"Swish, swish..."
The sound of a river came from the silent cave. Although the sound was very small, Yunhai heard it immediately.
"An underground river? Or the Qing River?"
Yunhai was puzzled. At the same time, in his xenomorph-enhanced senses, streaks of colorful green light appeared in a straight line a hundred meters ahead.
Among them were more white lights representing lifeforms, some flowing with the water, and some wandering around the riverbank.
The straight-line distance was only a hundred meters, but the terrain in the cave was complex, with twists and turns. Led by the messengers, Yunhai ran for a while, then lay down and crawled through an unusually narrow "dog hole," finally seeing the faint light ahead.
A strip of stone appeared in his sight. The surface looked very smooth, without any sharp edges, except for some shallow, long marks.
Looking up at the top of the stone, Yunhai realized that this strip of stone, which was obviously a meteorite, had actually smashed a hole in the mountain and eventually landed in the cave.
Running over, Yunhai carefully examined it for a long time. Apart from the black fusion crust, the meteorite's exterior didn't show any other abnormalities.
Suppressing his curiosity, he gave up the idea of reaching out to touch it.
In Yunhai's mind, who knew what strange things the meteorite brought along with the alien eggs.
In the unique senses of the alien, although he didn't detect the presence of any life force within it, he still didn't touch it out of caution.
Looking up at the mountain hole smashed by the meteorite, Yunhai climbed up along the collapsed rocks.
Not far in front of him, under the cover of dense bushes and grass, the clear Qing River flowed quietly from the canyon towards the southeast.
Rampant vegetation covered everything, but Yunhai recognized where this was from the familiar canyon and the distribution of cliffs.
At the foot of Yang Mountain, on the banks of the Qing River.
The position he was in at this moment was precisely at the foot of Yang Mountain, and across from him was the Child-Seeking Peak to the south.
With a gentle breeze and refreshing air, Yunhai walked out of the hole smashed by the meteorite and ran down the mountain along the waist-high grass.
Stepping on the ground, he had only taken a few steps when he suddenly twitched his nose and sped up towards the river.
The grass by the river clearly had traces of being trampled. The leaves of the dense grass growing in the shallows were stained with blood, looking as if it had been splashed from afar, scattered in a radial pattern.
Not seeing any other abnormalities nearby or in the water, Yunhai and the five messengers spread out to look for clues around.
Finally, in a narrow river channel dozens of meters away, he discovered an anomaly.
Reaching out and breaking off a piece of solid ice from a rock on the bank, Yunhai's gaze fell to the opposite side. He also found the presence of solid ice in the aquatic plants on the bank. Looking at the large area of trampled grass, a smile finally appeared on his face.
Da Tou and an unknown number of survivors had luckily found the exit of the cave that had been smashed open by the meteorite.
Yunhai didn't know how the survivors had made it through these days. Perhaps they were extremely hungry and thirsty, so as soon as they left the cave, they couldn't wait to run to the river to drink water.
There were obviously mutated creatures in the river. The blood seen on the grass leaves earlier was left by someone who had been attacked by an unknown mutated creature.
Whether they were injured, or simply dragged into the water and eaten completely, Yunhai couldn't be sure.
The survivors didn't dare to go into the water again, and finally thought of a way. They found a narrower section of the river, and Da Tou used his ice ability to freeze the surface of the river into a road. Finally, they followed the ice surface to the other side and eventually left Yang Mountain.
Being able to freeze solid ice that people could pass over on a river that was more than ten meters wide, Yunhai estimated that Da Tou's ability was either growing, or his ability was water-attuned, and he could exert more power in a watery environment.
"I hope you can leave safely. Of the two or three hundred people on the mountaintop, only a few of you left alive."
Yunhai's gaze fell on the opposite bank of the river. He stared blankly for a long time, and finally turned around and walked back towards the cave.
The number of aliens was still too small, and almost all of them were messengers.
It's not that the messenger aliens were bad. In fact, in terms of killing ability, the messengers were no worse in speed at reaping lives due to their small size and high speed.
However, their defense was not good. In the inherited memories that Yunhai had obtained, the messengers' defense ability was very poor, especially those who had only completed their first evolution.
Once they left Yang Mountain and the military discovered the existence of aliens, Yunhai could imagine that what awaited him or them would definitely be a ruthless barrage of bullets, artillery fire, and even stronger missile attacks.
Regardless of the reason, the military, or rather humans, as long as they had the ability, they would never sit idly by when it came to group-based mutated creatures, or aliens.
The messengers might not be able to withstand the baptism of artillery fire, but the Praetorian aliens were different.
Especially those who had parasitized hosts with chitinous shells or strong defenses, and had completed their first evolution, even their relatively fragile skulls were harder than the bone plates of the messenger's body.
In Yunhai's own imagination, the Praetorian aliens should be able to withstand barrage attacks, and even survive artillery bombardments without dying.
"My strength is still too weak. I need to have more messengers, more Praetorians..."
There was an impulse, Yunhai wanted to summon all the aliens to leave this place, first figure out what was happening outside, and then go north to find his only relative, but in the end, he dismissed the idea.
Lifting his foot, he walked towards the hole smashed by the meteorite not far away. With a somewhat heavy mind, Yunhai's pace was not fast. Just as he was about to enter, suddenly...
An anomaly had just appeared in the unique senses of the alien, and at the same time, Yunhai also felt danger.
In the fierce wind, a huge black shadow appeared from the opposite cliff of Nan Mountain, almost pouncing directly from a height of dozens of meters.
Without hesitation, he plunged into the cave. Regardless of what that big guy was, Yunhai knew that he couldn't fight it, so he would just lure it into the complex terrain of the cave.
In his xenomorph-enhanced senses, a huge light and shadow appeared, a behemoth fully fifteen meters long.
When Yunhai, who had quickly darted into the cave, turned to look, a cyan python appeared in his field of vision.
Its body was as thick as a water tank, with a triangular head, and its scarlet snake eyes were full of cruel killing intent.
The cyan scales on its body were tightly packed, like pieces of metal plate, gleaming with cold light.
The constantly flicking snake tongue was nearly a meter long, and its upper lip protruded with two curved, blade-like fangs, radiating cold light.
Staring at Yunhai indifferently, the python, which had rushed in quickly, flicked its tail and sent a messenger that had rushed up from the left flying.
Raising its upper body slightly, its thick body brought a gust of fishy wind as it pounced towards Yunhai.
Turning around and running, Yunhai didn't hesitate at all.
With such a size, how much force would it have when it pounced, not to mention its sharp teeth and huge mouth.
Yunhai even suspected that even if the Queen was here, she would probably be strangled if she was entangled by it.
The wind howled, and the ground shook.
The python pursued fiercely, full of momentum.
Fortunately, the terrain in the cave was complex, and many passages were extremely narrow. In addition, Yunhai himself was not slow, so the python couldn't catch up for a while.
"Hiss, hiss, hiss..."
The python let out an angry hiss, its thick body twisting and coiling in the complex passages, with no intention of letting Yunhai go.
The five messengers chased after it, occasionally pouncing out of the holes, desperately attacking the python.
The tips of their tails stabbed sharply, and their sharp claws scratched fiercely, causing sparks to fly on the python's scales.
The messengers couldn't even break through its defense.
"Whoosh, whoosh..." Yunhai ran faster and faster, leaving the python far behind. However, in his xenomorph-enhanced senses, seeing that it was still relentlessly chasing after him, he couldn't help but feel a little angry.
Frowning, an idea came to his mind. Afraid that it would lose him, Yunhai even slowed down slightly, running straight towards the "dog hole" he had come in from earlier.
The five messengers gave up their futile attacks. They were exceptionally agile in the cave. The python opened its bloody mouth, wanting to devour the messengers, but often failed.
Soon, they entered an extremely narrow cave. Yunhai lay on the ground and quickly squeezed through. After the five messengers darted in, he retreated a distance and stared intently.
The cave was more than ten meters long, which meant that this section of the mountain wall was also that thick. Yunhai didn't believe that the mutated cyan python could completely collapse this area.
Taking off the crossbow from his back, Yunhai prepared to give it a shot in the mouth when its head came in.
Don't even think about the body. Even the tips of the alien's tails couldn't pierce it. Yunhai didn't think that the crossbow could do much damage to it.
As long as it dared to stick its head in, the narrow "dog hole" would definitely trap its body, and then it would be easy to deal with.
"Hiss..."
The long snake tongue wandered restlessly at the entrance of the hole. However, the python was not as stupid as Yunhai had imagined. It wandered around the other side of the cave for a long time, and finally turned around and left.
"Consider yourself lucky."
Reluctantly putting away the crossbow, in his xenomorph-enhanced senses, seeing the python wagging its head and tail, turning around and quickly moving away, Yunhai and the messengers walked towards the cave where the Queen was.
"One more Praetorian, plus the Lynx and Porcupine aliens, three Praetorian aliens. I don't believe we can't kill it!"
[Comment from user]
Crocodile?
In his heart, there was more excitement. Such a powerful and domineering python was simply the best host for the aliens. Yunhai was even looking forward to what kind of Praetorian alien would be born from it after being kissed by a facehugger.