cold of winter.
There are several tall striatine trees growing on this ground...... They have clearly lost their vitality, and the colourful striped leaves are no longer colourful, but have become like old photographs that have faded over time. Hollow, decadent, that's the impression these dead trees make.
Next to it is the rushing river, which runs from the edge of the salt field to here, I don't know whether it is intentional or purely accidental, the area that seems to have been drained of life does not include the river, but is kept at a certain distance from the riverbank, in fact, the area itself is not large, the approximate outline is a circular area about five meters in diameter.
"What the hell is going on here......" Shioyu cautiously stopped at the edge of this strange area, not daring to step further into this area that seemed to be full of weirdness, "The plants here are all dead, and there is not a trace of ...... left"
"Be careful, it's best not to set foot in there yet...... Xinglan also became serious, and the signal passed through the forest, solemnly observing the dead silence, "I've never seen anything like this...... If the land is not suitable for plant growth, then it is unlikely that there will be such an extreme situation in such a small area. ”
"En......" Xijie replied softly, cautiously looking at the completely dead plant in front of him, and gasped, "Could it be something...... Turned this place into this? ”
After Xinglan controlled the signal to make a microscopic probe of the grass on the ground, she couldn't help but be even more confused: "Hmm, it's okay...... Now you can walk in, nothing is detected at all, and even the grass roots under the soil have begun to grow again, and whatever once killed all the plants here, it is definitely no longer here, and there is no harm left. ”
"Huh?" Xijie stretched out his furry front paws suspiciously, and slowly pressed them on the dead ground, and did not feel anything abnormal before boldly entering this death zone, looking up at the striped leaf trees whose leaves had completely faded their color, "But it is impossible for these dead trees to be resurrected......"
"The new grass sprouts quickly, and although it is not yet visible, it will soon cover the area again, covering everything with dead grass." After carefully appraising it again, Xinglan made a bold guess, "Look at it this way...... These plants obviously won't be dead for long, and it's even likely that they died in the next few days, which means that the thing that caused the killing thing is probably not far away from ......."
"Not far away?" Xijie's sapphire eyes widened, she looked around carefully, and suddenly let out an exclamation, "What is this!" Sister, come and see! ”
Shiokie ran to the edge of the dead field and walked a few steps out, then gently pulled away a small patch of lush thread-leaved grass...... That's right, it's the grass that spreads widely across the stars, revealing its true face that has been concealed below: a small patch of grass that is withered yellow and pale.
The area of this dead land was very small, even about ten centimeters in diameter, and it was so different from the large dead wasteland next to it that Xiyu and Xinglan didn't notice the grass-covered area at first.
"It's strange, the huge area next to it and this small area here......" Xinglan raised her perspective a distance, looking down on the two areas from above, "The gap is too big, but the distance between the two is very close, can it be said that this is ......"
After linking the two shapes together, Xinglan suddenly had a terrible association, and almost in unison with Shioyuki: "Feet...... Footprints! ”
Xijie looked at the distance between the two, ran a little farther away, picked up the verdant thread-leaved grass on the surface, and sure enough, he saw a small patch of dead grass below.
Piece after piece, the same small pieces of wasteland stretch from the edge of the large wasteland to the left and right towards the river, and the shape that seems to be just a coincidence becomes clear when viewed from the perspective of the whole.
This is...... A string of animal footprints, yes, if you replace the green grass with snow, and look at each wasteland as a pit in the snow, then it is obvious that some kind of animal has fallen down on the snow and then stood up again, stepping on the ground step by step and leaving the place.
Xinglan quickly began to simulate the approximate formation process of these footprints in the signal subnet network, and in less than a second, she successfully deduced the approximate data of the creature: "The body length is about four meters, and the four-legged walking pattern, if you deduce from the diameter of the feet, the height of the creatures that left these dead spots is about two meters tall. ”
"Sister-sama...... It seems that this guy hasn't been away for long, and he probably spent the night here, so do you want to chase it? Xiyu's eyes narrowed slightly, and her curiosity was aroused, "The direction it left is exactly the direction we were going to go......
"Every footprint left a dead silence, indicating that this is not the way this creature actively uses to defend against the enemy, but this terrifying killing ability completely penetrates the surface of its body, which belongs to the way of passive defense...... But the most strange thing is that there is no trace of any residual killing. Xinglan chuckled, lifted the signal into the air again, and looked at the excited tide knot on the ground, "Do you still need to consider whether to chase this kind of question?" Don't you want to know the answer? This guy is a real killer in the truest sense of the word......"
"Yay!"
cheered, after eating and drinking, Xijie, who was obviously a little over-energetic, confidently began to continue to pull the grass forward, even if it was very troublesome, it seemed that he didn't care at all: "No matter what this guy is, it is certain that its ability has left us very obvious traces of tracking, even if it wastes most of its time all the way over the grass, it will definitely not be able to run away!" ”
"That's ......" Xinglan simulated the creature's way of walking again, ruling out its possible form, "it's ...... It shouldn't be fast, even if you pick up the grass all the way to catch up with it, let alone ......"
Xinglan didn't finish the rest of the sentence, but Xijie also understood, because the scene in front of him made it clear: there was no need to pick up the grass anymore, and the new footprints left in front of him hadn't even had time to be hidden by the thread-leaved grass next to him. The little patches of grass that were dead were so evident in the spring woodlands that they were arranged in a crooked line that stretched into the distance......