1349 Send a Batch Back

After hearing what Lin Qiao said about the outside, everyone first wore a look of surprise and then started thinking.

"Are you saying that it's a creature that has a great appetite and needs a lot of energy? The underground creatures we've seen on the earth's surface are all below level-seven, and now, there are no creatures below level-five here underground. So, I guess the level-nine creature doesn't need to feed on those low-leveled creatures, and hence it didn't have to do anything to them…" Duan Juan dug into the information provided by Lin Qiao and shared her opinion.

"So, why did it suddenly cast out those creatures that it didn't care about at all?" Standing near her, Lu Tianyi folded his arms and asked, and then another question crossed his mind. "Oh, I noticed that all the plants we've seen so far seem undamaged, which means those underground creatures probably don't eat them. So, are there no herbivores underground?"

"Each one of those plants contains the energy from the air. Perhaps that's why those creatures don't eat the plants. After all, they can even eat the soil on the earth's surface. I've been thinking that that might have something to do with the thick layer of energy in the air."

The behaviors of the creatures that she had seen in the underground world and how Red had been avoiding the energy swirls coming from the air made Lin Qiao think that way. Red's fear of the energy grew even more obvious as it came close to the riverside.

Did the level-nine creature cast them out because the energy had affected them in some way?

"Maybe the level-nine creature was experiencing a crucial period, or the energy layer on top of the underground realm has changed some way," said Yuan Tianxing, "We now still have no idea why the level-nine creature cast out the lower-leveled underground creatures, or if it did that out of a good or bad will. It's hard for us to find out the reason. So now, all we can do is spend more time observing the level-nine creature's behavior and pay attention to the energy layer in the air to see if it'll change drastically. That's the only way to find the answer."

Studying nature and wild animals had always been a time-consuming task.

Lin Qiao narrowed her eyes to look outside. As it was still peaceful, she opened her eyes and thought for a moment before nodding, "You're right. I wonder how much the big one eats for each meal. The level seven and eight ones here are all enormous, but judging by the size of the level-nine creature's nest, I guess the level-nine creature is larger than the level-eight ones by many times over. I think maybe not even a ten-ton animal can make a full meal for that creature."

She should be able to get more information by observing the creature feeding and figuring out its food habits and eating frequency.

"I'm now curious about what it looks like. All those underground creatures look weird. None of them was previously seen on the earth's surface," said Li Zheng from a corner.

All the underground creatures that Lin Qiao and her people had seen so far were extremely weird-looking. Humans could be curious; they had a fear of the unknown but also curiosity.

To find out more about the level-nine creature, Lin Qiao and her people stayed patiently near its nest, waiting day after day. The zombies didn't need food, but the humans did. Thankfully, she had all kinds of food in her space, and the ones who weren't in her space had brought enough to eat with them.

They spent eight days waiting but nothing happened, and it was already time to send everyone back to the earth's surface to make reports. Therefore, Lin Qiao exited her space.

The journey back took much less time than the journey to the creature's nest, as the destination was clear. But still, Lin Qiao had to spend half a day to run out of the level-nine creature's territory and then fly back to the river by using her power.

She paused briefly by the river. This time, she didn't cross the river slowly but darted through the river as quickly as she could. She crossed the river almost within a blink of an eye, but still, hundreds of energy swirls descended from the air and stirred the river before she reached the other side.

That didn't cause her many difficulties though. Last time, she stayed cautious and slow because she didn't know what might happen. But this time, she was wildly clear that she could not linger above the river for long, or those flying fishes might come out again. So, she boosted her power and crossed the river within a short time. Then, she kept heading toward the cave where they came from.

Apart from herself, no one in Lin Qiao's team had invisibility. Therefore, for safety, she decided to send up a squad of three, including one human being and two zombies.

She needed to fly the three up, because climbing all the way up would be a little difficult. The space grew narrower along with the altitude, and the rock faces inclined and formed acute angles with the ground, so flying out was the only choice. After all, they couldn't climb the rock face like those underground creatures.

Near the cave, Lin Qiao sensed the scents of some human beings who were alive. She blinked her eyes. The woman from Huaxia Base had left some people there. How dare her!

The strongest one among those people was at level-six only. Lin Qiao turned invisible and then released a stream of dark fire that swallowed those people within a blink. Then, she brought Li Zheng out of her space along with two level-six zombies, sending them straight out of the hole. It took them a while leaping down, so flying up took a while as well.

Thankfully, Lin Qiao who was able to fly and send Li Zheng and the other two up safely. Of course, she didn't leave immediately but stayed there waiting. Before long, the team from Green Mountain Base and the team under Kong Qingming's lead showed up, together with Xie Dong, Lv Feng, and the others who were sent to other directions by Lin Qiao earlier.

"I knew you guys would return here at this time. How did it go? You didn't find another way out, did you?" Lin Qiao looked at them and asked.

Lei Cheng shook his head, "There is no other way out other than this hole."

Xie Dong and the others shook their heads as well.

Lin Qiao looked at those people and found that except Xie Dong and his team, the others all seemed weary. They seemed to have encountered something dangerous too during the past days.