Snatching Food from Snake's Mouth

Leaving the tree hollow, he kept crawling forward along the stream. The tall, lush trees gradually gave way to sparse woodland.

The sky above grew ever more open, no longer blocked by branches. This was the sparsely wooded mountainside.

At that moment, Bai Chuan stopped and crawled no farther.

The sky ahead was too open, making it difficult for him to conceal his tracks.

He quietly hid himself on a branch, keeping his snake head low as he watched the distance, his tongue constantly flicking in and out.

Thus began a long wait.

Time slowly passed. Who knew how long it had been?

A Deer Herd passed by. Snakes went past. Three to five wolves ran through. Yet Bai Chuan treated them as if they were nothing and paid them no heed.

Then, just then, two furry rabbit heads appeared at the same time in the distant bushes, vanished, then appeared again.

If someone had crept close enough to look carefully at that moment, they would have seen that, for some reason, both rabbits were Standing Upright, constantly using their two forelimbs to "spar" with one another.

It was exceedingly bizarre.

Bai Chuan's eyes lit up at the sight.

Well, damn. Buy one, get one free? Even better.

Having finally waited for his targets to appear, Bai Chuan no longer continued hiding. His thick, long body began winding down the tree trunk.

Thanks to Rabbit's previously enhanced ability—Danger Perception—he had finally gained a rough idea of the alert range of rabbits.

Knowing the other side's limits, while they had somehow lowered their guard, Bai Chuan's prepared scheme quickly brought him into the bushes near the two Wild Hares.

Then Bai Chuan saw a sight so shocking his eyes nearly popped out: the two rabbits were imitating humans, using their forelimbs to "spar."

For a moment, his mind froze, and a flood of questions sprang up within it.

What was going on? Had these two rabbits gone stupid? If he ate them, would he catch whatever disease they had?

Meanwhile.

At some unknown point, not far behind where Bai Chuan had been hiding, a Handsome Fierce Bird had appeared at the tip of a thick branch.

Its forehead, crown, nape, and the sides of its head were dark brownish-black. The bases of its neck feathers were white; its white eyebrow stripes bore black shaft streaks; its ear coverts were black; its upper body and tail were grayish-brown; its flight feathers had dark brown crossbars, with white patches at the bases of the inner webs.

It was unmistakably a Goshawk!

It stood there silently, its sharp eagle eyes fixed firmly on the two frolicking rabbits below.

Clearly, this Goshawk had also set its sights on Bai Chuan's targets.

Below, Bai Chuan remained unaware. Having recovered his senses, he no longer cared what was happening. He would take the other side down first and figure it out later.

If he was worried, he could just scan them afterward.

Holding his breath, he prepared to attack. Since he was not hunting for food, but merely to obtain an ability model, Bai Chuan did not intend to attack the relatively larger one. Instead, he chose the smaller rabbit.

His upper body arched, gathering strength...

Just then, a sharp whistle of tearing air came from far to near.

Startled, Bai Chuan abruptly raised his head and saw a massive bird dive toward him with its wings slightly tucked in.

Startled by this, the two "frolicking" Wild Hares also stopped moving. Each picked a direction and sprang away on flying legs.

"Damn it!" Bai Chuan cursed. This sudden turn of events had frightened his targets away, causing his sure-fire attack to miss.

He raised his snake head, flicking his tongue as he stared fixedly at the Eagle that swooped past. By sheer coincidence, the eagle had chosen the smaller one as its target too.

He did not know what kind of Eagle it was. He could only barely make out that a patch of its head was bald for some reason, as if something had pecked the feathers away. Its wingspan exceeded one meter but would not surpass one and a half.

Compared to a Wild Hare, its size indeed qualified it as a bird of prey. But compared with his enormous snake body, over three meters long, it could only be called small.

Granted, birds of prey were all natural enemies of snakes. But Bai Chuan could say with certainty that, among the natural enemies of a King Cobra, this little fellow's name was definitely not included.

Watching the large bird swiftly seize the target he had picked and fly away—so arrogantly that it did not even spare him a glance—an indescribable sense of stifled frustration surged into Bai Chuan's heart.

Reason told him that failed hunts were commonplace. If it did not work this time, he could try again next time. Besides, how could a snake that could not fly possibly fight a bird that could?

Especially a bird of prey, one of the most dangerous kinds of birds.

True, this Eagle could do nothing to a snake as large as him, but he could do nothing to it either. The moment things looked bad, it could spread its wings and soar away.

If he pushed it too far and it remembered the grudge, then kept harassing him whenever he hunted and startling his prey in advance—that would be truly miserable.

If it were a little smarter still and attacked while he was feeding, when he had no ability to resist, those sharp Eagle Claws were no decoration. He might even end up falling into its hands.

So he was destined to swallow this hidden loss.

Endure it. He would endure it for now.

Once he had grown stronger after a while, it would not be too late to come back for revenge.

As the saying went, a gentleman's revenge can wait ten years.

Four days later, deep in the night.

Bright moonlight spilled over this lush, dense forest.

At this moment, all was still around them. Only the occasional chirping of insects and intermittent rustling sounds signaled that creatures active at night inhabited this forest.

A pair of faintly glowing eyes suddenly lit up in the darkness.

Then came an exceedingly soft slithering sound.

It was the sound of a large snake crawling past.

In the darkness, the snake freely stretched out its massive body and wound its way forward.

As though it had some purpose, it went out of its way to avoid places touched by moonlight, as if afraid of being discovered by something.

It kept moving in a certain direction, and only in a few places where there was no way to hide did this snake reveal its terrifying nature.

Its body was covered in jet-black scales that gleamed like metal beneath the bright moonlight, giving the impression of extreme hardness.

Above its thick, enormous body rose a broad, flattened neck like a cloak. On the dangerous snake head, two small bulges protruded from the two great occipital scales, fierce and beautiful.

Before long, the snake silently climbed up the trunk of a towering tree. Soon, it slithered into a huge nest in the trunk, raising the upper half of its body to the height of half a person as it stared into the nest.

Above the nest, beneath the moonlight.

An Eagle, more than fifty centimeters tall even with its wings folded, stood with its head buried in its breast feathers, asleep, still unaware that death had arrived.

The scene was like a beautiful yet horrifying painting.

Under the moonlit night, the savage giant venomous snake raised its upper body beside the Goshawk and opened its enormous jaws. Its sharp fangs glinted coldly in the moonlight, while the golden venom at their tips swayed with an intoxicating gleam.

Beneath those fangs was a pitiful male Goshawk, lost in sweet dreams and still unaware that death had descended.