Chapter 33

Early morning, before the sun had risen.

Having gone to bed early and waking up early, Song Xu urged Wu Mu to get up and start their journey before dawn. “Walking in the forest before dawn is a rare experience. Let’s try it! We can watch the sunrise later!” Song Xu said.

In the forest, sunlight is the most precious thing. Everything here depends on sunlight to survive. Plants that get more sunlight grow better.
They had moved from the dense forest to a sparser area, where shrubs began to appear more frequently. The lower plants received more sunlight and grew vigorously.

The change in environment created some obstacles for their journey. In Wu Mu’s forest, there were wide gaps between the tall trees for walking, but in the shrub-filled area, the shrubs didn’t leave any space unused. Since no one had passed through or cleared the path for years, the way was often blocked in all directions. Especially troublesome were the thorny vines growing among the chaotic shrubs. A furry squirrel getting caught in them was inevitable. In contrast, the smooth, scaly Wu Mu could glide through any shrub without getting caught. The resilient, thorny shrubs often snapped back into place after the snake passed, making it impossible for Song Xu to follow directly.

So, this part of the journey often saw the snake moving through the shrubs below while the squirrel swung from the branches above, leaping from one to another.

The squirrel, spreading her body and paws, would grab a branch, use her momentum and bouncing ability to fling herself to another branch, and repeat the process. Although it looked graceful, it was actually exhausting and prone to mishaps due to the complex terrain.

There were always places without suitable branches, or the branches were too weak to support her weight, causing her to fall into the shrubs and come out covered in thorns.

The increased activity of the flying squirrel led to an increased appetite.
So, while flying, she sometimes stopped to nibble on tender leaves if they looked tasty. Sometimes, she got so engrossed in eating that Wu Mu, noticing she hadn’t kept up, would poke his head out of the shrubs, flicking his tongue to find the lost squirrel.

Discovering a tree in bloom, with flowers emitting a sweet fragrance, Song Xu felt it would be a waste not to taste them. She quickly climbed up the branches to the top of the tree. Song Xu picked the white, trumpet-shaped flowers and shook off the dew into the flower’s base. The yellow pollen-laden nectar swirled in the flower cup. Song Xu sipped it like wine, feeling delighted.

While enjoying the flower nectar, she noticed a small figure busy on another branch. It looked somewhat like a squirrel but more like a sugar glider she had seen before. The small creature, with a gray-black back, white belly and paws, a tail much longer than its body, and round black eyes, noticed her and flashed a fearful look.

Song Xu paused, sensing the faint aura of a beastman. The creature twitched its pink nose, clutched its flower, and ran off before Song Xu could say “hi.”

Wu Mu was used to Song Xu’s sudden disappearances. He was a mature snake who would come back to find her. Song Xu stood on the branch, looking around, while Wu Mu silently began climbing the tree trunk.

It was rare to encounter a beastman smaller than herself, and Song Xu regretted not being able to talk to the little one. She claimed the entire flowering tree for herself, climbing to the top to pick the best blossoms. The sunlight was wonderful, making her feel lazy and indulgent.

“Why not have a full meal here and then take a nap?” Song Xu thought, straddling a branch with her hind legs dangling in the air, holding a flower and sipping its nectar.

Suddenly, she sensed a gust of wind from the sky, and a shadow swooped down with the wind. Song Xu immediately pressed herself against the trunk and slid several meters down to the safety of the lower branches.

Looking back at where she had been sitting, she saw a giant eagle with a wingspan of over three meters flapping its wings in the canopy. It was a giant but ordinary eagle, not a beastman.

In this world, ordinary animals and beastmen also hunted each other. Beastmen like Song Xu, who had small animal forms, were often preyed upon by large predators.

That’s why Song Xu developed such skilled evasion techniques. The slow-moving snake suddenly shot up, almost simultaneously with the squirrel’s downward dash. In the blink of an eye, he reached the canopy.

As Song Xu recognized the eagle, the snake had already opened his mouth wide towards the bird’s wings. In nature, snakes and eagles are also predators and prey. However, here, the giant eagle couldn’t compete with the large snake and had to flee hastily. The snake’s size was both an advantage and a disadvantage. While he scared the eagle away, it also caused the treetop to break under his weight. In the moment of flight and fall, the eagle managed to escape, avoiding a bite from the venomous snake. The eagle flew away, and the snake uncoiled from the broken branch, half his body still leaning forward, hissing at the sky.

Song Xu, the one involved, took a sip of nectar and jumped onto a branch beside Wu Mu, who still had his mouth open. She casually tossed the flower she was holding into his mouth.

“Don’t be mad. Neither of us succeeded in hunting.”

Such sudden incidents have happened countless times. This world was full of dangers; even with a top predator like Wu Mu as a companion, danger was always present. Song Xu needed sharp senses and agility to avoid risks.

The snake seemed a bit bothered by the incident, hissing at the air again after a while. Song Xu finished eating and napped in the tree, lying on the soft snake’s body with swaying flowers beside her. A nap after a full meal was truly comforting.

In the undulating terrain, shrubs and vines formed dense thickets. Some tall trees stood out in this dense forest, each looking weathered. These trees became resting points for the squirrel and the snake.

Song Xu looked into the distance and suddenly patted the snake beside her, “Wu Mu, look at that tree. It’s so strange. Are those lumps all over it? I don’t see any leaves.”

“Let’s go check it out!” she said, diving down the tree and walking along the trunk as if on flat ground.

The tree Song Xu found strange was very large, twice the size of their resting point trees. As they got closer, the shapes of the “lumps” on the giant tree became clearer.

Song Xu stopped in her tracks and waved to the snake poking its head out below, “Come up and take a look!”

“Are those bird nests? The whole tree is full of bird nests. How many birds must live there?” She remembered that a type of weaver bird lived in colonies, with a large group building nests on the same tree.

“Can we get closer to take a look?” Song Xu asked, which basically meant she wanted to get closer.

But as they got closer, she smelled the bird scent and realized that it wasn’t just ordinary weaver birds living there, but bird beastmen.

“I’ve never seen bird beastmen before,” Song Xu muttered, glancing at the big snake beside her.

If she brought the snake over, it would look like they were there to kill and steal eggs. Either the bird beastmen would be scared to death, or they would be seen as invaders.

Reluctantly, Song Xu decided to suppress her curiosity and only observe from a distance to avoid causing a large-scale conflict. While she was comforting herself, the snake acted unpredictably and darted towards the tree.

Song Xu was stunned and reached out her paw, “Wu Mu…?!”

Unable to stop him, she had to follow behind. Seeing the snake’s aggressive approach, she wondered if he was hungry and wanted to eat birds. These birds were not for eating, buddy!

The bird flock became noisy, their chorus-like calls spreading far and wide. Even from a distance, Song Xu felt like someone was blasting a loudspeaker in her ear.

She thought Wu Mu hadn’t even reached them yet, and they were already sounding the alarm. They were discovered too early. Looking up while running, she saw that the alarm wasn’t for the snake approaching on the ground but for an eagle in the sky.

A giant eagle was circling above the tree full of nests, trying to get close to the nests below. However, a group of much smaller birds surrounded it, attacking it and preventing it from getting close. The two sides were at a stalemate, with the small bird group slightly at a disadvantage.

The eagle looked familiar, like the one that tried to hunt her yesterday morning. This eagle was quite something, an ordinary eagle that had encountered her twice and was hunting beastmen both times. Quite impressive.

The snake was now close to the big tree. The tree was so covered in bird nests that no green leaf was visible. The ground around the tree was bare, emitting a strong bird scent. Still dealing with the aerial attack, the small birds finally noticed the more dangerous predator below. Their chirping became even louder, almost piercing the eardrums.

Was their attack method ultrasonic? Song Xu covered her ears, watching Wu Mu swiftly move through the branches full of bird nests, heading straight for the top. In the process, small birds kept flying out of the nests in panic, like little projectiles. The small birds with golden feathers on their backs filled the branches, and those that couldn’t fit flew around the tree in chaos, creating an apocalyptic scene.

Wu Mu was too fast. As he entered the battle at the treetop, he bit the eagle entangled by the bird flock and dragged it down, throwing it in front of Song Xu. The bird flock was still in a state of confusion, not understanding what had happened. The giant eagle, which seemed to have mutated, twitched in the snake’s mouth. Song Xu confirmed that it was the same eagle that tried to catch her yesterday.

Unexpectedly, the forgetful snake held such a grudge.