Chapter 136: Fruit Bats and the River of Blood (Part Two)

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, the sky over the Amazon Rainforest gradually grew dark.

Five kilometers away from the great oak tree, the American military encampment was brightly lit. Having spent the day on patrol and in training, the soldiers were mostly beginning to return to their sizable camp to have dinner.

Around the great oak tree, little Hughes, having spent the day flying, was currently perched atop the thick canopy, sharing nuts and other fruit with a multitude of birds.

Little Hughes was surrounded by a flock of large birds, while three exceptionally clever squirrels darted back and forth among them.

The entire scene appeared tranquil and peaceful. Yet, beneath this very peace, the purple moon—which had not shown its face for three weeks—finally and reluctantly cast its eerie radiance across the sky once more.

The appearance of the purple moon was extremely sudden, but the oak tree's response was prompt as well.

Acting almost as if by reflex, the leaves of the oak canopy scattered a hazy green radiance and slowly erected an invisible barrier of light.

Inside the protective dome, little Hughes and the multitude of birds stared on with curiosity, but that was the extent of it.

Neither the birds nor little Hughes were seeing such a spectacle for the first time, so they treated it with a sort of jaded familiarity.

Unless a realm barrier or mutated creature emerged under the purple moon, the danger level to the region where the oak tree stood could be considered virtually zero.

Surrounding the oak tree was a sea of trees that blotted out the sun, and the massive canopy of the oak itself was more than capable of sheltering and covering the tribal settlement nestled beneath it.

Consequently, although everyone was somewhat surprised by the descent of the purple moon, no one displayed any panic or shock.

Little Hughes remained seated on the canopy, eating the fruit brought by the squirrels. At the same time, he gazed at the purple moon and muttered to himself:

"This purple moon is truly annoying. If any more monsters come running over, I'll definitely beat a few to death for the Holy Tree Lord."

Hughes muttered, desperately wishing to showcase the fruits of his training over the past month.

Although Hughes was only thirteen years old, due to the radiation emanating from the oak tree's domain, he had long since reached the limit of a first-tier life form, just like the other adults in the tribe.

However, the only thing that set him apart from the rest of the tribe was that while others grew tall—with most exceeding one meter ninety in height—little Hughes remained stubbornly under one meter fifty.

By now, even youths of his own age had grown tall and sturdy like adults, but little Hughes was an anomaly, remaining so diminutive.

Though his body was somewhat short, little Hughes's overall physical conditioning was not inferior to anyone else's.

With the help of the birds and other animals, Hughes maintained a very confident mindset.

That was why he muttered such words.

Unlike little Hughes, the moment the purple moon appeared, both the tribesmen and the soldiers at the military camp five kilometers away felt a wave of anxiety.

They worried about the emergence of powerful mutated creatures, and they worried that conditions around the world would take a turn for the worse.

In short, adults always had more on their minds and possessed a certain sense of foresight regarding potential dangers.

However, after the forest remained quiet one hour into the illumination of the purple moon, the tense moods of these people gradually subsided.

What everyone failed to realize, however, was that in the ocean more than two hundred kilometers to the west of the Amazon Rainforest, a bizarre transformation was currently taking place on a small island measuring less than five kilometers in length and width.

The island was surrounded by the sea on all sides, and its surface was covered in dense forests.

These forests consisted of shrub-like vines bearing abundant emerald leaves and heavily laden with countless tiny, pellet-like fruits.

It was precisely because of these fruits that the small island swarmed with a peculiar creature capable of inducing physical unease.

Fruit bats.

A species of bat that subsisted entirely on fruit.

On this small island, the population of bats at this moment reached the staggering figure of tens of thousands. Whenever they took flight, they instantly formed an oppressive, pitch-black cloud.

What commanded the most attention, however, was not their sheer number, but their size.

Though these fruit bats retained their previous appearance, their bodies seemed like magnified versions.

Each of them possessed a wingspan stretching up to one meter. The ground and trees across the entire island were blanketed by their forms.

Before the descent of night, and before the purple moon cast its radiance, they hung from trees like giant black cocoons with their wings wrapped around themselves, clung to the cliffs surrounding the island, or simply lay flat upon the ground.

They were utterly motionless, resembling lifeless objects.

Yet, the moment the purple moon suddenly cast its light, these bats—each with a wingspan exceeding one meter—began to awaken one after another.

At the same time, the radiance cast by the purple moon upon this small island appeared exceptionally ethereal and serene.

All at once, the entire island took on a surreal, dreamlike quality.

And the very instant this illusory realm manifestation enveloped the entire island, every single giant bat took to the air simultaneously.

In merely a split second, the skies above the entire island were filled with their silhouettes.

The numerous yet colossal bats flew in dense, overlapping layers high up in the sky.

As they fluttered, they emitted ultrasonic vocalizations that sounded frantic and filled with excitement.

It was as if they were waiting for something.

Then, within the span of a mere few minutes, the scenery of the small island shifted abruptly.

The island in the ocean simply vanished, and in its place appeared a river resembling pure blood.

The moment the blood river emerged, the bats previously fluttering in the skies above the island let out frantic cries.

They screeched and swiftly dove downward into the blood river.

In an instant, their bodies cut through the air like sharp arrows, plunging directly into the crimson current.

Countless droplets splashed across the surface of the blood river, and those tens of thousands of bats seemed to vanish into it entirely.

A brief, eerie silence fell over the scarlet blood river.

Yet, roughly half an hour later, a gigantic, black-and-red behemoth suddenly burst forth from the depths of the blood river, soaring into the air once more.

This black-and-red behemoth was none other than a bat.

However, the wingspan of this bat now exceeded a staggering three meters.

Even standing upright, it was by no means smaller than an adult human.

Its eyes gleamed with a bloodthirsty, cruel, and piercing light. The tips of its wings bore claw-like spikes, and protruding from its head were canine-tooth-like mouthparts.

Spreading its wings to fly, this gigantic blood bat circled high above the boundary where the blood river met the open sea.

At the same time, the moment this blood bat took flight, a chain reaction seemed to ripple across the entire blood river.

In an instant!

"Screech!"

"Screech, screech!!"

One blood bat after another abruptly surged from the vast blood river toward the sky.

The exaggerated and visually striking, terrifying spectacle unfolded continuously, and the number of blood bats filling the sky grew ever greater.

Within mere minutes, the sky above the boundary separating the blood river from the normal ocean was completely blotted out by their figures.