Chapter 48
The thin tube hit Lu Shiyu's head, making a "dong dong dong" sound, and it was hard to tell whether the sound came from the hollow tube or Lu Shiyu's head.
"What is it doing?" Lu Shiyu turned his head to avoid it, but the deformed creature still refused to give up and kept trying to hit it with the pipe.
Just when the few people were at a loss, several other deformed creatures also lowered their heads and hit them with the long tubes on their heads. Although the force was not strong, it was still uncomfortable to be hit. Yan Hong dodged the attack of the tubes. The deformed creatures failed to hit them with the tubes several times and tilted their heads as if they were confused.
"Ignore them and keep moving forward."
Seeing that the deformed creatures did not actively attack, Tang Zeyu wanted to go straight through. Unfortunately, the deformed creatures were not yet satisfied. They followed the few people forward. Especially since the few people's legs were not as long as the deformed creatures, they could not outrun them at all.
The few people now seemed to be being chased and beaten by several sticks. When a pipe hit them, Chen Yunliang reached out and grabbed the pipe. From the feel of the pipe, it seemed that the long hollow pipe was made of keratin. Chen Yunliang did not use much strength to grab the pipe. After all, he was afraid that the deformed creatures would think they were a threat and then attack.
But strangely, after the deformed creature was caught by the long tube, it did not pull it back with force, but stomped its feet anxiously, blowing sand everywhere. Chen Yunliang then let go of the long tube. The first thing the deformed creature did after its long tube was saved was to turn around and wipe the long tube repeatedly with its long hair, as if there was something dirty on the long tube and it was very disgusted.
"I didn't expect that there would be a day when you, Chen Yunliang, would be disliked! Hahahahahahahaha, ouch!"
Shaoxing Yang Gang laughed at him and was hit with a stick within two seconds.
"Strange," Chen Yunliang said, looking at the other deformed creatures, "Their eyesight doesn't seem to be very good."
"How did you know that?" Tang Zeyu asked.
"When they hit us with the pipes, they always miss, and they use them much like a blind person uses a cane to explore the road, determining the location, size and height of the target by hitting it."
"This is so annoying," Yan Hong dodged the incoming long cannon and turned to ask Chen Yunliang, "How long will they keep going?"
"I don't know. Maybe he'll leave if he loses interest." Chen Yunliang shrugged.
While the few people were talking, the deformed creatures suddenly turned their heads to look towards the sea. Even the one that was wiping its long tube with its body hair stopped and looked over. Then the deformed creatures ran towards the sea as if they had something important to do, completely ignoring the few people who were chasing and knocking them endlessly.
"What are they doing?"
I saw those deformed creatures rushing into the sea, with the sea water reaching their knee joints. When they found a certain position, they began to lower their heads and insert long tubes into the water. No one knew what they were doing.
Tang Zeyu called back the people who were fascinated by the sight and prepared to hurry on their way while the deformed creatures left.
As Lu Shiyu walked, he couldn't help but look back, and saw that the deformed creatures were inserting the long tube into the water and stirring it constantly. Lu Shiyu looked at the waves on the sea surface and suddenly thought that it should be high tide. When the tide rises, some creatures in the sea will also come up with the water. Those deformed creatures went down at this time, most likely to hunt.
Sure enough, after a while, a deformed creature succeeded in preying first. On the long tube was a live fish that was dehydrated and still jumping around.
Then, a scene that Lu Shiyu did not expect appeared.
After the deformed creature inserted the fish into the long tube, it did not use the long tube part that Lu Shiyu thought was a mouthpart to eat, but bent its neck and pushed the live fish downwards. A crack suddenly appeared on the deformed creature's body covered with long black hair. Because the distance was far, Lu Shiyu could only vaguely see several rows of snow-white teeth in the huge mouth. Then the fish was pulled off the long tube like a skewer, and then the huge mouth closed and began to chew. It looked like there was nothing there, and there was no difference from other parts.
When Lu Shiyu saw the complete version of the entire process from hunting to eating, his eyes lit up.
How could she not have noticed there was actually a mouth there! So that long hollow tube not only functions as a cane, but also as a fishing spear. In this way, that long tube is like the lifeblood of this deformed creature!
Do they also use this tube when fighting? After all, fighting over mates and other issues is common among social creatures. So, do they fight with their legs or with that long tube? What if the tube breaks during a fight? Would they be doomed? Perhaps they avoid contact with the tube during a fight to avoid this, but wouldn't it be difficult to maintain stability if they only had two legs?
All kinds of weird questions popped up in Lu Shiyu's mind like bubbles again, so much so that she even forgot to look at the road and bumped into Yan Hong and Shao Xingyang in front of her.
"Oh? Throwing yourself into my arms?"
"Uh, why did it stop?" Lu Shiyu asked, rubbing his head.
Tang Zeyu turned sideways, revealing the scene in front of him. The sand in front looked like ordinary sand, but if you look closely, you can find several "eggs" buried in the sand. The wind blew away some of the sand, which allowed Tang Zeyu to discover the eggs hidden under the sand in time.
"I don't know what's in front of me. It feels like some kind of creature's egg," Tang Zeyu said as he leaned over and used his palm to sweep away the sand in front of him, revealing the "egg" slightly buried in the sand. "I don't know what kind of creature it is. I wonder if something will pop out if I crush it."
Lu Shiyu remembered that the manuscript recorded a kind of cave creature that would wrap its own eggs with the silk it spit out, forming a cocoon like a silkworm pupa.
These silk threads will protect the fragile eggs, preventing them from being damaged and dying due to minor accidents. When the eggs are almost fully developed, the creature will hang its eggs on the branches outside the cave, disguised as the cocoon of another insect.
And it just so happens that there is a kind of deformed bird-like creature that likes to eat the cocoons of that kind of insects. They will use their claws and beaks to tear open the tightly wrapped cocoons and eat the insects that are still sleeping inside and waiting to break out of the cocoons. When they tear open the cocoons of this cave-blooded creature hanging on the branches, they will find that they have been "cheated". The cocoons do not contain the kind of insects they like to eat, but another unrelated creature. They will fly away and continue to look for new cocoons. They have unknowingly become a part of the reproduction of this cave-blooded creature.
Although the eggs of this cave-dwelling creature need the protection of a cocoon, their young do not have the ability to break out of the cocoon, so they can only break out of the cocoon with the help of external forces. The bird-like deformed creature becomes an efficient and free tool for opening the cocoon.
So, how can they tell whether the eggs in front of them contain egg white and egg yolk, or whether they have grown into juveniles waiting to hatch? If it is the latter, then every time they step on one, they are putting themselves in greater danger, not to mention that it is not clear who laid these eggs.
Tang Zeyu dug the egg out of the sand. The whole egg was about 20 cm in size. It was not huge but definitely not small.
An unknown number of these eggs, neither big nor small, are buried in the sand. No one knows whether the next step will hit an egg like a landmine, releasing the deformed creature inside that is about to hatch.
But taking a detour is not an option either. For the same reason that they couldn't get through, they also couldn't tell where the eggs were and where the eggs weren't. So how could they even start taking a detour?
"Looks like we can only use the dumbest method," Tang Zeyu said as he put the eggs he had just dug out aside. "Pick a direction, dig out all the eggs, and clear a path out."
They acted immediately. Shaoxing Yang and Yan Hong were responsible for keeping watch in the rear to prevent the deformed creatures that laid the eggs from suddenly coming back. The remaining three, Chen Yunliang, Tang Zeyu and Lu Shiyu, were responsible for digging the eggs and clearing the way.
The way to find eggs is also very simple. The eggs are covered with a layer of sand. You just need to put your hands into the sand and feel around to find them. Digging is more troublesome than finding. You have to dig out all the sand around the egg. At least you have to dig out the upper half of the egg with your bare hands to take the egg out of the sand.
I don’t know if it was due to psychological influence, but when Lu Shiyu picked up the egg from the sand pit, he always felt that the egg in his hand seemed to be shaking slightly, as if the things inside the egg were about to break out of the shell at any time. Lu Shiyu was worried that something terrible would come out of it, and he was also very curious about what was inside.
As time passed, a road made of eggs gradually appeared on the sand. Eggs were hastily dug out on the sides of the bumpy road, and the middle area between the eggs on both sides was the cleared safe route.
Tang Zeyu stood up and looked forward. There was no way to tell from the surface where the eggs were and where they were not. He didn't know how long it would take to dig this road. Could it be that this vast area of sand was covered with these eggs?
"Not good," Shao Xingyang suddenly said, "Something is coming this way."
Chen Yunliang, who was still shaving sand eggs, stood up and looked in the direction of Chen Yunliang's finger.
"It's those deformed creatures from before," Chen Yunliang narrowed his eyes slightly. "Could it be that they laid these eggs?"
"I don't have time to worry about that anymore," Tang Zeyu said decisively, "Go hide behind that reef."
There were several slanted reefs standing out on the sea not far from them. Those reefs were buried in the sand. When the tide came in, they would become what they are now, as if they had grown out of the sea.
Without caring about anything else, several people ran towards the reef. Although they tried their best to avoid it, they still stepped on a few eggs and the egg white splattered and mixed with the sand. The chicks that had not yet hatched were curled up in the eggs and trembled with difficulty. Their beady eyes had not yet opened and they were about to die.
Before the distorted creatures came back, a few people successfully escaped into the sea and hid behind the reef. The huge shelter completely blocked the people. The distorted creatures, who already had poor eyesight, did not notice the people who were not far away at all.
The deformed creatures that had just finished hunting and hurried back crushed an egg that had been dug out and placed on the ground. The eggshell shattered instantly like a soap bubble. The deformed creatures stopped instantly as if they had pressed the freeze button, and seemed to be thinking about what had just happened.
The deformed creature stuck its head down and started knocking around with a long tube. Eventually, it discovered the eggs that had been dug out of the sand, and also found several crushed eggs. The chicks inside were about to hatch, but they were already helpless and could only wait for death. The strange-looking deformed creature seemed to have emotions, making sharp wails, as if expressing anger and grieving for its dead offspring.
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