Tianxiang guessed correctly, it was indeed a person, a person exactly like himself. Judging by their outfits, it seems that they should also be people who hunt insects for a living. In appearance, it should be two men and a woman. They weren't far from themselves, less than a hundred meters apart. Although the phosphorus fire that shone in the darkness of the ruins was not bright, Tianxiang, who had grown up in the darkness since he was a child, still saw what these strange postures were doing with his superior visual ability.

Two men, carrying a woman. From Tianxiang's point of view, the woman seemed to have been thrown to the ground by two men without any consciousness, and the liquid that slowly flowed from the surface of her body to the ground was most likely the blood in the woman's body. Perhaps wanting a little light and warmth, the two men started a bonfire after being busy around with their bows down for a while. With the help of the blazing fire, Tianxiang finally saw the woman lying on the ground clearly. There was no longer a trace of life in her eyes, and the pale eyes had already bulged out of their sockets. It is clear that this is a man who has been dead for a long time.

Fire drives away insects, and with the exception of those carnivorous insects, which are extremely strong, few insects will see the fire and pounce on itself. Therefore, even if the barbecued food exudes a strong smell, it will definitely not attract a large number of insects. Although Tianxiang also had the necessary things to start a fire, in order to save trouble, he still slept wrapped in clothes. After all, finding enough fuel in the ruins is not an easy task. Even so, Tianxiang's sturdy body was still frozen by the cold air that penetrated through the bones, and his upper and lower teeth fought. So, despite the strange movements of the two kinds, Tianxiang decided to say hello and warm himself in front of the fire so that he could figure out who the dead woman was.

However, just as he wanted to get up and make a move, he saw a scene that shocked him.

Two unkempt male hunters, after adding some fuel to the fire, began to turn around and crouch in front of the dead female corpse. I saw that they invariably pulled out a sharp knife from their waists, tightly grabbed a mass of muscles on the female corpse that had lost some elasticity with their hands, poked it hard, and cut it down the ligaments fixed by the muscles themselves. Soon, both hunters were each carrying strips of fresh human flesh red and white, with a slight portion of the blood about to coagulate.

"They're hunting, too, but they're hunting our kind." Such a terrifying thought suddenly popped up in Tianxiang's heart. A long time ago, when he and his sister met the first hunters, they had heard that there were male hunters who tended to target women and children for themselves when they had no food for a long time. Because, hunting a bug may encounter many inexplicable and unknowable dangers. But hunting down a fellow citizen doesn't have to be so difficult, just approach him carefully and gain his trust. As for those who are weaker than men in strength, it is easier to deal with them.

What's more, according to hunters who have tasted human flesh, it tastes better than any insect meat. Especially women, young women. They are born with a layer of subcutaneous fat, and if they eat it raw, they will also feel a unique soft and sweet taste.

The two hunters in front of Tianxiang were doing just that. I saw that they didn't want to put the meat in their hands on the fire to grill at all, but directly stuffed it into Da Zhang's mouth. As the masseter muscles tore hard and the bulging cheeks swayed up and down, a mixture of half-dried blood clots and white saliva slowly flowed down from the corners of its mouth like an overflowing sluice. One of them, in particular, held the piece of white fat in his hand and devoured it.

"Natural selection, the law of the jungle". This is one of the experiences that Tianxiang has gained from learning from the machine and many years of hunting life. Although, in a way, the two hunters in front of them did nothing wrong. But in Tianxiang's subconscious, he still has a considerable aversion to the practice of killing and using his own kind as food. Therefore, he decided to get out of here, leaving behind the two barbarians who were eating Hesse around the corpse.

Of course, there is one more important reason – smell! The smell of blood!

I don't know if it was the negligence of the two pig hunters or if they didn't have this consciousness at all, although the woman had been dead for a long time, the blood on her body had not completely coagulated. Coupled with the large amount of semi-fluidized viscous blood clots gushing out from the torn wound, the thick smell of blood that permeated the air even Tianxiang, who was in the leeward place, was so stimulated that he couldn't help but want to sneeze. As for those carnivorous insects with an unusually sensitive sense of smell, let alone naturally. It's not the day of the sun, and it's impossible to stop the hungry swarm of insects that are about to smell the wind by relying on a campfire with little fuel.

"Instead of hiding here and watching these disgusting shots and waiting to die, you might as well get out of it right away." Soon, Tianxiang, who had already planned in his heart, quickly packed up his things, carefully leaned on the scattered ruins of the ruined building, and quietly left this temporary shelter through another exit.

As he slowly walked a distance of about a few hundred meters, a wail of terror and fear came from the ruins like thunder that shook the heavens and the earth. It is an infinite desire to survive and the most instinctive wail of human beings in the face of the threat of death.

When there is no sun, danger is always hidden in the shadows. It's like an inexplicable killer, always trying to pounce on you and give you a fatal blow when you least expect it. Tianxiang is no exception. Hunters who dare to go out on non-solar days generally have only two possibilities: one is that they are completely hungry, and the other is that they belong to the kind of brave people who are experienced, agile and strong.

The first reason is that Tianxiang has already tried. Of course, he also has all the capital for the second reason of implementation. Although he was quite clever in choosing a leeward spot on his way out, bugs with unusually well-developed olfactory organs always showed up in the most unexpected places. All the way out of the ruins, Tianxiang has encountered two batches of more than 100 roster maggots in a row. Although these carnivores have a fair amount of protein, they are rich in fat and taste much more delicious than other prey, and have a high nutritional content of all kinds of insect meat. But no matter how you say it, there is only one person in Tianxiang. Although he was strong, much stronger than ordinary hunters, there was only one person after all. For an insect like a rot maggot that lives in groups, it is basically the difference between a tiger and a pack of wolves. Therefore, in this kind of situation, the only way is to hide, as far as you want.

But when you really can't hide, of course, there is a way. That is, to make the bugs think you are one of them.

Carrion maggots, flying insects, giant cockroaches。。。。。。 Like a gathering of zergs, these carnivores that usually only operate in the darkest places are all desperately moving towards the ruins. In the face of these terrifying opponents, Tianxiang could only crawl slowly in piles of rubble, changing his forward route at any time according to the situation. When he came out, he had already smeared a layer of foul-smelling insect feces all over his body. With this scent as a protection, bugs that rely solely on their sense of smell to find prey won't be able to beat their minds at all. Just two minutes ago, a round rotting maggot swept past Tianxiang with its fat all over its body. I didn't think that this guy who smelled like that would be a big meal. They are only interested in blood and flesh that is exposed to the air. Whether the pieces of meat are fresh or rancid, they will taste just as good.

The main targets that Tianxiang has to guard against are those insects with keen vision. Large swarms of flying insects fall into this category. With two delicate compound eyes, they will never miss the slightest movement. Although it was unclear why these terrible things had such good eyesight, Tianxiang could only lie motionless in the rubble like a corpse when a large number of flying insects swept overhead. It's not that he doesn't want to move, it's that he doesn't dare to move at all. Listening to the sound of the urns of flying insects vibrating their wings, and a few fat and sticky carrion maggots and giant cockroaches rubbing around from time to time, I am afraid that even the most cold-blooded people will feel fear from the bottom of their hearts in the face of such a scene. Tianxiang is no exception. But reason told him, "In such a situation, there can be no movement at all." ”

Tianxiang had seen it with his own eyes, and it was in a similar situation as now, that the six hunters jumped up from the ground and ran wildly because they couldn't bear the fear in their hearts, and they were instantly pierced into a honeycomb by more than hundreds of flying insects with needle mouthparts. In less than five minutes, the flying insects that specialize in sucking blood have been sucked into six human skins.

It had been more than two minutes since the swarm passed by, and with the time it had taken to breathe before, it had been more than ten minutes before and after. During this time, Tianxiang did not take a breath, not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't dare. Sometimes, the breath in the mouth often reveals one's location, which can lead to insect attacks. Tianxiang is not willing to take such a risk, and he should not take any risks. Years of hunting have taught him how to reduce the oxygen supply in his body in critical situations, simply by holding his breath. It's just that, compared to the normal breathing of ordinary people, Tianxiang can stay in a closed state for nearly twenty minutes after deep inhalation.

There was no sound coming from the other side of the ruins. But Tianxiang, who was lying on the ground, could feel from the fluctuations coming from the ground that there was a riot going on there, a riot within the insects to fight for food. To put it bluntly, they are also hunters. However, there is a fundamental difference between insects and humans in terms of what they hunt and what they mean from each other.

"Let's go, it's now!" Before he had time to think about it, Tianxiang, who had almost been submerged in dust, suddenly jumped up from the ground in the lightest posture like a frightened antelope, and quickly plunged into the gap between the ruins of the building. It only took a few seconds for the tall, thin figure to disappear completely into the dust raised by the swarm.

"Hurry up! Hurry up! Tianxiang had no time in his mind to think about anything else right now. He just wanted to run, run as hard as he could, so that he could stay as far away as possible from the path the biters were traveling when they returned. Almost all insects have the strange habit of returning the way they came, and as long as they leave their range of perception, they will naturally be safely protected.

In this way, Tianxiang had been running at his fastest speed for nearly half an hour, and then he jumped in front of a dilapidated house that seemed relatively hidden, as if a beast had captured its prey.

"Rest, take a break." He told himself, stroking his chest and gasping for air. The run just now had already consumed some of his physical strength, and if he didn't replenish it, if he encountered the same danger again, without sufficient physical strength to guarantee it, he was not sure whether he would be able to escape again. As a result, even though the vigorous running puts a lot of burden on the body, breathing becomes somewhat difficult. After slowly adjusting, Tianxiang took out a piece of warm aphid jerky from the leather bag in his arms, carefully tore off a piece, and stuffed it into his mouth.

"You can't eat right away after a strenuous workout, and you can't drink water." This is one of the most useful knowledge that Tianxiang has gained from the learning machine. Therefore, instead of chewing and swallowing the slices of meat that he stuffed into his mouth, he put them under his tongue, slowly soaked them with saliva, and then blotted them dry little by little, thus satisfying the thirst of his dry throat.

The short rest was very effective, and after only a few minutes, Tianxiang was satisfied to find that the exhausted physical strength filled his body again. Now he can run at the same speed for a longer period of time. What's more, the fluctuations coming from the ground didn't have the slightest intention of coming this way, and the ears that were clinging to the ground confirmed it.

There was still some distance from here to the library, and Tianxiang didn't care about it at all. As long as you master the habits of insects and understand their activities, you can successfully avoid these terrifying traps. If there were no accidents like today, it would only take about ten hours at most to reach the library without any problems.

Luckily, Tianxiang was lucky. After the reading representing the hour on the timer jumped eleven times in a row, he was already standing in front of a rather tall but dilapidated building. Several pieces of iron nameplate that were tightly attached to it, covered with mold and rust, clearly told him: this is the library.

Walking into the porch, the first thing that catches Tianxiang's eye is a row of insect nests hanging on the zenith. This is a type of herbivore insect called a sawtooth wasp. With wings, they rely on a pair of sharp mouthparts to cut small stems and leaves from the plant, bring them back to the nest and soak them in the liquid secreted by their bodies, and when the leaves are completely dissolved, they can extend a needle mouthpart from their mouths and inhale the completely liquefied food into their bodies.

For the sawtooth bee, Tianxiang didn't want to provoke. Although they are vegetarians, those two jagged mouthparts are their best tools for attacking their enemies. That's true even for the Vampire Flying Worms. Flying insects that want to sneak up on the larvae, but are stopped by all two halves, will almost always retreat in front of the sharp blades of the adult sawtooth bee. The scattered corpses scattered around the hive are the best proof of this. Therefore, Tianxiang could only choose the route away from the hive to sneak into the library as much as possible. He knew very well that as long as he saw that he was not hostile, the sawtooth bee would never attack first.

"Oh my God!" Tianxiang, who entered the inner corridor of the library, couldn't help but be stunned by the scene in front of him. If the outside world is a ruin made of reinforced concrete bricks, then everything here is a dead place made of books and shelves. Yellowed and blackened books were scattered everywhere, and scattered pages were blown all over the floor by the air that penetrated through the cracks in the house. There are also many books that have been soaked in water and dried in the shade, but they simply turn into powder and confetti at the touch of a button, floating in the air like a flock of gray-yellow butterflies.

There are too many books, if not 100,000 but 80,000. But to Tianxiang's disappointment, these books are basically all damaged, and most of them can no longer be read. A hundred years have cast fragile marks on these otherwise soft pages. If you turn it over lightly, it will be like a wet wall plaster, turning into some scattered pieces of paper and falling down, so that Tianxiang no longer dares to reach out and touch it.

"Find! Look for it! It's so big that there should be a lot of books that have survived. Tianxiang only had this one thought in his mind at the moment. I have endured all the hardships to run here from the crypt, how can I not have a little gain. What's more, it has already been said on the learning machine that the ancients had many methods for preserving books. Since this is a place dedicated to collecting books, there should be something well-preserved.