After hearing a strange sound, Xu Xing immediately became alert, as the sound was not too far from them. While she was on guard, a flying needle shot over from a distance. She drew her long saber and cut the flying needle in half. Looking down, she saw two sections of wooden thorns on the ground. The tips of these wooden thorns were black and sharp.
Upon seeing the wooden thorns on the ground, Xu Xing understood. These poisonous thorns were the ones mentioned by the informant. The tips of the wooden thorns were coated with poison from poison dart frogs, and they would take effect as soon as they pierced a human body.
"Brother Shen Feng, be careful! There are enemies around!" Xu Xing said vigilantly.
Shen Feng frowned. He had already noticed the sudden change and had determined the enemy's location. He was about to attack them.
"Furious Wind!" Shen Feng made a gesture, and white wind blades instantly condensed in the air. As these wind blades formed, they immediately shot out towards the distance. In an instant, a fierce scream echoed from a direction in the distance, and branches, vines, and leaves continuously fell. Anything that stood in their way was cut apart by the wind blades.
"Ah..." After the wind blades were launched, screams came from the area attacked by the wind blades. These screams were incessant, echoing through the forest.
Shen Feng put away his backpack and led Xu Xing towards the direction. When the two arrived, they found more than a dozen natives there.
These natives had dark brown skin, and on their ears, they wore trumpet-like devices, seemingly for collecting sound. In their hands, they held sticks three to four meters long, seemingly made from palm trees. The middle of these sticks was hollow and could be used to hold poisonous thorns, which were then blown out as blow darts.
"What do you want? We didn't provoke you, so why are you attacking us?" Shen Feng asked, questioning them immediately after seeing their true forms.
"Jiliwala..." However, these natives then began to accuse the two angrily. But Shen Feng and Xu Xing clearly couldn't understand their words. The language spoken by these natives was not Spanish or Portuguese, but some local language.
During Shen Feng's counterattack, countless wind blades had shot out, instantly turning the area into a mess. Branches and vines were all cut, and even thick trees had sharp craters. The wind blades fell upon a group of native residents, unleashing strong lethality.
Shen Feng saw that several natives on the ground had no breath, clearly killed by the wind blades. However, Shen Feng felt no psychological burden, as the other side had made the first move, and this was self-defense, not indiscriminate killing.
"It seems the informant's words are true. These natives have been hunting outsiders, and as outsiders, we are naturally targets of attack!" Xu Xing said helplessly to Shen Feng.
When the two were attacked, they thought it was some elite assassins lying in ambush and became vigilant. But when they saw the true faces of the attackers, they found it absurd. The attackers only had primitive weapons like blow darts and no firearms.
"The natives here are probably similar to the Aboriginal people of Australia. In the apocalypse, without food replenishment, they hunt humans for food." Shen Feng seemed to understand why he was attacked. These natives in the Amazon rainforest must have been unable to find food and turned their attention to humans, intending to treat humans as food.
It just so happened that Shen Feng and Xu Xing entered the hunting range of the natives and were then attacked. It was estimated that after successfully killing them, these people would take them away as food.
"There are still a few injured people here. How should we deal with them?" Xu Xing couldn't help but ask.
"Kill them all. Since these people wanted to kill us, we don't need to show them any mercy," Shen Feng said lightly, then handed the injured to Xu Xing for disposal.
Xu Xing nodded upon hearing this. When she was in China, she specialized in hunting bandits and was naturally not a soft-hearted person. She often felt pity for the unfortunate. Now that she discovered many natives specifically killed outsiders, she was also angry, so she swung her long saber and ended the lives of these natives.
For the next two days, Shen Feng and Xu Xing continued to advance slowly through the forest. After the first encounter with the natives' attack, they did not encounter any human attacks afterward. Although they occasionally encountered poisonous mosquitoes flying in the forest, these mosquitoes did not linger and left after finding no place to bite. Thus, on the third day, the two had finally advanced tens of kilometers, with only 20 kilometers left to reach Santa Maria.
"Don't act rashly from now on. Since we know their effective range is 10 kilometers, we must be extremely careful! I will now use my ability to summon a strong wind to blow away all the surrounding mist. I have gas masks here, put them on quickly!" Shen Feng found a gas mask from his backpack and handed it to Xu Xing.
"Isn't the distance too far now? If we summon a strong wind to blow now, the other party might become alert!" Xu Xing said to Shen Feng as she took the gas mask he handed over.
"It's unavoidable. After all, safety comes first. If we get infected with a deadly virus, we'll be finished here. So, even if it's troublesome, we must do things cautiously," Shen Feng said helplessly.
Shen Feng had encountered similar dangerous abilities before. In Yunnan Province, Qian Bufei's ability was related to bacteria. However, that ability could only enhance the decomposition effect of bacteria but could not control bacteria freely.
At that time, Qian Bufei used his ability to force the King of Fungi in Yunnan Province to leave Ruili. Such an ability could play a huge role in special circumstances.
Now, Shen Feng encountered a similar ability, except that the target of control was not bacteria but viruses. Viruses are even smaller than bacteria, but the damage caused by viruses is more severe than that of bacteria.
Many viruses even use bacteria as hosts. For example, bacteriophages are viruses themselves, but they specifically infect bacteria and are harmless to humans.
After making his decision, Shen Feng immediately began to use his ability. At this moment, many leaves in the forest suddenly fluttered down from the trees. Because a strong wind had arrived, the forest made a whistling sound. The more fragile leaves were directly blown to the ground by the strong wind, and the various mists in the forest were blown away.
Such strong winds rarely occur in the Amazon rainforest because the various trees in the rainforest can withstand strong winds. However, Shen Feng was controlling the wind at this moment, and the mist in front of them was instantly blown away. No matter what strange things were in the forest, they would eventually be blown away by the wind.
"Let's go. Remember not to take off your masks while moving forward, and don't touch unknown objects casually. I can blow away the viruses in the air, but many viruses attach themselves to the surface of objects. As long as we touch them, we can easily get infected!" Shen Feng said seriously to Xu Xing.
"Understood. From now on, I'd rather die of thirst or hunger than take off my mask. Brother Shen Feng, you can rest assured!" Xu Xing quickly replied.
The strong wind blew from behind the two, clearing away all the mist in front of them. The range of this strong wind was vast, with a radius of up to 30 kilometers. Many insects in the forest had never experienced such a fierce wind and were blown into the air. It took a long time for them to land on the ground.
After another half day of walking, the two finally found Santa Maria. This was a small town. Although it was called a town, it was only the size of a township in China.
The strong wind blew through the mortal world, clearing away all the mist in the air. As the two entered the town, they discovered something unusual. Many animal bones were scattered on the ground in the streets. White, dry bones lay on the streets, making the place seem even more terrifying.
"What's going on in this place? Why are there animal bones on the ground? But there are no human bones!" Xu Xing couldn't help but ask.
Shen Feng and Xu Xing were now wearing gas masks, which prevented viruses from entering their mouths and noses. As long as they didn't touch objects randomly, they wouldn't be infected by viruses.
As a precaution, Shen Feng and Xu Xing even wore rubber gloves, leaving no part of their bodies exposed.
Shen Feng said, "It's useless to guess blindly here. We'll search thoroughly to see where they are hiding!"
As the two walked unhurriedly down the street, a black shadow suddenly appeared in the distance and flashed past the end of the street. Although it was very fast, it was still seen by the two.
"What was that just now?" Shen Feng couldn't help but ask.
"I don't know what it was, but it looked quite strange, as if it had four legs. Could it be a mutated animal that has developed resistance?" Xu Xing also couldn't see clearly what had disappeared, only seeing a black shadow flash past, but couldn't discern its identity.
"Let's chase after it and see. No matter what it is, we must find out!" Shen Feng decided.
Finally, the two chased after the direction where the black shadow disappeared. Although the black shadow was very fast, both of them were ability users, and their speed was not inferior. They quickly caught up and were stunned when they looked closely, because what was running in front was actually a human, but this human had four legs.
"What kind of new species is this? It has four legs!" Shen Feng was stunned upon seeing this. His mind was filled with questions, completely unaware of the situation.
"It looks like a native, because its skin is dark, and only local people have such skin," Xu Xing also said in a muffled voice.
Shen Feng suddenly turned into a phantom and chased forward, blocking the front of this strangely shaped human and stopping.
"Stop right there, where do you think you're going?" Shen Feng then blocked the way, preventing the strange person from escaping further.
As a result, when this person found their path blocked, they immediately fled to the side, found a sewer, and crawled inside.
"This guy has gone into the sewer. Should we chase after him?" Xu Xing asked.
"Absolutely not. There are too many bacteria and viruses in the sewer. This guy has probably been living here for a long time, so he has enough antibodies to withstand various viral attacks. But if we go down, we'll likely be infected by viruses!" Shen Feng quickly stopped Xu Xing.
Sewers are places for draining sewage, so bacteria and viruses are prone to breeding here. Shen Feng dared not go down rashly.
"But if we don't go down, how can we find out what's going on?" Xu Xing suddenly asked.
"It's alright. Look, there's light appearing in that direction. It's almost dark now, yet there's still light. This means the other party must have a generator. Anyone who has a generator here must be Astra!" Shen Feng, with his sharp eyes, immediately spotted the distant lights.
Xu Xing also looked in the direction Shen Feng pointed and indeed saw faint lights appearing in the distance.