Shen Feng, after setting fire to the mountain, took Chu Chaoyan and flew into the sky to observe the situation. He saw that wherever the strong winds blew, fire serpents leaped, and large areas of forest quickly ignited where the flames touched. The flames then spread continuously. Given that it was late autumn, the spreading flames could not be contained.
"Didn't they say it's a mini ice age now? I've ignited so many forests, and the carbon dioxide emissions will probably be even greater. This might alleviate the global cooling situation," Shen Feng said to Chu Chaoyan.
Upon hearing this, Chu Chaoyan replied, "If you think that way, you're probably overthinking it. I've read in history books that due to the Industrial Revolution, the carbon dioxide produced by human activities has been continuously increasing. Humans have been emitting carbon dioxide for hundreds of years, which has led to global warming. You've only burned a patch of forest now; how can it compare to the changes brought about after the Industrial Revolution?"
Shen Feng smiled and said, "Actually, I was just saying that casually. Why are you taking it so seriously? Let's focus on the changes in the mountain. Wherever there's movement, that's where the mutated plants are."
As the fire engulfed the entire forest, large areas of coniferous forest were burning. Countless ferocious beasts ran through the mountains, fleeing in all directions. These beasts had never imagined that there would be a fire in the mountains. After all, this wasn't Australia, where forest fires occurred annually. It had been decades since any flames had appeared in the Hengduan Mountains. These beasts had no idea such a natural disaster would occur, so they ran everywhere.
Unfortunately, flames had already risen in all directions. Large swathes of forest were burning, emitting a scorched smell. Black smoke rose into the sky, and hot winds carrying sparks flew about. Shen Feng dared not lower his flying altitude too much, or he would be roasted by the extremely high temperature and find it difficult to breathe.
Even Shen Feng dared not approach the burning forest, and the ferocious beasts within the forest had an even harder time dealing with the flames. For these beasts, fire was something they couldn't comprehend. Approaching it would fill them with immense fear. It was precisely because of this that humans, who mastered fire, could stand at the top of the food chain in nature. Now, these fire lines were encircling the entire forest, and the beasts within were fleeing in all directions but could not escape. Ultimately, they could only perish in the smoke and flames.
"What a sin. I didn't expect there to be so many ferocious beasts in the mountains, but there's nothing that can be done!" Shen Feng exclaimed as he saw countless ferocious beasts running in the forest. The fire he had set would burn countless wild animals to death.
Many mutated squirrels leaped from the treetops, seemingly searching for an escape route, but it was all in vain. Eventually, they were all disoriented by the smoke and fell into the sea of flames below.
There were many large bluestones covered with moss, but the moss eventually dried up, and the stones themselves cracked into rubble.
"Look over there, the trees are shaking a lot. That must be where the mutated plants are," Chu Chaoyan said at this moment, pointing out the situation in the distance. Shen Feng then flew over.
When the two arrived above this patch of forest, they discovered that it had not caught fire. The reason was that many vines were continuously drawing water from a nearby stream and waving it around, making the area very damp. When the flames approached, they were immediately extinguished by the water.
"Before, I saw a type of plant in New Guinea that could spray a lot of water to extinguish fires. I didn't expect to find this kind of plant in subtropical regions, but I didn't think the plants here would have a way to resist flames," Shen Feng said, seeing this situation.
"Don't worry about that now. Let's quickly find the main body of the mutated plants and eliminate them to avenge Dr. Yu!" Chu Chaoyan urged.
Shen Feng nodded and then looked around, trying to find the main body of the mutated plants. Generally, mutated plants had very tall bodies, like many towering ancient trees. As long as this tree was found, it could generally be determined that the mutated plants were here. However, he looked around but did not find any particularly tall trees. They were all twenty to thirty meters high, with no taller trees appearing.
"This is strange. Why haven't I found any tall trees? Could it be that the mutated plants here have also learned to hide themselves?" Shen Feng thought to himself.
The two of them did not successfully find the main bodies of these mutated plants in the sky, and they couldn't help but wonder if their plan had gone wrong.
Just then, Chu Chaoyan, with her sharp eyes, spotted many large animals appearing on the ground. She pointed and said, "Look, are those many earthworms wriggling on the ground? The direction these earthworms are moving seems to be pointing towards one place. If we follow the earthworms, we can find the main body of the mutated plants."
Upon hearing this reminder, Shen Feng lowered his altitude slightly and indeed saw many wriggling earthworms on the ground. These earthworms had no eyes because they were adapted to living underground, and eyes would have been useless. These earthworms were now crawling in one direction.
"In that case, let's continue to follow the direction these worms are crawling. I believe we'll know where the main body of the mutated plants is hidden soon," Shen Feng realized and said to Chu Chaoyan.
The earthworms on the ground had reddish-brown skin with many bristles. These bristles did not appear obtrusive because earthworms need friction to crawl underground. In the past, earthworms were very small, so people usually couldn't see their bristles.
However, now that the earthworms had magnified many times, each earthworm looked like a python as thick as a bucket. Such a large size indicated that the earthworms had obtained a lot of energy; otherwise, they would never have grown to such a size. There were also white rings on the earthworms, which were a characteristic of earthworms. After all, from an external perspective, earthworms were composed of segments.
The earthworms were now crawling continuously in the same direction, and their crawling speed was not fast. After all, these earthworms had always lived underground, and now that they were moving on the surface, they could only crawl slowly.
Under normal circumstances, earthworms do not leave the soil unless it rains. Because when it rains, the soil becomes too wet, and earthworms cannot get oxygen underground, so they have to crawl to the surface. However, once exposed to the sun, the moisture on their bodies disappears, and they are baked into dried earthworms.
Now, the forest was filled with flames, and the appearance of these flames directly consumed a large amount of oxygen, making it impossible to obtain enough oxygen in the soil. Therefore, these earthworms had no choice but to leave the soil and come to the surface.
These earthworms had no eyes, so they didn't know that two humans were watching them from the sky. These earthworms only wanted protection and were all heading in the same direction. After another half an hour, all the earthworms arrived around a patch of forest and stopped there.
Seeing the behavior of the earthworms, Shen Feng understood that the mutated plants must be nearby. Although no particularly tall trees were visible, all the earthworms had gathered here, so this must be the location of the mutated plants.
"Since there's no fire here, why don't we go down and take a look!" Chu Chaoyan suggested to Shen Feng.
"That's possible, but if there's any danger, I'll immediately take you to escape!" Shen Feng also wanted to know where these mutated plants were hiding and why he hadn't found them yet. It was the end of the earthworms' migration, and if he wanted to know the specific situation, it would be best to go down into the forest and observe carefully.
Thus, Shen Feng immediately descended from the sky into the forest and looked around. He found many earthworms cut in half, but they were not dead yet. Black blood was flowing from the wounds, and these earthworms were already digging holes in the ground.
"These earthworms have been cut into two pieces, and I didn't expect them to be alive and still digging. It seems their vitality is truly tenacious," Chu Chaoyan said, seeing the situation here.
Shen Feng analyzed, "Looking at these earthworms, they were most likely cut like this by Xu Xing. Didn't she say she fought her way out of the encirclement? Others could only escape through the water, but she was very strong and directly broke through. Many of the earthworms have very smooth wounds, indicating they were cut with a single stroke, and they cannot be reattached."
While they were discussing the wounds on the earthworms, the surrounding trees suddenly began to change. In the soil on the ground, the earth suddenly began to churn, and dark soil rolled out, revealing a huge opening. They could even see many bones in the soil – human bones and bones of other animals.
As this opening appeared, countless earthworms burrowed into the hole, ignoring Shen Feng and Chu Chaoyan who were still suspended in the air. Perhaps the earthworms didn't sense the presence of humans because their movements were based on sensing ground vibrations, and their bristles played this role. Since the two of them were not on the ground, the earthworms couldn't sense their presence.
"Should we go in and take a look? Because there might be even more amazing things in this underground cave. What if the main body of the mutated plants is hiding underground?" Chu Chaoyan offered her suggestion, hoping Shen Feng would take her to investigate underground.
However, Shen Feng immediately said, "Underground is not a space where I can perform well. Don't forget that we almost got killed by zombies in the underground cave before. So, it's best to stay outside in this situation. As for the mutated plants here, I have ways to deal with them."
At this moment, Chu Chaoyan also remembered her and Shen Feng's experience in Yanjing. At that time, she thought they were going to snatch the superpower potion, but in the end, they realized they couldn't exert their strength at all in the underground cave. If they hadn't been lucky enough to encounter an underground river, they would have been buried underground by now.
"Then what are you planning to do? If all these things are hiding underground, the flames outside cannot penetrate the soil to attack them!" Chu Chaoyan asked.
"I plan to let these things experience the 'ice and fire double heaven.' I will first concentrate the flames to attack this area, and then when the fire is raging, I will summon clouds to descend a heavy snowfall. With the combination of extreme cold and heat, I don't believe anything can survive, especially these earthworms underground. I don't believe they can get much oxygen!" Shen Feng had already thought of a solution and was ready to act.
Shen Feng took Chu Chaoyan back into the sky, then unleashed his superpower, creating a giant tornado. Although the wind speed was not strong, it had the effect of concentrating the wind, subtly attracting the surrounding flames. As the flames converged towards the central area, the vines on the mountains that had been sprinkling water could no longer resist the attack of the flames.