Moya looked at her indifferently: "Speak. How did you get in here? The Holy Lake is a forbidden zone. Do you know what punishment awaits intruders?"
Gao Yue went cold with fright, swallowing hard, her fingers digging into the tree.
All sorts of brutal, savage punishments—branding, being swallowed alive—flashed through her mind.
"I—I don't know how I got here either! I got pulled into a whirlpool, and when I came out I was at this lake! I'm not lying to you—there was a zebra with me. That zebra is a unique species from where I'm from, you probably don't have them here."
That black-and-white striped horse?
Moya had an impression of it.
His gaze swept across the lake's surface, but he didn't see the horse anywhere.
After a moment, a yellow-green Giant Python timidly poked its head out of the lake, and under Moya's watchful eye, crawled up onto the shore.
A bulge stuck out from its belly.
Moya coldly kicked its head. "Spit it out."
The kick looked light, but it made the python's skull throb with pain. Its Python Body immediately writhed and recoiled, then it obediently opened its mouth and spat out the zebra, which was not yet fully dead.
If this had been the thigh-thick kind of python from Earth, the zebra's bones would have all been crushed on the way down—there was no way it could have survived.
But the pythons here were massive enough, their bodies several times thicker than the zebra's, so after being swallowed, the zebra only ended up with a lame leg and some fur eaten away by digestive fluids. It looked pitiful, but there was still a breath of life in it.
The zebra struggled to get up.
But its leg was already lame, and it couldn't rise.
Moya studied the strange little horse, a shape he'd never seen before, and plucked a few hairs from it, discovering the fur wasn't dyed.
Up in the tree, Gao Yue raised her voice again to add:
"There's more! I brought a suitcase—the big pink case that came up with me! That case is also unique to where I'm from, the craftsmanship is very special! You probably don't have anything like it here either!"
Moya looked toward the lake's surface, expression indifferent.
A moment passed.
Another giant python crawled up, its body writhing, and spat out her suitcase. After spitting it out, it even obligingly rinsed the suitcase in the lake water, then nudged it up onto the shore with its head.
Gao Yue was stunned: it even ate the suitcase... can you even digest plastic?
Moya inspected her suitcase. The color was bright and distinctive, and the material was truly something he'd never seen before—even he couldn't tell what it was made of.
In his heart, he was already eighty percent convinced.
In fact, at the time, he had been resting with his eyes closed in a tree by the shore.
The whole time, he hadn't heard any commotion by the shore. With his strength, there was no way he could have missed the sound of a Female Cub sneaking onto the shore.
And when he'd opened his eyes, he had indeed seen a strange whirlpool on the lake's surface that hadn't fully dissipated yet.
So it was very likely she'd been pulled in through a crack at the bottom of the lake, and had survived only because she'd been carrying something that saved her life.
Speaking of which, although rumors about the Holy Lake ran wild outside—even claims that a Male Beastman who soaked in it could break through to a higher realm—he had actually stayed here for a long time and never felt there was anything special about the place.
Other than the fact that it was quiet and no one could come disturb him.
Sneaking in wouldn't bring any benefit anyway—no other tribe would ever let a precious Female Cub sneak in here.
Looking at the plump Female Cub before him, Moya saw the terror in her expression and knew she'd been badly frightened, and that she was injured.
Gao Yue's skin was covered in wounds. Originally, when she'd been swept up in the flood, broken branches in the water had cut a good number of gashes into her, and the wounds had turned pale from soaking. Just now, in her panic to climb the tree, she'd scraped off even more skin. Now, curled up and clinging to the trunk, she looked pitiful to anyone watching.
Moya's expression softened.
"Fine, I believe you. Come down."
Gao Yue still clung to the tree, not daring to come down.
Everything happening now had long since exceeded what her mind could process, but her survival instinct remained, and she screwed up her courage to shout.
"You may trust me, but I don't trust you yet!"
Moya wasn't angered by this either. A trace of a smile rose in his beautiful eyes, and he leaned against the tree trunk, sitting down at his leisure, tilting his head up to look at her.
He wore only a black python-skin skirt around his lower body, his snow-white, smooth, well-defined upper body brazenly exposed, along with two long legs full of power, sitting there languidly beneath the tree—an utterly breathtaking sight.
Gao Yue's face flushed red, her eyes darting away, doing her best to restrain herself.
She thought that although this python demon seemed gentle now, if she upset him even slightly, he might well transform back into his true form and eat her—so it was best to remain careful.
After choosing her words for a good while, she called down from the tree:
"Could you tell me about the situation here? I really didn't mean to intrude! I really only ended up here by accident. Please don't blame me—but if you do, I'll apologize now. I know nothing about you, and I'm scared too!"
Moya tilted his head slightly, a drop of water sliding down along the clean line of his jaw.
"This is the Youpython Tribe."
His voice softened, gentling like a low string plucked: "Don't worry. I'll keep quiet about you having appeared from the Holy Lake."
The Youpython Tribe?
Gao Yue had no idea where she'd ended up.
She didn't dare ask any further, afraid she might accidentally expose herself—who knew how this world felt about visitors from another world. She decided to keep observing for now.
When the time came, if it seemed advantageous, she'd reveal herself; if not, she'd keep it buried.
As for now... the more she said, the more mistakes she'd make; the less she said, the safer she was.
Moya's expression was calm and composed, and being looked at like that, Gao Yue felt inexplicably reassured, trusting that they wouldn't hurt her.
Besides, right now she was the fish on the chopping block, and she had no leverage of truth to threaten them with—they had no reason at all to deceive her.
Such terrifying giant pythons, like prehistoric monsters—if they really wanted to swallow her, they could do it in one gulp. Even if they wanted to skin her and roast her bones, she'd have no way to resist. So what need would they have to bother tricking her?
As she thought this through, her tense nerves eased considerably.
She was soaked through, and the cool breeze made her shiver uncontrollably; the feeling of losing body heat grew more and more obvious.
She wanted to come down now.
But with her feet on the trunk, she tried a few times and each time felt it was too risky—she might fall. She didn't even know how she'd managed to climb up here on an adrenaline rush earlier.
"I can't get down..."
She called for help from the person below the tree, at a loss.
Aww, so cute!! This little display melted the hearts of the many giant pythons lurking in the lake, watching her. They all itched to act, wanting to burst out of the water and help this pitiful little female.
Moya shot them a warning glance.
This cub seemed terrified of them—none of them were allowed to come out right now.
He hesitated for a moment, then said to her, "Just jump down. I'll catch you."
"Huh? I'm really heavy, I weigh eighty kilos! Your arm will definitely break!"
Gao Yue said in a panic.
Moya was amused by her, a smile rising on his handsome face, fine sparkles of light rippling in his olivine eyes.
Aaah, the other giant pythons in the lake were also melted by her cuteness, thrashing about helplessly—this little Female Cub was so adorable, actually thinking her weight could break Moya's arm!
Moya had once killed a Tier 5 Fierce Beast with his bare hands in human form—if a Tier 5 Fierce Beast heard this, it would laugh itself back to life.
"That little weight is nothing. Come talk to me again once you're a few hundred pounds heavier," Moya said, amused.
That smile left Gao Yue feeling a little dizzy.
But she still didn't dare.
The impact of a jump was nothing like the force of being carried—the impact would be huge. She'd once seen a news story about someone who caught a dog jumping from the second floor and ended up with shattered bones all over their body—and a dog weighed so little. She weighed as much as several dogs put together.
But the man below looked up at her, his air lazy yet somehow inexplicably trustworthy.
"Trust me," he said.
Gao Yue gritted her teeth.
She saw several of the giant pythons in the lake already poking their heads out, each one looking impatient to come "save" her, and her heart trembled with fear.
She steeled her resolve, closed her eyes, grabbed the hem of her skirt with both hands to keep from flashing anyone, pressed her arms tight against her sides, and dropped straight down like a torpedo.
Oh well, oh well—a demon's body has to be different from a human's!
Gao Yue, falling, landed squarely in Moya's arms below. A crisp "crack" rang out.
It was the sound of a bone breaking.
But it wasn't Moya's arm that broke...
It was Gao Yue's arm... broken from the force of his catching her.
✦✦✦