Chapter 868: A Zoo with Rich Varieties

The Giant Python's size was far more oppressive than what he had sensed, and the height it suddenly raised its head to had already exceeded Xu Huo's own height. He dodged to the side, drew the "Crimson Sword," and with one slash cut it clean in two at the waist.

A massive amount of blood splattered onto the surrounding plants, but those seemingly harmless branches and leaves suddenly trembled, rapidly absorbing the blood on their surfaces. Stimulated by the blood, they unfurled, groping to coil around the snake carcass on the ground and drag it deep into the undergrowth.

As the vegetation opened and closed, something that looked like a cave flashed briefly. That was likely the main body of the carnivorous plant, and this entire area was its hunting ground.

This type of carnivorous plant wasn't fast in its movements, so even if it encountered Xu Huo, it couldn't successfully coil around him. Instead, it left quite a few needle-tip-sized fuzzy particles on his Protective Suit.

Because he wore the "Oxygen Supply," Xu Huo couldn't smell these plants. He took out a simple device purchased from District 011 and tested that the fuzzy particles volatilized by these plants carried a mild toxin.

Taking down large animals was impossible, so these plants' primary prey should be small animals of modest size.

He observed the surrounding situation and found that apart from the python from earlier, no other large animals had approached following the scent of blood.

Looking at the fuzzy particles floating in the air, he roughly guessed the reason. No matter how much animals evolved, they still needed to breathe. These fuzzy particles entering their respiratory organs wouldn't feel good either, so under normal circumstances, animals were unwilling to come near this place.

Dealing with large Mutated Animals wasn't actually that difficult. Their sense of smell and hearing were highly developed, and both aspects could be exploited. Xu Huo had specially made scent potions, but now wasn't the right time to use them.

Pungent scents could certainly drive off some Mutated Animals, but they could also potentially enrage them and cause the opposite effect. Using them in a primeval jungle where Mutated Animals clustered together had too many uncertain factors.

However, this white ball task with a 25% difficulty wasn't so easy to complete either. First, aside from the python from earlier, he had hardly discovered any other reptiles in the surrounding area. To complete the task, he had to expand his search range and leave the Pod's cover tree.

Because no one who had previously failed to complete the task had returned, he didn't know exactly how those who completed it got back. But the task area was so large, there should be more than just this one location where Pods were placed.

Xu Huo wore the "Sound-Muffling Figurine" as he walked forward. When he spotted large fierce beasts, he avoided them in advance. After his evolution rate increased, his spatial perception range had expanded again, so during these few minutes of muffled sound, he successfully found a lizard.

After using the "Note Launcher" to take down that lizard, which was nearly as tall as a person, Xu Huo first recorded a video, then put on gloves to flip it over, took several close-ups of its abdomen, and used a difficult-to-wipe pen to write a "①" on its back.

To ensure it was a "living" reptile, after filming he woke it up again, and placed an Apple in front of it.

The lizard, having been knocked unconscious and then woken up, was clearly a bit angry. It sniffed at the apple in front of it, then smashed it to pulp with one swipe of its claw before flicking its tail and walking off.

It was clear its health was fine.

But during this time, the "Sound-Muffling Figurine's" duration had already expired.

Xu Huo brushed off the poisonous spider that had crawled onto his face shield and looked around in all directions. The vegetation was too dense, not only blocking his vision but also dulling his senses. The branches and leaves pressing against his body sometimes blurred his perception. In ten minutes, he had been attacked by Poisonous Insects no fewer than ten times, and once they had even pierced through his Protective Suit.

Even though he carried King Fungus, he didn't dare be careless. He simply put on two layers of Protective Suit, and also smeared toxic potion on the outside of the suit.

Before he had gone far, he again sensed vibrations in the ground. There were also traces of small animals running in the undergrowth, and judging by the commotion, they were all fleeing from the same direction.

Grabbing the piano wire to ascend, Xu Huo used the crown to conceal his body as he looked into the distance. About a thousand meters away, the jungle was shaking, as if large animals were fighting, yet he heard no animal roars.

He watched for a while and was about to leave, but at that moment he felt something land on his arm. Looking down, it was a red snake as thick as a finger. Its pair of venomous fangs were stuck in the Protective Suit, and it was struggling desperately.

This was a specially evolved venomous snake. Its entire body was red, with no other patterns, but it had two pairs of parallel white eyes.

The venom on the Protective Suit hadn't taken it down, and of course Xu Huo hadn't been taken down by it either. Man and snake faced each other. Xu Huo took out his communicator and made a full record of it. Afterward, he looked at the crown where there were almost no Poisonous Insects, found a small cage, coated the bottom with sticky potion, and only then tossed it inside.

The little snake hissed defiantly in the cage, but its tail was stuck, so its range of movement was limited. It turned in a circle following Xu Huo's hand, and finally received a sticker with "②" written on it.

Xu Huo tied the cage to his waist and returned to the forest, walking with the location of the earlier Mutated Animal fight at his back.

Perhaps because the commotion over there had been too loud, all the nearby animals had fled completely. He found no other reptiles, so he considered looking for a nearby water source.

Just as he was about to change direction, he suddenly paused mid-step, and with a backhand motion brought the "Eye of the Dead" up in front of him. The next second, an enormous beast claw struck the sword, sending him flying backward three meters. Immediately after, a green-skinned tiger as tall as a man leaped out from the forest, mouth open, biting toward his head!

"Ding!" Xu Huo released a burst of fire, and this furry Mutant was instantly engulfed in flames. It howled and rolled on the spot, whereupon vines hanging from a giant tree rapidly descended.

Xu Huo initially thought this was another type of mutated plant, but soon spotted within the vines something resembling the sharp teeth of a mammal. Along with falling leaves and vines, the ground also rose amid violent shaking.

Realizing he had entered the open mouth of some kind of giant creature, he quickly materialized the "101 Emergency Shelter" and wedged it between the two rows of teeth closing from above and below. As he flashed out, he also retrieved the item, using the characteristic "Straight-Line Distance" to relocate a hundred meters away before he turned back to look:

That was a creature the size of a small floating island. Its build looked more like a marine animal, but its body was covered entirely in green plants, making it difficult to see its true form. After swallowing that burning tiger, it calmly settled back onto the ground. Once the movement of the vegetation quieted down, there was no way to tell that any large animal had ever been active there.

"Not bad luck." Xu Huo patted the small cage at his waist and climbed back up a tree to search for a water source. But this time he was even more careful, because some animals had evolved to the point where they could easily mask the sound of their breathing, making them much harder to detect in advance.

The vegetation was too dense, and water sources weren't easy to find either. But at that moment, he unexpectedly spotted several monkeys with small water buckets curled in their tails, traveling through the trees in a line.