"Are those glowing fungi poisonous?" whispered Leah.

Zero shook his head and said, "Look closely, not all moles are dead. ”

Sure enough, only some of the moles died, but some of them were contaminated with luminescent fungi, but they did not die, still gnawing on the plump mycorrhizae. After a full meal, they walk around the neighborhood slowly, oblivious to the corpses of their own kind. After being eaten by the giant rats, the mushroom stems began to grow a thin fibrous membrane to seal the "wound".

Look at the dead moles, their corpses are decomposing. The rate of decay is very fast, and changes that would take days to complete can be completed in just a few tens of seconds. However, on the decomposing corpses, the glowing fungus gradually disappeared. Instead, there are tiny sprouts that further decompose the mole carcasses, allowing the animals to become fertilizer for the land entirely.

"Symbiotic system. Moni suddenly said: "In the two years I have been in the dark earth, I have also seen some plants use this method to prolong the life of themselves and their descendants. They use aromas or colors to attract nearby animals, and then sprinkle the seeds on these animals. Some animals die for no apparent reason, and their carcasses become fertilizer for the plants. But others survive, and they can be gifted by plants. ”

"The animals that survive leave soon after, and they take the seeds of the plants to other places to reproduce their offspring. This practice of plants is what the Amanda people call symbiotic systems. Moni concluded.

"We didn't want to eat these giant mushrooms, we hope it doesn't think of us as animals. Jin looked worriedly at the glowing mushrooms on top of his head, fearing that they would fall.

The crowd laughed, and Moni said, "Don't worry, plants can tell if you're their eater by smell." If not, they wouldn't waste the seeds on you. ”

"Plants can still distinguish smells, and the world is crazy. "Kim is a bit crazy.

Zero shrugged his shoulders and said, "How can this world ever be normal?"

Suddenly, some giant mushrooms a hundred paces away, the color of the glowing mushrooms on their caps changed. Whatever color they had been before, they were now dimming and lit up with a bright red color. No matter how you look at it, it looks like a plant is alarming. Noticing the change in the color of the photobacteria, some moles raised their heads alertly, then "squeaked" and turned around and ran.

Something is coming!

The thought struck, and a cry like a blue whale sounded from the darkness. With the sound of breaking the air, it was like something swept through the space at high speed. It's a pity that the things in the darkness are so far away that even Zero can't see each other.

A mole seemed frightened, and it ran in the direction of Zero in a daze. Zero stared at him, ready to kill the fat rat, or it would lure unknown creatures in. But before he could make a move, an octopus-like tentacle suddenly pounced out of the darkness, and it pierced through the many giant mushrooms, as agile as a snake, and pounced on the mole's body with great precision.

The ground shook slightly, and according to the tremor of the ground, everyone present was all high-level, and it was not difficult to push out the power of the tentacle with a slap of nearly a ton. Not to mention the mole, even an iron plate has to be deformed with such a shot. Sure enough, when the tentacle was slightly raised, the mole had already turned into a lump of flesh. The tentacles rolled up the corpse of the rat, retracted it with another snort, and disappeared into the darkness in the distance in an instant.

The screams of moles continued to be heard nearby, and it was not until a moment later that the sound gradually stopped, and the light mushrooms on the giant mushrooms changed color. The red light gradually retracted, and then emitted other soft colors.

The hunter is gone.

"Let's go. Zero said.

"What was that?" Haiwei couldn't help but ask, of course she knew, there was no answer to that question.

"Some kind of big predator, as long as it's not in our way, let's not bother with it. Zero, then identified the direction of the sound of the water, and set off with the team.

The sound of water is getting closer, and the mushroom forest is far away.

Far away, but through the misty phosgene emitted by the entire mushroom forest, you can see that in the giant mushroom forest, a figure as tall as a hill is moving slowly. It is not clear what it looks like, but when it is seen in its outline, it is reminiscent of a snail. The apparently round body and the high head in front of it resemble the appearance of a snail.

The biggest snail Zero has ever seen is the Overlord Snail, but compared to the giant thing in the mushroom forest, the Overlord Snail is nothing in between. However, that thing may not be a snail, who has ever seen a snail with tentacles, so in the end, Zero can only attribute the giant thing in the mushroom forest to the category of giant xenomorphs.

After leaving the mushroom forest, it was obvious that the soil on the ground was getting wet, and then gravel began to appear, and finally they came to a rocky beach. Not far from the rocky beach, a stream and river were in an uproar. The water came from behind them, flowing down the terrain. It seems that the river must have been an underground branch of the inlet lake, which then passed through the surface to form such a river.

The river is inhabited by its own creatures, and some strange fish with a few glowing tentacles are the inhabitants of the water. They are small and slender in size. The speed of swimming in the water is very fast, and if you swim with the water, it is estimated that it can reach a level of 30 kilometers per hour. This is already fast, and although it is not possible to swim like this for long periods of time, it is able to avoid the attacks of some predators when necessary.

The predator in the water is a water snake-like animal that emerges from the cracks in the rocks on both sides of the river. These animals have snake-like bodies, but their skin is transparent and their surfaces glow fluorescent. It has three pairs of legs, and the pair of feet has a frog-like toe structure with webbed toes. When the snake stretches out its feet, it can float on the surface of the water with the webbing between its toes, like a glowing branch.

It uses its specialty to attract some whiskered fish, and the moment the prey approaches, the snake will suddenly roll into a ball, hang the prey, and then drag it into the crevice of the stone to eat.

When they were resting by the river, they happened to witness the whole hunt. From the giant mushroom forest to the stream, they have seen that this underground world has its own set of independent ecosystems. In this ecosystem, predators and prey are constantly fighting. As long as either side relaxes, it may be a catastrophe.

Competition is everywhere.

This is the most idyllic portrayal of the New World, from Prosius and Agradis, to humans and aliens, and even in the separate space beneath the earth, there is competition between living beings everywhere.

It's all about survival!

After a 10-minute break, the team set off again. Walking along the river, the terrain is high and low, but the slope is gentle, and it is difficult to detect that you are heading underground. Walking in the dark is lackluster, and after losing an obvious reference, the perception of time gradually becomes blurred. The road ahead is forever in darkness, and there seems to be no end in sight in the pillar of light.

Endless darkness that devours everything.

Just when they thought the road would never end, Zero suddenly stopped. The slope of the terrain in front of you suddenly increased, and the river flowing down turned into a waterfall, turning into the sound of rushing water.

"Flares!"

There was nothing to see in the darkness ahead, and for the sake of safety, it was obvious that you could not skimp on a flare. When the flares were lifted into the air, the crowd held their breath. Where they are now is a cliff about 20 meters above the ground. Here, the river cascades and falls, like a stream of mercury into a lake below.

The lake is not large, estimated to be only a few tens of meters. The water of the lake is constantly rippling, and there must be underground waterways under the lake that are connected to other places, otherwise the lake water cannot remain in its normal state. Behind the lake is a mountainous terrain with rocky ground and glowing moss. Where the flares do not reach the light, there is a faint glow in the darkness.

And behind this mountainous area, some strange outlines can be faintly seen by the light of the flares.

Like the ribs of a giant beast, the two sides of the ground rise from the ground in an inward-curved structure, which is recorded in the ShadowClan mural, and is also the second advance node after the giant mushroom forest, the giant beast canyon. Passing through this canyon, you can reach the plain area where the dragon's lair is located, and after the saurus plain, the Titan Hall is not far away.

The light of the flares was fading, and Zero was not idle, jumping straight from the cliff to the lake below. Swimming out of the lake and reaching the shore, the subterranean world was shrouded in darkness. A moment later, glowing moss-clad rays appeared in the darkness, like a glowing carpet marking the direction of the zero line.

With these glowing mosses, Zero simply turned off the light source to save energy, and others followed suit. The crowd walked on a carpet of light, while the Blade Hunters were scattered on both sides of the line to act as guards. The team advanced towards the Canyon of the Behemoth, unhindered.

As you approach the Behemoth Canyon, the amount of glowing moss is decreasing, and it looks like the canyon's soil is not suitable for this plant to grow. The soil on the ground is also soft and hard, and when you come to the entrance of the canyon, you can pick up any stone and you can find that it is as hard as steel. With such a molecular structure, it's no wonder that Glowing Moss can't expand its territory into the canyon.

The whole canyon is filled with the smell of emptiness and death.

"Be careful. Zero whispered, turning the light back on, and headed into the canyon first.

The canyon is wide, and the rocks on both sides curve like the skeleton of a giant beast. From time to time, very strong winds would blow from the other side of the valley, scorching hot and carrying some hard sand. Zero-sum Gold had to go ahead and open the force field, opening both sides of the wind and gravel force field. But I don't know where the wind comes from under this earth.

What can be known is that it is precisely because of these hot winds and the sand and gravel comparable to metal that the special landform such as the Behemoth Canyon has been created. As you can imagine, in the beginning, it may have been just an ordinary underground canyon. It didn't have the special appearance it has now, but at some point, with the foehn wind and iron sand, they gradually eroded the landscape of the canyon, and it was only then that the mountain wall that resembled the ribs of a giant beast was formed.

Fortunately, the foehn wind does not blow non-stop, and occasionally comes in one or two bursts, with long intervals. The longest one was almost 40 minutes long. They walked in the canyon for nearly two hours, and they only encountered three or two such foehn winds. But the distance to the canyon seemed to be a long one, at least they didn't see the end in sight, and after a while, Zero stopped the team to rest.

Eat some food, hydrate and recharge. Exploring underground without light can take far more energy than on the ground. The most of this consumption comes from being vigilant against the unknown darkness. Therefore, it is not possible to march for a long time, and the necessary rest is an important guarantee for reaching the destination safely.

Haiwei was an idle girl, and while she was eating, her feet on a stone were still shaking from time to time. Suddenly her toes touched something, and she looked down and let out a short exclamation.

It turned out that under the sole of his foot, there was a skull. It's just that the shape is a little strange, and I don't know what kind of animal it is. But it soon became clear that on the floor of this section of the canyon, under the gravel what resembled the skull of some kind of animal, or other bones of the body, could be found almost everywhere. It's almost a graveyard of animals, with countless bones.

Zero said in a deep voice: "Be careful, everyone, we seem to have stepped into some kind of predator's territory. ”

Before he had finished speaking, Leah stood up and said, "Something is approaching us. ”

"Location!"

"Two o'clock, no...... It moves fast. It's close......"

As Leah exclaimed, the sound of breaking through the air above everyone's heads sounded, and the fishy smell pressed from top to bottom. Zero raised his head, and under the light, he saw a black shadow swooping down from the side of the mountain wall where they were resting, and flying with debris. Jin reacted very quickly, and immediately pressed one hand on the mountain wall, and suddenly a rock face in the middle of the mountain wall exploded, blowing the thing away, and a little blood stain fell.

The shadow fell to the ground and swept towards them at a rapid pace. His feet were like flying, and he stepped on the gravel of the canyon and flew up. Zero caught up first, but this thing was extremely flexible. The sudden braking and turning killing, leaving a surging wave of air in the air, had bypassed Zero and crashed into the team behind.

It lunged straight at Leah, killing awe-inspiring, like a sapient species. It seems to know that Leah sensed it in advance, so it was put on the must-kill list. It was amazingly fast, with zero muffled grunts, and it was just about to flash through the space jump. A scream suddenly sounded in the ranks, and a cold light flashed like autumn water, piercing straight into the black shadow's body.

It's Monnie!

She combined the death assault into the form of a spear blade, following the tip of the spear to pierce through the dark shadow with precision. But the impact still caused her to slide back on the ground, and she didn't stop until her pink back hit the hill. The thing's limbs still twitched from time to time, and the nerve endings were still working. Moni lowered the blade of her spear and stomped on it to pull out the death assault, causing blood to fill the ground.

It was a rat-headed man with short dark brown hair. Both eyes are degenerate, but the nose is particularly large. From the top of the head to the tail, there is a row of short dark red spines growing along the entire back. The body appears a little thin, and you can clearly see the human-like physical characteristics, especially the shape of the ribs, which is no different from a human. It's just that the hands and feet are full of sharp claws like sabers, and a tail is thin and long, but the tail end has a bony needle.

Looking at the specialty of this giant beast canyon, Zero took matters into his own hands and dismembered it with the dagger in his hand in order to understand the body structure of this thing. Where the blade goes, the flesh and skin are separated. Under Zero's knife, the rat-headed man was soon reduced to pieces. It is not difficult to see from the structure of its body that this thing has evolved to a fairly high level. Its brain is well developed, and the sulcus inside are both deep and dense, which is characteristic of intelligent life.

The bones are as light as the previously discovered fish-man skeletons, which greatly reduces the weight of the nezumen. But the most developed is its muscles, especially the femoris muscles of the hind legs, which have a lot of fibers and delicate and tight muscle bundles. This allows the nezumi to make a quick turn when needed. Whether it's avoiding danger or hunting prey, it's an extremely rare skill.

Finally, there are its knife-like claws on all four legs, and Zero finds a muscle brace in its claws. If you squeeze hard, you can spray out the claws and hurt the enemy, and the effective killing distance is about ten meters. There is also a very powerful weapon in the tail needle, there is a poison sac at the end of the needle, it seems that after piercing into the prey, it can make a hydraulic squeeze poison sac through the flow of blood in the blood vessels, so as to inject some toxins.

Zero carefully punctured the sac, and a turquoise, fluorescent solution flowed out of it. As soon as it touched the gravel in the canyon, it burned so loudly that the stones were already black after a while. It's a very powerful biotoxin, but the sac is so small that it can be squeezed out a little. But this little toxin is enough to bring down many creatures.

Overall, this is a predator of a higher level than the saurosaurus. And they have evolved intelligence, making them even more dangerous. Behemoth Canyon may be the territory of this kind of nezumi, and if you continue to go deeper, encounters will be inevitable. After explaining the characteristics and structure of the rat people to everyone, the team set out on the road. They walked close to the side of the mountain wall to avoid surprise attacks as much as possible. However, Zero knew very well that the movements of his team could not be concealed from the residents of the canyon.

For he had spotted on the other side of the mountain wall, in the darkness beyond the reach of the light, something was watching their team. Although the nezumi have degraded eyes, the subterranean creatures naturally have a system of perception. Or the sense of vibration, or the sense of smell or something, those perception systems that are not affected by the line of sight must have allowed them to evolve to a higher level.

The trip to the canyon was anything but uneventful, and Zero had expected that. But when Leah projected the image of a mental scan in the minds of Zero and the others, they were still deeply shocked. On both sides of the canyon, dense spots of light appeared within a three-hundred-meter square area. Each point of light represents a creature, and there are thousands of such creatures.

If all of them were the kind of ratmen who acted like the wind, even the Zero team would have quite a headache.

As for the short spines on the back, the purpose is unknown.