Chapter 72: The Horrifying Pitcher Plant

An outstanding pet could display a combat strength not inferior to its master. During that time in the Ancient Nine Tombs, Pretty Water is Traceless’ pet made a very deep impression on Zhou Jian. It’s really fierce.

Training a pet would need to consume a large amount of time and money. Previously, Zhou Jian focused on doing the missions and later, he was rushing the new dungeon for the experiences to level up. Until now, he didn’t make any effort to get a pet. Now he was thinking about it as Dark Sword was able to catch up a pet in the game, then would Famous Sword had this kind of ability as well in the reality?

He looked at the beasts column. There were three empty positions there. Was it really possible?

When he realized this possibility, Zhou Jian’s breathing grew rapid. If he was able to control the animals in this world at will, then he would be a force to be reckoned with.

He suppressed his excitement and slowly approached the American tapir. He displayed his skill “Capturing Sacred Beasts”. Capturing Sacred Beasts belong to auxiliary cla.s.s skills. This skill could be used under Stealth.

However, to Zhou Jian’s disappointment, the Americans tapir did not have any reaction at all. The capture failed.

Zhou Jian was unwilling to give up, he continuously tried for 10 more times but the Americans tapir was like a meditating old monk, swaying here and there.

Finally, Zhou Jian had to accept the reality. It seemed like Capturing Sacred Beasts skill was only effective on those sacred beasts but those sacred beasts were only available in the Sacred Beasts Mountain in the game.

If Capturing Saint Beasts was invalid, then was it a dead end on all the biological creatures? Why was there a limit of three for the luring ray? Besides the luring ray, and also those Control masters’ advanced skills, were there still some other persuasion skills? (tl: ignore this paragraph, I couldn’t make an end of it well with all those game terminologies)

But now, it’s a pity that Zhou Jian’s level and Spirit force was insufficient. This kept him from learning those skills that he was so envious of.

When Zhou Jian was indulging in his ideas, the American tapir issued out a pitiful squeal. And at the same time, the rug like ground suddenly shot up. Zhou Jian was surprised and he quickly drew his body back. He looked helplessly as a sh.e.l.l like thing emerged from an underground tunnel and swallowed the American tapir whole.

What sort of thing was this? Zhou Jian was so shocked that he broke out in a cold sweat. The pitiful squeal of the American tapir was still ringing in his ears. The sh.e.l.l was shaking violently. The pouch containing the American tapir was up high in the air and it showed the distorted shape of the American tapir’s unceasing struggle.

Zhou Jian recognized this thing. This was a carnivorous plant. A variant of the pitcher plants from the catastrophe. To put it plainly, this was an extremely large pitcher plant. Actually, although the Amazon forest was entirely covered with fallen leaves and dead wood, but because the climate was warm and humid, the rate of humus decomposition was very fast. In addition, the constant pouring of water from the rain onto the ground cause the minerals to leech away. The forest soil was not only not fertile, it was somewhat barren. At this time, some of the root systems were quite shallow. The plants that were unable to get enough nutrition from the soil had to get it from the animals. For example, the pitcher plants and many others so forth.

The pitcher plants could only prey on insects like the flies, dragonflies, and others. Some large species like the Queen of Hearts was able to catch mice, frogs, and other small animals.

But the pa.s.sionflowers were able to capture and kill larger animals. They were symbiotic with a type of spider. This spider was called the Amazon Goliath bird-eating tarantula. The adult could grow up to the size of an adult palm and weighed more than 100 g. The web could cover up to several meters high in between the big trees and would weigh up to 300 g. They could capture and kill frogs, birds, mice and other small animals. It could also eat up a whole young pigeon at a time.

Some type of Goliath birdeater had a symbiotic relationship with the pa.s.sionflower. The pa.s.sionflower would capture the prey while the hiding Goliath birdeater would issue the fatal blow and injected venom and digestive juice into the animal’s body. It would then devoured the dissolved innards and the rest of the prey’s body and the Goliath birdeater’s feces would become the pa.s.sionflower best nourishment.

This was the strange ability that the carnivorous plants evolved to under the Amazons harsh conditions.

Long before the catastrophe, there were rumors about the carnivorous plants in the Amazon forest and African forest. The European explorers even wrote in their own expedition diaries that they saw the indigenous people punished the criminals using those man-eater plants. Although these were not scientifically confirmed, but there’s no wind in a cave. So, there’s some basis behind it.

With the pa.s.sage of time, the cry of the American tapir was getting weaker and weaker before it finally vanishd. The sh.e.l.l also stopped shaking and stood there quietly in the forest as if nothing had happened.

Zhou Jian felt very cold in his heart. The pitcher plant had no eyes and  captured and killed those that fell into its trap through the pressure perception. His own Stealth skill could only deceive the eyes and could not deceive any perception. Even if he was in stealth, there wasn’t an absolute safety.

Although before the pitcher plant could sting his body, Zhou Jian had the confidence that he could escape based on his excellent jumping abilities. But who knew what other danger lied in the Amazon forest?

He clenched his teeth and displayed the Thief auxiliary skill – Detect on the surrounding.

The scope of Detect could cover up to 10 m and it could detect for hidden enemies and traps. The result of this made Zhou Jian’s scalp itched. In only a 10 m radius of range, more than ten thousands of symbols of life energy emerged. Some of them were hidden in the trunk, some were hidden in the fallen leaves, and some were buried under the soil. All kind of strange insects, poisonous lizards, snakes, and rats. There were dazzling amounts of species, and very few of them were from the same species. Each and every one of these hidden creatures could be a killer.

Zhou Jian sucked in some cold air. Although he put knew perfectly well that he was under stealth, he still felt the chill. The Ghost Killer avatar strength was really strong but was not to the point of invulnerable. Last time, he lost a lot of health under the hands of the small devil. What if these strange creatures attacked? And among those insect variants, nine out of ten of them were poisonous. Would the antidotes in his Inventory be effective?

When Zhou Jian was thinking, he suddenly heard a rustling sound. It sounded like the sound of scales brushing against the ground.

He held his breath and looked at the rustling bushes. After a few moment, a head slightly smaller than a fist emerge out from the bush. It was a python!

Zhou Jian was very happy, but soon he was disappointed again. This was not the anaconda variant.

The python snake had the thickness of a thigh, a deep green body, and had most of its body hidden within the shrubs. Its length couldn’t be clearly seen. So Zhou Jian naturally did not want to complicate the issue. He stood there motionlessly and wanted to wait for the snake to walk away before he moved again. But he didn’t think that the python would keep staring at the place where Zhou Jian was motionlessly standing.

Zhou Jian had a chill in his heart. He realized that he was already discovered by the python. The snake had two sets of eyes. One set was the snake eyes which could see the visible light and another set was on the face or the lip which could sense infrared.