Chapter 109: Giant Beast |
"Can you smell that? The air smells sweet." Qin Ziwu's nostrils twitched.
Li Tieshan raised his head. "I smell it."
Qian Muzhen nodded. "I smell it too."
"It smells a bit like passion fruit." Qin Ziwen looked up, his gaze falling on the Forest Giant Mayflies overhead.
A Forest Giant Mayfly traced a Z-shaped curve in the air, drifting lightly like a leaf to land on the edge of the rooftop, its tail slightly raised, facing away from the four of them.
Its two long tail filaments swayed in the breeze.
Compared to its aquatic larval form, the Forest Giant Mayfly with its newly grown wings was much more elegant.
After resting for a moment, the Forest Giant Mayfly perched on the rooftop flapped its wings, preparing to soar into the sky—
Soar—
Wait, are you sick?!
The Forest Giant Mayfly, which had been pulled back from the air three times in a row, turned its head. Qin Ziwen could even sense a feeling of "annoyance" emanating from a mayfly's body. It opened its large mandibles and bit down on his arm.
But it had forgotten that its mouthparts after metamorphosis were not as hard as the genital claspers at the back of its rear end.
The two soft little mandibles struck his arm, feeling just like a scraping massage.
"Quiet, don't move."
Qin Ziwen slapped its head, sending its brain into a daze.
"Let me see what this is." Qin Ziwen reached his fingers toward the Forest Giant Mayfly's back. Between its two wings was a pore, from which a large amount of golden, sticky fluid was oozing out.
The peculiar fragrance permeating the air all originated from this substance.
He stirred it with his finger, pulling out a long, sticky strand, as thick as honey.
It smelled very fragrant, like the blended pulp from the center of a passion fruit.
The illustrated guide also mentioned this substance, but didn't explain the use of the golden fluid in detail, only mentioning its name as "Mayfly Golden Fluid," a major characteristic of the Forest Giant Mayfly.
Looking at these Forest Giant Mayflies dancing overhead, Qin Ziwen instructed his younger brother, "Go downstairs and bring up an empty, clean glass jar."
Qin Ziwu quickly went downstairs and soon returned to the rooftop with a glass jar and an iron spoon.
After helping his older brother scrape all the Mayfly Golden Fluid from the back of this male Forest Giant Mayfly clean.
Watching a female Forest Giant Mayfly fly past overhead, the male mayfly in his hand struggled desperately, its tail whipping around like a propeller.
Qin Ziwen released his grip.
The male mayfly finally soared into the sky.
It hurriedly pressed close to the female mayfly's side, showing off its figure. The two mayflies danced gracefully in the air, their heads and tails intertwined.
After that, from time to time, some Forest Giant Mayflies that had grown tired from flying rested on nearby rooftops.
Qin Ziwen and his group caught the ones they should catch and scraped the ones they should scrape.
The small glass jar in their hands was soon filled nearly halfway.
Qian Muzhen asked curiously, "Sir, what exactly is the use of this fluid?"
If Qin Ziwen hadn't discovered and stopped him, he would have secretly tasted it while scraping the golden fluid.
"I don't know." Qin Ziwen shook his head.
Qian Muzhen looked thoughtful. "I think it should be non-toxic. Just now, I secretly fed a little to an ant, and the ant didn't die."
"Doctor Qian, your practical skills are truly impressive." Qin Ziwen gave a thumbs-up.
Qian Muzhen smiled. "Sir, don't tease me. I was just curious about what this was. People shouldn't eat things recklessly, so having ants taste it first is quite good. However, just because ants eat it without harm doesn't mean humans can eat it. We still need more testing."
From the mountain behind them, a low cry suddenly came, resembling the bellow of an ox.
"Grooo—"
The deep roar rolled like tumbling rocks, cascading down from the high mountain all the way to the bottom.
"This sound is..." Qian Muzhen was somewhat surprised, turning his head to look at the back mountain.
Li Tieshan was curious. "Is it an earthquake?"
Qian Muzhen denied it. "Absolutely not. An earthquake wouldn't have such a small movement."
"This sounds a bit like the cry of some kind of beast." Du Yu's expression turned serious.
Qian Muzhen's hand trembled, almost pulling out his own beard. "Hiss—for the sound to travel this far, how loud must this beast's voice be?"
"Grooo—" From the mountain came another heavy, low cry. Compared to the previous one, this sound was even more resonant.
Du Yu looked in the direction the sound came from, his breathing quickening. "Sir, judging by the direction, could it be that thing from the cave?"
"What?" Qian Muzhen, who had just arrived, still didn't understand.
But Qin Ziwen and Qin Ziwu both knew what Du Yu was referring to. The two exchanged a glance, then looked toward the direction the sound came from. It did indeed seem to be from that area.
Accompanied by the sound, the Forest Giant Mayflies circling above increased the frequency of their dancing.
At this moment, more and more neighbors in the residential complex came out.
They gradually discovered that these insects flying overhead didn't seem to have any aggressive tendencies.
Some bold people even tried to catch Forest Giant Mayflies.
Qin Ziwen said, "These things are a type of mayfly. They were in larval form in the river before, and now they are adults after metamorphosis."
"Mayflies that are born in the morning and die by dusk?" Qian Muzhen said. "In medical texts, mayfly larvae are edible, but adults have no food value."
Li Tieshan was curious. "Why is that?"
Qian Muzhen shook his head, reciting, "The medical texts say, 'When eating insects, one should take their rich essence.' A mayfly uses all its essence to grow wings and transform. What remains of its body is dry and shriveled, with no meat."
Qin Ziwu said, "I caught two just now, and they felt very light, like balloons filled with a single breath of air."
"Thump."
A tremor came from the back mountain.
"THUMP!"
A colossal creature slowly leaped down from the mountain.
With each of its leaps, the earth issued a dull, heavy sound.
Its massive body crushed the shrubs and vegetation along its path, and some smaller trees were directly snapped.
"THUMP!"
Its movements appeared slow but were actually fast, each step covering over a dozen meters.
"Where the hell did this bring me?" Qin Ziwu muttered to himself, staring dumbfounded like a wooden chicken at the colossal creature gradually leaping down from the back mountain.
"THUMP!"
Looking from afar, a gigantic toad with a grayish-brown, rock-like body was leaping down the slope step by step.
"This size... it must be two stories tall!"
Using the nearby trees and vegetation for comparison, this giant toad's body length was close to eight or nine meters, its head width about five meters, and its body height roughly one story high.
Its blocky, almost entirely solid shape. Qin Ziwen took out binoculars for long-distance observation.
The toad's two eyes, larger than basketballs, glowed with a pale yellow hue.
He could see the muscles on its hind limbs bulging like iron blocks. Then, those powerful muscles twisted together like steel cables, propelling the massive body into the air before it landed heavily again.
"THUMP!"
It kicked up a large cloud of dust, the surrounding grass and leaves rolling outward like waves.
The giant toad steadily leaped step by step toward the residential complex.
After Qin Ziwen passed the binoculars to the others, they each took turns looking before putting them down.
Qian Muzhen's brows were tightly locked. "This..."
Li Tieshan took a deep breath. "Sir, the Animal Trap probably won't work on it."
Du Yu stared at the giant toad. "The muscles on its body are very dense. Ordinary arrows probably couldn't even penetrate its muscles. To hunt it, ordinary pit traps won't work either. We'd need siege crossbows or poison."
After clearly seeing the appearance of this giant toad, Qin Ziwen finally confirmed that this was indeed the Stone Burrow Ancient Giant Toad.
But its size far exceeded the standard described in the illustrated guide.
......
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