Chapter 16

Lin Bei climbed to the top of the cliff he had just named 'Flying Dragon Wall'.

After just waking up, Lin Bei was full of energy. As an intelligent human, he needed to find something to eat before he got hungry, and at the same time, explore the area. So, this impromptu journey was happily decided.

Above the Flying Dragon Wall were naturally trees, and behind them was a slope with many shrubs. As Lin Bei passed through the shrubs, wild pheasants or rabbits would often suddenly dart out, showing signs of vibrant life.

Lin Bei extended his snake tongue to sense the surroundings, searching for the traces of the monkey troop.

When the monkey troop left, Lin Bei had noticed that they were heading in this direction. Although monkeys are omnivores, they rarely eat meat; they mostly eat fruits and leaves. Therefore, Lin Bei believed that instead of aimlessly searching, it would be more effective to follow the monkey troop, as this would greatly increase the chances of finding fruit.

Before becoming a snake, distinguishing animal scents would have been impossible, but now it was easy. The various scents in the forest were collected by Lin Bei's snake tongue and transmitted to his brain, where he could distinguish them. Soon, Lin Bei detected the faint scent left by the monkey troop. After confirming it, he headed in that direction.

A huge spider web formed between the vines of several large trees. This web was the largest Lin Bei had ever seen, spanning over ten meters. A fist-sized spider was hiding under a leaf. Lin Bei didn't know what species it was. Then, he saw an unfortunate yellow-beaked bird land on the web, struggling desperately. The spider quickly rushed out, using its eight long legs to firmly grasp the yellow-beaked bird. Spider silk was continuously released, quickly wrapping the bird tightly. Needless to say, it would eventually become the spider's meal.

As Lin Bei passed by a large tree, it suddenly made a creaking sound. Then, he saw the tree slowly tilting, which scared him into quickly fleeing from its position. After about ten minutes of struggle, the tree finally fell. As it hit the ground, the bark split open, revealing that the inside was filled with powder. Lin Bei saw that the tree was infested with termites, which had hollowed out the core. The termites were crawling around densely, and anyone with OCD would be terrified. Although Lin Bei didn't have OCD, he still kept his distance.

The large group of termites, having completed their mission, gathered together and began to move toward another tree. They would first dig holes at the roots, then reproduce vigorously, and eventually hollow out the tree core, continuing this cycle endlessly.

A large green caterpillar fell from a tree, and a green mantis nearby suddenly leaped over, its large, scythe-like front legs slicing into the caterpillar's body like a fork piercing beef. The mantis then fed the caterpillar into its mouth.

In the forest, life and death were constantly occurring, from the top predators to the tiny insects. As Lin Bei traveled, the words "jungle law" constantly echoed in his mind. What he witnessed was even more brutal than he had imagined. Those who successfully survived in the forest were all lucky, and Lin Bei was the luckiest of them all. As a large python with human intelligence, he had no natural enemies, unless he faced old age, illness, or death. Otherwise, Lin Bei was always safe.

With these thoughts, Lin Bei entered a sparse forest, a pine needle forest. The monkeys' chirping could be faintly heard, and Lin Bei knew he had reached the monkey troop's territory.

Seeing the pine needle forest, Lin Bei was very disappointed. It turned out that these monkeys ate pine cones, not other fruits. Lin Bei couldn't eat pine cones.

Undeterred, Lin Bei circled the pine needle forest and found that pines dominated, but there were also other trees. Due to direct sunlight, the pines here were exceptionally robust. The largest pine tree was over a hundred meters tall and covered an area of several hundred meters. Under this giant pine tree, there were almost no other plants, just a ground covered with pine cones, many of which were already rotten. Most of the monkeys were on this pine tree. When they saw Lin Bei, they chirped and the bolder ones threw pine cones at him. Although it didn't hurt, Lin Bei knew the monkeys were defending their territory.

Lin Bei, of course, didn't mind. Since the pine cones didn't hurt, he circled the area without finding anything. After identifying the direction, he left the pine needle forest. The monkey troop followed behind, chirping excitedly, celebrating their success in driving away a large monster.

After leaving the pine needle forest, Lin Bei swam for a long distance and found that the forest was different from what he had imagined. When he saw the wild walnut trees, Lin Bei thought it was autumn, the season when fruit trees mature. He believed that fruit trees in the forest couldn't be scarce. However, he had to admit that fruit trees were indeed rare. The wild walnut tree was the first fruit tree he had seen. What about pine cones? Please, could the current Lin Bei eat those?

Thus, Lin Bei realized the severity of the situation. Without fruit trees, he would have to eat meat, but he didn't like the idea of eating raw meat. There were nine days left until his meeting with the hunter. If he didn't eat meat, would he just drink water for nine days? The thought was miserable.

Suddenly, Lin Bei stopped, his snake tongue extending long and flickering. He seemed to have detected a familiar scent.

Turning around, Lin Bei confirmed the source of the scent and felt a surge of excitement.

Lin Bei's senses did not deceive him. As he approached, he saw a small valley ahead, where the scent of fruit wafted through the air. This scent made Lin Bei very intoxicated. The fruit was his favorite from his previous life, called grapes.

Entering the valley, Lin Bei's eyes widened. "So many grapevines."

The valley was about a hundred meters in size. The ground was covered with thorny shrubs, and above them were grape trellises, dense and layered. The grapevines had even spread to the cliff walls, growing over twenty meters high. Many birds had built nests on these grapevines. The moment Lin Bei entered the valley, the bird calls suddenly paused, and then countless birds took flight from the shrubs and grape leaves, probably numbering in the thousands, accompanied by a lot of bird droppings.

"So many birds," Lin Bei exclaimed again.

Although the grapes were emitting a sweet scent, they were not yet ripe. These wild grapevines produced grapes smaller than his little finger, which made Lin Bei's joy short-lived.

However, since he had come, Lin Bei was not about to leave empty-handed. Dragging his large body into the valley, more birds took flight, filling the sky above the valley.

Lin Bei lowered his head and saw a thick layer of bird droppings on the ground. The stench was overwhelming, worse than a thousand-year-old cesspool. Even more disgusting were the maggots in the droppings, almost as large as his little finger.

"Ugh..." Lin Bei quickly crawled out, rolling in the grass outside and beating his tail hard. Despite this, the disgusting feeling lingered in his mind. Fortunately, he had already digested his food, or he might have vomited.

"Can't go on the ground, I'll have to go up the cliff wall."