Something's wrong with how I'm watching anime.

"Thank you very much, young man."

The fat man turned around and walked in that direction.

Seeing the fat man's actions, Su Xiaolu and Su Yun both breathed a sigh of relief.

However, the fat man stopped suddenly halfway through his journey, just as he was about to disappear back into the woods.

He turned to look at the two of them:

"By the way, if you're here for a spring outing, I have to remind you of something."

"Be careful of snakes..."

Looking at the two of them, the fat man spoke in a meaningful tone before entering the woods.

Watching the fat man leave, the two stood motionless for a moment. Only when they heard the sound of breaking branches and rustling through the bushes, growing fainter and fainter until it disappeared completely, did they finally relax.

"What does 'be careful of snakes' mean?" Su Xiaolu muttered to herself, puzzled, as she watched the direction the fat man had gone.

"It means exactly what it says," Su Yun said after hearing her brother's mutterings.

“There can indeed be snakes in these woods during the summer.”

As he spoke, he subconsciously looked around at the ground, seemingly to make sure there were no snakes nearby.

"Probably..."

Su Xiaolu nodded in agreement. He had been bothered by the sentence just now because he felt that the fat man's tone seemed to be implying something.

"Is that person from that casino?" Su Yun asked.

"Most likely, maybe they escaped from the casino like us..."

The police had just surrounded the casino, and then someone else showed up right afterward—it seemed too much of a coincidence.

"However, it's also possible that they are simply people from the casino."

He said he was looking for his dog.

It was obvious that the other party was after the dog they had rescued before.

However, this is a contradiction.

If it was someone pulled out by the casino, it's really strange that they're still grabbing a dog at this point.

Strange people, strange things...

But Su Xiaolu didn't think too much about it. She needed to get out of there as soon as possible and get to the national highway, and then see if she could flag down a car.

"Sis, let's go quickly," Su Xiaolu said to Su Yun.

Su Yun nodded, but then seemed to remember something and spoke up.

"That dog..."

As she spoke, the figures of rustling leaves appeared behind the two of them.

The dog that ran away earlier has come back.

The direction Su Xiaolu pointed to for the fat man was opposite to the direction the dog ran away in.

This wasn't because I felt sorry for the dog.

After all, if you tell the other person the truth, they will come to your side.

In such a remote place, and without knowing the other party's true attitude, getting close to them is quite dangerous.

and...

He was very concerned when he treated the dog's wounds before.

The wound on the dog's hind leg didn't look like a stab wound, but rather like a gunshot wound shown in a war documentary.

If it really is a gunshot wound, then it means that the person chasing the dog is likely carrying a gun.

That would be very dangerous...

However, the other party was carrying a gun, claiming it was to catch a dog.

Instinctively, he felt that something was amiss.

As she pondered this, Su Xiaolu looked toward the dog that had returned.

At this moment, Su Yun had already squatted down, stroking the dachshund's head and gently scratching its chin. It was clear that this wasn't Su Yun's first time interacting with dogs.

Seeing her older sister like this, Su Xiaolu couldn't help but say:

"Aren't you afraid it will suddenly bite you if you tease it like that?"

"How could this be... I felt this dog was very intelligent."

"Moreover, we just saved its life."

Su Xiaolu couldn't help but argue back:

"What good would it do to rescue it? It's still an animal. Besides, the farmer and..."

Su Xiaolu suddenly shut her mouth.

A sudden realization dawned on him; he seemed to know exactly what had made him feel uneasy earlier.

Let's not even talk about how that fat guy was still chasing a dog even after the casino was raided.

During the chase, the other party likely used a gun.

But is it necessary to use a gun just to chase a dog?

So what if the dog gets away?

unless....

There is a reason why we must catch up with and kill this dog.

For example—this dog is highly dangerous.

"The story of the farmer and the snake..."

Beware of snakes...

Looking at the dachshund in front of her, Su Xiaolu swallowed hard.

At that moment, Su Yun also let out a soft exclamation.

In her eyes, a crack suddenly appeared on the head of the dachshund in front of her.

Chapter Thirty-Five: Fire!

"what?"

Su Yun, who made a soft exclamation, initially thought that what appeared on the dachshund's head was a thin black line.

It wasn't until the edges of the black lines slowly expanded and the entire dachshund's head split open that Su Yun realized something was wrong.

A terrifying change unfolded before her eyes.

The broad, flat membrane with blue veins unfurled, making it hard not to think of a flower bud about to bloom. If it weren't for the fact that this bud originally resembled a dog's head, and if it weren't for the jagged, backward-pointing teeth covering the petals.

Such 'blooming' takes a path completely unrelated to beauty, or even the exact opposite, that is disgusting and utterly grotesque.

Common sense was violently challenged. Su Yun felt that her logical and thinking system, which had been functioning well for more than ten years since she could remember, had been completely shattered, and her mind became extremely chaotic.

But the parasite before her would not hesitate, just like the snake in the farmer and the snake story that was originally frozen stiff.

It cannot feel the warmth of being rescued; all it can feel is the cold-bloodedness etched into its species' instincts after the threat has gone.

Its petal-like mouthparts reached towards the head of the human female in front of it.

It has done this kind of thing quite a few times before.

However, most of the time it is used on the same kind of parasite.

First, use its tentacles to wrap around and hold its own kind in place, then bring it to its front.

When the mouth opens wide enough to envelop the head of another creature, the powerful muscles and teeth inside the mouthparts will crush the encased head in an instant.

Then, a thick fluid will gush out from among the bone fragments. It is a delicious mixture of blood and brain matter, blooming on the inner wall and stimulating every cell of the body.

Of course, a human head would taste completely different. It had already tasted human flesh and blood before, and although the texture was similar to that of its own kind, the taste was worlds apart. Human flesh and blood contained an unpalatable bitterness.

But apart from that, there is no difference.

Like its counterparts, whose skulls are covered by skin, the human head can be crushed instantly. At most, unlike its whimpering counterparts, it can at least hear a pleasant scream as it crushes its opponent's skull.

Su Yun was so frightened that she stood there dumbfounded.

As the hideous maw drew ever closer, almost touching her face, she could already smell its nauseating stench.

But her body just wouldn't respond.

This is the result of the freezing response in the stress response.

Many creatures will lie down and play dead when faced with irresistible danger. Humans also evolved from animals, and this ancient instinct has been passed down to this day and evolved into a freezing reaction in which the body cannot move in a crisis.

However, besides freezing, living things have two other instinctive behaviors when faced with danger: fleeing and fighting.

Just as Su Yun's head was about to be swallowed by the giant maw, a hand reached out from behind her, grabbed her collar, and forcibly pulled her out of the parasitic beast's mouth.

The parasite's closed mouthparts missed their target.

"Run!"

After rescuing her older sister from the monster's jaws, Su Xiaolu grabbed Su Yun's hand and pulled her along, running backwards.

Su Xiaolu clearly triggered an escape stress response, with a large amount of adrenaline being secreted in his body, stimulating the extra potential that his body had been hiding.

His only thought now was to escape from the monster's sight as quickly as possible.

But perhaps because the only thought in her mind was to escape, she didn't notice her feet at all. After running a few meters, Su Xiaolu suddenly kicked a pebble.

Losing her balance, she and Su Yun fell to the ground.

But before Su Xiaolu could even complain about his bad luck, he immediately felt a chill run down his spine.

The snow-white bone blade swept horizontally across his head and then struck a large blue stone, about the size of a human head, not far in front of him.

As the bone blade fell, the incredibly hard bluestone was cleaved in two, sliding to either side. Its smooth surface seemed to testify to the blade's sharpness.