Chapter 140 Ecological Change

A fresh wild boar carcass lay in the forest.

The internal organs mixed with blood slid out of the abdominal wound and flowed all over the ground.

The strong smell of blood could not stop spreading in all directions, and the residual warmth of the flesh and blood was enough to drive the hungry beast crazy.

Yu Ke stood at the edge of the giant vine forest, holding a telescope, restraining his breath, and waiting quietly.

Soon, the snow covered Yu Ke's body, making him melt into the wind and snow.

As a hunter, patience is the most basic quality.

Yu Ke's strong physique is enough to support him to be exposed to the wind and snow for a long time, and he will not be frozen even if he stands still.

Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes

The wild boar carcass is now covered with snow like Yu Ke, and the internal organs that were steaming hot not long ago have become ice.

'Is it the wrong time? The remnants of the prey will only be cleaned up after the hunt is over? '

Yu Ke, who has never gained anything, can't help but feel confused, but his movements are not relaxed at all.

It was at this time that the vine closest to the wild boar corpse within the telescope's field of view, no, it should be said that the leaves growing on the vines suddenly trembled.

It was not the swaying caused by the cold wind, but the trembling of waking up from a deep sleep!

There were slender limbs protruding from the bottom of the thick leaves as big as a cattail leaf fan, which moved back and forth, and then pressed against the surface of the vines to pull out the stems. Those were clearly the tentacles on their foreheads, exploring the source of the bloody smell.

When the direction of the prey was identified, a crack appeared in the center of the leaf, and the translucent light green membrane wings spread out and flapped quickly, leaving the giant vines with the flat body and heading straight for the wild boar corpse.

In an instant, there was no longer only flying snow above the forest, but also hundreds of dark green "fallen leaves" floating in the sky.

The green leaves and white snow were entangled, and the seemingly beautiful scene was filled with a chilling chill that made people's backs cold.

They rushed to the wild boar corpse from all directions.

Soon, it completely surrounded it, like a colony of ants that found food and feasted on it.

Seeing this scene, Yu Ke frowned, not because he was scared by these fallen leaves, but because he had been highly alert throughout the whole process when he entered the macrophagous vine forest. With his perception ability, if there were other creatures lurking nearby, he should be able to detect it immediately.

Recalling that he had passed these leaves at close range and attacked the flower buds, Yu Ke became more and more certain of his previous speculation.

Whether it is the "leaves" that suddenly came to life after smelling the blood, or the macrophagous vines that are all over the forest, it is very likely that there are two forms, namely plant form and animal form.

This rotation between life states is undoubtedly extremely magical, somewhat like the Cordyceps sinensis in Yu Ke's previous life, but this transformation is more frequent, and the completely different living states before and after the "metamorphosis" are even more incredible.

More importantly, there seems to be a clear difference between the vine leaves and the macrophagous vines.

The former will be attracted by the smell of blood and can actively "pervert", while the latter cannot do this, and will not even react to a devastating attack when not in the hunting state.

Retracting the telescope, Yu Ke broke away from the frozen state, bent his bow and put on the arrow, tilted his head to glance at the position of the wild boar corpse, estimated the distance and the current environment in his mind, and raised the arrow to a certain angle, and frost and snow gathered around the arrow tip.

Loosen the string, the arrow shot out, crossed a distance of 100 meters in the blink of an eye, and directly hit the wild boar corpse.

The next second, a frost ring spread with the arrow as the center, freezing the "leaves" that devoured flesh and blood.

If you want to find out the secrets in the giant vine forest, you can't just rely on long-distance observation. Yu Ke wants to take this opportunity to get some specimens.

Half an hour later, Yu Ke returned to the temporary camp on the cliff with a few more ice sculptures full of cold air in his hands.

Pulling the tent curtain door to isolate the wind and snow, adjusting the brightness of the lighting, Yu Ke brought the frozen "leaf" to his eyes.

With the help of the light, Yu Ke saw a carnivorous insect disguised as a vine leaf, with a flat body, limbs that can be retracted into leaf veins, and a feeding organ under the frontal antenna that is quite similar to the mantis mouthparts, stained with a lot of blood and flesh.

Through comparative observation of multiple samples, Yu Ke noticed that this strange-looking insect seemed to have no eyes, or perhaps the eyes were too small, even to the extent that they were difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.

Putting down the same type of leaf insect ice sculpture, Yu Ke turned to pick up his unexpected harvest next to the wild boar corpse.

When selecting specimens to bring back, Yu Ke would deliberately choose beings of different sizes. However, when he was picking up many frozen leaf insects, he found a special individual different from the leaf insect in the abdominal cavity of the corpse.

It looks a bit like a mutated and enlarged version of a gecko, a bit bigger than a leafworm, with six short legs. Its skin looks like tree roots at first glance, dark and full of wrinkles. A lot of dirt can be seen in the gaps, so it must have just crawled out of the ground.

Now that I think about it, after the macrophagous vines finish hunting, they should be responsible for cleaning up the remaining corpses and turning the hunting ground back to the appearance of nothing happening, so as to facilitate camouflage before the next hunt.

Yu Ke held the ice sculpture of the special individual in both hands and looked through it. His eyes passed through the mouth full of sharp teeth, and paused on the left and right sides of the head. He noticed that its eyes were only the size of mung beans, turbid, and seemed to have degenerated into dispensable organs.

Compared with the leaf insects that depend on the macrophagic vines for survival, this monster is undoubtedly more inclined to animals, and its degenerated eyes are enough to prove that it should live underground all year round.

This discovery made Yu Ke realize that the macrophagic vine is not a single mutant individual. The special ecosystem with it as the core has already taken shape. Various creatures in it depend on it, each performing their own duties, creating favorable conditions for its hunting and sharing the benefits.

The problem is that it has been less than half a month since the macrophagic vine forest grew from explosive mutation to the present.

The hunting behavior of the macrophagic vine may be explained by mutation.

Did the leaf insects and the monster that came out from the ground suddenly mutate with the former?

Under the special environment of the Cataclysm era, biological mutations have never been rare, but the cluster mutations of different species of organisms have formed a unique ecosystem in a very short time, which has never happened before.

Unless their mutations have existed for a long time, and the ecosystem has been formed for a long time, but it has not been discovered!

Looking at the monster ice sculpture, Yu Ke half-squinted his eyes, sorting out the clues found so far in his mind, and finally locked his sight on the soil between the folds on the monster's back, and a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in his eyes.

The roots of the macrophagous vines are hidden underground, and the blood and flesh energy obtained by the flower buds after capturing prey is transmitted underground. This strange creature lives underground, and even the horse altar master uses the macrophagous vines to absorb energy underground.

Is this a coincidence?

The macrophagous vine forest that is expanding wildly on the surface deep in the Mirror Lake Forest is likely to have its powerful roots buried underground.

Yu Ke, who realized this, immediately contacted the Forestry Bureau, first sent the photos of the specimens he had collected, and then asked them to send a drone to bring the specimens back for further research while it was still dark.

At the same time, Yu Ke began to prepare for the heavy rain tomorrow morning.

At that time, the macrophagous vines should start a new round of hunting.

He wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to use a drone to observe the macrophagous vines' eating process at close range.

Of course, the "close distance" here does not mean that Yu Ke is going to rush into the hunting ground. He has no intention of experiencing the taste of being surrounded by macrophagous vines in person, but to control the drone purchased in advance to conduct close reconnaissance during the hunting process.

The Forestry Bureau responded quickly after receiving the news.

Not only will a drone be sent to receive the ice sculptures, but two additional multi-functional drones will be sent to stand by over the macrophagous vine forest, controlled by internal personnel of the Forestry Bureau and obey Yu Ke's dispatch.

It is now around three o'clock in the afternoon, and there is still some time before the heavy rain at two o'clock in the morning tomorrow.

Yu Ke did not plan to leave the tent again. While waiting for the drone of the Forestry Bureau to arrive, he began to debug his own drone.

After assembling all the accessories according to the instructions, Yu Ke put on smart glasses and first tested the drone on the cliff to test its reconnaissance effect in the low-temperature snowy environment. The result made him quite satisfied.

As time passed, the sky outside was getting darker at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The drone of the Forestry Bureau arrived at around five o'clock. Yu Ke simply packed the ice sculpture and asked it to take it back. At the same time, he contacted the personnel who controlled the other two multi-functional drones and told them to go to rest first and wait until the early morning to arrive.

He took off his coat and lay down on the folding bed, took out a blanket to cover it, and put the flashlight on the bedside. Yu Ke lay on his side on the bed. The mobile phone with satellite signal could still connect to the Internet normally in the depths of the Mirror Lake Forest.

Reading the popular adventure novels of the era of disaster, the wood stove was burning not far from the end of the bed, transmitting heat continuously, and the whistling wind and snow outside the tent and the rustling of tree branches were in my ears.

When I was hungry, there were snacks and drinks beside the bed. When I was tired, I leaned on the pillow and took a nap to recover my energy.

At this moment, Yu Ke felt particularly relaxed, and the flow of time seemed to have become faster.

When the dark night fell completely, Yu Ke stood up decisively, picked up the remote control, turned on the observation equipment installed on the edge of the cliff, turned on the night vision mode, and projected the scene of the area where the macrophagous vine forest was located to one side of the tent.

The snow was relieved compared to the afternoon.

This does not mean that the weather has improved, but because the upcoming heavy rain is brewing.

As the time approached the rainy time in the weather forecast, Yu Ke paid attention to the situation of the Macrophagous Vine Forest and contacted the drone operator, "When the Macrophagous Vine hunting begins, you will control the drone to hover over the vine forest. You don't need to get too close. Just tell me which area has the most beasts and the most frequent flower buds. Without my order, it is forbidden to attack the vine forest." The Macrophagous Vine in hunting mode is extremely aggressive, and the multifunctional drone sent by the Forestry Protection Bureau is not small because it is equipped with various modules. If you approach rashly, you may be attacked by the Macrophagous Vine as a bird beast.

Yu Ke might need them to help him control the drone to sneak into the Macrophagous Vine Forest, so he couldn't let them be destroyed in advance.

Beep~ Beep~ Beep~

The watch sounded an alarm, and the time came to two o'clock in the morning.

In the picture taken by the observation equipment, the fine snow has turned into rain, and the density is still rising.

With the arrival of heavy rain, the flower buds of the Macrophagous Vine high above the jungle are in state.

The hunt is about to begin.