"Ah—!"
A girl's terrified scream shattered the morning tranquility, startling birds from the trees outside the window.
Yun Manman covered her mouth, staring with quaking pupils at the small snake coiled around her left wrist.
What? How did this snake escape from its box and end up on her bed?
The little white snake awoke from the scream. Seeing the girl so close, it flicked out its tongue and licked her wrist in a seemingly ingratiating manner.
But snakes don't have eyelids, so their eyes remain open even when they sleep.
So from Yun Manman's perspective, it seemed as if the snake had been staring at her all night.
The tingling sensation from the snake's tongue spread from that small patch of skin throughout her entire body. Yun Manman shuddered and, frightened, flung the snake violently to the floor.
"Ugh, stop licking me..."
The snake lay motionless on the ground, as if it had fainted.
It was then that Yun Manman noticed patches of dried blood on the snake's body, and traces of blood on the floor where it had crawled.
Oh no! It's injured?!
Did she hurt it last night? And she just threw it down again!
Yun Manman scrambled to the floor, scooped up the snake, and placed it in her palm.
It hadn't bitten her despite staring at her all night, so it must be a docile snake, right?
With trembling hands, she prodded at the limp snake in her palm, silently praying: "Snake bro, please don't suddenly wake up and bite me," while also fearfully thinking, "Snake bro, I didn't mean to hurt you, please don't die!"
The little white snake lay motionless in her palm, seemingly lifeless.
Yun Manman began to panic.
Do snakes have visible breathing?
Help! She didn't know how to tell!
Yun Manman placed the snake on a handkerchief while she changed clothes and searched for the nearest veterinary hospital.
As she carried the snake downstairs, she saw the messy bloodstains on the floor and grew even more anxious.
Those wounds must be so painful.
The snake hadn't done anything to harm her since startling her last night.
Besides, it was so beautiful. What if it was someone's lost pet snake?
Yun Manman was on the verge of tears, terrified that this little life might slip away in her hands.
When she arrived at the animal hospital, it had just opened.
The receptionist had barely finished yawning when someone suddenly appeared before her: "Quick! Save this snake, it's dying!"
The nurse glanced at the snake in Yun Manman's hands and immediately led her to the doctor's office.
"Doctor Yang! Emergency!"
Oxygen, examination, X-rays...
The series of checks made Yun Manman anxious, her tail swishing rapidly back and forth behind her.
Goddess of Mercy, bless us! No, wait! It should be Beast God, bless us!
Please let the little snake survive this ordeal!
Yun Manman sat outside the examination room, hands clasped in constant prayer, unsure if the Beast God could hear the plea of an outsider like her.
After what seemed like an eternity, the door to the examination room opened. Doctor Yang, with hair piled on top of his head like cotton candy, poked his head out and looked at Yun Manman:
"You can come in now."
Yun Manman couldn't help but glance several times at the doctor's peculiar hairstyle, thinking to herself, "Alpaca doctor?"
On the clean examination table, the little white snake's bloodstains had been wiped away. It was now quietly coiled up like a mosquito coil.
Its red eyes were wide open but unfocused, appearing to still be unconscious.
Doctor Yang pushed up his glasses: "This little snake has been experiencing subcutaneous bleeding. I've given it a coagulant injection, but all other indicators are normal."
"What happened to it?" he asked.
Yun Manman replied guiltily: "It suddenly appeared in my garden last night and startled me, so I kicked it away. It might have fallen a few times..."
Doctor Yang glanced at her several times, seemingly surprised by her timidity.
"Aren't you feline beastkin the least afraid of snakes?"
Yun Manman: ?
"I once saw a feline beastkin who kept two large pythons."
Seeing Yun Manman's look of rejection, Doctor Yang smiled:
"This snake looks like an albino corn snake, but it's a bit different. Its lineage might not be very pure... But that doesn't matter. It's non-venomous and has a very gentle temperament."
"It might have escaped from somewhere. You could post a lost pet notice and see if anyone claims it."
The alpaca doctor then gave a long list of care instructions.
Yun Manman nodded, seemingly understanding, though she had only really grasped "non-venomous" and "gentle" from the doctor's lengthy explanation.
Great! No need to fear being poisoned to death!
Now she could happily pet the snake!
Being bitten wasn't a problem as long as she didn't die from venom.
Just then, the little white snake languidly raised its flat head, appearing to have woken up.
It shook its head and precisely located Yun Manman's direction, slowly crawling onto her hand and coiling around her wrist again.
The snake's body was cool and smooth, its scales gliding across her skin in a peculiar sensation.
Doctor Yang smiled and said, "Looks like he really likes you."
Yun Manman raised her wrist, curiously meeting the snake's clear, red, round eyes.
The little snake tilted its head, gently flicking its tongue.
How adorable! What a little sprite!
Having let down her guard, Yun Manman's heart was immediately captured by the snake's beautiful and cute appearance.
After thanking the doctor, Yun Manman paid the bill, received a package of medicine, and got an electronic compressed file of "Corn Snake Care Instructions" from the alpaca doctor.
The little white snake refused to stay in the box, escaping instantly every time she put it in.
Instead, it draped itself over Yun Manman's shoulder, treating her like a perch.
Though only as thick as a finger, it was about 80 centimeters long, looking like a jade-white decorative chain draped over Yun Manman's shoulders.
Yun Manman looked helplessly at the snake that seemed very attached to her.
She tapped the snake's head lightly: "Clingy little thing."
The little white snake tilted its head innocently, its long, cool body wrapping around her neck, its agile tongue flicking against her face.
Having a snake coil around her vulnerable neck gave Yun Manman a sense of crisis, making her skin crawl involuntarily.
But the snake's cool body was particularly pleasant in the summer heat, like a built-in air-conditioned scarf.
Seeing that the little snake was unwilling to leave her, Yun Manman had no choice but to take it with her to the dessert shop.
After all the morning's excitement, it was already past ten o'clock.
She needed to hurry and prepare today's desserts for sale, or she'd be late.
Meanwhile, in the Border Defense War Room.
Lan Yuxiang, in the middle of a meeting with his subordinates, quickly read through the message sent by Lu Xi. His ice-blue pupils trembled slightly.
Afterward, he pressed his lips tightly together as he deleted the message on his communicator. He looked up, said "Meeting adjourned," and hurriedly left the war room, leaving behind a group of bewildered subordinates.
"What could make the Colonel so flustered?"
"No idea. Must be something big? Even when that Beastfiend nearly devoured his arm last time, he wasn't this nervous..."
Inside the monitoring room, Lu Xi was pacing back and forth anxiously, frantically biting his fingernails.
"Bang!" The door to the monitoring room was suddenly flung open and then slammed shut.
Lan Yuxiang strode up to Lu Xi and asked, "What's going on? The General has disappeared?"
Lu Xi instinctively retorted, "It's not that the General has disappeared, it's that his psychic energy fluctuations have vanished."
He pointed at the monitoring page representing Lu Qi's psychic energy and explained, "According to the records, the intensity of the General's psychic energy fluctuations began to weaken at 9:13 PM last night, then disappeared for a period of time. The location reappeared at 2 AM, and based on the intensity of the curve at that time, the General's psychic energy may have surged violently."
"But after the surge, the General's psychic energy fluctuations disappeared."
On the enormous screen was a map, below which was a curve representing psychic energy intensity.
At present, Lu Qi's location was not visible on the map, and the line representing his psychic energy intensity had dropped to zero below.
Beneath Lu Qi's line were numerous curves representing the psychic energy intensities of the soldiers, some on the A-tier, others on the B-tier.
Psychic energy fluctuation monitoring was mainly used to locate and observe soldiers during combat, facilitating timely detection of violent psychic energy surges.
As there were no deployments at night, there were no beastmen on duty in the monitoring room.
The usually calm and composed Lan Yuxiang now furrowed his brow, staring at the screen with a grim expression, lost in thought.
They all knew very well that the disappearance of psychic energy fluctuations was like a flatline on an electrocardiogram monitor representing vital signs.
Either death or transformation into a Beastfiend.
The atmosphere in the monitoring room was as oppressive as the sky before a storm. Lu Xi couldn't help but gnaw at his fingernails again.
"It's all my fault. I should have been watching the General's psychic energy fluctuations constantly."
"I should have stopped the General from going. It's all my mistake..."
The "click-click" sound of Lu Xi biting his nails echoed eerily in the spacious room.
Lan Yuxiang rubbed between his eyebrows and said, "Stop biting your nails. It's irritating."
"I can't help it. I want to bite when I'm anxious." Lu Xi continued "click-clicking."
"Colonel, what should we do now? Can I go to Lili Town to find the General?"
The usually composed Deputy Lu became a bit flustered when it came to Lu Qi.
Lan Yuxiang sighed, offering rare words of comfort to Lu Xi: "Don't panic."
"Lili Town isn't far. If a powerful Beastfiend had appeared, we would certainly know about it, but we haven't received any news, which means no beastmen have turned dark there yet."
"Moreover, the General has already been injected with the stabilizing agent, and we've all felt that the situation was stable. The General might have encountered some unexpected incident this time."
"When the General's psychic energy was on the verge of collapse before, he sealed off his own psychic energy. Perhaps it's the same this time."
Hearing this, Lu Xi calmed down a bit, but couldn't help worrying again: "The General is... quite difficult to find when his psychic energy is sealed off."
Lan Yuxiang took a deep breath: "Whatever the case, we must find him. We have to believe that the General won't turn into the form we despise the most."
"Does anyone else know about this?"
"The soldier on duty in the monitoring room today knows. I've strictly ordered him not to speak about it."
"Good. First, draft a confidential letter to His Majesty. He must be informed of this matter." Lan Yuxiang arranged methodically: "Afterward, lead a team to Lili Town under the pretext of purchasing supplies. Remember, you must search covertly."
Lu Xi nodded: "I understand."
The person who framed the General hadn't been found yet, so they absolutely couldn't let other beastmen know that the General was missing.
There was still a little of Lu Qi's blood left from before, which they hoped would be enough to fool those Beastfiends on the other side.
Lan Yuxiang couldn't leave the front lines. If he left too, the army would be leaderless, and those with ulterior motives might notice something amiss.
Although in his heart, he was eager to go and find Lu Qi himself.
He watched as Lu Xi and his team set off towards Lili Town, praying to the Beast God in his heart, hoping for Lu Qi's safety.