Chapter 58: Taming

Ji Xinghuo waited for five hours.

Finally, the snake in the cave moved. It shrank to just a few centimeters long and crawled out through rock crevices, traversing the valley and entering a nearby forest.

Clearly, Little Green Snake knew this area well.

It moved swiftly. Its reduced size didn’t slow it down but instead made it more agile, weaving through grass and trees almost silently.

Little Green Snake flicked its tongue in and out as it moved, occasionally changing direction.

It was using its sense of smell to hunt for prey.

Ji Xinghuo’s magnetic sense detected several wild animals—large and small—plus rodents and insects hidden in underground mud holes. Little Green Snake, however, seemed uninterested in them. It paused to sniff them and then disdainfully moved on.

Before long, it found a suitable target.

A wild hen perched resting on a tree, slightly smaller than a rooster with long tail feathers, capable of flying, commonly found in the Star Realm Forest.

Little Green Snake quietly climbed up the trunk, cautiously approaching the hen.

Silent in its minimized state and hidden by leaves, it moved close to its prey through a blind spot and quickly climbed the tree reaching a distance of just a few meters before it coiled and sprung, accelerating instantly towards the target.

The hen had no time to perceive the danger; its body was pierced by the green flash, letting out a scream before falling.

Little Green Snake landed lightly and quickly crawled over to its now dead prey.

It bit the hen and the whole bird disappeared with one gulp.

Then it headed back to its nest in the valley, swiftly returning to its cave. Once there, it spat out its prey and began to feast.

Ji Xinghuo watched the entire process, awestruck.

The snake seemed like an experienced hunter, easily securing food by fully utilizing its abilities.

However, there was a detail.

Little Green Snake didn’t eat the hen right away. It painstakingly plucked the feathers and removed the innards before swallowing the meat.

“A snake that processes its food…”

Ji Xinghuo was quite astonished.

After a moment, he realized it was a sentient creature and shouldn’t be treated as ordinary. Its pickiness about food was understandable.

After eating the hen, Little Green Snake didn’t rest immediately as before but swallowed all the feathers and debris in the cave, moved to a nearby pool, spat everything out there as if cleaning up, swam around to rinse itself, and then returned to its cave.

“Quite the clean freak,” Ji Xinghuo mused internally.

He noticed then that Little Green Snake’s cave was very tidy, evidently cleaned regularly.

Hours later, Little Green Snake exited its cave again.

This time, it chose a different hunting spot, perching upon a tree several kilometers away. It showed no interest in the bird eggs there but waited for the mother bird to return to strike, taking its prey back to the nest.

It repeated the process of plucking and gutting, ate, then cleaned up, and went to sleep.

Ji Xinghuo secretly observed for a day, getting a good sense of Little Green Snake’s routines.

It kept no regular day or night schedule, venturing out to hunt every three to six hours. It was very choosy about its food, preferring medium-sized birds and avoiding typical snake-preferred foods. It always cleaned its food before eating.

Little Green Snake had an extraordinarily keen sense of smell, detecting scents up to 300 meters away.

It used smells to discern directions, distances, locations, and different prey scents.

It was obviously capable of thinking and very cautious.

If it detected an unfamiliar smell within range, Little Green Snake would immediately stay still to avoid detection, waiting patiently until the stranger left before moving. It wouldn’t approach unknown animals or creatures.

Ji Xinghuo summarized its personality.

Smart, timid, patient, cautious, and stable with intelligence roughly equivalent to a five or six-year-old child.

For such a creature, brute force was not an option. A more patient approach was needed to lower its guard and show friendliness.

Ji Xinghuo thought of a simple tactic.

Given Little Green Snake’s character, it would not approach him unless there was an irresistible temptation.

That would be food!

This might be its only exploitable weakness.

As night fell, Ji Xinghuo stopped hiding his presence, boldly arriving at a cliff above the valley. However, he didn’t climb the rocky columns but set up camp on a platform on the other side of the cliff.

This place was within Little Green Snake’s olfactory range.

Ji Xinghuo paid close attention to its movements. When he reached the cliff, the snake in the cave opened its eyes.

He continued setting up his tent, arranged simple traps around as usual, ate dry rations and water at night without making a fire, and then rested in his tent.

Ji Xinghuo barely slept that night.

Little Green Snake also didn’t approach the cliff and went hunting twice, both times stealthily.

After dawn, Ji Xinghuo got up, washed up, shot two hens, and brought them back to camp to cook—one boiled, one roasted.

This time, he had brought enough spices.

While his cooking skills were far inferior to Jiangnan Caiyi’s, he had learned some tricks after frequently roasting chicken, and the aroma quickly filled the air.

The sleeping snake in the cave raised its head, flicking its tongue incessantly.

As the smell of roasted chicken intensified, it couldn’t resist anymore and crawled out of the cave, approached cautiously through the grass in the valley, and stealthily climbed up the cliff, peeking at the campsite from a mossy layer just four or five meters away, thinking it was well-hidden.

Ji Xinghuo’s lips curled into a slight smile.

Had it been yesterday, he might not have noticed Little Green Snake and overlooked it.

But now…

After two days of barbecuing nearby, with Little Green Snake’s intelligence, it surely suspected it could be a trap. So, it just watched from the shadows, making no move.

Ji Xinghuo was not in a hurry. He leisurely finished roasting the chicken, then grabbed one and started eating.

Crunch, crunch…

He chewed the chicken loudly on purpose.

He quickly ate over half a chicken, casually throwing the bones on the ground, filling half the cliff with the savory aroma.

As Ji Xinghuo ate, he watched Little Green Snake. It stared intently at the roasted chicken in his hands, tongue flicking incessantly, saliva actually dripping from its mouth.

“A snake drooling, haha…”

He almost laughed out loud.

However, despite its craving for roasted chicken, Little Green Snake didn’t ambush like the day before. Clearly, it was deeply suspicious of everything happening and managed to resist the food’s allure.

“If you won’t come out, I’ll create an opportunity for you.”

Ji Xinghuo purposely roasted two chickens, eating one himself and leaving the other intended for Little Green Snake.

After finishing the chicken in his hands, he started on the second. After a few bites, he suddenly patted his stomach, stood up, and walked to a bush outside the camp to relieve himself.

When Ji Xinghuo returned to camp, the remaining roasted chicken was gone.

His magnetic sense detected Little Green Snake quickly moving through the grass, nearing its cave hidden in a crevice.

“Damn it!”

Ji Xinghuo pretended to curse a few times, then packed up his tent and gear and left the cliff.

Once he was out of Little Green Snake’s olfactory range, it immediately returned to its cave, spat out the roasted chicken, and savored the meal. Having seen Ji Xinghuo eat a few bites, it didn’t suspect the chicken and quickly polished it off.

Ji Xinghuo, not far away, saw everything through his magnetic sense.

Little Green Snake was intelligent, but not much.

Still too naive.

Just because he ate some of the chicken didn’t mean it was safe. He could have easily poisoned it if he had malicious intent. By now, it would have been dead.

But it was precisely because Little Green Snake was so naive that there was a chance to tame it.

If it were as smart as an adult, such simple tricks would have been useless, seen through immediately.

Over the next few days, Ji Xinghuo camped near the valley, changing locations daily, sometimes beyond Little Green Snake’s olfactory range if distant enough. However, the snake still found its way, peeking around the campsite.

Each time Ji Xinghuo camped, he cooked various foods, not just birds.

Venison, wild boar, fruits, and even spider leg meat, but no matter the ingredient, he cooked it with care, making it quite delicious.

He pretended to guard against Little Green Snake, not giving it any chance to steal.

But Little Green Snake tried every trick to steal the food, with Ji Xinghuo sometimes letting it succeed, other times vigorously preventing it, showing it how hard food was to come by.

A man and a snake in a battle of wits.

Sometimes, Ji Xinghuo would leave the area, letting it not find the camp, indirectly starving it.

For five or six days, Ji Xinghuo didn’t gain any spiritual source energy, but his relationship with Little Green Snake had improved significantly. It was no longer so wary and would arduously lurk nearby each time he set up camp, eagerly waiting for mealtime.

Still, if Ji Xinghuo approached, it would immediately flee.

“It should be about right now.”

One day, Ji Xinghuo set up camp directly in the valley, only a little over two hundred meters from Little Green Snake’s cave.

He roamed the surrounding forest, hunted several hens and large birds, a black-horned mountain goat, and picked a bag of wild berries then returned to the camp to start cooking, with Little Green Snake already perched on a small tree outside the camp, unblinkingly staring at Ji Xinghuo, full of curiosity.

Ji Xinghuo showed off his culinary skills, busily preparing a feast for two or three hours.

The entire valley was filled with tantalizing aromas.

Little Green Snake, having watched for half the day, had already drooled.

Ji Xinghuo looked up at the tree where Little Green Snake was perched and suddenly said, “I’m leaving. This is the last meal I am making for you. Enjoy it.”

After speaking, he began to pack up his tent and gear.

Little Green Snake hesitated for a moment then, while Ji Xinghuo’s back was turned, swallowed all the food on the ground and quickly slithered away.

Ji Xinghuo didn’t chase after it. He quickly packed up his belongings and walked out of the valley.

Soon, he was beyond Little Green Snake’s olfactory range.

His magnetic sense remained locked on Little Green Snake hiding in the crevice. When it realized Ji Xinghuo was gone, it raised its head, looking in the direction he had left.

Ji Xinghuo kept walking, getting farther and farther away.

A few minutes later, he was over eight hundred meters away from Little Green Snake, beyond the range of his magnetic sense but he continued forward.

That evening, Ji Xinghuo camped at the foot of a mountain several dozen kilometers from the valley.

The next day, when Ji Xinghuo stepped out of his tent and turned to look at a nearby tree, he saw a familiar green figure among the dense leaves.