Ah~~~
In the quiet, empty forest, a piercing, heart-wrenching scream suddenly erupted, sending sharp jolts through the nerves.
After that, in a clearing beside Li Jian, several figures appeared out of nowhere, swiftly flashing and taking Li Jian away from the snake pack, signaling the end of his challenge.
With Li Jian gone, the numerous spirit snakes deep in the Ling Snake Forest, after a brief moment of daze, seemed to realize none of their kin had been harmed.
Soon, they all crawled back up the trees and slipped into a light slumber, restoring the forest’s tranquility.
Su Qi, who had witnessed the entire challenge Li Jian faced from start to finish, was somewhat surprised when she saw Li Jian being taken away by his teammates.
So there really were many different types of abilities. Li Jian’s teammates had been hidden right beside him, and she hadn’t even noticed.
“I’ll start my challenge now.”
Though surprised, with Li Jian’s challenge as a reference, Su Qi—now somewhat prepared—puffed out her slightly rising chest and readied herself to begin.
Her petite feet, clad in snow-white silk stockings, took a small step forward toward the deep part of the snake spirit forest, the side Li Jian hadn’t disturbed during his challenge.
“Senior Sister Su, good luck! The spirit snakes are pretty slow, and once they leave the trees, they get clumsy. Plus, I’ll be up in the trees acting as your Guardian Princess Knight! Hmph~ Don’t worry.”
“Good luck, Su Boss.”
“Go… go… huff huff~”
“Su Boss, if you feel danger, just shout! Your tender skin will hurt badly if you get bitten.”
“It’s fine, Su Boss. My saliva even has disinfectant properties.”
…
After taking a couple of steps, listening to the quiet reminders from members of the Cangyou Wildcat Team behind her,
At first, Su Qi felt warmth from their kind words and was quite touched.
But when Senior Sister Lin finished speaking, Su Qi shivered deeply and made a firm decision in her heart.
Emmmmmmm, no matter what Senior Sister Lin meant, she absolutely couldn’t let herself get bitten by a spirit snake.
Otherwise, something bad definitely would happen!
Having made up her mind, Su Qi alone stepped toward a huge tree deep in the spirit snake forest.
Without the company of the Cangyou Nightcat Group nearby, whether due to suggestion or not, Su Qi felt less warmth.
Coupled with the cool night breeze and the occasional crisp crunch of dry leaves and mushrooms underfoot, and the purple glow emanating from the heads of the spirit snakes as they breathed,
At that moment, Su Qi felt like a character straight out of a death-defying horror movie.
Although from observation just now, Su Qi knew her high agility should allow her to dodge the snakes’ attacks.
But in reality, walking alone in the purple forest at night, having traveled barely 50 meters with still 20 meters left to the tree bearing the snake spirit fruit, Su Qi was already sweating nervously.
The cool night wind swept past, bringing with it a faint, elegant fragrance unique to young girls.
As the scent drifted by, several spirit snakes nearby slowly opened their vertical pupils and began flicking out fiery red forked tongues.
They swayed their tails and slowly slithered toward Su Qi.
With the triple blessings of white silk stockings, the JK uniform, and Su Wife’s Bento, Su Qi’s agility had broken the 50 mark.
Thanks to this heightened perception and already keen alertness, she sensed the movement of the snake pack immediately.
Following the soft rustling sounds and the tongues flicking, Su Qi saw that snakes from all directions were approaching her.
Faced with this, Su Qi felt helpless and almost wanted to cry.
Was it because of the spot she chose to pick the snake spirit fruit?
Li Jian hadn’t stirred the purple spirit snakes until he started climbing the tree during his challenge.
Why now, before she even reached the base of the tree, were so many spirit snakes converging on her?
This didn’t make sense!
It had to be personal!
As Su Qi pondered tearfully, several spirit snakes had already drawn near.
But unlike the fierce aggression and wariness shown when they attacked Li Jian, these snakes neither hissed nor moved swiftly.
However, in her panic, Su Qi didn’t notice this difference.
In fact, it wasn’t her fault for being inattentive.
Faced with a large number of crawling purple spirit snakes, anyone would instinctively panic and wouldn’t immediately notice the details.
Seeing the endless tide of purple little snakes advancing, Su Qi planted her white silk-clad calves firmly.
With her weight under a hundred pounds and a nimble frame, she flashed nimbly to dodge many approaching snakes, then swiftly climbed a tall tree bearing snake spirit fruit.
Her black leather shoes stepped onto branches nearly two meters above the ground, which made this usual homebody a bit uneasy.
But compared to the hundreds of snakes crawling along the branches, this fear quickly faded from Su Qi’s mind.
In that moment, Su Qi came to a realization through experience.
The best way to conquer fear isn’t to face it directly, but to face an even greater fear.
With another light flash, Su Qi narrowly avoided a spirit snake attacking from above the branches.
Her arms, soft and white like creamy jade, grabbed a tree limb and she finally reached the top of the spirit snake tree.
At the treetop, Su Qi discovered that each tree actually bore many snake spirit fruits.
Only because the snake spirit fruit resembled the heads of spirit snakes so closely—and with some of the fruits crooked—she had mistaken many for actual snakes.
Seeing the spirit snakes she had driven away below now climbing up,
To avoid prolonged trouble and a potential snake siege,
Su Qi hurriedly hopped over like a little white rabbit to a ripe snake spirit fruit.
Reaching out her delicate white hand, just as she was about to pick the fruit,
Suddenly, trouble erupted.
Hiss~
The once-still snake spirit fruit abruptly opened a pair of vertical pupils and slithered toward Su Qi.
Because the distance was extremely close, and the creature had hidden its forelimbs deeply behind branches before being touched,
Before Su Qi could react,
The spirit snake had already wrapped itself around her fair arm.
((ᵒꈊᵒ᷅ ू‖))՞
Feeling the cool, slightly rough texture of snake scales spreading along her arm, Su Qi, whose strength was a mere six, instinctively reached out with her other hand to push it away.
But the harder she pushed, the more she realized helplessly that her strength was laughably small compared to the spirit snake.
Rather than pushing it away, it felt more like she was giving it a massage; she simply could not stop it from advancing.
Within two seconds, Su Qi watched helplessly as the snake crawled up her arm to her shoulder, raising its purple-glowing little head.
Because it was so close, Su Qi could even smell a faint, natural fragrance coming from the spirit snake that fed on snake spirit fruit.
Just when Su Qi thought she would be bitten hard, like Li Jian had been, and instinctively closed her eyes in fear,
The next moment, she realized the expected pain hadn’t come.
Instead, her cheek felt ticklish, just like when she had been affectionately nuzzled by the three little cats of the Cangyou Wildcat Team earlier that afternoon.
Clenching her small fist and summoning courage to open her eyes, Su Qi saw
That ticklish feeling was caused by the spirit snake itself.
It was gently rubbing its little head against her cheek, acting just like a spoiled kitten cuddling its owner.
And whether it was her imagination or not, even though the snake’s pupils were vertical and hard to read,
Su Qi felt an inexplicable sense of no hostility from it.
Feeling this faint kindness, Su Qi reached out her small hand to gently cover the glowing head of the spirit snake.
Perhaps pleased by her touch, the snake emitted a comfortable hissing sound and wriggled its whole body.
Seeing this, a question mark slowly appeared above Su Qi’s head.
Before she could figure out what was going on,
The other spirit snakes that Su Qi had left behind at the base of the tree lazily crawled up.
Some rubbed their little heads against Su Qi’s white stockings, while others climbed nearby branches, as if seeing how comfortable the first snake was being petted, and they too stuck out their heads.
Originally, the Cangyou Wildcat Team had been ready to act when they saw Su Qi mistake spirit snakes for snake spirit fruits.
But now, seeing Su Qi atop the tree in what looked like an ‘idol meet-and-greet’ scene,
All five of them froze, unable to say a word.
After all, while many human abilities exist, none of them had ever seen anyone get along so harmoniously with spirit beasts without using “enslavement or hypnosis” skills.
And as the Cangyou Wildcat Team stared in astonishment, Su Qi, the one in question, was equally puzzled.
Today was her first time coming to the Saint Ruins, and her first time seeing spirit creatures.
This development far exceeded her imagination.
Though confused, Su Qi quickly formed a rough guess: this was likely an effect of her Su Wife Ability.
Opening her ability panel in her mind, Su Qi quickly checked.
So far, Su Wife Ability had three skills: Su Wife’s Bento, Su Wife’s Battle Attire, and Su Wife’s Sweetness.
After careful examination, the first two skills seemed unrelated to the current situation.
But upon reading the description of Su Wife’s Sweetness, Su Qi found some clues.
Su Wife’s Sweetness: As a Su Wife, when you successfully put on female clothing to transform, your charm, temperament, and appearance greatly improve.
Both inside and out, you subtly emit a faint, elegant fragrance.
(Note: This skill has a chance to trigger some special events.)
Reading the note in parentheses, and recalling the three little cats of the Cangyou Wildcat Team and the now-cuddling spirit snakes,
Su Qi roughly understood that this must be one of those rare special events.
Coupled with the introduction of Su Wife Ability—hoping to use it to let more people feel the warmth of the Su Wife and heal the world—
A wild idea sprang to Su Qi’s mind: Could it be that the spirit snakes considered her their wife?
Hisssss~
While Su Qi was pondering,
Perhaps feeling quite comfortable being petted,
The first purple spirit snake twisted around and quickly plucked a large snake spirit fruit, placing it gently into Su Qi’s hand.
Looking down at the moist, juicy fruit suddenly in her palm,
Su Qi’s mood was honestly complicated.
Before setting out, she had imagined many ways the snake spirit fruit collection might go.
But completing the task in this almost cheating way was something she hadn’t expected at all.
She still wasn’t sure if this challenge counted as a success or not!
A charm that makes creatures see you as someone their already in a relationship with, thus a more defensive style compared to a succubus offense.