Chapter 198: Strange Things Inland

The continent on March Planet had a unique geographical and climate environment. Most of the plants here were bare, if they had leaves, they were needle-shaped.

In the coastal areas, there were half-year-long wind seasons, which made it impossible for large leaf plants to survive. There were some large-leaf plants, but their leaves spread across the ground.

At a glance, all you could see were trees with bare trunks and no leaves.

Further inland, the area turned into a dry desert, where many cactus-like plants grew. But these cacti were the size of a car, with a diameter of seven or eight meters and a height of five or six meters.

These large cacti were home to swarms of insects. As the wind season came, various debris was impaled on their thorns, accumulating over time and forming a covering layer on the surface.

Each giant cactus was essentially a world for insects. There were ants that had venomous stingers on their tails like Earth wasps.

There was also a type of beetle, about the size of a fist, with two dark black pincers that made Yang Bo drool.

“I wonder how those big pincers taste?” He noticed that the black beetle also had sharp spikes on its back.

The situation at Redstone Mountain wasn’t too bad. Early in the canyons, there was morning mist. Yang Bo, using antigravity flight, crossed the 500-kilometer-wide Redstone Mountain Range in just half a day, mainly due to the valleys not being interconnected.

The fog in Redstone Mountain also interfered with detection systems.

After arriving in the vast desert, there was no more fog, making it hard to stay hidden.

Yang Bo arrived stealthily and surveyed the environment. This was the home of gerbils.

But gerbils were nocturnal, so Yang Bo decided to observe his surroundings first.

After carefully observing the beetle for two minutes, he found it didn’t carry any energy.

Yang Bo realized he could see energy fluctuations in objects. He wasn’t sure if it came from his superpowers or his unique physique.

Letting the black beetle go, he then focused on a 10-centimeter long lizard with black and yellow scales, its body spiked like a stonefish from Earth.

In its resting state, the spikes were flat. But with any disturbance, the spikes stood up instantly, secreting a transparent toxin.

“No energy fluctuations.” After close inspection, he confirmed there were still no energy readings.

Yang Bo came with the hope of finding something. After all, there were mutated creatures in the sea, so he wondered if the inland areas had any as well.

During the day, the desert seemed incredibly desolate. All Yang Bo found near the cacti were many insects.

Some shrubs existed there too, but they looked like camelthorn, crawling across the ground, without any leaves but covered in thorns.

Some shrubs were one or two meters tall, while others barely reached a few dozen centimeters. Despite their prickly appearance, they bloomed trumpet-shaped flowers, red and white.

After waiting until nightfall, the desert became lively. A pitch-black snake slithered out from somewhere, gliding across the sand.

A creature, similar to an armadillo, emerged from the sand, shaking its small head. Then one, then two, then three appeared from the ground.

“Wait, there’s a faint energy fluctuation?” Yang Bo noticed some of the armadillo-like creatures were emitting slight energy, though only a few and very faint.

He took a closer look and counted eleven of these small creatures. Only three had this faint energy, while the others showed none.

Yang Bo wasn’t surprised. In Iron Bull’s herd, there were rhinos of all levels, with Iron Bull and his brother being the strongest, while others were just ordinary rhinos.

“It feels just like human society. Some are born with great talent, others less so. But what determines this talent? Is it genes or something else?” Yang Bo mused while observing, his thoughts filled with doubt.

Fat Boss once told him that some children born from highly evolved parents had no talent, while children of untalented parents sometimes had decent abilities. This was why breeding factories still existed in society.

Even embryos from the same parents could develop children with vastly different talents.

“I don’t get it!” Yang Bo thought for a moment about the mysteries of life but quickly moved on from the thought.

Yang Bo approached a large rock. Due to frequent strong winds, a large portion of the rock’s underside was hollow.

He chose this place to conduct an experiment. Recently, when he heated Iron Bull’s saliva, it turned from transparent to red.

Was the red liquid poisonous, or did it have other effects? Yang Bo intended to test it on the animals here.

Under the shelter of the large rock, he found a spot to avoid satellite detection.

The armadillo-like creatures fed on beetles. Twelve of them scurried across the desert, chasing after the beetles.

These creatures would push dirt onto the beetles, burying them. When the beetles struggled in the sand, the creatures would quickly dig them up and bite off their pincers.

The beetles’ scorpion-like stingers couldn’t pierce the protective scales on the creatures’ claws.

One of the beetles scurried under the large rock and lifted its pincers toward the armadillo-like creatures, clicking them aggressively.

Its pincers clacked loudly, but an armadillo-like creature simply dug into the dirt and hurled sand at the beetle.

Moments later, the armadillo-like creature was frozen as if held in place by an invisible force. On the side of the rock, a compartment opened, and a silver syringe floated toward the creature, injecting it.

Yang Bo, still hidden, was performing his experiment.

This time he didn’t use any of his other abilities, relying solely on physical strength, so he remained invisible.

The syringe contained a small amount of the red liquid. The red fluid was injected into the small creature’s body.

The beetle, terrified by this strange scene, waved its pincers, backing away before bolting.

After the injection, the small creature began to swell, its scales darkening, and it thrashed around violently.

The other small creatures stood at a distance, watching the spectacle unfold.

“Did it mutate?” Yang Bo pondered but quickly realized there were no energy fluctuations.

Yang Bo had a passive ability to see energy particles. This ability required no energy from him to activate.

A minute passed, and the small creature died, blood flowing from its mouth and nose.

“Did it undergo rage? Or did the energy overwhelm it?” Hidden, Yang Bo was surprised by the result.

“It seems this red liquid is dangerous, but I’m not well-versed in biological research. I also don’t have equipment to observe it properly.”

“Nor do I have pre- and post-exposure data on this small creature.” Yang Bo decided to end the experiment. The main goal was to see if it was poisonous.

From the looks of it, poisoning wasn’t the issue. Rather, it seemed the creature went berserk or became overwhelmed by energy, losing its mind.

Yang Bo revealed himself, releasing powerful Electric Power from his hands, incinerating the small creature.

Yang Bo wasn’t sure if other animals eating the carcass might cause unnecessary problems.

Yang Bo glanced at the boxes along the rock wall. One of them held the syringe used earlier. After returning it, he noticed others were meant to capture gerbils.

After revealing himself, the nearby creatures fled, but they watched from a distance, observing the two-legged giant.

Yang Bo wandered around the rock and soon spotted traces of the gerbils.

Gerbils were famously skittish, often living in wide-open spaces.

They resembled oversized pika-rats, but their sharp claws allowed them to dig rapidly.

Yang Bo preferred these relatively normal small animals.

A few gerbils nibbled on the thorny shrub bark.

Gerbils mainly fed on bark during the windy season when rain transformed the desert into a green landscape.

When the wind season brought some rain, numerous plants would sprout. These plants had very short lifespans, with the shortest only lasting five or six days from germination to fruition.

Others could last one or two months. In particular, the thorny shrubs produced many small seeds.

The gerbils darted between the rocks, seeking dew droplets that formed on the stones at night, surviving the harsh drought this way.

Two gerbils approached, attracted by the strange scent. Suddenly, hidden forces grabbed them both, causing the small creatures to let out shrill screams. Hearing the sound, other gerbils fled, kicking up a dust storm as they scurried back to their burrows.

“One of them is male. I’ll take him back for experiments.” Yang Bo observed the two gerbils, noting their genders.

The gerbils screamed as they were placed into two of the large boxes beneath the rock.

Watching the other gerbils flee, Yang Bo felt a little speechless.

After waiting for two more hours, two gerbils cautiously poked their heads out of another exit before being telekinetically lifted by the head.

This time, they couldn’t even scream.

The remaining gerbils, thinking the coast was clear, emerged from their hideouts.

Soon, two more gerbils were grabbed by their heads and transported to the large boxes beneath the rock to be sorted by gender.

“This one seems to have babies inside. I’ll let it go.” For the third time, Yang Bo released a gerbil when he saw it was likely pregnant.

“It’s time to head back. The desert stands out too much. I’ll return to Redstone Mountain to see if there’s anything interesting.” Yang Bo had captured seven gerbils in total, four female and three male.

Yang Bo collected some plants from the area, aware that the gerbils might struggle to adapt to their new environment.

The plants here contained little water. Giving the gerbils human food could possibly cause them to have adverse reactions.

Yang Bo released his mecha and stored the boxes into its carrying compartment before recalling the mecha.

Still cloaked, he set off, traveling about 600 kilometers back home, with Redstone Mountain visible in the distance.

In his cloaked state, Yang Bo couldn’t use any powers, but passive abilities were still functional.

Within an hour, Yang Bo reached Redstone Mountain. The mountain had a unique appearance, with one side desolate and one side lush with greenery.

The barren side faced the ocean, blasted by constant winds that revealed the red, hardened stones.

Since the mountains were high, streams and water sources were present.

Redstone Mountain was home to over 1,900 species of animals and plants, including more than 600 plants and a variety of reptiles.

Among the plants, there were more than 60 kinds of fungi, which was why Yang Bo came.

Yang Bo had seen these fungi on the planet’s website. Some looked delicious.

On his way here, Yang Bo hadn’t carefully explored Redstone Mountain, but with his current task complete, he could gather some peculiar items for research.

In no time, Yang Bo found a fungus in a valley at the foot of the mountain. It looked like a flat pancake, dark brown, spreading across the ground.

Some were as large as half a meter in diameter, while others were just a few centimeters.

The pancake-like visible part was just the surface. Beneath it were spherical roots.

Yang Bo revealed himself and snapped his fingers. After confirming there were no threats, he began to dig.

Due to the yearly winds depositing countless layers of dust, these fungi would rot after each windy season and grow back from their underground roots afterward.

“There’s even a faint bit of energy?” After digging 50 centimeters down, Yang Bo uncovered the roots, roughly the size of a football. To his surprise, the roots contained faint traces of energy.

“I was only intending to dig it up to taste.” Yang Bo hadn’t expected this discovery.

“Why doesn’t the March Planet website mention that these fungi contain energy? Could it be that current detection methods can’t pick it up? Or is this specimen unique in some way?” Yang Bo wondered.

“I wonder if Redstone Mountain’s land is for sale.” Yang Bo quickly thought of another possibility—that the area might contain energy-rich minerals beneath it.