Shah la la...
An extrely faint sound arose behind Li Zheng, like sothing had fallen onto the dead leaves, or perhaps... the sound of dead leaves being crushed underfoot.
Though the sound was faint, in this exceedingly silent jungle, it was no less than a thunderclap.
"What was that?"
Li Zheng beca instantly alert, his mandible chewing slowed, and his two antennae swung madly, trying to catch sothing in the air.
After a mont, the swinging antennae failed to detect any anomaly, yet Li Zheng didn’t dare relax. He decisively waved a few limbs and burrowed under the dead leaves, leaving only two antennae outside, gently swaying.
"There was definitely sothing closing in just now!"
Li Zheng seed to hear the frantic beating of his own heart, a tension and panic arising from deep within his soul.
Although he didn’t know where he was now, or why he had beco a small insect.
Still, as long as he was alive, he absolutely didn’t want to die. No amount of caution was too much because, in the jungle’s survival of the fittest, it was as cruel as human society — a slight mistake could lead to being utterly destroyed.
In the literal sense of being utterly destroyed!
After an unknown amount of ti passed, the jungle remained tranquil, and the previous noise seed like an illusion of Li Zheng’s, giving him a slight sense of unreality.
But he knew he had genuinely heard the sound of dead leaves being crushed — no mistake about that!
But why hadn’t the other party shown up all this ti?
If the other party was out hunting to eat him, they should have appeared by now, after all, he was rely a fingertip-sized bug, truly like fish on a chopping block...
"Maybe I should go out and check?"
With this thought, Li Zheng tentatively poked his head out to check, indeed finding no attack forthcoming.
Yet it seed an eerie atmosphere was spreading through the jungle, sending a sensation down Li Zheng’s spine.
"This is no place to linger."
Li Zheng erged from the dead leaves and started running.
But he hadn’t run far before he turned back, resuming his journey with the half-eaten round ball.
This was the only food he had found; without it, he had no idea how long he could last.
The old saying goes, better to die full than as a laughingstock in the netherworld after starving to death.
Li Zheng tried to flee hastily but found the irregular shape of the round ball made it impossible to run fast, frustrating him until he had to stop and gnaw off the protruding uneven parts.
And so, biting and pushing, Li Zheng was forced to embark on the path of... escape? with his food.
Just after Li Zheng left with the round ball, a jet-black beast stepped out of the jungle shadows not far away.
The black beast’s two round eyes watched the small brown insect leave, a strange gleam in its gaze.
Then it looked ahead to where the small insect had gone, a deep dread in its eyes, as if fearing sothing.
After a mont, the Black beast glanced with pity at the small insect’s back, turned around, wagged its tail, and swayed its round body back into the depths of the jungle.
anwhile, Li Zheng, pushing the round ball, suddenly froze. He felt a palpable gaze lock onto him.
But after a brief mont, he relaxed and turned around to look, seeing only what seed like a short, thick tail within the distant jungle. As the body moved, the tail disappeared from sight.
"Holy crap! There really was sothing!"
Li Zheng was beset with a wave of fear, shuddered, then pushed the much-rounder ball harder and sprinted forward.
Thanks to his deliberate nibbling along the way, the ball had returned to its original round shape, making it easy to push and run fast.
Even though he saw the tail disappear and move away, Li Zheng dared not slack for even a mont. Who knew if it might suddenly return and take him as a snack?
He dashed headlong for who knows how long, when suddenly Li Zheng felt his hand slip, and the ball started to roll forward on its own.
"Eh???"
At this, Li Zheng froze for an instant, puzzled by what was happening.
Then he heard the splash of sothing falling into water, and upon closer inspection, he realized there was a gentle slope ahead of him. The ball had rolled down and fallen into the Water below.
Looking up again, Li Zheng finally noticed he had unknowingly reached the edge of a vast lake, his antennae catching whiffs of moisture in the air.
"My food!"
Li Zheng hurried to the water’s edge, eyes wide, watching as the half-shrunken ball bobbed on the rippling Water before finally dissolving with a gurgle...
"Damn it!..."
Li Zheng stared at the murky patch left on the lake’s surface, frozen on the spot, unable to cry or laugh.
His only food had just dissolved like that?
He glanced at the clear Water beside him, which clearly reflected his current appearance. Trapped within the insect’s body, Li Zheng’s soul broke out into sobs.
Reflected by the water’s edge was a brown beetle, no larger than an adult’s thumbnail, with a slightly darkened little scoop on its tiny head.
"What the hell..."
He had turned into a Mordo Sheng, commonly known as a dung beetle???!!!
At this mont, Li Zheng felt like dying...
Ignoring its unappealing texture, the ball wasn’t difficult to swallow. Plus, driven by his survival instincts, Li Zheng devoured it with abandon. The earth ball, never very smooth, beca even more misshapen from his frantic gnawing.
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