At almost the same moment—
Su Su drove straight to the home of the only Tier 4 healing ability user in the Southern Base.
Plop.
Three or four Grade 4 crystals were tossed onto the table. Ability User Zhou had just woken up, still groggy, when his body was dragged into the workroom.
Su Su personally carried Xiao Hei, which weighed over ten jin, onto the medical platform, carefully avoiding the area where its scales had fallen off.
“Ability User Zhou, quickly help me take a look at what’s wrong with Xiao Hei!”
Hiss~
The female was so worried about him—the black snake obediently lay on the medical platform, its dark green vertical pupils fixed on Su Su without blinking. The tip of its tail even tried to reach for the hem of her clothes.
Its affectionate and clingy behavior was obvious.
Su Su rolled its tail tip back onto the medical platform and sternly warned, “Don’t move around! What if you touch the area where your scales fell off? You’ll be the one suffering later!”
The black snake let out an obedient hiss.
In truth, it didn’t hurt.
It wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable as those nights of strange bodily reactions before the torrential rain. But losing so many scales did make it look rather ugly—completely unattractive.
It consciously hid the bare patch underneath itself.
Seeing this familiar python, Ability User Zhou’s face turned green.
Just over half a month ago, when the base changed hands, he had been dragged out to treat a python with an injured tail.
As a perfectly normal person with an extreme fear of soft-bodied creatures, the moment he saw this thick python, his whole body bristled. He had wished he could immediately flee a thousand miles away and erase the image from his mind forever.
But he had no choice—tempted by the lure of crystals and threatened by overwhelming strength, he had gritted his teeth and treated the python’s tail burn.
He had barely managed to send it away, and now it was back again!
“Miss Su, how about finding someone else for the treatment? There are several other healing ability users in the base!”
Su Su shook her head. “I think you’re the best. I don’t trust anyone else.”
Listen to that! Just listen!
How sweetly she spun her words! No matter how old a man was, he’d fall for this trick!
Ability User Zhou lifted his nose proudly, feeling smug for a moment—until he caught a glimpse of the python out of the corner of his eye. Then, he was once again overwhelmed with horror.
“W-what happened this time?”
“Xiao Hei is shedding its scales.”
Ignoring the black snake’s resistance, Su Su forcefully turned over its tail, exposing a large, bald patch.
Ability User Zhou’s face turned an even deeper shade of green.
Seemingly aware of the human’s reluctance and disgust, the black snake deliberately bared its fangs at him: Hiss!
“Ah!!!”
“Xiao Hei!”
Hearing this scolding, filled with both anger and urgency, the black snake immediately changed its demeanor. It obediently rubbed its head against the female’s arm.
Hiss~~~
Su Su sighed helplessly and could only look at Ability User Zhou apologetically. “Xiao Hei doesn’t mean any harm. It just has a bit of a temper… and looks a little fierce…”
Forget it, she couldn’t explain any further.
“Anyway, just go ahead and try treating it first?”
Ability User Zhou trembled as he released his ability.
Warm and comforting energy surged into the patchy, shed skin of the snake. The awkward part was that after more than ten seconds, there wasn’t the slightest change.
The bald area remained bald, and even worse, a half-loosened snake scale, right in front of both Su Su and Ability User Zhou, plopped onto the medical platform.
The atmosphere went silent for two seconds.
Su Su also realized that something was wrong.
Last time they came here, as soon as Ability User Zhou activated his healing ability, Xiao Hei’s injuries had been fully healed within ten seconds.
Why was there no reaction at all this time?
She instinctively looked toward Ability User Zhou, who gritted his teeth and intensified his energy output, continuously pouring it into the python’s body.
Hiss!
Having to expose its ugliest, patchy, and completely bald area in front of the female’s eyes—it was a rare moment when the black snake actually felt shame… Its temper grew even worse, and when Su Su wasn’t looking, it secretly bared its fangs at the useless human.
Ability User Zhou wiped the sweat off his face, looking paler by the second.
Minutes passed… then over ten minutes… Until finally, when his ability was nearly exhausted, barely enough to protect his dantian, he cautiously stopped.
The python’s condition remained completely unchanged. Another snake scale even peeled off and fell.
Ability User Zhou was on the verge of a breakdown. “Miss Su, I can’t do anything about this! Maybe you should find someone else? Even a veterinarian would be fine!”
A veterinarian?
Su Su had no time to feel disappointed—her eyes immediately lit up.
Illness had to be treated accordingly! She almost forgot—no matter how much Xiao Hei had advanced to Tier 5, it was still a cold-blooded animal!
“Alright, I got it.”
Without hesitation, Su Su carried Xiao Hei and rushed around the entire base, searching for veterinarians.
Some were ordinary people, some were ability users. Unlike Ability User Zhou, they weren’t afraid of the python. They surrounded the medical platform, murmuring among themselves for a long time.
“Is this shedding?”
“It doesn’t look like it. Shedding doesn’t happen in patches like this.”
“Is it turning green?”
Someone attempted to lift the python’s tail to take a closer look.
Hiss!!!
The black snake, which had been enduring and cooperating all this time, suddenly erupted. A burst of blue flames shot out, instantly scorching the hair off the back of a veterinarian’s head.
The group collectively took several steps back.
Su Su, feeling helpless, stepped forward herself, holding Xiao Hei in her arms and flipping it over so the others could examine it.
“Behave.”
…Hiss.
The black snake aggrievedly licked the back of the female’s hand, suppressing its irritation as it allowed the humans to examine its vulnerable area.
The veterinarians studied it back and forth, but in the end, they couldn’t figure out anything concrete. Their best guess was—”It’s probably about to grow and shed its skin.”
Su Su frowned. “But it never shed its skin when it grew before.”
“T-then maybe this time, it’s going to have a major growth spurt?”
Su Su: “……”
She could tell now—none of these veterinarians were real experts.
After all this trouble, a few more snake scales had fallen off.
At this rate, wouldn’t Xiao Hei end up turning completely bald?
Su Su pulled out some crystals to settle the bill, then carried Xiao Hei and walked back alone.
“Xiao Hei, do you know what’s happening to you?”
The black snake didn’t know either.
In its limited memories, including the inherited memories of pythons, nothing like this had ever happened before.
Its flexible tail once again tried to scratch the patchy, bald area.
“Don’t scratch.”
Su Su quickly grabbed its tail, the anxiety in her heart growing stronger.
She couldn’t help but recall what Wei Yan had said when she returned—
“The Northern Base has reported its first case of a battle pet transforming into a human.”
Because she had been too worried about Xiao Hei’s shedding issue, she had pushed this shocking news to the back of her mind.
But now, those words slowly surfaced again.
A battle pet turning into a human?
How could an animal possibly turn into a person?
But… if Xiao Hei already possessed human-like thoughts… then maybe it wasn’t impossible?
Wait! This isn’t the time to be worrying about that!
It could just be a baseless rumor. Or maybe it was a one-time anomaly.
She had no real sense of whether Xiao Hei could transform into a human.
Right now, her biggest concern was still the issue of its shedding scales.
Su Su returned to the villa, troubled. As soon as she stepped inside, she saw the living room filled with storage boxes of various sizes, packed with all kinds of supplies.
“What’s all this?”
Pang Cancan popped her head out from under the table, grinning. “Supplies for departure!”
“Departure?”
“Yeah!” Pang Cancan looked at her in confusion. “Sister Su Su, didn’t you hear the news from Brother Wei?”
“You mean—”
“The battle pets transforming!” Pang Cancan excitedly patted the box beside her. “Battle pets at the Northern Base can shapeshift! That’s so cool! I need to go see if my babies can transform too!”
Su Su was stunned.
“Sister Su Su, aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to go to the Northern Base and see if Xiao Hei can transform? This is an evolution we’ve never heard of before!”
“Xiao Hei already has intelligence—don’t you think it would want a human form?”
Su Su instinctively lowered her head and met the eager gaze of the black snake in her arms.
In those eyes, she saw its ambition.
For some reason, an indescribable emotion rose in her heart—fear, confusion, or perhaps anticipation.
She thought of Ability User Zhou, who was only at Tier 4, and those unprofessional veterinarians. Then, all of a sudden, she tightened her hold on the black snake in her arms.
“Xiao Hei, we’re heading to the Northern Base!”
“They must know what’s happening with your scales!”
Pang Cancan cheered.
She knew it! Sister Su Su must also be hoping for Xiao Hei to transform into a human!
If it really turned into a handsome man, then Wei Yan and Guan Zixuan would be completely out of the picture!
But when she glanced at Su Su and noticed the worry between her brows, she wisely swallowed those words back down.
Forget it. Maybe Sister Su Su actually preferred Xiao Hei in its beast form.