Song Xu was holding onto the very tip of Wumu’s snake tail with her hand, her expression excited as she kept peering down toward the bottom of the cliff.

In an environment like this, where many people would probably have their legs go weak just from taking one look, she found it especially interesting. The way she stood at the edge, swaying as if she might fall at any moment, made the big snake nervous. Time and again, he blocked her with his tail, afraid that if she had a sudden reckless thought, she would leap straight down.

Song Xu’s newly met friend was even egging her on from the side: “It’s fine, if you fall, I’ll fly over and catch you! Then I can just carry you to my cave to have a look. I’ve stored lots of fruit inside!”

It must be because she was an eagle beastman, Wumu thought, that she seemed so unlikable.

Huhu ultimately didn’t get her wish. Just as she was itching to try, other people from the tribe discovered the three of them on the cliff.

That should have been an extremely large vulture. The feathers on his body were black, with white stripes on his wings, and around his neck was a collar of feathers that looked like a fluffy scarf.

He popped up from below the cliff, as frightening as a head teacher suddenly appearing from the back classroom window, and he was even wearing a face that looked angry no matter how you looked at it.

He looked at Song Xu and Wumu, focusing especially on Wumu. In front of him, Huhu was nothing more than a tiny little eagle, and at this moment even her voice became thin and soft: “These are my friends. I brought them to visit.”

The vulture said with a stiff face and stiff voice: “If you want to play with them, go play farther away. Don’t do it near the tribe.”

As he spoke, he even stretched out one claw and pushed Huhu a bit farther away, shooing her: “Go, go!”

Huhu called out twice in dissatisfaction. Even when she deliberately acted angry, her voice was still a bit tender. She compromised and dejectedly led Song Xu and the other one forward along the boundary.

She muttered unhappily: “There haven’t even been any people in the tribe raising young lately, what’s there to be afraid of? Song Xu is so cute, she won’t do bad things, and the snake is a good snake too. Tu An is so annoying.”

Song Xu was already used to this kind of treatment. Anyway, no matter what tribe they went to, people wouldn’t allow them to get close. Mainly because Wumu looked a bit too dangerous at first glance, so everyone was afraid of him.

She was more curious about that huge vulture beastman and asked, “Is that a vulture beastman?”

Huhu: “Yeah, Tu An is our tribe’s chief. He’s very formidable. He’s even killed primal beasts that came to attack the tribe. He’s just too cautious. Back when the tribe was raising young, he circled around nearby every day, driving away all living things that came close. Now it’s already past the breeding season and he’s still patrolling around here.”

He really was like a head teacher. Song Xu became even more curious about another question: “When vulture beastmen turn into their beastman form, do they have hair?”

Huhu: “They do. Short hair. It feels prickly to the touch.”

Song Xu: “You’ve touched it? He looks so fierce.”

“I have. When I was little, he held me, and I often touched his head.” Huhu scratched her head and thought about how to explain their relationship. “Oh, he’s my father.”

Song Xu: ?

Huhu: “There aren’t many like me in the tribe. I was hatched and raised by my father. I’ve never even seen my mother.”

Walking and chatting, Huhu was still unwilling to give up on not being able to secretly bring the little squirrel back: “If I had known, I would’ve checked first to see if he was nearby. Didn’t expect to get caught like this. Otherwise, I’d secretly take you back, okay? You hide inside my wings. If I only bring you alone, even if Tu An notices, he definitely won’t say anything!”

“That won’t do. If Wumu is left here alone, he’ll be lonely. I have to stay with him.” Song Xu said solemnly.

The quiet snake beside her seemed as if he hadn’t heard anything at all. With that cool, aloof face, he didn’t look like he needed anyone’s company.

“Besides, I want to find a place that isn’t so steep and go down to take a look.” Song Xu’s gaze fell toward the dinosaur world below. She seemed to have even seen an extremely large herbivorous dinosaur’s long neck sticking out of the forest. It was simply a scene that would only appear in imagination.

No matter how much Huhu repeatedly yelled about how terrifying the primal beasts below were, Song Xu still insisted on going down. According to Huhu, the temperature below was relatively high. If they stayed down there, Wumu wouldn’t hibernate. Right now, he was staying awake purely by relying on willpower. In truth, he was so sleepy that he couldn’t even understand human speech anymore.

Song Xu knew that he was only afraid that after hibernating and waking up, he would forget her again, or forget that he was still a beastman, and he was also worried about leaving her here alone, so he refused to sleep.

Once they reached a place with higher temperature, there would be no such worry.

And there was also Tiger Mama. Her necklace had been dug out from the belly of a primal beast. She was very likely down below as well. Maybe they could find traces she had left behind, which would also be a comfort to Wumu.

Also, she really, really wanted to see the dinosaur world! If she didn’t go down to take a look, wouldn’t this trip be for nothing!

Huhu couldn’t persuade her and could only look at the fluffy one and sigh, wondering why such a small little squirrel was so bold, insisting on going to look at primal beasts.

“Alright. Actually, I know of a place where the slope is a bit gentler. Maybe you can go down from there, but it’s relatively far away.”

The place Huhu referred to as having a gentler slope was a change from a vertical ninety degrees to a slanted seventy-five degrees. Song Xu lay on the edge and looked down for a while, then decisively said, “This is it. We’ll go down from here!”

Huhu dutifully stayed by their side. She said she would escort them all the way to the bottom. To her, this was probably also an interesting adventure. She didn’t even return to the tribe at night, instead carrying over quite a lot of firewood and lighting a bonfire at the edge of the cliff, listening to Song Xu tell stories.

The first stretch of the path was relatively difficult. Every step was slow. When the big snake crawled downward, he would coil his tail around protruding rocks on the cliff to steady his body. Song Xu, on the contrary, was much more nimble. The fur on her small-squirrel beast form was blown backward by the updraft rushing from below. If she were any lighter, she really might have been blown into the air.

By the middle section, the terrain became more gentle, and at the same time, it was getting late. They hung on the side of the cliff and watched the sunset.

It really could only be described as hanging, because the space was too small. The snake hung there like a rope to rest, and Song Xu sat on his snake body. Huhu landed on another rock and stood there awkwardly.

Watching the sunset from this spot was truly beautiful. Pillars of light leaked out from pink and purple clouds, spreading across every corner within sight. The soft colors transitioned naturally. Amid these beautiful colors, a large vulture flew past nearby, glanced at the little eagle standing on the rock, and then flew away.

Not long after, the large vulture came back carrying a strip of dried meat, signaling Huhu to take it.

Huhu: “I’m not eating! If I’m hungry I’ll catch prey myself. I’m already this big. My friends are still watching!”

The large vulture said nothing and shoved the dried meat toward her face. Only after Huhu reluctantly took it did the large vulture fly away.

After watching this feeding scene between a rebellious girl and an old father, Song Xu wore a smile.

Huhu seemed to feel a bit embarrassed. She stepped on the dried meat, lowered her head, and pecked at it gloomily a couple of times. Then she suddenly remembered: “When you go down below, don’t eat primal beast meat.”

Song Xu: “Can’t eat primal beasts… why? Where I come from, people there say eating primal beasts will increase strength.”

Huhu: “Eating a little does indeed make you stronger, but if you eat too much primal beast meat, you’ll turn into a real wild beast.”

A guess suddenly formed in Song Xu’s mind. She turned and rubbed the motionless big snake, then looked at the tiger-fang necklace at her waist.

She had asked Huhu early on whether she had seen any beastman wearing a tiger-fang necklace, and had also asked her to inquire within the tribe whether anyone nearby had seen a tiger beastman. Unfortunately, she hadn’t gotten the answers she wanted. No one had any impression of a tiger beastman. Perhaps Heisen hadn’t passed through here back then.

They hung on the cliff for a whole night, and continued climbing down the next day. The farther down they went, the gentler the slope became, while the temperature gradually rose. The air grew humid, and accordingly, plants began to appear on the cliff face.

Farther down, the sixty-degree slope was no longer bare rock, but a soil-covered hillside. One could stand and walk on it. If one wanted, one could even directly roll down.

Green grass covered the hillside, and patches upon patches of purple flowers bloomed across the grass. Sunlight divided everything into light green and deep green, pale purple and dark purple. At the foot of the mountain were streams and trees. Their destination was right beneath their feet.

“We’re here!” Huhu cheered. “Where are we going next?”

“Next you should go back. We still need to go further in. When we come back, I’ll come find you to play again. By then, I’ll tell you more stories.” Song Xu looked up at the sky. That big vulture had been circling above their heads. If Huhu didn’t go back, he would probably swoop down to grab someone.

“I’m not going back. I also want to see primal beasts. I’ve wanted to see them for a long time. If you dare to go, why wouldn’t I dare to go!” Huhu shouted.

Right after shouting, she was punished. From afar, Song Xu watched the large vulture chase after the little eagle and fly away. She said to the snake, “This is what it’s like for kids with parental supervision. Look at us—so free. If we want to adventure, we adventure. Whatever we do, no one controls us.”

Because the temperature had risen, Wumu had slowly thawed out and regained his ability to think. He hummed in response, even though he hadn’t heard clearly what Song Xu had just said.

They crossed the small stream. In the reflection of the water, Wumu saw that more than half of his face was already covered in snake scales, looking extremely strange. The vulture beastman’s wariness toward him, Song Xu’s friend’s avoidance of him—Wumu could feel all of it. Only Song Xu was still speaking to him with a perfectly normal expression, as if she couldn’t see any of his changes at all.

His hands… the snake scales on his hands were especially thick, almost turning into bizarre claws. How could a snake have such strange claws.

Inside those strange palms that could not freely open and close, a hand suddenly appeared.

Song Xu placed her hand into his palm, then tightly clasped his hand in return, pulling him across the stream. “Come on, let’s go see dinosaurs. To be able to see so many living dinosaurs in this lifetime, you have no idea how many people would envy us!”

They did not enter the nearest forest, but instead kept walking forward along the stream, and walked for a long, long time.

“Even though we haven’t seen snow mountains yet, and haven’t seen the sea yet, I’m already very satisfied. If we can only make it this far, I won’t have any regrets.” Song Xu kept holding his hand without letting go. “I hope Wumu can also have no regrets.”

Wumu opened his mouth, then realized that when he opened it now, his mouth would become strange-looking. He also couldn’t think of what to say. In the end, he closed his mouth again.

Song Xu found a place to rest. Just as she was about to call Wumu over to lie down and feel the long-lost grassy carpet, a group of small dinosaurs came rumbling out from the distant forest. About one meter tall, green-skinned, without wings, they looked more like the dinosaurs in Song Xu’s memories.

They were like a flock of sheep being chased, scrambling out in panic. From the forest behind them came all kinds of strange cries and roars, along with thudding sounds.

“Is there a big dinosaur fighting over there? Let’s go too… Wumu? Why aren’t you moving?” Song Xu saw the snake staring in the direction of the forest, and couldn’t pull him along. She suspected that maybe he was in a bad mood right now and wanted to join a fight.

Wumu turned his head back and pointed at her tiger-fang necklace.

Song Xu took a moment to react, her face showing astonishment. “…No way, right?”

Listening carefully, it did seem that among the chaotic cries there was one that sounded somewhat like a tiger. But was that possible? Even though she had said she wanted to look for traces of Tiger Mama, Song Xu really hadn’t expected to find a living one—much less so quickly.

According to story development, shouldn’t they have to walk a few more chapters before meeting again? A long-separated family reunion—how could there be no buildup or climax.