Chapter 453 - 14: Python Hunt
The sound of water flowed turbulently, slightly turbid, trickling down from the cliff top, splashing into a mist.
The deep pool below the cliff was still covered with a layer of green algae, as the stream from the mountains churned the water's surface, creating waves that pushed the nearby algae, making them surge like living creatures.
Not far from the center of the pool impacted by the mountain stream, wild grass grew lushly, just as when Chen Zhou first came here.
...
A slight mist floated over the pool's edge after the rain, adding an eerie and mysterious atmosphere to the whole area.
This place usually remained exceptionally quiet.
The water in the deep pool was stagnant, unsuitable for drinking, and the terrain around the pool was complex, overgrown with weeds, significantly obstructing vision, and with pythons active.
Let alone Chen Zhou and the indigenous people, even the wild animals of the forest wouldn't easily approach.
Yet today, the place was particularly lively.
...
Chen Zhou just received the news, and Sunday, who first learned about it, had already taken action.
Six indigenous people holding farm tools like pitchforks, shovels, sickles, and picks followed behind Sunday.
Sunday still wore a long saber at his waist and carried a long gun on his back, directing the indigenous people to clear the weeds while observing the surroundings of the deep pool with an eagle-like gaze.
The herding indigenous person carried the most modest weapons among the indigenous people.
He held a long whip, his expression somewhat fearful; after bringing Sunday here and seeing the lush wild grass, he hesitated and moved cautiously, as if frightened out of his wits.
...
"Is this where you saw the sheep being eaten?"
The indigenous person responsible for clearing weeds slashed down another patch of grass, yet the muddy pool side revealed no unusual traces, causing Sunday to gradually doubt the reliability of the herding indigenous person's information.
"Yes, here."
The herding indigenous person replied.
His Mandarin sounded heavily accented with an indigenous dialect—
while others followed Chen Zhou to receive further education at the factory site, he was herding sheep on the mountain;
while others frequently communicated in Mandarin to strengthen their memory, he listened to the bleating of sheep and the mooing of cows on the mountain;
while others completed the homework assigned by Saturday, he slept in the herding shack on the mountain;
after a long time, naturally his Mandarin was not that good, even somewhat worse than when he was not fully committed to the herding work at the beginning.
...
After responding to Sunday, the herding indigenous person hesitated and added a sentence.
"It might have run away..."
Sunday gave the herding indigenous person a sidelong glance, wishing he could kick him.
Shouting so loudly, making such a big deal, even the "Celestial God" sent someone to report it, now making it seem like nothing's important, playing around?
"Keep searching!"
Unwilling to waste words with this clumsy guy, Sunday thought he might have damaged his brain when he got frostbitten.
After instructing the indigenous people to continue cutting grass and searching for clues, Sunday habitually glanced behind him.
Seeing Chen Zhou rushing over, his usually stern face showed a hint of joy, and he hurriedly went to greet him.
...
"How many sheep are missing?
Is anyone injured?
How did the sheep get driven here?"
As soon as he arrived at the deep pool, Chen Zhou immediately fired off three questions.
"Three sheep are missing, one half-grown sheep, and two lambs. No one is injured."
Sunday answered the first two questions, then dragged the herding indigenous person to his side, indicating him to answer the last question.
The previously timid herding indigenous person brightened up upon seeing Chen Zhou.
To him, who had been saved by Chen Zhou, there was only one "god" in the world, which was Chen Zhou.
Neither the brutally strict Sunday nor the gentle Saturday could give him this feeling; only Chen Zhou could be his anchor.
"The sheep were led away by wild goats, when I chased them, they ran here."
The herding indigenous person spoke while pointing to the top of the cliff, continuing to supplement his observations.
...
According to his account, after the flock mingled with the wild goat herd, they were hard to separate. He chased them to the cliff, where he managed to get them apart, only to find a few sheep missing.
He thought some sheep might have run off with the wild goat herd and was wondering how to retrieve them when he heard a sheep bleating in the grass below the cliff.
Unaware of snakes near the deep pool, he took a detour down the cliff's gap and arrived at the pool side.
Peeling back the grass nearly as tall as himself, he followed the bleating and saw a giant python strangling the sheep.
The island of the Great Tribe also had snakes, but he had never seen one this large.
This massive python gave the herding indigenous person quite a scare.
He hurriedly glanced, only seeing the python entwining a sheep, not even clearly noticing whether the sheep was a stray from the flock, and fled the grass with shaky legs, practically dragging them.
Convinced he had seen the legendary "Demon," and driven by fear, the herding indigenous person immediately reported the incident to Sunday.
Though he described the situation exaggeratedly, saying the snake's size was almost like a bull, this prompted Sunday to bring a gun—
Facing such a monster, without a gun, no one felt confident in dealing with it.
Besides carrying a gun, Sunday also gathered other indigenous people and sent someone to notify Chen Zhou—
his anchor was also Chen Zhou.
...
Making such a big fuss, everyone was searching for the "bull-sized" monster while no one noticed the herding indigenous person's increasingly lowered head—
After shaking off the panic, he actually wanted to say, the snake wasn't that big, at most, just slightly thicker than a sheep, perhaps not even as thick as a sheep.