Chapter 231: Even in Extreme Cold, Life Will Find Its Own Way
These days, anyone could run anywhere.
The ninja world did not have many surveillance cameras, and even if it did, tracking someone who was deliberately hiding would never be easy.
Otherwise, in his previous life, there would not have been so many missing persons cases every year that simply vanished without a trace.
And this was the ninja world.
Even though the Land of Snow was surrounded by sea on all sides, it was still an entire country. Finding a single person inside it was like searching for a needle in a snowdrift.
Because of that, Kenichi's main goal this time was straightforward: obtain the metal that could absorb chakra.
As for the scientist, he did not have much hope.
The difficulty was simply too high, and he had not trained any tracking techniques.
In fact, even if he had, it would not guarantee success. They had already been delayed for a while, and it was unclear when the Kage of the Snow Ninja Village had even realized the scientist had escaped. Under those conditions, even trained ninken would struggle to find a trail.
"Teacher, have you been to the Land of Snow before?" Kenichi rubbed his hands as he walked. He had to admit, it was brutally cold here. Even though he had prepared in advance and put on a thick down coat, the chill still sank into his bones.
"No." Orochimaru had also changed into winter clothing. He moved forward while recording notes, his pen steady despite the wind. "This place is too remote. In the past, you could only reach it by boat, and there was nothing worth trading here. Everything was ordinary."
Kenichi nodded.
That made sense.
The Land of Snow did not look like a place with any special products. Everywhere he looked, it was nothing but white.
"Hm?"
Kenichi suddenly spotted something that did not fit.
Even in this endless snow, there were still signs of life.
As he stepped closer, his foot hit something sharp. The tip nearly pierced his shoe.
If he had not reacted quickly, the thorns beneath the snow would have punched straight through.
Kenichi crouched and brushed the snow aside.
Dark brown thorns were twisted across the ground like crawling vines, each one lined with vicious barbs.
"I didn't expect plants to grow in weather this harsh," Orochimaru said as he walked over.
By the time he reached Kenichi, the snow had already been cleared, exposing the source.
A plant.
A patch of green life blooming inside the snow.
The thorns were clearly its defense, packed densely around it in a circular formation.
"Teacher," Kenichi said slowly, "do you think this plant might be carnivorous?"
He cleared away more snow, revealing something else mixed among the thorns.
White bones.
They looked like the remains of herbivores.
And there was one detail that stood out immediately.
Every bone was inside the thorn circle.
None were outside.
Kenichi could already picture it.
A herbivore wanders out to forage in the snow, sees the plant, and tries to nibble on it. It steps onto thorns hidden beneath the snow and gets injured.
But if it were only an injury, it should have escaped.
Animals did not simply lie down and die in place.
Yet these bones had not dragged themselves away.
That could only mean one thing.
Kenichi cut one of the thorns with a knife.
Sap welled up from the cut. He carefully scraped it into a test tube he had brought along.
"You suspect it can paralyze prey?" Orochimaru asked, watching closely. He had already guessed where Kenichi's thoughts were going.
"Yes." Kenichi nodded. "Otherwise, there's no reason the animals wouldn't run after being injured. My guess is that it hides the thorns under the snow, and when something gets pricked, it secretes a paralyzing substance into the wound. Something that locks the muscles."
Only if the prey could not move would it be forced to die here.
Kenichi picked up the thorn he had cut and examined it more closely. There was nothing inside, no hollow channels or tubes.
So after paralyzing prey…
How did it digest it?
"Let's test it," Orochimaru said.
He casually tossed over a rabbit.
A pure white rabbit, still unconscious.
Kenichi caught it, then pressed one of its feet onto the thorn field.
The barbs pierced through easily.
The rabbit jolted awake instantly, but before it could even struggle, its body went slack. It collapsed into the snow, twitching only now and then.
Kenichi's eyes sharpened.
On the plant itself, pale white shapes began crawling out from inside. They spilled out in a swarm and rushed toward the rabbit, enveloping it almost immediately.
"It looks like a spider," Kenichi said, plucking one up carefully. It was very spiderlike, with a snow white body and a tiny mouth.
"They're injecting digestive fluid," Orochimaru said, crouching beside him. Even he had not seen something this strange before.
"Symbiosis," Kenichi murmured.
The plant captured prey through camouflage, hidden thorns, and a powerful paralytic effect.
Then, once the prey was immobilized, these spiderlike creatures emerged, climbed onto it, injected digestive fluid, and shared the meal.
In exchange, they would return nutrients to the plant.
And the result matched his speculation perfectly.
After the digestive fluid broke the rabbit down into liquid, the spiders began to drink. Their bellies swelled, round and bloated.
Then they crawled back into the plant and spat the remaining fluid into it.
They kept most of the nutrients for themselves, and the plant absorbed what was left, completing the cycle.
"This is really interesting," Kenichi said.
He cut off several more thorns, intending to bring them back for research.
The anesthetic effect was terrifying. The rabbit had lost control almost the moment it was pierced. That alone was worth studying.
And the fact that it could survive in extreme cold made it even more valuable.
Maybe he could extract cold resistant genes from it.
For now, he recorded what he needed, packed the samples away, and prepared to move on.
.....
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