Daily Intelligence: From Water Snake to Jinghe Dragon King

Chapter 5: Blindfolded Shedding
The elephant-swallowing talent kept wriggling its belly, transmitting hunger to the brain nerves, which in turn stimulated Liu Qing's thinking.

Encouraging him to go out hunting, eliminate hunger and grow quickly.

But outside there was a group of scary geese wreaking havoc on the pond.

Liu Qing's human thinking forced him to suppress his desire to eat and refuse to go out.

He coiled his body into a circle like a small conical mound, with his head resting on the mound, spitting out food intermittently.

Just wait with an empty stomach, and wait until the geese leave before going out.

This wait lasted until the next day.

After a day and night of eating and resting, the geese recovered their strength, cackled a few times to express their gratitude for the gift from the pond, and then flapped their wings to continue their migration south.

Liu Qing's stomach felt like it was on fire, and hunger was madly attacking his brain nerves, making him want to eat immediately.

But the human mind still suppresses this urge to eat.

Liu Qing waited for a while before slowly poking his head out and spitting out the snake core from the tongue sheath. He carefully sensed the surroundings.

Seeing that there was no danger, he left the bluestone cave with peace of mind.

While wandering in the bluestone cave, Liu Qing was thinking about how to hunt next.

It is not a rainy day, so the earthworms in the soil will not come out of the ground, and naturally it is impossible to use earthworms to make a nest to lure fish.

The wild geese had been rampaging all night, and almost all the smaller fish, shrimps, turtles and crabs in the pond had been killed. If they wanted to fill their stomachs, they could only attack adult creatures.
But how could its tiny body swallow a one or two foot long carp or silver carp, or a three or four foot long black carp or grass carp?

Not to mention the ferocious snakehead catfish, for Liu Qing now, even an adult crab, lobster, grass turtle, eel, or even a toad is no match for him.
Not to mention hunting the hunter, I'm afraid he will be swallowed by the hunter in one bite.

Liu Qing was full of worry and pessimism about this hunting trip.

[Today's Intelligence: Level White, in the shallow mud beside the bluestone, a wild goose buried some catfish it hadn't eaten yet.]

Ok?
Liu Qing's eyes suddenly lit up with joy.

Today's information came at the right time, and the content of the information made Liu Qing no longer worried and pessimistic.

Today's weather is dry and hot with a hint of coolness. Maybe it's the end of summer.

Following the intelligence, Liu Qing crawled along the large bluestone towards the shallow mud nearby.

When I saw a slight bulge in the mud, showing signs of fresh disturbance, I knew I had found my target.

This wild goose is also stupid. It thought of burying the food it couldn't finish, and planned to dig it out when it passed by here next spring.

Little did they know that by the time they couldn’t finish eating the catfish, it would have already rotted into mud.

Liu Qing flicked his tail, turning over the mud, and his slightly forked snake core sensed the biological heat emitted by the catfish remains.

He happily bit the remains of the catfish and dragged it out of the mud with great effort.

Most of the catfish's body was torn into pieces by the goose's beak like a used mop, and the strips of meat, as thick as fingers, were just right for it to swallow.

Liu Qing silently thanked the goose for burying the fish.

Then, he dragged the strips of meat, which were torn until only a layer of skin remained, back into the bluestone space one by one.
Just like ants foraging for food, don't rush to eat it. It is important to drag it back to the nest to avoid being discovered and intercepted by other crabs, turtles or grass snakes.

After all the catfish strips were dragged back to the nest, Liu Qing finally bit one and swallowed it. As soon as the food entered his mouth, his intestines, which had been hungry and thirsty all day, began to wriggle frantically to digest it.

After this piece of meat was digested, Liu Qing swallowed another one. In this way, Liu Qing swallowed seven or eight catfish meat strips in one bite.

After eating and drinking, Liu Qing slept soundly until dawn. After defecating, he did not rush out to hunt, but looked forward to the daily intelligence later.

Sure enough, the content of today's intelligence made Liu Qing very happy again.

[Today's Information: Grade White, in the reeds near the large bluestone, there's a crab that's just shed its shell. It's soft and tender, and is incredibly delicious.]

This cheat is probably because Liu Qingnian is young. Except for the second time, the lotus root buds need to be obtained by trekking across the pond.

The others are all near the large bluestone, which is a thoughtful touch.

So, Liu Qing devoured several crab feasts. The reason was that the crabs were too big after they shed their shells, as big as an adult's fist. He couldn't finish them in one go, so he had to eat them in several portions.

The next day, Liu Qing woke up and looked forward to the daily intelligence again.

[Today's Intelligence: Level White, behind the large bluestone, in the water celery bushes, there is a water duck incubating eggs. Every noon, it goes out to look for food.]

Liu Qing spit out the snake core happily, making a hissing sound. At noon, the duck that was hatching eggs really went out to look for food.

Duck eggs are not big, like peeled peanuts, but there are so many of them. A nest contains more than ten eggs, which is enough to keep Liu Qing full for a day.

Liu Qing woke up from his sleep, opened his eyelids, and suddenly found that his vision was very blurry.

Although snakes have poor eyesight and see things as if covered by a layer of gauze, they mostly use their snake core to sense the surroundings.

However, today, these eyes were like being covered by a layer of gauze and then a layer of ice. Apart from being able to see a little light, they could hardly see anything.

After a brief panic, Liu Qing, who had watched Animal World, knew that he was about to shed his skin.

Before snakes shed their skin, their eyes will become cloudy and hazy for three or four days, and their body scales will turn grayish white. This is a subtle reminder to themselves.

Next, they will shed their skin and grow up, so they need to eat faster and accumulate enough energy to survive the molting period which lasts for six or seven days.

Liu Qing's panic gradually disappeared, and he felt a little excited.

Thanks to his strong elephant-swallowing talent, he swallows many times more food than usual every day, which speeds up his growth.

It was less than half a month old when it started its first molting. You should know that water snakes in wild ponds need at least two or three months of growth to shed their skin during their larval stage.

Liu Qing is looking forward to his body growing bigger after shedding his skin.

But before that, Liu Qing needs to eat like crazy and eat more food to ensure that he has enough strength and reserves during the next molting period.

[Today's intelligence: Level White, a greedy grass carp, while trying to nibble on the locust flowers that fell on the shore, unfortunately got stranded in a mud pit and is now dying.]

Liu Qing vomited snake core excitedly.

After climbing up the big bluestone to the shore, I soon sensed a low-lying mud pit in front of me.
There was a fat grass carp more than two feet long in it.

If Liu Qing was in the water, facing this giant, he would not have had enough time to avoid it, for he was afraid that it would whip him with its tail and break his bones.
But now, it was stuck in a mud pit, its mouth opening and closing, on the verge of suffocation, and its round, staring eyes were lifeless.

Liu Qingsi spit out the snake's core, and with a pull of its tail, it pulled the mud under its body, and immediately drilled towards the anus of the grass carp like an arrow.

(End of this chapter)