Yue Guanchao looked towards the pine forest, where countless needles were rustling: "Is the wind blowing?"
"No, look at the nearby vegetation. There is no sign of being blown. If there is no wind in the canyon, then the needles of the pine trees are not disturbed by external forces, but... are moving on their own."
"No, let's step back."
After Yue Guanchao shouted loudly, all the craftsmen began to retreat. When they were far away from the pine tree, they saw a needle that seemed to change from a leaf to a sharp dagger. It quickly rolled up the animal approaching it into the air and stabbed the animal through with the needle. Heartbroken.
The green pine needles were soon stained with blood-red mist, making the strange aroma even more strange.
There is no doubt that this pine forest can be so lush, and it is obviously nourished by bloodthirsty creatures. Seeing this scene, they were glad to stop and wait for a while. If they had just rushed through, they would probably have been stabbed through like these animals. Heartbroken.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, how much flesh and blood did such a giant pine tree eat to become like this?"
Sun Daqiao opened the curtain, and when he raised his head, he couldn't even see the tops of the pine trees. He could only see the canopy, green and lush, and even now there was a hint of danger.
Seeing the scene in front of her, Song Siyuan suddenly realized: "I was just wondering how the plants in this forest could reproduce without animals. Now it seems that they have adapted to the environment of the canyon, or their genes have also been changed. From this, Plant genes for preying on living animals have appeared, and this style of ruthlessly hunting only when seeing living animals is clearly a habit of pitcher plants and Venus flytraps."
At this point, Song Siyuan's eyes became serious: "Most of the animals they can drive are these alienated animals, either for direct food or for pollination and transplantation. Only in this way can the vegetation in the canyon become more and more lush."
"If these plants are carnivorous, why don't we see our horses getting entangled?"
Xu Xiake glanced at the moss and vines on the ground. If all these plants could hunt living animals, it would be strange for the horse to move around for so long without seeing any movement.
Song Siyuan lowered her head and glanced at the ground. The horse stopped in place. Some thin vines had already clung to the horse's hooves and wheels. She seemed to have realized something, and her face looked ugly: "It's not that I didn't want to get entangled. I just didn't react. I felt it was the noise of these metals." , making them feel afraid, we can’t stop the horses, we have to keep making noise.”
Afterwards, many craftsmen began to whip the horses' backs with whips. The horses were whipped, neighing and shaking their heads, and even the copper basins began to clang and scream sadly.
Yue Guanchao lowered his head and looked at the wheel. After the noise became louder, these thin vines were indeed retreating, one after another withdrawing from the horses' hooves and the wheel: "It's strange, are these plants also afraid of infrasound waves? Then how can they survive here."
Song Siyuan shook her head and retorted: "What they are afraid of is not sound waves, but disturbance. A more scientific explanation is that they are afraid of those sharp noises. Even though these plants can eat meat and hunt, they are plants after all. It is basically impossible for them to move their bodies." , if you are discovered by any animal, you will easily be regarded as an enemy by these animals and be attacked when you are unable to move."
"Faced with such a predicament, the plants here can only evolve in two directions. One direction is to be tall and scary, just like giant pine and giant trees. With their tall and strong scary appearance, these animals are frightened. , even if they know that they are living plants, they can't do anything to them, or they may develop in a harmless direction, focusing on being inconspicuous, but if the animals don't find it, they will kill the animal gods like the strangler vine. He was paralyzed and hanged without knowing it."
"No matter what kind of plant it is, it is very sensitive to noise. As long as there is noise, it proves that there are animals or living creatures around that can emit a lot of noise. In order to hide themselves, they will disguise themselves as ordinary plants. After we made the noise just now, The animals then retreated from the stress."
She lowered her head and glanced at the vines. Just now they were clinging to the wheel like a strangler vine, but now they were honest. She said with emotion: "I thought the trees on Shennong Peak that could attract bugs were scary enough. The further in, Come on, the exotic flowers and plants are actually getting weirder."
Tan Yanqiu opened the map, pointed at it and said: "If we know this, then we can be on guard against these pine forests. Once we leave the canyon, we will reach the land of strange animals. It is estimated that there will be more strange animals, so everyone should be prepared." .”
They figured out the situation and saw that the pine tree had regained its stability under the noise. They drove the carriage through the giant pine tree cavity and came to the world outside the canyon.
After leaving the canyon, the tall mountains have disappeared, and countless green snail-like low hills appear in front of us. Between the hills are low plains and rivers. The rivers everywhere are connected with water networks and divide the plains between the hills.
As the carriage walked across the plains, it was finally less bumpy. As we moved further away from the canyon, there were more and more wild beasts in the strange beast land.
There are duck-billed toads wandering in the water. These things are as big as chickens and ducks, with gray and white mottled bodies. Their hands and feet are slender and have digits. Web-like membranes can be seen on the front and rear limbs. Their sharp claws protrude and slide freely in the water, and the mouth that should be a toad , but with a duck's beak, and when the carriage passed by, he stuck his head out and blistered.
In the distance, there are white bears all covered in snow, leading them leisurely by the stream. Among the grass can be seen white snakes as thick as a bowl, with red eyes and golden scales, and snakes with rustling whiskers, entangled in the crown of tall trees, looking greedily at the treetops. squirrel among the trees.
In addition, the immortal snake, red horse, red pig, red bat, red frog, white monkey, white deer, white magpie, red giant salamander, red snake, red fox, red golden monkey, and white toad mentioned by Tan Yanqiu , white unicorn, white crow, white weasel... almost all of these exotic animals can be seen in real places.
There are even many beasts with strange genes appearing in the land of strange beasts.
For example, some foxes are not only covered with snow-white hair, but also have several extra tails on their tails. There are as many as five or six on their tails. Huge horn-like branches also appear on their foreheads. Whenever they see people, they will definitely let out a baby's cry. Another example is some black-scaled snakes as thick as buckets, with crocodile claws clearly visible, as well as beards and antlers. They look like some dragons that have turned into dragons.
They are so heavy and countless that no one can even look at them.
Fortunately, these strange beasts are also very sensitive to noise. They only dare to stare at the convoy from a distance and dare not approach casually.
"I can understand the weird appearance of these animals, but why do things like dragons and multi-tailed foxes appear? Isn't this the legendary spirit?"
Yue Guanchao took advantage of opening the curtain and asked with strange eyes.
Song Siyuan explained: "Perhaps it is because these animals have been genetically modified that they become like this, but they are very similar to the monsters we understand. Or, the legendary monsters also have multiple hairline problems due to genetic problems. The tail, or the state of turning into a dragon."
"I even thought of another situation."
She paused, obviously finding something, and she lowered her voice and said, "Just now, when we were on our way, I saw a duck-billed toad in the water."
Yue Guanchao recalled that he had just noticed the duck-billed toad. It was supposed to be two things, a teal and a toad, but they were rashly combined together, forming a very strange look and feel, just like a frog with its limbs stretched out staring at the duck's head. No matter how strange it seems.
When he looked carefully, he realized that even the appearance of a toad was an illusion. The mottled gray skin was only shiny because the hair was soaked in water. In fact, this water beast was covered with gray hair. At the same time, it could also be distinguished. Similar to the limbs, actually closer to the paws of minks and otters.
To be precise, it's a duck-billed otter, but it looks similar to a toad because of its coat color and thin claws.
Seeing that he noticed this thing, Song Siyuan continued: "I feel that the shape of these duck-billed toads is similar to toads but not toads. The tail behind them is more like an otter, and it is somewhat similar to an ancient species in my impression."
"What?" Everyone became curious.
"platypus."
Song Siyuan knew that people were curious and did not want to sell out, so she explained what she knew about the platypus: "In 1799, the Natural Science Magazine published an atlas of mysterious species in South America. This was the result of more than ten years of exploration by international adventurers. One of the animals, It's very similar to the duck-billed toad we saw."
"This animal is commonly known as the platypus. It is a mammal in the platypus family. At first, these explorers thought it was a prank. They suspected that the locals had sewn the ostrich's beak and the otter's mouth together..."
At that time, South America was like the New World to Westerners. Explorers and adventurers continued to bring teams of carriages and horses to South America in search of treasures, gold mines, mysterious animals, and Mayan civilization. They all wanted to find something in the vast South America. , fortunately, it became famous in the West.
The local aborigines, in order to make money, would indeed create the carcasses of many mysterious animals to defraud the explorers of their money. When they took them back and dissected them, they discovered that they were the carcasses of two animals.
For example, they would keep the upper body of a monkey and the tail of a big fish, and sew the two together to form the body of a mermaid. Another example would be to sell ordinary children's bodies covered with turkey feathers as savages. He did everything possible to suit the temper of these distinguished guests from the West.
The explorers initially thought the horse was an artificial artifact deliberately created by the local indigenous people. It was not until the indigenous people took them to catch a live platypus that they were convinced that this thing was indeed a real species.
Observed by explorers, the bodies of these platypuses are flattened dorsally and ventrally, with flattened sides and slender streamlined bodies. The backs have dark brown body hair, and the ventral surfaces have grayish-white to yellow light-colored body hairs. The hairs are waterproof and loose, and their tails are similar in height to those of beavers. Their limbs are The larvae are stubby, have eyes, and have teeth. When they reach adulthood, the teeth will be replaced by horny grinding pads.
