Zhao Zilong and the others were watching from under Great Vajra’s chassis. “Is it… making a friendly gesture?”

It really did look that way — as if the four-legged snake was saying: New around here? Let me buy you a meal.

Shen Cong couldn’t determine what was driving the behavior. A lizard extending a social overture to a metal vehicle made no sense from any angle he could think of.

“Why would it make a friendly gesture?” He directed the question at Zhao Zilong — she had relevant knowledge.

“Friendly gestures between animals usually fall into one of three categories: recognition of the same species, courtship, or submission to a perceived superior.”

He watched the four-legged snake continue nudging the regurgitated carcass in their direction and frowned. “Which category do you think applies here?”

“Possibly… submission to a superior.” She didn’t sound certain.

Great Vajra’s Talent was Beyond Three-Star, now at the Lv1 era. A pressure aura that could affect ordinary evolved organisms — that part was plausible. But the four-legged snake in front of them was many times larger than Great Vajra in physical mass. Clearly a Heavyweight evolved beast. How could Great Vajra’s pressure aura affect something at that tier?

Without a pressure differential that should generate submission behavior, why was the creature doing this?

Shen Cong didn’t have an answer.

The four-legged snake waited. Its offering sat on the ground. Great Vajra didn’t respond.

The creature grew visibly impatient — it raised its neck and called out twice. The sound came from the throat, muffled and resonant, something loosely resembling a sheep’s call.

Still nothing.

It put its head back down and resumed sunbathing. Its tail swung in slow arcs across the slush, sending water spraying.

“It’s not attacking and it’s not leaving and I would love to know what it wants,” Old Wei said through the walkie-talkie, teeth audibly clenched. “Colonel Chen — what’s the play?”

Shen Cong was still thinking.

The creature’s behavior pattern didn’t fit anything in his framework. He expected either aggression or disinterest — an evolved beast either wanted to fight or it didn’t. Instead he had a Heavyweight lizard delivering partially digested prey and then waiting politely. Completely outside expected parameters.

He made a decision. He walked to the cab, turned the ignition, and let the engines roar to life.

The four-legged snake startled dramatically — a full body jump upward before coming back down with a tremendous splash of slush and mud.

RRRM.

He pressed the accelerator. Great Vajra’s voice grew louder.

The snake retreated several steps, then stopped. Still no aggression. Still watching.

“Let’s move. You go ahead — I’ll watch the rear.”

“Copy. Stay safe.” The military jeep started forward.

Great Vajra followed at an unhurried pace, neither rushing nor acknowledging the four-legged snake.

The creature watched Great Vajra move away. Something worked in its expression — impossible to read precisely, but something deliberate. Then it opened its mouth, curled its tongue around the carcass it had been pushing forward, and swallowed it back down.

Then it fell in alongside Great Vajra at a matching pace.

Shen Cong monitored it constantly. A creature this size required constant attention. But when he registered what it was actually doing — running parallel to Great Vajra, keeping pace, traveling alongside rather than attacking — he found he didn’t know what to do with that.

Internal debate, rapid and inconclusive:

Kill it. I should kill it.

It’s just a confusing lizard. Leave it.

The longer it lives, the longer it’s a threat.

If I can’t actually kill it, that would be an awkward situation.

Dump Pepper Water on its head?

It’s too agile and too large. Hard to hit the head specifically. Wouldn’t be enough to seriously damage something at this tier.

None of the options resolved. He did nothing. The military jeep led, Great Vajra followed, and the four-legged snake ran alongside.

They traveled like this for thirty minutes. Four kilometers. All the way to a small ruined village called Yushaantou, where the township road curved.

Then the four-legged snake surged forward without warning — leapt past the military jeep and turned, planting itself squarely in the road ahead, blocking the path.

Old Wei hit his brakes hard. Shen Cong hit his own.

“Colonel Chen — what do we—” Old Wei’s voice on the walkie-talkie was very quiet.

“Stay quiet.” Shen Cong released his brake and drove Great Vajra forward, passing the military jeep, approaching the four-legged snake one meter at a time.

The snake called out as Great Vajra closed the gap — sharper and more urgent than before. It backed up a few steps and then held, refusing to yield further. Great Vajra was almost on top of it. It stayed put, tail slapping the slush repeatedly.

He stopped. He’d been testing, not actually intending to collide.

The two of them — vehicle and lizard — held position facing each other.

Then the four-legged snake regurgitated again. The carcass came back up. It settled onto the ground, stretched out in the winter sun, and appeared to be waiting.

“Colonel Chen,” Zhao Zilong’s voice through the radio.

He said nothing.

He was thinking through what the creature had done.

Same species? Impossible.
Courtship? Absurd.
Submission? Then why block the road?

None of the three categories fit. The creature wasn’t playing a random game — it wasn’t a cat toying with prey. It had specific behaviors that it was repeating. Shen Cong looked at its eyes and noticed something he’d been half-seeing for a while: a quality of intelligence in them. Not animal blankness — something that watched and evaluated.

A thinking lizard, offering food, blocking the road.

What did that mean?

“Colonel Chen…” Old Wei on the radio again, barely above a murmur.

“Silence.” He switched the radio off.

He sat for a moment. Then he opened the cab door and stepped out.

Very slowly. Body at full readiness beneath the controlled movements.

The four-legged snake registered Shen Cong’s appearance with evident curiosity — tilted its head, looking down at the comparatively tiny figure now standing in front of it. Extended its tongue, licked across its eye, and fixed its attention on Shen Cong as he walked steadily toward it. No defensive posture. No aggression. Just close attention.

In the military jeep, four people watched in complete confusion.

Two figures — one enormous, one small — both belonging to a category that required looking up at.

Shen Cong walking toward the four-legged snake. The four-legged snake watching Shen Cong approach.

The air between them had gone completely still.

Dahu tucked his chin down. “This is making me nervous.”

Xiao Bei murmured: “Zilong — is this what communication between higher lifeforms looks like?”

(End of Chapter 247)