Outside the gathering place in the forest, two figures walked slowly towards them.
The sun was high in the sky, but both of them were holding thick cotton-padded clothes. One was tall and the other had a calm face. It was Bai Mo and the two who had just returned from Hansheng Mine.
It was about three o'clock in the afternoon, and the entire gathering place was quiet.
There was no one in sight. Zhang Tao told Bai Mo that most people were going to work or looking for supplies at this time.
Laziness cannot survive in the buffer zone. If you stay at home all day long, you can only starve and wait to die. Even Wu Fan, a gangster, knows this very well.
The group of people who were just waiting to die were very disdainful.
Zhang Tao also said that with Wuji City as the center, this flushing area is covered by a total of eight expanded restricted areas.
And the area where the gathering place is located,
It is exactly at the intersection center of three of the restricted areas.
Fortunately, the danger levels of these three restricted areas are not high. They are two C-level restricted areas and one D-level restricted area. The creatures in the restricted areas are relatively easy to deal with, and most of them follow certain rules of action.
Judging from experience, most of the creatures in these restricted areas are nocturnal. Especially during the noon period, creatures in the restricted area rarely appear outside the restricted area. Therefore, this time period is the best time for human activities.
Not long ago, the Parliament announced the results of a study. Under normal circumstances, the higher the risk level in a restricted area, the smaller the range of activities of the organisms in the restricted area, and correspondingly, the greater their autonomy.
In other words, the higher the level of the forbidden area, the more difficult it is to expand, and the active area is often small, but the creatures in the forbidden area are more able to deviate from the established rules.
The whereabouts are strange,
May appear in any corner of the restricted area coverage area at any time.
Therefore, relatively speaking, for a restricted area with a lower risk level, the risk level of the buffer zone near it will also be at a lower level, because at least the actions of the creatures in the restricted area can be followed.
In the view of the Parliament, once the danger level of the restricted area is too high, it is very likely that examples like the one in the past will occur, and creatures in the restricted area may even have the opportunity to escape from the constraints of the restricted area.
So far, what happened in Equality Paradise is still highly confidential and has not been announced to the public. Very few people know about it.
Zhang Tao could tell that Bai Mo didn't know much about the situation in the buffer zone, so whenever he thought of anything along the way, he would tell him incessantly, fully demonstrating what it means to be a chatty person.
It is worth mentioning that he never asked about Bai Mo's identity and origin.
Bai Mo was very interested in the buffer zone and was not impatient. He kept listening silently. When he learned that there was a D-level restricted area nearby,
He seemed to have thought of something and showed a thoughtful expression.
"Brother Bai, you said before that I should be worried about another thing, what exactly are you referring to?"
At this moment, a doubtful voice sounded. He turned his head and saw Zhang Tao looking at him hesitantly, hesitant to speak, as if he wanted to ask but didn't dare to ask.
Zhang Tao was indeed hesitant. After Bai Mo said this before, he did not continue. He thought it was some secret that was inconvenient to tell, so he acted very cautiously.
Bai Mo was about to answer, but suddenly stopped and looked at the gravel road ahead.
Zhang Tao followed his line of sight and looked over, and was stunned for a moment. He saw an irregular pool of dark red clots on the road ahead of him, which were obviously blood stains.
However, he remembered clearly that there was no blood on the road when the two left this morning, and judging from the color and degree of coagulation of the blood, this pool of blood only appeared a few hours ago at most.
The amount of bleeding was quite large, and if they all belonged to the same person, it would have been enough to cause death from excessive blood loss.
Zhang Tao quickly stepped forward to check without thinking.
Bai Mo stood there, silently watching this scene, then looked away from the ground and asked, "Did you see anything?"
"The blood stains roughly appear in two colors, which indicates that the time point of blood coagulation is likely to be different. In other words, this pool of blood does not belong to the same person. Maybe two people were injured at the same location at different times, so
Only then will blood stains belonging to two time periods be left."
After a pause, Zhang Tao continued his analysis, "There were no traces of fighting at the scene, which means that either the injured person was killed with one blow, or one party had the strength to crush him and knocked him down and took him away in an instant."
"I see."
Bai Mo nodded, raised his head slightly, and looked in a certain direction.
"but……"
After a moment of silence, Zhang Tao hesitated and said, "One thing I'm curious about is that in addition to the blood stains that obviously belong to two people, there are many blood spots of different shades in this pool of blood, as if they were dripping continuously after that.
"
He frowned slightly, "And there are no other blood stains on the surrounding roads. This means that the injured person did not leave here, but stayed here for a while, so there is blood dripping from time to time."
"Hmm...very good analysis."
Bai Mo's expression became a little weird, "Then who do you think did this?"
"Mostly restricted creatures."
Zhang Tao looked determined and said, "After all, if it was man-made, then there would either be corpses or more bloodstains nearby, but there would be nothing."
Since the emergence of the buffer zone, there have been many incidents of killing due to conflicts. Some people even kill people to show their strength. After all, if they are not near the city, no one will go out of their way to maintain order. Killing is not a big deal.
And because of this, if this pool of blood is man-made, once a deceased person appears, the murderer will not deliberately hide the body, and may even leave in a swaggering manner.
And if the owner of the blood was only injured but not dead, then there would definitely be more blood left on the road when he left.
But there was nothing.
No matter whether it was the body or the blood stains, no more clues could be found at the scene.
The owner of the blood seemed to have disappeared out of thin air, and strange events like this would most likely be related to the creatures in the restricted area.
There are quite a few people who have died due to restricted creatures these days, and if they encounter one, they can only consider themselves unlucky.
Zhang Tao sighed secretly, feeling sad in his heart. His intuition told him that the owner of this pool of blood was dead.
"The analysis makes sense, so how do you think the creatures in the restricted area are able to make corpses disappear out of thin air?"
Bai Mo's expression became increasingly weird, and for some reason, an imperceptible smile gradually appeared on his face.
Zhang Tao thought for a while and replied casually: "There are many possibilities, the simplest one is - maybe the forbidden creature can fly, and after it kills its prey, it catches it straight into the sky, so there will be attacks from time to time.
Blood dripped down."
"Then why is there different blood belonging to two people on the ground?"
"This is easier."
Zhang Tao smiled and said, "Maybe this pool of blood is some kind of trap deliberately left, and the hunter is waiting in the sky. Once someone comes to check, he will be thrown to the ground in an instant and become that thing's next
prey."
"Right."
After a pause, Zhang Tao asked curiously, "Brother Bai, you have been looking at the top of my head since just now. Is there something dirty on my head..."
Speaking of which.
As if he suddenly thought of something, the smile on his face became stagnant and his voice stopped abruptly.
There was silence all around, and a strange atmosphere began to spread.
"Tick tock."
A drop of thick liquid fell on the tip of Zhang Tao's nose, with a familiar fishy smell that mixed with the oozing sweat, a bit similar to the smell of rust——
It's blood.
Realizing this, Zhang Tao suddenly trembled, and his body became stiff instantly. He didn't dare to raise his head, but just looked at Bai Mo blankly, praying in his heart, never give that answer...
However he was disappointed.
After a brief silence, the strange smile on Bai Mo's face became stronger and stronger, and then he said word by word:
"What do you think?"
The three words were like a heavy hammer. Zhang Tao's heart suddenly trembled, and he wanted to flee immediately, but his feet felt like lead, extremely heavy, and he could not move no matter what.
After a strong ideological struggle, he swallowed, finally mustered up the courage, moved his neck stiffly, and looked in the direction of his head.
at the same time.
"Tick tock."
Another drop of blood fell, just hitting Zhang Tao's cheek, but it was nothing, because what caught his eyes was a withered male corpse penetrated by branches.
The corpse was hung very high, perhaps because the blood had been drained away. The body was extremely thin, almost blending into the dry branches. The panic before death was vivid, and the bloodshot eyes protruded outwards, full of resentment.
, looking at Zhang Tao.
Zhang Tao looked horrified and couldn't help but swallow his saliva.
But that wasn't what scared him the most.
What frightened Zhang Tao the most was that above his head, a black branch was constantly swimming like a snake, with the end as sharp as a needle. It was only half a centimeter away from his eyes, swaying left and right, as if
I was thinking about which angle would be better to stab his head from.
The sunshine at this time was extremely dazzling, but Zhang Tao was sweating profusely and could not feel any warmth.
No...I'm just fucking guessing, can this fucking come true?
Time passed slowly, and Zhang Tao never dared to move.
However, the thing that worried him never happened. Although the black branch kept moving above his head, it didn't seem to have any intention of attacking him.
Zhang Tao breathed a sigh of relief, but also couldn't help but feel a little confused.
Of course he wouldn't think that the reason why the branch didn't move was because it was friendly to him, because this stuff spread out from the mouth of the corpse hanging above his head. It just reached in from nowhere, mixed with all kinds of things.
The smell is simply disgusting.
After a brief thought, Zhang Tao quickly realized that there may be only one person who can cause this change——
White mist.
He turned his head and saw Bai Mo standing behind him, observing his reaction with great interest, seemingly not worried at all.
Zhang Tao was stunned for a moment. He didn't know why, but when he saw the calm eyes of the other party, the fear in his heart suddenly disappeared.
After hesitating for a moment, he mustered up the courage and took two tentative steps back.
As he expected, the black branches did not attack him, but turned around as before, seeming a little dazed.
Seeing this, Zhang Tao quickly moved away from the branches and came to Bai Mo's side in a few steps, with a frightened expression on his face.
"Brother Bai, what is this?"
"Forbidden creature." Bai Mo said calmly.
"Of course I know this is a forbidden creature, I mean, why doesn't it attack me?"
Bai Mo thought for a while and said with a faint smile: "Maybe... I think your analysis is too exciting?"
Zhang Tao had a bitter look on his face: "Don't make fun of me. I know the man on the tree. He is one of the residents in the gathering place. I know very well that I was not killed not because of luck. Did you help me?"
I?"
Bai Mo has been giving him an unfathomable feeling since he woke up. This kind of calmness in his movements cannot be faked, so Zhang Tao guessed that Bai Mo is a very powerful person, possibly even a transcendent.
In his opinion, if anyone could make this branch incapable of committing murder, it would probably be Bai Mo.
He stared into Bai Mo's eyes.
"No, I didn't do anything."
However, Bai Mo's answer surprised him, "I think the reason why it didn't kill you is because it's already full."
"Are you full?"
"Yes, this thing is in the stage of body growth. It pays great attention to nutritional balance. It does not eat too much or too little at each meal. It goes to bed early and gets up early. It also insists on exercising every day."
Bai Mo shook his head and commented, "This is probably the most restrained period for it."
Zhang Tao was dumbfounded: "So self-disciplined?"
Balanced nutrition, going to bed early and getting up early, and exercising... Are you sure this is something plants can do?
Are plants also so curled up...
However, when he looked back and found that the branch was not wandering around in an unorganized manner, but seemed to be exercising, he immediately opened his mouth.
The corners of his mouth twitched: "What the hell is this?"
"Don't you recognize it?" Bai Mo said unexpectedly, "If there wasn't this thing, you probably wouldn't be able to eat warm candies."
Zhang Tao was stunned for two seconds, and it took him a long time to realize: "You mean...this thing is a flame flower?!"
Although he had heard the name of the rare treasure Yanhua, he had never seen it with his own eyes. After all, it was a real rare treasure, many times more precious than the Illuminating Stone.
This thing is a flame flower? But where is the flower?
"That's not true, but the connection between this thing and the flame flower is quite deep."
Bai Mo didn't say much.
This branch is not the same thing as the black flower Bai Mo saw last night. They belong to two different species, which is worthy of attention.
In fact, when he heard that there were flame flowers nearby, Bai Mo had speculated that there might be a restricted area with many taboo plants nearby.
When he saw this branch, Bai Mo was even more sure of this. Based on his memory, he believed that the restricted area nearby was most likely a D-level restricted area, a dark forest.
In the subsequent communication with Zhang Tao, he also received a positive answer - one of the three restricted areas that meet near this area happens to be the D-level restricted area Dark Forest.
Bai Mo's heart moved.
Now that he has lost all his strength, he needs to find a way to regain it as soon as possible, and the medicines prepared by plants with extraordinary power can undoubtedly speed up this process.
He did not continue to lie, and quickly informed Zhang Tao of the origin of the black branch.
It is said that there is a forbidden plant called Qiu Yishu in the dark forest, which appears in the form of a tree stump all year round. Once it enters the reproductive state, many branches will grow from the top of the stump, ranging from dozens to a hundred.
In the following time, all branches will compete for the sole right to survive.
Once a branch wins the battle, it will inherit all the nutrients from the old Qiu Yi tree and grow into a new Qiu Yi tree. However, the other branches will not be able to escape the fate of death without the supply of nutrients.
Each branch is a descendant of the tree. They have ignorant consciousness and follow the survival law of survival of the fittest. They will do anything to survive and are extremely self-disciplined, just to make themselves the only winner to survive.
Cruelty creates strength.
The tree is one of the most troublesome plants in the dark forest. It is mainly due to its large number. There are a large number of young branches hanging on the branches all year round, ready to harvest the passing life as a nutritional supplement.
The nutrition of a tree is also one of the supplements Bai Mo needs.