Shennongjia truly lives up to its reputation as a world-class nature reserve, with ancient trees reaching for the sky, waterfalls cascading down, and water and mountains blending seamlessly into one.
The stone forest is now covered with rocks, resembling pillars and bamboo shoots, with ever-changing clouds and mist, a masterpiece of nature that left Gao Feng in awe.
But what one perceives through the ears and nose is a completely different scene.
The chirping of insects and birds is like being in a music hall, and the gentle breeze from the mountain stream is like a soft hand caressing your face.
After observing carefully for a while and confirming that there were no large animals or other dangers, Gao Ang took Xiao Hua out of the backpack.
"Don't wander off. This is my first time here too. If we mess things up, we might both end up here."
He patted her shoulder, and Xiaohua immediately understood what he meant. She leaped up and landed steadily on top of him.
"Everyone else is walking horses and playing with eagles, I'm just walking and playing with cats..."
Shrugging his shoulders and tightening his belt, Gao Ang picked up a piece of dead wood about the size of a bowl from the ground to use as a weapon and began his exploration.
Although it is a national nature reserve, Shennongjia is not particularly large. The planned forest area is only a little over one million mu, which translates to an area of only about 600,000 square meters, roughly the size of 25 x 25 kilometers.
I checked my phone; it was 13:12. We were still on the outskirts of the forest. The signal had dropped from three bars to two. I have to say, the signal on an iPhone is really terrible.
Despite not having rested all night, Gao Ang didn't feel tired. He glanced at Xiao Hua's expression, which was adorably silly, patted its head, and gradually quickened his pace.
The first thing he wanted to test was his endurance. He wanted to see how long he could walk briskly through such dense jungle. If he remembered correctly, he had tested his data when he was a normal human being before. It took him about ten minutes to walk one kilometer. If he walked at a steady pace without stopping, he could last for a maximum of 40-50 minutes. That is to say, he could walk briskly for a maximum of about 5 kilometers in one go before.
Moreover, that was on flat ground, while this is a primeval forest, where the path is not only rugged but also frequently entangled by vines.
Since his skin was not afraid of being cut or scratched by any hard objects, Gao Ang took large, sweeping strides from the very beginning. Unless he encountered a towering tree that he could not crash into or a deep ravine that he could not fly over, he forged ahead without hesitation.
A sapling the size of a bowl? Sorry, one punch would break it.
A fault line of two or three meters? Even simpler, just jump down.
Occasionally, when he encounters small animals, he will greet them in a friendly manner, but they completely ignore him, treating him like an idiot and continuing with what they are doing, without any sense of wariness towards him.
"It's fortunate that you met me; if it were anyone else, you wouldn't even have a chance to cry."
He picked up a pebble and tossed it lightly, teasing the golden monkey that peeked out curiously at him. Seeing the monkey bar its teeth at him and even jump around, he laughed heartily and happily.
This was the first time he had ever seen a real golden monkey. He had only heard about them in videos or in writing before, and seeing them in person was indeed quite interesting.
Compared to ordinary monkeys, their nostrils are much larger, about three to five times larger in diameter; their lips are particularly thick, and if painted with a little red, they look like typical sausage lips. When I think of sausage lips, the sausage lip look from the movie "The Eagle Shooting Heroes" immediately comes to mind.
What interests Gao Ang the most is their golden and grayish-white fur. Compared to ordinary monkeys, they have earned the name 'golden monkey' precisely because of this fur.
Unfortunately, this creature is a Class I protected animal in China, so Gao Feng can only admire it from afar and not touch it.
"Little Flower, are you hungry?"
"Meow." The tone was certain; it seemed it was indeed hungry.
That's true. They haven't eaten much since they got off the highway. He's okay; he can get energy from drinking water. But Xiaohua only ate two packs of dried fish at the last service area.
Based on Gao Feng's observations, Xiao Hua's mutations likely only affected her fur and claws, or perhaps the strength and hardness of her cells. Of course, her intelligence was probably also improved to some extent. However, she likely did not develop abilities like photosynthesis.
"Could it be that this mutation ability is generated randomly? But why do I have so many mutation abilities?"
He is basically an all-around superhuman in terms of physical abilities, eyesight, hearing, and so on.
I checked the time, it was 13:35. The cell phone signal had weakened to one bar. It seemed that we were getting closer and closer to the center of the forest area. As we got farther and farther away from the nearest base station, the cell phone signal strength also decreased accordingly.
The WeChat step count showed that he had already walked 8,341 steps, more than 8,000 steps in 20 minutes, which is close to 400 steps per minute. His steps were all long strides, each step must have been at least 90 centimeters long. In addition, he occasionally jumped or hopped, so his average stride length should be more than 95 centimeters.
That is to say, he walked more than 7 kilometers in about 20 minutes.
This was only his normal walking speed. Gao Ang felt that he hadn't exerted his full strength yet, and had only used... one-fifth of his speed at most.
He hopped and skipped around, wandering freely, with a little cat slung over his shoulder at most. In less than half an hour, he covered the distance that usually took him more than an hour to walk...
"Yes, it's within the prediction range, it just seems more realistic now."
After smacking his lips a few times, Gao Ang stuffed his phone into his backpack and secured it firmly before looking around again. He needed to find something for Xiao Hua to eat.
Wild fruits probably won't work; Little Flower is a feline, and according to its ancestral customs, it should be a carnivore.
If you want to feed it meat, you'll have to catch some small animals for it. Golden monkeys are too rare.
After listening for a while, Gao Ang noticed a small ditch not far ahead, with a rather loud tinkling sound of flowing water. If that was the case, there should be a place where the water gathered, and if they were lucky, they might even find a natural freshwater lake or something. Then, his and Xiao Hua's drinking water problem, as well as their food problem, would be easily solved.
Just as he was about to get up to follow the sound of flowing water, he suddenly heard a mechanical turning sound.
"What?! How could such a sound come from deep in the mountains?"
Gao Ang grabbed Xiao Hua and quickly hid behind a rock. After concealing himself, he began to carefully pinpoint the direction of the sound.
Approximately 35° to the left front, 161 meters away, 6.5 meters above the ground.
In just a few seconds, I came to this conclusion, of course, the height above the ground is based on the current ground level of Gaoyang.
He took out his phone again, activated the video recording function, and proudly pointed the camera in that direction. To avoid being discovered by the unknown machine, he even found a bush for cover. He himself didn't dare to show his face, only sticking the phone out.
He also adjusted the angle a few times to capture as much content as possible.
A minute later, he put his phone away, pulled up the video recording, and examined it carefully.
Although the iPhone's signal is poor, its video recording function is still excellent. It can capture distant objects clearly from a distance of nearly 200 meters.
After sliding his finger across the screen for a while and zooming in on the recording, Gao Ang finally saw what it was.
Little Flower, standing nearby, curiously peeked over and looked at the screen on the phone, her face full of bewilderment.
That was a camera, or rather, a solar-powered video recorder, because he didn't see any power cord or anything like that.
"This is a huge mistake. What if this thing has infrared capabilities?"
If nothing unexpected happens, this is likely a research camera placed here by zoologists to observe the living habits of animals. If they can discover some endangered animals, that would be an even greater surprise.
Most of these cameras have infrared imaging capabilities, and their clarity and sensitivity are far superior to those of civilian cameras.
Fortunately, the camera hasn't turned to his side yet, which relieved Gao Feng.
It's true that he's immune to heat and cold now, but he still has a body temperature, and it's a constant 36.5°C. It would be incredibly easy for an infrared camera to capture a full-body image of him.
Destroy it?
Gao Ang himself rejected this idea.
It's not that he's a saint, but there's no need for it. This thing doesn't pose a real threat to him. At worst, he can just retreat and change direction.
But the probe is currently pointing directly at the water source.
Just as Gao Ang was struggling with a problem, Xiao Hua seemed to sense something. A hint of impatience appeared on its cat face, and it leaped out from behind the rock.
"..."
Gao Feng didn't dare to utter a sound. These cameras have extremely powerful sound recording capabilities, and with such a small area, what if they picked up his voice...?
Taking advantage of the fact that the camera wasn't in his direction, Gao Ang cautiously peeked out, wanting to see what Xiao Hua was up to.
The distance of about two hundred meters was covered in just a few breaths as Xiaohua sprinted.
"Wow, if I were Superman, you'd be Super Cat," Gao Ang muttered to himself.
Little Flower quickly arrived at the tree. Without the slightest hesitation, she used all her strength to start climbing the tree. In the blink of an eye, her paws were only a few centimeters away from the camera.
Looking back at Gao Long's direction, Xiao Hua's face revealed a hint of disdain and mockery.
"Click".
"Click".
With a wave of its paw, the cat sliced the camera into a pile of scrap metal, and a few plastic shells as well.
Gao Ang watched Xiao Hua's actions speechlessly, unsure whether to criticize or praise her.
Damaging scientific research equipment is wrong and should be criticized; ensuring that his and Xiaohua's information is not exposed is commendable... Hmm, Xiaohua is a qualified cleaner!
Only after making sure the camera was completely disabled did Gao Ang dare to swagger out from behind the rock, wave to Xiao Hua, and the two of them continued towards the water source.
Learning from the experience with this camera, three more were discovered along the way, and the final result was the same as the first: they were all destroyed by Xiaohua, the cat.
Although he didn't destroy them himself, seeing Xiao Hua smashing the equipment to pieces with each slap, Gao Ang couldn't help but feel a sense of pleasure. He knew it was the desire to destroy, the catharsis after breaking free from the shackles of taboo.
He doesn't feel anything is wrong right now. He's only damaged a few pieces of equipment. Besides, this is deep in the mountains and there are no witnesses. Who can do anything to him?
They soon found the stream, and following the direction of the stream's flow, the cat and the person quickly found a small natural lake.
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