From Swamp Dog to Crocodile Ancestor

"Um?"

Li Yi felt his consciousness momentarily lapse, and then, the world before him changed completely.

Before my eyes stretched an endless black swamp, with bubbles rising from the muddy ground from time to time, bursting out plumes of yellow mist.

The entire sky was completely obscured by this yellow mist, and the sunlight that pierced through the mist turned into a dusky orange-red, making the place quite peculiar.

"Have I traveled through time?"

Half an hour later, Li Yi subconsciously took a nap and belatedly realized this.

In this life, his body was actually a small black swamp dog less than a meter long.

"..."

"Sigh, finally I can lie down in peace for a while. I'll just have to hold on for now."

Once that thought passed, Li Yi followed his memory and hid in his cave, where he lay for a month.

That day, Li Yi felt unbearably hungry, so he reluctantly poked his eyes out of the dark swamp to search for his prey.

This is a boundless swamp, at least that's how it is for me right now.

The terrifying, highly toxic miasma turned the sky into a dead zone, while only a few lives survived inside the swamp.

Wandering silently through the mud, Li Yi soon spotted his first prey.

A toad the size of a human head, dark green all over, with two bulging eyes looking around.

Soon, it suddenly exerted force with its limbs, jumped half a circle on the spot, and faced Li Yi directly.

"Croak!"

With a strange cry, a fist-sized ball of green slime flew towards Li Yi.

Subconsciously, Li Yi also opened his mouth wide and spat out an even larger cloud of black water.

boom!

Two orbs, one black and one green, exploded in mid-air, both extremely poisonous, and landed in the swamp, hissing and releasing wisps of white mist.

The toad reacted quickly, spitting out a mouthful and turning to run away. With powerful leaps from its hind legs, it covered a distance twice the length of Li Yi.

But Li Yi was no longer in the same place.

The toad had just hopped twice when the black mud in front of it suddenly exploded, and a huge mouth came rushing towards it.

"Croak!!!"

Li Yi swallowed his prey, and soon he felt wisps of heat flowing through his body as the black water rapidly digested the toad.

His brownish-yellow eyes slowly closed, and Li Yi remained motionless, becoming one with his surroundings.

After completely digesting the toad, Li Yi opened his eyes. Just as he was about to retreat back into his cave, he discovered a second toad fleeing in panic.

It hopped and skipped straight toward itself, its powerful hind legs carving large craters into the swampy ground.

Li Yi glanced at the prey running towards his mouth, but made no move, instead continuing to hide.

"Croak!"

The toad leaped in front of Li Yi. Behind it, a black crocodile, which was running and chasing through the swamp, broke through the gray-yellow mist and stared at the toad with a pair of fierce eyes.

They were the same kind after all.

Li Yi witnessed this scene, except that the other person was more than twice the size of himself.

In the primitive racial memories ingrained in the mind, even those of the same kind can devour each other!

Bang bang bang!

With a few rapid sounds, the swamp dog's thick limbs swung rhythmically, and its speed suddenly increased. In just a moment, it had closed in on the toad.

It opened its mouth wide, and the shadow completely covered the toad.

But the next moment, right behind it, a longer, dark blue shadow, carrying a terrifying aura, instantly wrapped around its body.

The toad was so frightened that it convulsed and remained motionless.

Li Yi clearly saw that the dark blue shadow was actually a giant centipede whose length was indiscernible, and its entire exoskeleton was dark blue.

I can't even tell which side is the head and which side is the tail.

The centipede's sharp legs embedded themselves into the gaps in the scales of its own kind, its terrifying body completely entangled its opponent.

Then, Li Yi recognized its head.

It opened its ferocious jaws and bit down on the crocodile's belly.

A short time later, the crocodile's struggles weakened, its limbs gradually twitched, and it stopped moving.

The toad didn't dare to move an inch, and neither did Li Yi, who was lurking behind it.

It would be much easier for the other party to kill him.

Li Yi watched helplessly as his fellow human was devoured by this centipede.

It tightly coiled around its opponent and injected some kind of toxin with its terrifying mouthparts, causing the crocodile to quickly begin the process of internal dissolution.

The centipede continued to inject venom while sucking the food from its prey.

Until the other party was completely drained, becoming an empty shell composed of skin and scales.

After everything was over, it silently sank into the depths of the swamp, its long body disappearing segment by segment into the black mud.

At this moment, a quarter of an hour later, the toad collapsed on the swamp, its body pressed against the end of Li Yi's slender snout.

After a long time, the toad shook its body, recovered, and hurriedly ran away.

Li Yi remained motionless there for three days and three nights, ceasing all activity. Only after confirming that there was truly no danger did he slowly turn around and leave.

My next hunt won't be until at least three days later.

Let me take a nap first.

Back in the cave, Li Yi slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.

For some reason, he was particularly prone to sleepiness, and after each deep sleep, he would feel a cool, tingling energy swirling within his body.

Perhaps, sleeping is the same as becoming stronger.

When Li Yi was awakened by hunger again, he finally slowly left the cave.

Having learned from his previous experience, Li Yi was extremely cautious, especially when hunting other prey.

While swimming near his cave, he gradually discovered an interesting fact through continuous observation.

The dark green toads that are currently best suited for their own consumption like to devour a certain dark purple beetle in the swamp, and these beetles in turn feed on a plant with rhomboid leaves.

So Li Yi waited near this plant. When a beetle appeared, he spat out a mouthful of black water, dissolving the beetle's limbs, and then used it as bait to catch toads.

After mastering this skill, Li Yi always kept the beetle on his head.

When the toad arrives, it will shoot out its long tongue and stick to the beetle.

Its tongue is exactly the same length as Li Yi's current head.

Therefore, by the time it caught its prey, it was already in Li Yi's mouth.

Li Yi only needs to open his mouth, or perhaps add a slight turn of his head, to easily deliver a fatal blow using his speed.

After a full day of hunting, Li Yi was satisfied. After eating eight or nine toads, he turned around and prepared to return to his cave to continue sleeping.