Passing by a small flowering tree, the trunk no thicker than half of Wumu’s waist, Song Xu looked up and saw pink and white flowers blooming on it, and her hands grew itchy. She stepped forward, grabbed the trunk, and shook it vigorously.

A layer of petals already covered the ground; with her shaking, even more petals fell like snow, drifting and fluttering down. Song Xu opened her mouth and leaned her head back, trying to catch the falling petals. The sight looked a little silly, but there was no one here except her and Wumu to see it.

Head tilted back, body bending backward, she was just about to topple over when a force came from behind. A big snake head pressed against her waist and back, giving her support so she would not flip herself over.

Song Xu leaned with the momentum against the big snake’s mouth, half of her body lying on his head.

All the flowers had fallen. But what ended were only the flowers of spring; next would be the flowers of summer. When this tree’s flowers fell, that cluster of flowers bloomed again. As long as they kept moving forward, they could always see flowers in bloom.

Song Xu and Wumu climbed in the mountains, climbing all the way to a mountain peak. The moment of reaching the summit was the most fulfilling part of climbing—everything from the path they came by lay beneath their feet, and the road ahead that they had yet to walk was clear at a glance. The goal was visible, and a surge of boundless ambition suddenly rose in one’s heart, making one feel like they could climb another ten mountains!

Looking ahead, countless undulating mountain ranges stretched out, and all things became tiny.

She thought of watching ants near the stone cave in winter—tiny little things crawling over big rocks, passing small puddles, crossing mountains and rivers to return home. In Song Xu’s eyes, that was a very short distance, just a few dozen steps and they would arrive, but for ants it was a very long journey.

If at this moment there were a giant squatting nearby watching, she and Wumu would probably also be just two ants.

On the mountains, one often sees clouds and mist, winding around the peaks. From afar, one can see a distant mountaintop wrapped in clouds and mist, but when you truly walk closer, the mist disperses into nothingness and cannot be found. Only the damp moisture on grass leaves and tree branches remains as the traces left by the clouds and mist.

But such traces do not last long. After the weather grows hotter, the clouds and mist also become scarce. The sky is always crystal clear, and mist can no longer hang in the air.

Walking in the mountains, one of the things that troubles Song Xu the most is that there is especially a lot of rain. In some areas, it will suddenly start raining, often so fast that there is no time to dodge.

They would find a nearby dirt cave, stone cave, or tree hollow. These holes are generally not big, able to accommodate a squirrel in beast form, and barely fit one big snake head.

When Wumu hides from the rain, he is only hiding his head. His whole body is covered in scales, and even if he gets wet, he can dry quickly. Unlike a squirrel covered in fur—once soaked, it simply turns into a gray, bedraggled mouse that must bask in the sun for a long time before it dries.

Once the weather grows a bit hotter, Song Xu no longer likes to hide from the rain. When it rains, she neither dodges nor avoids it, treating it as a bath. She even deliberately looks for mountain streams and wades into the water to cool off.

The mountain streams crisscross everywhere, clear and transparent, home to all kinds of small fish, shrimp, and little insects. They are Song Xu’s paradise.

In Wumu’s forest, there are no such streams. Dragged along by Song Xu, he also walks through the streams, sometimes burying his head in the water to swim, sometimes lifting one head to swim. At such times, Song Xu points at him and laughs loudly, calling him a water snake.

There really are water snakes in this place. This kind of weather is the peak period for snakes to be active, and this location is also a gathering place that snakes like.

Unlike Wumu’s forest, where one could walk ten-plus li in all directions and not find two snakes, here, in just a few hundred meters of river area, one can see several snakes.

These ordinary snakes—Song Xu only dares to look from afar and not dare to touch. Wild snakes bite without mercy, and poison her with no medicine to cure it.

“Look, Wumu, there’s a snake!” Song Xu once again let out a startled cry.

To Wumu, this kind of behavior is like a human living in a monkey mountain, often being excitedly grabbed and pointed at nearby monkeys while someone says to him: “Look, there’s a monkey!”

Song Xu squatted on a big rock by the stream, staring at the colorful patterned snake nearby. The tiny little snake was startled by the sound and quickly drilled into the grass and disappeared.

“Wumu, look, there’s a green snake on that tree branch!” Her hands lifted his head out of the water, and she spoke in a cautious whisper beside his head.

Wumu: “…Hiss.”

Song Xu: “Hiss hiss, look over there!”

If one were to ask when Wumu does not want to talk, it would be at moments like this.

Song Xu watched with great interest the small green snake coiled around the branch. Its round little head was really cute, even moving bit by bit. She could not tell what kind of snake it was, but she felt there was a very high chance it was venomous.

About whether a snake is venomous, there is a saying that snakes with triangular heads are venomous, while those with oval heads are not, but this is actually wrong. There are many kinds of snakes, and whether they are venomous has no absolute relationship with the shape of their head.

“Wumu, let’s move a little closer to take a look.” Song Xu pushed the big snake forward. The big snake helplessly became a wall, blocking between her and the little green snake.

That little green snake probably sensed the big snake’s presence, realized the danger, and entered a state of alertness and attack, suddenly springing off the tree branch.

The big snake only needed to lift his neck to block it. The small snake’s wide-open mouth was useless against such a round, thick body. The scales covering the outside were thicker than its own, and it could not bite through.

The little snake, knocked into the water, was dizzy and furious, flicking its tail as it moved away from this troublesome place.

Watching the little snake flee, Song Xu continued to go look for new little snakes.

Wading in stream water that submerged her calves, both sides were lined with trees leaning toward the water. The tree canopies covered the space above the stream, the banks were lush with full, vibrant grass, and even the stream and the stones at the bottom reflected green. This stretch of path was a green tunnel, like some afternoon dreamscape.

“I suddenly feel like I was really brave back then.” Song Xu suddenly sighed. “When I first saw you, I directly reached out and touched you.”

She must have been chased silly by that annoying lion. She had just arrived in this world at the time and was still a little dazed, fleeing for her life until her head lacked oxygen, muddle-headed. Of course, Wumu’s tail was also just too stunningly beautiful, shattering her understanding of snakes, making her really want to test whether it was real—so there really could be such a big snake.

“Luckily my brain malfunctioned back then.” Song Xu squatted in the stream and hugged the big snake’s head, feeling grateful.

Wumu thrust his head forward slightly, and the squirrel unsteadily plunged into the water and drank two mouthfuls: “Glug glug…”

The big snake had only wanted to rub against her and did not expect such a tragedy to occur. With such a huge difference in size, things occasionally become a bit uncoordinated. He hurriedly lifted her back out of the water again. The squirrel lay on top of the big snake’s head, like riding a train, passing through the green tunnel.

They trekked through the mountains for an entire season and once encountered a muddy pond where a group of frog beastmen were reproducing—meaning, looking for partners.

One could imagine what kind of huge commotion it caused when a snake-type half-beastman mistakenly entered this place, comparable to Godzilla appearing in a human city.

At the time, Song Xu did not even manage to shout a single sentence of “Friends, don’t be afraid, we’re not here to eat!” She only heard a chorus of croaking, and in the darkness, frog shadows leapt about as the big-bellied beastmen who had transformed into beast form scattered and fled.

Very quickly, only rustling grass, one big snake and one squirrel remained at the spot, along with a few glowing little insects that the frog beastmen had used as lamps, flying about.

“Those big-bellied beastmen just now… are they the standard body type for frog beastmen, or pregnant female frog beastmen?” the squirrel asked in confusion amid the silence.

They had been wandering in the mountains for a long time and could not find their direction. Hearing so many beastmen singing and shouting over here, so noisy, they only wanted to come ask for directions.

Before coming, Song Xu had even optimistically said that with so many frog beastmen gathered together for courage, they would not be so frightened by a single snake at first sight that they all ran away, and that there was a good chance they could talk and communicate. Who would have thought that the deterrence of a natural predator would be so strong.

By a very unfortunate coincidence, the beastman scents left nearby were basically all below the big snake on the food chain. Either frog beastmen or rodent beastmen.

Song Xu stood at the entrance of a dirt hole dug by a rodent beastman, turned her head to look at the big snake guarding the entrance, and instructed, “I’ll go in and talk to someone, ask for directions, and come right out. It’s more convenient if I go alone. After all, a squirrel is also a rodent—we’re all relatives, easier to talk to.”

Then she went into the dirt hole and did not come out for a long time.

Wumu lay at the entrance, suspecting that she might have started chatting with someone inside and decided to eat a meal together before coming out, or that she might have encountered danger.

Just as he could not help wanting to poke his head into the hole, the squirrel popped her head out from behind a tree not far away, with a head full of dirt, and shouted in annoyance, “The routes inside are especially complicated! I walked for so long and didn’t see a single figure—they all ran away long ago!”

A crafty rabbit has three burrows; a crafty rat has three holes. The number of exits connected to these underground nests is far more than three. Song Xu wandered for a long time and discovered the place was empty, and nearly got herself lost inside.

With asking for directions failing, they had no choice but to continue on.

This area might not have many large wild beasts, and thus became a paradise for small animals. Many small beastmen lived here. Foxes, pangolins, hedgehogs, badgers, crane-types all left traces, but often one only heard their sounds or glimpsed their shadows without seeing them. When Song Xu and Wumu arrived, they had already fled after spotting danger.

“This is like a game of hide-and-seek—whoever gets caught loses.” Song Xu said this to Wumu.

Putting herself in his place, if everyone else were hiding from her, her mood probably would not be very pleasant. Song Xu did not want Wumu to have such a feeling, so she carefully introduced to him this hide-and-seek game that is deeply loved by the masses.

Wumu maintained his big snake form and gave no reaction. Song Xu also could not tell what he thought about it. It was only that after Song Xu discovered traces of squirrel beastmen, when the big snake rested, he used his tail to coil around the squirrel once.

Song Xu casually comforted him, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to run off with every squirrel beastman I meet. Actually, in this world, I don’t really have a true same race.”

So the snake, quiet and wordless, also worries about her abandoning him to return to her own kind.

“You should learn from me the spirit of taking responsibility to the very end. I’ve even thought about what I would do if one day you went to live among a snake group, and how I would lurk around nearby.” Song Xu looked serious.

The big snake shook his head.

Song Xu was shocked. “No? Why not? Are you afraid I’d be eaten by snakes?”

The big snake shook his head vigorously.

Song Xu frowned. “Very not okay? Absolutely not okay? I definitely can’t?”

Misunderstood, the big snake grew anxious. Not only did he shake his head, he also lashed his tail and snapped a small nearby tree in half.

Song Xu sucked in a cold breath. “If I dared to follow you to live among a snake group, then I’d be just like this tree, pa-cha! Ah!”

The big snake stared at her and began to gather strength. This was the look of him trying hard to transform into his half-beastman form—being unable to communicate made him want to change shape.

Song Xu hurriedly pressed him down. “Okay, okay, I know now. You mean you won’t go live among a snake group.”

Finally having his meaning correctly understood, Wumu also realized that the squirrel was deliberately pretending to be dumb again. He let out two dissatisfied hisses, like a light, not-too-serious complaint, and Song Xu giggled and rolled around on his tail to comfort him.

A squirrel beastman hiding in a tree and secretly watching, seeing its own kind rolling around on a big snake’s body, was frightened and slipped away.

In places unknown to Song Xu and Wumu, the two of them were very famous among the various small tribes in these mountain regions, with their notoriety remaining high. Whenever people spoke of them, they felt lingering fear.

Titles such as “the snake-type half-beastman who broke into the frog beastmen breeding grounds and devoured frog beastmen,” “the big snake who swept through a rodent beastmen underground settlement and caused an entire family to become homeless,” and so on, made small beastmen keep far away from them.

This hide-and-seek game involving many participants, spanning a wide area, and lasting a long time, came to an end when they walked out of the continuous mountain ranges.

Ahead lay boundless rolling hills, suddenly opening up.