Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 95 Two Dishes Kill Three Demons
The vast snowfield, the giant snake that has disappeared into the distance, and the two steaming mammoth legs on the ground.

Even the dumbest cave bear could tell that this was definitely bait deliberately dropped—although it was unclear whether the purpose of the bait was to slow down the pursuit or to lure them to stay, it was certainly bait nonetheless.

Even the most foolish cave bear wouldn't pay attention to such an obvious bait.

Even the most foolish cave bear...

"……Um?"

The blue-faced giant lion, whose mind was preoccupied with the cave bear, subconsciously turned its head away.

Not far away, the seemingly unconcerned six-tusked white elephant had silently extended its trunk toward the mammoth's leg on the ground.

"What are you doing!"

The blue-faced giant lion roared instinctively.

With a roar, the six-tusked white elephant instinctively tried to retract its trunk, but then seemed to remember something and resolutely stretched it out again.

"These two elephant legs on the ground are suspected to be the remains of members of my Treasure Elephant Clan. I need to examine them before making a decision..."

This is pure nonsense. Since we already know it's an elephant's leg, it must be related to giant elephants. After all, regardless of how close or distant they are, they are all elephants—but this method of testing is a bit outrageous.

This was the first time I had ever seen a blue-faced giant lion. To check if the remains were of the same kind, you had to put the remains into its mouth.

"Put it down first."

The blue-faced giant lion's expression immediately changed.

"How can you……"

Why can't I?

The six-tusked white elephant had a serious expression on its face.

"I'm just identifying it by the taste, just taking a bite... Why are you looking at me like that? You don't actually want to eat it, do you?"

"I……"

The blue-faced giant lion was speechless for a long time.

Yes, if even the dumbest cave bear could see that this was a trap.

So now he's probably even more foolish than the most foolish cave bear.

As a demon king known for his cruelty, eating raw meat and drinking blood is the norm for the blue-faced giant lion. He should have no interest in cooked meat like this, which is already well-cooked and has no smell of blood.

He shouldn't have been interested at all; he should have watched the six-tusked white elephant eat its leg without caring.

but……

He wanted to try it.

Even if it's a trap, it doesn't matter. Even if it's irrational, it doesn't matter. He's confident in his abilities and shouldn't be in any trouble. Well, even if taking this chance might mean he has to pay a price, he's happy to pay that price.

"Am I going crazy?"

Upon realizing this, the blue-faced giant lion's mind immediately went into chaos.

At that moment, it felt as if two little lions had split open in his heart. One little lion was constantly urging him to try a bite, while the other little lion was constantly mocking his foolishness.

However, the six-tusked white elephant was oblivious to the inner turmoil of the blue-faced giant lion. It simply stretched out its trunk and was about to put the elephant meat in front of it into its mouth.

Yes, mouthparts. At this moment, the six-tusked white elephant no longer cared about any hidden killing moves; he just wanted to get a good bite as quickly as possible.

However, at that very moment, a sharp claw that darted out from the side blocked the elephant's path.

"What do you mean?"

The six-tusked white elephant's face instantly darkened when it saw the golden-winged roc that seemed to be trying to steal its food.

"Do you want to eat it too, like that cat?"

"Calm down, don't you sense something's wrong?"

The Golden-Winged Roc frowned, its eyes gleaming with wisdom.

"Think about it carefully. Whether it's you, me, or that lion, are these two elephant legs in front of us on our menu?" "...Wait a minute?"

Upon hearing the Golden-Winged Roc bring this up, the Six-Tusked White Elephant suddenly came to its senses.

Thinking about it carefully, it seems to make sense. Whether it's the blue-faced giant lion or the golden-winged roc, even if they prey on mammoths, they always eat them raw, never cooked. As for himself, he is an elephant, so how could these mammoths possibly be in his hunting range?

However, these two elephant legs, which they should have had no interest in, aroused an enormous appetite in all three of them.

"Or...should we not eat?"

After a moment's hesitation, the six-tusked white elephant began to try to restrain itself.

However, the Golden-Winged Roc shook its head.

"Just look at him to see the consequences of restraining yourself."

Immediately afterwards, the Golden-Winged Roc raised its claw and pointed at the Blue-Faced Giant Lion.

The giant blue-faced lion's face turned pale and then green, and it hadn't made a sound for quite some time.

"What...what's going on?"

Although the six-tusked white elephant had looked down on the blue-faced giant lion on the way here, it was still quite startled to see its temporary companion, who had crossed the mountain from the west, suddenly go crazy with its eyes wide open.

"It was fine just now..."

He was trying hard to restrain himself.

The knowledgeable Golden-Winged Roc shook his head repeatedly.

"It's obvious that he also saw the problem and was trying to use his reason to overcome his desires... But if desires were so easy to overcome, they wouldn't be called desires."

The so-called overcoming desires is, in other words, suppressing oneself. Suppressing oneself before even fighting the snake is tantamount to admitting defeat before the fight even begins.

"This is probably the evil ancient serpent's attack on us."

The Golden-Winged Roc narrowed its eyes.

"Our opponents are quite capable; they actually managed to do this..."

“There’s actually such a saying?”

The six-tusked white elephant was stunned. He never expected that leaving only two elephant legs would lead to so many twists and turns.

However, seeing the blue-faced giant lion beside him still in a sullen state, the six-tusked white elephant felt that the things the golden-winged roc had summarized made a strangely reasonable sense.

And the more they thought about it, the more sense it made. It seemed to make sense, at least one thing was explained – the snake could have run away directly, but it deliberately left two elephant legs behind. Was it trying to make a move against them or was it planning to befriend them?

"Um……"

The six-tusked giant elephant pondered for a moment after thinking about this.

Then he turned to look at the Golden-Winged Roc.

You mean, eat?

"eat."

The Golden-Winged Roc nodded.

"The battle has already begun. If we don't eat them, we'll lose the battle in terms of momentum... Whether we dare to eat these two elephant legs or not is a test of our courage."

"It is also a test of our wisdom."

Upon hearing this, the six-tusked white elephant was even more confused. He truly couldn't see any wisdom required for such an act of eating meat.

But at that very moment, the golden-winged roc shook its head.

"You only saw two elephant legs, but you didn't see that there are three of us..."

"If it were you, how would you divide it?"

(End of this chapter)