It seemed that their conversation that day had brought them closer.
Xing Rui visited Blackwater Swamp more and more often.
She always brought prey with her.
Miss Xing Rui's territory was rich. Sometimes she brought a long-haired deer, sometimes a capybara she had dragged from the Mara River. When she was lucky, she could even find large hoofed animals.
By accepting the prey, Famu accepted Xing Rui's visits, and so Blackwater Swamp gained a visitor.
Xing Rui would coil up beside the broadest pool in the swamp. The two giant beasts stayed several meters apart, sharing the same expanse of murky water.
Headscar and the troop of White-Faced Monkeys were the most sensitive to this. They hid far away on the bank, watching the two colossal creatures settle in the shallows. Low vibrations passed between them, and bubbles gurgled up on the surface.
A shaft of sunlight slanted through a gap in the clouds, falling on the muddy ground nearest the shallows. It was one of the few sunny spots in all of Blackwater Swamp.
"It's so quiet here."
Xing Rui lay on the rock where Famu had once basked in the sun, her body stretched out. Her dark green scales gleamed softly in the sunlight, their texture like jade steeped at the bottom of a river.
"No wonder you don't know anything," she added.
Famu looked at her. "What?"
"Anything." Xing Rui lightly slapped the water with her tail. "Lords, priests, queens... You don't know a thing. You're as ignorant as a hatchling fresh out of its egg. That only happens to the abandoned. Typhons that are too weak are exiled, and abandoned individuals naturally can't receive their inheritance. They don't even know they're Typhons, and probably never gain intelligence before they die of old age."
She tilted her head. "But you're different. You're extraordinarily strong, and you're skilled in Mud Language. That proves you've mastered the most basic knowledge and are more intelligent than a snake. Once a talent like yours enters a lord's territory, the old priests there would fight to claim you."
Famu did not argue.
From Xing Rui's perspective, he really did look like an abandoned orphan, with no clan, no inheritance, and no memories of Typhon civilization.
As for Mud Language, he had learned it on the spot from Xing Rui. Before that, Famu had been unable to speak.
"This water system is almost cut off." Xing Rui gazed at the distant black line of water. "I followed prey and the currents, and it still took me a long time to find this place. There are no large waterways, no schools of fish, and no reliable hunting grounds. At most, there are monkeys here. Those little things can barely fill the gaps between your teeth."
The sun continued to shine as the clouds drifted. A waterbird cried out in the distance, and the wind swallowed the sound.
She was right. The water system here was almost cut off from the outside world. Tributaries wound back and forth through the rainforest, and Blackwater Swamp barely connected to the main river. Unless the rainy season brought floodwaters, it was hard even to find a flowing route to the waterways outside.
For a Typhon, that was like digging a trench at the edge of civilization, isolating oneself in a blank space on the map.
Xing Rui turned back to Famu, full of curiosity. "So how did you survive? Ten years in a place like this, and you even grew this big."
Famu chose silence, because the truth was harder to explain than any lie at this point.
In the span of one rainy and dry season cycle, he had become the master of this swamp and eaten nearly all the large prey around Blackwater Swamp. If Xing Rui knew the truth, she would not have asked how Famu had survived. She would have asked how the swamp had survived the Black Typhon's appetite until now.
"Silent again. Sometimes you really are like a 'Muerjia.'" Xing Rui did not press him.
"Muerjia?" Famu picked up on the new word.
"My mother is a Muerjia. In Savage Species terms, that means a territorial lord," Xing Rui explained, her tail trailing across the water and sending out gentle ripples. "Muerjia means 'the one who dwells at the bend in the river.' Every river has a bend where the current slows, silt settles, and fish gather. All life passes through there, and the Muerjia is there too."
"She dwells in the deepest part of the riverbed, her head facing the oncoming current and her tail hidden in the swamp and mist. She senses every drop of water that passes through her territory first."
"She is the master of that river, and the river is her body."
Xing Rui recited an ancient proverb. Famu could hear how rusty the young female Typhon's Mud Language was, yet she recited the line beautifully. She had probably repeated it countless times in her mind.
"We have an ancient proverb: every tributary of Samei eventually flows into the sea, but every tributary first flows into a Muerjia's throat."
Blackwater Swamp fell quiet for a moment.
What an impressive race, Famu marveled.
From the fragments Xing Rui had shared, he caught a glimpse of how the Typhons, a higher race, ruled the rainforest.
They had their own language and history, and even their own way of describing power.
And with a higher race like that occupying the top of the ecosystem, the creatures of the rainforest could only live in the Typhons' shadow. It was truly hopeless.
Fortunately, he was a Typhon.
Hm?
Something suddenly occurred to Famu.
Had he become a Typhon because only a Typhon could avoid the vast majority of risks and survive in this rainforest?
The Life Scepter System had recorded the genes of every living creature on the surface during the human era.
After all those years of evolution, had the Scepter System obtained the genes of present-day creatures, such as Typhons?
Famu's special organ was gradually maturing.
He seemed to be learning to use that power. His perception could extend outward along vibrations, just as he controlled his own limbs.
Some time later, as the dry season drew closer, Famu returned from outside the swamp and saw that mass of green Typhon in the distance.
Xing Rui stared at him.
"What was that just now?" Xing Rui asked.
"My power was extending outward," Famu answered. He also hoped Xing Rui could give him some answers about the special organ.
If Xing Rui did not know, that would mean the organ was a product of the Staff of Life.
"Grandmother Zonna above." Xing Rui sighed. "What kind of monster are you?"
Judging by Xing Rui's reaction, she clearly knew where this power came from.
She was only surprised that Famu had it, or rather, that Famu should not have had it at this stage.
Xing Rui blinked and slowly drew closer. "You really don't know?"
She swam a circle around Famu, and a low resonance began to emanate from beneath her head.
That resonance resonated with the special organ inside Famu.
"That's a Biological Furnace Core." Xing Rui sounded somewhat reluctant.
"The Furnace Core is a Typhon's most important organ, even more important than the heart. Other creatures rely on flesh and blood, claws and teeth, but Furnace-Core Creatures are different. The Furnace Core lets us hear the earth, and it lets the earth hear us. Powerful Typhons can use the Furnace Core's power to change the water and soil around them."
"All vibrations come from here."
"The earth bestowed Furnace Cores upon us. Only beings with Furnace Cores are worthy of being called the masters of Samei. Those beasts without Furnace Cores are nothing but moving chunks of meat, food that Mother Earth left for us."
"I told you about the Typhons' coming-of-age rite. In truth, a Typhon's adulthood isn't determined by size or age. A Typhon becomes an adult when its Furnace Core matures, though most female Typhons' Furnace Cores become complete between the ages of sixteen and eighteen. It grows deep within the spine, connecting vibrations to the earth. It is our true sense."
Famu thought of the times when vibrations had traveled along the water and flowed into his mind.
That was his Furnace Core sensing the world for him.
"At your age," Xing Rui said, deeply puzzled, "you shouldn't theoretically be able to feel anything yet."
Famu told her to go on.
Xing Rui's voice grew quieter and began to carry a trace of wariness.
She, too, had thought of a detail.
During the skirmish when they first met, Famu's roar underwater had sent out a vibration that had directly overturned Xing Rui and stopped her counterattack.
So—
This guy can already use the Furnace Core's power?
Grandmother Zonna.
"Generally speaking, outstanding males are chosen as priests. They master Mud Language, record the ancestors, and command the shadows of the swamp. Females inherit the power of the Child of the Earth and become warriors. But you're strange. You have a male body, yet it's as if you inherited a power only females possess."
"Your Furnace Core might be... a Child of the Earth of the purest blood."
Child of the Earth.
It did not sound like a biological term. It was closer to some ancient myth.
The Child of the Earth's Furnace Core was maturing inside Famu, as though a myth were growing within his bones and flesh.