This Is My Primitive Tribe-Chapter 479: 283: Give Up or Continue
Capítulo 479: Chapter 283: Give Up or Continue
“Quack…”
A plump Five-Colored Duck had eaten its fill and was waddling on the ground, though the locusts in the sky continued to swarm, it was beyond its capacity.
Other Five-Colored Ducks also ate to the point of fullness, some ducks even if they couldn’t swallow anymore, still held a locust in their beak, the legs of the locust occasionally twitched, clearly not completely dead.
The Seven-Colored Pheasant and Unihorn Bird hadn’t eaten their fill since they ate more slowly.
But they were no longer indiscriminate with their hunger, only choosing to eat those locusts that seemed more palatable.
“Chief, I’ve discovered a problem.” Da Jiao walked over to Jiang Xuan.
“What problem?”
Jiang Xuan looked at the sky still swarming with locusts that madly devoured the leaves, his mood deteriorating.
Da Jiao said, “Whether it’s the Five-Colored Duck, Seven-Colored Pheasant, Unihorn Bird, or those giant frogs from the Frog Tribe, when they eat locusts, they all choose green locusts and won’t even touch those brown ones. They even avoid them when encountered.”
With Da Jiao’s remark, Jiang Xuan took a closer look and found it to be true.
Almost all the animals brought here only consumed the green locusts, while the earth-toned locusts were avoided like the plague, never approached.
Yet, because of the sheer number of locusts, most people hadn’t noticed this issue.
Why was this happening?
Jiang Xuan found this puzzling; brown and green were both locusts, could the green ones be tastier?
It was then that Da Jiao said, “I think those brown locusts might be poisonous.”
“Poisonous?”
“Exactly, animals have a natural ability to distinguish between edible and non-edible objects. Generally, what they refuse to eat or proactively avoid is mostly toxic.”
With Da Jiao’s reminder, Jiang Xuan suddenly remembered some information he had read in his past life about locust plagues.
Locusts, when not congregating, are non-toxic and various birds prey on them, maintaining a balanced population.
Once locusts gather at a large scale, they activate communal defense mechanisms, continuously mutating and developing moderate toxicity involving benzonitrile.
This toxin emits a peculiar odor that birds would avoid upon smelling it.
What’s more terrifying is, when locust swarms are attacked or threatened, they swiftly convert benzonitrile into a deadly hydrogen cyanide.
Hydrogen cyanide, being a lethal substance, is deadly if consumed.
Thus, once locusts gather at large scales, almost no natural enemies approach them to restrain their breeding.
Without natural enemies to restrain them, locust swarms grow increasingly massive, eventually transforming into a terrifying disaster.
The locusts before Jiang Xuan were already a massive swarm.
Additionally, these locusts were under attack and threat, meaning they likely already contained venomous substances.
However, there are always exceptions.
The locust swarms were so enormous, not all locusts could be venomous.
Those with very vibrant coloration on their surface and aggressive nature were naturally inedible, but those green locusts were still in their larval stage and were non-toxic, suitable for consumption.
The poultry brought by the Vine Tribe and the giant frogs from the Frog Tribe were all preying on those green locusts.
Jiang Xuan frowned and said, “I indeed forgot; plague locusts are poisonous, this shows relying on eating them will not eradicate these locusts.”
“Chief, what should we do then?”
“Yes, these locusts are truly overwhelming.”
Huo Meng, the Frog Tribe leader, also came over, his face full of worry.
Though the Frog Tribe developed quickly, when they initially migrated to the Southern Wilderness, their population was reduced to over two hundred, and the giant frogs only numbered in dozens.
The past two years saw the Frog Tribe absorb wanderers massively, growing only five to six hundred in population, while giant frogs reproduced vastly, reaching a thousand in mature numbers.
Even so, faced with the overwhelming locusts, Huo Meng felt a sense of fear.
Because relying solely on giant frogs couldn’t fend off such a large number of locusts, while the Frog Tribe learned planting from the Vine Tribe and just tasted some sweetness in it.
If they allowed these locusts to advance, Frog Tribe’s crops would certainly be unsalvageable.
Jiang Xuan pondered for a moment and said, “Don’t rush, there is always a solution, it’s just that we haven’t found it yet.”
Huo Meng was somewhat helpless but hadn’t thought of any good solution either, so they could only continue directing those giant frogs and Frog Tribe warriors to kill locusts.
On the third day, although Vine Tribe and Frog Tribe worked hard to slay locusts, the number of locusts couldn’t be restrained, and another forest was stripped bare.
On the fourth day, the Mountain Turtle Tribe and Stinging Fly Tribe arrived and joined the locust-slaying actions, but since Mountain Turtles and Stinging Flies don’t eat locusts, they relied solely on human capture, with very low efficiency.
On the fifth day, a turning point occurred because the Sparrow Tribe arrived, bringing a large number of sparrows.
These sparrows dealt with locusts much better than other animals.
They circled around to the rear of locust swarms, specifically preying on those juvenile locusts that hadn’t changed color yet, with great efficiency.
On the sixth day, the Unihorn Tribe also arrived, but those unicorn beetles weren’t eating locusts either, merely helping with capture.
As for the Giant Claw Tribe, because they were too far away, Jiang Xuan didn’t send anyone to request their assistance.
With the efforts of six tribes and surrounding small tribes, the advance of locusts was greatly hindered, but it was only that.
Because the locusts were just too many, and the locusts from the northwest continued to fly this way.
Compared to the massive locust horde, the few locusts they managed to kill were insignificant.
Furthermore, when time reached the seventh day, a more terrifying event occurred.
Locust swarms continued to mutate, gradually appearing in large numbers of black and red giant locusts!
Unlike the previous locusts, black and red locusts were venomous from their larval stage, and sparrows would immediately fly away upon seeing them, avoiding them like the plague.
Moreover, these locusts were several times larger than ordinary locusts, even daring to proactively attack sparrows post-adult, extremely vicious and insane.
Seeing the locust swarm grow ever larger, the number and speed of venomous mutated locusts increasing rapidly, the tribe members of several tribes finally fell into despair.
In reality, except for the Vine Tribe, other tribes hardly had any food reserves, they couldn’t dedicate all their time to killing locusts, else they’d starve.
Though juvenile locusts could be roasted and eaten, they couldn’t serve as staple food, and weren’t filling, causing warriors from several tribes to vomit from eating them, feeling nauseous at the sight of locusts.
On the tenth day, the Unihorn Tribe chief first approached Jiang Xuan, tactfully expressing that he must return, lest his tribesmen starve.
Jiang Xuan had no solution either, after all, the Unihorn Tribe wasn’t a subordinate of the Vine Tribe, merely assisting, persisting so many days was already commendable.
After the Unihorn Tribe’s departure, the Sparrow Tribe held on for a few days but couldn’t endure anymore, their sparrows were frantically attacked by mutated locusts, suffering many losses.
Soon, the Sparrow Tribe also left.
Before the Sparrow Tribe leader departed, he even advised Jiang Xuan, “Chief Xuan, give up, these locusts multiply the more you fight, there’s no way to solve it.”
Jiang Xuan shook his head and said, “Even if we give up now, it won’t be long before locusts eat their way to our territory, when the forest is devoured, we’d still escape nothing.”
The Sparrow Tribe leader opened his mouth but had nothing to say, for Jiang Xuan spoke the truth, he couldn’t advise the Vine Tribe to migrate, could he?
Thus the Sparrow Tribe leader said nothing, leaving with his warriors.
After the departure of the Unihorn Tribe and Sparrow Tribe, the remaining tribes found it even harder to persist, while the locusts continued mutating, making them unable to withstand anymore.
Could it be they really could only give up, letting these locusts devour the forest entirely?
