Chapter 71: Chapter 60: Poisonous Plants and Insects, Leader Level and Clan Leader Level
The surge of excitement in everyone’s hearts only lasted a moment before fatigue set in again.
They then sat down to rest, began eating and drinking, and recovered their strength.
After all, no matter how grand the scene, only the prey hunted belongs to oneself.
Ding Yi entered the ruins of the former city, searching for resilient wild grass amidst the dilapidated ruins.
She uprooted them, took a sip of the juice, and selected varieties with hallucinogenic and paralyzing effects.
These mutated plants, adapted to the harsh wasteland environment, had evolved tiny pores on the surfaces of their leaves and stems.
They utilized changes in air pressure to condense the moisture in the breeze within these pores, absorbing it to ensure their growth needs.
Being tender and flavorful, rich in moisture, they became a favorite delicacy for herbivores on the wasteland.
As a result, many weeds or fern-like shrubs evolved defensive mechanisms such as alkaloids, phytoproteins, or thorny roots and jagged leaves.
The latter, in fact, weren’t very effective; most herbivores had lips and mouths keratinized several centimeters thick, unfearful of external damage.
After chewing them up and swallowing them, they ground them with pebbles and sand, even bones could be ground into powder.
The former, magical toxin damage, was much more effective, although for large herbivores, small amounts of toxins didn’t pose a significant impact. However, plants could leverage their terrain advantage, hiding in rock crevices or corners to get through early growth stages.
Thus, large herbivores couldn’t reach them, and small animals couldn’t withstand the toxin attacks, allowing them to survive, endure the growing period, finally blooming and fruiting.
Once they grew tall enough, the tiny grass seeds could then be eaten by herbivores, spreading to the next gathering place as they migrated, enabling propagation.
This was the plants’ survival and reproduction strategy, which nowadays has been reused by humans as a hunting tool.
While collecting toxic wild grass, Ding Yi noticed that beneath overturned stones, insects and ants were often hiding.
The wild grass and shrubs in the city ruins, by taking advantage of the terrain, formed a simple yet unique biotic chain with these tiny insects and ants.
Ding Yi not only found more than a dozen new grass species but also many unseen mutated insects, the density several times that of the wilderness.
She carefully collected them in empty bottles.
Arthropods could endure the prolonged scorching of the Scorching Sun Forbidden Area by deeply digging holes, being semi-dormant, and their tiny body sizes, waiting two years for revival.
In front of this ruin oasis, they gradually evolved into an existence similar to gardener ants, forming stable symbiotic relationships with toxic plants.
However, as higher-level consumers, toxins accumulated in their bodies over time due to sedimentation.
With a bountiful harvest, Ding Yi discovered while making paralyzing toxins on the stone slabs that instead of extracting trace amounts of neuro-muscular paralyzing toxins from plants, it was better to directly remove the glands at the tail of these ants and beetles.
Inside there lay highly concentrated venom.
Filtered from the toxic grass they consumed to become their defense mechanism; a common occurrence in nature.
"These insects are highly toxic, not edible; the toxin in one could knock out an 80-kilogram adult human. As for a Rock-Horned Horse weighing 500 kilograms, only six would suffice."
Seeing Lin Feng approaching, Ding Yi, carefully dissecting insects with a utility blade, explained:
"A Tier One Rock-Horned Horse stands two meters tall, five meters long, and weighs over a ton. At least ten would be needed to cause paralysis to their nerves and muscles."
"However, these toxins decompose when boiled, so even if they end up dead, there’s no concern about the contamination of horse meat."
Lin Feng nodded:
"You’ve only caught a little over twenty. I’ll gather others to help."
He then called Liu Qian and Ah Lian along, entering the city ruins to collect toxic insects.
Soon, three bottles filled with thumb-sized toxic insects appeared before Ding Yi.
With over a hundred, the extracted toxin amounted to around a hundred milliliters, enough for this mission.
"Biological toxin lv7, White Quality"
"Mixed neurotoxin and muscle toxin, hazardous biological material; ingestion causes intense burning and paralysis; doubly effective when injected into bloodstream; shorter duration of effect the higher the evolution level, but dosage can increase"
Chen Shanshan’s long-range Armor-Piercing Horn Bow, shooting wolf fang arrowheads, mainly had to rely on this toxin injection.
To deal with a Tier One Rock-Horned Horse, one must first pierce through the ten-centimeter-thick rock armor with a Titanium Gun and inject the venom within to disable it from struggling.
Only by having the strength to approach a Tier One Desolate Beast can the toxin be effective.
Thus, the conditions were quite harsh.
Chen Shanshan was the only suitable one in the team to be equipped.
Although Lin Feng’s Level 9 Precision Handgun had powerful firepower, the wolf fang bullet coated with venom was flung away during flight.
Once materials were gathered, both teams were almost rested. Lin Feng handed the binoculars to Ah Ming, then took Liu Qian towards the nearby Duncan Squad.
Six of them were sitting around discussing the subsequent hunting plan.
Seeing Lin Feng and his companion approaching, Lisa made room for them and curiously asked:
"Were you collecting food? Didn’t bring enough supplies on this trip?"
She assumed Lin Feng and his group were scavenging like other lower-class Deserters, gathering roots and insects to fill their bellies.