Before long, the insect and the lizard had chased their way to the edge of the vine zone, where the ant army was.
By now, some of the ants at the rear had left, but before heading deeper in, she had deliberately broken off a fluorescent flower nearby as bait, so the ants at the front had remained in the area, hesitating and milling about.
Now, at the sight of her backup artillery, Wen Jing's twin-ponytail antennae faintly lit up, instantly releasing a yellow chemical attack signal.
"Scrubs!"
"Scrubs! Scrubs! Scrubs!"
The ants milling about in confusion instantly stopped being confused. One after another, they reared up and started rubbing on the spot!
Just then, the vine lizard, whose long-tongued attack had missed again, came chasing after Wen Jing, exposing itself within firing range.
Smack, smack, smack, smack!
A barrage of sticky resin shells laced with ant venom plastered the vine lizard all over with pinpoint accuracy.
Without Wen Jing as their "commander," with her broader view, the ant army could never have attacked so efficiently, even with their strict obedience and their own internal means of communication.
It was not a limitation of ability, but of perspective, just like the difference between a general in ancient times and a modern military commander with information on the entire battlefield.
Never mind the ant army-not a single creature on this giant tree had access to information as advanced and wide-ranging as Wen Jing's.
The combination of the two brought about a qualitative change.
"Hiss, hiss!"
The lizard immediately thrashed, trying to struggle free of the slime. Although its damp skin offered some resistance to the sticky substance, with this much resin around, wherever it struggled, it only encountered more resin.
A bird could have flown away at this point, but the lizard could not fly.
What was more, Wen Jing was there.
The moment the vine lizard fell into the trap, the little blue-purple insect judged the distance, descended from above, and easily stood on the mass of resin that was so sticky to the lizard.
Whoosh!
In an instant, a long purple tongue shot toward Wen Jing's position.
Even now, its ferocity had not diminished. Seeing her enter its attack range, it immediately acted.
But Wen Jing had deliberately stood there to bait it into attacking.
The little insect dodged the tongue, but this time, as the lizard rapidly retracted it, the force of its strike had stuck it firmly to the resin.
Now the lizard trapped in the resin shells had lost its last means of attack. Wen Jing lunged forward, landing directly on its head.
Energy Amplification Method!
Energy surged through her mouthparts, which gleamed with a sharp, cold light as she drove them viciously into the lizard's equally blue-gray eye.
A bitter taste hit her.
Wen Jing's antennae twitched, but she did not stop. Enduring the foul taste, she drove her mouthparts deeper, destroying the brain inside the lizard's head.
Though the vine lizard was not a large lizard, given the difference in size between it and an insect, the most efficient way to kill it was to destroy the central nerves in its brain.
"Huff..."
Her enhanced mouthparts were no ordinary weapons, and they had struck such a vital spot. The vine lizard convulsed violently, rapid breaths spilling from a mouth that could no longer hiss.
Wen Jing used Gravity Silk to cling to its body, and no matter how it shook, it could not dislodge her.
The ant army beside them also rushed up, tearing into the lizard with their mouthparts and injecting ant venom with a paralyzing effect.
Before long, the movements of the vine lizard's head gradually weakened until it stopped moving altogether.
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!"
Only then did Wen Jing raise her head and shake it. After drinking so much precious nectar, she was no longer that little insect who would eat anything.
Besides, she strongly suspected that the lizard's skin was poisonous, but that she was immune to it.
Sure enough, she soon saw the ants biting the lizard beside her begin to collapse one after another. At the sight, the other ants nearby immediately stopped approaching and sent out danger signals.
But it did not matter. She was not afraid of that poison anyway.
Yet just as Wen Jing thought everything was settled.
Suddenly, she sensed violent energy fluctuations surging from the lizard's lower body. Even its skin turned deep blue, and it began to writhe.
Seeing this, Wen Jing immediately retreated using Gravity Silk, guarding against the lizard's dying move.
She had not forgotten that these Ancient Wilderness creatures were different from ordinary animals. They had at least some innate skills!
Crack!
The next instant, with a crisp crack, the lizard's lower and upper body abruptly tore apart, flesh and bone, right before Wen Jing and the ants.
The section of tail giving off those violent energy fluctuations broke straight through the mass of resin, sprang far away, then rapidly vanished into the tangle of vines.
Never mind the ants-even Wen Jing failed to react for a moment.
Her compound eyes stared fixedly. She had thought the lizard was charging up some massive skill. Although... this had caused quite a commotion too, it was truly beyond her expectations.
So even the lizards of the Ancient Wilderness were this hardcore about shedding their tails to survive!
Chapter 30
No, should this be called shedding its head to survive?
Normal lizards shed their tails, and still had to keep their heads to live.
Wen Jing had not expected a fleeing tail instead of a desperate last stand. But after a brief moment of astonishment, she darted off, immediately chasing in the direction the tail had fled.
Having come this far, how could she let it get away!
At that life-or-death moment, all the energy essence in the lizard's body had concentrated in its lower half. It was also moving rapidly, and the gravitational waves it stirred up had nowhere to hide from her gravitational perception.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."
The lizard's severed tail sped through the vines, bumping into quite a few vine branches and leaves along the way and producing a series of faint sounds.
After its initial burst to sever its tail, it could no longer maintain its speed. Combined with the many obstacles it struck, it gradually slowed, only able to crawl and hop deeper into the vines with all its strength.
The little blue-purple insect soon tracked it down, with enough strength to spare to float silently in midair, looking down and observing it.
"So that's how it works..." Wen Jing marveled with curiosity.
By now, the lizard's severed tail had undergone obvious changes. The joints of the webbed feet that had been its "hind legs" had twisted around, turning them into forelegs. The part separated from its upper body was no longer bleeding, and a pair of fleshy growths was developing there.
Meanwhile, the original tip of its tail began to enlarge, sprouting a pair of eyes and a mouth like a thin line. The tail structure that had once appeared to mimic a vine leaf now transformed into the lizard's new head crest.
In other words, this vine lizard's tail had been a "spare head" all along, which was how it could perform such an outrageous feat of shedding its head to survive.
What wondrous na... no, what a wondrous Ancient Wilderness.
As she marveled inwardly, Wen Jing did not slow in the slightest. Gravity Silk shot out, sticking securely to the headless lizard.
"Squelch..."
The little insect swooped down, her sharp mouthparts easily piercing the lizard's still-growing new head and taking its life.
This time, Wen Jing waited beside the fallen lizard for a while, confirming that it was completely dead and would not pull off another dying escape.
Then she hopped onto the blue-gray lizard, studied it briefly, and took a bite.
Unlike the battle before it severed its tail, faced now with this half-body containing the lizard's core energy, Wen Jing felt the same attraction she had felt toward Wilderness Beast meat in the Deep Space Vortex.
"Crunch, crunch..."
After a barely perceptible bitterness came a rich surge of energy, a sensation entirely different from drinking nectar.
After several mouthfuls of lizard meat, Wen Jing saw the attributes on her panel begin rising again. This time, the increases were to life and strength.
Life: 2.5 → 2.58 Strength: 0.5 → 0.66
Good stuff!
Wen Jing perked up. Nectar increased life and spirit, while lizard meat mainly increased strength. She wanted them all.
All-round development was the way to go!
More importantly, the vine flower field grew here and would not move. By her next visit, the flowers would probably be full of nectar again, while this lizard meat was a one-time opportunity.
Realizing this, the little blue-purple insect immediately began gobbling it down on the spot.
During the process, Wen Jing discovered that the bitter part of the vine lizard was mainly its head. Elsewhere, only the skin was slightly bitter, while the flesh inside actually had an indescribably distinctive flavor.
Energy... it must have added energy!
Before long, however, the little insect pulled her head out of the lizard's belly and shook off the green blood.
"This won't work..."
Wen Jing was already eating as fast as she could, but it was simply too inefficient. In the same amount of time, she could have finished drinking several flowers' worth of nectar.
And her digestion clearly could not keep up.
After eating only a piece of lizard meat the size of her head, her abdomen felt fuller than ever before. Even if her mouth could keep eating, the meat in her stomach could not be digested fast enough. Now she felt as though it was almost backing up into her throat.
Of course, the biggest problem was that night was falling.
Wen Jing looked up at the sky. She had planned to leave before encountering the lizard, and now the battle had delayed her further. She did not have much time left.
Even though she had Gravity Silk anchoring her coordinates in the Ancient Wilderness, the depth of the Ancient Wilderness world would change after dark.
If she did not leave soon, Wen Jing would either have to forgo Gravity Silk and enter an unfamiliar nighttime region of the Ancient Wilderness, or use Gravity Silk to travel through the entire night and reach the next day's giant tree region.
Naturally, neither option was acceptable to her.
Then I'll evolve my digestion again!
Wen Jing intended to evolve her digestive capacity bit by bit, rather than accomplishing everything at once as she had with Gravity Silk. Like with nectar, she would carry out specialized evolutions as needed.
"Spend one point to evolve specialized digestion!"
[Skill points: 13 → 12] [Trait acquired: ?? meat-decomposing enzyme]