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It wasn't that he wanted revenge for being woken up. He was just curious and wanted to see what kind of mutated plant it was.

When the vine realized Tao Qiu was chasing it, it was frightened and a little annoyed. Several times, it sent vines out to attack him.

But Tao Qiu was more agile after shrinking. Not only could the vine not hurt him, he also broke several of its tendrils.

The vine could feel pain, and knowing it was no match for Tao Qiu, it grew even more desperate to escape. It stopped caring whether he was following and sped up again, eager to return to its main body, where it had the home advantage.

Tao Qiu followed it for about three minutes before finding its main body.

Generally speaking, powerful mutated plants fought fiercely for nutrients in the soil and sunlight, making it hard for the plants around them to grow tall and large. As a result, the space around them tended to be open, making them easy to spot at a glance.

The same was true of this vine's main body.

It was a large tree over ten meters tall, with thick foliage and vines wrapped all around its trunk and branches.

The vines and foliage were both a blackish purple, making the tree look as though it were shrouded in black mist. The intertwining vines also looked just like long snakes, giving it an especially eerie and terrifying appearance.

Once Tao Qiu got a clear look at the entire tree, his eyes widened involuntarily.

It wasn't that he was frightened. He had spotted something familiar among the branches and leaves.

Pears!

Judging by their shape, though they were pitch-black and looked poisonous, they were definitely pears.

A breeze blew past, and Tao Qiu caught a faint whiff of the fresh scent of pears, though he wasn't sure if it was his imagination.

Tao Qiu understood. The pear tree and vine were probably symbiotic, an arrangement that wasn't uncommon among mutated plants.

The two plants probably lived together with the pear tree providing a place for the vine to climb, while the vine went hunting and dragged its prey back to share with the immobile pear tree.

Autumn was approaching, just the time for pear trees to bear fruit. But when Tao Qiu looked closely, he saw that although the tree was large, it had visibly little fruit.

There might not have been many, but the fruits were quite large. Was that the benefit of having plenty of nutrients?

He didn't know whether the fruit of this mutated pear tree was edible, but even if it wasn't, Tao Qiu figured his ability should be able to purify it enough to eat.

Thinking of the crisp texture and sweet juice of pears, Tao Qiu nearly drooled.

Why not pick one and take it back to try growing it?

When it came to food, Tao Qiu was a man of action. He set to work at once.

Tao Qiu was perched in a tree some distance from the pear tree. The vine on the pear tree knew where he was and remained on high alert.

Back on the pear tree, the vine once again waved its tendrils menacingly, as though it hadn't been the one that had just fled in a sorry state.

Tao Qiu thought it over and decided against a frontal attack.

He pretended to abandon his revenge out of fear, turned around, and flew away, leaving the vine's range of perception.

The vine didn't immediately lower its guard. It waited for over an hour, and only after making sure Tao Qiu hadn't flown back did it gradually relax and wind itself around the branches again.

But less than half an hour after things had quieted down, the vine suddenly sensed something amiss in its territory. One of the vines it had extended outward had been disturbed, as if a living creature had wandered in.

In fact, apart from the vine crawling out to find living creatures on its own, the pear tree and vine had another way of hunting. Once the pears ripened, they gave off a tempting fragrance that attracted nearby animals of low intelligence.

After the animals entered their territory, the vine dealt with the weaker ones. Stronger ones were allowed to eat the fallen pears as they wished, and once they collapsed, the vine killed them and dragged them beneath the tree to serve as fertilizer.

But the pears were still some way from ripening. Why had a living creature come over already?

The vine had some intelligence, but it wasn't particularly smart. It assumed the creature had wandered in by mistake, and it seemed fairly large too. How could it let fertilizer that had come to its doorstep get away?

Missing out on that big white bird tonight and getting hurt had already left it deeply distressed.

To avoid another failed hunt, the vine sent out nearly every tendril it could move, rapidly crawling toward the creature.

And that was exactly the moment Tao Qiu had been waiting for.

Once he was sure the vine had gone after the prey he had driven into its territory, Tao Qiu flew toward the pear tree as fast as he could.

The pear tree had no means of resisting and could only watch as Tao Qiu carried off the largest pear on its branches in his beak.

It sent out its aura to tell the vine that the bird had returned, but by the time the vine arrived, dragging its prey, Tao Qiu had long since flown far away.

Tao Qiu was delighted with his pear.

This wasn't robbery; it was a barter. Although it hadn't been a willing exchange, those vines had attacked him first, so the two things could be considered even.

Tao Qiu hadn't expected that after worrying over his lack of gains in the first half of the night, he would pick up a big, plump pear for nothing in the second half.

Perhaps the vine was wary of his strength, or perhaps it was busy digesting its prey. In any case, it didn't come after him.

Tao Qiu found a tree to perch in and carefully examined the pear.

It was a pure black, like a black pearl. Though it wasn't ripe yet, it already had a tempting fragrance.

But judging by the color of the pear tree and its fruit, there was probably something suspicious about the pear. Unsure whether eating it would cause poisoning, Tao Qiu planned to find some prey to test it on when he got back.

Seeing that it was getting late, Tao Qiu went back to sleep with the pear in his arms. This time, nothing without the sense to stay away came to disturb his rest.

Early the next morning, Tao Qiu found a soft, harmless vine and tied it around the pear, then carried it along as he continued his exhaustive search.

Although he had found a pear, it was still a fruit. Tao Qiu wanted to see if he could get lucky and find a crop that could serve as a staple food.

Out of caution, Tao Qiu stayed in bird form throughout the day again.

But he had been a bird for twenty years. Apart from packing up the pear being a little more troublesome than it would have been in human form, everything else was just as it had always been, and he ran into no problems.

Tao Qiu was powerful and fed on mutated animals, so the aura he naturally gave off was quite intimidating. A great many creatures had actually been watching in secret when the vine attacked him last night, and after confirming that Tao Qiu was indeed not someone to mess with, they all abandoned any thoughts of preying on him.

Tao Qiu encountered no more danger through the afternoon. Wherever he went, the mutated monsters automatically lay low or moved aside, and he had neither the inclination nor the time to bother them.

The sun gradually sank westward, but Tao Qiu showed no intention of stopping. He was nearly done searching Black Rabbit's territory, yet the plump pear was still all he had.

He had promised the children he would return early, so he had to leave tomorrow. If he couldn't find a crop he wanted this time, the next time he came out would have to be the following spring.

Tao Qiu was so worried that he had no appetite even for dinner, and planned to keep searching through the night.

He was about to fly beyond the boundary of Black Rabbit's territory and was preparing to turn around when a gust of wind suddenly blew a strange smell toward him. Tao Qiu sniffed it instinctively.

"Ugh!"

The stench of decay rushed straight into his head. Tao Qiu gagged instinctively, his vision gradually blurring as stars danced before his eyes.

Tao Qiu swayed and nearly plunged out of the air. Fortunately, he reacted in time to hold his breath and flew crookedly out of range of the stench, landing unsteadily on a branch.

As soon as he found his footing, Tao Qiu desperately gulped down fresh air. It took quite a while before he steadied himself and cleared his head.

He leaned against the tree, still a little dazed. Even now, the stench seemed to linger beneath his nose, impossible to shake off.

Across his previous life and this one, it was the first time Tao Qiu had encountered such a method of attack.

How could that smell be described? A thousand rotten eggs, slop left out for half a month, and three years' worth of excrement from a dry latrine, all left to ferment in a sewer with all kinds of garbage for two months, probably wouldn't have matched even three-tenths of that smell.

Did Black Rabbit know something like this existed in his territory?

No, the place the smell came from should be the boundary between the two territories.

The territories of mutated monsters couldn't be measured out with a ruler, and there were still many sections that were hard to define. Unless it came to an actual fight, neither side would pay them much attention.

Tao Qiu remembered that a little farther on was the giant green python's lair.

She was a female snake with a cold, solitary nature. She usually stayed in her own territory and rarely appeared outside it. She was a homebody.

What's more, Green Python hadn't shown up earlier when the mutated monsters fought over the fruit.

She was more than twenty years older than Tao Qiu, old enough to be his mother. Of course, by the reckoning of mutated monsters, she was still in the prime of her youth.

Tao Qiu didn't know her well. Most of what he knew about her came from other mutated monsters.

Green Python had inherited her territory from her mother. Her mother's personality was the opposite of hers: she had been arrogant and overbearing. Besides fighting other mutated monsters for territory, she had frequently attacked human bases, striking fear into mutated monsters and humans alike.

Later, for some unknown reason, Green Python's mother had suddenly gone mad. After slaughtering for three days and nights, leaving corpses strewn across the forest, she had collapsed and died suddenly for no apparent reason.

When Tao Qiu had learned he was pregnant and lost control of his emotions, killing many mutated monsters, everyone had thought he would follow in Green Python's mother's footsteps.

But the outcome had surprised everyone. Tao Qiu's destructive power hadn't amounted to a tenth of what Green Python's mother had displayed, nor had he died a miserable death like her.

Green Python's mother had hatched a clutch of little snakes, but the only one that had successfully grown up was Green Python. Her strength was nearly a match for her mother's, but the two snakes had completely different personalities.

Apart from defending her territory, Green Python had hardly any conflicts with the other powerful mutated monsters nearby, nor did she associate with them. Her laid-back nature stood in stark contrast to her terrifying size.

Even someone as volatile as Black Rabbit wouldn't provoke her lightly.

His recollection over, Tao Qiu grew curious. How exactly had that stench come about? Did Black Rabbit and Green Python know about it?