webnovel

Chapter 164

 The Leviathan then dragged the flattened spider back into the breeding chamber and began to analyze why this creature was able to secrete boiling liquid.

During her research, Lin discovered that this spider had an explosive system similar to the silver beetle's. By mixing two types of liquids together, it would instantly produce an extremely high temperature, but since the composition was different, it wouldn't explode.

As soon as the spider bit its prey, it would inject the two types of liquids into its prey's body at the same time, allowing them to mix into a high-temperature liquid. This way, not only would it not harm itself, it would also be more effective than venom to quickly destroy its prey.

But why was the spider's body fluid so hot? That was because the Leviathan had flattened the spider's two liquid-producing organs and mixed the two types of liquids together.

It didn't feel like a complicated structure at all. If this was Lin's first time seeing it, she might have been surprised, but since she already had explosives, she didn't feel anything special about it.

However, Lin discovered another type of organ inside the spider's body — — a silk sac.

It was something that secreted silk. Many creatures were capable of secreting silk, which first created a type of liquid that would harden upon contact with air to form silk threads.

Normally, Lin didn't pay much attention to these abilities. There were many creatures capable of spitting silk, but it was only recently that Lin noticed that each type of silk thread had a different degree of hardness. For example, larvae used silk threads to wrap themselves up and protect themselves from internal deformation. This was the most common type of silk thread, but this type of silk thread was relatively weak and could easily be pulled apart.

The 'Starlight Worm' that Lin encountered in the underground cavern had a much stronger sticky silk thread, and the silk thread created by this spider's silk sac was the strongest type of silk thread.

Lin created some silk fluid to test the silk threads. This type of spider silk only needed to be about 5mm in diameter to be able to lift something weighing over 200 tons.

Although she hadn't actually tested it on such a large object before. But Lin believed that there was no way to make a mistake in calculating this kind of thing. After all, the data wouldn't change.

If she could create this kind of silk thread, it would be incredibly useful. But Lin would need her cells to break down its composition in order to fully understand its composition, just like how she originally created the 'Shell Substance', but the composition would be a bit different, so it would take a long time to fully understand.

In short, she discovered something very interesting. At that time, the spiders did not use this kind of thread to hunt. Lin speculated that it might be used elsewhere. If they could catch a live one, they could conduct more experiments.

The night that followed was very quiet. No second spider appeared, and there were no strange noises. It was only during the day that the hidden lizards and other creatures appeared again. Some of the larger male lizards climbed up high. Announces the day with a loud howl.

Lin continued to excavate the cave in the tree while releasing a large number of Fliers. Including the Leviathan itself, they set off to explore the nearby environment.

The entire area was rocky, and there were many Hometree. However, compared to the Fern Forest, the distribution was more sparse. There would only be one Hometree every one to two kilometers.

Before approaching Lin, there were waterfalls and hot springs, as well as many living creatures. However, as soon as he flew a certain distance away from the Hometree, all he saw was dry, rocky ground. There wasn't any water on the rocky ground, so there weren't any living creatures. At the same time, there weren't many glowing creatures at the top of the cave, which made the entire place dark and barren.

The Leviathan quickly flew through the air. Lin only wanted to find the spiders.

When he was about five kilometers away from the Hometree, the Leviathan discovered a huge rift valley. The rift valley was more than 70 meters wide, and there were continuous rumbling noises coming from it. The Leviathan flew to the top of the rift valley and looked down. The bottom of the rift valley was covered with a layer of sticky black rock.

It was solidified lava. This seemed to be a lava area, so there was nothing strange about it. Lin had seen it many times before. What caught Lin's attention was the walls of the rift valley. There were several large spiders with bodies as bright as the lava on the cliff. They were obviously the spiders Lin encountered during the night.

She finally found them. They hung themselves from the cliff by a seemingly thin thread. They seemed to have evolved such a strong thread to support their weight, although Lin still didn't know why they were hanging there. These spiders had their legs curled together, as if they were sleeping.

Sleeping while hanging on top of solidified lava was a strange feeling …. Combined with their color, Lin decided to call them 'lava spiders'.

Lin left a few Flyers here to observe them. There was no need to capture them to study the spiders, as the Flyers could inject Penetrators into the spiders' joints to study the changes within their bodies. Now that the Leviathan had returned to the Hometree, Lin still had many things to prepare.

Lin had already confirmed that there were no more Inca insects in the vicinity, so she decided to completely reconstruct this barren rocky ground. Lin had her troops bring in some Twisted Tree species and other creatures from the surface to see if they could survive here. At the same time, Lin also began to build a base around the Hometree and produce troops.

Although the Inca insects hadn't done anything yet, Lin still felt that she had to be prepared. The Brain Worm also had the same idea. When it saw the Inca insects moving about, it nervously reported to Lin: 「 Mysterious, complex, and unexplainable. The Inca insects are unimaginably powerful, and are classified as an unknown creature. They can communicate with the Aztec insects. Threat level: Extremely high 」

That was why Lin wanted to quickly build a base here. While the base was being built, Lin also ordered the Brain Hunters to conduct research on the Inca insects. Lin needed to thoroughly understand them, as they had the ability to revive ancient creatures.

The research continued, and after 30 days and nights, Lin had a certain degree of understanding of the Inca insects.

The Fern Forest was located right below the desert. There were dozens of Hometrees here, and every single one of them was inhabited by Inca insects. There were many types of Inca insects, and Lin had already seen at least 30 types of insects, possibly even more.

Among the many types of insects, only the 'Black Bees' had the most extensive uses. They were 10 cm long, and were used for feeding, digging, hunting, transporting, and other activities. When they encountered something they couldn't handle, they would bring in various types of insects. Most of them were fat insects of different sizes, and they had the ability to spray silk and dissolve liquids. However, they couldn't move and needed the Black Bees to carry them.

The other types of insects would only appear occasionally, so Lin's research on them wasn't complete. Up until now, Lin hadn't seen any Inca insects that had a type of insect called the 'Brain Worm'. Perhaps her research wasn't complete enough.

Now, Lin's main focus was to study their behavior.

The Inca insects usually hunted for food, but they rarely hunted in the same place. They would often hunt a bit here, a bit there, and a bit there. At the same time, they would also create large pits to raise some worm-like creatures. This was exactly the same behavior as the desert pits.

Aside from this' normal 'behavior, there were also other strange behaviors. Among all the Home Trees that were inhabited by Inca insects, there were a few that were relatively normal. They were simply places where they stored food and laid their eggs, while some of the Home Trees had strange nests, including the tree that Lin had been researching for a long time, which was a' living fossil '.

There were many excavation sites next to the Hometrees where the fossils were resurrected. Lin discovered that the Black Bees would dig to a certain depth, and after moving the fossils out, they would fill the hole with soil and find a new place to continue digging. The fossils that were dug out would be piled under the Hometrees, and then fed to the fat insects in the Hometrees.

After the fat worm ate the little bug, it would produce a fossilized ancient creature within about ten days or so. However, the strange thing was that Lin had never seen them succeed. The creatures that were produced were usually deformed, with many extra limbs and so on, or they would die not long after they came out. These creatures would be carried out by the black bees, and then all of them would be eaten.

This kind of behavior was very hard to understand. Lin could also piece together an exact copy of an organism based on the cells in its body, but that wouldn't be of any use. Those ancient creatures weren't very powerful, they were only ordinary fish and small sea creatures that Lin often saw in the sea.

However, the Inca insects were sparing no effort to resurrect them. Why? And how did they resurrect them? Lin didn't think that the Inca insect's brain could control every single cell. If that was the case, they wouldn't be able to produce so many failed products.

This strange behavior only made Lin feel a little strange. However, what happened next made Lin feel threatened.

Under a few Hometrees that were closer to the cave wall, Lin discovered that the Inca insects not only lived in the trees, but also surrounded the tree trunks. Their behavior was also different from other trees.

A large number of Black Bees gathered here, and they dug day and night. Their target wasn't the fossils, but a type of large burrowing insect that lived in the mud. This type of insect had a thick carapace, and the Inca insects hunted them, chewed them into paste, and transported them into the Hometrees. At the same time, they also hunted various creatures in the nearby forest. The number of creatures they killed had already exceeded their daily food requirements, but they never stopped.

After Lin let the shapeshifters sneak into the Twisted Tree, she discovered that there were ten 'queens' in the tree. They were constantly laying large amounts of eggs, and these eggs hatched into various species in a short period of time. Some had large bodies with thick carapaces, some had sharp teeth, and some had glowing abdomens with high temperatures.

Lin discovered that these creatures had some of the characteristics of the creatures that the Black Bees hunted. They seemed to be able to … imitate other creatures? And they could be mass-produced.

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