Chapter 297

What appeared in front of Lin and Tucker was a... tree.

But Lin doubted that it was a tree. Although it looked like a thick trunk, rough bark, and a lot of branches, what grew on the tree was a lot of curved tentacle-like structures. These tentacles were so long that they almost touched the ground. It was these tentacles that emitted a light blue glow...

Deep underground, there was no need for it to grow leaves. But what were these strange tentacles for? This tree also had a lot of roots. Thick roots jutted out of the ground around it. Like the tentacles, the roots were also glowing.

And where did the three skeletal dragons go? They were nowhere to be seen. This tree was more than five meters tall and was right in the center of the cave. Looking behind the tree, they could see two forks in the road.

They should have gone in one of the directions, but they had to go around this tree before going there.

Moreover, this cave was quite strange. Why was there so much water here?

Tucker didn't dare to act rashly when he saw this strange tree. He must have encountered many kinds of trap plants on land before. These plants fed on animals and were much more terrifying than ordinary photosynthetic plants.

But Tucker generally had a way to deal with this kind of plant. He picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at the tree.

The stone passed through the pile of glowing tentacles and hit the trunk. The tree didn't react at all...

Tucker threw a few more stones, but there was still no reaction. However, some plants would only react when animals passed by, so this method wasn't necessarily accurate.

Then Tucker grabbed a jade from the pouch he was wearing. He threw the jade towards the tree. The moment Mao Yu touched the tree's tentacle … nothing happened. Then the jade hit the tree and fell into the water under the tree. It quickly swam away...

It seemed that there was no problem.

Tucker must have thought so. He slowly walked towards the tree, but Lin immediately told him to stop.

Tucker looked at Lin in confusion. Lin let the pterosaur fly over. When it got close to the tree, the pterosaur suddenly opened its mouth and sprayed a large amount of mucus on the hanging tentacles.

This mucus was irritating and could be called "spicy." The tentacles began to twitch as soon as they came into contact with the mucus. Within a few seconds, they retracted into the trunk.

The whole tree's tentacles, including those that weren't sprayed with mucus, retracted. The cave suddenly dimmed. The pterosaur glowed again, illuminating the whole cave.

Lin guessed that the tree was not a predator, but its tentacles could cause some special harm. Mao Yu, who had just touched it, swam about ten meters away and died. However, Tucker did not seem to notice it. After all, they were in the water.

Now, Lin and Tucker were faced with a fork. Where would the two skeletal dragons be? Generally speaking, smell could tell where they were. But oddly... there were scents on both sides of the cave.

Did they split up and run away? But since that's the case, I'll just walk to one side. Lin let Tucker choose, and he chose the cave on the left that seemed to be deeper.

After walking for more than ten meters, there was no more water in the cave. It seemed that there was only water near the tree. Did the water have something to do with the tree?

The cave in this area was made of ordinary rocks, not the white 'salt rock' from before. The ground was also made of commonly seen sand. The rocks on the cave walls and the ground were quite dry. There was no sense of moisture at all, and there were no signs of any living creatures.

As they got closer and closer to the smell, Lin saw some strange marks on the sand on the ground. They seemed to be... drawn on.

It should have been drawn by the skeletal dragons. It was very similar to what Tucker's tribe liked to draw. Next to these marks were some broken bones, which seemed to be used for drawing.

"Screech..."

A sound came from ahead. Lin and Tucker had reached the end of the cave. At the end of the cave, a skeletal dragon was standing there.

Only one? Sure enough, they split up.

"Caw caw caw!" The skeletal dragon began to yell as soon as it saw Tucker. Tucker didn't quarrel with it at this time. He picked up the sharp stone and rushed up! He stabbed the skeletal dragon's abdomen with the sharp stone, but the dragon jumped to the side and dodged the stab.

It was a strange feeling.

Lin found that Tucker was slower than usual. There seemed to be something wrong with his legs. There were wounds on his legs caused by the meat cutting ants, but the wounds hadn't healed yet.

The meat cutting ants didn't secrete dissolving fluid, and they weren't poisonous... This was really strange.

Tucker continued to turn around and stab at the skeletal dragon, but his speed was obviously much slower this time. The skeletal dragon took a step back and dodged. Then it stood on one leg and quickly turned around. Its long tail swept Tucker's leg, and Tucker fell to the ground from the blow.

Skeletal dragons had a lot of different skills in battle. They cared more about whether they were injured than fighting with brute force.

The skeletal dragon raised its sharp claws and stabbed at Tucker! Tucker, on the other hand, rolled a few times on the ground at an even faster speed and jumped up again. But the moment he jumped up, his leg suddenly tilted and he fell to the ground again. The stone in his hand rolled away as a result.

Sure enough, there was something wrong with his leg.

The White Skeleton Dragon had obviously noticed Tucker's problem. It would never let go of this opportunity. It picked up Tucker's stone that had rolled to its feet from the ground and stabbed it at Tucker's head!

Lin had almost never helped Tucker or the other skeletal dragons in battle. It seemed that she had to help this time.

Just as the skeletal dragon was about to stab Tucker, the pterosaur suddenly pounced on its head and stabbed the skeletal dragon's eyes with its sharp beak.

With a scream, blood burst out from the skeletal dragon's eyes. It immediately reached out its claws and grabbed the pterosaur's neck, then threw the pterosaur away.

Lin felt that the skeletal dragon was filled with anger. It kept making this "Hiss..." sound from its mouth and walked toward the pterosaur.

This pterosaur didn't have any offensive ability and was small in size. It could only make some surprise attacks. The skeletal dragon angrily rushed to the pterosaur's side and grabbed its neck. It stabbed the pterosaur's eyes with a sharp stone.

A lot of blood spurted out of the pterosaur's pierced eyes. But the pterosaur didn't scream. It didn't try to run away or dodge.

The skeletal dragon seemed to be a little confused. This pterosaur's reaction was different from that of normal creatures. At this moment, dozens of small needles suddenly shot out of the pterosaur's pierced eyes. These needles flew into the skeletal dragon's eye wound at high speed and injected a large number of microscopic troops into it.

"Gah!" The skeletal dragon screamed again and fell to the ground. Now, a large number of microscopic troops had invaded its body through its wound. Many creatures would die from bacterial infection, but what Lin could do was far more powerful than bacteria. They could release a large amount of dissolving fluid along the way to kill cells and destroy all structures. At the same time, the pterosaur's eye had stopped bleeding and was slowly recovering.

Lin looked at the skeletal dragon struggling on the ground and ignored it. She flew toward Tucker.

Tucker was now lying on the ground. It seemed that he couldn't move his legs at all. He could only watch the battle between the pterosaur and the skeletal dragon in panic. When the pterosaur flew to his side, Lin could clearly feel that it had calmed down.

Now, she had to check its wound. Tucker's wound hadn't healed yet, but it wasn't bleeding. The pterosaur released some microscopic troops that were exactly the same as the ones that invaded the skeletal dragon to explore the wound. In fact, they were even smaller "healers."

The blood on the wound was in a strange state. It seemed to have solidified. Lin's healers had to drill holes in the wound to get in.

"Boom …"

Just then, Lin heard a sound around her. It sounded like the cave was shaking.

But it was more important to check now. The healers who drilled into the blood vessels found that all the blood had solidified. The blood vessels were filled with a strange liquid. The liquid was very thick. Not only could it block the blood vessels, it could also make the muscles unable to move. It was somewhat similar to the liquid used by the Inca bugs to create statues.

Where did this liquid come from?

Yes, it was from the tree.

There was water around the tree, but the skeletal dragons didn't drink it. Was this the reason? Was it mixed with a liquid that could harden the blood and muscles? Tucker's leg had been bitten by a meat-cutting ant, and this liquid had seeped into it. Was this liquid made by the tree? Why would it make such a strange liquid? It was too slow to take effect if it was used for hunting. Was it used for defense? But what kind of creature would eat it? A meat-cutting ant? Lin didn't think that creature's stomach would be able to digest plants.

Let's call this liquid "petrifying toxin." Speaking of which, there were a lot of fossilized fungi here. Was this related to it?

Boom … The sound from before rang out again. This time, the sound of trembling was even more intense. Lin could clearly feel the trembling, and the trembling was still ongoing.

Lin was now studying the liquid. She asked the healers to try to make a liquid that could dissolve the petrifying toxin without harming Tucker's cells.

It wasn't difficult, but it took a long time to complete. Only a little could be released at a time. If too much was released at once, it would still block the blood vessels.

Crack... As the cave continued to shake, cracks began to appear on the walls. It seemed like the cave was about to collapse.

Although they didn't know why the cave was collapsing, they had to hurry.

The healers mainly dissolved the petrifying toxin in Tucker's muscles. At the same time, the pterosaur released more healers. Some stones had already fallen from the collapsed cave. With the healers' quick work, most of the petrifying toxin was finally removed. Tucker could now move again.

"Run!"

Lin flapped her wings and flew up. Tucker also knew that it was very dangerous here. He didn't have time to show excitement or dance. He immediately stood up and ran in the direction he came from.

But just as Tucker ran a few steps, he suddenly fell to the ground with a thud. It was not because he had not recovered from the petrification poison, but because … the dying White Skeleton Dragon had grabbed his leg!