Chapter 60

The situation was a bit different from what Song Xu had imagined. The island she was on now was not their original destination. When she woke up on the sea, the island she saw in the distance was not it either. In fact, there were three islands in a straight line. When they were on the boat at sea, they only saw the first island, which was their destination.

As a giant, hairless snake that could swim, Wu Mu was the first to be knocked off the boat. He tumbled and floated in the waves, eventually reaching the vicinity of the first island. At that time, the giant tiger was still clinging tightly to the wooden boat, pressing the little squirrel under its belly as they continued to surf. The equally heavy giant tiger and the wooden boat were eventually washed to the vicinity of the second island.

The lightest, the little squirrel, who was clinging to an empty nutshell lifebuoy, drifted the farthest like a feather, arriving near the third island.
Three islands, three individuals, evenly distributed.

Unlike the little squirrel, who was harmless and cute and was directly taken back to the tribe by the orca beastmen on the third island, Wu Mu on the first island was not so lucky. The waves briefly knocked him unconscious. When he resurfaced, he didn’t see the tiger or the squirrel, only the nearby island. The waves that battered them also quickly sent them to their destination.

Not finding the boat around, Wu Mu decided to go ashore, thinking the tiger and squirrel had been washed onto the island. The marine beastmen living on this island were shark beastmen, known as sea killers. Due to their ferocity and large numbers, they occupied the largest first island.
Because of the island’s uniqueness, half-beastmen from the mainland often came here to transform. They usually arrived at the first island, so the shark beastmen were used to the occasional half-beastmen appearing from the sea. Usually, the shark beastmen would either tease or ignore these poor fellows based on their mood, and some with worse temperaments would attack.

When Wu Mu approached the island, a combative white shark beastman was in that direction. He swaggered over to Wu Mu, his jagged mouth wide open, observing this half-beastman.

Looking somewhat like a sea snake, it was clear that the beast’s transformation was in its late stages. Generally, half-beastmen in this state had little rationality and only knew how to attack anything in their own way.

The great white shark blocked the way, waiting for the other to crash into him so he could stretch his muscles. Recently, the sea had been stormy, and it had been long since any land beastmen had come over. He was so bored he almost went to the third island to quarrel with those hooligans.
However, Wu Mu stopped. He recognized the figure in front of him as a beastman and managed to utter a few broken words: “Island, Song Xu, in… Hei Sen, boat, to, island.”

The great white shark didn’t understand what this half-beastman with an unclear mind was saying and didn’t have the patience to figure it out.

What else could a half-beastman coming here want but to enter the island and gnaw on stones to transform?

He grinned maliciously and replied, “That’s right, what you want is on the island, but I won’t let you pass!”

Can the snake tolerate this provocation? He had just lost the squirrel.

Upon hearing this, his face twisted, instantly transforming into a ferocious snake head, and he lunged at the great white shark blocking his way.

“Hmph, do you think you can just come to our tribe whenever you want, useless land beastman! Watch me tear you apart and feed you to the fish!” The great white shark also charged forward.

The sea churned, and streaks of red floated to the surface. The two giant beasts bit and thrashed underwater, dragging red trails that spread around them, only to be diluted by the sea moments later.

The smell of blood attracted other shark beastmen. A sharp-nosed swordfish shark and a hammerhead shark arrived simultaneously, surprised to find their often combative companion, the great white shark, floating belly-up with his eyes rolled back.

“Did he lose the fight? Even the great white shark lost. Should we join in?”

“I’m not going. I thought he was eating some prey here and wanted to get a share. Who knew it was a half-beastman? Forget it.”

“What’s wrong with him? Is he dead?”

“Probably poisoned. Remember when the jellyfish from the neighboring island stung Blotchy? He looked just like this.”

“Should we help him? Let’s drag him away. By the way, where’s the half-beastman who did this to him?” The swordfish shark said, poking the great white shark’s belly with his sharp nose, trying to push him away.

The half-beastman was quietly watching the two shark beastmen from the water. The big snake, with several torn wounds on his body, hadn’t retracted his venomous fangs. He was contemplating whether to attack the newcomers.

At this moment, the great white shark, poked awake by his companion’s sharp nose, struggled and said, “…I can still fight; don’t touch me! I’m the fiercest around here. Everyone avoids me…”

This was true. The great white shark had been provoking others around the three islands since he was young. Not only did the orca beastmen, their natural enemies, avoid him, but even the jellyfish beastmen from the neighboring island, who didn’t like mingling with them, turned away when they saw him, not wanting to deal with him. His quick recovery from the snake’s venom was due to his childhood experience of being poisoned by jellyfish.

The hammerhead shark helped push the great white shark towards the island, advising, “Your eyes are still rolled back. Stop thinking about fighting. The half-beastman is probably gone. Forget about him.”

Most of the tribe on the island didn’t care about the half-beastmen who came from afar. They would gnaw on stones in the island’s sinkhole and leave, not staying here. Their island was a mixed shark tribe. People came and went as they pleased, unlike the orca tribe, who were very exclusive and would hunt any unfamiliar beastmen that approached. Of course, if a tribe member hunted an unfamiliar beastman, they wouldn’t interfere either.

Only the great white shark would provoke every half-beastman he saw, mainly because everyone around here was tired of him and didn’t want to fight him.

The big snake lurked in the water, following the great white shark being pushed by his companions, and swam to the island.

On the island, the three shark beastmen transformed into their humanoid forms. The two pushing were a sharp-nosed, long-chinned one and a big-headed one. The great white shark, with short black hair and dark circles around his eyes, spoke with his jagged, shiny teeth clicking.

After reaching the shore, the great white shark struggled to sit up, insisting on going back into the water to find the venomous half-beastman for another fight, but he couldn’t stand steadily and fell, hitting his head on the ground and creating a pit.

“There’s no half-beastman. We didn’t see anyone. He must have left,” his two companions tried to persuade him.

If Song Xu were here, he could vividly describe the scene of these three interacting—like a drunk causing trouble with his two friends.

With a splash, a big snake head emerged from the water, staring fixedly at the three of them.

The long-nosed one pinched his nose: “He didn’t leave. So, what now, a fight?”

The big-headed one scratched his head: “It seems like he’s saying something?”

The great white shark was irritable. “Who cares what he’s saying? If you’re my brother, let’s go cut him up together!”

Wu Mu repeated his request to find someone to the three of them. Since arriving on this island, he hadn’t sensed the presence of Hei Sen and Song Xu, and he wanted to know if they were deeper inside the island. However, his language abilities had deteriorated significantly in his current state, and the highly intelligent squirrel translator wasn’t there. The three didn’t understand him. The snake also realized they didn’t understand, so he decided to go to the island to look for them himself.

The great white shark tried to stop him, but the land was the snake’s territory. Even the great white shark was poisoned in the sea, let alone on land. Without transforming into his beast form, he couldn’t fight such a big snake, and transforming on land would only make him roll around like a spindle, which was ineffective against the snake.

The snake passed by the staggering great white shark beastman, focusing on finding people on the island. The island was barren, all rocks, with no flowers or greenery in sight. A thought popped into Wu Mu’s not-so-clear mind: Song Xu definitely wouldn’t like it here.

Still bleeding from his wounds, the snake passed by some older shark beastmen. The old sharks, discussing the tribe’s declining birth rate, glanced at him indifferently: “Another half-beastman this year.”

“Fewer half-beastmen have come in recent years.”

A star shark beastman saw the snake with his head held high, looking lost and thought he didn’t know where to go. Some half-beastmen, even after finding the island, didn’t know what to do next and looked confused.

He kicked the snake’s long tail and pointed in a direction: “Hey! Hey! The sinkhole is over there.”

Wu Mu understood the direction and quickly headed that way to find the tiger and squirrel. Of course, he couldn’t remember why he didn’t ask for more information; his mind was now a single-thread processor with only one thought: forward!

The island’s sinkhole was in the center, with water at the bottom year-round, where the tribe fetched fresh water. The appearance of a big snake caught the attention of two water-fetching beastmen, a mother and daughter pair of female blue sharks.

“Hey? Another half-beastman, a snake beastman this time. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a snake.”

“I remember a snake came decades ago. It was fierce, attacking beastmen on sight and poisoning several of us… What’s he doing?”

“Looking for something? The stones are right by his mouth. What’s he looking for?”

Half-beastmen who came here only needed to eat a stone from the sinkhole that emitted a faint blue glow to transform. It wasn’t very difficult; the hardest part was the journey here. But this half-beastman, with stones all around his head, seemed lost, his head turning in all directions, his tongue flicking frequently, but he didn’t lower his head to eat.