Why did it grow bigger? Well, that’s a long story.
After the giant python swallowed the black snake, it didn’t even have time to digest before searing flames burned through its body from the inside out.
The black snake emerged from the blood-soaked hole, sinking its fangs viciously into the python’s vital spot.
The latter didn’t struggle for long before it completely stopped breathing.
As creatures of the same kind, both had intended to devour each other, but in the end, the black snake was the more skillful one and became the biggest winner.
However, it was also seriously injured. Driven by its primal instincts, it forced itself to swallow the python’s crystal and flesh.
A massive surge of energy flooded its body, making it feel as if it were swelling, its flesh rapidly regenerating. It dozed off in a daze, and by the time it woke up, it had grown dozens of times larger.
After that, it vaguely heard human voices.
Enduring the violent energy surging within, the black snake followed Su Su’s scent all the way to her.
It couldn’t answer human questions, nor could it explain everything it had been through, so it simply rubbed its large head against her.
Su Su held Xiao Hei’s head, roughly guessing the truth.
“You defeated that giant python, didn’t you?”
Xiao Hei could only have grown so big after swallowing the python’s crystal… Thinking of this, Su Su hurriedly released her ability, enveloping the entire snake in white light.
“You’ve been swallowing crystals so frequently. Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
Of course it felt uncomfortable.
The rapid growth of its flesh brought many side effects. The remaining energy and impurities were still wreaking havoc inside, to the point where even its internal organs felt like they had shifted.
The arrival of the white light promptly dispelled the excess impurities and guided the energy to be absorbed more slowly.
The black snake’s body instantly felt much better. It squinted its eyes in enjoyment, its forked tongue instinctively flicking out, wanting to lick the human’s face.
But it forgot that it was being cradled in her arms, and accidentally licked the wrong spot.
Huh?
Its tongue instinctively licked a few more times.
“Xiao Hei!” Su Su cried out in shame and anger, her ears turning red as she forcefully smacked its large head away. “No licking!”
“Hiss!”
The black snake nudged its head forward again, its copper-bell-sized vertical pupils staring at her unhappily, as if confused about why it wasn’t allowed to lick.
Su Su’s cheeks gradually reddened.
She took a deep breath and tried to speak calmly. “Xiao Hei, I’m really cold right now. Bring out some clothes.”
The black snake clearly understood but didn’t move.
Its vertical pupils were fixated on the way the human’s arms were wrapped around herself, though it was unclear what exactly it was thinking.
Smack!
Su Su, exasperated, smacked its head and urged, “Hurry up!”
The black snake reluctantly conjured several sets of warm clothing out of thin air, but its vertical pupils remained fixed on her.
“Bring your head closer.”
Su Su beckoned it over, and the moment Xiao Hei obediently leaned in, she threw the tattered fabric over its head.
“No peeking!”
She dressed as quickly as possible, slipping into a dry, warm sweater and down jacket. When she turned around, she noticed that the cloth covering Xiao Hei’s head had already slipped halfway down, revealing one unblinking eye. Who knew how long it had been staring?
Su Su took a deep breath and gave up on trying to teach this cold-blooded creature the concept of shame.
She withdrew her ability, and the white light that had purified all the impurities quietly faded away.
Human and snake remained in silent eye contact.
The surroundings were eerily quiet, the lighting particularly dim. In such an atmosphere, Su Su finally remembered that before this unexpected situation, she had been in the middle of a conflict with Xiao Hei.
Its unprovoked attack on a companion had yet to be settled.
Su Su remained silent for several minutes before slowly speaking. “Do you realize your mistake?”
The black snake shifted its massive head from in front of her to behind, refusing to meet her gaze.
Its evasiveness made Su Su take a deep breath, then another. The next second, she climbed out from the coils of the snake’s body, kicked off her shoes, and stepped onto its warm scales. Without warning, she wrapped her arms tightly around its large head, preventing it from avoiding her any further.
“Xiao Hei, Cancan is our companion. Why did you bite her for no reason?”
“If she weren’t a poison-type ability user, do you know what would’ve happened? She would’ve died on the spot, just like Wu Zhi and Zhang Er, the ones you bit to death before!”
The black snake struggled lightly, its arrogant and defiant demeanor making Su Su even more frustrated.
She had no choice but to use her ultimate weapon.
She planted a firm kiss on Xiao Hei’s head.
Smack!
“Now, will you listen to me properly?”
Having tasted something sweet, the black snake finally quieted down, its gaze fixed on the human so close to it. “Hiss~”
Su Su asked directly, “Why did you bite Cancan? Was it because she invited me to the hot springs and didn’t call you?”
Under her scrutiny, a flash of disdain flickered in those dark green vertical pupils.
It didn’t even like hot springs. If it was just soaking with its servant, that would be fine.
“So, it wasn’t that.” Su Su cupped its head, staring straight into its eyes. “Then what was it? Did something she said upset you?”
She was trying to give it a reasonable excuse. She didn’t want to believe that Xiao Hei had randomly picked someone to chew on just because it was in a bad mood.
Having consumed the python’s crystal and flesh, the black snake was now equivalent to a Tier 5 ability user. Its intelligence was much closer to that of humans, so it naturally understood what Su Su was asking.
“Hiss.”
It admitted it.
Su Su began recalling, “What did Cancan say at the time? She told me to agree to Wei Yan and try having a few more boyfriends…”
Before she could finish, the black snake erupted again.
It swung its tail irritably and smashed a protruding rock on the cave wall into pieces.
Su Su finally understood.
“You don’t want me to have a boyfriend.” She pressed her lips together. “Are you afraid I’ll abandon you?”
Abandon?
Hah, the only one who could abandon the other was it. She could dream on if she thought about leaving it!
Su Su had finally pieced together the entire cause and effect. She held onto Xiao Hei’s head and remained silent for a long time.
In her eyes, Xiao Hei was like a violent “child” with no one to guide it. If “getting a boyfriend” in its mind was equivalent to her being taken away, then of course, it would instinctively react with resistance.
“I won’t abandon you.”
The black snake stared at her coldly.
Su Su continued, “I also won’t get a boyfriend.”
The snake’s vertical pupils flickered, and its restless tail gradually stilled.
“Hiss?”
Somehow, Su Su understood its language—it was as if it was asking: Really?
“It’s true.” She stood on tiptoe and gently rubbed her forehead against Xiao Hei’s head. “I promise you, I won’t get a boyfriend. It’ll always be just you and me, okay?”
This wasn’t some spur-of-the-moment lie to soothe Xiao Hei.
It was a belief she had firmly held, from her previous life to this one.
The cruel post-apocalyptic world, where today could be lived but tomorrow wasn’t guaranteed, and the chaotic reality of survival bases had long since stripped away her illusions about love. She no longer had any expectations for a romantic partner.
“Hiss!”
A crimson forked tongue instantly licked her cheek. After growing dozens of times larger, its licks covered a much wider area.
Su Su felt ticklish and instinctively dodged a few centimeters, but the snake’s tongue followed, licking her several more times.
“But you have to promise me too—you can’t attack our companions at random anymore!”
The black snake immediately retracted its tongue.
Su Su: “… If you don’t promise me, and if you keep acting like this, we’ll still fight, and I still won’t talk to you.”
“If one day you completely anger me, I’ll go find someone new—”
Before she could finish, the snake’s tail suddenly coiled around her and stuffed her back between its coils, violently cutting off her sentence.
Su Su grabbed onto the snake’s tail, fuming, and bit down on it.
Her strength was about as effective as scratching an itch.
The black snake even took the initiative to bring the tip of its tail closer to her lips, both to let her vent and to get closer to her.
Su Su’s face was filled with anger, her beautiful eyes glaring wide. “Xiao Hei, I’m giving you one last chance!”
The black snake remained stiff for a long moment before finally, albeit reluctantly, lowering its head.
“Hiss.”
Fine.
It wouldn’t bite. But at worst, it would just beat those people up a few times in the future and see who still dared to speak nonsense.
Su Su immediately let out a sigh of relief.
A stick must be followed by a sweet date—she once again hooked her arms around Xiao Hei’s head, almost hanging her entire body onto it.
“I really don’t want to fight with you.”
“If you go hide in the mountains to hibernate and I can never find you again, what am I supposed to do? Where else in this world could I find a second snake as cute as you?”
“And when that giant python appeared, I was terrified. Seeing it bite you, my whole heart was in chaos.”
The vertical pupils reflected the human’s figure.
Those soft pink lips were opening and closing, uttering the sweetest words capable of moving a snake’s heart.
A strange restlessness surged within the black snake.
That’s right.
It liked this human too—so much that it couldn’t eat well or sleep properly. It had been wandering in the mountains for days, originally planning to just quietly slip back today.
Su Su continued, her words like warm embers: “…When I crashed into the pool, I thought I was going to die, that I’d never see you again.”
“You see, the outside world is so dangerous. If we keep fighting, even if it’s just out of stubbornness, the moment we separate, we might never see each other again.”
“Hiss!”
The black snake stopped her from speaking any further.
When it had crawled over, it could already smell her scent growing weaker and weaker. When it wrapped its tail around her, it could feel how cold her body was.
Humans were truly too fragile. A moment of carelessness, and they could die just like that.
Silently, it licked the corner of Su Su’s lips, transmitting its body’s warmth to her.
Human and snake fell into silence once more.
But this time, it was a silent understanding—warm, without barriers.
In this underground cave, even colder than the outside world, Su Su was wrapped up tightly in protection, barely feeling any chill at all.
She nuzzled against the snake’s body, a hint of dependence in her movements. “I’m hungry.”
Plop.
A large pile of food and drinks appeared out of thin air.
Su Su picked out what she liked and ate neatly, her demeanor refined. During the meal, she even attempted to shove an egg and a tomato into Xiao Hei’s mouth.
“You eat too. It’s basically like stir-fried eggs with tomatoes.”
The black snake swallowed the egg but mercilessly spat out the tomato.
Su Su had no choice but to pick up the tomato, wash it clean, and eat it herself.
Once she was full and satisfied, she patted Xiao Hei. “Let’s go back the way we came, or Cancan and the others will worry!”
The black snake carefully observed her, confirming that her complexion was no longer as pale and that her body temperature had returned to normal. Only then did it decide to coil around her and glide down the rocky slope.
“Wait!”
Su Su suddenly stopped it. She wriggled out from its coils, stepping onto its scales as she climbed forward until she reached its large head.
Now that Xiao Hei had reached Tier 5, its body was two to three meters wide, making it easy for Su Su to straddle it.
“Alright, let’s go.”
Others rode dragons; she rode a python. It was just as majestic.
The black snake had no objections to being ridden.
It slid forward steadily in the direction they had come from. In the long stretch of darkness, Su Su, who had been sitting upright at first, gradually lay down. Only by pressing herself close to its body could she feel safe in this deep, shadowy underground cavern.
She didn’t know how long they had been moving when the black snake finally came to a stop.
“Are we there?”
“Hiss~”
Su Su turned on her flashlight, illuminating a few meters around them.
This was a naturally formed cave, and not far away was the pool where she had fallen. The down jacket she had discarded was still there, now covered in a thin layer of ice.
Looking up… the narrow passage she had fallen through was now completely blocked by fallen rocks. No matter how she shone her flashlight, she couldn’t see anything beyond the cracks.
Su Su recalled the avalanche.
It must have triggered a landslide as well. The entrance they had come through was likely buried under tons of heavy, solid rock.
Even Xiao Hei might not be able to squeeze through… and even if it could, what if it caused another avalanche?
The more she looked, the heavier her heart became.
“Xiao Hei, we might have to find another way out.”