Close the ring
Several people headed towards the source of the sound, but they only saw branches drooping, but no living creature appeared in front of them.
Zhang Qing was a little puzzled: "Could it really just be the wind? The climate on the island is changeable. Maybe somewhere in the rainforest is a wind outlet."
"No, it's on the treetops!" Tan Wan'er had sharp eyes and noticed that the leaves above her head were not moving automatically with the wind.
There was something covering the back of those leaves, but because the color was too close to the leaves and it was shaking, I couldn't see it clearly at first.
The leaf waves that we thought were caused by the wind were actually caused by the creatures moving rapidly above them.
"Are they bugs?" Zhang Qing widened his eyes. Only now could he see clearly that they were piled up together, with strange protrusions, so dense that it made people feel a little sick.
These insects do not have the ability to fly, so they can only crawl between trees.
The speed was not slow. In the blink of an eye, it had reached the tree near them.
Seeing that it was approaching humans, it climbed down the tree trunk directly. When it landed on the trunk, the color of its body changed smoothly and turned into brown.
He was able to quickly blend into the surrounding environment. Perhaps he had been keeping an eye on them for a long time, but just failed to notice them for a while.
Tan Wan'er was thinking about retreating, but she found that a swarm of insects was approaching from that direction.
As a result, they were surrounded.
"Since it's so small, its bite shouldn't hurt too much." Zhang Qing said this without any confidence.
In fact, because the insect was too small, he still couldn't see clearly what it looked like. In addition, he thought it was too disgusting and didn't look at it carefully. He only knew that it was a long body.
Tan Wan'er frowned, but saw it all.
"It looks a bit like the cabbage worms I saw in the vegetable garden back home."
It has a soft shape and is composed of several segments. Its body is supported by hundreds of short legs and it moves forward by wriggling.
But in her impression, this kind of soft-bodied worm usually lives on the surface of flowers, leaves or fruits and feeds on them.
Regardless of the fact that it appeared in this rainforest, the caterpillar's body is extremely fragile. It is already a rare achievement for it to crawl down from the rough bark, so how can it achieve such a fast speed?
What's more, it has the ability to change colors.
Seeing this, Ding Can added, "Its head is quite large, so its mouth must be quite destructive."
The head of the cabbage worm is not proportional to its body. In comparison, the head looks like it was blown up by a balloon, and a large area is occupied by a pair of extremely ferocious mouthparts.
There are two sharp curves on each side, and even when not eating, the baby is still chewing at a low frequency.
An idea suddenly popped up in Ding Can's mind. They seemed to be in a state of hunger now.
"It's getting closer. Which way should we go?" Zhang Qing's voice was a little unstable. He used to be most afraid of insects, but after coming to the island, he was outdoors every day and inevitably encountered many of them. He thought he had developed a good stress response ability and could remain calm when encountering them.
But now there was a dense group of them, and he began to regret why he was so eager to rush into the rainforest.
He asked this subconsciously. In fact, his legs were so tense that he could hardly move. If he really wanted to walk out, he would probably need help from others.
Then I tried to comfort myself: "Actually, they may not really eat people. Maybe they are just curious about us."
Tan Wan'er's expression grew serious: "Can you believe what you said?"
She had a small waist bag tied to her body and was reaching into it to search for something.
The only thing to be thankful for is that these cabbage caterpillars don't seem to be able to fly, so there is no need to worry about attacks coming from all directions.
Tan Wan'er finally found what she wanted in her waist bag. It was a lighter. However, the humidity in the rainforest was high and flammable materials were not easy to find. She just wanted to try whether the insect swarm would react to the fire source.
She found a piece of cloth, wrapped it around a branch, lit it, and waved it forward.
Seeing the insects frozen in place without moving, Zhang Qing's eyes lit up: "They are really afraid of fire."
The only things around them that could be burned were the clothes on their bodies, which seemed useless in this situation.
Zhang Qing moved his legs and pushed the fallen leaves at his feet to the side a few times to expose the soil underneath. He was afraid that there were cabbage worms hiding on the back of the fallen leaves, which would bite him if he was not careful, or crawl up through his trouser legs.
He knocked on the height of the surrounding trees and was already considering whether to use his powerful arm strength to shuttle through the trees.
In this way, although the cabbage caterpillar has the ability to climb trees, it should not be as good as jumping in the air.
"Where we just came from, isn't there a place with abandoned fishing nets and hunting equipment? Maybe it can help the fire burn longer."
Yu Fu thought of what he had seen on the way. Looking at the current situation, unless these cabbage worms were completely eliminated or forced to retreat, they would always be under the lock of these mollusks.
"But how do we get out? We can't fly over there." Tan Wan'er said casually, and heard Zhang Qing immediately agree.
He pointed to the nearest tree and said, "I can jump over there. I just need to get rid of the bugs under the tree now."
Zhang Qing's tone was too enthusiastic, and he probably thought others might misunderstand him as planning to run away, so he quickly explained: "I can really jump over there without touching the ground. I promise, I will be back soon."
There was no better way, so everyone just believed it and contributed Yu Fu's coat.
This time the flame burned longer, and as expected, the swarm of insects retreated a little. Zhang Qing seized the opportunity, jumped up from the spot, grabbed the tree trunk with both hands, and swung away into the distance. It seemed that he had not landed yet, and soon his figure disappeared from sight.
A small number of cabbage worms followed him, but when they found they could not catch him, they gave up and surrounded the three people completely again.
Yu Fu thought for a moment and said, "The distance isn't far, but it will take at least a few minutes to go back and forth."
He wasn't sure how much longer these bugs could wait.
In the corner, pieces of clothing that were still burning were drifting to one side due to the heat, and the flames landed squarely on a few cabbage worms.
A sudden high-pitched roar reached their ears, and the three of them couldn't help but cover their ears.
"Why is it still screaming?" Tan Wan'er frowned. This sonic attack was much more effective than the previous one.
If you pick out one insect alone, it might just sound like an ordinary insect chirping, but when thousands or even tens of thousands of cabbage caterpillars make sounds at the same time, it is tantamount to long-term damage to your hearing.
Ding Can shook his head, feeling those voices constantly echoing in his mind.
Not sure if it affected her nerves, but she even started to feel dizzy, like the feeling of seeing stars before fainting from hypoglycemia.
There were buzzing sounds coming one after another. Yu Fu stared at the slowly moving insects and stood still without moving.
No matter which direction you go now, it cannot be considered as evacuating to a safe place, but it is equivalent to getting one step closer to the swarm in the opposite direction.
I saw these soft-bodied insects, which had almost blended in with the fallen leaves on the ground and whose skin had turned green, were all retracting their front legs.
The tail remained motionless, but the middle part of the body naturally bent up, and the three people present had a bad feeling in their hearts.
Tan Wan'er, wearing a tank top, couldn't help rubbing her arms when she saw this: "Are they getting ready to jump?"
"I'm afraid so." Ding Can took off his coat and gave it to her. He was still wearing a long-sleeved shirt underneath. No matter what the situation was, at least he could provide a simple layer of protection outside his skin.
Yu Fu looked up at the top of the tree, thinking that there would be no problem lifting Ding Can up later, but he was not sure whether she could avoid the swarm of insects on the tree trunk like Zhang Qing.
Since he had no suitable weapon at hand, Ding Can only took a branch, which he had found when he was climbing the mountain just now and was relatively smooth, to use as a crutch.
It actually has no effect on insects of this small size.
The three people didn't have much time to react, and their previous guesses about the possible attack methods of the cabbage worms were just guesses. It was not until the first one was ejected that they witnessed its true power.
The power accumulated by the arched body is very considerable, and the speed of the insect's jump is as fast as a flash of lightning. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is fired like a bullet.
When I subconsciously used my arms to shield myself, it felt like a stone was hitting me, followed by thousands of pieces of gravel.
The three of them were almost treated as targets, standing in the hail of bullets.
Ding Can blocked his face and couldn't see the scene in front of him clearly. He just waved the branch quickly.
After feeling the impact on my palm, I knew that I must have hit some insects jumping in the air.
Before I could wake up, I felt a biting pain on the back of my hand. It seemed that the mouthparts of this insect were full of barbs, and every time it bit, flesh and blood would be brought out.
Now that things have come to this, it doesn’t matter whether I stay where I am or not.
Yu Fu wanted to shake off the bugs hanging on his clothes, but they seemed to be firmly attached to them and could not be shaken off no matter how hard he tried.
In a panic, he grabbed Ding Can's hand and ran in a certain direction.
The swarm of insects was chasing after him. Although he was unable to take care of himself for a moment, he could still hear the sound of the leaves being stepped on behind him becoming smaller.
He was heading towards the same path they had taken. If he was lucky, he might run into Zhang Qing who was returning with flammable items.
Tan Wan'er's footsteps were nearby, and of course she had the same idea.
Fortunately, Zhang Qing had no intention of giving up. Not long after, he heard shouts coming from a distance.
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