The rain stopped, but the water on the ground did not recede so quickly.
The filthy water quality and the dangers that may lurk in it are obviously not suitable for travel, but everyone's mood became brighter as the sky cleared. Even Luo Yuan's expression was no longer so serious, and he took the initiative to look for food for the first time.
In fact, as long as you are careful enough, you can still find a lot of food to eat in the flooded jungle. Of course, you must first know that it is not poisonous.
Tubers of various weeds, tree sap that was as sweet as milk, and some scattered wild fruits. Finally, Luo Yuan found a large stranded fish that swam from nowhere.
This discovery surprised Luo Yuan again!
Surprisingly, the flood has connected rivers and lakes together, and the water has become extremely dangerous. Fortunately, this light blue fish is huge and can last for several days. At least there will be no shortage of food until the water recedes.
Luo Yuan dragged the big fish back to the tree hole. The tree's vitality had been severely damaged. Just overnight, its leaves had turned a little yellow, giving people a feeling of entering twilight.
The big fish was too big to move close to the cave, so Luo Yuan had to break it down into pieces of snow-white fish meat in advance.
Seeing Luo Yuan coming back, everyone came over to help. They carried and moved the neatly divided pieces of fish meat to the corner of the tree hole and piled them up more than one meter high. The entire fish skin was left intact by Luo Yuan. This kind of fish skin is thinner than the skin of mutant beasts and is very tough. It is very suitable for holding water or sundries.
Huang Jiahui and Cao Lin gathered the few dry firewood left and lit a fire. The tree hole is very humid, but there is no need to worry about causing a fire.
Huo Dong used local materials, cut a few sticks from the tree hole, forked the fish, and started making barbecue. Under the lick of the flames, the fat of the fish made a sizzling sound, and the fat kept dripping, and the whole tree The cave is filled with an alluring fragrance.
Huang Jiahui gave everyone a glass of milk-like sap and kept the excess.
This kind of tree sap with a refreshing taste tastes quite good. After tasting it, many people are reluctant to drink it all at once, but just drink it in small sips. The tubers of weeds also taste great, except for the slightly thick texture. They can be eaten as both rice and fruit.
Perhaps because they had been hungry for a long time, everyone had a big appetite. Their stomachs were bloated and they could no longer eat, so they stopped. Even Wang Shishi, who usually has the smallest appetite, ate three times the usual amount of food.
And Luo Yuan even eliminated more than ten kilograms of fish and made up for all the food he had missed in the past few days. A person with such a strong physique like him can no longer be measured from an ordinary person's perspective. He can now go several days without eating and still feel energetic. He can also eat a few days' worth of food at a time.
… … …
As time passed day by day, everyone's injuries recovered one by one.
After the third day, the water finally receded, revealing the muddy soil. In the distance, several mutated fish that looked very much like piranhas kept bouncing in place and began their final struggle.
Huang Jiahui checked her luggage over and over again as if she had an obsessive-compulsive disorder, and didn't stop until there were no more defects.
In fact, there was not much luggage, including a bag of several dozen kilograms of tree sap packed in fish skin, a dozen pieces of smoked dried fish of about half a kilogram each, three lighters, their own weapons and bullets, and a few A strip of cloth that had been washed so white that even a beggar would look down upon it.
That’s all the baggage!
Luo Yuan put a dozen recently made short spears into his bag, carried them behind his back, pulled out the sword that was stuck in the heart of the tree, and jumped out of the tree hole first.
Everyone walked nervously to the giant lizard that was already lying on the ground, grabbed the rope hanging from the carpet, and climbed up with weak hands and feet.
It's not like everyone has done nothing these days. At least the monitor lizard's back has been covered with a rough carpet made of the peeled skin of vines. After it is laid on top, there is no need to worry about it slipping off.
With a low roar, the monitor lizard stood up and walked slowly forward.
The forest has been washed away by the floods, and sewage is everywhere. Flies and mosquitoes breed. Everywhere they pass, there are small insects. These small bugs are smaller than grains of rice, but they are numerous and swarm, floating around like smoke. However, these insects did not dare to get close to Luo Yuan, and sometimes they even escaped too slowly and fell to the ground one after another.
Luo Yuan had noticed it a long time ago. In fact, this phenomenon had already existed in the tree hole. Because the space is too small and there is concern about insufficient oxygen supply, a small hole is left in the tree hole even at night. But no matter it was day or night, not a single small insect would fly in.
The reason that caused the insects to retreat was not because of the monitor lizard, nor because of Luo Yuan, but because of the sword.
Ever since the Zhanma Sword evolved to the green level, his sword had an inexplicable light power. This was not an illusory psychological suggestion, but a real existence.
However, this power is still very weak, and ordinary people can only feel that it is sharp and powerful. You can tell that it is very sharp at a glance. But for these small insects, which are small in size and as spiritual as faint sparks, they are a huge threat. Ordinary flies dare not approach them at all.
After walking for half an hour, the trees gradually became sparse, and the sky appeared above everyone's heads again. The weather was still very gloomy, and the sky was covered with dark clouds. Because of the large amount of volcanic ash brought by the volcanic eruption, it was probably difficult to see the sun these days.
However, everyone was still shocked!
"I'm finally leaving." Huo Dong said excitedly.
"I estimate we can get out of the forest in less than ten minutes." Cao Lin agreed with a smile on her face.
"When the time comes, you must find a bed, a quilt, and have a good sleep. These days, I wake up from the cold every night." Master Wang said softly,
Huang Jiahui smiled demurely. She had suffered a lot in the past few days. She sat on the ground in the open air every day. She almost felt that she had returned to primitive society. She hadn't brushed her teeth for several days, and there was a burst of bad breath when she opened her mouth. Fortunately, everything is coming to an end. At least when you get on the highway, you won't be without a quilt like now. Every fortification there has a large number of beds and quilts, as well as various toiletries.
Everyone was talking and laughing all the way, but soon the smiles on their faces gradually disappeared.
As it goes deeper, the trees in this jungle become sparser and sparse, and the trees become more and more weird. The trunks are extremely twisted, and the leaves are much fewer than normal trees. Many of them are already dry. Like stunted, deformed creatures.
You can see piles of bones of mutated creatures everywhere along the way, most of them half-buried under the mud because of the recent flood. At first, all you could see were small skeletons, but as you continued to advance, large skeletons began to appear occasionally.
What seems to have happened here
A man of skill is bold, and Luo Yuan will not be surprised like everyone else. As long as there are no creatures above the light green level, he has nothing to fear. Although he feels a little weird in his heart, he does not stop moving forward. This road is the closest to the highway. If you bypass this extremely wide area, you may have to walk for a long time to get to the highway.
Ten minutes later, the surrounding trees began to fall slightly in a certain direction. There were more and more dead trees around. Except for a few that were completely alive, most of the trees were dead. And the few living ones have become even weirder. They are completely naked without a single leaf, and the branches seem to be struggling in the air like ghost claws.
There seemed to be an aura of death in the air, and the surroundings were eerily quiet. Even the usual insect sounds in the woods had disappeared. Everyone felt like they were heading towards a hell.
The monitor lizard seemed a little restless, its nostrils kept snoring, and bursts of thick smoke came out. It seemed that it was not very willing to go inside anymore.
Huang Jiahui suddenly said in shock, her voice slightly distorted: "Wait a minute, let's go back quickly, this is where the nuclear bomb exploded!"
Luo Yuan was horrified: "What did you say?"
"If you don't remember, several nuclear bombs were thrown in the wilderness of Hedong City. This is probably where the nuclear bomb exploded." Huang Jiahui said urgently.
Everyone's expressions changed drastically, and they lost all color in an instant. Their eyes looked at everything around them in horror, and their hearts were filled with fear.
No wonder it's so quiet here and the plants have become weird. I didn't expect that the nuclear bomb exploded here. I'm afraid there is still a huge amount of nuclear radiation here. Luo Yuan quickly patted the head of the lizard. It stopped and looked at Luo Yuan. At Yuan's signal, it turned its head and quickly returned to the original path.
"We have been here for such a long time, will something happen?" Wang Shishi asked worriedly. She had seen propaganda photos of nuclear radiation in school before, and the deformed people in them left a deep shadow on her. .
"No, our physical condition is much better now than before, and we have only been here for more than ten minutes. We will definitely be fine." Huang Jiahui said. This was not to comfort others, but to comfort herself: "You Look, aren’t there still some trees alive here?”
"But, they have become so weird, have they mutated?" Master Wang asked uneasily.
Huang Jiahui was silent for a while and said, "They are originally mutated plants."
At this time, Wang Xiaguang's body swayed and he almost fell off the giant lizard. Luo Yuan quickly supported him: "What's wrong with you?"
Wang Xiaguang shook his head and said with a trembling voice: "I'm just a little dizzy."
"I seem to have a little bit too, and I want to vomit." Master Wang whispered, holding Luo Yuan's clothes tightly with his hands.
Everyone looked a little uneasy because they felt the same way.
"Hold on for a while longer, and we will leave immediately." Luo Yuan glanced at everyone, and his heart gradually sank. Even Master Wang had symptoms of radiation. I am afraid that no one except himself and Lin Xiaoji would be spared.
This time the nuclear radiation was not like the previous nuclear explosion. That time it was dozens of kilometers away. The dose could be said to be pitifully small. Even ordinary people could survive it. This time it was really too close.
Mutated plants have strong vitality, and ordinary nuclear radiation cannot cause much harm to them. Such large-scale death can only mean one thing. They are already very close to the edge of a nuclear explosion.
"Brother Luo, can you help me break a branch here?" At this time, Cao Lin looked at those strange-shaped trees, suddenly her expression changed, and she said.
"What do you want the branches for?" Luo Yuan asked doubtfully.
"I see that most of these trees have no leaves, and the radiation in the vicinity is severe, life is rare, and they will not feed on living things like lanterns. The most likely reason is that they can absorb nuclear radiation." Cao Lin analyzed, looking a little excited.
"I think it's very possible. As the saying goes, wherever poisonous insects are infested, there must be an antidote within seven steps." Huo Dong seemed to feel hope. He felt relieved and interjected.
Luo Yuan looked at the strange tree in the distance and felt more and more that Cao Lin's analysis was correct. He quickly said: "Wait a minute, I'll go over and take a look."
He jumped off the monitor lizard's back and walked quickly towards a strange tree in front of him.