The sky was clear and boundless.
The blinding sunlight was thoughtfully blocked by a large shadow.
Someone spoke worriedly, “Why hasn’t she woken up yet? Should we perform artificial respiration? But I don’t know how…”
“I’ll do it.”
“Hiss!!!”
The person who spoke tried to get closer, but was quickly frightened back by a fierce snake’s hiss.
“Xiao Hei, Sister Su Su almost drowned! Don’t be so possessive!” The female voice who had suggested artificial respiration spoke again anxiously. “At a time like this, artificial respiration is necessary! It’s a scientifically proven rescue method!”
After that, the hissing sound of the snake ceased.
In a hazy state, Su Su seemed to sense a snake tail sweeping back and forth over her body a few times.
She could feel the displeasure contained within the movement of the tail, but soon, it was suppressed, and in the end, it only loosely encircled her ankle.
Then came the sound of approaching footsteps.
A small patch of shadow was cast over her.
Her cheek was pinched by someone.
And suddenly, the tip of the snake’s tail tightened around her ankle.
A sudden sense of urgency rose in Su Su’s heart.
“Cough, cough, cough!”
A fit of coughing jolted Su Su awake. She finally managed to open her exhausted eyelids, her unfocused pupils locking onto Sun Zhixia’s magnified face.
The latter’s hand was already pinching her cheek, the distance between them reduced to just over ten centimeters. Just as she was about to successfully administer artificial respiration… the person woke up. Sun Zhixia, who had initially looked serious, instantly blushed in embarrassment.
“Y-you’re awake?”
She quickly let go of her hand, but before she could even stand up, her body was squeezed into a corner by a python.
“Hiss!”
A ferocious snake head loomed above her line of sight, its dark green vertical pupils staring worriedly at the female.
As if confirming whether she was alright.
Su Su’s gaze shifted from Sun Zhixia to Xiao Hei.
Her freshly awakened mind was still sluggish. It took a long time for her brain to slowly start working before she finally realized that she had just finished a battle, exhausted her abilities, fallen to the bottom of the sea, and had been lucky enough to be rescued.
“Xiao… Hei…”
Her hoarse voice was met with the restless flick of a snake’s tongue.
“Hiss~”
Su Su’s gaze finally regained focus.
She wanted to reach out and hug the uneasy Xiao Hei, but after several attempts, her arms still wouldn’t lift.
The black snake took the initiative to lower its head and rub against her cheek for a long time.
From an outsider’s perspective, the interaction between the human and the snake appeared incredibly intimate and affectionate.
Pang Cancan was already used to it, while the Sun siblings… could understand. After all, they also kept battle pets. Many times, battle pets were even closer and more trustworthy than humans. Spending so much time together made them inseparable.
The fishing boat was heading back.
After the initial ten minutes of mental blankness had passed, Su Su finally managed to sit up, and her thoughts returned to normal.
“What about that seagull?”
“It’s dead, completely dead! After it fell into the sea, Xiao Hei, who had grown bigger, swallowed it whole in one bite!” Pang Cancan was vividly recounting the scene from earlier. “At that time, I had just finished throwing up, Sister Zhixia was still supporting Brother Zhichun, and I was about to share something with you—then I realized you were gone.”
“I thought you had gone into the cabin, but after searching all over, I didn’t see you.”
“Later, we guessed that you might have fallen into the sea. Sister Zhixia and Brother Zhichun even jumped in and swam around, but they couldn’t find you. They were nearly scared to death!”
“And then! Xiao Hei emerged from the water, carrying you like a god descending from the heavens!”
“Susu, this is the first time I’ve found Xiao Hei so cool! Absolutely awesome!”
Pang Cancan was still rambling on in admiration, but Su Su was already being pulled into memories of everything that had happened underwater… She still remembered that just before she completely lost consciousness, a pair of strong arms had wrapped around her waist, and in the corner of her vision, there was floating black hair—clearly not hers.
Could it be that someone else had followed Xiao Hei into the sea to save her?
Su Su was momentarily stunned. After a brief hesitation, she asked, “It wasn’t you guys who saved me?”
As she spoke, she turned her gaze toward the Sun siblings.
The two shook their heads. “We swam around the boat several times and even dived down a bit, but we couldn’t find you.”
It was only later that they realized the fishing boat had been pushed hundreds of meters away by the waves. Su Su had fallen into the water much earlier, sinking to another part of the seabed.
If it weren’t for that giant python… Su Su might have been buried there forever.
Su Su believed their explanation.
After all, the Sun siblings had tanned, athletic skin, whereas the arms that had held her waist—even though she had only caught a fleeting glimpse—were noticeably pale.
Could it have been a hallucination she had just before drowning?
Su Su instinctively lowered her head, gazing at the black snake nestled in her arms.
The latter was licking her neck, and as if sensing the female’s stare, it lifted its head. Its innocent vertical pupils revealed nothing unusual.
Perhaps realizing she still wasn’t feeling well, the others tacitly gave her and the black snake some space. Even the chatty and energetic Pang Cancan considerately draped a thin sun-protective jacket over Su Su before cheerfully running off to pester Sun Zhixia about techniques for controlling birds.
Only Su Su and the black snake in her arms remained at the bow of the boat.
Seeing that no one was around, Su Su lowered her voice and asked, “It was you who saved me just now, wasn’t it?”
“Hiss!”
The black snake immediately took credit.
After swallowing the flesh and crystal of the Tier 6 seagull, it could no longer sense the female’s presence.
That was why it dived into the deep sea, precisely tracking her position by following that faint, almost imperceptible scent.
“Then…” Su Su’s voice lowered even further. “Did you see anyone else around me?”
The black snake stopped hissing.
Its vertical pupils shifted twice before it lowered its head again, carefully licking the hollow of the female’s collarbone.
Su Su didn’t get an answer. For a moment, she wasn’t sure whether Xiao Hei didn’t want to answer or if it truly didn’t know.
At times like this, the flaw of being unable to communicate between human and snake became glaringly obvious.
Su Su had doubts in her heart. She bit her lip and firmly cupped the black snake’s head, refusing to let it escape her questioning.
“Xiao Hei, what exactly happened just now? You were right there. You must have seen something, right?”
The black snake remained silent.
Su Su’s expression grew more stubborn, and her gaze toward it became increasingly aggrieved.
“Why won’t you answer me?”
“…Hiss.”
The black snake couldn’t bear to see her like this. It let out several hisses in succession.
But Su Su still couldn’t understand what it was saying.
She bit down on her lip. After struggling internally for a long moment, she finally asked in a soft voice, “…Was it you?”
The black snake shook its head decisively.
It wasn’t.
Su Su believed that Xiao Hei wouldn’t lie.
That meant everything that had happened at the bottom of the sea was merely an illusion before she nearly drowned.
The only real thing was that segment of a snake’s tail.
It truly was Xiao Hei who had saved her.
For some reason, after confirming this, Su Su let out a deep breath of relief.
Although she had already heard last month that battle pets could take on human forms, she had never really considered what it would mean if Xiao Hei turned into a human.
She hadn’t even discussed the possibility with him.
Perhaps this was also a form of avoidance.
Avoiding the reality of how she should interact with Xiao Hei—her closest companion—if he were to become human.
In both her past and present life, she had never considered developing a relationship with the opposite sex. Mainly because of the many traumatic experiences she endured after being disfigured for several years, she had developed a conditioned response of aversion to human men…
If Xiao Hei were to take on the form of a human male…
A sudden sense of panic and unease welled up within her.
Then what exactly was their relationship?
Once it fully gained self-awareness and an independent human form, how would it view her? As a companion, or…
Su Su didn’t want to think about it.
She would rather believe in Xiao Hei’s denial—that everything she saw at the bottom of the sea was just an illusion.
On the way back, the abilities in her body slowly recovered.
The familiar white light once again flowed into Xiao Hei’s body, patiently cleansing the residual energy impurities left behind from consuming the Grade 6 crystal.
As Su Su quieted down, the massive black snake silently observed the side of her face with its vertical pupils.
Serene, fair-skinned, her sun-dried, wispy hair rested against her forehead, bathed in sunlight, as if enveloped in a soft filter.
She… probably didn’t notice, right?
Feeling a bit guilty, the black snake curled up in the female’s embrace.
After devouring the Tier 6 seagull’s flesh and crystal, energy had surged violently within its body. The moment it dived into the deep sea, it had clearly sensed a transformation taking place.
For example… it had grown half of a human form.
There hadn’t been time to hide it—it had only been able to focus on catching the drowning female first.
That ugly appearance had almost been seen.
The black snake gently bit the hem of Su Su’s clothing.
Fortunately, the energy had surged and absorbed quickly, allowing it to revert back to its original form by pure instinct before breaking through the water’s surface.
It could feel that if it once again summoned that surging energy, it would be able to return to that half-human, half-snake form…
The black snake was deeply unwilling.
It preferred its original form.
But because of its affection for the female, wouldn’t transforming into a human like her also be a good thing?
Yet… a form that was half its original body and half human—this state of being stuck between two species was beyond the black snake’s sense of aesthetics.
It would rather pretend that it had never possessed such an ability in the first place.
The atmosphere between the human and the snake returned to its usual state.
After finishing the purification, Su Su sensed the surging energy within Xiao Hei’s body and felt genuinely happy.
After consuming the seagull’s crystal, Xiao Hei had successfully advanced to Tier 6!
Their team’s strength had taken another step forward! Their confidence in reaching the northern base had grown significantly!
But her excitement didn’t last long.
Su Su suddenly picked up over a dozen dark, smooth snake scales from her pants.
Her smile immediately froze.
“Xiao Hei, did you just shed these?”
“Hiss?”
The black snake craned its head forward. Upon seeing the scales in the female’s hand, it instinctively lifted its tail and was shocked to discover—
The shedding had spread to the sides of its snake belly, making it look even more unsightly than the burnt bald Eagle King!
“Hiss!!”
If it had fur, it would definitely be bristling right now.
How could it—how could it be so ugly!
The black snake, originally over two or three meters long in its python form, suddenly shrank into a tiny snake just a few inches long and burrowed into the female’s collar, curling up in self-imposed isolation.
To be honest, it was a little ticklish, and the contact was somewhat awkward.
But at this moment, Su Su’s worry overpowered everything else. She wished they could immediately reach the northern base and have someone check what exactly was wrong with Xiao Hei.
Bang.
With a soft thud, the fishing boat finally docked.
The Sun siblings extended another invitation. “You helped us deal with Yu Zhenghong and killed that troublesome seagull. Are you sure you don’t want to stay a few days?”
Su Su once again declined their kindness. “Thank you, but we’ve already been delayed too long. We need to hurry to the northern base.”
Sun Zhixia didn’t press further and instead turned to unload box after box of dried seafood from her vehicle, the muscles in her arms taut and more aesthetically pleasing than most men’s.
Pang Cancan let out a long whistle, and Su Su also took a second glance.
Sun Zhichun, who was also carrying supplies in his long sleeves, glanced at his sister upon hearing the whistle… He had muscles too, but they were covered by his sleeves, and there was no way he would deliberately show them off now… That would be too childish.
Moments later, the trunk of their off-road vehicle was packed with an impressive amount of “ocean specialties.”
Just before departure, the Sun siblings huddled to the side and had a long, whispered discussion.
It wasn’t until Su Su had settled into the driver’s seat that Sun Zhichun finally walked over from a distance.
From his stance, he clearly had something to say.
Su Su waited for a moment, and when he approached the car window, she asked, “Is there something else?”
“We just discussed something… and we wanted to ask if you’d mind having a few more people in your team?”
“?”
Seeing her confusion, Sun Zhichun carefully explained, “The base just finished counting. Yu Zhenghong brought nearly two thousand ordinary people with him. Our base is just a small coastal town—we don’t have enough resources to accommodate them all. We need to find another place where they can survive.”
The Sun siblings had no plans to expand their base for now.
Even if they wanted to claim more land, where would they get the resources? The food? The extra ability users needed to ensure security? These things couldn’t be decided on a whim.
“I just discussed it with my sister. I’ll lead the group and escort these ordinary people to the northern base.”
The northern base had ample resources and a high demand for population, making it the perfect place to send them.
Su Su was a little surprised. “You’re going personally?”
As leaders of their base, why would the Sun siblings leave so easily?
Sun Zhichun explained, “We’re not far from the northern base, and there’s a fixed, cleared route. It’ll only take two or three days for a round trip. With my sister holding down the fort here, nothing will go wrong.”
His sister had spent most of her time training battle pets. It was about time she managed the base more thoroughly—only with well-rounded experience could she avoid being taken advantage of in the future.
“Of course, the main reason is that we want to rely on your team’s strength to avoid some potential risks. As compensation, I can take you on the shortest route and act as your guide, making it easier for you to settle into the northern base.”
Su Su nodded in understanding. “I don’t have a problem with that. What about Cancan?”
“I have no problem either!”
Su Su glanced toward the passenger seat—where a tiny black snake had blended seamlessly into the black leather upholstery. “Xiao Hei?”
“Hiss~”
The black snake flicked a glance at Sun Zhichun, neither approving nor objecting.
No resistance meant no objection.
Su Su made the final decision. “We’re all fine with it.”
Having a local guide was undoubtedly much more convenient than navigating with a map.
Seeing them agree, Sun Zhichun smiled. “I’ve already arranged for the people to gather outside the northern base city. We can leave right now.”
They had arrived in a single off-road vehicle.
They were leaving as an entire convoy.
Not only had they gained temporary companions, but the Xiao Hei snake curled up in the passenger seat had also successfully advanced to Tier 6.
As for the northern base—the place she had heard so much about yet had never reached—anticipation and apprehension intertwined within Su Su. She subconsciously tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
Soon.
In just a day or two, she would finally see it in its entirety.