Once upon a time there was a greedy snake

"That's about it. You don't need to memorize it. If you really can't, just find a piece of tree bark and draw it."

Seeing that the savages were staring at the patterns on the ground and racking their brains, Du Yi simply made a new suggestion.

This convenient method naturally gained the support of the people in the mountains, and even made many of them slap their foreheads, wondering why they hadn't thought of such a simple method before.

"I guess they don't have time to think about it."

Seeing the savages' frustrated expressions, Du Yi casually offered some words of comfort.

"If you spend all your time working and don't even have much time to rest, how can you have the mind to think about how to make things more convenient?"

Upon hearing this, the frustration in the hearts of these savages—or rather, the people of the mountains—was greatly relieved. Many of them even knelt on the ground, weeping bitterly and unable to speak for a long time.

This puzzled Du Yi. He felt he hadn't said anything outrageous, so the savages' reaction seemed a bit too intense.

After a brief inquiry, Du Yi learned the reason.

"So it turns out you've been working like a slave for too long."

Hearing the savages complaining about how hard they worked, Du Yi immediately understood why they were collapsing.

However, this casual conversation did not last long. Although it was impossible to count how many days and nights had passed, the exchange eventually came to an end after the temperature of the land gradually changed.

This is because the mud ball buried underground had already been heated.

The giant eagle inside was already fully cooked.

Chapter 54 Meaningless Close-ups

After the campfire was extinguished, Du Yi took out the mud ball that had been buried in the ground.

With his long tail wrapped around the boulder, Du Yi cracked open the hardened clay shell. Then he picked up a large mammoth bone that he had left over from a previous meal, split it open, and revealed a sharp broken end—although it was still a bit small for him at the moment, it was still usable as a bone knife.

As the bone knife, made from the mammoth bone, scraped away the leaves covering the giant eagle, the increasingly rich aroma of meat wafted through the air.

The aroma alone was enough to make Du Yi's mouth water.

After getting used to grilled meat over an open flame, this juicy eagle meat is simply an unparalleled delicacy.

The aroma of oil mixed with the sweetness of honey was the sauce he had brushed onto the giant eagle. The spices stuffed inside the eagle's body served to remove any fishy smell and enhance the aroma. Of course, Du Yi had already cleaned the spices off the moment he dug the giant eagle out, as he didn't want them to affect the eagle's taste.

As for the method of eating...

This time, however, Du Yi chose to swallow it whole.

Although his body is indeed that of a snake, Du Yi rarely eats in the same way as a snake. Whether it's mammoths or saber-toothed tigers, he usually dismembers the meat and roasts it. This way, he can better appreciate the differences in texture between different parts of the meat and experience the flavor.

But this time, facing the giant eagle that should have been dismantled, Du Yi didn't think about anything else.

The ingredients before him were so top-notch that his appetite even surpassed his reason. Although no matter how he thought about it, the more top-notch the ingredients, the more he should savor them, the tempting aroma made him impatient to swallow the entire giant eagle whole.

If it were still a human, this would definitely be impossible. After all, the human mouth has its limits. No matter how wide you open it, you can't stuff a whole chicken inside. At most, you can eat chicken without spitting out the bones, which is already the limit.

But if it were a snake...

"I really can do it."

By the time he realized this, the enormous eagle, as large as a small mountain, had already been half-swallowed by him.

No chewing is required, only continuous swallowing, and no bones need to be spat out. Everything will be completely digested—this is undoubtedly the most complete form of eating, a form of eating without any waste. Everything will be swallowed into his stomach and transformed into nutrients to nourish his body.

"What a pity, perhaps I should have said something about my impressions after eating it..."

Du Yi even felt a little regretful. The overwhelmingly delicious taste made him regretful. At this moment, he only regretted that he hadn't studied hard when he was still human. Otherwise, he might be able to use more words and more vivid descriptions to appreciate the deliciousness of the giant eagle and feel the happiness of the moment.

"However, some feelings... are hard to describe in words, aren't they?"

Du Yi thought to himself.

He had once heard that language itself can only carry 15% of the information of a complete message, and writing can carry even less, perhaps only 7%.

In other words, once it comes down to the level of description, it becomes very difficult to capture the complex feeling itself.

Just like now, Du Yi is almost in tears.

It wasn't because he was too full, but because of the emotion brought by the food. Even though he had swallowed the giant eagle whole, the sweetness and freshness still lingered in his mouth.

"Being able to eat your fill is truly a blessing."

Du Yi, who had swallowed the giant eagle whole, lay on the ground with his eyes slightly closed.

However, he quickly got up again, because this method of swallowing whole still had some side effects—he needed to keep moving his body in order to truly complete the digestion process.

This made Du Yi feel sad once again.

"Such good stuff, and it's going to be digested so quickly...sigh."

Thinking of this, Du Yi couldn't help but sigh.

Can he really find another giant eagle as good as this?

An opportunity to grow such a large eagle, and to taste so good, is probably not something that will come around again for thousands of years.

"If I had known, I wouldn't have eaten you."

Looking down at his swollen belly, Du Yi even began to miss the giant eagle.

"If you hadn't attacked me back then, and we hadn't fought, I might have treated you to a meal... We would have become friends, I would have shown you what real cooking is, and you would have laid eggs for me, and even hatched more giant eagles..."

Although he said that, after thinking about it, Du Yi still felt that he shouldn't do such a shameless thing to his animal friends.

Having eagle eggs to eat is enough; there's no need to have a baby eagle as well.

However, it's too late to regret it now, since the giant eagle is already inside him. Moreover, he didn't even notice whether it was a male or female eagle, so he can't determine whether the eagle can lay eggs.

"Life is always full of regrets..."

While taking a walk to digest his food, Du Yi shook his head repeatedly.

He now regrets that he was a bit too hasty in the process of cooking the giant eagle. Although the preparation work itself was quite complicated, after savoring the taste, he still thought of optimizing the space.

"Eagle meat is actually a bit dry. I should have wrapped it in mammoth caul fat to allow the fat to fully soak in, which would have made the meat juices more flavorful."

However, it's too late now, no matter how much he regrets it. After all, he has already eaten the eagle meat. Even if he wanted to change the cooking method, he could only wait for the next giant eagle to appear.

"If only I could turn back time..."

Du Yi couldn't help but start thinking like this.

However, as he thought about this, Du Yi realized that he was starting to feel sleepy—perhaps because he had eaten too much and consumed too much nutrition, or perhaps because he had been woken up by noise.

In short, he could sense that he was about to fall into a deep sleep.

That is, another molting.

"We still need to find a quiet place..."

Despite his sleepiness, Du Yi found another mountain peak, dug a cavity in the mountain, and then crawled inside.

This time, however, Du Yi specifically instructed the savages before going to sleep to tell them roughly where he would sleep and that they should not go over and wake him up.

"I should be able to sleep in until I naturally wake up this time, right?"

Thinking this, Du Yi gradually drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 55: The essence of combat is throwing stones at each other.

"The Ancestor of the Dao has entered a deep slumber."

The Ignis people of the past, now known as the mountain people, recorded the events of this day on birch bark.

The contents on the birch bark included the Dao Ancestor's instructions to them, as well as the location of the Dao Ancestor's slumber. This was to prevent anyone from disturbing the Dao Ancestor's slumber. However, this part was too brief, and there were too many blank spaces on the birch bark, so these mountain people also filled in some of their conversations with the Dao Ancestor.

"The contents of this piece of bark will guide us in the right direction."

This is how the people in the mountains understand it.

Because of their small numbers and the abundance of resources in the mountains, they had no need to leave the mountains. Normally, they might have felt that life was meaningless, like the first deserter who came here, and just lived out their old age and died. But after being enslaved by the giants, that is, by the Ice People, they had a new name for this situation.

They called that state of nihilism "the Waylessness."

The giants are wicked; having acquired everything, they only know how to enjoy themselves. As a result, the giants are no longer brave and skilled in battle, but only weak and confused.

The former royal family of Ignis, those magicians, were also wicked. So, despite having everything, they went mad and even dared to challenge the serpent... the progenitor of the Way. This arrogance brought them their downfall and even caused the entire city of Ignis to fall.

As time went by, the people in the mountains became more and more certain of this, after all, they had been observing the situation outside the mountains all along.

Whether they were once royalty or frozen giants, these former strongmen gradually became weak because of their lack of morality.

On the contrary, those who live in seclusion in the mountains, because of their Taoist principles, gradually become stronger.

Although the days of enslavement were difficult and arduous, they also found their own path—the whipping of the overseers and the batons of the giants made them realize that what they had cared about and wanted before was insignificant.

Only by becoming strong ourselves can we achieve everything.

No matter what you do, strength is a necessary element. If you don't even have the most basic ability to protect yourself, you won't have the life to do what you want to do. In fact, sometimes losing your life is not necessarily the worst outcome.

More likely, people will still be alive and doing things, but everything they do will be plundered by the stronger ones.

"If you want to practice your own way, you must at least have the power to protect it!"

The people in the mountains made their conclusions.

Fortunately, they had no shortage of ways to become stronger. Although they did not have royal blood and could not learn royal magic, they had at least seen how the royals cast spells and had a certain understanding of how the royals became stronger. Although the royals did not open up their knowledge of magic to them, they could not live without the food they ate, so they knew that eating more of it could make them stronger.

Furthermore, the methods of becoming stronger that they learned were not limited to those of the Ignis people themselves. The giants from the frozen tundra and the ice warriors never deliberately hid these methods when they were gathered together to practice combat skills. This directly led to some people in the mountains also secretly learning these combat and physical training techniques, and even bringing them back to teach their other companions.

This was originally a technique they used to resist the giants' enslavement. Although they never used the combat power they had developed until they escaped, it was still preserved as a way for everyone to become stronger.

Moreover, as original Ignis, their ranks already included hunters who had fought against giants. Even though those hunters were far less capable in direct combat than mages, it was still a form of fighting.

In the end, they even received personal guidance from the Ancestor of the Dao.

Before the Dao Ancestor fell into slumber, some people from the mountains had inquired about this matter. Although it was rather offensive to ask the Dao Ancestor, out of their thirst for knowledge and desire to become stronger, they still wanted to see how the Dao Ancestor understood combat.

"If you ask me that, I don't know how to answer it."

They still remembered that this was the answer given by the ancestor of the Dao.

"If you're asking about any martial arts manuals, I definitely don't have any, I can be frank about that, you don't need to overthink it... But when it comes to fighting, no matter how fancy the moves are, it all boils down to one thing."

"If I can hit you and you can't hit me, you lose and I win."

"So if you insist on fighting, I suggest you throw stones. At least that will create a safe distance."

As always, the Ancestor of the Dao spoke in great detail, even to the point of being somewhat tedious.

But these very easy-to-understand words opened up a new direction for these people in the mountains.

"This is the essence of battle!"

After observing the battles outside the mountains, the people in the mountains came to their conclusions.

"I can hit you, but you can't hit me." The great Dao Ancestor used only one sentence to reveal the essence of battle—as long as you can injure your opponent without getting hurt yourself, that truly means victory.

As for how to injure the opponent...

"That means throwing stones."

The more these mountain dwellers pondered, the more they perceived the profound meaning in the words of the Dao Ancestor.

Indeed, it was all about throwing stones. The Dao Ancestor even succinctly revealed the core of the battle—although the mages and frozen warriors outside the mountain were throwing fireballs and spears, it could also be understood as stones that could explode and stones with sharp points like sticks.

Extending this further, even in close combat using spears and stone axes, it's still about throwing stones, only the stones aren't completely thrown; they're still being pulled along by sticks or even arms...

"In other words, becoming stronger means gaining a deeper understanding of how to throw stones."

Following the guidance left behind by the ancestor of the Dao, these people in the mountains felt that they had understood everything.

Becoming stronger is the foundation of everything; only by having the ability to protect oneself can one be qualified to pursue one's own path.

"Therefore, as those who build our own roads, we must at least first complete the foundation of the road."

This method of building the foundation for roads has gradually been simplified into a single, concise term.

Build the foundation.

However, as people who follow the guidance of the Ancestor of the Dao, they also value the continuity of the path. Although for them at present, the Foundation Establishment stage is already far away, they still firmly believe that the Foundation Establishment stage is just the beginning.

Under the guidance of the Ancestor of the Dao, they will go even further.

Chapter 56 The Last Ignis