On the relatively flat grassland stood an old tree weathered by wind and frost. Its gnarled trunk was covered in green moss, and the branches it stretched out were too long to bear the excessive weight of the leaves at the top, causing the middle of the trunk to sink and droop down into the soil. The twisted posture of this trunk looked like a snake, so Song Xu liked this tree.

The trees here were spaced very far apart, unlike in mountain woods or forests where it was cramped and the crowns of neighboring trees connected together. Here, only an occasional large tree could be seen, and its crown grew and spread freely, without restraint.

In the mountains Wumu had just passed through, although it was rare to see the figures of beastmen, the disturbances they left behind could always be detected, and traces of their lives were everywhere. The different scents of various beastmen were especially obvious.

But after arriving here, over a long stretch of road, traces belonging to beastmen disappeared.

No one seemed to live nearby, and few beastmen passed through. After walking an entire day, and looking back at sunset, there was always a sense of loneliness. Song Xu liked to rest in places like this, finding an old tree with a huge crown. Wumu followed her, coiling his body around the trunk.

At night, nocturnal birds like owls would perch on nearby branches to rest. Song Xu could hear the sounds of them hunting, catching mice that scurried beneath the tree.

How strange, how were there mice everywhere, their range of distribution was truly extremely wide.

Wumu restrained his presence. Some ordinary small animals could not sense the danger of a beastman, and at night would treat him as just another branch, casually perching nearby.

There was a kind of cat, much smaller than a leopard yet larger than an ordinary cat, with round spots on its body, or maybe a wildcat? Song Xu did not know exactly what it was. She only saw it nimbly leaping along the trunk, catching a bird that was cooing on the branch.

After a burst of wing-flapping sounds, the cooing disappeared. That small hunter in the darkness seemed to sense Song Xu’s gaze, turned its head to reveal a pair of glowing eyes in the night, then quickly carried its prey and jumped down from the tree, vanishing.

Later, Song Xu encountered one again. This time it was subtly different from the last one—its tail seemed longer, and the patterns on it were also different. It failed in its hunt on the tree and landed beside the big snake and the squirrel.

The big snake was startled by the vibration of it landing on the branch and subconsciously let out a hiss. That creature was also frightened by the big snake suddenly revealing its true form in the darkness, and abruptly sprayed some extremely foul-smelling liquid from its scent glands.

The squirrel agilely hugged the big snake’s head and dodged most of it, and discovered that the culprit had already fled.

Even though they dodged quickly and only got a tiny bit on them, the smell still nearly made Song Xu suffocate. Wumu did not look comfortable either. With that bit of stench clinging to his body, he did not even dare to flick out his tongue.

He looked at the squirrel, realized this was something he himself had caused, shook his head, and rubbed against the trunk, wanting to wipe off that bit of stink.

“Don’t rub, baby, you can’t wipe it off like that. Let’s go find a pool of water to wash,” Song Xu said, pinching her nose.

Even though they had an unexpected mishap in the middle of the night, she could still laugh. And while bringing the big snake down the tree to look for a pool of water, the more she thought about it, the funnier it became. The stunned reaction of snake-snake when sprayed with stink liquid by an unfamiliar little animal was too funny. She laughed nonstop.

While laughing, the big snake leaned closer to her. Song Xu suddenly realized, “Ah! Don’t rub on me!”

How could snake-snake have such bad intentions—he was just reminding her that there was a pool ahead.

The two of them wandered in the wilderness in the middle of the night, found a pool, wiped off the bit of stench on their bodies, and after the scent of grass covered the odor, they drank some water together, then found another big tree to sleep under.

When traveling outside, exposed to the elements, this kind of sudden situation happened from time to time. There was also one time when they were sleeping and a whole group of bats came to the tree.

Bats always came in groups. After flying in, they all hung upside down on the trunk not far from Song Xu and the other, so that when Song Xu opened her eyes she could see clusters of dark shapes on the tree and pairs of tiny eyes. With so many sudden spectators watching, how could she sleep.

That would have been fine, but bats would excrete after hanging there for a while. And when they excreted, they would not deliberately fly elsewhere to avoid people. They would only change posture, turn their heads upward, and then spray.

Don’t underestimate these little things. Small as they were, they were truly not to be trifled with. Song Xu dared to provoke a pack of wolves, but she did not dare to reason with these spraying warriors, because there was no way to communicate.

The big snake and the squirrel once again had to change sleeping places in the middle of the night.

There were still some movements around them, sounds made by unknown animals. Song Xu could not observe the source of every sound each time. Wumu had no interest in these sounds. He habitually rested his head beside Song Xu or on her stomach, so he could notice her movements at any time, and also prevent her from sleepily falling out of the tree.

Only when some foolish animal accidentally landed near the squirrel at night and showed interest in her would the big snake suddenly come alive, abruptly opening his mouth wide to threaten the passing creature and scare it away. In other situations, even if a bird landed on him and pecked twice on his scales with a tuk-tuk sound, he could not be bothered to move even the tip of his tail.

° ° ° ° ° ° ° ° °

At dawn, thick fog blanketed the world.

The fog here was different from the fog in forests; it felt more open, more ethereal and illusory.

Song Xu stared at the outlines of distant trees within the fog and involuntarily thought of the various horror movies she had watched. Usually, when thick fog appeared, monsters would appear within it.

Slender shadows looming faintly in the white mist, and massive, indescribable giant creatures would also emerge from the fog—possibly with countless twisted limbs and innumerable eyes, floating closer in silence.

These overly vivid imaginings made Song Xu lift the big snake’s head beside her and desperately burrow under his head, just like lying in bed and trying to hide beneath the blanket to seek a sense of security.

The big snake was woken by her fussing. He did not discover any danger in this tranquil and peaceful morning, did not know what the squirrel was afraid of, but still very indulgently followed her wishes and pressed her down with his lower jaw. He thought, just like how she was afraid of thunder, she was probably also afraid of thick fog.

Once the fog dispersed, Song Xu’s fear also dispersed. She kicked away snake-snake’s chin and began stretching her body on the trunk.

Within the lingering, not-yet-fully-dispersed mist, the figures of spotted deer passed by. With elegant antlers atop their heads, several of them strolled together across the grassland, like gentlemen who had risen early. One wondered whether they had already eaten breakfast.

Then very quickly, one of the deer became the big snake’s breakfast.

Some snakes are adept at ambush. Even a snake as large as Wumu can move through grass without making a sound, and then—kill in a single strike. It was only when Wumu bit that deer into his mouth that Song Xu realized he was no longer on the tree trunk behind her. That was how silent and how fast it had been.

Wumu now ate slightly more frequently than before. After all, he was exercising every day, and his energy consumption was relatively high.

Most of the journey was actually quite monotonous. They were repeating the same kind of life. Within a given region, unchanging things made up the majority, and the few interesting things had to be sought out before they could be discovered.

“Mom! I found something interesting!” A little elephant ran over, lifting its trunk and letting out an elephant call.

The squirrel and the big snake were discovered as something interesting.

This was already two months after Song Xu and Wumu had left the mountains and forests. The land they walked across was no longer uniformly lush and green. Occasionally, the colors of soil and rock were exposed. Areas of bare ground and sand without vegetation were expanding. Small water sources such as little streams, small ditches, and small pools were decreasing, gradually disappearing. In the direction they had come from, the only visible water left was a single large river.

Seeing traces of beastmen again, Song Xu was actually quite happy.

Living near the riverbanks in this area were some relatively large beastmen—elephants, rhinoceroses, land turtles, and crocodiles that lived by the river. This tribe’s mix was truly quite a mix.

Generally speaking, there were three kinds of ways tribes formed. One was that social groups of the same species lived together and formed a tribe. Another was that those with similar diets—such as all herbivores or all carnivores—gathered together. The third was a mixed group: different sizes, different species, different foods, forming a tribe simply because everyone lived nearby.

This place was clearly the last type. The beastman scents left around were all mixed together.

Along the way, Song Xu and snake-snake had seen many beastmen who kept their distance from them. Suddenly encountering a beastman who was completely unafraid of snake-snake and even dared to come closer to take a look inevitably felt novel.

Thinking about it, it was understandable. The first to discover them, this little elephant—though called little—was actually far too large. The kind that would make snake-snake’s belly burst if he tried to swallow him. Even if he transformed into human form, this underage little guy was estimated to be around one meter ninety tall.

Underage little beastmen were not very good at controlling their complete transformation. His ears were somewhat like elephant ears, and those two flappy ears were extremely eye-catching.

Little elephants were famous for being curious and loving to play, and because there were few natural enemies here, they had little vigilance toward strangers. This kind of innocence was different from the innocent naïveté of little sheep and little jujube. He was thick-skinned and tough, fearless by nature, and with formidable parents behind him, he was even more unafraid of anything.

Song Xu chatted with the little elephant for quite a while before adult beastmen from the nearby tribe came over. The ones who arrived were also elephant beastmen. Among elephant herds, those in charge were all female. The older female elephant beastman was over two meters tall, by estimation nearly three meters, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, full of strength. Even in beastman form, her skin had a somewhat leathery texture.

Looking at these mountain-like big sisters and aunties, Song Xu felt just a tiny bit intimidated, and appeared especially well-behaved.

The elephant beastmen who came to check on the situation also had a rhinoceros beastman who came over to watch the excitement.

“This little half-beastman is about to turn into a wild beast, right? How did you run over here? There aren’t any snake-type beastmen nearby, and snakes are rarely seen,” that rhinoceros beastman said.

Regarding the statement about almost becoming a wild beast, Song Xu neither confirmed nor denied it, and only said, “We’re just passing through here, going to a farther place. We’re not here to look for snake-type beastmen, and not looking for a snake group either.”

“Going farther? The road won’t be easy if you go much farther.”

“It’s fine. If it’s not easy to walk, we’ll detour,” Song Xu replied lightly, seeing that their attitudes were all fairly good.

“You’re going so far away—what for? I’ve never even gone very far!” the little elephant interjected, and was immediately squeezed to the back by a group of adult beastmen, one foot here, one foot there.

“What kind of beastman are you? I’ve never seen your kind of beastman before.” Some grew curious about Song Xu, and even wanted to reach out to touch the fur on her body.

Song Xu pressed down the big snake’s mouth that was about to open and answered, “I’m a squirrel beastman.” There were indeed no squirrels to be seen here, and it probably wasn’t very suitable for squirrels to survive.

The oldest elephant beastman stopped the other tribe members who were curious and wanted to touch the squirrel, and said, “If you want to stay here for a while, you can. But you must not harm anyone in our tribe, and you must not approach our tribe.”

This first wave of beastmen left with a rustle, and the second wave of onlooking beastmen arrived—still mainly elephant beastmen. It seemed that curiosity was not exclusive to little elephants.

Even if the tribe did not say anything, Song Xu would not enter the tribe. She was also worried that snake-snake might get stepped on by these very large beastmen.

They stopped at the upper reaches of the river.

“We’ll rest beside this rock tonight,” Song Xu decided.

“Better change to another place. I’m about to leave,” a voice said.

Song Xu stared at snake-snake’s unmoving mouth, then suddenly reacted: “Who’s talking?!”

She turned her head in alarm and saw that the “rock” she had chosen had turned into a living being. The huge, rock-like turtle shell became a back-plate worn like clothing, and a giant over two meters tall stood in front of her.

This was a land-turtle beastman.

After looking at them, the land-turtle beastman slowly prepared to leave, then suddenly turned back to glance at the tiger fang necklace hanging at Song Xu’s waist, revealing a look of recollection. “Looks a bit familiar. That necklace seems to belong to a tiger beastman.”