The Star Worm began to flicker like a star, its light strobing weakly and strongly, inviting the Lantern Firefly to come and taste.
Initially, the Lantern Firefly was a bit reserved, but after the Star Worm flew close and then away several times, it finally approached the lotus leaf and lowered its head to drink a few sips.
Watching the Star Worm and the Lantern Firefly lying on the lotus leaf, drinking from the Lotus Leaf Spring, Char couldn't help but smile, feeling his slight disappointment vanish into thin air.
Once the Star Worm and the Lantern Firefly had finished drinking, the stem on the back of the Lotus Leaf Frog grew longer and lifted the lotus leaf to Char's lips.
"Ribbit~"
The Lotus Leaf Frog called again, inviting Char to drink too.
After a brief pause, the smile on Char's face deepened. He took the lotus leaf, using it as a bowl, and poured a mouthful of the Lotus Leaf Spring into his mouth.
Sweet and refreshing, the spring water filled with the scent of lotus leaves flowed down his throat and into his stomach.
Char shivered slightly, feeling instantly refreshed. The slight weariness and drowsiness accumulated in his body disappeared without a trace.
It was so delicious!
Although the studio's team had indeed described the Lotus Leaf Spring as very sweet and refreshing, with a scent of lotus leaves, imagination fell short of the actual taste.
Only upon truly tasting it did he realize that the flavor of Lotus Leaf Spring was beyond what words could describe or accurately convey.
In the forest, Old Ma stood dozing off.
In the dark carriage, Char lay on the wooden bed, covered with a blanket, eyes closed, brewing sleepiness.
The Star Worm settled beside the pillow, its glow completely subdued, looking like a diamond inlaid with a golden pentagram.
Having grown stronger, the Star Worm's size had also increased, from the size of a fingernail to a quail egg, its carat greatly enhanced, its value unknown how many times multiplied.
However, among the three magic pets, the Lotus Leaf Frog was still the largest. Even though its fighting power was far less than that of the Lantern Firefly, its size was much larger.
The Lantern Firefly was on guard atop the carriage roof at this moment.
It required very little sleep. As a nocturnal creature and with a warrior-like character, the Lantern Firefly would go out for night sentry duty outside the carriage, undertaking the task of guarding.
Char was rather reluctant to treat them differently; he and the other magic pets slept soundly inside the carriage while letting the Lantern Firefly guard alone outside. How could that be right?
But since the Lantern Firefly insisted, and because it indeed was not very safe at night, he let it be. Yet deep down, he always remembered the Lantern Firefly's loyalty.
The Lotus Leaf Frog squatted by Char's bedside, its tongue darting in and out, each flick catching a mosquito.
Over the past few days, Char had already repaired the entire carriage with wooden boards, achieving true isolation inside and out, so there were much fewer insects inside the carriage.
But fewer did not mean none. The forest environment teemed with many insects, both in number and variety, ranging from the strange to the diverse.
So even though Char had repaired all the damages to the carriage, there were still quite a few insects inside, and he had only managed to sleep a bit better the previous nights.
But tonight, with the addition of the Lotus Leaf Frog, he could finally sleep peacefully.
It wasn't easy. It took over a week of crossing to finally resolve the problem of annoying insects.
During the night, Char didn't know how long he had slept, only that in his dreams something seemed to be pushing at his shoulder, waking him suddenly. He discovered that it was the Lantern Firefly pushing him, and beside him, both the Star Worm and the Lotus Leaf Frog were awake.
'What happened?'
Char, who had just been awakened from his sleep, was still a bit dazed, but he didn't actually voice this foolish question.
Lantern Firefly was on night watch, so why would it wake him up in the middle of the night if not for something urgent?
Char immediately snapped to full alert.
Living in the peril-filled Otherworld after traversing had, even within just over a week, ground away the lax and unalert manner brought by his many years of urban life.
He got out of bed swiftly, grabbing his bow and arrow, quiver, and long sword—he had obtained the long sword through Prayer.
Although he had not yet mastered any swordsmanship, possessing a sharp long sword, even if he swung it purely by instinct, was far better than being unarmed.
Lantern Firefly was gesticulating something with its hands, and Char quickly understood its meaning: the Steel Teeth Pig had caught up.
This was far beyond Char's expectations.
He thought he had been cautious enough, having moved overnight after that unfortunate encounter with several Steel Teeth Pigs.
To be safe, he hadn't even taken the bodies of the juvenile Steel Teeth Pigs, instead choosing to throw them into the river to confuse any pursuers—if the Steel Teeth Pigs were going to search, they would have to search upstream and downstream!
Unexpectedly, the group of Steel Teeth Pigs had zeroed in on him, the "child killer," in such short time.
This was his negligence; he had grossly underestimated the intelligence, capability, and will of the Demon Beasts, mistakenly equating them with mere wild animals.
In fact, Demon Beasts were on an entirely different level from ordinary animals, the difference might not even be less than that between humans and animals.
Thinking of this, Char felt somewhat relieved.
Fortunately, he had moved overnight. Had he not fled in the night, he might have had to confront the Steel Teeth Pigs in close combat before having the chance to recruit the Lotus Leaf Frog, and thus he would have been down one combatant.
"How many Steel Teeth Pigs are there, and what's their strength?"
Char immediately followed up with another question.
Lantern Firefly hadn't detected the Steel Teeth Pigs only when they were upon them; it had sensed them from a distance.
Aside from its decent fire attribute attack and close combat abilities, Lantern Firefly also possessed a hidden ability, which was to some extent manipulate the Red Fireflies in the forest.
As a Magic Pet bathed in Praying Power and evolved from a Red Firefly, it was completely fitting for Lantern Firefly, the Red Firefly King, to command and manipulate Red Fireflies.
Though Red Fireflies couldn't be counted on for combat capability, and the recent onset of autumn had significantly reduced their numbers, they could still serve as reconnoitre soldiers, aiding Lantern Firefly in maintaining a wide-range alert.
Soon, Lantern Firefly gestured the answer.
The enemies were a Steel Teeth Pig family, consisting of one male and one female adult Steel Teeth Pigs, and their strength was probably a bit weaker than his, along with two subadults and two juveniles.
Char's gaze slightly fell, and he lowered his head to ponder.
These two juveniles were clearly from the same litter as the juveniles he had killed during the day. Although it seemed odd for the two adult Steel Teeth Pigs to let the juveniles wander out of their sight to search for Mo Yu Snails, that wasn't important.
Then there were the two subadult Steel Teeth Pigs; they must be the offspring of the two adults from a previous litter. As for their other offspring? Most likely, they had grown up and left already.