Wumu had the heart to try hard, but unfortunately, some things cannot be accomplished through effort alone. He struggled for most of the night, continuously shifting between half-beastman and beast form, yet in the end still failed to successfully change back into half-beastman form.
The big snake whose transformation had failed lay limp on the ground, every single scale on his body carrying disappointment.
While trying to transform, he did not forget to talk to Song Xu. A sense of crisis filled his heart; he was no longer like before, when he could not squeeze out a word for ages. When anxious, he blurted out a few words at a time.
Only Song Xu—his words were scattered and strange, yet she accurately understood his meaning.
“Wherever you go, I’ll go with you. Wherever I go, you also come with me. We’ll just stay together, alright!”
Song Xu finally managed to soothe the snake. Only then did she realize that leaving home, this vast outside world, was also a brand-new, unfamiliar world even for a formidable big snake. He could fiercely kill eagles, yet also worried that she would say goodbye to him.
Leaving this area, the shrubs gradually decreased. The silhouettes of giant trees could no longer be seen. Short plants covered the ground. Farther away lay a sizeable stretch of grassland, and even farther one could faintly make out the undulating outlines of mountain ranges.
Song Xu crawled out from the shrubs, Wumu close behind. They were about to enter an open plain without any tree cover, stepping into a busy world.
On this plain, spring flowers bloomed everywhere, vivid and intense colors visible at every turn.
Plants whose flowering period was short did not have much time. They had to seize the moment to attract any insects or other creatures that could help with pollination, to complete their mission this spring.
The moment Song Xu stepped into this wild land, she could not help but sigh, “It’s way too lively here. They’re really noisy.”
Her eyes felt that these multicolored flowers blooming everywhere were too noisy. Her ears felt that bees and other pollinating insects were too noisy. In short, it was as bustling as a marketplace.
Without realizing it, the temperature had already become comfortably warm. At night there was no longer any need to light a fire for warmth. Relying on her own fur, Song Xu could easily fend off that little bit of lingering cold.
When the sun came out during the day, there was even less to say about the temperature. Even seeds sleeping soundly, once shone upon by the sun, knew it was time to sprout. If they did not grow now, they would miss this wave of glorious spring days.
These flowers blooming like a fair became Song Xu’s food along the way. According to a squirrel’s tastes, in spring there was nothing more delicious than freshly sprouted shoots and dewy fresh flowers.
The wild mountain goats also chewing on fresh flowers and tender grass on the plain were Wumu’s food. He was not picky about what he ate. No matter how shabby the food was, he was willing to eat it. He did not mind whether the other was clean or filthy, nor did he mind whether it had skin or fur. He swallowed everything whole, only occasionally spitting out some things that were hard to digest.
Song Xu had mentioned it in his ear too many times. This time, after Wumu strangled a wild mountain goat, he did not eat it directly, but dragged it to a nearby stream, rinsed it, and then ate.
Song Xu was shocked. Why, why would Wumu wash his food before eating now? Thinking back to before, when he was still in half-beastman form, he would directly eat even wild boars that had rolled around in mud and water. She did not realize that this was the result of her constant nagging.
Their eating patterns were different. Song Xu could play and eat at the same time while traveling. When Wumu ate, however, he had to stop and rest for a while. While he rested, Song Xu wandered around nearby. She squatted in front of a rock and sniffed the scent on it.
Her beastman information receiver told her that this was the edge of a group of beastmen’s territory. The lingering smell carried a bit of fishy rankness—possibly a wolf pack. Being able to distinguish the scent of a wolf pack was mainly because her original body had once encountered beastmen whose beast form was wolves in the cedar forest, so she had experience.
However, the scent had already faded. It looked like the wolf pack had not been to this area for a long time.
She got up and moved to another rock about a meter away. This one also had territory-marking information left by different beastmen. The scent was not as strong, but still obvious. It was impossible to tell what animal it belonged to.
This plain seemed to be the boundary between the territories of two different beastman clans. If they walked along the boundary, there shouldn’t be any problems, right?
Unfortunately, a group of wolf-clan beastmen living nearby had recently had many females give birth to small beastmen. The bloody scent and the smell of newborns attracted hungry wild beasts, and their camp had been attacked twice. Thus, the chief led the clan to expand the range of their patrols, and they happened to reach the boundary.
Fresh traces and the dangerous aura of a big snake made them uneasy. They could not tolerate a dangerous unfamiliar beastman entering their territory.
After distinguishing the scents, the wolf-clan leader Lingfeng waved his hand. More than ten men and women with gray-black hair instantly transformed into wolf form and chased toward the direction where the sun was setting.
° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °
Song Xu sprawled out with her limbs spread, lying on the big snake and looking at the stars. Stars were something that only seemed to increase the more you looked at them. Thinking from stars to the universe, Song Xu sighed deeply, “We’re really so tiny. Look, the sky above our heads is just one corner of the universe, and the place we live in is just one star within the universe.”
Wumu did not understand. The stars were so small, their world was so big—how could it be a star? But right now he could not speak, so he could only spit out his tongue in confusion.
Song Xu: “Then you would say, if the stars are so small, how could we possibly live on a star? That’s because we are too far away from the other stars. Things that are far away look small, right?”
Song Xu chatted with Wumu about the universe in a scattered way, and as she talked, she became a bit profound. “Actually, we are the same as a flower and a stone.”
“Look.” Song Xu casually picked up a stone. “Me and this stone have the same meaning to this world. The elements that make us up are about the same. When you get down to it, we are all dust from the stars.”
She grabbed an ant from beside her hand and pinched it up. “Me and this ant are also the same.”
Wumu did not understand her words. How could she be the same as a stone and an ant? Stones and ants were so ordinary. There were countless stones and ants here. They neither laughed nor were cute. They did not scream, did not dance, did not dig tree holes, and did not say strange and interesting things.
Putting that ant onto Wumu’s body and watching it slip and slide as it walked forward along the snake’s body, Song Xu’s profundity failed to last even one minute, and she started being unserious. “Do you know, Wumu, on other stars in the universe lives a kind of alien called the Insect Race. They can fly spaceships, traveling from one planet to another. The spaceships carry laser weapons. In the atmosphere, as long as they fire once, a planet will lose half of itself…”
“There is also a Planet of Light in the universe. The people living there are called Ao-o-man. Every one of them can transform into giants. Although they only have five minutes of transformation time, they can solo monsters dozens of meters tall… that is, primal beasts!”
The big snake listened in a daze, half understanding, half not. Although he did not know why Song Xu knew so much, she looked very serious, so the big snake truly believed her. He looked at those distant stars with dangerous aliens and tightly wrapped his tail around Song Xu, hoping she would not be afraid.
The night wind carried the scent of a wolf pack, breaking this warm one-on-one teaching time.
The big snake that had been limp on the ground almost instantly propped up his body. Song Xu also rolled over and jumped up.
From afar, the lead wolf shot toward them like lightning. Its body was huge. With a fierce charge, it collided head-on with the big snake. The big snake swung his head, and the lead wolf was flung aside.
The wolf pack surrounded them. The wolves that had sprinted at high speed panted, letting out low threatening growls as they waited for the chief’s command.
The lead wolf, Lingfeng, landed and transformed into a man whose limbs were wrapped in fur. Upon facing the snake beastman, he had lightly tested his strength. If he had not dodged quickly, his shoulder would already have two holes in it.
The snake beastman opened his mouth and likewise let out a threatening hiss. The opened mouth revealed sharp fangs. The poisonous, fishy stench made Lingfeng understand that the opponent before him was not easy to deal with.
He cautiously circled once. The snake eyes still stared at him coldly, as if an attack could come at any moment. After about two breaths, the big snake suddenly lunged at him, and all the wolf-clan beastmen moved.
A beastman standing near Wumu’s tail discovered that there was also a squirrel beastman on the snake’s body. Without thinking, he pounced and bit.
Song Xu transformed into a squirrel and sprang up, dodging the bite. Her legs kicked toward that wolf’s eyes. The snake’s tail cooperated, slapping the wolf that cried out in pain and sending him flying. The thick snake body swayed, and none of the wolves trying to tear at him managed to touch his body. The squirrel scrambled along the slippery snake body up to the snake’s head.
The lead wolf seized the instant when the big snake was swinging its tail and leapt toward the snake’s seven-inch spot. Song Xu, who felt a rush of wind pass over her head, immediately reacted. Sliding down along the snake’s body, she kicked onto the wolf’s body, stopping him from driving his claws and fangs into the snake’s flesh. The lead wolf struck back at her once. The big snake sensed it and followed with a roll, pressing the lead wolf tightly to the ground. His tail rapidly coiled, about to strangle him to death on the spot.
The wolf pack had just been swept aside. Seeing the lead wolf trapped, they immediately rushed to assist. Even if they were struck by the snake’s tail, they were unwilling to retreat. The big snake had no choice but to release the lead wolf and continue using his tail to drive away the harassing wolves.
Lingfeng escaped the big snake’s attack range and let out a whistle. The wolf pack also retreated one after another. Two wolf-clan beastmen who had been accidentally hit by the snake’s tail limped as they were pulled back by their companions.
The lead wolf Lingfeng, covered in dust, pressed on his aching ribs. Just now, there had been a moment when his chest cavity felt like it was about to be crushed. He understood that if the fight continued, even if they could kill this beastman, his clan would likely suffer heavy casualties.
Unwilling to casually sacrifice his clansmen, Lingfeng did not act rashly again. Standing in place, he said, “You are a half-beastman. We do not welcome half-beastmen. Leave our territory immediately, and we will not attack you again.”
No tribe would accept a half-beastman who could lose control at any time. A half-beastman with power like this was even more dangerous. If Lingfeng’s clan were capable of killing the half-beastman in front of them, they would not merely drive him away.
This group attacked as soon as they arrived. After discovering they could not win, they wanted to rely on talking, and they were still so impolite.
Given that Snake Snake’s level in speaking was extremely low, Song Xu moved to Wumu’s side, reached out and rubbed the shoulder and arm that had just been struck by the lead wolf amid the chaos, and said irritably, “If you hadn’t made this trip, in a couple of days we would have walked out of your territory anyway. We’re just borrowing the road. Why be so fierce!”
Lingfeng remained unmoved. “Then leave our territory now.”
Song Xu’s rebellious streak flared up. She put her hands on her hips and leaned back against the big snake’s raised body. “No. We’re going to walk slowly here… huh?”
With this lean, she noticed something was wrong. The place her back was touching changed from smooth scales to the feel of skin. The second half of Song Xu’s sentence failed to come out. She turned her head back in confusion.
At this moment, possibly from being stimulated, Wumu actually succeeded in transforming into half-beastman form. The snake scales on his upper body had not yet faded. One hand firmly grasped Song Xu’s shoulder, and the other pointed forward at Lingfeng at the very front of the wolf pack.
From his mouth came a clear word: “Kill.”
“Kill… hiss hiss… you.”
Song Xu: Snake Snake actually sounds this fierce when he opens his mouth?
