Chapter 4: Taming the Second Creature

The next day, the sky was bright.

Mino woke up and stared blankly at the ceiling of the wooden shed.

Last night, she kept thinking about whether she should leave with Mu Liang or not. She had trouble falling asleep but unconsciously did so a few hours later.

"Sniff…"

Mino wrinkled her nose and smelled the scent of meat.

The girl turned her head and looked over. There was some charcoal burning in the fire pit, with an iron wok hung on the wooden frame of the fire pit, and the fragrance was drifting from within.

"You're awake. Get up and eat something."

Mu Liang held a spoon in his hand and gently stirred the contents of the iron wok.

Mino was absent-minded for a moment. She had been preparing breakfast before.

She questioned after a while, "Is your body alright?"

"Well, it's all good." Mu Liang said lightly.

Breakfast consisted of compressed biscuits and small lizards boiled in water. It was a dark dish, but it could fill the stomach.

Compressed biscuits are one of the few things that Mu Liang brought from Earth when the ground cracked.

"Oh." Mino sat quietly on the edge of the firepit.

"When we've eaten our fill, I'll go hunting with you."

Mu Liang put the breakfast in an iron lunch box and handed it to the girl.

To leave the camp for a long journey, he had to prepare some food, and there were only a few compressed biscuits left.

"Okay." Mino obediently took the iron lunch box.

The girl recognized this iron lunch box, which was in that backpack.

She wanted to pay the taxes with it five days ago, but she became reluctant later.

Mu Liang noticed that the girl's mood wasn't very high, and did not comfort her.

He held the inner layer of the lunch box, filled it with some lizard meat, and ate breakfast quietly.

"Sizzle~~"

The two ate their breakfast in silence.

Mino bit her lips, secretly peeping at Mu Liang's side profile.

The girl didn't know why, suddenly she couldn't find a topic to talk about, and she couldn't talk as freely as before.

"Crack…"

The Rock Tortoise's feet scraped the ground, and it's emerald green eyes stared at Mu Liang.

Mino noticed the Rock Tortoise and immediately found the topic, "What about this tortoise?"

"It's going with us." Mu Liang couldn't trust letting the tortoise stay in the camp.

Level-1 Rock Tortoises are not strong, and if people find them they will be slaughtered and eaten.

Moreover, Rock Tortoises also need to eat. It can hunt and find food by itself outside.

"Sounds good." Mino nodded slightly.

The atmosphere was quiet again, and there was no other topic to discuss.

After breakfast, they took the important things in the wooden shed to keep out the thieves.

Mino's house is just a wooden shed built with animal skins and deadwood.

The wooden shed is located on the edge of the camp, just suitable for two people and a tortoise to leave the camp secretly.

The crawling speed of a Rock Tortoise isn't fast, namely, the walking speed of ordinary people, but the tortoise's shell is like a brown rock, which is an excellent camouflage.

After leaving the camp, they headed north.

According to the young girl's introduction, there's a hilly area to the north with many small lizards.

Along the way, Mu Liang also saw other people, but they all kept away from a distance.

He could guess the reason, it was in fear of being robbed of food or something.

After all, in the world of an apocalyptic wasteland, in order to survive, it's possible to be backstabbed at any time.

The rocky hill was not far from the camp, and they soon reached the foot of the nearest hill.

"Little Xuanwu, go and find food by yourself." Mu Liang squatted down and patted the rock turtle on the head.

He named the rock tortoise "Xuanwu", which can be regarded as an expectation.

"Ow~~"

The rock tortoise arched towards Mu Liang's palm, then chose a direction and crawled slowly.

"It won't get lost, will it?" Mino asked worriedly.

"No, there is telepathy between me and Little Xuanwu." Mu Liang smiled.

Tamed animals can communicate with him by mind.

Mino breathed a sigh of relief and pointed her finger forward, "The trap I made is at the foot of the hills ahead."

"You go ahead and check the trap, I'll see what kind of prey is nearby." Mu Liang decided to split into two ways.

The prey he wanted to catch was not a small lizard. There was too little meat to fill his stomach.

"Okay." Mino said softly, "If you have something, just shout loudly."

"Okay." Mu Liang nodded lightly, picked a direction opposite to the Rock Tortoise and walked away.

"Alas~~Why are you irritable today."

Mino sighed sadly and clapped her cheeks with both hands to cheer herself up.

"…" Mu Liang paused, then strode away.

He was strengthened by the Rock Tortoise, his five senses have become stronger, so the girl's sigh was very audible.

Girls are more sentimental, especially when they're alone for a long time, and suddenly someone is accompanying them, they'd want to hang on tight.

Mu Liang doesn't intend to comfort Mino. If the girl doesn't leave with him, the gentleness given now will only hurt her more.

"It's really desolate, just like the Great Gobi Desert."

Mu Liang trod lightly and scanned the surroundings with keen eyes.

He sighed with faint emotion, "I don't know how the people here have lived for so long."

"Sha~~"

The sound of sand sliding to the ground instantly caught Mu Liang's attention.

He stared at a boulder not far away, and after a careful scan, he saw the animal that caused the sand to slide.

A small lizard was climbing a boulder.

"I can't let you go now that I've seen you."

Mu Liang drew his knife from his waist and quickly pierced the little lizard's head.

Puff…

The little lizard is dead

"Sha~~"

Suddenly a small lizard appeared on the boulder and climbed up quickly.

"A little lizard that changes colour?"

Mu Liang was stunned for a split second. He then quickly reacted, raising his hand to press on the little chameleon lizard.

The first time missed, and the second time he pressed the chameleon lizard.

"Unexpectedly, the little lizards here are all not of the same species."

Mu Liang looked at the little colour-changing lizard struggling in his palm. The other little lizards were twice as big in size.

The most surprising thing is that there are three colours of red, green and blue on the skin of the chameleon lizard.

"Ding! A tameable animal is detected. Do you want to tame it?"

. .

Translator's note: The Black Tortoise is one of the Four Symbols of the Chinese constellations. It is sometimes called the Black Warrior of the North (北方玄武, Běi Fāng Xuán Wǔ), and is known as Xuanwu in Chinese, Genbu in Japanese, Hyeonmu in Korean and Huyền Vũ in Vietnamese. It represents the north and the winter season.