Chapter 67

In the vast uninhabited areas of the beastman world, Song Xu and Wu Mu’s journey was mostly about jumping from tree to tree and using the snake as a bridge to cross water. They rarely saw paths made by beastmen. In such circumstances, it’s natural that there were no road signs. If they kept moving forward, it was fine, but on the way back, they faced a big problem—forgetting the way. Especially with seasonal changes, the growth of plants was different, and the environment changed so much that it was unrecognizable. So when Song Xu saw the green grassland in front of her, she momentarily doubted if she had climbed the wrong cliff. Her imagination even went wild, thinking, “One day in the mountains, a thousand years have passed in the world,” imagining that while they had been at sea for a few months, many years had passed outside.

Hei Sen was also a bit confused. It didn’t look like this when she came, but she was experienced and didn’t mind such minor problems. If she didn’t remember the way, she would just keep moving forward until she saw familiar places. So, she calmly continued to lead the way.

The hungry tiger sniffed the traces left by prey, crossing the now vastly different wasteland, and reached a sparse forest.

By this point, they were far from Hu Hu’s cliff tribe, and Hu Hu couldn’t follow them any further. After rubbing against the giant tiger and the squirrel, she reluctantly took off, circling them twice in the air before flying back.

Now, there were three of them left on the road. The giant tiger focused on tracking the prey, eagerly pursuing it. She smelled a herd of wild deer living near the forest, and the hungry tiger began her first hunt since returning.

Wu Mu did the same. This mother and son, who looked and were of different species, simultaneously targeted the deer herd, each identifying their prey and then starting their hunt. After a while, the giant tiger returned to the tree with a deer in her mouth, easily disemboweling it and burying her face in the prey’s abdomen to eat. She was too hungry to wait for a fire to cook the food. The snake also returned soon, dragging his round belly.

The three of them ate and rested. The giant tiger was no longer in a hurry, lazily cleaning the blood off her face.

Song Xu sat on a branch, nibbling on the tender shoots at the top, observing the surroundings, the trees, and flowers, trying to find familiar places. This forest was not in Song Xu’s memory. She remembered that near the wasteland was a desert. But now, it was a sparse forest.

While the tiger and snake were resting after eating, Song Xu jumped down from the tree and wandered around. They hadn’t rested long before the tiger got up, shook her fur, and demanded to continue the journey.

Traveling with the giant tiger made finding prey easy because she was experienced and could always detect where the tasty prey was. She was also good at finding resting places and would keep watch for any dangers while resting. Larger predators would be scared away before they got close. However, there were also disadvantages. Hei Sen was a quick-tempered character, doing everything in a hurry, while Wu Mu was slow, and Song Xu was curious, greatly slowing down Hei Sen’s pace, which made the tiger mom very unhappy.

Finally, after traveling together for a few days, Hei Sen couldn’t stand it anymore. She roared at the two of them, then licked each of them twice before getting up and running away without looking back, quickly disappearing.

Song Xu, left behind, asked Wu Mu, “Was Hei Sen saying goodbye with those licks?”

Wu Mu, used to Hei Sen’s behavior, replied, “Yes, she wants to hurry back to the tribe and check things out.”

Song Xu thought Hei Sen was a magical tiger mom. She could travel through mountains and rivers, enduring hardships to find a way to help her child, but once she found the child safe, she would simply leave them behind. This was probably the typical beastman world mother who would “cover for you when needed, but not bother you otherwise.”

Suddenly left to fend for herself, Song Xu wasn’t disappointed. Instead, she stood up and shouted, “I’m free!”

Wu Mu: “?”

After saying that, Song Xu suddenly looked at him and giggled, “Wu Mu, it’s just the two of us now. How about you transform into your beastman form, and we…”

“Let’s learn to walk!”

Finally, it was time for the snake to learn to walk. As soon as the decision was made, under Song Xu’s urging, Wu Mu transformed into legs and was pulled up from the ground by her.

Song Xu stood in front, walking backward, shaking Wu Mu’s hands. She suddenly thought of two phrases: “learning to speak” and “learning to walk.”

Isn’t this very fitting for the snake now? Learning to talk and learning to walk.

Wu Mu didn’t understand why the little squirrel holding his hand was smiling so much that her eyes were almost squinting.

Feeling a tug on his hand, Song Xu cleared her throat, still smiling: “Quick, lift your foot, lift the left one!”

“Don’t drag your feet on the ground. This is different from your tail; it needs to be off the ground.”

“You can’t twist while walking… No, you can twist; you should twist, twist hard! You’re twisting very well. Make the movements bigger! Loosen up a bit more!” Song Xu greatly praised the snake’s incorrect way of walking.

Wu Mu felt something was wrong: “But you don’t walk like this.”

Song Xu seriously deceived the snake: “Because I’m a squirrel and you’re a snake, we walk differently. Look, snakes twist when they walk, so you should twist, too. There’s no problem with that.”

It sounded reasonable. Wu Mu believed her, but after walking a few steps as instructed by Song Xu, he couldn’t help but notice her strange smile. He stopped: “You lied to me.” His tone wasn’t angry; he was just stating a fact, with a bit of confusion about why he was deceived.

Seeing the beautiful snake walking like a model, Song Xu couldn’t control her weird smile. She rubbed her face and forced her expression back to normal.

“Darling, how could I lie to you! This walking posture suits you very well, and it’s very characteristic of a snake beastman! Extremely elegant!”

“You’re lying to me.” The snake accurately bypassed her sweet talk, affirming.

Sure enough, he had become smarter, and it was no longer easy to deceive the snake. Song Xu regretted it!

The teacher with a belly full of bad ideas had to teach walking honestly. But as she taught, she had another mischievous thought, deliberately pulling Wu Mu’s arm to make him fall. Although the falling snake would also press her down most of the time, she never got tired of it, just to see the snake’s surprised expression when he fell and how he stood up again.
Also, to see him glare at her a bit angrily; his expression was so vivid!

Even the dumb snake realized her intention after a few times, staring at her and refusing to stand up again.

Song Xu solemnly said: “I’m training your walking balance ability!”

Wu Mu warned her: “Don’t pull.”

Song Xu agreed wholeheartedly: “Okay, okay. I won’t pull you. I won’t pull you. I’ll let go now. Try walking by yourself!” She said, stepping back with her hands behind her back.

Without her interference, Wu Mu gradually got used to walking on his own. Seeing him walk more steadily, the squirrel, who was better at causing trouble than teaching, suddenly pounced from behind, landing on Wu Mu’s shoulder and knocking him down.

Wu Mu pounced into the grass and wildflowers, slowly turning back to look at her. Song Xu sensed danger and quickly jumped up to escape, but it was too late. Wu Mu, who was pinned beneath her, transformed into a big snake in the blink of an eye. His flexible tail blocked her escape route, and he even tied himself into knots to trap her.

The mischievous little squirrel was sentenced to half a day in “prison” for her antics. No matter how sweetly she talked, the warden snake refused to release her. When her sentence was finally over, Song Xu behaved much more obediently, deeply reflecting on her actions and promising to teach walking seriously next time.

However, the habitual offender’s promise was useless; she dared to misbehave again next time.

As a result, their progress was very slow. Every now and then, you could see a knotted snake and a bored squirrel tied up in the snake’s tail along the roadside in the lush grass. Eventually, it got to the point where, as soon as the snake tied her up, the squirrel would immediately tilt her head and fall asleep. After a nap, she would be released.

The snake quickly learned to walk. Wu Mu found it a bit strange that when he couldn’t walk, Song Xu urged him to learn. But once he could walk, she suddenly didn’t want him to walk anymore.

“Come on, let me see if I can carry you!” Wu Mu couldn’t understand why Song Xu wanted to carry him.

Why suddenly carry him? He was a big snake, and his squirrel partner was so small that he would crush her.

After much persuasion, Wu Mu agreed. But when he lay on her back, Song Xu couldn’t lift him because his legs were too long and still touched the ground.

“Lift your feet, don’t let them touch the ground.”

The little squirrel staggered forward, carrying her large snake, wobbling and swaying, and then they both fell into a nearby pond.

“Ha ha ha ha!”

Was falling into the water fun? Wu Mu got up, lifted the squirrel out of the water, shook off the water, and, imitating her earlier actions, carried his strange little squirrel on his back.

He could now walk very steadily. Although his legs weren’t as fast as his tail in swimming, it was a completely different feeling. They moved slowly forward on the grass, the wind rustling through it.

Wu Mu saw the squirrel behind him suddenly raise her hand and wave into the distance.

“Who are you waving at?” Wu Mu stopped, seeing no one in the distance.

Hugging his neck, Song Xu happily waved: “At the trees over there. Look, don’t they seem to be waving back?”

A grove in the distance swayed its branches in the wind.

“I want to get down.” Song Xu kicked her legs.

Wu Mu didn’t put her down, still carrying her. Song Xu leaned back, swaying side to side, trying to pull herself up but couldn’t get free. She thought to herself: As expected of a snake, his wrapping skills are top-notch.

“Alright then, I’ll just sleep!” Song Xu lay on his shoulder, then suddenly burrowed under his hair, lifting it up to cover herself.

“This feels like wearing a layer of flowing water, so smooth!”

Wu Mu felt her wriggling restlessly on his back, but after a while, she finally settled down. She had fallen asleep, still clutching his hair. Once she fell asleep, the whole world seemed to sleep. The trees no longer waved at them.