Chapter 75

A squad of soldiers had chased them from the Supply Station.

Following the stream upstream through the canyon, they encountered nothing but calm waters along the way—no anomalies whatsoever.

They had been stationed at the Sinkhole for so long that they had always turned a blind eye to the Poachers’ activities. Those guys who danced on the edge of the law tended to haunt just a few concentrated spots. If they could find them, they could catch Lai An.

But if Lai An had truly been corrupted by pollution, did they really have full confidence they could subdue him?

“I say, maybe we should just call it quits…” someone muttered. “Clearing out a Pollution Source isn’t our job anyway. Better to report it to the Marshal.”

That soldier had already beaten the Drum of Retreat. They were on the verge of plunging into the bottomless Giant Wood Jungle, and the sky was gradually darkening. The stifling, humid air only made tempers fray further.

“We’ve come this far—think we’re just turning back now? If Lai An really is polluted, he might spread the particles before the Marshal’s troops even arrive. Then we’re all done for.”

Lai An himself might still be the least of their worries.

If he had been infected by a Pollution Source, it meant the source had already reached the shallows.

That was the truly terrifying part.

“I’ve got a hunch. Trailing that guy will definitely lead us to the Pollution Source.”

The mission was dangerous, no doubt. But if they succeeded, the rewards would be unimaginable.

Then they could finally escape this godforsaken Supply Station—maybe even get folded into the cushy Patrol Team, living high on the hog.

Each soldier harbored his own ulterior motives. Before they knew it, they had slipped beneath the towering giant trees. The stream gurgled past their feet, while thick, unyielding mist blocked their view of the distance.

“Over here… footprints!”

Human footprints appeared on the ground.

They traced the stream bank upstream before vanishing at the water’s edge.

The person had waded into the stream.

The current was swift—no normal person would choose to enter the water. The prints’ pattern was utterly unnatural.

It was as if he had leaped into the creek in blind panic, chasing something without a care for anything else.

“Weird…”

Even stranger, the water’s flow grew eerie from a certain point onward. It rushed fiercely ahead, but past that segment, it slowed abruptly, as if blocked by some barrier.

Almost like a dam had been thrown up.

But there couldn’t possibly be a dam here. More likely, some obstacle was obstructing it.

The group pressed on in silence. After another stretch, the leader suddenly halted.

“Don’t go any further!”

The others peered ahead and froze in place.

A thoroughly corrupted human skeleton lay piled in the middle of the stream. Its bones had crystallized, far heavier than normal, which kept them from being swept away.

The Pollution Detectors on their belts all blared in unison. The pollution levels here were far beyond safe limits.

The skeleton was bisected at the waist, as if something had coiled around it and snapped it in two.

Beneath the night sky, the bones began to writhe. Then a massive, purple-red snake tail emerged from the water. The bones gradually fused with the bizarre creature, and everyone heard the spine-chilling crack of bone and flesh melding.

The unidentified creature merged with the skeleton, its body swelling and elongating once more. A human hand slapped down on the bank.

It had devoured the bones and sprouted a human upper torso.

Not only that—the shoulders were draped in a Poacher’s jacket.

The soldiers recognized it at a glance. In that video footage, Lai An had worn the exact same one.

So the corpse just now was… Lai An?

Terror of the unknown clung to their bodies like a snake’s shed skin. The enormous tail coiled in the water, mostly submerged and indistinct, while the human torso slowly turned to face them.

In that instant, all thoughts of drawing their guns and firing fled their minds.

Under the gaze of those dark red snake eyes, their legs went rigid. They couldn’t move.

Was this thing… the King Snake?

No one had ever told them the King Snake could grow a human body.

“Run…”

The leader mumbled, “Run, now…”

The soldiers scrambled to their feet and fled the waterway without looking back.

The monstrous entity that had risen from the stream pinched its rigid jaw with its still-unfamiliar human hands, staring at the retreating humans’ backs.

Beneath the night, its scales gleamed with an eerie, watery sheen.

It let out a strange chuckle before plunging back into the stream.

~~~

After being away from camp for an entire day, Luo Li had gotten lost.

The Giant Tree Forest was far more labyrinthine than he had imagined. Beneath the heavy fog, finding his way back to the Supply Station he had spotted that day proved shockingly difficult.

Night had fallen at some point without him noticing. He followed a small creek, hoping to return to camp, but the countless forks left him dizzy and disoriented.

He stopped again, now deep within the jungle.

Everything was pitch black.

Aside from trees and water, he saw nothing—no sign of another soul.

Only then did fear creep into Luo Li’s heart. His feet ached, and pushing on would only drain his strength for nothing.

If only he could run into someone. Even if it was a soldier come to arrest him, that would be fine…

Just then, a cave mouth appeared behind a nearby giant tree.

It looked like a void left by a rockslide—deep, with faint sounds echoing from within.

Luo Li edged toward it cautiously. Halfway there, something tripped him.

He looked down. It was a man’s jacket.

…Someone was here!

The surge of joy lasted only half a second before his smile faded.

The jacket at the cave mouth looked familiar.

The man who had snuck into his tent that night… he thought it had been wearing the exact same one…

Was the person inside that bastard?

If it really was the creep who had invaded his tent, barging in might not only leave him too scared to confront the intruder—he could end up getting taken advantage of again.

But leaving now meant he still wouldn’t find his way back…

He bent to pick up the jacket from the ground. His fingers brushed something unexpectedly—a dark red liquid staining it.

The jacket was soaked in blood.

Luo Li gasped and bolted without thinking. But in the darkness, he didn’t see the ground clearly as he spun around. With one misstep, he tumbled straight into the cave.

His body plunged downward, and the boy let out a shrill scream.

…

In the pitch-black void, a pair of eyes slowly turned toward him.

The boy who had slipped from the cave mouth plummeted into the Pool, flailing for a moment before his small head broke the surface.

His long hair was soaked halfway down, his neat little clothes drenched through. Water streamed down his snow-white face. He had choked on several gulps and now clung to the bank, coughing raggedly.

Beneath his thin shirt, the faint outline of his slender waist was visible.

The curve was soft and graceful, the fabric clinging tightly to reveal a tantalizing flush of pink through the translucent cloth.

The hem of his shorts had ridden up high, wedged at the root of his thighs.

From behind, the edge bit deep into his flesh, stretched taut by the plumpness of his rear.

Such a build utterly defied the norms of Sinkhole creatures. A waist that slim, a back so delicate, shoulders so narrow—yet paired with such voluptuous hips and thighs. It made his vision swim.

That face could pass for a mere fledgling in any clan—boyish and immature, perhaps not even reproductively mature.

Yet he bore the full, ripe curves of a mature female’s backside and thighs.

The Pool was not deep; he soon clambered onto the bank, gasping great lungfuls of air.

To them, water was the seed of life—no quantity could induce panic.

But for this fragile little being, too much water threatened to drown him.

Having choked, the boy spat water from his flushed lips onto the ground. He still clutched his chest, coughing, thin strands of saliva dripping from his tongue tip. His eyes reddened further, his breaths coming uneven and labored.

He sat at the Pool’s edge, legs tucked together, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hand as he panted unsteadily.

The cave was chill and damp, thick with a fishy stench, dim and foreboding.

“I-Is anyone there…?”

Luo Li called out tentatively.

His voice was hoarse; the cold made him shiver uncontrollably.

The cave bottom seemed empty.

He tried to stand, but his ankle throbbed with pain at the slightest movement—it must have been sprained.

So… where the hell was this place?

Luo Li hugged himself, arms wrapped around his chest, staring around in helpless confusion.

Even with no one there, why did the back of his neck prickle?

In the shadows he couldn’t see, amid the darkness, that pair of eyes drew ever closer.

One of the boy’s shoes had come off, sinking into the Pool.

His dainty ankle lay bare, slightly swollen from the injury. It looked so delicate—one gentle touch, and he might burst into tears.

Undried droplets trailed down his skin in rivulets. Freshly washed by the water, his body gleamed with pale luminescence in the dim cave, impossible to look away from.

His foot was hurt.

He seemed cold.

A little thing without claws, without a tail, without even scales. So weak, so beautiful—alone in this jungle.

He needed a warm nest where he could be properly settled, his body cleaned up thoroughly.

Luo Li gently rubbed his ankle.

To anyone else, it might have been just a sprain, but to him, the pain was already excruciating.

What rotten luck… He should have just stayed back at the camp.

Now he couldn’t even walk.

And there was no one around to carry him.

He couldn’t help sniffling in grievance. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he tried to prop himself up—only to feel an arm snake around his waist. Strong hands lifted him effortlessly into the air.

His mind went blank.

He whipped his head around and came face-to-face with a stranger.

An adult man with dark red long hair had appeared out of nowhere. Without warning, he pressed close, cradling Luo Li as he carried him slowly deeper into the cave.

“Who are you…” Luo Li asked dazedly.

The words had barely left his lips when his gaze drifted downward. Horror seized him in an instant.

The man had no legs.

His lower body was a massive, scaly purple-red snake tail!

Luo Li forgot to breathe. Tears of pure terror welled up, and he struggled desperately—but the monster only clutched him tighter.

Deep within the unknown cavern, Luo Li was gently set down. His buttocks brushed against something strange.

A pile of oval objects, resembling stones, were stacked in the cave right beside his legs.

Luo Li reached out on instinct and touched one of the egg-shaped things.

It felt just like… eggs.

One huge, heavy egg after another lay there beside him.

Tears blurring his vision, the boy looked up at the towering, muscular snake-tailed monster looming before him.

Sobbing softly, he whispered, “A-are you… do you want me to hatch the eggs…?”

He shrank back. “I don’t know how…”