It Was Actually a Little Green Snake

Chapter 8: So It Was a Little Green Snake

Ye Qin carefully crawled out of the cave entrance. The temperature outside was higher, and a wave of heat rushed to meet him.

Having grown accustomed to the cold, damp environment, the warm ground felt somewhat uncomfortable, but that was secondary—after all, snakes can regulate their own body temperature.

The greatest difficulty Ye Qin now faced was the danger lurking everywhere.

Snakes have many natural enemies: hedgehogs, eagles, monitor lizards, serpent eagles, secretary birds, weasels, roadrunners, and so on.

Not to mention that he was now just a thin little black snake. Any of these creatures could easily threaten his life, so he had to be cautious and careful.

Ye Qin didn't want the life he had barely managed to reclaim to once again become another creature's meal.

Snakes are carnivorous, with a wide variety of prey.

From small invertebrates like earthworms, spiders, various insects and their larvae, to vertebrates such as fish, frogs, toads, lizards, other snakes, birds, and small mammals.

Ye Qin had at least once been human. Although he was now a snake, some of his concepts remained unchanged. The mere thought of eating raw, bloody meat made it hard for him to cross that mental hurdle.

"Forget it, I'll look for wild fruit to fill my stomach first."

Ye Qin had observed himself. He was likely still in the juvenile snake stage, not even having fangs yet—probably a non-venomous snake. But as for what specific species, he had no idea.

With such a small body, hunting was nothing short of a fantasy. Any random carnivore could easily catch and kill him.

Snakes have poor eyesight, relying mainly on their tongues to sense vibrations or their built-in "heat sensors" to perceive the world around them. They use rapid tongue-flicking to collect "scent particles" from the air.

This is also why, whenever humans see snakes, they always notice them constantly flicking their tongues.

But perhaps because of cultivation, Ye Qin's sense of smell and vision were both superior to ordinary snakes, and even his speed had increased significantly.

Ye Qin himself was unaware of this, as he had no reference point and simply assumed all snakes were like this.

After all, in his previous life, he had never dealt with snakes, let alone imagined that one day he would transmigrate into one.

A slender black snake slithered through the grass. If one didn't look closely, it could easily be mistaken for a dead twig. Its bright red forked tongue flicked back and forth in the air.

Everything in Ye Qin's eyes was magnified several times over, but his adaptability was decent, and he quickly grew accustomed to this perspective.

A sweet yet slightly bitter fragrance drifted into Ye Qin's nostrils.

"It's coming from the southeast. There should be food for me there."

He followed the scent all the way, and this time, he didn't encounter any natural enemies.

A towering giant of a tree came into view.

Of course, this was from the perspective of Ye Qin in his snake form. In reality, the tree was only about half a person's height, and an adult could easily wrap their arms around it.

The tree was covered in bright red fruits, already ripe. Some had even fallen to the ground, their juices rotting and bursting into dark, almost black flesh.

The scent Ye Qin had just caught was emanating from them.

He didn't know what kind of fruit tree this was, but it should be non-toxic, as many birds were also pecking at the fruit.

Ye Qin couldn't reach the ones on the tree, but plenty had fallen to the ground. He couldn't resist taking a bite. A sour and sweet flavor instantly burst open in his snake mouth.

Although it had a slightly rotten feel, it didn't really matter.

After all, his species had already changed. He could no longer be as particular as a human. Having something to eat was already good enough.

Ye Qin feasted like he was at a fruit buffet. After eating his fill, he followed the same route back to the cave.

He resumed his visualization practice and then started digging again.

Wild fruit wasn't very filling. Although Ye Qin spent most of his time in visualization, which greatly reduced his energy consumption, digging consumed a tremendous amount of physical strength.

He focused his attention, gathering all his strength into his tail, using it as a tool to dig and scoop out the earth.

The scattered clumps of soil around him were pushed aside with his body or head. The movements seemed mechanical, but they required precise control of force and accuracy.

Ye Qin kept adjusting until he finally found the most comfortable and energy-efficient method.

During the digging, his scales would occasionally scrape against harder clumps of dirt and accidentally fall off.

Ye Qin was very particular about cleanliness. Every time he finished digging a pit with his tail, he would rub his lower body against the leaves near the cave entrance to clean the sand and gravel from between his scales.

That day, as he was cleaning as usual, a flash of green light suddenly caught his attention. At first, he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Staring at the faintly glowing green tip of his tail, Ye Qin couldn't help but fall into deep thought.

Probably because his tail was used so frequently, combined with the friction against the ground, all the scorched, dead scales had completely fallen off, and new scales had grown in without him noticing.

The green scales, like tender sprouts, were very small and delicate. Because they hadn't fully unfurled yet, they even looked somewhat fragile.

They formed a stark contrast with the pitch-black scales covering the rest of his body.

Ye Qin couldn't help but widen his eyes. "So I'm not actually a little black snake?"

He had always thought he was black, but now it seemed that might not be the case.

When he first transmigrated, this little snake had been struck by lightning and was in such a miserable state that he had mistakenly assumed its original color was black.

Anyway, Ye Qin wasn't in a hurry. He would wait until all the new scales had grown in.

Although those scorched black scales were ugly and really affected his appearance, he was a snake now and didn't care about looks, so there was no rush.

Everything flowed naturally, without any forced effort.

A familiar hunger panged from his abdomen, making Ye Qin sigh involuntarily.

"I just foraged this morning, and now I'm hungry again. It seems eating only wild fruit simply won't work."

Wild fruit wasn't a snake's primary food. It was fine for supplementing vitamins occasionally, but the main source of nutrition had to come from meat.

Right now, for instance, the frequent pangs of hunger forced Ye Qin to go out again, returning to that fruit tree.

After eating it several times, he felt a growing resistance in his heart.

No matter how delicious something was, eating it every meal would eventually become tiresome.

"Eating only wild fruit won't do."

Ye Qin's head felt a little dizzy—a warning from his body. A snake was, after all, a carnivore. If he didn't hunt soon, he might become the first snake to starve into unconsciousness.

"It looks like I need to find a way to catch some small animals."

Ye Qin observed his surroundings and the terrain. There were quite a few fallen fruits on the ground, and he also spotted traces of small herbivores nearby.

In other words, if he just waited by the tree, there was still hope of catching some small animals.

As for birds, Ye Qin gave up on them immediately.

Though they were numerous, birds were too timid and agile. At the slightest disturbance, they would take flight. Catching them would be too difficult, and Ye Qin didn't want to waste too much energy.

His targets were rodents like field mice and wild rabbits—those were the most suitable for him.

End of this chapter