Chapter Sixteen: Torikai

  Lin Beita climbed to the top of the mountain wall he had just named 'Feilongbi'.

  Lin Bei, who had just woken up refreshed and full of energy, as a wise human being, needed to find something edible before his stomach growled with hunger. He decided to take a walk and explore the road, so this impromptu trip was happily settled.

  Above the Feilong Wall, there are still trees, and behind it is a slope with many shrubs. Lin Bei passes through the shrub road, where wild chickens or rabbits occasionally jump out, showing vigorous vitality.

  Lin Beichu stretched out his snake-like senses and felt something below, he was searching for the tracks of a monkey group.

  When the monkey troop left, Lin Bei noticed that they were heading in this direction. Although monkeys are omnivores and rarely eat meat, they mostly feed on fruits and leaves. Therefore, Lin Bei thought that instead of searching aimlessly, it would be better to follow behind the monkey troop, which would greatly increase the chances of finding fruit.

  It was not possible to distinguish the smell of animals before becoming a snake, but now it's easy. The various smells in the forest are collected by Lin Bei's snake sense and transmitted into his mind, where he distinguishes them. Soon, Lin Bei discovers the faint smell left behind by the monkey group. After confirming, he rushes in that direction.

  A huge spider web was formed among the tree vines between several large trees, and this spider web could be said to be the best in Linbei's eyes, reaching over ten meters. A fist-sized spider hid under a leaf, and Linbei didn't know what species it was. Later, Linbei saw an unlucky yellow-beaked bird fall onto the spider web, struggling desperately, but the spider had already rushed out extremely quickly, grasping the yellow-beaked bird tightly with its eight long legs. The spider silk continued to be spat out, and soon the bird was wrapped up tightly, without a doubt, it would eventually become the spider's food.

  As he passed by a giant tree with a trunk as thick as a hug, the tree suddenly made a creaking sound, and then Lin Bei saw that the big tree slowly tilted over. He was so scared that he quickly escaped from under the tree. After struggling for more than ten minutes, the tree finally fell to the ground. As the tree crashed down, its bark burst open, revealing only powder inside. Lin Bei took a closer look and found that the tree's core was infested with white ants, which had hollowed out the heart of the tree. The countless white ants crawling around would surely give someone with obsessive-compulsive disorder a fright. Although Lin Bei didn't have it, he still retreated to a safe distance.

  A large group of white ants seemed to have completed their mission, and then gathered together again, starting to march towards another tree. They would first dig holes under the roots of the tree, then frantically multiply, and finally hollow out the heart of the tree, thus thriving endlessly.

  A large green worm fell from the tree, and a green mantis suddenly jumped over, its two long front legs like scissors quickly cut into the body of the green worm, just like a fork piercing beef, then the mantis sent the worm into its mouth.

  Every moment in the forest is a matter of life and death, from top predators to tiny insects. Lin Bei walked through the forest with the phrase "jungle law" etched in his mind. What he saw was even more brutal than what he had imagined. Those who could survive successfully in the forest were all lucky ones, and Lin Bei was one of the luckiest. As a giant python with human intelligence, he no longer had any natural enemies, unless it was old age or illness, otherwise Lin Bei was always safe.

  With such feelings, Lin Bei entered a sparse forest, which was a pine needle forest. The chirping calls of monkeys came faintly, and Lin Bei knew that the territory of the monkey group had arrived.

  It turned out to be a pine forest. Lin Bei was very disappointed, as it turned out that the monkeys were eating pine cones, not other fruits. Lin Bei couldn't eat pine cones.

  The determined Lin Bei circled around the pine forest and found that pines occupied most of it, but there were also other trees. Due to the direct sunlight, the pines here appeared exceptionally sturdy. The largest pine tree was astonishingly over a hundred meters tall, covering an area of several hundred meters. Under this gigantic pine tree, there were almost no plants, only a carpet of fallen pinecones, many of which had already rotted. Most of the monkey troop was on this pine tree. When they saw Lin Bei approaching, they chattered and screeched. The bolder ones even threw pinecones at him. Although it didn't hurt, Lin Bei knew that these monkeys were working hard to protect their territory.

  Lin Bei didn't mind, anyway the pine cones hitting his body didn't hurt or itch. After circling around and not finding anything, Lin Bei identified the direction and left the pine forest. The monkey troop followed behind Lin Bei, excitedly chattering and shouting, celebrating that they had chased away a big monster.

  After leaving the pine forest, Lin Bei traveled a long distance again and finally found that the situation in the forest was not quite what he had imagined. From the time he saw the wild peach tree, Lin Bei thought it should be autumn now, the season when fruit trees are ripe. Lin Bei thought, how could there be no fruit trees in the forest? But at this moment, Lin Bei had to admit that there were indeed fewer fruit trees than expected. At least until now, the wild peach tree was the first fruit tree Lin Bei saw. What about pine cones? Please, can they be eaten by Lin Bei now?

  So Lin Bei realized the severity of the situation, without fruit trees, he would have to eat meat, but eating fur and drinking blood was not something Lin Bei liked. With nine days left until his appointment with the hunter, not eating meat, would he just drink water for these nine days? Just thinking about it made him feel miserable.

  Suddenly, Lin Beiding's body stiffened, his snake-like tongue darted in and out repeatedly, as if he had caught a familiar scent.

  Lin Bei turned around in a circle and determined the source of the smell, Lin Bei's spirit lifted.

  Lin Bei's feeling was not deceiving him, as he climbed closer and closer, Lin Bei saw a small valley in front of him. The valley was filled with the sweet fragrance of fruit, which made Lin Bei very intoxicated. This kind of fruit was Lin Bei's favorite fruit in his previous life, called grapes.

  Entering the valley and seeing the scene in front of him, Lin Bei's eyes widened, "So many grapevines!"

  This valley is roughly one hundred meters in size, with thorny shrubs growing below and grape trellises above, dense and layered, the grape vines have even grown onto the mountain walls, reaching heights of twenty to thirty meters. On these grapevines, many birds have built their nests. At the moment when I crawled into the valley from the north, the bird calls suddenly stopped for a moment, then countless birds took flight from the shrubs and grape leaves, estimated to be over a thousand in number, with many bird droppings mixed in.

  "There are so many birds." Lin Bei sighed again.

  Although the fragrance has been emitted, the grapes are not yet ripe, and these grape vines are all wild, so the unripe grapes are even smaller than the fingertips, making Lin Beibei happy for a while.

  But since he came, Lin Bei naturally wouldn't leave empty-handed, dragging his huge body into the valley, and then more birds flew up, at this time the sky above the valley was densely packed with birds.

  Lin Beishen's body sank, and he looked down to see a thick layer of bird droppings on the ground. The smell was extremely pungent, even more so than a thousand-year-old latrine. What was even more disgusting was that there were maggots in the bird droppings, almost as small as fingertips.

  "Ugh...." Lin Bei quickly crawled out and rolled around in the grass outside, using his tail to swat vigorously. Even so, that nauseating feeling still lingered in his mind. Fortunately, Lin Bei had already digested what he ate, otherwise he might have vomited it up.

  "If we can't enter from the ground, then let's do it from the stone wall."