The Cunning Cave (Part 2)

Looking at the dispersing black patches, Mo Li fell into deep thought. Although he wasn't highly educated, he was very intelligent. From previous tests, he judged that these black patches weren't just simple black marks, but some kind of small creatures. The reason these creatures gathered on the murals was likely because the pigments used in them contained a substance that attracted them.

This place was on the mountainside of a snow mountain, at an altitude of over three thousand meters, and the temperature was extremely low. Therefore, these small creatures should be adapted to cold environments. Although it was dark inside the cave, these little things shouldn't be very sensitive to light. Otherwise, when he shone the glow stick on the cave walls, they would have scattered immediately. However, the facts proved that these little things were not affected by light.

Since it wasn't the light that dispersed them, it must be other factors. What had he done before? Leaned his head closer to the cave wall? It seemed that was the only action he had taken. The rapid scattering of these little things should also be related to this action. However, what Mo Li couldn't figure out was, if that were the case, what element in his action of leaning forward could have caused these little things to disperse? Did these little things fear humans? That was obviously unreasonable. If they truly feared humans, they should have scattered rapidly without him even getting close to them.

After thinking for a long time, a flash of inspiration suddenly struck Mo Li. It wasn't just as simple as bringing his face close to the wall. While making the movement of leaning forward, he had done something else: he had breathed. Because the gas he exhaled was expelled from within his body, the gas carried warmth. Could it be that these little things feared heat?

Thinking of this possibility, Mo Li actually walked directly to another mural covered by unknown black patches and held his breath as he leaned his face closer. This time, although the black patches still showed some reaction, it wasn't as strong as before. This confirmed Mo Li's guess.

These little things were indeed very sensitive to temperature. Even without breathing, the slight heat emitted from his skin would cause them to react. But what exactly were these black things?

Mo Li was quite brave. After a slight hesitation, he reached out with extreme speed towards the slowly moving black patches. As his palm got closer to the cave wall, the heat emanating from his palm increased, and the speed of the black patches' movement also increased.

However, no matter how fast these black patches moved, they couldn't be faster than Mo Li's hand reaching out to grab them. So, Mo Li successfully grabbed a handful of the black substance.

The texture of this thing was strange. It felt like grabbing a handful of sesame seeds, and these things were wriggling. Mo Li spread his palm, brought it closer to his eyes, and then brought the glow stick closer to observe carefully. Finally, he discovered that these black things were actually tiny bugs, even smaller than sesame seeds. These bugs were all small beetles, completely black, but they had a pair of small, milky-white eyes. Although their size was very small, each beetle's mouth was equipped with a pair of giant pincers disproportionate to their size, making them look quite formidable.

These little bugs seemed to be very sensitive to temperature. Mo Li's body temperature was at most around thirty-six degrees Celsius, and even at this temperature, these little bugs began to die off rapidly in large numbers. Some that were more resilient quickly crawled on Mo Li's hand, trying to escape his palm.

Mo Li's gaze was fixed on these little bugs. So, when some bugs fell from his hand, Mo Li's gaze naturally followed them, and the glow stick in his hand also moved with them.

However, when Mo Li's gaze shifted to the ground, his expression changed. He discovered that the ground was now densely covered with these small bugs. The entire floor of the cave was covered with them. Although these bugs dared not approach Mo Li, the unconscious Wei Dengke and Zhong Lichun had very low body temperatures. At their current temperatures, they posed no threat to these bugs. Therefore, both of them were already covered in bugs, completely enveloped, turning into two pitch-black humanoid figures.

Recalling the giant pincers of these bugs, Mo Li had no doubt that they were all carnivorous. Being crawled on by so many bugs, wouldn't Zhong Lichun and Wei Dengke be in grave danger?

Without time to think too much, Mo Li immediately lunged towards Wei Dengke. Compared to Zhong Lichun, Wei Dengke's body temperature was lower, making him more vulnerable, so Mo Li decided to save Wei Dengke first. Pouncing on Wei Dengke, Mo Li desperately began to brush off the bugs covering him with his hands. However, there were simply too many bugs, and they were very small, almost able to get everywhere. It was estimated that Wei Dengke's clothes were already crawling with bugs, so just brushing them off with his hands was no longer effective.

In his desperation, Mo Li chose a method he thought might work: he hugged Wei Dengke tightly, using his own body heat to drive away the bugs.

As it turned out, Mo Li's judgment was correct. When he hugged Wei Dengke, the small bugs crawling all over Wei Dengke's body began to disperse rapidly, eventually revealing Wei Dengke's body.

Without stopping to check Wei Dengke's condition, Mo Li, holding Wei Dengke with one hand, rushed towards Zhong Lichun, who was not far away. He did the same, picking Zhong Lichun up. Compared to Wei Dengke, Zhong Lichun had a better physique and thus a slightly higher body temperature. Only her limbs and face had some bugs on them. With the deterrence of his body heat, those bugs finally left Zhong Lichun's body.

However, the bugs didn't move too far away from the three of them. They continued to wriggle on the ground near them, appearing restless. Mo Li had no doubt that as soon as he let go of them, these bugs would immediately return.

"This won't do! I can't hold them both forever! I need to find a way to generate high heat to drive these bugs away," Mo Li thought anxiously. But this place didn't even have a single leaf, so starting a fire was impossible.

Mo Li looked around for a long time, and finally, in despair, realized there was truly nothing flammable here. In his utter helplessness, Mo Li could only take off his upper garment and then take out the lighter he carried from his shirt pocket. This lighter was probably the only thing he had left. Fortunately, it was in his shirt pocket; if it had been in his pants pocket, it would have likely fallen out of the worn-out pocket long ago.

While hugging the two, Mo Li rolled up his upper garment into a ball and then directly used the lighter to ignite it. Clothes made of synthetic fibers ignited easily, although the smell after burning wasn't pleasant. But this was no longer something Mo Li could worry about. Holding the burning clothes, Mo Li swung them horizontally with force. Feeling the heat from the flames, the bugs finally became truly fearful and began to retreat rapidly.