Chapter 21
The black thorn ball unfolded in the air and turned into a ring, which happened to be wrapped around the neck of a duck. Then it shrank and became smaller, getting stuck on the duck's neck. No matter how the duck shook, it couldn't get the ring out.
The surrounding ducks immediately scattered upon seeing this. The duck with the collar around its neck screamed miserably and began to run around, forcing all the other ducks to run away, for fear of getting touched by the thing on its neck.
"What the hell is this?" Yan Hong frowned, feeling confused as she looked at the strange scene below.
Several other people also gathered around to watch. The duck trapped in the black ring ran for a while and suddenly fell straight to the ground. The other ducks did not dare to care about it and all returned to their nests in shame.
Everyone made sure that all the ducks had left before they came down from the roof and walked over to look at the duck that had fallen to the ground.
The duck opened its mouth, foamed at the mouth, and stared straight ahead with its eyes, looking like it was dying in extreme pain.
Yan Hong poked the black ring firmly fixed on the duck's neck with a long knife. The thing just squirmed twice and finally contracted tighter, with no intention of coming down at all.
"This thing killed the duck just like that?" Shaoxing Yang's tone was filled with surprise.
"No wonder the ducks don't dare to come near, it's probably because this thing is hanging on the house."
Tang Zeyu approached the house and began to check. He found that there were several black thorn balls clinging to the outer wall of the house. Perhaps the ducks did not dare to go up to the roof because they were afraid of these black thorn balls.
While Tang Zeyu was still observing, a thorn ball above him had already quietly set up its position and suddenly shot towards Tang Zeyu, but in the end it only wrapped around the long sword. Tang Zeyu had already noticed the thorn ball ready to move and just took it down to observe it.
When Tang Zeyu returned with the thorn ball, the duck lying on the ground had obviously deflated, as if it had been dead for many days.
"Captain, look at this," Chen Yunliang pointed at the shriveled duck's neck on the ground. "This thing is sucking the duck's blood."
If you look closely, you will find that those black thorns are not actually thorns, but densely packed, hard black hairs. There are no such black hairs where this thing comes into contact with the duck, but dark meat of a slightly lighter color. There are some tiny red "straws" extending from the black meat. These red straws pierce into the duck's body and continuously suck the blood from the duck's body until it is dried up.
The duck may be unable to shake it off because of these red straws inserted in the meat. Chen Yunliang also found that the more this thing feels the prey struggling, the tighter it will contract until the bones are broken and the prey dies and can no longer struggle.
When everyone thought that the matter was over, the circle covered with long black hair suddenly separated and turned into a long strip. The cricket pupa crawled down from the duck's neck. Only then could everyone clearly see the obvious marks of strangulation and several blood holes on the duck's neck.
The long black object moved towards the house little by little, crawled from the ground to the wall, found a crack in the stone wall, stuffed part of its body into it and fixed it in place, then curled itself up into a ball and turned back into the black thorn ball that the first few people saw.
"I didn't expect these ducks to be its food," Yan Hong glanced at the shriveled ducks on the ground, "It really is the opposite of Tian Gang."
I never thought that one day I would see insects preying on ducks.
Tang Zeyu wanted to take the thorn ball off the knife, but it would start to shrink as soon as it was touched. The more the thorn ball shrank, the more it was scratched by the blade, and green blood flowed out. Finally, Tang Zeyu found that this thing really would not let go once it had locked onto him, so he had no choice but to kill it directly.
Everyone quickened their pace to leave the residential area to avoid being attacked by the black thorn balls that suddenly appeared. After walking out of the group of houses, there was a farmland. At least it used to be farmland, but now it has been abandoned for a long time. Not only have the crops been squeezed out by the competing weeds with no living space, even the originally fertile fields have become no different from ordinary land.
Just as they were about to walk away, they suddenly heard the sound of something breaking through the air.
"Is there anyone nearby?" Shao Xingyang frowned and gripped the knife handle tightly.
Yan Hong looked for the source of the sound and walked towards it with a few people. Their destination was a vegetable garden surrounded by a fence, and the sound came from inside.
A few people pushed aside the vines that grew wildly everywhere and entered the vegetable garden, but they didn't see anyone. Instead, they saw a very dramatic scene.
In the vegetable garden, two groups of plants are confronting each other. One side is the pumpkin camp, with big pumpkins, small pumpkins, yellow pumpkins and green pumpkins. The other side is the vine pumpkins hanging in the air, some long and some short, some thick and some thin.
The two sides are clearly separated by a river between them, and the atmosphere seems tense.
"It's strange, how can a group of melons be so nervous?" Shaoxing Yang complained about the indescribable scene in front of him.
The pumpkin team attacked first, and a vine flew out and whipped towards the pumpkin vine on the opposite side. The pumpkin vine that was hit was whipped around and finally fell to the ground.
The pumpkin on the vine was not willing to give in after being hit, and immediately started to fight back. The vines wrapped around a stone and threw it at the pumpkin below. The pumpkin was probably overripe, and the stone was smashed into a big hole, revealing the tender yellow flesh inside.
The two sides fought fiercely, and the players suffered heavy losses. In the end, neither side gained anything, so they temporarily called a truce.
The few people hiding by the fence gate couldn't believe the cartoon-like plot.
"Do plants fight each other?" Even though it had been said before that the deformed creatures they would encounter would become increasingly strange and unreasonable, Lu Shiyu still found it difficult to understand something that completely went against science.
"Perhaps the leaves of the melon vines on the trellises block the sunlight for the pumpkins below, so the two sides are fighting for living space," Chen Yunliang said, looking at the degraded remains of fruits and vegetables in the corner. "This may not be the first time they have fought like this."
After all, distorted plants will also reproduce. Once there are too many plants in the vegetable garden, there will not be enough space, and the two sides will go to war. After the war, when the number of casualties on both sides is almost the same, they will return to a state of harmonious coexistence, waiting for the next fight caused by too many people, and the fruits that are beaten to pieces will become nutrients for the survivors.
"Just like humans, they're always waging war for more living space and resources," Yan Hong said. "But they look so delicious too."
Perhaps due to biological distortion, these fruits appear to be much larger than ordinary pumpkin vines. Although they are a bit crooked in appearance, it does not prevent them from growing well.
"How about we grab a few for dinner?"
“I agree!”
"Sure, but who's going to pick them?"
Everyone's eyes subconsciously turned to Shao Xingyang.
Shao Xingyang protested: "Don't push me out every time! Am I not a member of the united and friendly family?"
"Let's go together," Lu Shiyu said, pointing at the vines that crawled everywhere and could change at will. "I think if we go alone, we'll just get whipped into a spinning top."
Lu Shiyu was right. Although these melons were just plants, their combat effectiveness had long since evolved through repeated battles. It would be more appropriate for several people to work together to complete the collection task.
"Shaoxing Yang and I will attract attention for a while, and you three will be responsible for picking the melons and running away after you're done." Tang Zeyu quickly completed the division of labor. No one had any objections, so they just carried out the simple plan.
Tang Zeyu and Shaoxing Yang swaggered into the vegetable garden and immediately attracted the attention of the two melons in the garden.
"Ahem," Shao Xingyang cleared his throat and then made a mocking face: "You are a bunch of fools! Idiots! Idiots! The stupid pumpkin and the vine melon have no brains! You two deserve to rot in the ground!"
Tang Zeyu said nothing, but rubbed his temples as he felt a slight headache, not wanting to admit that the two of them were in the same group.
I don't know whether the melons understood or simply attacked the invaders based on instinct, but they all turned around and attacked Shao Xingyang and Tang Zeyu, and the canes left a conspicuous red mark on Shao Xingyang's body.
"Hiss! It doesn't hurt." Shao Xingyang hooked his finger stubbornly: "Come if you can!"
Maybe Shaoxing Yang was too arrogant, so no one even cared about Tang Zeyu, and all the firepower was concentrated on Shaoxing Yang who was jumping around all the time.
Yan Hong quietly slipped behind the pumpkin and looked at Shao Xingyang who was howling under the cane. She couldn't help but twitch her lips: "I didn't expect that this guy's need for a beating was so severe that it could affect the plants."
Lu Shiyu compared the pumpkins around and finally decided to take a smaller green pumpkin. She was worried that she couldn't take away a pumpkin that was too big. Chen Yunliang went to the vine melon area on the other side. Because the melons' attention was all on Shaoxing Yang, no melon noticed them for a while until a few people actually picked the melons, which attracted the attention of the melons.
"Hurry! Pick them and run!" Yan Hong picked up a large pumpkin and dodged the incoming vines, slipping through the dense vines and escaping. Chen Yunliang quickly plucked a few pumpkins from the vines and ran out as well.
Lu Shiyu held the iron pot in one hand to defend herself and held the pumpkin in the other. Although she was hit a few times, fortunately it was not serious. She arrived at the entrance of the vegetable garden safely. Just when she was about to take a bite, the hand holding the iron pot was suddenly entangled by vines.
"Uh! This is..." Lu Shiyu was holding something in both hands. He didn't have any extra hands to untie the vine, so he could only try to tear it apart directly, but he tried several times without success: "How come it's so strong!"
The original restraining force suddenly disappeared. Tang Zeyu swung his knife to cut off the vine that was wrapped around Lu Shiyu's wrist, half-hugged Lu Shiyu to protect him as he walked out of the vegetable garden gate. After everyone came out, Tang Zeyu quickly closed the gate and took a few people to a slightly farther place.
"Is everyone okay?"
"I'm fine, I was just hit a few times." Lu Shiyu looked at the marks. They were not serious and would disappear after a while.
"I'm fine too! Hehe." Shaoxing Yang's face and hands were covered with red marks. Fortunately, these melons were just weaklings pecking at each other, and the vines were not particularly powerful, otherwise Shaoxing Yang's skin would have been broken.
"Fortunately, the melon is fine." Yan Hong looked at the large yellow pumpkin in her hand from all angles to make sure that the pumpkin was not accidentally damaged when escaping, and it was still a perfect pumpkin.
Chen Yunliang weighed the melons in his hand and felt that the weight was just right, so he simply performed some acrobatics on the spot. The three melons were thrown into the air and caught in turn, forming a not-so-standard circle in the air. After throwing them several times, he caught the three melons steadily in his hand. The other four people also began to applaud very enthusiastically.
"I didn't expect you could do this." Lu Shiyu said.
"I usually like to learn some weird things," Chen Yunliang shrugged. "But this is all I know. I'm only interested for a short time."
Lu Shiyu looked at the fresh fruits and vegetables he had just picked, and countless ways of cooking flashed through his mind, but because he had too many ideas, he could not make a decision, and Lu Shiyu fell into a long silence.
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