Once upon a time there was a greedy snake

“This is out of piety towards the gods. We want to prove our sincerity. If we don’t even have the courage to face the gods, how can we possibly communicate with them? You should go back to the village.”

Faced with the dissuasion of his subordinate mages, the Radiant One spoke with reason and evidence.

But what he thought in his heart and what he said were completely different things.

As a leader, it was indeed wrong to risk his life, but as a father's son, he should at least see with his own eyes what caused his father's death.

Therefore, in order to avenge this blood feud, the Radiant One secretly poisoned the offerings.

This was the only way he could fight against that god, and the only way he could take revenge. But considering that the terrifying god was a serpent god, he couldn't be sure whether the poison would be effective.

That's why he chose to stay here; he wanted to watch the sacrifices being devoured, even if it meant his death.

However, after waiting for three more days, the snake god still did not come.

Chapter 5 Don't eat just any food

Before I knew it, day and night had already turned seven times.

The terrifying giant serpent that the previous chieftain had spoken of had not yet appeared, and the entire forest remained peaceful and serene.

It's as if the story about the giant serpent was just a hallucination of the previous patriarch on his deathbed.

This made the Radiant One, the nineteenth leader, even more confused. He had originally vowed to avenge his father, but now, after waiting for seven days and nights, he himself began to doubt himself.

"Does that giant snake really exist? Or can snakes really grow that big?"

More and more doubts arose in the mind of the Radiant One.

When doubts arise, one naturally wants to think about how to resolve them, but the current Radiant Ones are already struggling to even think normally.

Simply because he was extremely hungry.

He did send his men away, but in his eagerness for revenge, he forgot to tell them to leave behind more food and water.

It was just a small oversight, but it directly plunged the Radiant Ones into an unprecedented predicament.

During the first few days of waiting, the Radiant One did not realize that there would be such a problem. At that time, he not only had a leather bag full of water, but also a few slices of dried wild beef to fill his stomach. These tightly pressed jerky pieces were not only rich in salt, but also quite chewy. Just one slice was enough to eat for a day. It was a portable ration specially provided for mages.

However, as the strongest mage in the Ignivas family, the Radiant One's appetite is also quite astonishing.

The water in his sac had run out four days ago, even with his extreme frugality. As for food, the few pieces of dried wild beef he had originally intended as emergency rations had now dwindled to a tiny piece the size of a fingernail.

Even though he had put this small piece of dried meat in his mouth and sipped it repeatedly, he didn't dare to swallow it.

Simply because he still needed the taste of this dried meat to make himself eat grass.

Indeed, as the nineteenth leader, he possessed formidable strength. With just a clap of his hands, he could easily hunt even the enormous mammoth.

But that would require being able to see a mammoth.

Right now, let alone mammoths, there isn't even a rabbit to be seen around. No matter how skilled he is, without prey, he won't have anything to eat.

"Were all the wild beasts scared away when so many people were building the altar...?"

The Radiant One immediately realized the problem.

So, when the dried meat he carried was almost gone, the Radiant Ones could only do what the antelopes and rabbits did: pull up wolftail grass and sedge grass from the ground and stuff them into their mouths.

Actually, the wisest choice would be to leave now, go back to the village and have a good meal, or at least go to a slightly farther place to find some prey or berries to fill their stomachs—however, perhaps due to being too persistent, or perhaps because they were too hungry to think straight, the Radiant One showed no intention of leaving at all.

"If I leave now, wouldn't all the hunger I endured these past few days have been for nothing?"

With that in mind, the Radiant One gritted his teeth and persevered.

He viewed this as a battle, a battle against hunger. The stronger the opponent, the more determined he became—he believed that he could overcome the current predicament through willpower and defeat the giant serpent through wisdom.

But as it turns out, the Radiant One overestimated himself. He might be able to overcome adversity through willpower and defeat beasts through wisdom.

But he couldn't overcome his stomach.

The hungrier he was, the more his reason became. Without nutrition, his brain worked slower and slower. Although he could still persevere, all he had left was the act of persevering.

However, he really couldn't keep going on eating grass alone.

"Is there anything else that can be eaten?"

The Radiant One, dizzy from hunger, instinctively turned his head.

It seems there really is.

That was a mountain of mammoth meat, originally intended as a sacrifice to the serpent god. However, after seven days and nights, this once fresh meat had long since begun to emit a foul odor.

"But, it should be fine, right?"

The Radiant One instinctively swallowed.

"Just remove the parts that can't be eaten... So what exactly are the parts that can't be eaten?"

It was at this moment that the Radiant One remembered that he had poisoned the meat—but driven by hunger, he still felt that there must be some meat that was neither rotten nor contaminated with poison.

"As long as I can take a bite, even if it's just a piece the size of a fist... or even a slice the size of my palm, I can keep going, I can keep going..."

His mind was still hesitating, but his body had already instinctively drawn the bone knife from his waist.

"It doesn't matter if you cut into some spoiled parts, as long as it's cooked through, there shouldn't be any problems."

Thinking this, the Radiant One clapped his hands together.

A huge fireball shot out of nowhere, directly igniting the long-extinguished campfire.

The bone knife, already impatient, was already slicing into the mammoth meat in front of it.

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"Hmm? Why does it smell like barbecue?"

Deep in the mountains, Du Yi suddenly raised his head, hissing as he sensed the faint scent wafting towards him.

Although the smell was very faint, almost imperceptible, Du Yi could still tell that it was indeed the aroma of barbecue. As a seasoned barbecue expert, he could even tell from this faint smell that the person grilling the meat was definitely a novice.

Both the meat quality and the cooking time were lacking.

Furthermore, several of the most important parts are missing.

"There's no salt or sugar... and too little oil."

Du Yi, deep in the mountains, shook his head repeatedly.

More spices are a matter of luck, but salt and sugar are the most basic. Salt goes without saying; it's the most basic seasoning. The savory aroma of the meat juices comes entirely from salt. As for sugar, whether you use honey or tartare berry jam, it can effectively enhance the flavor of the meat juices, bringing immense happiness the moment you put the roast meat in your mouth.

Of course, the most important thing is the fat. When grilling meat over an open flame, the fat and lean meat must be grilled together.

"Otherwise, if you dry-roast it like this, the meat will definitely cook, but the juices will also be dried out, making the meat very tough and dry, and it will choke you when you swallow it."

Du Yi is quite experienced in this area, after all, he learned a lesson from this when he first started learning how to grill meat.

This made him want to go and have a conversation with them.

For some time now, he has been gathering spices and firewood in the deep mountains, and also taking care of his two previous hearty meals. He hasn't cooked for a while, but the aroma of roasted meat wafting from afar has given him the urge to show off his culinary skills.

"Let's go and take a look."

With that thought in mind, Du Yi carefully placed the giant trees he had just broken off and then continued his winding journey.

For Du Yi's enormous body, the journey wasn't too far. In just a moment, he saw the altar that was clearly man-made.

However, Du Yi was no longer paying attention to the altar itself, because the savage on the altar, dressed in animal skin, had his eyes rolled back and was foaming at the mouth, clearly on the verge of death.

Beside the savage was a piece of mammoth meat, half-roasted, still emitting a strange odor.

Du Yi had made barbecued meat that was so bad he couldn't eat it before, but this was the first time he had ever killed himself by grilling meat.

Fortunately, the person did not appear to be dead yet. Du Yi was quite experienced in dealing with food poisoning, so after thinking for a moment, he decided to save the person.

Saving a life can be a great foundation for communication.

Chapter 6 Food is the foundation of communication

For safety reasons, Du Yi first inspected the mammoth meat.

Du Yi's caution proved correct; the mammoth meat was indeed poisonous—though he considered the amount of toxicity negligible, it was probably sufficient to kill mammoths.

"In other words, they poisoned the mammoth, then ate the poisoned meat... and the meat was spoiled."

Du Yi roughly figured out the sequence of events.

Things started to get complicated.

As for poisoning mammoths, Du Yi does know how; he only needs to bite them with his fangs or spit at them from a distance. Of course, most of the time he doesn't use such laborious methods to hunt; he prefers the simple and direct method of throwing stones.

But as for detoxification...

Du Yi has absolutely no idea how to do that.

So he could only treat it as a food poisoning for the time being. The first thing he did was to gently tap the man's abdomen with the tip of his tail, making him vomit, but not so much that he would be shoved into the ground by too much force.

After that, he found some black nightshade berries.

These black berries were what he had collected when he was gathering seasonings. At the time, Du Yi thought that these things could be used as a substitute for rock berries, but who knew that the taste was completely wrong after it was made, and he even vomited for half a day after eating it.

But at times like these, these black nightshade berries are perfect for inducing vomiting.

"First, we need to clean out all the rotten meat from the stomach..."

After gently beating the person on the ground with his snake tail until they opened their mouth and closed their eyes, Du Yi precisely dripped the fruit juice that was stuck to the tip of his tail into the person's mouth.

After that, he brought back a large quantity of honey.

Du Yi had once heard a theory that said that in many cases, whether it is detoxification or treatment, drugs only provide an auxiliary effect. More often than not, the body's own self-healing ability is the key to recovery. This means that if he followed this approach, even if he didn't know how to detoxify, he could at least enhance the person's recovery ability by providing them with a large amount of energy.

To put it more vividly, he might not know how the fighting was going on the front lines, but at least he could get enough logistical support.

Honey, with its high sugar content, is undoubtedly the best food for quick energy supply. However, Du Yi was essentially trying anything as a last resort. He could have solved the problem if it were just simple food poisoning, but he hadn't expected that the mammoth meat itself was poisonous.

To Du Yi's surprise, perhaps this person was lucky, or perhaps the wild man's metabolism was much stronger than he had understood, the wild man actually regained consciousness and even began to vomit profusely.

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The Radiant One was almost dead just now.

In his dying moments, the Radiant One was somewhat delirious, dying from the poison he himself had infused into his own flesh. He might be the most foolish patriarch in the history of the Ignivas family to die.

But just as those happy moments from the past began to surface in his mind, a strange liquid dripped into his mouth.

He then began to vomit violently, his stomach churning violently, the nausea so intense that he felt as if he were about to throw up his internal organs.

At that moment, a tremendous force lifted his body from the side, turning him over.

This directly saved him from the tragic fate of choking to death on his own vomit, as he had just caught his breath.

But at this moment, the Radiant One had no time to care where the power came from. The violent vomiting even made his breathing disordered, his head was dizzy, and he couldn't even open his eyes.

God knows how long the vomiting lasted; he even thought for a moment that he was going to vomit himself to death.

Fortunately, the contents of my stomach were quickly vomited out, leaving only the body's instinctive dry heaving.

It was at this moment that the Radiant Ones gradually regained their sight.

He saw a snake.

Just as my father had said in his last words, there really was a giant snake as big as a small mountain. However, there were some differences from what my father had said. At least the snake in front of me did not have any steaming flesh and blood hanging on it, nor could I see any white bones.

As far as the eye could see, there were only tough, jet-black snake scales, with even faint yellowish-gold edges around the scales.

His majestic and imposing posture truly resembled that of a god descending to earth.

"This... Ugh!"

The Radiant One wanted to say something, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he was met with another violent retching.

It was at this moment that the Radiant One saw the large, smashed berries around him. Just by smelling them, he knew they were emetic herbs commonly used by the village's witch doctors.

"Such a large dose would make even a mammoth collapse, no wonder I vomited so badly... But who did all this?"

Thinking of this, the Radiant One subconsciously raised his head.

It seems there's no need to think about this anymore.

After all, the tip of the giant snake's tail was still covered with black jam that hadn't dried yet.

"I……"

The radiant one felt dizzy.