Elina gasped, "Yes! Zhao Qian, you are amazing! You can actually read the writing on that stele! I admire you so much! You must be a god sent by Heaven to protect and help me."

"Pfft, stop flattering me. I didn't understand a word of what it said; I was just guessing randomly."

Elina gave my lower abdomen a hard kick from her perch on my back. "Be serious! Don't joke about important matters. We M-Nation people are used to work being work and play being play; don't joke around regardless of the time or place—it easily leads to misunderstandings."

Ignoring Elina's 'lecture,' I set her down and moved closer to the stele, examining it meticulously from all sides. Of course, I hadn't spoken without reason. Although I didn't recognize the bizarre patterns carved into the stone, I knew they were identical to the markings found in the small pyramid in Africa.

The reason I concluded this was the Serpent Clan's territory was a carving on the stele: a beautiful serpent-woman, a creature with the body of a snake and the face of a human, exactly like the one we encountered last night. The lines of the carving were very clear, and the serpent-woman looked remarkably like a person—no, perhaps she resembled twelve people, those mysterious girls. I had seen one before, and I had even personally killed one with my JJ.

Gu Tian'er claimed to be the Holy Maiden of the Sheep Clan; now, seeing a serpent-woman carving of similar appearance, she must be the Serpent Clan's Holy Maiden from six thousand years ago. Placing the image of the Serpent Holy Maiden out in the desolate grassland could only mean one of two things: either this area was once the Serpent Clan’s domain, and this was an relic they left behind, or this stele warned us that proceeding further would take us into the Serpent Clan's operational range, potentially leading to extreme danger.

Theoretically, I leaned toward the latter conclusion. Entering the Serpent Clan's territory ahead meant that if we recklessly stepped in, we wouldn't just face the ordinary snakes from last night. We might run into a horde of snake-bodied, human-faced monsters. Whether to advance or retreat required serious consideration.

I outlined the situation to Elina in broad strokes. Her face shifted to one of deep respect. "I apologize, Zhao Qian. I shouldn't have misunderstood you. It's just that you joke too much when you're working; you need to change that habit. Don't ask me what to do next; I'll follow your lead entirely. Do you know? Over these past two days, I've been completely won over by you. You are a brave and resourceful man from the Great Dragon Nation, and I truly admire you."

I touched the cold sweat on my forehead. "Don't say that. How am I brave and resourceful? You've given me a cold sweat."

Elina stated seriously, "Fighting the giant locust and killing the human-faced snake—doesn't that demonstrate your extraordinary courage? Moreover, you are very thoughtful of others and possess the courteous manners of a gentleman from the Great Dragon Nation. These two points are evident from the two sets of undergarments you made for me and the fact that you behaved impeccably during our entire night together last night."

I chuckled, "I didn't do anything last night; I thought you'd call me a useless man."

Elina laughed too. "How could you be useless? I secretly touched your thing this morning, and it surprised me how straight it was standing up, like a great tree. It's not that you are useless; it's just that it wasn't the time to be useful."

I smiled. Elina had actually snuck a touch of my morning erection. Girls from the Great Dragon Nation likely wouldn't dare, but perhaps not all of them—Su Xue, for instance, definitely would, hehe, I suddenly missed her a little.

"Thank you for understanding. I thought I would be branded as an impotent man."

Elina glanced suggestively at my lower region. "How could that be? It just means my sexiness wasn't enough, which is why you didn't like me. Otherwise, you would have already proven your heroic valor to me."

I suddenly leaped onto the stele, straining my eyes as far as I could see. The sun had already dipped below the grassland, and in the residual light, the surroundings were still a vast sea of grass. However, directly ahead of the stele, at an extreme distance, I spotted something different: a very large area where the tall grass did not grow, occupied instead by a mound of earth rising up like a grave.

"See anything?" Elina asked from below.

"Yes! There's a section of the area that is very unnatural. That's probably the Serpent Clan's base."

Elina grew anxious. "I'm dying of curiosity, quickly carry me up to look!"

I jumped down and carried Elina up to the tall stele. Elina wrapped her arms around my neck and peered into the distance. "Where? I can't see anything!"

I forgot; the distance was already blurring slightly for my own vision, let alone Elina's ordinary eyesight. I could only point in the direction. "It's probably about ten kilometers that way. The mound isn't very high, so it's normal that you can't see it."

Elina whispered near my ear, "Then what should we do now? Should we keep moving?"

I was eager to go investigate. "No," I denied. "We'll go tomorrow. We can cover that distance first thing tomorrow morning. Darkness is when the snake swarms come out; going to their lair now would put us at a disadvantage. We can spare one more night. Rest up well, and we'll go tomorrow."

Elina agreed. "That's true. You’ve been running all day; you should rest properly. I truly admire you—how can you run so fast? Also, don't the grass roots and stuff hurt your feet?..."

I smiled without answering Elina’s questions, instead carrying her directly away from the stele, backtracking two kilometers. Since we decided to observe a truce with the human-faced snakes for the night, we needed to actively retreat some distance. Judging by the snake swarm that attacked us last night, our presence must have been detected. But why did they retreat after the first wave of attacks last night? Could the Serpent Clan’s power be that weak?

Tonight was not as lucky as last night; we had the small river and snake meat, but we couldn't even find materials for fire-drilling. I was incredibly frustrated. Elina and I searched the surroundings but couldn't find a single branch. It seemed we were deep inside the vast grassland now, unlike last night when we were still on the periphery. What if this place hadn't grown trees for millennia? How could we find branches to drill fire?

In the end, the two of us could only sit in the grass in despair. Elina comforted me, "If we can't make a fire, fine. Tomorrow night, we'll sleep in the snake lair; I'm sure there'll be food, drink, and a stove to warm ourselves by."

I hesitated. "But you caught a cold; how can we manage without a fire?"

Elina sniffled twice. "Can't you just hold me? Your body is a big furnace. Let's eat first. We still have two pieces of snake meat; here, one for each of us."

What was even more frustrating was that we couldn't find a single drop of water here. I had been running wildly all day and desperately wanted a drink, but ever since leaving the small river this morning, we hadn't seen a source of water. Did I have to dig a well myself?