From Swamp Dog to Crocodile Ancestor

This moonlit night, Li Yi's cultivation was hindered. He felt unable to immerse himself in the deepest part of the moonlight, and that completely natural feeling was slow to appear.

The reason, of course, is the constant burning pain from the back injury.

Although the pain was somewhat suppressed when he inhaled and exhaled the moonlight, it still affected Li Yi constantly, like a maggot clinging to his bone.

Even Li Yi's unique posture was affected, causing his ability to absorb and expel moonlight to be disrupted.

As if things weren't going to go wrong, just as Li Yi was half-awake, that vague, stinging pain that hadn't been there for a long time returned.

In the blurry scene, under the moonlight, his original lair was pitch black, but at the last moment a scarlet light suddenly appeared.

Under these dual influences, Li Yi ended his training prematurely.

Soon after, moonlight shone into Li Yi's suddenly fluctuating brownish-yellow pupils, gradually shrinking them into a small dot and remaining still.

Emerging from his meditative state, Li Yi knew his condition was somewhat poor. Seeing that the white python was also about to finish its cultivation, and with a large patch of dark clouds sweeping across the sky, obscuring the moon's reflection, Li Yi submerged himself into the mud and departed.

This strange premonition resurfaced, even after he had abandoned his original lair.

Li Yi felt uneasy and immediately decided to go back and check again late at night.

As the bright moonlight grew increasingly scattered and dim, Li Yi left the large willow tree and cautiously approached his original lair.

The route was still familiar, but along the way, Li Yi felt an instinctive sting of inspiration, as if he truly sensed some kind of potential crisis.

But it will not give up easily. When beasts become spirits, some of them have the ability to seek good fortune and avoid misfortune. Li Yi is obviously moving in this direction, but with an added layer of rationality.

This rationality allows it to examine itself and everything it faces.

Sometimes, simply hiding is not the best approach; one must take risks without compromising one's own safety.

This is a comprehensive consideration, stemming from Li Yi's bizarre combination of beast body and human soul.

Before long, Li Yi opened his brownish-yellow eyes. From a distance of more than ten feet, his gaze passed through the poisonous swamp and the dim moonlight and landed on the original nest.

Originally, this nest was buried deep beneath the swamp, very well hidden, and was dug by relying on a relatively heavy and solid vein of soil so that it would not be submerged by soft silt.

But now, Li Yi no longer needs to go in.

A cave, visible to the naked eye, has appeared in front of the swamp. It is surrounded by dense white threads, some as thick as a finger and some as thick as a hair. They are chaotic yet orderly, forming the entrance to the cave.

This place seemed to have been taken over by some kind of spider-like creature, perfectly overlapping with the white cocoon in the underground scene that the white python had seen.

An inexplicable sense of danger, like an invisible steel needle, briefly pierced Li Yi's spirit.

Li Yi remained motionless, scrutinizing the cave entrance that gave him such a bad feeling.

It was pitch black inside, eerily dark.

Not long after, Li Yi's pupils contracted slightly as he suddenly noticed that a section of the silk thread at the cave entrance was trembling slightly, as if something was rapidly crawling out.

The sense of danger suddenly amplified several times, causing Li Yi's mental pain to surge dramatically, and a high-frequency buzzing sound appeared in Li Yi's perception.

Seeing this, Li Yi turned and left without hesitation, diving into the mud, not even intending to encounter anything inside the cave.

It sensed that the thing inside had definitely discovered it, and seeing that it didn't intend to approach, it quickly rushed out.

But Li Yi was extremely rational, prioritizing his life, and did not take any risks, fleeing without looking back.

As he left, Li Yi carefully analyzed the feeling in his mind, peeling away the veil of fear little by little, trying to find some deeper revelation.

But in the end, it only found that the danger level of the things inside the cave was probably no less than that of the demon tree.

That's it.

But this trip still yielded a huge result: Li Yi was now completely certain that a real problem had arisen in this area.

With this information in mind, and as it was getting late at night, Li Yi hurriedly returned to the interior of the big willow tree.

Through telepathic communication, it shared this information with the white python and warned it never to rashly return to its original lair.

There was only deadly danger there, nothing else.

After returning to his lair, Li Yi lay on the yellow wax stone and felt a long-lost, faint sense of security. The white python coiled around him and gently washed away the pain in his wounds with water.

Li Yi seemed to have thought of something, and swallowed a black mud ball containing a brightly colored poisonous flower.

Before long, Li Yi felt dizzy and saw a chaotic vision of colors. He could vaguely see several small figures dancing wildly, scattering a large expanse of extremely vibrant colors from their hands.

Even the image of a white python appeared in the illusion. It had two heads... or perhaps four, and it was flicking its tongue and waving its body covered with delicate white scales.

Every now and then, countless extremely vivid and saturated colors burst forth from its body, most of which Li Yi had never seen before.

"Such a potent poison... but it doesn't pose a danger to me... I can finally have a good night's sleep..."

This thought appeared intermittently in Li Yi's consciousness, and then he soon fell into a deep sleep.

That was a peaceful and stable dreamland it had never experienced since it was injured.

Soon, another month had passed.

The swamp still looked very peaceful, with a few toads hopping around in the mud, making cheerful croaking sounds, and other creatures occasionally appearing in the poisonous haze.

Li Yi was lying under the big willow tree, basking in the sun. The sunlight was yellowish, filtering through the swaying branches of the willow tree and falling on the black scales, bringing a touch of warmth.

Crocodiles need to bask in the sun to raise their body temperature, which in turn enhances their mobility, hunting instincts, and sensory abilities.

Conversely, one will fall into a state that is close to deep sleep.

Although Li Yi is an anomaly, he cannot completely shake off this almost instinctive behavior.

A gentle warmth seeped into Li Yi's body, beneath his scales and into his muscles and bones, creating a contrasting feeling of being both drowsy and refreshed.

But soon, a burning pain came from the right side of his back, accompanied by the sound of flesh burning, which made Li Yi irritable.

Again.

The thing embedded in its back was not a fox's bone, but something akin to a spiritual object or a magical artifact. The white python tried several methods, but none of them worked.

It has only recently decided to try a more stimulating method to see if it can eliminate this hidden danger.