Chapter 28 Underground Oasis
The wood elemental power has a much stronger affinity than the plant element. Just like Yan Zhou's earth elemental power can only be exerted in the desert, Li Xiang's wood elemental power must be in the forest.
Li Xiang followed the direction of Jiang Ning's finger and controlled his perception to explore deep into the cave.
The information sent back by the perception was very complex. Not only was there a rich wood element, but it also contained some spiritual fluctuations of living things.
"There is a strange beast." Li Xiang said.
Ke Lai and Jiang Ning looked at each other, and the four of them cheered up and moved forward in the direction sent back by the perception.
The cave was unusually quiet. The further we went, the stronger the strange atmosphere became. Half an hour later, a few "tick-tick" sounds suddenly came from the depths of the silent cave, which sounded like the sound of water drops falling from a high place into the pool.
The footsteps of several people mixed with the sound of water drops, pushing the surrounding atmosphere into a tense state.
Jiang Ning stopped walking, and the ground under her shoes suddenly vibrated slightly.
"Something is moving underground." She looked at the ground.
Ke Lai and Li Xiang followed her line of sight and went into alert. Their perceptions simultaneously penetrated underground.
Strange.
The perception could not detect anything underground, as if it was blocked by a layer of fog.
Just as the two wanted to expand their perception and explore the surroundings, something happened. They suddenly felt a sharp pain in their brains, and their mental power was forced to stop.
Jiang Ning and Ji Fan stepped forward and supported the two.
At this time, the thing hidden underground finally revealed its face. A thick white tree root emerged from the bottom. The main root split into three side roots and attacked the few people.
Although the few people were prepared, they did not expect that the attacking people would be the tree roots.
The huge cave space was filled with white tree roots, and the tangled side roots were like a dense net.
Fortunately, Jiang Ning reacted quickly and took out a lightsaber from behind to block the first attack of the tree roots.
She stared at the tree roots that suddenly emerged. She thought that her previous judgment was wrong. These caves were not made by mutant beasts, but... mutant plants!
Jiang Ning frowned. She had read the historical records of M412. This was the first time that mutant plants appeared on this planet.
"Run inside!" Jiang Ning instructed everyone in a serious manner.
The mutant tree roots have blocked all the ways in the future.
"Research on Mutant Biology" said that mutant plants are more difficult to deal with than mutant beasts, because the root system of plants is more developed and spread all over the underground world, and it is difficult to uproot them.
As the saying goes, wildfires never end, spring breezes bring new life.
As long as there is a trace of root system left, the mutant plants can come back next year.
"What the hell is this?" Ji Fan was running in the front, and he suddenly regretted why he followed these three people in.
The whip parasites had already given him a huge visual impact, and now he encountered tree roots that swam like snakes.
I just want to ask if there can be some normal monsters!
The giant mutant tree roots were still splitting, and Jiang Ning and the other two were chopping them faster and faster, but even so, they were far less than its growth speed.
Jiang Ning rotated the handle on the blade of the light sword, and the light sword instantly extended and turned into a double-headed sword.
She rotated the middle handle with one hand, and the double-headed light sword turned like a propeller. Wherever the sharp laser blade passed, no roots could get close to her.
This is a common form transformation for interstellar weapons. There are three general forms of light swords. In addition to the normal form and the double-headed sword form, the sword can be folded and disassembled to be reassembled into a semicircular arc sword for use.
"I thought this form was very useless, but I didn't expect it to come in handy at a critical moment. Blame the designer." Cole was still in the mood to tease.
I still remember that when the double-headed sword form was released, there was a lot of scolding on the star network about its designer.
It is not only inconvenient to use, but it is also easy to hurt yourself.
Jiang Ning and Ke Lai's abilities are not combat-related, leaving only Li Xiang, a half-baked one. Not only has his mental strength not recovered, but he has never systematically learned how to use supernatural powers to attack.
Fortunately, this is only one of the branches of mutant plants. In addition to being able to split infinitely, its own level is not high.
As long as... they don't encounter the mutant tree roots.
As several people thought so in their hearts, Ji Fan, who was running in the front, suddenly stopped.
"Ji Fan, what are you doing? Why did you stop suddenly?" Li Xiang dealt with the tree roots that were catching up from behind with one hand, while shouting loudly to the front. He wanted to see how long these mutant tree roots could grow.
Ji Fan turned around, his mouth slightly opened, an expression of disbelief appeared on his face, his heart was beating violently, he slightly turned sideways, and pointed behind him.
At the end of the cave, there is a huge cavern space. Light shines through the cracks in the rocks at the top and shines on the island in the center of the cave. In the center of the island, there is a huge ancient tree that reaches the sky. There is a blue spring around the island.
There are many ferns growing in the cave, and the lush and green moss on the ground indicates that this is an underground oasis world that has never been set foot on by anyone.
Seeing the scene in front of them, everyone, like Ji Fan, simply couldn't believe what they saw with their own eyes.
This is a polluted area in a polluted planet, and there is still an oasis with such a perfect ecology underground!
"What are you doing? Get down." Jiang Ning pushed the people who were standing there in a daze and walked towards the oasis below. They then came to their senses and looked at the tree roots that were attacking them.
The mutant tree roots stopped attacking after attacking the cave entrance and retreated back to the original cave, as if their purpose was to force people in.
"Is this the body of the mutant tree?" Ke Lai looked at the tree in the middle thoughtfully.
The color of the bottom of the trunk was very inconsistent, with dark and light blue occupying the main part, and the remaining area was a gradient color from earth yellow to light green, like a crawling giant mutant tree frog.
Jiang Ning felt a little uneasy. The tree frog looked lifelike, and its two "eyes" made of tree tumors were closed, but Jiang Ning always felt like he was being watched.
"Look there!" Li Xiang raised his head and pointed to the top of the giant tree. "The top of this tree leads to the outside. We can get out from here."
Everyone looked up, and one of the tree trunks extended to the rock wall at the entrance of the cave.
"But I haven't caught any B-level aliens yet." Kelai hesitated, still worried about her test.
Her perception had never been wrong, but after walking for so long, there were no signs of other alien activities except for the low-level mutant tree roots she encountered in the cave.
Kelai released her mental power and her perception spread out again.
The activities of the aliens disappeared out of thin air!
Kelai frowned, and expanded the range of her perception again, but the result was the same.
She could not sense or detect anything around her.
The belated fear and uneasiness swept over her heart.
It was a quiet and peaceful healing scene, but in the eyes of several people, it looked extremely strange.
"Why don't we go up first? There might be a B-level monster outside the cave." Ji Fan made a suggestion with an awkward smile. Even if he was slow to react, he noticed that something was wrong with this underground oasis.
No one objected this time, and everyone agreed to leave first.
Li Xiang led the way. He took a big step, stepped into the water with his shoes, and headed towards the giant tree in the center of the island. Ji Fan and Jiang Ning followed closely behind, and Ke Lai was in charge of the rear at the end.
This team order was the result of unanimous consultation among the four people.
Li Xiang is a wood-type mutant, so it is most appropriate for him to explore the way. Ke Lai is the strongest among the remaining three, so she took the initiative to take charge of the safety of the others.
The four people approached the island smoothly.
The trunk of the giant tree is not smooth, but full of large and small tumors, and the cracked bark is deep or shallow, sparse or dense.
The front of the tree frog under the tree is slightly concave inward, and the layers of rings are like its open mouth. Several people took a look and quickly walked to the back.
"It's really disgusting!" Li Xiang looked at the dense "meat lumps" on the back of the tree frog with disgust, and for a moment he was unable to do anything.
"A tree tumor is a tumor-like structure formed by disordered cell division caused by local excess nutrition after a tree is physically damaged." Jiang Ning explained to him the principle of tumor formation with a blank expression.
"Of course I know." Li Xiang met Jiang Ning's gaze and took a deep breath.
Knowing the cause is one thing, and the body's instinctive disgust for it is another!
Under the gaze of everyone, Li Xiang gritted his teeth and climbed towards the largest tumor he could reach. The sticky and wet feeling was transmitted to the brain through the touch of his hands.
Tsk, even more disgusting!
Not only does the visual effect make people want to vomit, but the touch is also so bad.
"Can you do it? If not, let me go first?" Jiang Ning thought he was relieving Li Xiang's psychological burden.
Li Xiang heard it, but he just felt that Jiang Ning was mocking him for being too troublesome. The veins on his forehead were throbbing: "......Just shut up!"
"Oh." Jiang Ning shut up.
Li Xiang held his breath and tried to climb through the area where dense tree tumors were concentrated. He finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"You guys come up." He waved to the people underground.
The three people under the tree began to climb up one by one according to the order they discussed first.
When it was Ke Lai's turn, a thick pink vine quietly wrapped around her calf. The tip of the vine was hollow, and there was a circle of sharp hooks around it.
The vine dragged her down.
"Ah——"
Kelai lost his balance, and the pink vine that suddenly appeared pulled him down from the tree.
Seeing this, Jiang Ning loosened his grip on the tree trunk, and on the way down, he took out his lightsaber and plunged it into the vine.
The pink vine felt the pain, and the vine that was wrapped around Kelai loosened.
She took the opportunity to carry Kelai and hide to the side.
After stabilizing their bodies, the two looked at the source of the pink vine.
There is... the 'mouth' of the tree frog that we saw before! ?
The two tumors on the top of the tree that served as eyes now opened their eyes like a miracle, and its 'front paws' moved, twisting its body to turn slightly, and its dark eyes stared at the two people on the ground without blinking.
The tree frog is connected to the tree. When it moves, the whole tree shakes.
Li Xiang and Ji Fan, who are still on the tree, can only hold on to the trunk tightly to prevent themselves from falling.
The four of them feel their scalps tingling.
The giant "tree frog" under the tree is alive.