After all, Ghost Fangzong told everyone about the four remaining strange elephants: the glaciers formed in the midsummer caves, the ownerless nests built with arrow bamboos, the bright lights in the cold and warm caves, and the divine chickens raised in the stone houses.
When they reached the tense spot, even though Yue Guanchao and the others were not immersed in the situation, they were still frightened.
As soon as he finished speaking, Gui Fangzong added fire to the stove: "I may have seen these things or not. There are always old people talking about ancient times like this, so I will take advantage of the situation and tell you. As for the real situation, unless Be there, otherwise, you’ll never know.”
At this point, Yue Guanchao and the others had already eaten. A craftsman hurried over from a distance: "Elder of the clan, it's getting late. There is already movement under Shennong Peak."
Guifangzong looked at everyone: "Everyone, Shennong Peak is not peaceful at night. It would be better for us to return to the temple as soon as possible."
With this hint, they extinguished the fire and entered the temple. After counting everyone, Onifangzong asked the craftsmen to immediately close the door of the temple, and at the same time sealed it with wooden boards and long nails, leaving only half an inch outside for the second nailing.
These operations are very cautious. It seems that the things outside Shennong Peak are really scary. They have reached the point where Guifang Zong has to seal the doors and windows. This means that the things that will come later cannot be solved by large numbers of people or advanced weapons. They are likely to have broken weapons. Door and window work.
Thinking about this, Yue Guanchao became curious and asked Gui Fangzong mysteriously: "Do the things outside have the ability to break doors and windows?"
At this moment, the dim torch danced with flames, and the light and shadow were like tongues, constantly licking the left side of his face. Under the yin and yang expression, it could be seen that the ghost old man shook his head: "What you are guarding against is not the things outside, but your own people."
"One of our own?" Yue Guanchao became curious.
Ghost Fangzong's face became serious: "Yes, after nightfall, there will be Yin soldiers singing outside. If people hear some sounds, they will involuntarily open the door to look for that sound, and then they will never come back. In the past six months, it has been Many craftsmen disappear like this, so we temporarily seal the doors and windows, which is also a solution."
"Can't you use the Jingxin Pill or the Evil-Repelling Pill?"
Yue Guanchao and the others had also encountered such a situation in the Zumai Soul Palace. Even though those apes were terrifying, there was still a way to deal with them.
"You will understand later when you see it with your own eyes."
Gui Fangzong did not refute and went up to the attic.
When Yue Guanchao and the others returned to the attic, the craftsmen were already busy, nailing up all the doors and windows facing the courtyard, leaving only one window open to check the situation.
This Agricultural Shrine and Ji Temple is a three-story platform, and their location is the attic of the temple. Standing here, the view is completely wide, and you can directly see the situation on the left and right of Shennong Peak.
At this moment, in order not to attract attention, everyone had extinguished all the torches. The moonlight shined into the ground through the open window, floating a layer of silvery frost.
Yue Guanchao raised his head and looked above his head. There were very few clouds above Shennong Peak. Even the moon was larger than usual. The huge disk hung in the sky, faintly outlining the outline of thousands of peaks.
In this chaotic gray and black, it can be seen that the roars of wild beasts can be heard from the surrounding mountains. The roars of tigers, wolves and beasts gradually approach Shennong Peak with the rustling sounds, and they seem to be heading towards the top of the mountain.
There was a crash, the surrounding trees rustled, and the birds in the forest began to flutter and chirp in the moonlight.
In the silence, the green gauze tent in the forest resounded with the roar of deer, as if it was torn open by something. The fireflies in the bushes were frightened, and flew out of the bushes one after another to wander in the forest. Fires began to flicker, flickering up and down like will-o'-the-wisps.
This movement eventually caused a chain reaction, causing the forest in front of the Shennong Sheji Temple to start to flicker with light, like a sea of light that was constantly undulating.
In the swirling light, a tiger as big as a farm cow peeled off the bushes from the trees and walked out slowly, holding a flapping wild deer in its mouth.
This wild deer was probably bitten by a tiger just now. It kept beating its hooves in an attempt to escape. The tiger bit it in the trachea and broke its neck. It stopped moving immediately.
After a while, the tiger began to squat on the ground and bit into the belly of the wild deer. The belly of the wild deer was quickly torn open, and then its intestines flowed to the ground.
After the tiger roared, there was another rustling sound in the woods. Several newer tigers appeared around the wild deer, burrowed their heads into the wild deer's torn belly, and began to eat with a whimper.
"Mountain yellow?"
Tan Yanqiu looked at the tiger nearby and stared at the road.
"I bet you, this is a mountain scenery."
When Yue Guanchao heard that Tan Yanqiu was a mountain yellow, his eyes began to look at the tiger. Under the moonlight, although the color of the fur could not be seen clearly, he could tell from the shadow that there were no stripes on the body. The hair on the belly was lighter in color, and the hair on the lips was The tusks are similar to ivory, curved forward, sharp and sharp.
This kind of tiger is indeed similar to what Tan Yanqiu described. However, this unusual appearance also made everyone confused.
Yue Guanchao scratched his head and teased: "There really is such a tiger with fangs on both sides down there. It couldn't have been mated with a female wild boar."
"Probably not. Look at that wild deer. There's obviously something wrong with its horns."
Song Siyuan motioned Yue Guanchao to look at the antlers. This wild deer was probably a sika deer, covered with short brown and black hair, with light-colored markings covering the body hair. However, the antlers that should have been like dragon antlers were now as full as tree branches. All kinds of flowers are like the flower branches on the head of a sika deer, which is particularly strange.
Seeing this situation, a strange emotion spread in everyone's hearts!
Yue Qingshan looked at the tigers in the wild with a worried look on his face: "The tigers here have completely different appearance from ordinary tigers. Even the wild deer look very weird. If the tigers mate with wild boars before they grow tusks, then What has the sika deer been paired with? These flower branches grow on the top of its head. This sika deer is a beast, how can it grow together with vegetation? These animals are definitely not what we think."
Song Siyuan pondered the current situation and explained: "I am reminded of a kind of tiger that does have fangs. About 20 to 30 million years ago, a kind of saber-toothed tiger once lived in the Americas. They are not tigers in the strict sense, but they are It is very similar to the thing in front of me, except that it has the shape of a tiger, and there are two more fangs protruding from the lips."
"The purpose of these two tusks is to help them hunt large animals, such as mammoths, bison, wild deer, etc. As long as it is a giant prey, they can use the two tusks in front to tear open the outer skin, and in a fight , the fangs are also sharp weapons, and the virus on them enters the body of the prey after being bitten, and will quickly render the prey incapacitated."
"It's just that the patterns on those saber-toothed tigers are very close to ordinary tigers. They are still different from the mountain tigers with brown and yellow hair. I can only tell you that the two look very similar."
Yue Guanchao listened to Song Siyuan's meaning and asked: "Then, do these saber-toothed tigers still exist?"
She sighed and shook her head: "They lived 10,000 years ago and are now extinct. Only some fossils remain in South America."
Yue Qingshan said: "So, Girl Song, do you mean that the mountain yellow we see in front of us is actually a saber-toothed tiger that has disappeared for ten thousand years?"
Song Siyuan looked at the crowd and acquiesced: "Indeed, even if this mountain yellow is not a real saber-toothed tiger, there must be saber-toothed tiger genes remaining in its body."
From here, her face became serious: "The extinction of the saber-toothed tiger is related to the climate and food reduction. About 10,000 years ago, the climate changed drastically. From the warm period to the severe ice age, most of the vegetation in the north has begun to shrink and decrease. "
"The reduction of vegetation has caused a sharp decline in the number of large herbivores. These saber-toothed tigers feed on large animals. The reduction in prey is passed on to the saber-toothed tigers, which reduces the survival rate of the cubs to the lowest level. In addition, the saber-toothed tigers are not adapted to the climate. Ultimately, the saber-toothed tigers are unable to adapt to the climate. leading to their complete extinction.”
"In other words, the extinction of saber-toothed tigers was entirely due to the decrease in prey. Their teeth could not flexibly capture prey, and the population disappeared. Only tigers with sharper teeth were left to continue to survive in this world. In other words, the huge fangs of saber-toothed tigers , is actually a gene that has been eliminated by nature. No matter how tigers evolve in the future, they will no longer evolve huge fangs."
Speaking of this, she paused: "Since the mountain tigers in front of me have retained their huge fangs, I'm thinking that their bodies are probably close descendants of saber-toothed tigers. At the same time, their bodies have also undergone some changes in order to adapt to the modern climate. "
"If my guess is correct, there must have been saber-toothed tigers in Shennongjia 10,000 years ago. Then saber-toothed tigers hybridized with other tigers and formed new mutant genes. When they grow up, they look like the burnt-yellow color we see. The mountains are yellow."
"What about the wild deer?"
Xu Xiake narrowed his eyes: "Huangshanhuang is the seed of the ancient saber-toothed tiger. Wild deer can't be born from hybridization with flowers and plants, right?"
Although the Taoist priest's words were rough, the truth was very real. After all, the mountain tiger is still an animal, and the sika deer already has the characteristics of vegetation. If this is the gene of ancient animals, it would be too far-fetched.
Song Siyuan was also confused, shook her head and sighed: "I am really puzzled about this. Although we have also seen this kind of plant that can prey on living animals, it can only be an ancient plant. In order to survive, there is no such thing as the fusion of sika deer and plants in nature.”
"However, we can make an analogy. Since Axi, as a human, can live and grow in symbiosis with plants, does that mean that all animals in Shennongjia can live and grow in symbiosis with plants?"
Mentioning this, everyone's pupils trembled, and Song Siyuan continued: "If it is possible, then the animals and plants in Shennongjia are probably fused with genes by something, so that all the characteristics of the plants appear in the In these animals, the corresponding characteristics of animals are likely to appear in plants."
