Shangguan Kangning held the bottle containing the two ground green insects in front of him and looked at it carefully. The two bugs in the bottle behaved very strangely.

Because these two bugs have almost been refined into Gu worms, the taste of the bugs has changed, and they now like to eat some pheromone-secreting insects.

Therefore, Shangguan Kangning would often catch some of these insects to feed the ground green insects, and every time he fed such insects, the two insects were very excited and feasted around the food.

But today is different, there are two food worms put in by Shangguan Kangning in the bottle, but the two ground green worms don't care about the food in front of them, as if the food doesn't exist at all. The two little ones were lying on the wall of the bottle, their four tentacles standing upright, shaking in one direction.

Obviously, the two bugs must have smelled something terrible now, and this smell is much more attractive to these two little ones than the food in the bottle.

It can be said that along the way, all six of them focused on the two ground worms, hoping that they could catch the scent emanating from the female of the sun and moon nose worm.

Although it cannot be said at this moment that the reason why the earth green worm has an abnormality is because of the relationship between the sun and the moon nose worm, this reaction is what everyone has been looking forward to.

"How? I hope it? Chen Ziyang asked Shangguan Kang Ning.

"It's hard to say, but this reaction is indeed very strange, much stronger than any reaction of the two bugs before. I think that even if two bugs caught the scent of the female of the sun and moon nose worm, the reaction would not be more than that. ”

Hearing Shangguan Kangning say this, a glimmer of hope ignited in Chen Ziyang's heart. After so many days, walking among the mountains of Gaoligong Mountain, his mood went from full of hope to slowly diminishing hope, until today it is about to turn into disappointment.

The two ground worms had led them to the source of the wrong smell again and again, and now, Shangguan Kangning actually said so, it was obvious that this time the hope was very great.

Since there is a reaction between the two ground worms here, it is possible that the one who emits the smell is the female worm of the sun and moon nose worm dozens of kilometers away from the mountain road.

Dozens of miles of mountain roads, if you put it in another place and walk faster, it only takes one day to complete, and if you are slower, two days is enough. But here in Gaoligong Mountain, it is very difficult to walk through these dozens of kilometers of mountain roads, and it took everyone five days.

Because of the deep cutting of the Nu River, the relative height here is very large, the valley is deep and the mountains are high, the mountains are steep and dangerous, and the landforms are all broken mountains, and it is really not easy to travel in such a place.

On the fifth day, the two ground worms in the bottle became more and more agitated, and it seemed that they were very close to the place where the smell was emitting, and at this time the team came to a forest surrounded by clouds.

Because of the relatively high altitude, there are many places in this mountain range that surround the clouds all year round, and it is extremely difficult to move forward in this environment, and the vision is very poor, and if you are not careful, you may fall under the cliff.

Everyone was walking along a ridge through the woods, and the umbrella stone marshal who was walking at the front of the line suddenly stopped and waved his hand to the people behind him.

"What's wrong?" Several other people approached him and asked.

"Shh......h It seems like...... There are footsteps. Umbrella Shishuai stared at the oblique front and said very seriously. Everyone followed his gaze, and could only vaguely see a few trees relatively close, and in the distance there was a white expanse, and they couldn't see anything clearly.

Everyone listened sideways for a while, but no one heard any sound, and just when the other few people thought that Umbrella Shishuai was making some fuss, suddenly a crisp sound came, which sounded like the sound of a dry branch being trampled off.

Hearing this crisp sound, the expression on Chen Ziyang's face became serious. It is already in the depths of Gaoligong Mountain, it is very difficult to get here, it is absolutely impossible for hikers to come here, and if there is no purpose, no one can go through a lot of hardships to run to such a place.

"Is it possible...... Is it Liu Cong's men chasing after him? Although Chen Ziyang felt that it was relatively unlikely that Liu Cong would send someone to hunt him down, and they should now focus on the Dragon Digging Society, he was unwilling to take this risk, and would rather believe it than believe it.

So at Chen Ziyang's signal, the six people slowly and cautiously stepped back, found a dense bush to hide, and looked out through the gap between the branches. And the three Chen Ziyang brothers also put their hands into their backpacks and clenched their Uzi submachine guns.

After a long while, some slight footsteps came one after another, and it seemed that the people who made the footsteps were also very careful, not wanting to be discovered by others, they walked very slowly.

In the mist, the figures of several people gradually appeared, these people hunched their waists as they walked forward, constantly turning their upper bodies, obviously looking around vigilantly, such a walking posture did not look like a good man or a woman.

Especially the figure closest to the six people, judging from the way he walked, this person seemed to be holding a spear, which aroused Chen Ziyang's vigilance even more.

Slowly, these people in the fog walked very close to where Chen Ziyang and the others were, and at this time they saw that what came out of the fog was a team of five people, and these five people were all men.

Two of the five men were carrying long guns with scopes attached to them, but they were not military rifles of any standard, they looked like modified shotguns.

The other three men were also carrying shotguns, but not in their hands, but on their shoulders, and each of them carried a cage, one of which was empty, and the other two contained animals.

The five-person team walked a few meters in front of the bushes where Chen Ziyang and the others were hiding. Fortunately, Umbrella Shishuai found it in time, and everyone was hiding very hidden, so they were not discovered by these five people.

When these people walked by, Chen Ziyang saw the contents of the two cages.

The first cage contained a tanuki-like animal, with golden-brown fur, white hair around the ears and black nose, and a thick tail with dark and light hairs spaced across the tail.

After thinking for a while, Chen Ziyang remembered that this animal should be a red panda, which he had seen in the zoo before. But there was a second animal that he had never seen before.

In another cage was a larger feline that looked like a lion and a leopard.

The weirdest thing is the pattern on this animal's body. The pattern spots on this animal are very large, and the huge black spots are distributed on the animal's golden hair.

Some spots are black areas, some are small pinches of black hair, and some are hollow closed areas surrounded by black hairs. At first glance, the spots on this animal look like the patterns on those thick pythons in the animal world.

"What kind of animal is this?" Such a question popped up in Chen Ziyang's heart.

Because these people were carrying guns, the people hiding in the bushes were very careful and did not make a sound at all, until judging by the footsteps that these people had gone away, and the six people came out of the bushes one after another.

"Poachers?" Yang Lei asked Shangguan Kang Ning.

"Yes." Shangguan Kangning replied in the affirmative.

After inquiry, Chen Ziyang learned from Shangguan Kangning that the animal he didn't know was called the clouded leopard, which is now very rare and is a national first-class protected animal.

"These people are very powerful, red pandas, and clouded leopards. Thankfully, they didn't spot us, otherwise it would have been a head-to-head encounter. Umbrella Shishuai said.

"Yes, these poachers are all ruthless, licking blood from the tip of their knives, and if they find out that someone else knows their whereabouts, they will kill them without mercy. They won't let us out alive for fear of revealing their whereabouts.

Walking around the mountains all year round, I have encountered these poachers a few times, and every time I encounter them, I am terrified. Shangguan Kangning looked at the direction where the poaching team disappeared and said unhappily.

As a native of the mountains, Shangguan Kangning was the most disgusted by these poachers, although he often caught some rare insects, but that was not the same as poaching.

Looking at the direction in which the poaching team disappeared, Chen Ziyang's face was serious. Seeing his expression, Yang Lei leaned over.

"What's the matter, Ziyang, they've gone far, aren't you still worried?"

After shaking his head, Chen Ziyang said slowly: "The direction they are going in seems to be the same as the direction we are going, and I am worried that we will encounter them again." ”

"It's not that coincidental, the mountains here are bigger, and if we change the direction slightly, it will be 108,000 miles away, and the possibility of us meeting them is very small."

"I hope so, this time I am fortunate to have Brother Umbrella and found them in advance, otherwise maybe we would have fought with them. Anyway, it's better to be careful, Brother Umbrella, you have to pay more attention and be vigilant next.

These people were able to catch two rare animals, which proves that they know this place very well, and in such a mountainous area, it is we who suffer from it, so it is better to pay attention and not to meet them again. ”

Umbrella Shishuai nodded.

With this episode, the team marched even more slowly. But the tentacles of the two ground worms in the bottle were shaking faster and faster, and it was clear that they were now very close to the place where the smell was coming from.

After a night of rough sleeping, the team moved on. In the morning, the fog was thicker and the vision was worse. After walking forward for a while, Umbrella Stone Shuai stopped again vigilantly.

"What's wrong? Do you hear footsteps again? ”

This time, Umbrella Shishuai shook his head. He didn't listen with his ears sideways, but raised his head and sniffed with his nose. After sniffing for a while, he said cautiously again: "Do you smell like smoke?" ”

The air in the mountains is very fresh, and it is simply a huge natural oxygen bar. Walking in the mountains of Gaoligong Mountain, everyone feels a lot more permeable in their chests, and the fresh air here is very refreshing after inhaling into the lungs.

In such a clean air, if there is any smell mixed in, the smell is very obvious.

A few other people followed the example of Umbrella Shi Shuai, raised their noses and sniffed carefully for a while. Sure enough, just like Umbrella Shishuai said, there was a hint of fireworks in the air.

The smell wasn't like a cigarette, it looked like something was burning.

"Could it be that we have a forest fire?"

"No, if it's really a forest fire, the smell of smoke can't be so small, it seems to be the smell of a campfire."

As an engineer for many years, he spends most time in the wild, so he is particularly sensitive to the footsteps of poachers and the smell of smoke in the air.

Sleeping in the barren mountains and mountains, the most worrying thing is to be attacked by wild animals, so these sappers have all practiced the ability to listen to the footsteps of animals when they are on duty at night, and they are camping in the wild, they all build their own stoves, use branches as firewood to cook and eat, and they are also very familiar with the smell of bonfires.

Because the place where the smell of smoke wafted was exactly the direction that everyone wanted to go, the people in the team got up cautiously again and slowly touched in that direction.

Chen Ziyang's fears were fulfilled. The place is inaccessible, and it took so many walks to come across a poaching team. And the direction in which the team was going was the direction in which everyone was going, so nine times out of ten, these bonfires should have been lit by poachers while they were sleeping in the open.

The three brothers Chen Ziyang took out the Uzi submachine gun, and Xu Xiaoyuan and Jin Huang also took out the pistol.

This is really a narrow road. In such a large mountainous area, it is possible to encounter this poaching team twice in succession, and it seems that the road ahead is not very easy to walk.

It would be better if they could get around, but if they couldn't, or if they were discovered by the poaching team, there would inevitably be a fierce battle, so several people were all ready.

Umbrella Shishuai led a few people and walked slowly towards the front.

In a short time, the crowd came to the edge of the woodland. Ahead is a large clearing with a cliff in front of it. Because of the topography and the fact that the sun has risen high now, the fog above the clearing has all dissipated.

Hiding behind a few trees at the edge of the woodland, six people peered out. A small extinguished bonfire emitted green smoke, but there was no sign of the poachers.

(End of chapter)