God of Snakes

The Giant Beast that loved observing civilizations yet was extremely fond of sleep was not limited to Kangqiao in this world.

Although Kangqiao was special, what made him special was his soul. There were many beings in the world of Giant Beasts whose bodies were only slightly less extraordinary than Kangqiao's.

A very, very long time ago, when the entire world was still an ocean,

one night, a tiny creature that resembled a many-legged worm left the deep sea beneath the moonlight drawn down by countless algae.

It entered the land and became the first creature to do so.

He was ignorant and knew nothing whatsoever about the world.

It merely ate by instinct, avoided danger by instinct, and underwent instinctive evolution over countless years in the process.

Unlike the other marine creatures that had also entered the land, it was not bound by lifespan. It was exceptionally unusual, changing almost every so often.

In the end, it assumed the form of a snake upon the barren Primordial Continent.

From then on, it began to grow fond of sleep.

It was also during one of its periods of slumber and awakening that he discovered a dense swarm of weak little creatures had appeared beside him at some unknown time.

These creatures were truly too small. Though numerous, they were not even enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.

Of course, that was not the important part.

What mattered was that it discovered these weak little creatures gathered around it actually all looked very much like it.

Although tiny, this was the first time it had seen creatures resembling itself on this land.

Thus, they successfully drew the attention of its newly awakened intelligence and stirred a trace of curiosity within it.

Then, as its intelligence was only just awakening, it protected these little creatures and occasionally left them scraps of the prey it had hunted.

Over time, after falling asleep and waking again one day, it discovered that the little creatures at its side had changed once more.

They had grown larger, and some had even sprouted a pair of strange "legs" on their upper bodies.

Not only had these little fellows become strange, but after it awoke, they even offered it a large pile of food it found somewhat beneath its notice.

Though it looked down on the food, for some reason, it still went along with it and ate it.

It accepted the worship of these little creatures. Rather than harming them, it became even more curious.

After that, it watched these little creatures go out to hunt creatures many times larger than themselves for it. Even when a great many died, they stubbornly continued attacking the "Giant Beast" until they killed it completely.

Seeing that a large number of the little creatures had died, then watching the rest joyfully bring the food before it,

for a moment, a strange emotion surfaced within its not-very-bright mind.

It was moved, content, and pitying.

It did not know what was happening to it.

It still did not understand where emotions came from. Though its intelligence had awakened long ago, no one had taught it knowledge, and it spent most of its time sleeping, so it naturally was not very clever.

But as it looked at the slain Giant Beast before it, at the delighted, cheering expressions of those little fellows after it ate the food, for one moment, it too was exceedingly, exceedingly happy.

This happiness had come for no reason, yet he greatly enjoyed the sight of being surrounded and cheered by this group of weak creatures.

Because it was happy, it personally went out hunting and brought back a great deal of Blood Food as a gift for these little fellows who had suffered heavy casualties.

And so, the story of it and its people continued to this day.

In a vast underground cavern, it awoke today.

It had not been awakened by its people, but by hunger—and also by a vague sense of danger.

The sense of danger was extremely faint. After waking, it had not even noticed it itself.

It could be said that it had never fully understood or used its own strength, so how could it possibly know of this precognitive ability akin to intuition?

Unlike Kangqiao, it had awakened many times, waking once or twice in nearly every thousand years.

Every time it awoke, it could see its people quickly offering it food.

As such, it had developed a lazy habit.

It rarely left the cavern. Each time it finished eating the food offered by its people, it would observe how its people and their tribe had developed over the many years while it slept.

Watching its tiny people cheer, watching them come and go, watching them live in the dim world,

this feeling of looking down from a higher dimension was very interesting.

He had already become very fond of and satisfied with such a life.

As for the goal of a snake's life—what did one live for?

He had no such profound understanding. Wasn't a creature's existence simply for eating and sleeping?

Oh, right. There was also watching the state of survival of its weak people.

Today, he awakened once more.

But today was very strange. Why were there so many fewer people constantly gathered around it?

Moreover, the entire deep, dark cavern world held fewer people than it had seen last time.

Not half fewer, but nearly eighty percent fewer.

Within the entire cavern, the most common sight in the distance was Serpent People's snake eggs, along with tribespeople and Serpent monsters caring for them.

Seeing their god suddenly awaken ahead of time, the few people standing guard nearby were greatly alarmed.

Yet amid their alarm was a trace of delight.

Under the gaze of the God of Darkness and Poisonous Fog, the Serpent People began gesturing wildly about something.

But the God of Snakes could not understand them at all!

Like Kangqiao, he had not learned a means of effectively communicating with his people.

It was not that it could not learn, but that it was enormous, and its vocal organs differed from those of the Serpent People. More than that, as a Giant Beast and an intelligent life-form that was not particularly bright, it had simply not yet realized the importance of learning to communicate.

Besides, their levels of life were different. Why should it learn how to communicate with lower life-forms?

Furthermore, it had now become lazy by nature. Even slightly changing its sleeping position felt troublesome to it, so how could it possibly learn something as bothersome as language?

These pitiful, weak people could never be the same individuals it saw whenever it awoke. That was apparent from their differing heights and scales.

Though it was not clever, its memory was absurdly good, so it could remember every trait of each Serpent Person it had seen before with perfect clarity.

Even if it had slept for a very long time.

"What a bunch of pitiful little fellows with such short lives."

It merely watched the tiny people dancing and gesturing beneath it.

It had already reached a conclusion and subconsciously assumed that the Serpent People were probably out hunting.

They were likely preparing delicious food for it.

If these little fellows learned that it had awakened, they would surely return soon, wouldn't they?

With that thought, it treated the wildly gesturing Serpent People as entertainment before its meal and watched them with great interest.

However, it did not know that the Serpent People outside were indeed "hunting."

Yet all the food they hunted was being handed over to a tribe called Water's Children.

What was more, just as the Serpent People fulfilled their agreement and delivered the final batch of Blood Food to the Shark People, an even greater crisis was already drawing near.

Far beyond several mountains from the Serpent People's settlement, a large group of Dinosaur People was racing toward them.

And trailing far behind the Dinosaur People was a Giant Beast that appeared somewhat helpless.