Chapter 219: ...... in the Drizzle
The wind flag flutters and dances alone in the rain, and the fruit worm hides the death trap.
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The vast sea of trees, this green world is boundless.
Perhaps a group of botanists or naturalists will go around analyzing these interesting trees scattered around the world, and patiently divide each different tree species into their own categories and names. However, it is obvious that Xinglan's current interest is mainly focused on those special lifeforms, and he is really not interested in giving a large number of ordinary trees a name, so most of the trees in this forest do not have their own names, but stay at the stage that can only be described as ordinary trees.
It was drizzling and the pale gray sky was obscured by clouds.
The sound of the rain seemed to be everywhere, and the crisp crashing sound of the leaves of various plants was beaten, and the dense forest did not seem to slow down the rain in the slightest, and even the wind could freely shuttle through the forest, wandering back and forth with a shriek. Many animals hide in their nests and watch helplessly as the rain keeps falling outside, and it is easy to catch a cold or even a fever due to excessive moisture in this weather...... However, there are many other animals that don't care about this and enjoy the rain outside.
Like what...... Above a very common tree, there is an area of sparse foliage, and an uninvited guest hangs on one of the branches in the open, enjoying the wind and rain to the fullest.
The slender green body of the hairtail fish is firmly attached to the branches at one end, and the other end is constantly swaying up and down in the wind, turning the whole body into an S-shape that constantly shakes. Several thin green membrane wings spread out from both sides of the slender body, bulging into arcs with thin holes, allowing the wind to blow through it quickly, and the whole body continued to vibrate together, vibrating rapidly at an extremely high frequency.
If you don't have the experience to stand in the distance, you might see it as a slender leaf swaying in the wind, but those who really know the forest will be able to spot the strangeness at once.
Its name is the Wind Flag, which is named after a flag that resembles a flag dancing in a strong wind, and even though the current civilization may not yet understand the meaning of the flag, it is indeed its scientific name in the future.
Although it looks a bit like a plant, the wind flag is indeed an animal, except that in addition to soaring with the wind, it can only move completely by the slow deformation of the tissue attached to the end of the branch, and the speed is not much faster than that of a snail...... But it doesn't need to be fast, though, because it doesn't need to hunt for food.
The part that attaches to the tree can penetrate the inside of the branch and suck the sap inside, but that being said, the wind flag is one of the few animals that can suck the sap without causing much damage to the tree. It sucks very little sap, most of it just to replenish some necessary organic matter and minerals, and the body's daily energy needs are not consumed by sugars, but ...... Wind power.
The wind flag is not just for the sake of looking good, it is a creature that feeds on the wind.
In a sense, it is possible that the wind flag and the porous tubeworm are slightly related, and both have a very similar ability: to quickly pass fluid through the film-like structure of the body, and through the deformation of the elastic tissue of the body, the electrolyte is stimulated to produce bioelectric electricity for storage, the difference is that one is air and the other is seawater.
Of course, tubeworms can filter out minerals and organic matter directly from nutrient-rich seawater, but Wind Flag chooses to suck the sap from the trees it lives in, which makes the two very different in terms of body structure.
Exposure to rain doesn't make the flag uncomfortable, in a sense, it can be just as much energy as it hits its surface. Like a bird, it stretches out several broad green membranous wings in the air, and the two small eyes at the front of its body, which are barely visible, also dance with the wind, which often leads to reverie: what does the perspective of its eyes really look like, and does it really see the scenery clearly in the state of the spinning sky?
"Can't you eat that thing......" Yumo watched Xinglan curiously look up at the wind flag on the trees next to her, and reminded in a loud voice, "Not only does that creature have no meat, but it will die if you eat it." ”
"Is it poisonous?" Xing Lan was a little stunned, no wonder Feng Qi dared to be so flamboyant and not afraid of being preded, "Well, it shouldn't be too difficult to extract substances that can synthesize toxins from tree sap......"
"That...... Xinglan. Yumo suddenly shouted out to Xinglan in the back a little embarrassed, and the girl's face still had a trace of irrepressible curiosity and expectation, and she asked hesitantly, "Who taught you to speak?" Do you remember the past? ”
"Who taught me to speak?" Xinglan glared back at her with a little crying and laughing: "This one is the same color as the skin, it's natural!" ”
"Huh? This can still be innate......" Yumo had an obvious expression of disbelief, as if she had already grasped a certain fact, "Ah I know, it must be that person who won't let you say it, right!" ”
Xinglan, who didn't know how to react, simply pretended to be looking around for food, and simply didn't answer her, but this attitude seemed to be taken by Yumo as a default, and she always felt that the misunderstanding suddenly became deeper.
"Eh, this one looks good." Xinglan suddenly spotted a relatively short tree nearby, even only two meters high, with a few round fruits hanging from the branches at the lower level, which looked to be fully ripe, and she could reach it directly.
"Don't touch that thing!" Yumo exclaimed violently, grabbed Xinglan's hand, and then gasped in shock, "That's not a fruit, it's so dangerous, remember never to touch it!" ”
"Huh?" Xinglan was slightly stunned, and then saw Yumo pick up a small pebble from the ground, put it in his hand, and threw it at the tree from a distance......
What happened next was chilling.
The fruit that looked very similar to an apple quickly deformed the moment it was hit by a stone, and stretched out countless sharp claws to grab the stone, but then it seemed to realize that it was not food, so it simply threw away the stone and curled up again, and at a glance it was no different from the real fruit!
The surface of the stone that fell on the ground was stained with a layer of eerie slime, and there was even a faint puff of green smoke, and it was clear that the strange creature had done more than just grab it with its claws.
"That's a fruit worm...... Yumo walked over to Xinglan, who was a little dazed, and rubbed her hair unceremoniously, "They will stuff the larvae into the fruit of the tree, and then gradually eat the whole fruit from the inside out, and eventually it will look exactly like this fruit." ”
Xinglan blinked in surprise, "You mean to say that they can simulate many different kinds of fruits?" ”
"That's right, the larvae grow into what fruit they grow up into...... Of course, these fruits are about the same size. Yumo patiently explained, "They are generally mainly used to lure small animals such as birds, but it is better not to touch them, and the identification method is actually very simple, and you can see the faint foot connection between the fruit insects and the branches, so you still need to see it clearly before picking them." ”
"En......"
"But why don't you know anything...... Anyway, you suggested that we come looking for food in the first place. Yumo looked at Xing Lan, and stroked her forehead a little helplessly, from cautious to restrained at the beginning, and then from enthusiasm to speechlessness, the psychological changes she experienced were also quite complicated, "Don't delay time, it will be dark if you continue to rub it off, and then a group of beasts will have to come out." ”
Xinglan looked up at the sky, it was true that the sun had begun to dim a little now, and it was about five o'clock in the afternoon, and Yunmo and Yumo obviously didn't want to be active in the forest in the middle of the night...... Even if you can see everything as clearly as you do during the day, there are already a lot more enemies.
"Well, well, I really don't know much about the situation here......" Xinglan thought about it for a while, and gave a seemingly reasonable explanation, "I just came here from another land not long ago, so I don't know much about the creatures here. ”
At present, among all the continents on Lanxing, the closest to each other are indeed the Northern Yuan Continent and the Southern Yuan Continent that have just split from a whole, and the strait between them can even be said to be like a very wide river, even if the races of primitive societies, if they are lucky, they can use a canoe to cross this strait.
Sure enough, Yumo immediately understood what Xing Lan meant, and said with some surprise: "So you crossed the sea from the north?" Then you are really lucky, it is said that the moon prayers of the same clan who occasionally cross the sea from there will suffer heavy casualties, let alone a ...... Ah, nothing. ”
Compared to her sister, this lively girl still looks a little immature, even if she is constantly reminding herself not to say anything, but it is easier to say it, but at least Xinglan has clearly captured a certain key vocabulary: "Moon prayer people?" ”
"The name of our race is the Prayer Moon." This time, Yumo said it very simply, with a hint of pride in her tone, "I, and my sister are all moon prayers, but Xinglan, you are not, but ...... Something else. Just look at the way your eyes look at it.,Only the silver moon-shaped eyes are the real moon prayer people.,The one who taught you how to talk before should also be a moon prayer person, right? ”
So, is the second race of Lanxing named Qiyue......
However, this statement that the shape of the eyes is different is very interesting, and no matter how you think about it, it is not just a simple reference to other creatures, do you want to distinguish between humans and beasts, and use the shape of the eyes to distinguish between them?
Could there be other humanoids? If it's other terrestrial intelligent races, it may make sense, you must know that even if there are multiple terrestrial civilizations evolved on Lanxing, it is not a particularly strange thing, but it always feels like something is wrong......
Even if it is other intelligent races that are more primitive than the Moon Prayers, there is nothing particularly shameful about it, and at least it must have its own racial name, but what is the situation of Yumo's strange attitude that refuses to say it...... Xinglan had a hunch that this might not be a short-term trivial matter, but a long-term event that could affect the entire course of Lanxing's history.
(Thanks to the wind creature idea provided by "Abyss Disaster", I wish the college entrance examination a smooth ~)