northernbook Chapter 419 Burial and Fire
Chapter 419 Burial and Fire
Burial beetle? !
I was shocked.
He quickly turned around and looked behind him.
Densely packed beetles crawled out of the mummy's abdominal cavity.
These beetles have a flat body.
The jet-black carapace has bright red markings.
At first glance, it doesn't look much different from common beetles such as longhorn beetles and dung beetles.
It felt like I could kill all the burial beetles that kept popping up by just raising my foot and stepping on them a few times.
Well, at that time I didn’t know much about burial beetles.
Just from Huang Ziran's frightened reaction, I felt that the bug must be no simple matter.
Burying beetles actually feed on carrion.
The food chain is very different from that of ordinary beetles.
Burying beetles are divided into two categories based on their behavioral patterns: corpse beetles and burying beetles.
Burying beetles are usually small and work in couples.
When they find the corpse of a small animal, the burying beetle couple will remove the internal organs and fur of the corpse, then make the animal corpse into a corpse ball and bury it underground.
This is a bit like a dung beetle.
Dung beetles roll dung balls and bury them underground, and during the breeding season, they lay their larvae inside the dung balls.
The burying beetle replaces the poop ball with a corpse ball.
They also secrete a mucus that has antiseptic properties.
Apply it on the corpse ball to delay its decay.
Compared to the mom-and-pop shop model of burying beetles, corpse beetles work in groups.
Two hundred corpse beetles acting at the same time can bury the carcass of an adult wild boar in the ground in one or two hours and eat the carcass within three days.
This speed is terrifying!
The beetles I am facing now are the corpse beetles among the burial beetles!
Dense corpse armor continued to emerge from the dry corpse.
There are at least thousands of them!
With so many corpses, it wouldn’t be easy to bury Huang Ziran and me!
No wonder Huang Ziran cried out that he was going to die.
The moment I looked back, many corpse armors had already crawled onto Huang Ziran.
puff puff!
The corpse armor that crawled onto Huang Ziran's body continuously sprayed yellow-brown mucus from its tail.
The mucus emits a strong, pungent smell.
A pungent smell like paint!
Wait, paint smell?!
I rolled my eyes and glanced at the dark brown mummy lying on the ground.
The layer of preservative powder that Huang Ziran scraped off the mummy just now smelled like lacquer.
At that time I thought it was lacquer.
Now it seems that it should be the antiseptic mucus sprayed out by the corpse armor!
In the blink of an eye.
Huang Ziran's clothes were sprayed with yellow-brown mucus.
It dyed his skin and clothes yellow-brown.
"what!"
Huang Ziran let out a shrill cry of pain.
The pain was so severe that my eyes, ears, mouth and nose were about to twitch together.
His whole body was shaking violently with pain, and his steps were shaky due to the pain.
He staggered and took two steps.
His body tilted and he completely lost his balance, falling to the ground with a thud.
Crackling!
When they fell, many corpse beetles were crushed and made crackling sounds.
But more corpse beetles came surging.
In an instant, Huang Ziran's body was covered with corpse beetles.
Thousands of corpse beetles sprayed out yellow-brown mucus at the same time, splashing onto Huang Ziran's head like water.
He gritted his teeth and turned to look at me.
He raised his trembling right hand with all his strength and stretched it towards me.
He is calling for help!
Begging me to save him!
"Help, help, me!"
A trembling sound came from his throat.
His eyes, full of hope, stared at me.
But I hesitated.
It’s not that I don’t want to save him.
But I don’t know how to save him.
If you rush over rashly, you will end up like him.
puff puff!
Many corpse beetles surrounded Huang Ziran and dug the soil.
This is to bury him in the ground as a reserve of food for the next few days.
Once Huang Ziran is buried, the corpse beetles will attack me!
From a rational point of view, while the corpse beetles are concentrating on burying Huang Ziran, it is the best opportunity for me to escape.
If I miss this opportunity, I might be buried too!
But emotionally speaking...
Watching your teammates being buried by bugs is a bit too inhumane.
Moreover, we need the help of Bureau 749 to find Professor Zhang and Zhang Nan.
I can't watch Huang Ziran being buried alive by corpse beetles!
The sound of loosening the soil became louder and louder.
The soil around Huang Ziran looked like it had just been plowed.
Well, Uncle Zheng’s house is a mud house.
There wasn't a single brick in the entire house, and the floor had simply been rammed.
So it takes no effort at all for corpse beetles to loosen the soil.
Puff puff!
Huang Ziran's body gradually sank into the loose soil.
At this rate, he would be buried in the ground in less than twenty minutes.
"help me!"
"Stone, save me!"
Huang Ziran asked me for help more urgently.
I frowned and felt anxious.
Thinking that there are so many corpse beetles, methods like stepping on them to death are useless.
We have to find a way to attack in a wide area.
But how can I launch a range attack?
Water attack? Fire attack?
I don't know any magic, and the only water and fire attacks I can think of are pouring water and setting fire.
As long as enough water is poured out, not only will the corpse beetles be drowned, but at least their burial rhythm can be interrupted.
You can also use water to wash away the mucus on Huang Ziran's body.
Maybe it will help him regain his mobility.
But there is no water tank in the house.
The idea of water attack is no longer feasible.
To attack with fire, you need someone who can set the fire.
There were matches in the bag, but matches can only start a fire.
There must be something that can start a fire quickly and over a large area.
For example, white wine!
I seem to remember seeing a bottle of wine in the house...
I looked in the direction I remembered, and sure enough, there was a light blue wine bottle on the headboard.
At that time, due to production process problems, glass could not be completely transparent and was always light blue or light green.
There are also two obvious seams on the bottle.
It's a unique mark of the times.
If you have friends who like old wine, you can pay attention to the transparent glass wine bottles from the 1970s, which basically have a color cast.
And there are obvious seam marks on the bottle body.
I picked up the bottle and unscrewed the lid, and the rich smell of wine hit my nose.
"Captain Huang, I need to light a fire to repel the insects!"
"It might burn you..."
I reminded him and raised the bottle to splash towards Huang Ziran.
This is also a helpless move.
It's impossible to perform precise operations at close range, so you can only spread it like a wide net.
I just hope the flames can scare away the corpse beetles.
Give me time to rescue Huang Ziran from the fire.
After pouring it, I struck a match and threw it over.
call!
The white wine spilled on the ground was set on fire.
The flames rose up and spread towards Huang Ziran.
Huang Ziran stared at the blazing flames with wide eyes.
He laughed miserably and said, "You kid, you want to kill me!"
I turned around, picked up the quilt from the kang and held it up.
Explained: "Captain Huang, please be patient!"
"After I use fire to drive away the corpse beetles, I will use the quilt to put out the fire on you."
"A momentary pain is better than being buried alive by corpse beetles!"
Huang Ziran closed his eyes as if accepting his fate.
boom!
Flames flashed around him.
The corpse beetles, frightened by the flames, ran around in panic, and many of them flapped their wings and flew away.
The corpse beetles in the soil also ran out in panic.
"Ah!" Huang Ziran screamed and rolled over.
The flames seemed to consume his life.
It even stirred up his last bit of strength to roll over.
I rushed over with the quilt in my hand.
He quickly covered him with the quilt.
The oxygen-deficient environment extinguished the flames and made Huang Ziran's screams less miserable.
Huang Ziran gasped and trembled, "Quick, take me away!"
"They're chasing us!"
I pulled Huang Ziran but felt a little confused.
There are corpse beetles all over the door.
I could still try running alone, but I couldn't outrun Huang Ziran if I held him.
Oh, right, the kang!
If there's a secret passage in the fire kang...
Buzz!
Dozens of corpse beetles flapped their wings and flew over.
I didn't have time to hesitate, so I grabbed Huang Ziran and pushed him into the fire door beside the kang.
After stuffing him in, I leaned over and got in as well.
When I had half of my body in, I suddenly felt liquid dripping from my ankles.
This was followed by a piercing pain.
The corpse beetle is catching up with me!