Tomb Raider's Notes of Qilin City Lord

Chapter 219 Snake Mother
Chapter 219219 Snake Mother

I said: "I know that these little red cockscombs are the working snakes with the heaviest tasks and the largest number among the snakes. They are responsible for all daily work. They are responsible for finding food, going out to fight, cleaning, etc. If it is Bees are worker bees.

The brocade python I mentioned is large in size and small in number. It is the male "citizen" of the snake group. It is only responsible for mating with the big and scary giant snake. Among bees, it is the drone. When it is mating season, they may There will also be several male snakes that need to compete for a while, and the winner with the largest and strongest body will get the right to mate.

The biggest snake is the queen, oh, no, it should be said to be the mother snake. All these little snakes here are born to it. Its social division of labor is to lay eggs full-time, and it shoulders the social responsibility of reproducing offspring. "

"Yes, this painting just confirms this point. Judging from this relief, this female snake is so huge that the male snake cannot mate with her smoothly, and so many cockscomb snakes are needed to assist. And according to According to the laws of nature, such a huge snake mother may not be able to move. She really needs help from others to mate, just like some giant sows in captivity. Is there really such a huge snake in the depths of this sea of ​​trees? ?."

I said to him: "I think what we should think about is whether this snake mother is still alive. With its size, if it is still alive, its movements will be like an earthquake. If it If it still moves, it will be a disaster.”

Wu Xie said: "Probably not. I remember that among the legends about giant snakes, the largest one is in the rainforest of Brazil. Someone claimed to have seen a 50-meter-long giant anaconda. Snakes are different from humans. It has no fixed limit of lifespan. Generally, snakes will die naturally when they are too big to hunt food. However, under certain conditions with sufficient food, snakes can continue to grow. Those giant snakes are simply the gods of the rainforest. However, Even so, those snakes were only about 100 years old when they died. How long has this relief been here? It is at least three to four thousand years. If this mother snake really existed here, she should have died."

I thought for a while and said: "You said the anaconda, it is indeed the largest member of the Anaconda family and one of the largest snakes in the world, but it is not as big as you said. I heard that the largest one was 10 meters long. Yes, usually it can be as big as 8 meters long, 50 meters... that's too scary.

Anacondas love water by nature and usually inhabit shallow waters on mud banks, such as swamps, wetlands, and quiet rivers.

However, the average lifespan of wild anacondas seems to be only 10 years old, and the maximum is 20 years old. Even if they are 100 years old, they have become sperms. Even if the head in this painting is 100 years old, it will not grow that big. Let me tell you. , Dacheng proves that it cannot die easily. No matter it is alive or dead, it must still be in the deep water at our feet. "

Wu Xie smiled and said: "If I saw these reliefs in a museum, I would only think that they were exaggerations or myths of the ancients." He sighed: "But we have encountered these poisonous snakes here, and we have seen them with our own eyes Considering their strange behavior, this relief is most likely depicting a real scene, which may be a huge discovery in biology, history, archeology and even sociology.

And this mother snake, if it ever existed, must have lived in the water. With such a huge body, the swamp obviously does not have such great buoyancy. It may really be under our feet as you said.

How did this weird snake behavior evolve?Why is it so different from other snakes?I sense there must be a deeper reason.These reasons must be related to the history of the Queen Mother Kingdom of the West.Xiaoxun, do you know about this? "

"I..." Xin said, not saying that it was not in line with the state of the encyclopedia just now, but saying which part was good, so he said to him: "This Kingdom of the Queen of the West" is a descendant of the "Ancient Kingdom of Huaxu", and Huaxu is Fuxi is the mother of Nuwa, so Queen Mother Xi has some special and subtle emotions and relationships with snakes. As you can see in this painting, people of Queen Mother Xi are good at using snakes to do things for themselves, and snakes are very important to them. "After that, I took another look at the woman with a snake head and human body in the painting. Sure enough, the Queen Mother of the West studied the symbiosis of humans and snakes at the beginning."

Wu Xie was thinking while listening, and then we looked at the relief at the back, which showed some people kneeling in front of a poisonous snake in a temple. Wu Xie said: "It turns out that this temple has five floors, and now the mud is The lower three floors have all been buried. There used to be a altar in front of the main entrance of the temple. When we came, there were only rocks. This should also be a scene of sacrifice. This snake is standing upright in front of everyone, and its movements are good. It’s strange, except for this, everything else is pretty normal.”

The little brother said: "This entire mural is a stone wall that records information about snakes. The center of the boulder is the reproduction scene of snakes, surrounded by snake sacrifices, snake raising, and the war between snakes and humans, as well as many other things about snakes. The scene, all the reliefs are exquisite in shape, even the facial features are carefully thought out, lifelike, obviously the work of top craftsmen."

I said: "But, the content about snakes is quite comprehensive. Even King Mu of Zhou has it, but the Queen Mother of the West has never appeared." I tugged on the little brother, meaning "Have you thought of anything?", but he just Shaked his head.

Wu Xie wanted to get some more information from it, so he read it several times, but there was nothing else he could gain.

At this time, the fat man's voice came from a distance: "Naive? Brother? What are you two doing with each other? It's not over. I've called you several times. Do you want to eat? You two don't want to eat. , the girl doesn’t need to eat, right?”

Wu Xie chuckled and said, "Hey, this is too urgent. Let's go and eat."

With the little brother supporting me, we climbed down and walked to the stove. We smelled the long-lost aroma of meat and saw the fat man using a basin as a pot and hanging it on the bonfire to make barbecue.

When the fat man saw us, he asked: "What are you doing in there, keeping you here for so long? Xiaozhen, you helped half of the time and ran away without looking back. You didn't even come to help. You really treat me like a cook." I'll kill you." After saying that, Wu Xie looked at me and said, "Girl, you look much better, just sit there and wait."

The little brother took me to sit down, and Wu Xie told the fat man what we had just discovered, until he confirmed that there was a snake mother. The fat man was surprised and proud and said: "A great mind can always make the right decision. , you must learn a lesson, and you must follow my teachings in the future, so that you will not realize it later... However, if the snake mother is really dead, why are those snakes still collecting corpses? What do they collect the corpses for? Woolen cloth?"

Wu Xie said: "I think it may be used to feed those male snakes like brocade pythons. Do you still remember that when we found Aning's body, there were a lot of pheasant necks around the brocade python, which was obviously protecting it. This kind of male snake is also a noble class and will be supported by the snake group. These snakes can still survive due to their size, but the female snake will definitely not survive."

I said: "They don't necessarily eat when they transport corpses. Don't all snakes eat live food? Even the brocade python is like the drone, living a life of getting something for nothing every day, but that brocade python can obviously catch its prey. Otherwise, why would we be like this?"

Wu Xie said: "I still think that the mother snake is absolutely impossible to survive. There is too little food here. If such a big snake is really active in modern times, we should also see some traces, so I think this giant snake thousands of years ago already dead."

I said: "But the snake can hibernate. If it has been hiding underground and there is water below, the temperature below may be very low. She can remain in hibernation for a long time and does not need to eat. Wait until the right time It may just appear, but it may not necessarily be dead.”

"Then it can't hibernate for that long. I still think..." Wu Xie continued to speak, but Fatty interrupted: "Ahem, are you two going to fight?"

I whispered: "No..." At this moment, the little brother had washed his face and hands and was wiping the mud off my face and getting me ready to eat.

The fat man looked at me and said, "Well, be good, little sister. Where are you, Xiaozhen?" He looked at Wu Xie, who looked at him blankly. The fat man said, "What you both said makes sense, but what about this matter now?" There's no way to prove that it's not the case. You two are not engaged in scientific research. Let's eat first. You said it was hard to get meat to eat and it took a long time to make it. You said these snakes are off-putting. Don't argue about this. Come on, come on and eat it quickly. ." Then the fat man handed me the food and said to me: "Give it to our little girl first, we just came here, don't argue with Xiaozhen, it's tiring." As he spoke, he deliberately acted strangely towards Wu Xie.

Wu Xie said to him: "Fuck you."

The fat man said happily to me: "Can you do it yourself? If you can't do it, let your brother feed you."

The little brother immediately pressed his body and legs against me, stretched out his hand to take the food, held the food in one hand, and touched my face with the other hand, saying "Eat well."

Then he put a piece of meat to my pouting little mouth. I opened my mouth obediently and took the piece of meat into my mouth.

The fat man said: "Anyway, these snakes are not snake monsters, so it will be much easier to handle, but I can only rest assured. There are still many doubts about this matter, and I don't know how to survive tonight. Hurry up and eat." It's good to fight when you're full." Then he looked at Wu Xie and said, "Don't be stunned, you're not hungry."

Wu Xie's stomach was already growling with hunger and he said, "Who says you're not hungry? I'm so hungry. What have you cooked?"

The fat man said: "I cooked all the canned food, and only a little was left. It was a stew of luncheon meat, steamed buns, and sardines, but it didn't taste very good. Come and try my craftsmanship. The first bite is free, and the second bite will start. Every mouthful is a bright weapon."

Wu Xie said: "Fuck you, what kind of skills are needed to cook this thing? Isn't it just boiling it in water?"

The fat man said to him disapprovingly: "Tsk tsk, so you are much lower class than your third master, and you can only be a hawker for the rest of your life."

Wu Xie let out a "hum" and immediately scooped a bowl out of an empty can. He didn't even check the temperature and took a big bite. The result was so hot that he shed tears.

The fat man muttered to him: "Slow down. Slow down and no one will compete with you. Just brag."

Wu Xie said: "Not to mention, it's really delicious, a bit like rice cakes." He followed.
The fat man said with a smile: "That's right. It doesn't matter who made it. I won't tell you anymore. I'll eat it too."

After a while, I was full, and the little brother asked me to lean against him, and then I started to eat. I watched the three of them finish the pot of rice cooked by the fat man, and drank all the soup. Wu Xie and Fatty were so hot that they sweated.

The fat man wiped his lips and said: "How about it, not bad, you should learn from it. People live for seventy years, eating, drinking, whoring and gambling. Eating is the only enjoyment in a person's life. You, Fatty, and I are living on a knife's edge. We here As a person, you should enjoy it when you can, maybe this will be our last meal."

After hearing this, Wu Xie immediately became angry and said, "Bah! You are eating, drinking, whoring and gambling. This is your last fucking meal. Don't drag us into it."

The fat man looked at him with a stern expression and said: "Look, look, this is the feudal legacy of the feudal class." He paused and continued: "These things are very powerful. Yesterday our eyes were fascinated by the fog. , take some supplements, otherwise the root cause of the disease will easily fall."

Wu Xie said: "By the way, why are we fine in the forest but blind here?"

I said: "Remember, Dingzhu Zhuoma has actually said a long time ago that there is a terrifying legend in the Kingdom of the Western Queen. This city will only appear when it rains heavily. Once it is seen, its eyes will be taken away and it will become blind. It should be said It’s foggy.”

Wu Xie nodded and said, "What could be the cause?"

The fat man said: "I think it may be a problem with the water here. The fog is condensed by water vapor, and the water in the forest is living water, but the water below here may be dead. We don't know the specific situation. "

I said: "I think the fog contains things that can paralyze the visual nerve. Look, the places where snakes used to live and where they fed the poisonous snakes are now underwater. Maybe there are some poisonous snake corpses under the water." Something like that, those things have been soaked in water since ancient times, and there are a lot of toxins under the water. It is possible that the evaporation will affect the optic nerve through the fog."

Wu Xie nodded slightly: "By the way, when I regained my sight, I saw a shadow that looked a bit like a human, but it disappeared soon. Do you also have this phenomenon?"

The fat man shook his head: "The situation we have experienced is much more complicated than yours. How can we pay attention to this?"

Hearing Wu Xie talk about shadow, the little brother raised his head, frowned, looked at him, and suddenly said: "Did you see a black shadow rummaging through the backpack?"

Wu Xie nodded and said: "It's very blurry. I didn't see it clearly. I don't know if it's an illusion, but it's definitely not you."

The little brother immediately said: "That's Wen Jin."

(End of this chapter)