Long Xi was slightly mad at herself. "I can't even stay behind Mo Kun obediently... He will definitely say that I'm dumb!"
She hugged the fallen branches that she had picked up even tighter and continued walking slowly while trying to search for traces of Mo Kun.
In actual fact, Mo Kun was standing right beside her, but she could not see him.
He stretched out his hand and patted on her shoulder gently.
"Who?" Long Xi turned around and when she saw that there was no one, her face turned green. "Is there really something unclean here?"
Mo Kun tried his best to hold back his laughter and it was almost giving him an internal injury!
The fog became thicker.
Long Xi prepared herself mentally. She slowed down her pace and moved forward in small steps.
The dense fog blurred her vision and she instantly felt the cold wind blowing past her. She started to feel uneasy and sensed something amiss about the current atmosphere.
Long Xi turned back and took another look. There was still a large cloud of dense fog and she was unable to see where she had come from. She swallowed the saliva in her throat and continued moving forward slowly.
At that moment, she saw a circular lake in front of her. The lake was surrounded by trees that stretched to the sky. When she lifted up her head, she could not see the sky. It was like a group of giants circling around the lake with their hands held together. It could also be the lush leaves from the tall trees that were blocking out the sky from her sight.
Long Xi never knew that a place like this existed at the back hill behind their school. The clear water in the see-through lake was a mixture of light blue and green color. There was also an unknown item at the bottom of the lake emitting a greenish-jade glow.
The leaves on the willow trees by the lake had all turned yellow and were falling like flying b.u.t.terflies. The soft branches were swaying gently along with the wind, like a fairy's long and silky hair.
Long Xi felt like she had arrived at fantasy land. She tried to take in the magnificent view.
Suddenly, she let out a scream.
There was an adult snow leopard on the gra.s.s patch beside the lake. Its limbs were facing towards the sky.
Since young, she had always liked reading materials related to animals, so she knew how a snow leopard looked like and was very sure she had just seen one. However, she started to doubt her own judgment. Snow leopards should be living on high-alt.i.tude snow mountains. How did it end up here, on a small hill in the countryside of a low-alt.i.tude city?
The snow leopard looked really pretty yet pitiful. As a wind blew past, its body remained motionless while its silver-white whiskers moved along with the wind. Its body was stiff.
It had round ears and a small face. The tip of its nose was like black jade, and it had amber eyes. Its eyes were wide opened but it was not blinking, as if it had died before it was ready to! It had a slender and streamlined body that was covered with s.h.i.+ny and soft silver-white fur. The brown round spots on its body were very beautiful.
Long Xi was full of compa.s.sion. Snow leopards' fur was very expensive, which made them prey to many human predators. Their numbers were extremely small and they were endangered animals on the brink of extinction. It died on foreign land for no reason and its corpse was exposed to rain, s.h.i.+ne, and insect bites. No wonder its eyes were opened!
Long Xi walked towards it to dig a big hole and bury it.
She walked over to the snow leopard and lowered her head to find out the cause of its death from a closer view. This was when she found a crescent-shaped mark on its forehead, and it was beautiful.
The 'corpse' suddenly jumped up and threw her to the ground. Its sharp teeth went straight for her throat.
Long Xi struggled with all her strength.
She thought that she was going to die for sure! The snow leopard was just faking its death to lure its prey. It succeeded, and she was full of regrets.
"Stop, back down!" At this crucial moment, Mo Kun's voice rang like a thunderbolt. He took off his invisible trench coat and it looked like he suddenly appeared out of thin air.
The snow leopard stopped obediently and jumped aside, before taking a few steps back.
Although the snow leopard looked thin and small, it was still majestic. However, it was obeying Mo Kun's instructions like a dog. Why was that so?
Long Xi deeply felt that her brain capacity was not enough to process all of these!
"This is also your superpower? Taming a beast?" Long Xi asked timidly.
Mo Kun gave her a smile that did not answer her question.
He then ordered the snow leopard, "Go find a little lamb for us."
The snow leopard seemed to have understood his words. It turned and ran off.
The snow leopard is a very strong creature. Among all the big beasts, its running speed of 70 kilometers per hour was only secondary to the African cheetahs.
Long Xi watched in awe as its well-built back view slowly disappeared. Although she almost became its dinner, she was still full of admiration at how beautiful its running posture was!
"Let's head over there to set up a tent; it isn't safe here," said Mo Kun.
"Okay," she replied.
They walked over to a bare gra.s.s patch beside a small forest.
Long Xi discovered a cactus-like plant on this patch of land. It was transparent on the outside and filled with green liquid on the inside. She had never seen a plant like this before and was very surprised.
Mo Kun laughed and said, "I planted this too. I call it the Freckle-removing Cactus. Its liquid allows me to invent a highly-effective cream to remove freckles very quickly."
Long Xi could not help but put up her two thumbs. "You're really amazing! You should open an invention company and sell these science products! You can get rich through these high technologies! I am really excited about what you can achieve!"
Mo Kun laughed and said, "Thank you for your compliment, I'm recharged now. Let's build a tent. Should we build one or two?"
Long Xi's slender face was now decorated with a suspicious blush over her cheeks. She pretended to be angry. "What? Of course, we're building two. Can't you take a compliment? Just two lines and you're already over-thinking?"
"Have you built a tent before? I haven't and would need some guidance," Mo Kun smiled and said. He had indeed not built a tent before. The mech MK7 he was in could transform into a house. He was like a snail that went everywhere with his 'house'.
Long Xi replied, "I learned at a scouts summer camp. It goes like this... and you pull tight here..."
She demonstrated to him while explaining. Soon, the smart Mo Kun quickly caught up.
They built two tents and decided to camp here.
During the evening, the sunset lit up the whole sky. The trees on the back hill were coated with a layer of golden light.
Before it got dark, they quickly collected a whole bunch of dried leaves and branches. They piled them up and started a bonfire.
After about half an hour, the snow leopard with the crescent-shaped mark came back with a small white lamb. They did not know where it got the lamb from. It placed the lamb respectfully in front of Mo Kun.
The lamb had already been bitten to death and there was no sign of survival. However, Long Xi was very surprised at how the lamb's body was still complete. It meant that the snow leopard did not take a single bite of it. How could it be so obedient?
Mo Kun ribbed off a leg from the lamb and threw it at the snow leopard. Its body formed a beautiful arc as it leaped to catch the lamb leg with its mouth. It did not start devouring it immediately. Instead, it carried the lamb leg in its mouth and ran away as fast as it could.