Chapter 133: Chapter 133: Edward Wants to Eat Mouse
Ryder curled up into a round ball; his little nose sniffed the familiar scent lingering in the lining cloth, and he quickly fell into a deep sleep.
While sleeping soundly, he suddenly heard a rustling sound in his ears; the little boy groggily opened his eyes. As soon as he opened his eyes, Ryder was frightened out of his wits.
A snake made of white light was continuously slithering toward him, its snake tongue still constantly flicking in and out. Ryder had no spirit left to think about why the snake was glowing like that, nor the mind to wonder how he could see anymore. His sleepiness vanished completely; the little boy let out a miserable ’squeak’ and scrambled to run away.
Edward: "..."
Why did this scene feel so familiar?
He had waited for a whole month, sleeping so much but never dreaming of the unfamiliar space and that little mouse again. Originally thinking his fate with the little mouse was only a one-time thing, he didn’t expect that today, as soon as he fell asleep, he appeared in this place again. Edward was ecstatic, hurriedly slithering around to find the mouse cub.
He slithered until his tail almost fell off before finding the mouse cub sleeping soundly on the grass, and hurriedly rushed over. Who would have expected that as soon as the mouse cub saw him, it would scramble to run away. Edward blanked out for a moment, then accelerated to chase.
"Ryder! Ryder! Why are you running? It’s me! It’s Edward!"
Seeing the large snake chasing him, Ryder was so scared that his heartbeat was louder than his voice; how could he hear what Edward was saying? He ran headlong, but regrettably, he still couldn’t escape the snake’s tail. When wrapped by the snake’s tail, Ryder was so desperate that he had no attachment left to the world, his entire body freezing motionless.
Edward: "Ryder, what’s wrong? Why did you run away when you saw me?"
Ryder cried "boo-hoo", constantly muttering: "Don’t eat me... Don’t eat me..."
Looking at the mouse cub crying until he was almost out of breath in front of him, countless question marks appeared in Edward’s mind. He carefully placed the mouse cub on the ground, using the tip of his tail to poke the boy’s body, and called out softly: "Ryder, what’s wrong? I’m Edward??"
Hearing the large snake call his name, Ryder blanked out slightly. He sniffled, asking between sobs: "How do you know my name? Do we know each other?"
Edward felt extremely confused, using his tail to scratch his head, completely not understanding what was going on. Could it be that because they hadn’t met for so long, the mouse cub had forgotten him?
"I am Edward, the eldest son of Papa Kaelen and Daddy Sane. Do you remember now?"
The mouse cub confusedly raised his paw to scratch his head, saying without much confidence: "Isn’t Brother Kaelen’s eldest son from the Panther clan? Furthermore, his name is Finnick, not Edward. Are you tricking me?"
Edward: "..."
He asked carefully: "Then last time we met in the dream, did you tell my Papa and Daddy?"
Ryder blankly scratched his head, his entire chubby face turning into a stupor. Looking at him like that, what else was there for Edward to not understand? While he was full of hope because someone had relayed the message to his Papa and Daddy, this mouse brat Ryder woke up and forgot absolutely everything.
The little mouse was trying hard to dig up his memory when he suddenly saw a dark shadow looming over him. As soon as the boy raised his head, he saw the white light snake had turned into a pitch-black snake, standing ramrod straight in front of him. Ryder only had time to let out a ’squeak’ before his entire body was swallowed whole by the large snake.
"Eldest brother! Be merciful!"
A green light beam came from nowhere with wind-tearing speed, directly ramming straight into the large snake’s belly. The little mouse, who had just been swallowed into the snake’s belly, was knocked flying out by this ram, caught by a purple light snake’s tail. The black color on the snake’s body also vanished, returning to a pure white.
"That was too dangerous, eldest brother. Just now, your spiritual energy was almost polluted!" The green light beam quickly gathered together, turning into a small panther. This was Finnick’s spiritual body.
At this time, Oliver, in spiritual body state, also slithered over quickly, hugging the little mouse who had fainted from fright.
"Finnick! Oliver! You guys also managed to come to this place?" Edward joyfully curled his tail up and wagged it. He then excitedly slithered a circle around Oliver, letting out sounds of admiration: "Oliver, your form looks so cool! I want it too!"
Oliver scoffed disdainfully: "I am a Sub-Beast. You couldn’t have it even if you wanted to. How about you crawl back into Papa’s belly and reincarnate, maybe then you’ll have a chance."
Edward’s frantically wagging tail suddenly stiffened, and he gave a dry, awkward laugh twice.
Never mind, he still preferred being a beastman.
Oliver carefully placed Ryder onto a clean patch of grass; Finnick walked over, raising his right front paw. A drop of green water fell onto Ryder’s body, consolidating the boy’s spiritual body that was about to dissipate. Oliver crossed his arms over his chest, turning his head to reprimand his eldest brother:
"Didn’t you know the mouse species are very cowardly? Scaring him like this, he really will die!"
Edward raised his tail to scratch his head, saying with a tone full of remorse: "I was forced to enter the transformation period too quickly so my spiritual power is unstable; just now, in a moment of anger, I couldn’t control it."
Saying that, he told his two younger brothers about the previous encounter with the little mouse, as well as the fact that the boy had forgotten him and his instructions. Finnick and Oliver looked at their older brother, then back at the little mouse. Oliver pulled his older brother’s tail forward, placing it down next to the little mouse, then pointed out the difference to Edward:
"Look, although both of your spiritual bodies are white, your spiritual body is much brighter than his. This also proves that Ryder’s spiritual power is very weak. Even though your spiritual waves are similar, causing his spiritual power to accidentally resonate with yours, he will not have any memories of your meeting."
Edward scratched his head, saying awkwardly: "I didn’t know that either. Oliver, you really know a lot."
Oliver raised his chin and said proudly: "This is all from the inheritance in my memory telling me. Don’t tell me you don’t have it?"
"I do, but my inheritance is about space, and furthermore, I haven’t been able to awaken it yet," Edward said dejectedly. The inheritance told him that he had to go through at least three more sheddings of skin before it could be unlocked. And for a Snake clan beastman, the earliest skin shedding wouldn’t start until age eighteen.
He asked his younger brothers again: "By the way, how were you guys also able to enter this resonant space? Why have I never met you guys before?"
Oliver pointed at Ryder again: "Today he slept next to us, so when the spiritual power of you two resonated, we were pulled in along with you."
Right at this moment, the little mouse Ryder twitched a few times and slowly opened his eyes. Edward joyfully leaned in close, only to see the little mouse let out another ’squeak’ and roll over, fainting again.
Edward: "..."
Finnick and Oliver: "..." It seemed Edward had left an extremely massive psychological trauma on Ryder...
In the resonant space, the two little ones helplessly dragged their older brother to a spot far away from the little mouse; outside, Sane had just finished his work and returned, stopping by the crib to take a look at his children.
Kaelen was sitting not far away reading a book; hearing Sane let out an ’huh’, he put the book down and walked over to see what was wrong. He only saw that Finnick and Oliver had abandoned their own nests and, at some unknown time, moved over to lie in Edward’s nest.
The two little ones happened to lie on either side, hugging Ryder in the middle like hugging a teddy bear. Kaelen chuckled softly: "It seems the babies all like this little mouse, huh?"
Sane shook his head helplessly, carefully removing his youngest son’s tail that was pressing across the little mouse’s belly, and pulled the blanket over the three little ones. He said softly:
"It’s fine now while they’re small, but it won’t work when they get a bit bigger. Not to mention Oliver is a Sub-Beast, Finnick will also grow up; this nest fundamentally isn’t enough for the three of them to lie in."
"Later when Edward returns, we’ll just tell him to give this nest to Ryder. I don’t know why the boy likes Edward’s nest so much; Finnick and Oliver’s nests are also spacious, but he doesn’t crawl into them."
Kaelen was just wondering. It was late already, and he and Sane also needed to rest. The two walked softly back to the bed, whispered to each other for a while, and then gradually fell asleep.
Inside the space, the little mouse finally woke up. However, this time he couldn’t find those three differently colored animals anywhere. Next to where he lay was a white-light pinecone, looking incredibly appetizing. Ryder looked around once, seeing no predators whatsoever. He felt much more at ease, using his claws to gently poke the light pinecone.
Seeing the pinecone didn’t move, Ryder emboldened himself, picked up the pinecone, and took a bite. Who knows what the pinecone tasted like, but the mouse cub’s entire body suddenly lit up brilliantly, his two ears standing straight up, and the stubby tail on his rear wagging left and right. The three brothers hiding in the grass bushes saw the little mouse so happy and secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then continued to huddle their heads together, talking in low voices.
"So that Temple Master is very strong?"
"That’s right. Moreover, from what I eavesdropped, the Temple Master used to be very old and was nearing the end of his lifespan. But somehow, he keeps getting younger and younger, and furthermore, stronger and stronger." Edward tapped his snake tail, saying somewhat uncertainly: "Although I don’t know what kind of person the Temple Master was before, I have a feeling he doesn’t seem to be the original Temple Master."
Finnick also nodded: "Perhaps the original Temple Master used some trick to make his face look old. Didn’t you say he has charm arts? Maybe it’s his trick."
Oliver, however, didn’t think so. The boy had inherited memories, so he thought about everything a bit more deeply than his older brothers. However, he was still young, and the transmitted knowledge was only elementary, so he couldn’t possibly deduce the deeper reasons yet.
"The problem is that even though we know the information now, how do we convey it back to our two fathers? Ryder won’t remember anything when he wakes up, and you and I, Brother Finnick, just broke our shells; we can’t even walk steadily yet."
Edward looked at Finnick: "Can you control tree branches to form writing?"
Finnick rolled his eyes: "Do you think I’m a genius? I don’t even know how to read! My Divine Energy can at most make the tree look a bit fresher."
Oliver: "Don’t look at me, I don’t know either. My Divine Energy right now can only slightly wet Uncle Zale’s hair."
Edward still tried to salvage a little: "Then can we use spiritual power to communicate with our two fathers?"
Finnick and Oliver shook their heads simultaneously. For a moment, the three little ones stared at each other blankly, then simultaneously hung their heads, sighing heavily.
The little mouse was passionately gnawing on the pinecone, unaware that not far from him, a certain family’s three brothers were drowning in sorrowful emotions...
