Spider Tracks
The time it took to plant the Ningyun Flag was longer than Zhang Xuezhou had calculated.
He spent a whole day searching for a suitable location in the northern Farah region, a level of inefficiency that left Zhang Xuezhou somewhat dissatisfied.
But compared to Huang Daoxian, who has been busy for a hundred years, Zhang Xuezhou is able to accept his own pace.
What species is this?
Cai Guoli was in charge of guarding the flags in the Farah area. He wandered around the neighborhood and then brought some unfamiliar species with him.
"Spider?"
There are so many of these little things, they're like swarms of ants crawling around everywhere!
Zhang Xuezhou asked in surprise and then grabbed the spider from Cai Guoli's hand.
Cai Guoli prefers to call them ants, while Zhang Xuezhou has actually seen these insects spinning webs.
He pinched the spider's shriveled abdomen in his hand and pressed down on its hard shell. The spider, about the size of a fingernail, then bared its fangs and claws at him, biting and gnawing at his hand.
Apart from being smaller than the spider Zhang Xuezhou caught in Qinmeng to use as a sleep aid, and having a shriveled abdomen, this little creature was otherwise no different from the others.
This is an insect that Zhang Xuezhou has been playing with for two days, and has been controlled by Zhang Xuezhou. Few people are more familiar with this black-shelled spider than Zhang Xuezhou.
Where did all these spiders come from?
When Cai Guoli mentioned that these black-shelled spiders roamed in groups, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't help but look surprised.
"How many are there in this group?" Ren Anran asked.
"I took a quick look and I think the number is probably between tens of thousands and over a hundred thousand. They are also moving very fast, almost equivalent to a normal person jogging," Cai Guoli replied.
"So many?" Zhong Rang exclaimed in surprise. "Do these insects eat stems?"
The Sequence Holder guarding the battle flag can only prevent damage from human intervention and the occasional appearance of birds of prey or wild beasts.
Judging from the location where Zhang Xuezhou inserted the battle flags, many people thought that not many people would come to such a godforsaken place, and Zhang Xuezhou's requirements were ridiculously high.
None of them considered the possibility that they might not be able to protect even one battle flag.
But Zhang Xuezhou and the others hadn't left yet, and some unexpected things did happen on the side that Cai Guoli was guarding.
If faced with countless small spiders, Cai Guoli's sequence power would be completely useless.
"I don't think they're gnawing on the trees, so they probably wouldn't be gnawing on the flagpole, would they?"
Cai Guoli gave an uncertain reply.
Zhang Xuezhou strode in the direction Cai Guoli pointed, and after only a few steps, waves began to rise beneath his feet.
"Committee Member Zhang's Crane Soaring is truly amazing!"
Zhong Rang ran for several dozen steps, but still couldn't catch up with Zhang Xuezhou. He couldn't help but praise him repeatedly, feeling that Zhang Xuezhou's Crane Soaring was truly amazing.
This caused Zhang Manqian and Ren Anran to exchange a glance and remain silent.
If it weren't for the large number and weight of these battle flags, and the need to guard them to prevent damage, Zhang Xuezhou could have accomplished the task himself by flying around.
Zhang Xuezhou was clearly taking precautions to protect the safety of these flags, trying his best to avoid any possible accidents.
Cai Guoli found the spider not too far away; he only needed to cross a mountain to see it.
When everyone arrived at the back of the mountain, Zhang Xuezhou was nowhere to be seen.
"There seems to be a spider swarm in the Farah area!"
When Zhang Xuezhou's voice came from behind them, they turned around and found Zhang Xuezhou standing there.
"There, and there, there are swathes of these little things!"
Zhang Xuezhou pointed, indicating that the spiders Cai Guoli had discovered were only a small part.
"These little creatures are quite vicious. They eat anything that comes their way and reproduce very quickly. After the animals wrapped in their silk are eaten, wave after wave of little spiders emerge from inside," Zhang Xuezhou said.
That's a bit disgusting!
"This isn't just about being disgusting; I'm starting to wonder if it's a bit high-risk?"
One or two spiders are harmless, dozens of spiders are just a bit too many insects and need to be driven away and cleaned up, hundreds of spiders are disgusting and make you want to spray pesticides, but spiders hunting in groups greatly increase the risk.
These small creatures, which normally only hunt flying insects, become much more destructive when they form a team, and can even hunt large animals.
This is different from spiders that spin webs and hunt alone, but it still possesses the form and various abilities of a spider.
"Could it be a mutant?" Zhang Manqian asked uncertainly.
Zhang Manqian's question left everyone looking at each other, finding it difficult to deny.
The bad thing is the risk brought about by the large number of these spiders, and no faction in the Aomeijia Alliance, which is embroiled in internal strife, will have the time to exterminate the spiders.
The good thing is that these spiders have a relatively specific target for food and will not randomly gnaw on wood and cloth, so the flags will not be threatened.
These spiders can even prevent ordinary people from approaching the area, thus keeping the flags safe.
If it weren't for the need to test stability, Cai Guoli wouldn't even need to be stationed in the Farah region.
"This place is less than a hundred miles from the residential area," Ren Anran said. "I wonder if these spiders will swarm into the residential area!"
"The northern border of the Aomeijia Alliance has a six-month ice and snow season, and the population isn't dense, so escaping in case of an accident shouldn't be a problem," Zhong Rang frowned and said, "This kind of thing shouldn't require the government to organize it!"
"Spiders only move at a jogging pace; a normal person could outrun one," Cai Guoli said. "When the ice age arrives, these little creatures will probably freeze to death in the northern borderlands!"
Cai Guoli squeezed the hard-shelled spider.
This swarming of insects is not unusual; when mosquito plagues occur in some waters, there can be tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of mosquitoes, and animals that wander into them will be drained of their blood.
Things become so commonplace that they cease to be surprising.
Zhang Xuezhou, however, kept glancing at the spider and then looking towards the distant north.
If you continue upwards along the Fara region, you will get closer and closer to the Qin-Meng region.
"How did this thing travel across the ocean? Or have some new species emerged during the Qin-Meng beast tides and riots of recent years?"
These small black spiders do not resemble native species from the Farah region, where spiders are rare even in this northern area with a six-month ice and snow season.
If he had to pinpoint a source, Zhang Xuezhou would lean towards Qin Meng.
However, the Qin Meng species almost never leave that area, which contradicts Zhang Xuezhou's reasoning.
Of course, as Zhong Rang and others said, the outbreak of spider infestation is not a major event.
In fact, the harm caused by a single species outbreak is limited, such as the locust plagues that have occurred repeatedly in the past. The real harm is when all species participate in a unified and violent attack, leaving the world with nowhere to go.
Cai Guoli's discovery sparked discussion, but was then left unresolved.
Ren Anran suggested to Zhang Xuezhou, regardless of whether it would cause harm, they could use communication to send a message to Montes Arthur to inform him, as whether the other party had the ability to handle it was another matter.
"Alright!"
Zhang Xuezhou nodded.
As long as Cai Guoli guards this area, he has nothing to fear from man-made destruction.
Even if someone comes here to inspect, there won't be many problems after communication.
He took out his communicator and sent a few messages, leaving Montes Arthur, thousands of miles away, unsure how to respond.
In short, Badun was not out of danger, and before the Aomeijia Alliance was quelled, Montespatton felt that everything that required the smooth implementation of government orders was difficult to proceed normally.