On the other side, in the darkness.
A handsome young man clutched his chest and hid behind a tree, looking utterly shocked. Even though some time had passed, his face was still filled with disbelief. And mixed in with that shock was an unmistakable hint of ecstatic joy.
What had he just seen?
A powerful creature that the Great Zhou Royal Family had spent a thousand years searching for, yet had never been able to find!
And today, he, Zhou Zhen, had found it!
"Just as I thought. I knew something felt off. I can't believe following Snake Granny tonight turned out to be the right move. I've found the treasure the Zhou Clan searched for over a thousand years without success!"
"The Great Zhou is destined to prosper for another thousand years. No! Perhaps it will endure forever!"
A dragon! What a beautiful and powerful creature!
A creature that might bear dragon blood was about to appear before him, alive and breathing.
At the thought, he hurried away.
At dawn, the thick fog gradually dispersed.
An old woman, her collar damp with dew, stood before a great tree, gently running her fingers over the scratches on its trunk.
It was none other than Snake Granny, who had spent the entire night tracking the traces left by the insect.
Now, as she touched the scratches, she murmured to herself:
"That's it. Even if the creature that left these marks isn't the one from the legends, it must still be inextricably linked to it. It seems the Great Zhou's revival... has hope!"
As she spoke, she took out a small object shaped like a whistle and played it. Before long, a bird, swift and nimble, came swooping down.
She fed the bird, then tied a small scroll of paper she had prepared in advance to its leg.
"Go on, go! Find the place you're meant to go."
Leaving aside the upheavals elsewhere, Bai Chuan had finally reached the riverbank after fleeing for an entire day.
He exhaled softly and glanced behind him. Thankfully, no one had caught up.
But he knew it probably wouldn't be long before someone showed up.
He looked at the river, its surface only recently freed from the ice, then at the small wooden box and Little Mouse in his claw. He wasn't sure what to do.
While fleeing, he'd taken every spare moment to scan the Ice Silkworm. But perhaps because of its unusual nature, or because their sizes differed so drastically, his scan had only reached 20%.
It seemed he wouldn't be able to abandon the mouse just yet.
But given the situation, Bai Chuan eyed the little wooden box, uncertain. If he went into the water and kept it in his claw, it would be submerged. Would that cause trouble?
And how was he supposed to carry the mouse? The two of them couldn't get too far apart.
Bai Chuan lowered his head and thought it over. At last, he looked at the mouse and sighed as it stared back at him in confusion.
He wasn't thrilled about it, but there was no other way.
Damn it, that mouse was getting a free ride.
It was probably the first mouse in history to sit on a snake's back.
That's right. Bai Chuan was fairly large now, and since he was worried about the box getting soaked, he decided not to dive underwater. Instead, he would keep his head and part of his neck above the surface, where they wouldn't get wet.
Then he would hold the box in his mouth, while the little mouse sat on the broad part of his neck.
That way, they wouldn't be too far apart, and he could scan it every so often.
Once he'd made up his mind, Bai Chuan decided to go into the water and catch a few fish to fill his belly. He'd been fleeing all day, and afterward he would have to stay afloat for a long time. He might not get another chance to eat.
He gently set the small wooden box and the mouse back on the ground. Then he used his finger to imitate a few gestures he'd seen Zhang Daring make. He didn't know if the mouse would understand, but after signaling several times for it to stay put, he finally began to back away.
Only after confirming the mouse wasn't running off on its own did Bai Chuan slither into the water.
Once in the water, he didn't immediately go hunting. He stayed submerged, coldly watching the mouse's silhouette on the surface. If it showed even the slightest sign of fleeing, he would burst up and seize it at once.
He didn't dare kill the mouse right now, but that didn't mean he couldn't break all four of its limbs to stop it from escaping.
After watching for a while and confirming that it truly had no intention of running, Bai Chuan finally swam off to search for a large fish.
Why had he done all that? Because he simply didn't trust anything but himself.
How many times had he even seen that mouse? Besides, it was just an animal with no intelligence. How could he possibly trust it completely? Staying on guard was only natural.
The Ice Silkworm's model was at stake, so he couldn't afford to be careless. He couldn't take such a huge risk, steal the item those humans were fighting over, and then have nothing to show for it—only to end up doing someone else's work for them.
Wouldn't that make him a complete sucker?
Before long, the water began to churn violently, as if some enormous creature were rampaging beneath the surface.
Yet not long after, the water grew calm again. With a mighty splash, a monster that looked like a cross between a dragon and a snake poked its head above the water.
Dragging a great deal of water with him, he slowly crawled onto the bank. Beneath his sharp claws was a grass carp nearly seventy centimeters long, its body tea-yellow, belly grayish-white, the edges of the scales along its sides gray-black, and its pectoral and pelvic fins grayish-yellow.
As soon as Bai Chuan reached shore, he first glanced toward the mouse. Seeing that both the wooden box and the mouse were still there, he finally relaxed and began dragging the heavy fish ashore.
He extended his sharp claws and began stabbing into the fish, tearing off strips of flesh amid a series of scale-scraping sounds that set one's teeth on edge.
He handed a piece of fish to the mouse, then paid it no further attention and began wolfing down his food.
For some reason, he realized that he still ate too slowly.
Without sharp teeth to tear the food apart, he had to slowly pull it apart with his claws. That wasn't a problem under normal circumstances, but whenever time mattered, he could feel just how slow it was.
Looks like evolving teeth needs to be added to the agenda.
Bai Chuan silently thought as he ate.
Before long, he felt he'd had enough, while a third of the large fish still remained.
There was nothing for it but to abandon the rest.
Normally, he would have eaten every last bit.
But now he was on the run, and he had to stay in peak condition. To do that, he couldn't eat until he was too full.
After all, snakes became sluggish once they'd eaten their fill, and he still hadn't completely escaped the limitations of a snake's body.
After eating and drinking his fill, Bai Chuan followed the plan he'd made earlier. He gripped the little wooden box in his mouth, carried Little Mouse, and slipped into the water.
He wound his way downstream with the current.
An hour later, the bald, burly Zhang Daring, now back to his normal size, appeared with a Compass-shaped object resting in his palm.
He carefully surveyed the surroundings, then made his way to the riverbank, where Little Mouse had been earlier.
He looked at the fish carcass floating on the water, pecked at by countless small fish and shrimp, then at the Compass, whose needle pointed downstream.
After thinking it over carefully, he took out a crude map drawn on hide and compared it against the surroundings.
He found that there were two great waterways ahead: one led to the Great Marsh, the other to the sea.
There was no doubt the thief couldn't have gone into the sea, since no human could survive there.
So there was only one answer.
His face darkened as he raised his head to look in that direction. Clenching his fist, he slowly spat out:
"Damn it! Their target is the Great Marsh? That's the territory of the Flying Sect and the Earth Dragon Gang. Could this have something to do with them?"
Before you continue