Chapter 40: Suspected to Be a Creature Possessing Dragon Blood

Meanwhile, in the darkness.

A handsome young man was covering his chest, hiding behind a tree with an expression of utter shock. Even though some time had already passed, his face was still full of shock, and of course within that shock there was also a hint of unconcealable wild joy.

What had he seen?

A powerful being that his Great Zhou imperial family had spent a thousand years searching for, yet could never obtain!

Today, it had actually been found by him, Zhou Zhen!

"Just as I thought! I said something felt off. I never expected that following She Po tonight would be the right call. The treasure that my Zhou clan couldn't find in a thousand years — I've found it!"

"It is fated that my Great Zhou shall flourish for another thousand years! No — perhaps for eternity!"

A dragon! What a beautiful and powerful creature!

A being that might possess Dragon Blood was about to appear before him, alive.

Thinking of this, he hurried away.

……

At dawn, the thick fog gradually dispersed.

An old woman with a dampening collar stood before a large tree, gently stroking the scratch marks on it.

This person was none other than She Po, who had spent the entire night tracking the traces left by the bug.

Stroking the marks, she could not help muttering to herself:

"Yes, even if the creature that left these traces is not the legendary one, it must still have an inseparable connection. It is fated that I… shall rise. There is hope!"

Saying so, she took out a small whistle-like object and began to play it. Before long, a bird of astonishing speed and agility flew down.

She fed the bird a little, then tied a small paper scroll she had long prepared to its leg.

"Go, go! Go find where you should go."

……

Setting aside the various changes elsewhere, at this moment, Baichuan's side.

After fleeing for an entire day, he had finally reached the riverbank.

He let out a soft breath and glanced behind him. Fortunately, no one had caught up.

But he knew it wouldn't be long before someone appeared.

He looked at the river surface, which had only just thawed, then glanced at the small wooden box and the little mouse in his claws, feeling a bit troubled.

Although he had occasionally scanned the Ice Silkworm during his spare moments while fleeing, perhaps due to the Ice Silkworm's special nature and the enormous difference in their sizes,

the scan had only just reached 20%. It seemed he could not abandon this mouse for now.

But given the current situation, Baichuan glanced at the small wooden box, uncertain. If he entered the water while still gripping it in his claws, the box would surely be submerged. Could something go wrong?

And how was he to carry the mouse? After all, the two could not be too far apart.

Baichuan lowered his head in thought, then finally looked at the mouse, and sighed at its confused expression.

Although a bit reluctant, there was no other choice.

Damn it, what a bargain for this mouse.

This mouse was probably the first mouse in history to ride on a snake's back.

That's right, because Baichuan was now not small in size. Since he was worried about the wooden box getting soaked, he decided that when entering the water he would not dive, but instead hold up his head and part of his neck — that spot wouldn't get wet.

Then he would grip the box in his mouth, and the little mouse would sit on his broad neck.

This way the two wouldn't be far apart, and he could scan from time to time.

Having made up his mind, Baichuan decided to first go into the water and catch a few fish to fill his stomach. After all, he had been fleeing for a day, and if he had to stay floating on the surface afterward, there might hardly be any more time to eat.

He gently placed the small wooden box and the mouse back on the ground, then used his fingers to mimic a few gestures like that Zhang Dadan had made, regardless of whether it could understand. After signaling several times for it to stay put,

Baichuan slowly backed away. Seeing that the mouse didn't run off on its own, he crawled and slipped into the water.

After entering the water, he didn't go hunting right away, but stayed beneath the surface, coldly watching the mouse's figure on the bank. The moment it showed any sign of fleeing, he would burst out and seize it.

Although he currently didn't dare kill this mouse, that didn't mean he couldn't break its limbs to prevent it from escaping.

After watching for a while and confirming it truly had no intention of fleeing, Baichuan finally swam off to look for big fish.

As for why he did this — of course, it was simply because he trusted nothing beyond himself.

How many times had he and that mouse even met? And it was just a mindless animal. How could he possibly be a hundred percent at ease with it? Being wary of it was only natural.

After all, the Ice Silkworm's model was at stake — he had to be careful. He couldn't have taken such a huge risk, stolen what those humans were fighting over, with the possibility of them coming to his door at any moment, only to end up gaining nothing and making wedding clothes for someone else.

Wouldn't that make him a complete fool?

Before long, the water began churning violently, as if some enormous creature were rampaging within.

But shortly after, the surface calmed. With a massive sound of breaking water, a dragon-like, snake-like monster raised its head from beneath.

Carrying a great deal of water, it slowly crawled ashore. Under its sharp claws was firmly pinned a grass carp nearly seventy centimeters long, tea-yellow in body, grayish-white on the belly, with grayish-black edges on the scales along its sides, and grayish-yellow pectoral and pelvic fins.

Once ashore, Baichuan first glanced toward where the mouse was. Seeing that both the wooden box and the mouse were there, he finally relaxed and began dragging the heavy big fish up the bank.

He extended his sharp claws and began stabbing them repeatedly into the fish's body. Amid the grating sounds of scale-scraping that made one's teeth ache, he tore off strip after strip of fish meat.

Then he tossed a piece of fish meat toward the mouse, paid it no more attention, and began gulping down food in big bites.

For some reason, he found his eating efficiency was still too low.

Now, without sharp teeth to bite straight through, he had to slowly tear with his claws. Normally this wouldn't matter, but when Time was of the essence, it felt far too slow.

It seemed the evolution of teeth also needed to be put on the agenda.

Baichuan thought silently as he ate the fish meat.

Before long, he felt he had eaten enough, but at this point a third of the big fish still remained.

At this, Baichuan could only helplessly choose to abandon it.

Under normal circumstances, he would have eaten it all.

But now he was on the run, so he had to maintain his best condition, and to do that he couldn't eat too much.

After all, once a snake has eaten its fill, it becomes difficult to move; he still had not completely escaped the physical limitations of a snake's body.

After eating his fill and replenishing some water, Baichuan followed the plan he had arranged earlier, bit down on the small wooden box, and took Xiao haozi into the water.

He slithered away all the way, following the direction of the current.

……

An hour later, the bald-headed big fellow Zhang Dadan, who had already returned to his normal size, appeared holding an object shaped like a Compass.

He carefully surveyed the surroundings, and finally came to the bank — the very spot where Xiao haozi had previously stopped.

He looked at the fish carcass floating on the water's surface, being pecked at by countless small fish and shrimp, and at the Compass pointing toward the downstream direction of the river.

He thought it over carefully, then took out a crude piece of cowhide paper, and compared it for a moment.

He discovered that ahead there were two enormous tributaries — one was Daze, the other was the great sea.

Without a doubt, that thief could not possibly have entered the great sea, because no human could survive there.

Therefore, there was only one answer.

His face darkened as he raised his head to look in that direction, clenched his fist, and slowly spat out:

"Damn it! Their target is actually Daze — that place is the territory of the Flying Sky Cult and the Earth Dragon Gang. Could this matter be connected to them?"

(End of chapter)