Monster Hunting High School

On the outskirts of the Silent Forest, the trees grew a little low due to wind and water erosion. There are not many dead branches and leaves scattered around these trees. In addition, now is the season of multiplication of all things, and the trees are not willing to be lonely. Just as the old saying goes, dead trees come in spring, making trees suitable for firewood increasingly rare.

Zheng Qing finally picked up the first piece of wood suitable for firewood at the end of the edge of the forest.

This is a dead branch that fell from the Soul-Returning Poplar. There are still a few fancy 'caterpillars' crawling on the dead branch. Zheng Qing pinched the roots of the dead branches and shook the crawling 'caterpillars' to the ground. The caterpillars turned over and disappeared in the gaps between the dead branches and leaves in the blink of an eye.

These caterpillars are actually the seeds of the soul-returning poplar.

The soul-returning poplar is a magical magical plant.

Its plant is dioecious. The female plant is no different from an ordinary big tree. It has a high crown with white branches, leaves like thin daggers, and its aerial roots are deeply rooted in the soil. The bark is covered with moss and large and small black bumps, with one or two here and there. The dark tree hole looked as if a woodpecker had just visited. From a distance, they look like ordinary green trees.

The male plant of the soul-returning poplar lives on the bottom of the shallow sea not far from here. Different from the shape of the female plant, the female plant of the Soul-returning Populus is an activated plant with a shape closer to that of a sea anemone.

In early spring every year, when the female plants that have been dormant all winter reveal their first buds, the male plants crawling on the bottom of the shallow sea will receive this signal of reproduction through mysterious channels and begin to paddle their short and complicated branches. The tentacles, driven by waves and trade winds, left the shallow sea bottom, climbed over rocks and tidal flats, came to the feet of female plants, and planted their short, tender roots.

The difficult journey, drastic changes in the living environment, and the coveting eyes along the way have caused heavy losses to these male plants. Often, only one out of ten male plants can successfully survive under the feet of the female plant.

In mid-spring, the flowers on the female plants begin to bloom.

At this time, those male plants that had successfully taken root began to slowly lift up their hardened tentacles, climbing up the trunk of the female plant until they were near the flowers on the branches. The tops of the tentacles cracked in the wind and spurted out a stream of water. Wisps of smoke-like white catkins.

These light catkins hover and twist between the crowns of the female trees, like a swarm of bees returning from searching for their nests, and finally gently attach themselves to the blooming stamens and disappear.

The flowers of the female plant always need to absorb a lot of light catkins to be satisfied.

When they are satisfied, they will curl up the petals and shrink the flowers into small blue balls. These small balls gradually hardened and tightened under the blowing of the sea breeze and the moisture of the spring rain, and finally slowly penetrated into the branches of the female plant and turned into ugly tree tumors.

These tree tumors are pregnant with the descendants of the soul-returning poplar.

After a long gestation, the descendants in these tree tumors will wake up after a spring rain in the next spring, drill through the thin tree shell, roll down their mother's body, and swallow the branches and leaves under the tree that may contain the remains of their father. Then they drag their furry bodies and crawl away into the distance, looking for their own land where they can take root.

For wizards, Resurrection Poplar is a very versatile magical economic plant.

Its bark can be made into talisman paper, and smaller branches can be cut into talismans. The effect is not inferior to that of peach wood and locust wood. Its heart can be used to refine magic weapons and burn magic disks, and its leaves and 'caterpillar' tree species can be used to raise spiritual beasts. As far as Zheng Qing knew, these 'caterpillars' were used in the school pet garden's recipes.

In addition, its aerial root is ground into powder and is a very commonly used neutralizing agent in standard soothing medicines. Its offspring can serve as temporary 'sacrifice' in many magical rituals.

Because of its wide range of uses, the school planted this plant extensively around the perimeter of the Silent Forest.

But for Zheng Qing, at the moment, the soul-returning poplars in front of him have only one function, and that is to provide fuel for the picnic bonfire.

The silent forest was extremely quiet. Apart from the rustling of branches and leaves, there were only sporadic chirping of birds and the distant sound of running water that seemed to be on the horizon.

Zheng Qing bent down and picked up the seventh piece of firewood. Then when he straightened up, he caught a glimpse of white in the corner of his eyes. He looked intently and saw that it was a half-picked mushroom. Perhaps the picker thought the remaining mushrooms were a bit small and did not pick them completely, leaving some remnants.

Zheng Qing's eyes lit up.

He originally came to collect firewood and followed a certain gypsy witch who was picking mushrooms, but unexpectedly, the witch disappeared into the woods in the blink of an eye. But even though there is such a trace, it is still very difficult to find a figure deep in this dense forest without using magic.

Zheng Qing hesitated for a few seconds, then put his finger into the gray cloth bag and touched a deformation potion.

If he turned into a cat, he would definitely be able to find her by smell. But when he thought of the old student's warning before, Zheng Qing felt a little uneasy - for wizards, such taboos were always more trustworthy.

From deep in the forest came the hoarse, unpleasant croaking of crows.

Zheng Qing was heartbroken, threw the firewood in his arms on the ground, took out the transformation potion, and drank it straight down.

Compared with the uneasiness in his heart, he was more interested in Elena's whereabouts. And his intuition told him that if he didn't find her now, he would definitely regret it.

When you drink the high-concentration standard-dose transformation potion in your mouth, you will feel a strong burning sensation. With no one around or above him, Zheng Qing resisted his physical discomfort, packed up his clothes, stuffed them into a gray cloth bag, then attached a few evil-warming and warm talismans to his body, and hid deep in the grass.

In no time, a black cat with a gray cloth bag hanging around its neck emerged from the bushes, ran to the remaining mushroom and sniffed it, followed the distant scent, and disappeared deep into the bushes.

While running, Black Cat was wondering in his heart.

He did smell Elena's scent next to the mushroom just now, and it was as fragrant as ever. But apart from that, there is a faint aroma that is a bit familiar, but I can't remember it.

Didn't you see her go into the woods with others? While the black cat was running briskly, it was twitching its ears and thinking secretly in its heart, who was the owner of the other breath.

Compared with humans, cats are at home in the woods and have almost no constraints when running.

Soon, the black cat was adorned with Elena's figure. Elena had stopped and was standing between several big trees. She was carrying a small bamboo basket on her arm, with a few handfuls of wild vegetables and some white mushrooms scattered in it.

The black cat looked around, followed the mottled bark on a Soul-Returning Poplar, jumped up to the crown of the tree, and then hid between a small branch and young leaves, quietly starting to follow.

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