Chapter 92: Chapter 92: The Little Snake in the Spiritual Tea Garden

"Aaaa - ! GET AWAY!"

Kaelen’s body shot upward violently and lunged at the sub-beast with lightning speed. His fangs and claws lengthened, and spotted fur characteristic of a leopard appeared on his cheeks.

Whoosh!

The air seemed to tear apart from his speed. The sub-beast, who had been laughing hideously, was pierced through by the claws and shattered into pieces. Space suddenly twisted, and a beam of white light gradually expanded. Without time to think, Kaelen turned and gathered the little snake covered in blood and flesh into his arms.

One person and one snake vanished as the beam of light extinguished. The dark space shook violently before crumbling into countless fragments.

---

"Bennett, Bennett!" An old man in a mage’s robe lightly kicked the bottom of a young man lying on the grass: "You rotten brat, have you finished ripening the amount of spiritual tea needed for today or are you just lying here sleeping?!"

The young man, disturbed from his sleep, waved a hand: "It’s done, it’s done. Don’t bother me while I’m sleeping!" He then rolled over and continued sleeping.

The old man’s face turned purple with anger. He wanted nothing more than to rush over and slap the brat twice: "Sleep, sleep, sleep. All you know how to do is sleep. You’re already several hundred years old and still only a third-rank Plant Cultivator. Why don’t you just sleep to death already?!"

The young man was finally annoyed enough that he had no choice but to crawl up, stretch, and let out a long yawn. Rubbing his eyes, he said sleepily, "Mr Declan, why are you so irritable today? Normally you don’t even care whether we cultivate or not."

The old mage named Declan rolled his eyes at Bennett’s words and scolded, "If it weren’t for you lazy brats, our spiritual fields would have been ranked as high-grade long ago! Do you know how those old fogies from the neighboring areas mocked me today?!"

Bennett scratched his messy head, stood up, and twisted his body left and right to loosen up. Then he grinned, took out a pouch of spiritual fruits from his spatial pouch, and handed it to the old man.

"Mr Declan, we’re all low-rank Plant Cultivators. No matter how hard we cultivate, we won’t improve much. But look - even though it’s only mid-grade, the yield from our spiritual fields is several times higher than those high-grade fields. Those people are just jealous of you.

Here, here - these are spiritual fruits I grew. They ripened today. I’m giving them all to you. There’s also spiritual tea I personally roasted inside. It’s unique in this Magic City. Go back, drink your spiritual tea, eat your spiritual fruits, and enjoy life. Isn’t that better than arguing with those bald old men? Look, among your colleagues, you’re the only one who still has thick, glossy black hair like a young man. Those baldies aren’t even worth one corner of you!"

After listening to Bennett’s flattery, Declan stroked his thick hair and felt that the boy had a point. He snorted coldly: "Don’t think that bribing me means I’ll overlook the fact that you sneaked down to the surface to play and dance last night. Today, ripen twice the amount of spiritual tea and spiritual plants in the garden for me."

The old mage finished speaking, tossed the pouch of spiritual fruits in his hand, and swaggered off. Bennett, standing behind him, couldn’t help but give him a friendly middle finger.

"Hmph. Shameless old man. He can’t bully anyone else so he takes it out on me." Bennett tugged at his belt, then rubbed his chin: "I feel like I just dreamed about something... What was it? Why can’t I remember?"

Bennett tapped his forehead with a bent finger, trying hard to recall, but only felt a splitting headache. He had no choice but to give up and drag himself off to work.

The young man had just left when a small snake head poked out from the grass nearby, looking around in confusion.

Sane didn’t know why he was in this strange place. Hiding in the grass, he stared at the unfamiliar sub-beast sleeping soundly. Hmm... probably a sub-beast? He couldn’t see any ears or tail on the person, and he couldn’t sense any beastman aura, so Sane automatically classified him as a sub-beast.

Sane also tried to leave this place, but every time he moved a certain distance, he was pulled back to the same spot. He understood that he couldn’t leave this area - or more precisely, he couldn’t leave the sub-beast named Bennett.

After Bennett left, Sane hurriedly slithered after him. Currently still in his juvenile form, he easily hid in a corner and kept staring at the sub-beast.

Bennett stood in front of the spiritual plant field, feet spread shoulder-width apart. He brought his hands together in a diamond shape in front of his chest and urged his Wood-element ability. The familiar fluctuation of Divine Energy made Sane’s pupils contract as he stared at the young man’s back with burning intensity. Bennett suddenly whipped his head around, but saw no one.

"Strange. Why do I keep feeling like someone is staring at me?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, shook his head, and walked briskly toward the spiritual tea field.

"Hm? What’s that?" Bennett was about to pick some spiritual tea to hide for himself when he noticed something among the tea plant stems. He gently parted the leaves. There was nothing. Had he imagined it?

Rustle. Something suddenly emerged from the leaves beside him. Bennett yelped and jumped. When he turned to look, it was a small snake with dark green and black coloring, almost the same shade as the tea plant stems.

"Oh, you scared me to death. So it’s just a snake. Little one, go on, get out of here. This isn’t a place for you to stay." As Bennett spoke, he used vines to wrap around the little snake and carried it out of the spiritual field.

The little snake was placed on the ground. It raised its head and silently watched the young man’s retreating figure before slowly slithering after him. Although the snake moved very lightly, Bennett was naturally sensitive to plants and grass - how could he miss the sound of scales brushing against the grass blades? He turned around, frowned at the little snake, put his hands on his hips and shouted, "Go away right now. Don’t think I won’t do anything to you. Do you believe I’ll skin you and make soup?!"

The little snake froze when scolded, but after Bennett left, it followed him again. Bennett had no choice but to let it follow. He thought it would only follow him back to the spiritual tea field, but it stayed right by his feet like a little puppy. Wherever he went, the little snake went too, never leaving his side even for a moment.

"Hey, I’m not a Beast Tamer. I don’t have any delicious food for you. Stop following me around like this."

The little snake immediately pretended to be deaf. Bennett clicked his tongue. Fine then. It wasn’t like he had a pet anyway. This little snake’s colors weren’t particularly bright, but its scales were very glossy. Every time it slithered, they shimmered with a green light. Besides, it wasn’t venomous. Keeping it as a pet wouldn’t be bad.

And so, in the days that followed, Bennett took the little snake home to raise and named it Jojo. He spent his entire salary buying magical beast meat specifically for Jojo to eat. Occasionally he even brought the little snake down to the surface to play. Jojo was very intelligent and had the same curiosity as a child - whatever it saw, it had to poke its head out to examine.

Bennett even caught Jojo watching cartoons on his magic glasses. This suddenly gave him a mischievous idea. He bought an elementary school textbook and decided to teach the little snake how to read and do math. Jojo was extremely smart. It absorbed everything it was taught, making Bennett feel quite proud.

"Jojo has two 0.5-liter bottles of water to fill the ice cube trays. Each compartment has a volume of 8 cubic centimeters. How many compartments can Jojo fill at most? Given that 1 liter = 1 cubic decimeter."

The little snake Jojo wrapped itself around a ballpoint pen, propped its chin on its tail, and pondered. The sight was so adorable that Bennett had to clutch his heart while secretly opening his magic glasses to take a flurry of photos. Then he opened the images to look at them again, leaned in, and kissed the screen repeatedly.

The little snake had no idea its owner was having a fit. After thinking for a while, it began scribbling on the paper with its tail.

[Total water in 2 bottles: 0.5 + 0.5 = 1 (L)

Convert: 1 L = 1 dm³ = 1,000 cm³

Maximum compartments Jojo can fill: 1,000 ÷ 8 = 125 (compartments)

Answer: 125 ice cube compartments.]

"Oh my, Jojo is so clever. You got it right on the first try. Come here, your owner will reward you~ Mwah~ Mwah~"

Its head was held still and kissed several times. The little snake Jojo shyly covered its face with its tail. Afterward, it was thoroughly molested by its owner again before being pulled into a hug and taken to bed together.

A gentle summer breeze blew. Bright moonlight filtered through the window and illuminated the room. In the darkness, the little snake opened its eyes. Its snake eyes glowed red. It slipped out of Bennett’s arms, slithered down to the floor, and transformed into a tall, powerfully built man. His face was handsome yet carried a cold, distant expression.

Sane bent down and, using the moonlight, carefully traced the features of the young man on the bed. Although Bennett wasn’t breathtakingly beautiful and didn’t have dimples that appeared when he smiled, Sane could confirm - this was his Kaelen.

This place was probably where his mate had lived before coming to their world. It was the residence of the Beast God. This place was beautiful, peaceful, and warm - nothing like the poor and dark Beastman Continent.

The person on the bed mumbled "Jojo" twice and groped around on the bed as if searching for something. Sane extended his hand. The young man immediately grasped it, rubbed his cheek against it, and curved his lips before falling back asleep.

"My Kaelen."

Sane gently stroked the young man’s face and placed a kiss on his lips.

The time limit for his transformation ran out. Sane turned back into the little snake, curled up against the young man’s chest, and closed his eyes.