alien island

The two stood up, trying to maintain a natural posture, and slowly approached the direction of the reverse root ebony tree. Walking around the huge trunk, the two found a wooden hole that was closer to the ground, and this The direction of the entrance of the cave is not bad, it is located in a blind spot of most orcs, not many orcs will pay attention to the movement in this direction.

Looking around, there happened to be no other orcs paying attention to this side at this time. Zhang Yao first stepped on the palm of Pei Yan's handshake to make it easier for him to step up, grabbed the edge of the wooden hole, jumped up, and then turned around Looking up, Pei Yan, who was still at the bottom, had already grasped the uneven bark surface outside the trunk, and flexibly climbed up by himself, without Zhang Yao pulling the handle at all.

Entering the mouth of the tree hole, it was only two to three meters deep, and the light from outside could no longer be seen. The surroundings became dark, and the vision was not very good. Zhang Yao put the cloak he had been wearing on his head The cap was off to allow him to see it better.Stretching out his palm, Zhang Yao touched the surface of the side wall next to the tree hole. It was quite smooth, but he didn’t know how the orcs dug these holes. Feeling the hardness of its texture, it is not an easy task to dig out so many holes that can allow the orcs to enter, and four or five orcs can pass side by side.Even if they are powerful, they should not be so powerful as this exaggeration.What's more, this requires patience and continuous digging. Zhang Yao always feels that those orcs will not be willing to persist in digging.

After going ten meters deep inside, the surrounding environment became even darker. Just as Zhang Yao was wondering what kind of sturdy eyesight those orcs used to walk inside, and speculated whether they had night vision ability, Suddenly, the side walls of the tree holes on both sides emitted a cloud of bright green light, which made Zhang Yao back away in shock: "What is that?"

Pei Yan, who was standing beside him, also saw the lights shining in front of him one after another, and explained to Zhang Yao, "It's the eclipsed grass."

"Grass?" Zhang Yao walked closer, only to find that the glowing object was a dark green plant clinging to the wall of the tree cave. It looks like a bunch of clusters, and the fluorescent green light emanates from its leaves.

"It will emit light when it senses a heat source, and it can also be used for lighting." Pei Yan looked at the plants that became more radiant as they approached, and said to Zhang Yao.

I just wondered how the orcs would spend their time in the dark passage of the tree hole. It turns out that there are such plants to illuminate them, so they don't have to walk directly and bump into the wall.However, plants also rely on photosynthesis, right? How can they survive in this place without soil and sunlight all day long?Don't even expect those orcs to come and water them diligently or something.

As if understanding that Zhang Yao was wondering how these plants grow, Pei Yan squatted down, pointed at the roots of the erosion grass, and said, "They survive by absorbing animal carcasses, melting them, and sucking the eroded juice."

Sure enough... As soon as he lowered his head, Zhang Yao saw the corpse of an eight-legged furry animal, leaning on the ground on its back, and the plants were coming out of its body.Near the plants, the meat has begun to show a semi-melted state, like ground meat paste.It turns out that these plants don't need to be watered, as long as you throw a dead object regularly, they can be used as lighting sensor lights...

However, aren't these corpses afraid of decomposing?How bad it must have been in this unventilated tree hole.

"I see that there are quite a lot of eroded grass here. Don't they smell bad? There are so many corpses in there." No longer paying attention to the grass beside the cave, Zhang Yao and Pei Yan continued to walk inside. Every time they are about to pass a little ahead, the sides of the tree hole channel will quickly illuminate due to the induction of heat energy, and after they pass by and leave, they will slowly dim again. There are at least a dozen trees passing by For such plants, Zhang Yao naturally felt that this issue was still very important. So many plants meant that so many corpses were needed.

"The grass may contain special substances. Because they need to erode the meat of their food and convert it into the liquid they need. This process will last for several weeks. The substances released in the grass can keep the corpse in a state before death, It won’t rot.” Therefore, the corpse has been kept in the state of just dying, gradually digested and absorbed by the grass, but it will not emit a rancid smell.

"It's really amazing..." If this kind of plant can be brought back to the civilized world to improve it, maybe it can be made into the legendary potion of immortality that women want?Even the corpse can be kept from decaying all the time, Zhang Yao couldn't help but start to be a little imaginative in his mind.And in front of them, there suddenly began to be other lights that did not belong to plant lighting.

Cautiously continue to walk straight forward, the light in front is getting stronger and stronger, after a while, the two arrived at the center of the tree, the middle area seems to be hollowed out into a semi-circular arc Looking up at the center of the tree, you can see an opening that is as wide as a person and extends upwards, as if reaching the top of the tree, so that the outside light can shine directly into the tree through the hole, and give the inner area of ​​the center to the tree. illuminate.

Zhang Yao raised his head and looked around. In the center of this hollow tree hole, which is not a small-scale semicircular shape, there are still many dark holes on the surrounding wooden walls that cannot be seen inside. I don’t know which one goes into which one. I don't know whether these holes are a passage or a tree hole for residential purposes. The dark hole entrances are intricately scattered inside, like a dazzling maze, and I don't know where it can lead.Zhang Yao and Pei Yan stood in the middle, not knowing how to choose the next hole to find some clues they wanted.

As he was looking and observing, Pei Yan's sensitive ears heard footsteps coming from a distance. It came from another tree hole next to the hole they just came out of. Something was coming in here.Pei Yan glanced at Zhang Yao, pointed to the hole over there to express his meaning, and Zhang Yao immediately realized that he didn't want to be discovered by them, so he pulled Pei Yan and immediately turned around and flashed in. into a hole on the other side, which is bigger than the tree hole they just entered.

Quietly looking outside, he saw an orc entering the inside. It climbed up a few steps, jumped into a tree hole on the side, and then disappeared. Zhang Yao was relieved and looked back. Seeing the hole they came in, it should be a dark area inside, but a large piece of eroded grass can be clearly seen, shining there.Illuminates the entire wooden wall color of the tree hole inside.

Strange, there are no orcs passing by there, and there is no heat source, so how can they emit light by themselves?Zhang Yao was a little strange, looked at Pei Yan who was standing beside him, opened his mouth and said, "Go and have a look?"

Nodding his head, Pei Yan always followed Zhang Yao's intentions.So the two walked towards the large glowing erosion grass area.

After taking a closer look, the whole scene really 'stimulates appetite'.I saw a large area of ​​glowing erosion grass, illuminating a large area in front of me. In front of this green light source, there appeared a large area of ​​white fleshy insects wriggling and twisting their bodies. These insects, It is also the 'breakfast' that Zhang Yao saw outside eating the orcs, that is, the insect with a yellow-green head, a translucent white body, and countless short limbs... …

A large group of these bugs gather together, and the temperature emitted is naturally not low, no wonder it can make the erosion grass in front continue to glow.

It’s fine if it’s just a bug, but the ones in front are uncountable. They are big and fat, and they shrink their bodies with the wriggling. On the white translucent skin, you can even see the insects inside. The blood vessels twitched, and dozens of them scrambled and crawled together, the effect was much more terrifying.Even Zhang Yao, who has never suffered from intensive phobia, felt the feeling of goosebumps crawling all over his body at this moment.

These wriggling bugs seem to be trying their best to gnaw on the wood fibers of the trees they are clinging to. They open their jaws one by one, tearing and chewing the wood with extra effort, which should have belonged to the abnormally solid tree fibers, and easily Being bitten by these insects with their mouth organs, Zhang Yao finally understood how to dig tree holes with less effort. Only these insects are needed to help the orcs dig tree holes.

In just a while, an originally flat tree wall was bitten into a forward concave shape by this group of crowded white meat worms.In addition, these carnivorous plants are used to block the side, and these insects will naturally not escape to other places, but can only bite forward obediently, completing the caves or passages that the orcs need, and even fattening them Eating it as food is really versatile.

Observe the eroded grass that prevents the insects from escaping. It forms a circle around the tree hole and spreads them. Even the area above the head has their leaves. Those insects must not dare to crawl back.Because in the root area of ​​the eroded grass that grows so lush, there are already a lot of white bug corpses, which have become nutrients for these plants.

After watching these wriggling swarms, Zhang Yao found that Pei Yan beside him was looking in the other direction, and asked, "Pei Yan?"

"There's movement over there." Pei Yan said, staring at the dark corner on the other side of the dark passage.

"There is also a passage there?" Zhang Yao opened his eyes wide and looked at the dark area, only seeing a piece of black and black, but he couldn't see anything clearly.Seeing that Pei Yan's expression became more vigilant, he hurriedly asked, "Are there any orcs coming?"

Pei Yan pursed his lips and nodded, he could clearly hear the footsteps of orcs coming from the direction of the passage over there, probably there were several orcs.

"Crack! It's really troublesome." Unexpectedly, as soon as he came in, he encountered orcs coming back and forth one after another. Zhang Yao turned his head and looked around on both sides. On the one hand, he was too far away from the passageway where they came in, and on the other hand, there was a pile of wriggling white flesh worms. , it doesn't matter which way you hide.

If the two of them stand here and meet the orcs directly, it will be a bit too suspicious.For those orcs, they are not even familiar faces and smells, and they appear here inexplicably sneakily...

Just as he was thinking hard about what to do, Zhang Yao's arms sank, and Pei Yan suddenly pulled him violently, and ran towards the area where the bug swarms and eroded grass gathered. On the way, Zhang Yao just wanted to speak. When it was said that there was no way to go there, Pei Yan suddenly stopped, changed his pace, and climbed up. When Zhang Yao looked up, he found that the upper side of the tree hole passage was two meters away from the ground passage. , there was a pitch-black hole exposed there, if not for Pei Yan's sharp eyes, he really would not have noticed that there is a hidden passage above it.

Pei Yan, who climbed up in the blink of an eye, turned around and gave Zhang Yao a hand, and successfully dragged Zhang Yao up. As soon as they came up, the two quickly shrank their bodies inwards, and came from the other side. The orcs who came out of the passage barely avoided it.

Fortunately, the cave, especially the location on this side, is covered up by the smell of plants and big white fleshy insects. Even the orc's sensitive nose can't detect the strange smell of Pei Yan and Zhang Yao for a while. .

After seeing those orcs left, Zhang Yao turned his head and looked into the hole they had accidentally discovered and climbed up. This hole can be regarded as narrow, with a size and diameter only enough for a person to squat and move around in it a little loosely. He and Pei just now When Yan jumped up in an emergency, the two of them were close together and managed to hold on. Now that the orcs were gone, Zhang Yao continued to crawl inside for a certain distance, before he squeezed the body that was originally squeezed together with Pei Yan. Relax.

A little dissatisfied with Zhang Yao who had just been hugged tightly in his arms, he immediately pushed him away and crawled forward. Pei Yan grabbed Zhang Yao's feet that were getting farther and farther away from him.

Being caught by someone's feet in a dark and narrow hole, no matter who is stimulated, Zhang Yao turned his head and stared at the person who was holding his feet behind him, gritted his teeth and warned: "Hey, let go! Since We have already climbed up, so let's go in and take a look ahead, and warn you not to catch my feet, be careful that I kick your face directly!"

After struggling hard, Zhang Yao finally pulled his feet back, continued to squat and crawl forward, and carefully turned his head to observe the surrounding situation. For some reason, there may be a bright light source in front of him. The tunnel is not so dark that you can't see your fingers, and it seems that there is no big problem if you continue to crawl.

After being warned by Zhang Yao, Pei Yan let go of his grasping hand, and crawled behind Zhang Yao into the narrow passage...