Facing the vast desert and the loss of the worm as her 'guide', Lin had completely lost her sense of direction.
However, she had to kill the worm, or else it would continue to secrete acid until it could melt the Leviathan.
But Lin didn't want to stay in this lake. She had never liked small places, and she didn't know when the water here would run out and everything would disappear in an instant.
The worm's destination was definitely not here. Lin didn't think that such a large creature would live in a small lake that could disappear at any time. It should have a bigger goal.
Lin didn't know how the worm located its position because it didn't have anything like a magnet in its head. If it hadn't been there before, then it must have a strong sense of perception. Lin found that the worm's sense of perception wasn't very strong, so it must have memories of being there.
But where should she go? She could only rely on her intuition.
Lin assembled a special kind of tentacle on the Leviathan's back. It was mainly constructed with a sensitive olfactory system to smell the tiny water droplets in the air. This way, she would know where the nearest water droplets were.
The Leviathan swayed its tentacle and walked around the worm. Lin felt the moisture in the air.
… There seems to be a lot of smell here.
The Leviathan followed the smell to the northwest. Suddenly, Lin felt something under her feet. When she stretched out her tentacle, she found that it was just the scorpion fragments that the worm had spat out.
… Scorpion? Speaking of which, scorpions shouldn't be desert creatures. They should be wandering in the desert looking for water and prey, right? These creatures should also have some way of locating their position …
Maybe I can find something?
Lin rummaged through the pile of scorpion fragments, but this desert scorpion was too damaged to find anything useful.
Hmm … Do I still have to rely on myself?
The Leviathan held the last piece of scorpion shell with its tentacle and looked at it. Just as Lin was about to throw it away, she suddenly found something stuck to the back of the shell.
Lin put the shell on the sand and found that it was more than ten small white balls, each of them only three centimeters in diameter. These things weren't melted by the worm's liquid.
These were obviously the eggs of the desert scorpion. Although they looked fine, they were probably all dead.
While Lin was thinking, the shell of one of the eggs suddenly cracked open. A small scorpion that looked exactly like a large desert scorpion crawled out.
He was actually still alive? Lin was a little surprised. She watched as the eggshells cracked open one after another, and a large group of little scorpions emerged from within.
After they were born, they didn't run to other places. Instead, they climbed up Leviathan's legs and climbed onto Leviathan's body.
What was he doing? Did he mistake Leviathan for a scorpion?
This was quite interesting. Perhaps the big scorpions would usually carry the small scorpions like this. Perhaps these small scorpions had some way of finding water?
… That doesn't seem to be the case. They're just lying on the Leviathan's back, not doing anything. Lin still has to find them on her own.
Waving her tentacles again, Lin sensed the aura in the air.
As a hot desert wind blew, Lin finally smelled something. It wasn't water, but it had the smell of plants.
He didn't know what kind of plant it was, but in that direction … there was clearly life.
Let's set off then. The worm shells here will be used as the base of this small lake. Leviathan will head in the direction of the smell to find a suitable place to live!
With that in mind, Leviathan turned its body towards its target. A crack appeared on both sides of its carapace, and two pairs of huge wings stretched out from the crack.
These were dragonfly wings that Lin specially made for Leviathan. The wingspan could reach up to 8.6 meters, and each wing was equivalent to the length of Leviathan's body. Normally, they could be folded in a relatively soft state inside Leviathan's body. When stretched out in the air, they would slowly harden into giant wings that could carry Leviathan in flight!
Lin waved the two pairs of wings. Under the flapping of the wings, sand and dust filled the air, and a strong wind blew. The small scorpions huddled together on Leviathan's back, as if they knew what was going to happen next.
However, nothing happened …
Lin was now flapping her wings in the correct way, exactly like a dragonfly, but she couldn't fly at all.
Lin wasn't surprised by this result. Was it because her body was too heavy? Or were the wings too small? Lin felt that she had already made them big enough. To what extent did she want them to be? Wings that were too big would be a hindrance on land.
Lin now had words to describe weight, mainly 'kilograms' and 'tons'. Leviathan was now about a ton, and dragonflies were probably only one kilogram. A thousand kilograms was only one ton. This was still much heavier than the largest flying creature that could be seen so far.
Then, why don't I try a little harder? Thinking of this, Lin opened the jet port at the tail of the Leviathan and fiercely ejected compressed gas. At the same time, the Leviathan quickly moved its legs and ran. Coupled with the flapping of its wings, the Leviathan immediately rushed out as if it was flying.
This feeling was really good!
Leviathan galloped across the desert, but no matter how fast it was, it couldn't break free from the shackles of the ground. No matter how hard Lin flapped her wings, no matter how fast she ran, she couldn't rise up.
Forget it, let's just leave it like this. It's much faster than before, and it feels really easy.
Lin continued to move through the desert in this' flying 'manner. This was many times faster than the sand drilling worms, and consumed much less stamina than normal running.
The little scorpions on her back were still lying there. Lin noticed that not only were they not thrown off, they had even begun to boldly crawl around on the carapace. The tips of their feet seemed to be equipped with powerful hooks that could prevent them from falling off.
Lin ignored them and continued to run faster. According to Lin's calculations, she would reach her destination before nightfall.
The scenery kept receding as Lin ran. With her strong muscles and perfect nutrition, Lin didn't feel tired at all. As the sky slowly darkened, a large expanse of green appeared in the farthest reaches of Lin's vision.
She's here!
Lin couldn't help but sigh at her current speed. If she continued to stay in the worm's body, who knows how many days and nights it would take her to reach her destination.
As the Leviathan approached, Lin's vision grew larger and clearer. Finally, it formed a green line that extended for countless kilometres.
The green plants were like thick tentacles that extended towards the sky. They intertwined with each other and extended upwards, reaching a height of over a hundred meters. They were even larger than Lin's spires. At the top of these plants were many small branches that were covered with green leaves. These gigantic plants were like a huge wall that blocked Lin's path and occupied her entire field of vision.
This area should be called a 'forest'. Although this word seemed to have been mentioned before, Lin now understood its meaning. These thick, intertwined tentacles seemed to have the term 'trees'.
'Trees? From the looks of it, these were living creatures, unlike the Forest of Spires, which was covered in a layer of moss. Furthermore, the moss was the Aztec insect species. Furthermore, this region was extremely vast, far larger than the Forest of Spires.
Lin decided to name these trees' Twisted Trees' because they were intertwined like tentacles. Lin didn't know if two trees intertwined together were one living thing or two living things.
The living things here seemed to be quite abundant. Lin could hear all sorts of strange noises coming from the forest. A large number of dragonflies were flying around the top of the trees. Occasionally, she could see a large arthropod crawling on the thick and twisted branches. The forest floor was covered with a layer of hairy moss, with many small arthropods moving about.
Taking in the clear oxygen wafting from the forest, Leviathan folded its wings and walked into the twisted giant trees. The scorching heat of the desert seemed to have completely disappeared, replaced by a cool and refreshing feeling. Traversing the entire desert was indeed worth it.
Looking up from the forest, the gradually dimming light of day shone through the gaps between the leaves. It was as dazzling as the starry night sky. The light swayed with the swaying of the branches and leaves. A few small arthropods shuttled through the light spots, gnawing on the moss on the ground. Some small arthropods tried to join in, but they didn't notice a dragonfly swooping down from the sky. The dragonfly's swift attack easily captured a slower reptile. But when the dragonfly grabbed its prey and flew into the canopy, it accidentally bumped into a layer of fine white web-like silk. No matter how hard it struggled, it couldn't break free. At this time, a huge arthropod with eight legs slowly approached it …
This place was full of vitality and abundant living things. It was no longer the Forest of Spires where the Aztec species grew. It was a new world.
Here, there would be a new beginning …
…