Living in Hunter x Hunter

Chapter 457 Exploration, King of Birds

With a loud "boom".

A creature that looks a lot like a tiger is collapsing.

One person sheathed his knife, while the other took out a glass bottle.

With a burst of energy from his hand, a suction force appeared in the glass bottle, and the blood oozing from the wound of the tiger-like creature was absorbed by the glass bottle.

Then others immediately went up to cut and separate the corpse, continuously collecting it into the Adventurer's Mark.

"I thought the Dark Continent would be very dangerous, but it seems it's not so bad," one of them said, holding a special divine artifact to prevent the smell of blood from spreading around.

"Don't be careless. Did you waste your time reading all that information? We've only just left the outer area of ​​Lake Möbius. According to Lord Lucci, we're still within the affected area."

As for what kind of impact it has, it is naturally the impact of the "barrier".

The camp has been fully built and exploration has begun. This exploration team consists of members of the Gale Guild.

"We haven't encountered any real danger yet," the captain, who was in charge, warned.

This isn't some secret realm or dungeon; it's a real, dangerous world where you never know what danger you might suddenly encounter.

"And haven't we encountered enough problems these past few days?"

Lucci and his large group have been on the Dark Continent for nine days.

The camp was established over nine days, and the area was constantly explored and mapped outwards to learn about and study various plants and animals.

The first problem we encountered was, naturally, airborne diseases.

Even many biologists cannot fully understand it immediately; some people contract the disease naturally.

Even Nen users couldn't withstand it, but fortunately, this large team was well-prepared.

There were people with healing abilities, skilled doctors, and the Nen users themselves were strong enough, so it didn't cause any major impact.

Lucky and Biyander's plan was simple: to proceed step by step, steadily, towards the swamp that contained longevity rice.

Explore the surrounding area thoroughly.

The threat posed by these nine celestial beings is the lowest, because they are all extremely powerful.

Unless they encounter beings whose size overwhelms them or those governed by rules like the Five Calamities, they cannot be significantly affected.

The real threat comes from environmental changes, which may lead to infectious diseases and various microorganisms.

Humans always need to breathe.

Of course, these threats are also small.

Having just set foot on the Dark Continent, even on its outer perimeter, they have already discovered many plants and animals that do not exist in the human world, as well as quite a few variants.

As for minerals, more exploration is needed.

The purpose of this trip was to obtain longevity rice, and most of the remaining harvests along the way were spent on medicinal herbs and plants.

Plants, in particular, can potentially drive the development of multiple industries if they can be cultivated.

Soon another person returned, falling from the sky.

He transformed into a soaring eagle, gazing into the sky; more accurately, he merged with his spirit beast, and of course, he also used stealth.

Conceal your presence as much as possible; the air is never a safe place.

"Captain, there's a cliff ahead, but judging from this continent, we're probably just on high ground, and it seems to be a watershed..."

The team members who went out to investigate reported what they saw.

From that cliff onwards, all the plants are large; even an ordinary blade of grass is taller than a person.

Of course, he also saw all sorts of creatures, such as dinosaurs, which were everywhere.

Judging by sight alone, these creatures, though large in size, do not pose a threat to them.

However, he did not risk crossing that high ground.

Who knows what might happen?

No subhuman species were found nearby.

The Dark Continent is naturally home to intelligent life, including magical beasts and demi-humans.

However, none of these were found on the outskirts of Lake Möbius.

"Alright, another demarcation zone? Okay, that's enough for today. Let's return to camp now," the captain ordered.

Suddenly, a light shone from their pockets.

"Is someone requesting help? It's Team Three."

"I remember number three is the Summoning Guild, right? They're stronger, yet they need to ask for help." Someone said in surprise.

"We must have encountered an insurmountable danger. Let's go, let's get there right away."

They definitely need to provide support.

The fewer people who come to the Dark Continent, the more dangerous it is.

There were fifteen teams in total, ten of which were adventurers' guilds from Kerry City, and the other five were teams composed of other people.

And in one part of this "highland".

A buzzing sound echoed throughout.

The surrounding area was filled with "bumblebees" the size of adults. Logically speaking, these bumblebees should not pose any threat.

However, there were many swaying flowers and vines nearby. Carnivorous flowers and grasses are not uncommon in the Dark Continent.

And the number is quite large.

The members of the Summoning Guild were a bit unlucky; they ran into the overlord of this area.

Creatures on the Dark Continent all have their own territories and rarely leave their habitats, as doing so would represent danger.

The members of the Summoning Guild were surrounded.

They were surrounded by their "summoned beasts," some of which were spirit beasts, while others were pets they had personally bred.

There are dogs, snakes, cats, and so on.

Most of them are either operators or emitters.

Ten of them can form a team of hundreds.

However, there were just too many flowers, vines, and bumblebees, which kept them tied up here.

The bumblebee, in particular, was quite a sight to behold.

Little did they know that the beehive was actually disguised as a large tree, and by the time they discovered it, it was too late.

Of course, for these Nen masters, this is nothing; given time, it can be resolved.

But there were too many dead bumblebees, flowers, and vines here, and various scents emanated from them, making them afraid of attracting other creatures.

That's why I called for help.

It's worth mentioning that their landing location this time was somewhat different from the landing location of the Ochima Federation.

There are no relevant records.

The "blood" of these bumblebees has a strange fragrance; who knows what it might attract.

"Insects are indeed the most troublesome, since most of them live in groups, especially insect species like queen bees and queen ants."

The Zerg's greatest strength lies in its massive army production.

At that moment, the ground not far away suddenly surged, a pit was dug out, and new creatures joined the battle.

The fire ants, about the size of an adult, quickly crawled out of the pit and began to devour the corpses of the bumblebees. The bumblebees and the vines also set aside some of their resources to attack the fire ants.

Their stress was relieved, but they felt the situation was worse.

Because at that moment, there was a tremendous sound of birdsong in the air.

If you could see it, you would see a giant bird flying out from a giant tree not far from this high ground, with a wingspan of more than thirty meters.

"Heh!" There was also a unique bird call.

A powerful gust of wind swept through, and the fire ants and bumblebees became even more agitated.

"Look, everyone!"

Although they had seen various large marine creatures during their voyage, seeing them again made them feel as if they dared not look directly at them.

Furthermore, this unidentified blue giant bird possessed a powerful life force.

With a loud bang, the ground shook violently.

"So the pit we discovered earlier was..."

A giant bird's beak fell from the sky, and the red ants and bumblebees quickly fell into it.

Like chicks pecking at rice.

However, changing the size of the perspective is a very scary thing.

In particular, the area around them has the most dead bumblebees, and the birds mainly eat from this area.

Fortunately, they all took cover and recalled their pets and spirit beasts to avoid causing any impact.

The bumblebees that had been attacking them were now in complete disarray.

They began to scatter and flee.

The ground shook, and there were strong winds all around.

All of this was caused by the giant blue bird pecking at the ground with its beak and flapping its wings.

Of course, they weren't the only ones who saw this; other teams that came to provide support also witnessed it, even though they had been mentally prepared.

But when you actually see this giant bird-like creature, which is as big as a building, you still feel a sense of fear.

This is a fear stemming from the genetic memory of life, a fear of large creatures.

Fortunately, the giant blue bird was mainly focused on the bumblebees and fire ants and didn't pay attention to the humans.

The bumblebee corpses were quickly devoured, and many bumblebees had already fled back to their nests, which the giant bird paid no heed to.

Many flowers, plants, and vines also died or were injured, all fleeing.

Here you can see movable flowers and vines, which is quite a novelty for someone seeing it for the first time.

The giant bird paid no attention, its huge claws scratching the ground, instantly revealing a large trench, and at the same time, the fire ants hidden underground were dug out.

Clearly, this giant bird prefers fire ants to bumblebees.

The deeper they dug, the more fire ant eggs they found, and even the queen fire ant, which they then ate.

Meanwhile, Lu Qi, who was at the camp, was the first to sense the movement in the distance and immediately sent out of the camp.

Among the fifteen teams, one was led by Bi Yangde.

"Should I say it's just bad luck?" Bi Yangde laughed heartily, seemingly unconcerned about the sudden turn of events.

His gaze, however, was fixed on the sky.

In the Dark Continent, it's easy to find situations where the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

The giant bird's feeding behavior may attract even larger creatures.

Stopping at a distance, it seemed to find nothing, indicating that there were no other large creatures nearby.

Of course, this giant bird is also noteworthy. Is it a gregarious bird?

The dangers of creatures on the Dark Continent also vary by species; creatures that live in groups are far more dangerous than those that roam alone.

Even among the five major calamities, there are those who live in groups.

If one is difficult to deal with, then a large number of them would be like an apocalyptic disaster.

Lucci was fast and naturally spotted the giant blue bird.

Suddenly, the giant bird seemed to sense something as well.

He lowered his head, then raised it, and looked in one direction.

That's the direction Lucci is in.

A "heh heh" sound came from behind.

It is this giant bird that is conveying some kind of message.

Lucci didn't understand the words, but he grasped their meaning.

It wasn't something Lucci understood, but rather something from Phoenix.

Phoenix flew out of Lucci's body, flames soaring high and rapidly expanding, soon transforming into a giant firebird.

The original Phoenix didn't have this size, but since it's a spirit beast, not just a magical creature.

As long as you have enough mental energy, you can naturally grow to this size.

The message conveyed by the giant bird was "King".

Clearly, this giant bird also possesses intelligence, albeit not the kind of complete intelligence.

Phoenix also responded to this sentiment.

The giant blue bird took flight and flew towards Phoenix, though it flew lower than Phoenix.

The cries of "Heh heh" continued, while Lucci kept shouting: "King, King, King!"

Clearly, the giant bird probably didn't understand what this meant either, but Lucci could already sense its submission.

Considering that Phoenix was able to lead the evolution of birds in the Basen Rainforest, and that the Phoenix itself is an extremely special existence among magical creatures.

However, since the World Tree exists in this world, it is not impossible that the phoenix from the native world also exists.

Is the phoenix the "king" of all birds?

Lucci didn't quite understand.

But I wouldn't mind exploring that.

He had originally planned to explore cautiously, but it seems he can now explore freely and openly.

His actions on the Dark Continent were simply not suited to being with the main force.

After leaving a message for Bi Yangde, Lucci teleported to Phoenix's body, and his flames naturally couldn't harm him.

The giant blue bird led the "King" to his nest.

Lucci wouldn't mind taking a look.

They quickly flew out of the "highlands".

Various flying creatures in the air kept avoiding it, but some birds joined in the flight. Lucci could sense that these birds were afraid of the giant blue bird.

But he still followed the phoenix.

It evokes a feeling of hundreds of birds paying homage to the phoenix.

As more and more birds joined in, Phoenix cried out excitedly, and Lucci even noticed that the birds were releasing puffs of air that flowed into Phoenix's body.

As the "master," Lu Qi immediately sensed the change.

These breaths are the life force of these birds. Only when more birds offer him this life force will Phoenix evolve once again.

That basically confirms that phoenixes also exist on this dark continent, and may even be some kind of powerful race.

They soon arrived at the nest of the blue giant bird, a tree even taller than the World Tree of the human world. From this tree, several smaller birds flew out.

All the birds were cheering for the "King".