Several little people stood on the edge of the thick fog.
Behind them, there was a thick fog that was as thick as rice porridge, slowly flowing in the breeze, and invisible to the naked eye.
In front of them, there were wisps of light fog. With the eyesight of Zhou Laodao and others, they could barely see the thin mist for two or three miles. When the wind blew by, these light mist rolled up to a size visible to the naked eye.
swirl.
‘Chirp~ga’!
Several little people began to communicate.
Their business is extremely high-pitched, sharp, with some kind of strange...'electronic sound'?
This extremely interesting concept emerged in Lu Qian's mind. He shook his head vigorously and whispered a few Buddhist sutras about salvation - all the things in the previous life, like the bubbles of dreams, have returned to dust, dust to dust, those concepts
, those laws have nothing to do with this reincarnation, this world.
However, the voices these guys communicate with do not sound like the tones that flesh and blood should have!
Following the exchange of sounds, two of these little people, who were about a knuckle taller than their companions - little people who could be regarded as 'burly and strong men' among their tribe, walked out. They strode forward.
Arriving next to the killed red deer, he raised his hands and danced an interesting dance towards Lu Qian and others on the city wall.
They raised their legs high and stomped their feet vigorously. When their little feet landed on the ground, it actually shook the ground slightly and made a loud "boom boom" sound. Their feet hit each other with the ground, and the splashed sparks were three to five feet high, which was higher than
Their bodies are several times taller.
With such momentum, Zhou Laodao and others on the city wall could see their faces twitching.
Many people are secretly thinking that if they are stomped by this little man, their bones will not be broken and their tendons will not be cracked, right? They will be smashed into pieces and turned into meat paste!
The two little people were shouting loudly and jumping up and down and dancing.
This should be a provocative war dance?
When the two little people were jumping around, the expressions on their faces, if you read it correctly, were full of malice and ridicule... They were provoking Zhou Laodao and others on the city wall!
Zhou Laodao cursed in a low voice: "You are looked down upon by a group of villains!"
Lu Qian waved his hand gently. He grabbed a spear made of pure metal from the hand of a Zhou clan member next to him, and weighed it with his hands. It was a bit too light, but it weighed about a million kilograms.
!
With a twist of his fingers, the spear danced into a circle of cold light in his hand. Lu Qian used some strength to throw the spear.
The spear shot through the air as fast as the wind.
There were two loud noises of 'Peng Peng', and the spear thrown by Lu Qian reached the speed of sound in this world. Several white air explosion rings burst out in front of the spear head. The loud noise of 'Rumble' was like thunder, and the spear arrived in an instant.
In front of a little person.
The little man's face tightened, and he screamed at the top of his lungs. He raised his hands violently, straightened his chest, and used his chest to face the spear that was stabbing at him.
'Ding'!
A high-pitched metal collision sounded, and a Buddha's light flashed past the spear.
When Lu Qian threw the spear, he casually blessed it with twelve layers of indestructible Buddhist restrictions, which increased the strength of the spear by more than ten times.
With such an improvement, the little man's chest was just a wisp of fire. The spear failed to damage his exposed skin at all. Instead, the tip of the spear, which was half an inch long, shattered directly. The spear hit the little man's chest.
, the entire spear twisted, vibrated violently, and bounced backwards.
The little man was hit by Lu Qian's blow. He just staggered back two steps, and there was no visible injury on his body.
Lu Qian couldn't help but gasp slightly.
His physical injuries have healed, and his mana has been restored to less than half. The blow just now, although it was not a full-strength attack, was enough to explode more than a dozen standard small heavens in Liangyi Heaven!
Such a blow could not even scratch the little man's oily skin!
The spear, blessed with the magical power of Vajra and indestructible, and its quality reached the highest quality of the Supreme Taichu Tiantian Weapon-level weapon. After being improved more than ten times, it was smashed to pieces by the pure 'flesh' of this little man!
"These guys cannot face the enemy head-on." Lu Qian said solemnly: "Until we find a way to deal with it, we must hold on to the city!"
After a slight pause, Lu Qian curiously asked Zhao Ding, who had already rushed behind him: "Did the pioneering groups sent out by Tiemenguan in the past always encounter such ferocious natives?"
Zhao Ding looked at Lu Qian and spread his hands.
In the many years that Zhao Ding has been working at Tiemenguan, he has personally experienced that he personally sent out no less than thirty pioneering groups!
The territory directly under the jurisdiction of Tiemenguan is also called the Eight Great Plains!
The so-called Eight Great Plains are - Tiemenguan originally only had one Great Plain directly under its jurisdiction, and the other seven Great Plains were dragged back using secret methods after the pioneering team successfully developed them through hard work, and were pieced together to finally form the Eight Great Plains!
There were more than thirty pioneering groups sent out through Zhao Ding.
After the iron gate was closed and Tie Wuxin took over as guard, there were probably hundreds of pioneering groups sent out one after another.
If Tie Wuxin goes further, there is no need to chase after Shuo.
As far as Zhao Ding knows, there are hundreds of pioneering groups, but the territory directly under the jurisdiction of Tiemenguan only has the Eight Great Plains!
Out of hundreds of development groups, only seven were successfully developed!
Lu Qian raised his eyebrows.
Zhou Laodao and others also gasped.
Opening up the primitive wasteland is indeed an extremely dangerous thing... Thanks to Tie Wuxin, he actually sent Tie Zhen and others out.
Zhou Laodao's expression changed even more - at first, when he saw thousands of regular Tiemenguan troops escorting Tie Zhen, he felt that Tie Wuxin was making a fuss. In order to protect a dandy, he even sent out regular Tiemenguan troops.
Thousands of people.
But looking at it now, Tie Wuxin wasn’t making a fuss out of a molehill, but he was underestimating the risks of developing the team!
The little man who had been shot in the chest but was not injured at all looked down at his chest, patted his chest vigorously without leaving a single white mark, raised his head and laughed a few times, and then laughed again.
Start dancing.
The dancing speed of him and his companions suddenly soared, and the waving movements of their hands and feet were several times larger than before. During the waving, the sound of "whooshing" broke out from the wind, and it was obvious that their emotions were extremely high.
Before Lu Qian and others could come up with a countermeasure, the two little people who were dancing almost crazy jumped up at the same time. They jumped more than ten feet high, swayed in an arc, and jumped directly towards the light.
The flashing city wall crashed over.
There were two loud sounds of "Qiang Qiang", and the two little figures hit the city wall in the air. They smashed open two holes as thick as a sea bowl and more than two feet deep in the city wall that shone with cold light.
Inside the city wall, the defensive restrictions were naturally activated, and a flexible repulsive force was like a bullet, pushing the two little people with their bodies embedded in the city wall out. The two were knocked backwards by the rebound, and landed heavily on their feet.
Another large area of Mars was stepped on the ground!
Lu Qian turned around and looked down.
Where the two little people just collided, although the city wall was not penetrated, there were two fist-sized bumps protruding from the inside of the city wall - when these two guys collided, if they used a little more force, these three
They would really smash through the city wall, which is more than a foot thick, and crash directly into this unfinished development city.
Dozens of city foundations seemed to feel threatened. Large areas of Dao patterns surged on the surface of the city foundation. In the middle was the big tree transformed by the divine seed. The roots of the roots extended underground several times faster. A huge amount of metal materials were developed from the underground.
The roots were extracted and supplied continuously to the rapidly growing city wall.
As dozens of city foundations rumbled, the city wall continued to thicken inch by inch.
At this speed, in about an hour, the thickness of the city wall can reach about one foot.
With a thickness of one foot, no matter how crazy these little people are, it would be difficult for them to directly break through the city wall with their bodies and rush in - after all, the hole that the two little people just broke through has been squirming rapidly and has healed seven times.
788. This city wall can continuously repair itself. Once the thickness is reached, it is not that easy to destroy it.
However, the two provocative little men seemed to understand something.
They shook their heads and screamed dozens of times - in the thick fog behind them, the sound of "rustling" footsteps could be heard, and a team of more than 200 little men carrying workpieces could be heard.
A crude weapon, roughly shaped like a spear, emerged from the thick fog with its head protruding.
They were in groups of three and five, standing behind the two leading little men, listening to the screams of the two little men.
Gradually, these two hundred or so little people became restless as if they had been given a shot of blood.
They danced and screamed, and dozens of little men dropped their long weapons, pulled out short, dagger-shaped weapons from their waists, and flew towards dozens of them who were stabbed on the ground.
, next to the little red deer whose body was still twitching, the weapon in his hand cut hard towards these little red deer.
Peeling the skin, cramping, decomposing the skeleton...
Soon, dozens of little red deer were picked clean by these little men.
While handling the prey, many little people casually cut off strips of tender, squirming meat, stuffed it into their mouths and chewed it with a crunching sound.
The bodies of these little red deer are extremely strong, their muscles are like steel bars, and the teeth of those little people are like vise. The sound of the two rubbing together, and the teeth chewing the muscles into pieces, is really as sharp and harsh as a crusher crushing steel bars.
.
After a lot of trouble, a dozen little men carried the bloody animal skins and waved them like flags, singing and dancing towards the city wall. They walked to a place less than ten feet away from the city wall - one said
First, for Lu Qian and others, ten feet is an extremely close and threatening distance.
But for these little people who are less than a foot tall, this ten feet distance is probably a certain safety threshold distance, right?
They stood ten feet away from the city wall, waving their animal skins and performing a provocative war dance. As the animal skins were waved, large swaths of fine blood spattered on the city wall, which was then bounced off by the forbidden divine light emitted from the city wall.
go out.
"I'm a Buddha?" Zhao Ding glanced at Lu Qian a little worriedly.
"The situation is not good." Lu Qian shook his head gently.
"Is the situation not good?" Zhao Ding looked at Lu Qian in shock.
Lu Qian pointed at his brain. His mind was in chaos. Many broken memory fragments were tumbling in his mind, making his brain seem to be rolling, and waves of headaches kept coming.
Even so, Lu Qian also found some useful things from countless memory fragments.
"Use your brain." Lu Qian said in a deep voice: "Have you noticed? These little things, they have been testing, testing our reaction, testing our threat to them... A very bad sign is that if they
In this world, they have a strong position and are the life group at the top of the food chain. Judging from the level of civilization and development they have shown, they should not be so cautious."
"Their tools are very rough, and their clothing is very simple. Therefore, they should be almost primitive tribes. In my personal judgment, for such a tribe, their wisdom is not high enough, their spiritual wisdom is not enough, and their civilization is not developed enough.
They act more on instinct."
"Since they are doing things based on instinct, if they are in a strong position, they will not be so cautious. They face unfamiliar prey...their repeated tests are a bit too weird."
"So, they may have strong enemies in this world."
"A powerful enemy, perhaps somewhat... similar to us?"
"But it is definitely different from us in terms of external form."
"That's why these little things are so careful to test, provoke, or launch tentative attacks." Lu Qian murmured: "These guys, there are stronger tribes than them, which is a headache.
"
Zhao Ding, Zhou Laodao and others looked at Lu Qian in amazement.
Zhao Ding habitually raised his waist, saluted Lu Qian and praised: "My Buddha is extremely wise..."
The corners of Lu Qian's mouth twitched, the corners of his eyes raised, and he said coldly: "Stop flattering, and do more practical things... Is this considered a high level of wisdom? Are you trying to make fun of me?"
Zhao Ding blinked and looked at Lu Qian in confusion.
Zhou Laodao coughed on the side: "Brother Fahai, how dare Brother Zhao? We also speak from the bottom of our hearts. What you just said, we think it is...inexplicable...profound...we never thought of it."
There are so many twists and turns, how long is your brain? How can you think of these things?"
Lu Qian was speechless.
He looked at Zhao Ding, then at Zhou Laodao, and felt a stabbing pain in his head again.
Are you sure that when you form a pioneering group like this, you are not just "providing welfare and food rations" to these alien beings? No wonder Tiemenguan has been pioneered hundreds of times, and only the Eight Great Plains have come out.
The question is, how did you develop such a simple brain?
Lu Qian didn't think that his wisdom was so great or that his IQ was so high... He was just lucky, got a little chance, good fortune, and with the help of external help, he was lucky enough to have the small achievements he has today.
Talking about wisdom or something...
Be ordinary and look like a middle-aged person!
How could Zhao Ding, Zhou Laodao and the others be shocked by such a simple little analysis?
Either Lu Qian has a brain disease.
Or it could be that everyone in Supreme Taichu, up and down the sky, is seriously ill!
Inexplicably, Lu Yi remembered that when he was in the lower realm, Linghu Juan took Lu Yi and others along the way to destroy Fangfang Heaven and collect the origin of the world and the 'Celestial Crystal'. Linghu Juan racked his brains to get it.
Composing poems', I ended up being embarrassed that I couldn't even write two lines of a higher-level limerick!
Having trouble with your brain?
Nor should it!
With the cultivation level of the Supreme Taichu Heaven, the beings in this world are not born stupid.
Then, things get very interesting.
Shaking his head and putting aside the messy thoughts in his mind, Lu Qian looked intently at the dozen or so little people outside the city who were waving animal skins wildly and provoking wildly - some of them had already taken off their pants and were facing the city wall.
They peed heartily; some people laughed and spat hard in the direction of the city wall.
Two little men even took out the steaming internal organs of the little beast that had just been dissected and slapped them on the city wall with a loud 'squeak' sound.
When they saw Lu Qian and others standing on the city wall, they just looked down and no one had any reaction.
Each of these little people had distorted faces and emitted sharp and long whistles.
The two little people who were the first to dance under the city wall laughed and made a sharp whistle. The dozen or so little people who were provocative under the city wall jumped back and started chattering together.
After a beeping sound, the large group of people quickly disappeared into the thick fog.
At the edge of the mist, there were only a dozen little people carrying fresh meat that was still twitching from time to time. They were patrolling left and right, looking towards the city wall from time to time, and then raising the meat in their hands and shouting a few times, "Kah"
He took a bite out of a piece of animal meat and chewed it loudly.
The large group of troops retreated, leaving behind a dozen sentries on lookout!
"Hey, it's because we're afraid we'll run away." Lu Qian smiled and shook his head.
Zhou Laodao, Zhao Ding and others wanted to laugh together, but they really couldn't laugh... These little people just showed extremely terrible physical fitness. Even Zhou Laodao was not confident that they could hurt them.
Little man.
If you look at the way they do things, you will know that these little people are not harmless pacifists.
They retreated temporarily, but everyone knew that they must be summoning more tribesmen and more reinforcements.
When their large force arrives... can this city be defended?
"Zhao Ding, since you have prepared so many ordnances when you set out, have you prepared anything else?" Lu Qian thought for a while and said slowly: "Although I am not familiar with weapon refining, formations, etc.
, it’s just that the seven orifices have opened up to five or six... but I know a few things.”
"These little people are barbaric and rude in their behavior. They rely more on their physical bodies to fight violently."
"Maybe, we can...well."
Zhao Ding hurriedly took out a jade volume and handed it to Lu Qian - this was a list of supplies brought by the entire pioneering group from Tiemenguan, including various ordnances, various armor stomachs, large war equipment, as well as various wound medicines, elixirs
medicine, imperial money as the ultimate strategic reserve, etc.
Among them, there is a large amount of refined spiritual gold materials, and they are all rare materials of excellent grade.
"Well, that's enough." Lu Qian nodded with satisfaction: "Here, let me try, before they come back, can I arrange some interesting little formations and prepare some snacks for them to catch the wind.
"
It's a lucky thing that those little people don't know the meaning of "strike while the iron is hot"... Well, Lu Qian patted his head, "strike while the iron is hot" used here seems to be a bit unclear.
It should be - 'take advantage of them when they are not prepared'. When Lu Qian and others have just arrived and have not yet established a firm foothold or laid a solid enough foundation, use all your strength to strike hard!
If this is the case, I believe that the dozens of villains before have still had the opportunity to break into the city and cause trouble to Lu Qian and his party.
But now!
Array flags flashing with blurred five-element light kept flying out from Lu Qian's palm. The rising Buddhist flames melted piles of spiritual gold, and then were cast into flagpoles; various rare 'spider silk' and 'silk silk'
, the 'natural silk products' spewed out by all kinds of strange insects were crisscrossed and quickly woven into flags and flags, with runes on them constantly lighting up, and restrictions being imprinted on them.
Time passed little by little.
A dozen little people who were left behind outside the city were already lying on the ground, snoring and falling asleep.
These guys don't even have a sentry stationed on guard duty!
After Lu Qian refined enough formation flags and arranged them in all directions of the city, the pioneering regiment's subordinates had completed preparations, and all the young men of the pioneering regiment had been organized into an army, and they all began to practice "not bad"
"Diamond Sutra" officially entered the threshold of "entering the Tao and practicing true cultivation". When the city wall built from the city foundation was already three feet thick, there was finally movement outside the city.
The city wall is three feet thick, and a large group of soldiers can already stand on the top of the city wall, and heavy-duty crossbows have also been placed on the city wall.
Uncle Rabbit is busy. He is as round as a ball and his body is trembling with fat. He is running back and forth on the city wall. His two front paws are gesticulating and dancing like a "cat praying for rain". His sharp claws are on the city wall.
White traces were left in the air, and acquired gold runes were imprinted on the crossbow of the crossbow.
These heavy-duty crossbows from the official workshops of Tiemenguan are as thick as arms and more than ten feet long. They are made of special alloys and the casting techniques used are quite sophisticated.
Paired with a specially made bed crossbow, this crossbow was left at the Iron Gate Pass. With an ordinary Heavenly Soldier's armor, one arrow can easily penetrate thirty-six Heavenly Soldiers' armors arranged side by side within a distance of ten miles.
.
After being blessed by the rabbit's runes, these crossbows are harder, more flexible and sharper.
Lu Chen judged that the armor-piercing power of these crossbows had at least doubled.
Just when Zhou Laodao was wielding a heavy crossbow and was about to fire an arrow at the little man lying snoring in the mist outside the city, the sound of thin and dense footsteps sounded, and the little men looked like rogue bandits.
The child ran out of the mist in a mess.
There were more than 30,000 little people in total, shouting "chirping" and waving crudely made spears and daggers, like a group of cockroaches exploding their nests, "squeaking" out.
Among these little people, it is obvious that there are men and women, old and young, and even babies in their arms. This battle should be a "whole people mobilize" posture of a certain tribe.
At the forefront of these little people were dozens of leaders on horseback.
These people were actually wearing some leathery things that looked like armored stomachs - anyway, they were just some animal skins with black and red blood stains, which they cut randomly and then wrapped around their bodies.
From a pure appearance point of view, it is difficult for you to associate these rather abstract things with an 'armor stomach'. But from a functional point of view, these animal skins draped on the body do play a similar role.
Dozens of little men wearing armor and riding horses rushed over arrogantly. One of the little men saw a dozen left-behind people sleeping soundly on the edge of the thick fog. He suddenly jumped down and rushed towards those people.
The little man lying on the ground and sleeping soundly was beaten and kicked.
"Clang, clang, clang, clang", when these little people beat their companions, the sound was quite shocking. Such a small body actually made a loud clang of copper bells, which shocked the eardrums of Lu Qian and others standing on the city wall.
.
A dozen unlucky little people whined, cried, and rolled around on the ground.
After a commotion for a while, a dozen villains stood up amidst the shouts and curses of the leader, and walked up to the group of tribal leaders on horseback, chattering without knowing what they said.
More than 30,000 little people have already spread out in formation under the city wall.
It is true that they are too small. These little people exceed 30,000, but at a glance, they occupy a small area. Most of them are the leaders riding their mounts with their heads high and their chests high. At the front, the young and strong people are blowing.
Standing in the middle with their noses glaring, the middle-aged women were laughing and joking, and they were arranged on both sides. The old people and children with little fighting ability were dragged at the back to watch and cheer. Some people were holding various kinds of food in their hands, and "Kacha Kacha" was eating them.
Just happy.
These little people perfectly interpret the true meaning of "rabble".
They finally arranged themselves into a formation under the city wall. Then a few leaders on horseback shouted, and a group of thousands of young men jumped towards the city wall, waving various weapons.
.
‘Pah, pah’, when this group of little men charged, there was another little man in the group who threw the spear in his hand.
A small man with astonishing strength, more than a foot long. The crude spear made a sharp whistle, like an arrow shot from a strong bow, and shot out from inside and outside the ground as fast as lightning.
He went straight towards the pioneer group's subordinates on the city wall and shot at them.
Seeing that the members of the pioneering group who were caught off guard were about to be hit by these tachyon-sized spears, Lu Qian waved his hand and the large formation he had arranged was activated.
Outside the city wall, water mist appeared out of thin air, and then the energy of the Five Elements reincarnated, and the strong power of the Five Elements quickly enveloped the land with a radius of hundreds of miles, completely wrapping these little people inside.
A strong wind arose out of thin air, and the winds swirled and blew by with a "swish" sound.
Dozens of thrown spears were blown by the strong wind, and the trajectory of the spears was slightly deflected. With harsh laughter, they almost flew past the heads of dozens of unlucky people.
The little man charging outside the city suddenly stopped.
They were surprised to find that the fog around them became thicker and thicker, and gradually reached the point where they could not see even their fingers.
Not only that, the thick fog is also confusing their sense of smell, hearing, and even the touch of their skin.
The five senses and six consciousnesses are being severely reduced.
The little people ran around for a few steps like headless flies, and then fell to the ground in large areas - their sense of balance was also weakened. They stepped on the ground one foot after another, and the ground burst into waves.
It was so empty and empty, and the originally flat ground seemed to be filled with large and small potholes. Many little people just ran a few steps before their bodies tilted and fell to the ground.
Countless little people screamed in panic.
What Lu Qian set up was just the simplest 'Five Elements Reversed Formation'. This kind of formation, placed in Liangyi Tian, is basically synonymous with 'entry level' and 'low-level goods'... Array Masters with a little bit of achievements,
They all disdain to set up such formations.
But this 'entry-level' and 'low-level' formation, the formation flag is simple to refine, consumes very little material, and is extremely quick to deploy... The most important thing is that the five uncles around Lu Qian have the power of the Five Elements.
It just fits perfectly with this formation.
There was a breeze swirling under the feet of the five uncles, and their bodies, which were about a foot in size, were suspended in the air, exactly at the height of Lu Qian's chest. Their entire bodies shone with five-color lights corresponding to the five elements, and clear waves of the five elements continued to flow into the formation.
In all directions, the turbid and chaotic avenue of heaven and earth gradually becomes clear.
In the void with a radius of a hundred miles, the laws of the great road gradually become more agile and clear, just like "Tai Chi divides into two rituals, and the two rituals transform into four images"... The heaven and earth have become clear and vivid, within this hundred miles radius, because of this
The existence of the five-element inverted formation gradually created scenes familiar to Lu Qian and others such as blue sky, white clouds, gentle breeze and drizzle.
The five uncles, working together with the formation, are rapidly distorting, changing, or in other words, 'redefining' the laws of the avenue within a hundred miles. The originally chaotic and turbid avenue of heaven and earth is gradually turning upside down according to the standard template given by the five uncles.
, sudden and violent changes.
For Lu Qian and everyone in the pioneering team, these changes are welcome.
Standing on the city wall more than a hundred feet high, they could see that within a radius of a hundred miles outside the city wall, the land had become fertile, and a drizzle began to fall from the sky. Lu Qian threw out a handful of grain and flower seeds.
, in this area, flowers and plants are gradually blooming, grains are multiplying, and accompanied by blue sky and white clouds, it seems to be a pure land.
But for those little people, it's nothing more than being groggy and disoriented.
The drastic changes in the laws of heaven and earth on a small scale directly transformed them from "free fish in the deep sea" to "dried salted fish thrown into the crater of a volcano"!
Unlucky guys.
In the original laws of heaven and earth, they were fishes that were "like a fish in water".
But at this moment, the environment of heaven and earth has changed, and the laws of the avenue have changed. They are like fish being thrown into the crater... The environment of the world and the laws of the avenue in all directions are boiling magma, poisonous smoke, and they are suffering all the time.
, squeezing their vitality at any time.
Those old and frail little people fell to the ground one after another.
Then more little people fell to the ground panting.
The breeze blew, and large raindrops fell from the white clouds. The clean and clear raindrops fell on these little people, and they actually made a "chichi" sound, as if concentrated hydrochloric acid dripped on the pure iron sheet, splashing into the naked eye.
Visible white smoke.
A little person let out a painful cry.
There were warriors among the little men roaring and charging randomly in all directions in the mist, trying to find the enemy and tear the enemy into pieces... But in this topsy-turvy and confusing formation, there was no formation method at all.
Like wild beasts, all their actions are in vain.
"It seems that they are not very difficult to deal with." A group of young people from the Zhou family burst into laughter.
As for Lu Qian, as well as some experienced Taoist cultivators, they all tightened their expressions.
In the distance, in the thick fog, crimson eyes lit up.
The faint eyes, looking at the height of the red light, their owners should be the same size as ordinary people... They are obviously not these little people who are only about a foot tall.