Countless living cocoons hanging on the vines began to stir
…
The bonfire by the lake was burning quietly, occasionally there was a crackling sound of burning branches. Under the light of the fire, a figure swayed slightly.
“Six?” A very soft call came from the right side of Little Six.
A man quietly approached from not far away, he squatted in front of Little Six, and called out to Little Six in a low voice again.
Little Six’s eyes were closed and he smacked his mouth twice, he waved his hands like waving a fly, then turned over and turned sideways to the lakeside.
“Wu, noisy…” He muttered vaguesly, he then hugged his arms tightly and fell into a deep sleep.
When the man saw this, he was startled at first, and then saw that Little Six didn’t seem to have woken up at all, and he was relieved.
He laughed softly as if he was talking to himself, and muttered: “Sleeping really well.”
He quietly reached out to Little Six’s bag packet, and a few cocoons lay within easy reach.
“Five thousand star coins…” He swallowed lightly, a trace of greed flashed in his eyes.
He watched Lu Liran and Ke Ji run to the small dune and return with a full load, and nothing happened, so he quietly ran out by himself while everyone gathered around to join the fun.
But he was timid. After walking for tens of meters, the front and back were all in darkness, and he could only see the campsite from a distance, which made him dare not go further.
In the end, he didn’t pick up anything, and ran back in desperation, then he saw with hot eyes that Little Six had stuffed those cocoons into the bag again.
“It’s not too much to share with me, you picked it up for nothing anyway.” He reached into his bag while talking to himself, he picked up a small cocoon, then put it in his clothes, keeping it close to his body.
This is the touch of five thousand star coins. He couldn’t help curling the corners of his mouth, thinking a bit fluttered.
“What are you doing?” A low-pitched question came from behind the man, he trembled in fright, then he turned his head to look over, and saw Xian Dan cast his eyes to look over.
The man shook, and whispered back: “Captain, I’m just curious to see what the cocoons picked up by Six look like.”
Xian Dan gave him a cold look: “Zhan Xiao, don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking, go back to sleep now!”
The man who was named nodded hastily, he smiled mischievously, and left in a hurry.
Xian Dan looked at the man running away with a heavy expression. He had heard from his subordinates that Zhan Xiao likes to steal things. From this person’s body, to that person’s body, they were all small things that were not important, and they were not expensive. Maybe it’s a psychological problem, not rubbing a little makes him uncomfortable.
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But this time, Zhan Xiao bumped into him. The team must not allow such an unstable factor to exist.
He quickly decided that if they made it out of Salba alive, the man would be expelled from the merchant fleet.
People who were expelled from the merchant fleet due to conduct problems were also reported to the dishonesty list and announced in several major chambers of commerce to warn other chambers of commerce and some people who are ready to move.
Xian Dan withdrew his gaze, he looked around and checked the situation around the camp, and saw that the guard line he set up before had not been touched, so he went back to rest in peace.
“No problem?” Shu Hua asked vaguely with half-opened and half-closed eyes.
“No problem, let’s rest, there are still several hours before dawn.” Xian Dan replied in a low voice.
Shu Hua nodded, he titled his head and fell asleep again.
Xian Dan looked at Six and Zhan Xiao, feeling a little flustered in his heart.
He frowned, then he thought for a while and got up again, intending to watch the night.
Shu Hua was lying right next to Xian Dan, after he felt the movement over there, he opened his eyes: “What’s wrong?”
“I can’t tell, I always feel uneasy. Go to sleep, I’ll keep watch.” Xian Dan said.
Hearing this, Shu Hua sat up again and put on his coat: “Forget it, I’ll be with you.”
The two sat at each end of the camp, guarding two campfires and silently watching the silent desert in the distance.
The desert at night is cold and silent, as if there is no sign of life.
Shu Hua and Xian Dan looked at such a desert, even in a daze, it was hard to imagine those terrible things they encountered during the day, and the desert at this time was actually in the same place.
Zhan Xiao didn’t fall asleep either, he clutched the cocoon hidden on his body and couldn’t help laughing silently.
He even thought that when the day dawned, he would run to the end of the hill by himself and pick up all the cocoons, anyway, there is nothing to be afraid of at dawn.
A cocoon worth 5,000 star coins, there is no telling how much there is, it’s like a puddle full of gold and blood diamonds, no wonder the guide said that Salba’s oasis is full of treasures, it’s true!
With such a thought in his mind, he slowly fell asleep, not noticing the movement of the cocoon that he stuffed into his bosom at all.
The cocoon, which was sleeping, woke up early due to the dry and warm body temperature, and was restless in the thick cocoon shell.
If Zhan Xiao was still awake at this moment, he could clearly see that inside of the brown-white cocoon, a pair of sharp black mandibles pierced the cocoon shell, pulling it so thin that it was almost transparent.
After a few minutes, there was a slight tearing sound coming from Zhan Xiao’s clothes, the movement was so light that it was almost imperceptible.
Zhan Xiao subconsciously raised his hand and scratched his chest twice, then turned over and went back to sleep.
The bug crouching in Zhan Xiao’s close-fitting clothes slowly crawled out of the thick cocoon. Just seeing the black and shiny carapace and a pair of huge and sharp upper-jawed halberds, one knew that this thing was not easy to mess with.
It crawled motionless on the spot, but slightly spread out a pair of thin transparent wings on both sides of the carapace. The cicada wings were like two tiny fingernails, and suddenly vibrated at a very fast frequency.
The audio, inaudible to the human ear, was emanating softly.
It was unknown how long it has passed, and no one can see that in the low-lying land at the other end of the small sand dune, countless living cocoons hanging on the vines began to stir, as if being blown by the wind, shaking back and forth, left and right, and at an extremely fast frequency, as if they would be shaken off.
The male bug lying in Zhan Xian’s clothes maintained the same posture, and the pair of cicada wings that were so thin that they were almost transparent did not stop vibrating.
It wasn’t until the small bugs in the low-lying sand dune on the opposite side broke out of their cocoons and sent out the same high-frequency wing vibrations that it gradually retracted its cicada wings.
If Lu Liran saw it at this time, he would recognize that this bug looked like the halberd beetle.
The halberd beetle has a fierce reputation. It can lift things a thousand or eight hundred times heavier than itself, and it has a pair of upper jaws that can easily crush anything. Some people even call it after Hercules in Greek Mythology.
But the common halberd beetle doesn’t have such a pair of wings that can fly.
The bugs in the low-lying land are like the distant relatives of this beetle, except that they are not divided into males and females. Each adult beetle has a bulging abdomen like a big pocket, and there is a breeding bag in its abdomen, and there are at least six or seven bugs in the larval state in it.
Once the bug is about to form a cocoon, it will leave the pocket on its own and climb to a vine to wait for its own cocoon to form. After the cocoon is formed, the one breaking out of the cocoon is already an adult bug with a huge upper jaw and wings.
On the other side of the low-lying land, there were at least a thousand cocoons hanging on the vines. As the first cocoon was torn apart by a pair of halberds, it was followed by the second, the third…
Thousands of bug cocoons were broken open one after another, and a black, large-bellied beetle flew out of the cocoons one by one. The cicada wings shook, forming a loud movement that could not be ignored.
Lu Liran and Ke Ji opened their eyes in their sleeping bags at the same time, and crawled out in an instant.
Xian Dan was dozing off with his head propped up. He was stunned for two seconds before he realized the movement. He jumped up from the rock suddenly, and as soon as he turned his head, he saw Lu Liran and Ke Ji standing up, looking vigilantly in the direction of the low-lying land.
With a sudden shock in his heart, he exchanged a glance with Shu Hua from a distance, and immediately called out to all the team members.
Shu Hua roared: “Everyone wake up! Get up!”
“Hurry up! Don’t get confused! There is a situation!”
The people in the merchant fleet immediately stood up one by one, their eyes were still a little dazed, and they obviously didn’t realize what happened.
“Where, where? What’s the situation?!”
There was a lot of noise in the camp, overshadowing the commotion.
Little Six opened his eyes and shouted loudly: “Who’s gone!?”
Shu Hua rushed over and gave Little Six a slap: “Blah blah blah, everyone is here!”
Qin Qi rubbed his eyes, he muttered and asked: “Brother Shu, what’s the situation, it seems that there is nothing wrong?”
“Be quiet!” Lu Liran snorted.
The commotion in the camp disappeared in an instant. After hearing Lu Liran’s order, everyone subconsciously closed their mouths, and even slowed down their breathing unconsciously.
As soon as it quieted down, the movement in the low-lying land on the other side of the dune became particularly abrupt and loud.
“Buzz——”, “Zz——”
Now, everyone heard it, and there were gasps one after another in the camp——
“What’s that sound?!”
“I always feel like I’ve heard it somewhere…”
“I also feel a little familiar, it must not be a good thing…damn it, where did I hear it!?”
Xian Dan and Shu Hua approached Lu Liran and Ke Ji at the same time. Xian Dan then asked Lu Liran in a low voice: “Mr. Lu, it sounds like it came from a place you have been to before. Could it be that there is something wrong with those cocoons?”
Lu Liran frowned. He was thinking about this question just now, but he shook his head and said: “Impossible. The cocoons we brought back are all empty cocoons. I don’t even know how long those cocoons have been there, and there is no reason to cause them to move.”
“Empty cocoons are medicine. If there is a problem, it should be mentioned in the ‘Medical Classics’.” It was unknown when Qin Qi approached, and he explained in a low voice.
Shu Hua agreed and nodded: “If there is a problem with the cocoon brought back, then the other end should have responded long ago, and it is impossible to wait until now.”
Listening to the sound that seemed to be getting louder and even approaching faintly, Xian Dan swallowed: “Then what’s going on now? Does Mr. Lu have any ideas?”
Lu Liran pursed his lips and said to Xian Dan: “Let your people pack up their things. No one can tell what’s going on over there, so we can only withdraw first.”
“Withdrawing may not be useful. If the source of the problem is in the team, no matter where we withdraw, they will catch up to us.” Ke Ji spoke abruptly, but rarely refuted Lu Liran’s plan.
His eyes darkened, and he looked at Little Six: “The cocoons we brought back must be fine, but what about the ones they brought back?”
Qin Qi was stunned for a moment, and then took a deep breath—— he vaguely remembered that when Little Six showed it to them, he could still see the cocoon undulating slightly, like the heart of something was beating slightly.
At that time, he thought it was just a cocoon shell, but he was dazzled and didn’t think about it.
Qin Qi’s back was instantly covered with a thick layer of cold sweat.
Thank you for the chapter. What a cliffhanger.
+2
aaaaaaahhhh that merchant team is just full of Pig Teammates
LOL! +1!!!
Aiyo, unlucky ppl. That stealer had it coming eventually.
Thanks for the chapter~~~
The merchant fleet really really shouldn’t be allowed to go to new and exciting places. Don’t eat that don’t touch that don’t walk there that will eat you eat this not that that will kill you, Lu Liran couldn’t teach them fast enough not to bring disaster to the group. Thanks for the update 🐛🪲🪳🕷️🦟
I so agree lol. They’re heavy to carry but I’d probably be heavier lol 😆
I like the way you said that. They are like toddlers
Fr tho, its like how did they become merchants when everyone just runs around not following instructions
Thank you fir the chapter. Hopefully they escape from death’s hand once again.
Thank you very much!.
😭😭 pls I just want out of the whole bugs arc
».. not rubbing a little makes him uncomfortable.« In the TN that thing is called DSM-5, not DMS-5.
I can just repeat myself. Who let those people out there? Aaaah…. and when will we get away from the bugs? Dx
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و
Oh @#&!