Qi Yue, who was only seventeen by lunar years and fifteen by actual age, was speechless.
That’s right, just yesterday, Qin Jiulin had found out that Qi Yue hadn’t celebrated his birthday yet this year, meaning he wasn’t even sixteen yet. Because Qi Yue was tall, they had all overlooked this fact.
It made Liu Zhongyuan think that Duan Qiufeng, who had been involved with Qi Yue, wasn’t a good person, even if he hadn’t cheated. He was a creep. Liu Zhongyuan vowed to get rid of him someday!
Liu Zhongyuan joined in, ruffling Qi Yue’s hair after Qin Jiulin. “Yeah, kiddo, hahaha…”
Wu Feiyang asked, “What’s going on?”
Liu Zhongyuan laughed and explained. Wu Feiyang was surprised, “No wonder I couldn’t tell. This kid is so tall! I didn’t expect him to be only fifteen. When’s your birthday?”
Qi Yue, feeling awkward, replied, “December 29th.”
Wu Feiyang said, “Oh, that’s still a few months away. We’ll celebrate for you then!”
Qi Yue felt speechless. He wished he had kept his birthday a secret instead of blurting it out the day before when Qin Jiulin casually asked. It was all his birthday’s fault!
Qin Jiulin said, “Let’s head out. Don’t forget, tomorrow we need to go back and retrieve the remaining crates. Then, we’ll deal with that snake-like beast-shifter. There are so many missions to do, I don’t even know when it’ll end.”
Qi Yue lamented, “I’ll be going back to the blood bag missions. I heard that in the far north, beast-shifter corpses are piled up everywhere, some as high as four or five stories. In some places, the bodies have even buried smaller buildings.”
Qin Jiulin said, “We’ll have to clean it up eventually.”
Liu Zhongyuan replied, “Not necessarily. There are plenty of idle people around. Let them handle the cleanup. We just need to lead the charge and ensure their safety.”
Qin Jiulin sighed, “You’re right.”
They no longer discussed the matter and spent the next day retrieving the remaining military supplies. Only then did they start to discuss the snake-like beast-shifter.
To be cautious, Qin Jiulin and Liu Zhongyuan didn’t approach the beast-shifter’s location right away. Instead, they had Qi Yue fly over to scout the situation. The snake-like beast-shifter was easy to find.
The military had been monitoring it from time to time. After confirming its approximate location, Qi Yue flew over and found the beast-shifter within minutes.
Qi Yue carried a camera that transmitted real-time footage to Qin Jiulin and Liu Zhongyuan, who were watching on a tablet. The screen showed the snake-like beast-shifter wandering among the corpses of other beast-shifters. It was not killing anything at the moment. It walked a few steps in one direction, then turned around and walked in another, and then changed direction again.
It seemed to be pacing in a small area without moving further away. Something about it seemed odd.
Qin Jiulin asked, “What’s going on?”
Liu Zhongyuan replied, “Maybe something’s wrong with its brain. Its eyes are cloudy. It probably can’t see well, and without any significant sounds around, it’s just pacing.”
Qin Jiulin said, “In the video earlier, didn’t it look up at the sky? Maybe it just heard the flapping of wings?”
Liu Zhongyuan agreed, “That’s very likely.”
Qin Jiulin asked, “Should we test it out today?”
Liu Zhongyuan said, “Testing won’t work. Once we engage, it won’t stop until one of us is dead.”
Qin Jiulin added, “But it seems like its hearing might also be impaired. Can you tell?”
Liu Zhongyuan frowned and observed closely, “It’s hard to say. How does it detect life around it?”
Qin Jiulin suggested, “Maybe it just has heightened senses?”
After Qi Yue returned, Liu Zhongyuan said, “Later, you should go back and throw something near it. We need to test its hearing.”
Qi Yue nodded, “Got it.”
On his second trip, Qi Yue was more familiar with the process. He grabbed two small rocks in his claws and flew directly over the snake-like beast-shifter. When he was right above it, he dropped one of the rocks.
The rock landed about ten meters in front of the beast-shifter, making a considerable noise as it fell from such a height.
The snake-like beast-shifter did notice the sound, but it didn’t move toward the rock. It only turned its head in that direction and then remained still.
Qin Jiulin asked, “Does that mean it can hear or can’t hear? Can it see or not?”
Liu Zhongyuan shook his head, “Not sure. It just flicked its tongue again…”
Qin Jiulin concluded, “It’s probably using its tongue to sense its surroundings. Maybe it can hear or see a little, but those aren’t its primary senses. The tongue is likely its main tool for detecting things.”
Liu Zhongyuan said, “That’s right, it should be like that.”
At that moment, Qi Yue dropped the second stone, and it unexpectedly hit the beast-shifter right on the forehead.
The atmosphere became awkward for a moment.
Qi Yue: “…”
Liu Zhongyuan: “…”
Qin Jiulin: “…”
Qi Yue continued circling in the sky, knowing that the beast-shifter couldn’t catch him anyway!
Qin Jiulin said, “This beast-shifter seems stiff. What’s going on?”
Liu Zhongyuan stroked his chin. “It looks like it’s been paralyzed or something.”
Qin Jiulin commented, “It’s not moving…”
Liu Zhongyuan added, “Its tongue is out again.”
This time, the frequency of its tongue flicking was noticeably faster, as if it had become enraged and was searching for enemies nearby. It then raised its head, looking directly in the direction where Qi Yue was.
Startled, Qi Yue flew higher and then veered off in another direction. After a while, the beast-shifter seemed to lose its sense of direction and withdrew its gaze, continuing to pace in circles.
Qi Yue circled back around in a wide arc.
Qin Jiulin asked, “Are you okay?”
Qi Yue shook his head. “I’m fine, but locking eyes with it earlier gave me the creeps.”
Liu Zhongyuan assured him, “As long as you’re okay. From what we just saw, we can deduce that its vision, hearing, and even touch are probably not very good. It seems to rely entirely on its tongue to sense its surroundings.”
Qi Yue asked, “So what do we do now?”
Qin Jiulin replied, “For now, it’s best not to get too close. Of course, we’ve only watched a short video before, so we should observe it more. How about we drive a group of beast-shifters toward it?”
Liu Zhongyuan asked, “How do we drive them?”
Beast-shifters don’t assess the strength of their enemies. They only know kill or be killed, and once confronted, you either have to kill them or escape quickly to shake them off. Driving a group to a specific location would be impossible.
Qin Jiulin suggested, “Why not use the same method as before?”
Liu Zhongyuan said, “This snake-like beast-shifter doesn’t seem to move unless it senses something alive. So, we’ll have to lure other beast-shifters toward it.”
Qi Yue asked, “Blood bags?”
Qin Jiulin nodded, “This time, let’s mix in more. Drop them near the snake-like beast-shifter’s territory. That way, some of the nearby scattered beast-shifters will head over on their own.”
Qi Yue asked, “So, should we go out now and catch some prey?”
Liu Zhongyuan said, “Let’s go. We’ll do it together.”
Catching prey outside was easy. Since they were going hunting anyway, they caught plenty. After leaving one large duck, they gave the rest to the cafeteria.
It was still early, so they continued with their observation.
After chopping the large duck into pieces, they packed the meat into a bag and handed it to Qi Yue. He flew off and dropped it near the snake-like beast-shifter.
The scent of blood seemed to attract the beast-shifter. It flicked its tongue continuously, then slowly approached the pile of shredded meat. However, since it couldn’t sense any living presence, it resumed pacing in circles nearby.
But this time, it didn’t pace for long. Soon, some other beast-shifters, drawn by the irresistible scent of blood, arrived. When the snake-like beast-shifter sensed the living creatures, it became completely excited.
Qin Jiulin remarked, “This is strange. Those beast-shifters are less than thirty meters away from it, and it clearly noticed them. Why is it still standing there?”
Liu Zhongyuan pointed out, “It’s drooling…”
The snake-like beast-shifter, standing on all fours, slightly opened its fanged mouth, with saliva dripping onto the ground. Its mouth was full of drool, which was pretty disgusting to look at.
When the nearest beast-shifter stepped within a certain range, the snake-like creature suddenly launched an attack. It pushed off the ground with its limbs and lunged forward. In the blink of an eye, the closest beast-shifter was decapitated.
Before the head even hit the ground, the snake-like beast-shifter had already killed the other three nearby beast-shifters in just two or three swift moves. After wiping out all of them, the first beast-shifter’s head finally hit the ground, showing just how incredibly fast it was.
Qin Jiulin exclaimed, “That speed is insane! Even if you transformed, you probably couldn’t hit it.”
Liu Zhongyuan asked, “Could your speed keep up?”
Qin Jiulin replied, “I might not be able to catch it.”
He said “might” because, after surviving for so many years in his previous life, he had encountered creatures of similar speed and other types of beast-shifters. Though it was challenging, he had managed to kill them.
Qin Jiulin said, “Of course, I can try. After all, with you supporting me from the side, even if I can’t hit that annoying mosquito, you could at least hinder it from chasing me.”
Liu Zhongyuan said, “Let’s wait for now. This beast-shifter seems to be confining itself to a small area. We don’t need to rush. For now, we should clean up the scattered beast-shifters around it so we can confront it without any distractions later.”
Qin Jiulin agreed, “You’re right. If we engage now, and there are more beast-shifters hiding nearby, they’ll come running when they sense the commotion.”
Liu Zhongyuan’s suggestion made sense, and Qin Jiulin supported it. With that decided, they began clearing out the other beast-shifters surrounding the snake-like beast-shifter.
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