Upon catching sight of the Sarcosuchus, the Suchomimus backed up several steps, about to turn and run. But remembering that this shape-shifting creature didn’t seem to have any ill intent towards it, it took a few more steps back then ceased retreating.
As the Sarcosuchus rushed towards the giant sea turtle, the latter seemed to have given up on resisting, it must’ve fallen into utter despair. With a lift from the momentum of the Sarcosuchus, the turtle flipped onto its back, its body then subjected to a gnashing from the fearsome teeth of the Sarcosuchus.
This giant turtle was likely an ancient behemoth among its kind. Unfortunately, in this world filled with monstrous creatures, it was at the very bottom of the food chain.
Especially so when faced with the Sarcosuchus.
With a biting force of at least ten tons applied onto the turtle’s shell, even the hardened shell produced the gritting sound as it bore deep tooth marks. As for the areas not covered by the shell, they have long been pierced through.
Perhaps finding it too effortful to continue biting, the Sarcosuchus swung its head, flinging the more than two-ton giant sea turtle aside. It then clamped its jaws onto the turtle’s head. A simple pull put an end to the suffering of the dying turtle.
The Suchomimus started to turn around and leave, disappointed by how easily the Sarcosuchus dealt with the sea turtle. Then, it heard sounds from behind. Turning its head, it saw the scale-less and claw-less bipedal creature, waving towards it.
It instinctively stayed put, watching what the bipedal creature would do.
The creature stopped waving upon seeing the Suchomimus hold its ground. It suddenly disappeared, then reappeared after having chopped a generous amount of meat off from the turtle. It pointed to the Suchomimus, but the latter could not fathom the meaning of this gesture.
It was some time after the bipedal creature had vanished that the Suchomimus understood it had intended to offer it the remaining turtle meat. Overjoyed, the dinosaur rushed forward and began to feast on the meat.
Meanwhile, Yan Fei was cooking the turtle meat, also setting aside some for No. 1 and No. 2 Coolie.
He was hardly enthusiastic about shape-shifting into a sea turtle, as its purely defensive nature equated to the lack of an offensive power. Yan Fei still firmly believed that offense outweighs defense.
Even though he realized the more creatures he could shape-shift into, the more cumulative abilities he would gain, he did not have an interest in killing creatures indiscriminately.
Indeed, Yan Fei considered the dinosaur world as his exclusive backyard, where he could take or discard the creatures as he pleased. Besides eating and drinking, he would rather eliminate a creature like the ancient sea turtle - one that was doomed to die soon - extending it the only mercy he could grant. In return, not only could he acquire another shape-shifting ability, but also put the creature out of its misery early.
Yan Fei had all the time in the world; even if he were to enhance his shape-shifting capability, there was no rush.
For instance, someone who keeps a flock of chickens enjoys the eggs they lay daily. They may slaughter a chicken for meat every few days when they grew tired of eggs. But they wouldn’t kill all of the chickens at once even if they had an appetite for chicken meat, especially knowing it would be impossible to eat them all within a short period.
After obtaining the ability to shape-shift into the ancient sea turtle, Yan Fei spent a while swimming in the crater lake and getting accustomed to this body before sparing any more time.
At this stage, unless he was interested in an exceptionally powerful creature, he wouldn’t think much of other shape-shifting abilities. He only wanted to gradually accumulate a variety of shapes to grow stronger.
Since he was already here and there was still daylight, Yan Fei turned into a Pterosaur to continue his ’territorial expansion’ endeavour.
He no longer found any dinosaur he encountered particularly impressive. He had already seen the biggest land-dwelling creature, the Female Spined Dragon; all others were nothing more than child’s play in comparison. That was until he saw a colossal dragon that seemed even longer than the Futalognkosaurus.
As the Pterosaur swooped down from the sky, it would morph simultaneously; the lower it flew, the smaller it became. By the time he landed on the dragon’s back, he had shrunk enough to avoid alerting the dragon and the surrounding creatures.
With each step, the colossal dragon left a deep footprint in the soft ground. Its long, slender tail whipped around, raising a whistling sound that echoed like a whip crack, louder than any humanly possible.
These whip sounds echoed ceaselessly across the vast wilderness, seemingly warning carnivorous dinosaurs like several Carcharodontosauruses lurking nearby.
Recognizing this kind of colossal dragon was challenging unless they had distinct features. But identifying Carcharodontosauruses was much easier. Seeing their enormous bodies sneak around, Yan Fei felt anxious for them. Their attempts at hiding behind dwarfing plants gave them a false assurance of camouflage.
The Carcharodontosauruses were not targeting the colossal dragon Yan Fei was riding, but a duck-faced dinosaur about the same size as an Iguanodon that was tagging along with the dragon.
These duck-faced dinosaurs, no more than ten meters in size and rather skinny, weighed around three to four tons. Their features make them appear very gentle. No wonder even though they were tagging along with the colossal dragon to prevent being caught by Carcharodontosauruses.
Cornered by the Carcharodontosauruses, these duck-faced dinosaurs started to congregate in the centre, hoping the colossal dragon’s protection would ensure their survival.
The evening glow was dimming, and Yan Fei had no patience to wait as the Carcharodontosaurus were late in their attack.
He went back to Vegetable Garden Island to grab a bite, changed into a bird and patrolled around Sancha River, before finally flying towards Provincial City.
As he flew, he would occasionally look back at the dinosaur world, watching for any signs of the Carcharodontosaurus launching their attack.
Finally, the Carcharodontosaurus couldn’t hold back any longer. Two of them sprang out from the side of the Brachiosaurus herd, roaring loudly, adding to the panic of the duck-faced dinosaurs.
On the other side, two Carcharodontosaurus made their attack from both sides, seeking to break the ring formed by the Brachiosaurus and get hold of their prey.
The Carcharodontosaurus on the left was too eager and impetuous; it rushed within the reach of a tail whip. It was fortunate enough to duck in time, or else it would have been hit squarely by the whip.
But the Carcharodontosaurus from the other side was much craftier. It bided its time, using its companion to draw the attention of the herd, and took advantage of the chaos to successfully bite into a duck-faced dinosaur.
With just one bite, a massive wound was left on the duck-faced dinosaur.
Having achieved their goal with a single stroke, the Carcharodontosaurus quickly retreated, guarding each other. It was clear that they didn’t want to confront these massive dinosaurs head-on.
The injured dinosaur was in a state of panic. Despite the incessant calling from its kin, it gradually fell behind the herd due to its injury and was slowly cornered by the Carcharodontosaurus.
A loud noise and dust filled the air.
The Carcharodontosaurus, who were just about to surround and feast on their prey, were stunned.
An enormous Sarcosuchus had appeared out of nowhere and latched onto their prey’s neck. With just a flip, it snapped off the dinosaur’s head.
Then the Sarcosuchus threw the dinosaur’s head aside, tore a large hunk of meat off its body, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
The puzzled Carcharodontosaurus stood around dumbfounded for a while after the Sarcosuchus disappeared, before they dared to proceed with their feast...
As for Yan Fei, he didn’t concern himself with this. He had just passed by. Since he had helped, it was only reasonable for him to get a piece of meat as payment. It didn’t matter to him whether the meat was torn off by the Sarcosuchus or sliced off with a knife, as he was going to feed it to the tigers!
After the delay, it was already late at night by the time Yan Fei reached Provincial City. His wife was nowhere to be found, so he simply went to sleep.
He woke up early, tidied up the room, stocked the kitchen with food, prepared breakfast, kept it warm on the coal stove, and then headed for the school.
He waited at the dormitory for a while before seeing a familiar student. He asked the student to check if Classmate Xu Xing was in her dorm. Soon, the student shouted from another dorm balcony to inform him that there was no one in the dorm.
He also checked the study room, but still found no one.
He was about to change into a tiny fly to search for her when he saw Little Dark-skinned Girl blushing and running from a distance. Taking advantage of her not noticing him yet, he planned to dodge this little troublemaker.
But to his surprise, the Little Dark-skinned Girl’s bright eyes spotted him from far away. She cracked a smile and started running towards him, waving her hand.
Yan Fei had no choice but to wait for her. This time, Little Dark-skinned Girl didn’t come to bother him; instead, she said, "You’re looking for Sister Xiaoxing, aren’t you? She’s in a program for the New Year’s Day celebration, so she doesn’t have classes today. She left early in the morning for dance practice. She should be getting ready for breakfast by now. The place where they practice is a bit remote. Let me take you there!"
As he followed Little Dark-skinned Girl around the school, her chatter didn’t bother him. She talked about her business, including how well it was doing, how many people were involved, how much they were making per day, how much was left after costs, her plans on how the money would be distributed, how much to save each month, and future plans for building a reservoir.
She had even planned how to build the reservoir. Yan Fei didn’t know where she got such confidence from.
"Once we’ve saved enough money to build the village reservoir, I’ll come work for you!" she finally said, looking at Yan Fei with anticipation.