Explore Changbai Mountain

Chapter 463 Poachers

Shangguan Kangning raised the bottle containing two caterpillars in front of him and looked at it carefully.The two worms in the bottle behaved very strangely.

Because these two worms are about to be refined into Gu worms, the taste of the worms has changed, and they now like to eat some insects that secrete pheromones.

So Shangguan Kangning often catches some of these insects to feed the caterpillars. Every time when he feeds such insects, the two insects are very excited and feast on the food.

But today was different, there were two food worms put in by Shangguan Kangning in the bottle, but the two caterpillars ignored the food in front of them, as if the food didn't exist at all.The two little guys were lying on the wall of the bottle, with their four tentacles standing upright, shaking in one direction non-stop.

Obviously, the two worms should have smelled something amazing, and this smell is much more attractive to these two little guys than the food in the bottle.

It can be said that along the way, all six people focused their attention on the two caterpillars, hoping that they could capture the scent emanating from the female of the sun and moon nose worm.

Although it cannot be said at this moment that the reason why the caterpillars have changed is because of the relationship between the sun and moon nose worms, but this kind of reaction is what everyone has been looking forward to.

"How? Is there hope?" Chen Ziyang asked Shangguan Kangning.

"It's hard to say, but this kind of reaction is indeed very strange, much stronger than any reaction of these two bugs before. I think, even if the two bugs caught the female sun and moon worm The smell, the reaction is nothing more than that."

Hearing what Shangguan Kangning said, Chen Ziyang felt a glimmer of hope in his heart.For so many days, walking in the mountains of Gaoligong Mountain, his mood has changed from full of hope to gradually diminishing hope, until today it is almost turning into disappointment.

The two ground caterpillars brought them to the source of the wrong smell time and time again, and now, Shangguan Kangning said so, obviously, the hope this time is very great.

Since the two caterpillars reacted here, it means that it is possible that the female of the sun and moon nose worm is emitting the smell tens of kilometers away from the mountain road.

If the mountain roads of tens of miles are placed in other places, it only takes one day if you walk faster, and two days is enough if you walk slower.But here in Gaoligong Mountain, it is very difficult to walk the tens of kilometers of mountain roads, and it took five days for everyone.

Because of the deep cut of the Nujiang River, the relative height here is very large, the valleys are deep and the mountains are high, the mountains are steep and dangerous, and the landforms are all fault-block mountains. It is really not easy to walk through such places.

On the fifth day, the two ground caterpillars in the bottle became more and more restless. It seemed that they were very close to the place where the smell was emitted. At this time, the team came to a forest surrounded by clouds and mist.

Because of the relatively high altitude, many places in this mountain range are surrounded by clouds all year round. It is extremely difficult to move forward in this environment, and the vision is very poor. If you are not careful, you may fall off the cliff below.

The people were walking through the woods along a ridge, when Shuai Shi, who was at the front of the team, suddenly stopped and waved to the people behind him.

"What's wrong?" Several other people came over and asked him.

"Shh...it seems...there are footsteps." Shuai Ushiki stared obliquely ahead and said seriously.Everyone followed his gaze, and could only vaguely see a few trees that were relatively close, and the distance was all white, and they couldn't see anything clearly.

Everyone listened with their ears sideways for a while, but no one heard anything. Just when the other people thought that Shuai Sanshi was making a fuss, suddenly there was a crisp sound, which sounded like a dry branch being stepped on. sound when interrupted.

Hearing this crisp sound, Chen Ziyang's expression became serious.It is already in the depths of Gaoligong Mountain. It is very difficult to get here. It is absolutely impossible for tourists to come here on foot. If it is not for a purpose, no one can go through untold hardships Come to such a place.

"Could it be...is Liu Cong's men chasing him?" Although Chen Ziyang felt that the possibility of Liu Cong sending people to hunt him down was relatively small, and they should now focus on the Dragon Digging Society, but he I don't want to take this risk, I would rather believe in something than nothing.

So under Chen Ziyang's signal, the six of them stepped back slowly and carefully, found a dense bush to hide, and looked out through the gaps between the branches.The three Chen Ziyang brothers also put their hands into their backpacks and gripped the Uzi submachine gun tightly.

After a while, there were some light footsteps coming one after another. It seemed that the people who made the footsteps were also very careful, and they didn't want to be discovered by others. They walked very slowly.

A few figures gradually appeared in the mist. These people bowed their waists and kept turning their upper bodies as they walked forward. They were obviously looking around vigilantly. Such walking postures did not look like good men and women. .

Especially the figure closest to the six people, judging from his walking posture, this person seemed to be holding a long gun, which aroused Chen Ziyang's vigilance even more.

Slowly, these people in the mist came very close to where Chen Ziyang and others were. Only then did they see that a team of five people came out of the mist. It's a man.

Two of the five people were holding long guns with scopes on them, but this gun was not a standard military rifle, it looked like a modified shotgun.

The other three men also carried shotguns, but instead of holding them in their hands, they carried them on their shoulders. Each of the three men carried a cage, one of which was empty, and the other two cages were filled with animals. .

The team of five walked a few meters in front of the bushes where Chen Ziyang and others took shelter.Fortunately, Shuai Sanshi discovered it in time, and everyone hid very well, so these five people didn't discover it.

When these people walked by, Chen Ziyang saw the things inside the two cages.

The first cage contained a civet cat-like animal with golden-brown fur, white hair around the ears and black nose, and a thick tail with varying shades of fur. , banded distribution spaced on the tail.

After thinking for a while, Chen Ziyang remembered that this animal should be a red panda, which he had seen in the zoo before.But the second animal he had never seen before.

In another cage, there is a relatively large cat, which looks like a lion and a leopard.

The weirdest thing is the pattern on this animal.The pattern spots on this animal are very large, with huge black spots distributed on the animal's golden hair.

Some spots are a black area, some spots are a small tuft of black hair, and some spots are hollow closed areas surrounded by black hair.At first glance, the spots on this animal turned out to be like the patterns on those thick boa constrictors in the animal world.

"What kind of animal is this?" Chen Ziyang had such a question in his mind.

Because these people were all carrying guns, the people hiding in the bushes were very careful and didn't make a sound. Judging from the sound of their footsteps, these people had gone far away, and six people came out of the bushes one after another. out.

"Poached?" Yang Lei asked Shangguan Kangning.

"Yes." Shangguan Kangning answered with certainty.

After asking, Chen Ziyang learned from Shangguan Kangning that the animal he didn't know was called the clouded leopard, which is very rare now and is a national first-class protected animal.

"These people are very powerful. They belong to red pandas and clouded leopards. Fortunately, they didn't find us. Otherwise, it might have been a head-on confrontation." Shuai Sanshi said.

"That's right, these poachers are all ruthless and live a life of licking blood on the tip of their knives. If they find out that someone else knows their whereabouts, these people will definitely kill them without mercy. They won't let us out alive, for fear of exposing their whereabouts.

I have been walking in the mountains all year round, and I have encountered these poachers several times, and every time I encounter them, I am terrified. "Shangguan Kangning looked at the direction where the poaching team disappeared, and said very unhappy.

As a native of the mountains, Shangguan Kangning is the most disgusted by these poachers. Although he often catches some rare bugs, it is not the same as poaching.

Looking at the direction in which the poaching team disappeared, Chen Ziyang looked serious.Seeing his expression, Yang Lei came over.

"What's the matter, Ziyang, they've gone far away, aren't you still worried?"

After shaking his head, Chen Ziyang said slowly: "The direction they are going seems to be the same as the direction we are going. I am worried that we will encounter them again."

"It's not such a coincidence. The mountains here are too big. If you change the direction a little, you will be far away by a hundred and eight thousand miles. The possibility of us meeting them is very small."

"I hope so. Thanks to Brother Umbrella, I found them in advance, otherwise we might fight with them. Anyway, it's better to be careful, Brother Umbrella, you should pay more attention next time." , be vigilant.

These people were able to catch two rare animals, which proves that they know this place very well. In such a mountainous area, if we fight against them, we will be the ones to suffer. We should be more careful not to encounter them again. "

Umbrella Shishuai nodded.

After this episode, the procession moved more slowly.But the shaking speed of the antennae of the two caterpillars in the bottle became faster and faster. Obviously, they were very close to the place where the smell was coming out.

After a night camped out, the team moved on.The fog in the morning was thicker and the vision was even worse.After walking forward for a while, Shuai Shi stopped vigilantly again.

"What's wrong? Did you hear footsteps again?"

This time, Shuai Ushiki shook his head.Instead of listening with his ears sideways, he raised his head and kept smelling with his nose.After smelling it for a while, he said cautiously again: "Did you smell it? It seems to smell like smoke."

The air in the mountains is very fresh, it is simply a huge natural oxygen bar.During these days of walking in the mountains of Gaoligong Mountain, everyone feels that their chests have been opened up a lot. The fresh air here is very refreshing after being inhaled into the lungs.

In such fresh air, if there was any smell mixed in, it would be very obvious.

The other people imitated the handsome appearance of Umbrella, raised their noses and sniffed carefully for a while.Sure enough, as Shuai Sanshi said, there was a slight smell of fireworks in the air.

This smell is not the smell of cigarettes, but like something is burning.

"Could it be that we encountered a forest fire?"

"No, if it's really a forest fire, the smell of smoke can't be so small. It seems to smell like a campfire."

As a man who has been an engineer for many years, the place where he spends most of his time is in the wild, so he is particularly sensitive to the footsteps of poachers and the smell of smoke in the air.

Sleeping in the barren mountains, the biggest worry is being attacked by wild animals, so these engineers and soldiers have all practiced the ability to listen to the footsteps of animals when they are on duty at night, and when they camp in the wild, they build their own cooking stoves. I use branches as firewood for cooking, and I am very familiar with the smell of campfires.

Because the place where the smell of smoke came was the direction everyone wanted to go, the people in the team got up cautiously again and slowly moved towards that direction.

Chen Ziyang's worries came true.This place is inaccessible, and it took so many days to meet a poaching team.And the direction this team is heading is exactly the direction everyone is going, so in all likelihood, these bonfires should have been lit by poachers sleeping in the open.

The Chen Ziyang brothers took out the Uzi submachine gun, and Xu Xiaoyuan and Jin Huang also took out the pistols.

This is really a narrow road for enemies.In such a large mountainous area, they encountered this poaching team twice in succession. It seemed that the road ahead was not very easy.

It would be better if it could be bypassed. If it couldn't be bypassed, or if it was discovered by the poaching team, there would inevitably be a fierce battle, so several people were all prepared.

Shuai Ushishi led several people and walked slowly towards the front.

After a while, everyone came to the edge of the woodland.Ahead is a relatively large open space leaning against a cliff.Because of the terrain and the fact that the sun has risen high, the fog above the open space has all dissipated.

Hiding behind a few trees on the edge of the woodland, the six people looked out.A small pile of extinguished bonfires smoked there, but there was no sign of poachers.

(End of this chapter)