Chapter 37

Reproduction is a common topic in the world of beasts. For them, it’s as ordinary as eating, drinking, and surviving. They don’t have the shyness or implicit avoidance seen in civilized societies. So, in this scene, only a squirrel felt embarrassed by her words.

The wolf beastmen whispered among themselves about whether snake beastmen were better at reproduction or if they might have been distracted by the squirrel beastman. Throughout the day, the wolves only had eyes for the dangerous half-beastman, completely ignoring the weak squirrel beastman. After a day, the little squirrel had left an indelible impression on them. In many ways, she was scarier than her beast form. As for Wu Mu, his expression was strange. When Song Xu said that sentence, she felt a bit embarrassed, but she quickly forgot about it and became curious about Wu Mu’s reaction.

What did his expression mean? He didn’t seem angry at her bluntness; instead, he looked like he was considering something, with a mix of confusion, contemplation, and a bit of distraction. In his half-beast form, Wu Mu’s upper body was a snake. He used his snake tail to support his upper body as he moved, making him much taller than Song Xu in her beast form. Song Xu poked his waist, “Wu Mu, what are you thinking about?”

Wu Mu directly told her, “Half-beast form, not possible. You will die.”

Many different types of beasts could mate in the beast world, but if they used their original forms, many problems would arise. Only by maintaining their beastman forms could they reduce accidents and injuries.

Song Xu covered her ears and suddenly shouted, “Ahhh!” startling Wu Mu. Then she put on a righteous expression, “Little squirrels can’t do that!”

Wu Mu said, “Just now, you said…”

Song Xu continued to play dumb, “What? Say what? I didn’t say anything just now. You must be mistaken!”

Seeing that she seemed to have genuinely forgotten, Wu Mu repeated with a confused expression, “Just now…”

“Ah…” Song Xu yawned and rubbed her eyes, “Why am I suddenly so sleepy? I must not have slept well last night. And I’m suddenly so hungry. How about this? I’ll go eat something, and we can talk about this later.”

Suddenly feeling dizzy and unable to keep her eyes open, she clutched her stomach as if she would starve if she didn’t eat something immediately. Seeing her already walking away, Wu Mu closed his mouth and didn’t disturb her meal.

In short, the topic was easily diverted. After that, it was never brought up again.

As the wolf beastmen followed behind to see the snake and squirrel off, occasional arguments occurred from a distance. Only when they got too close did the big snake hiss a warning, and no other incidents happened. They walked over hills, entered a forest, passed through it, and into the grasslands, taking three days to leave the wolves’ territory.

Finally, having sent off the two troublesome individuals, the wolf pack, who hadn’t rested well for three days, stood at the edge of their territory and howled in unison, expressing their complex emotions from the past three days and their current relief and joy.

From the grass on the other side came a howl as well. It was the little squirrel, feeling that the wolves were trying to show off before they left, and she howled back defiantly, disrupting the wolves’ rhythm and making them end their howling hastily.

The head wolf, Ling Feng, glanced at the two figures, decisively closed his mouth, and led his pack back toward their settlement.

The little squirrel, who had achieved a trumpet-like effect, stood proudly with her hands on her hips, feeling refreshed as she watched the wolves run away. This mutual tormenting journey had brought her some joy, as she always had someone to talk to.

“Now, we need to find a place to rest,” Song Xu said. In the past three days, she had only dozed off occasionally, while the snake hadn’t slept at all, resting with his eyes open.

Song Xu found a grassy nest and let the big snake lie down. He coiled up in the grass nest like being placed in a bowl, forming a snake bed. Song Xu busily arranged his body neatly, then turned into a squirrel and lay on top. The soft, smooth, and cool snake bed, combined with the sunlight, made for the most comfortable sleeping environment.

Wu Mu was the first to wake up. He was disturbed by a slight noise in the nearby grass. He raised his head and saw a bird flying out of the grass.
There was no danger around, and Song Xu was still sleeping. However, her sleeping position had changed from lying flat on the snake to a stranger position: her head and upper body were buried in the snake’s coils, with only her big tail and hind legs sticking out. This position had appeared before. She instinctively burrowed into the coils to cover herself when she felt too exposed to the sun while sleeping. The first time Wu Mu saw it, he was worried he might crush her, but the little squirrel would groggily get up, smooth out her flattened fur, and become a fluffy, inflated squirrel again.

Now accustomed to it, Wu Mu no longer feared this. He lay in the grass nest, waiting for the squirrel to wake up. His hand, covered in snake scales, stroked the squirrel’s tail, which appeared reddish-brown in the sunlight.

With the squirrel not making noise beside him, Wu Mu recalled the topic Song Xu had avoided. Watching the squirrel run to the side to pick wildflowers and spit them out because they were bitter, he realized she had pretended not to remember what he had said.

Half-beasts generally don’t have mates. In the beast world, a half-beast male who can’t fulfill the reproductive role, like a complete beastman, won’t attract females. He wanted to become a complete beast but couldn’t maintain his half-beast form for long. Strangely, Wu Mu felt his half-beast form was becoming unstable and would soon revert to his beast form. Yet, his thoughts were clearer than ever, even more so than when he could maintain his half-beast form for two years. He was irreversibly sliding towards complete beastification, but he had never been so lucid. His body’s state and his rationality were moving in completely opposite directions. Perhaps in the future, he would become a rational beast.

The squirrel ball nestled in the snake’s coils moved, pushing out her paws and head, shaking her fur as usual. She looked at Wu Mu, her expression both happy and not so happy, muttering, “Why are you still in half-beast form? Why haven’t you changed back?”

She came closer to examine the changes in the snake’s body. The snake scales, which had only covered his waist and abdomen a few days ago, had now spread to his back and chest and faintly appeared on his neck and face, with scales also emerging on his hands.

After checking, Song Xu didn’t say much but loudly announced with a smile, “We’re well-rested. Let’s set off. Who knows what we’ll encounter at the next stop!”

At the next stop, they would encounter a centaur. Picking tender grass stems, Song Xu unknowingly walked a bit far, leaving Wu Mu behind. In this situation, she suddenly locked eyes with a centaur picking tender leaves in the grass, and both were stunned.

The centaur had a horse body with four hooves, a long black tail, brown legs transitioning to a tawny color, a white belly, and a human upper body with deep honey-colored skin and mixed brown and black hair—just like the centaur images Song Xu had seen!

“There’s a centaur!” Song Xu excitedly ran towards the snake, shouting.

Wu Mu startled awake, quickly emerged from the grass.

Panting, Song Xu pointed to the distant grass and said, “There, there’s a centaur!”

The wind shifted, carrying the scent of the resting snake to the forest. The centaur, startled by Song Xu, smelled the snake’s scent and quickly ran out of the sparse forest, away from the snake.

Horses are good runners, and so are centaurs. His figure quickly disappeared, and Song Xu sighed in disappointment, wanting Wu Mu to check it out.

Centaurs, half-snakes, and mermaids are classic fantasy creatures in some literary works. How rare. He ran away before she could finish being excited.

The big snake hissed at the fleeing centaur, and Song Xu quickly jumped up to cover his mouth, “No, he didn’t attack me.”

The big snake closed his mouth, looking puzzled. Why did she shout and ask him to come over if there was no attack?

Song Xu sighed, “That was a half-beast, just like you!”

Wherever they went, they were feared and rejected. Wu Mu probably had never seen another half-beast like him. Now, they had encountered one and could have had a friendly exchange.

Wu Mu didn’t react much and couldn’t understand Song Xu’s excitement. He lay back in the grass to rest, his posture languid. This “languid” look was mainly because he was a flexible snake, and any casual pose looked graceful, unrelated to his temperament. Even with a cold, expressionless face, he looked striking, perhaps even more so because of the contrast.

Song Xu stopped talking about the centaur and sat beside the snake, chewing on grass stems, holding her cheeks, and watching him with a mysterious giggle. Her quick mood changes left Wu Mu puzzled.

Wu Mu:?

Wu Mu noticed the presence of horse-like beasts nearby earlier than Song Xu. Besides them, there were deer, antelope, sheep, and cattle-like beasts. This area, adjacent to the wolf territory, was clearly occupied by a mixed tribe. Herbivores were always part of Wu Mu’s diet, and they didn’t have the strong aggression of carnivores. So, as they passed through this territory, no beasts came out to drive them away. When they entered this area earlier that morning, Wu Mu sensed a horse-like beast watching them from a distance, which soon left. At that time, Song Xu was busy playing in a small roadside ditch and didn’t notice anything.