Closer to Revealing My True Self
Chapter 382 - 279: Look What I Found_1

Chapter 382: Chapter 279: Look What I Found_1

Those silhouettes familiar to his own slowly faded away.

Feng Yi watched as the last person in the team walked away, not knowing what he was thinking, suddenly, he let out a "howl," jumped up, pounced, and bit onto the other person’s tail.

And then...

He woke up.

Feng Yi opened his eyes.

He faced his own muscular tail.

He let go.

There were tooth marks and saliva on the scales of his tail.

Feng Yi looked confused for a moment, but his senses quickly cleared from the dream, becoming somewhat more lucid.

He casually wiped off the saliva and moved his coiled tail to lie down in a different position, quietly reflecting on everything he had seen in the dream.

He was very clear that this dream was unlike any ordinary dream.

In ordinary dreams, one might forget the details within a few hours, but this dream was like a memory that, once awake, remained for a long time.

Thinking back to the carefree feeling of his ancestors in the dream...

How enviable!

If only he could have lived in that era...

But forget it, no electricity, no internet, not convenient enough for life.

That’s not right either!

Feng Yi remembered the "old technology" he had seen in the secret chamber on Xiao Feng Mountain.

How was that thing made and left behind?

He did want to dig out that thing underneath the Feng Family ancestral home, but Mute Uncle guarded it.

Feng Yi looked up at the cave ceiling, his thoughts spreading out.

Could there have been some other technology civilization that happened millions, even hundreds of millions of years before the known history of mankind?

Is there a possibility that this planet has been formatted once?

Or to speculate even bolder, has this planet been formatted several times?

Maybe, before the formatting, there weren’t humans in the conventional sense, but what about other life forms similar to "humans"?

For example, Feng Yi’s ancestors?

There are too many secrets hidden in genetics.

In the human genome today, over ninety percent consists of non-coding sequences, and disregarding those regulatory elements, the rest remains ’the silent majority.’

To become what he now is, simply put, Feng Yi triggered some "silent" regions in his genes.

Could there be similar regions hidden in others?

The people of the Feng Family are a given, but what about everyone else?

He himself is a "Serpent Man"; who knows, maybe there were Dragon People or Dinosaur People—or some other strange life forms—a very long time ago?

Feng Yi pondered on his tail for a while, then sat up.

Dismissing distractions.

Never mind Dinosaur People or Monster People, those weren’t issues he needed to dwell on when facing a crisis of survival!

The most pressing matter at hand—stay alive!

He doesn’t have an abundance of energy substances for his growth and development like his ancestors did.

Now, on the planet, new energy substances are being generated every day, but even more are disappearing.

In general, the total amount of energy substances is decreasing.

On this mountain range, Feng Yi could feel that although energy substances were being generated here, the generation rate couldn’t keep up with the disappearance rate.

Is there any way to accelerate the generation rate of energy substances?

Could these substances be artificially created?

Anxiety made Feng Yi roll around in the cave.

After rolling around for a while, hunger struck him.

Better leave it be for now.

Those difficult problems couldn’t be solved in a moment, and besides, his primary purpose for entering the mountain this time had been met: he found the place where his ancestors once lived and acquired a fragment of not-so-clear memory.

Feng Yi roamed around the cave, found no distinct murals, nor any other important information, then jumped into the pool, retracing his original path, carrying two stones he had pried from the cave and a side passage.

Of course, he didn’t exactly follow the same route he’d come in by. Upon exiting, Feng Yi didn’t choose that narrow passage that had cramped him from time to time but instead chose a slightly larger tunnel not too far away.

Exiting the tunnel, there was still the river, but it wasn’t the same place he had entered from.

Feng Yi popped his head out of the water and looked around.

Inside the cave, there was no light, complete darkness.

Now, it was night outside as well, with little light around. The moon and stars were obscured by clouds, and there was no reflection of city lights on them either.

However, the darkness did not pose much trouble for Feng Yi.

It seemed to have rained a little in the forest, and the humidity was somewhat high.

Feng Yi looked back at the peak.

Great, another good spot for molting!

If it’s inconvenient to go out to sea the next time I molt, I’ll head towards this mountain!

Feng Yi didn’t wish to molt too soon, thankfully for the suppressor genes controlling his growth rate. Although not very robust, it was better to have a longer lifespan.

So what if I’m frail? As the only one of his kind in this world, there was no strong kinsman to scorn his physique.

What’s wrong with being weak?

It’s safer that way!

In an era of informational technology, bodily strength couldn’t withstand cannon fire. Even if you can withstand bullets, can you withstand a nuclear bomb?

So, keep pretending to be human~~

Just lay low for now.

Submerging in the water, Feng Yi swam back, looking for his clothes and backpack.

After coming out of the cave, for safety’s sake, Feng Yi transformed back into his mimicry form. Upon returning to where his backpack was hidden, he changed into his clothing, carefully packed the two rock samples he brought back into a bag, and placed them in the inner pocket of his backpack.

He pulled out some compressed biscuits from his backpack, took a few bites, and filled his water bottle from a nearby stream. The river water was a bit murky, not that he was worried about parasites, but it had a strong, earthy taste, tainted with odors left by various forms of wildlife activity.

Since there was a stream nearby with cleaner and less pungent water, Feng Yi saw no reason to subject himself to discomfort.

As he ate, Feng Yi pondered.

He wasn’t as large as his ancestors, but could there be another possibility that he simply hadn’t reached their age yet?

After all, if those energetic substances were abundant, one’s lifespan could actually be much longer. It wasn’t impossible to gradually grow over an extended period.

Seen in this light, the mistake in his innate navigation that led him to a channel meant for juveniles was understandable.

Compared to his ancestors, he was indeed still just a "juvenile."

Even after supplementing his diet, Feng Yi didn’t feel full. He refrained from seeking food elsewhere,

tidied up the trash around him, lay down on the stony ground beside a shallow bank, seemingly uncaring of the discomfort.

The nighttime temperature in the mountains was low, chilling to the bone when the wind blew. Ordinary people would shiver from the cold.

Feng Yi could easily withstand the temperature change. Though it wasn’t very comfortable, it posed no threat to him. There were no worries about mosquitoes, nor were there wild animals to disturb his rest.

When he concealed his aura, Feng Yi was almost indistinguishable from a rock in the wilderness, nearly devoid of presence.

Lying on the stony ground, Feng Yi gazed into the darkened sky.

It wasn’t that his ancestors lived here because of the energy materials above. Rather, it was the presence of these materials that attracted his ancestors to gather and live here.

Oceans, lands, canyons, plateaus, swamps, mountain ranges...

For this planet, these were like the organs of a body, each performing its function.

This mountain range was like an organ of this massive planet, a sanctuary for countless beings, also emitting substances that Feng Yi and his ancestors needed to survive.

Not every mountain range released energy substances, but the mountains, rivers, seas, and oceans certainly worked in concert, complementing each other.

It was hard to say whether the reduced speed of energy material generation in this mountain range was due to its own reasons or influenced by other locations.

The energy materials here wouldn’t sustain Feng Yi’s needs indefinitely. In several decades, he would face the same fate as his great-grandmother.

If he wanted to live longer, should he just give up and lie flat, hoping that, with extreme luck, he might stumble upon a place where energy materials were abundant?

Or, should he earnestly seek out a way to survive over the next several decades?

The former depended entirely on luck.

But luck was such an elusive, mysterious thing.

Some people could spend thousands on lottery tickets without winning ten bucks.

Yet others might buy a single ticket and win millions or even billions.

Feng Yi didn’t think he could be that lucky, so he had to invest effort into finding a solution.

After all, an individual’s power was limited, so—

he set his sights on the Federation Bureau’s high-level database.

Information related to survival and environment was most complete in the Bureau’s database. It gathered research from the world’s top talents, covering every corner of the globe, and as time went on, the database would continue to update and grow in informational richness.

Feng Yi knew he wasn’t clever, and so, it was even more necessary for him to read the research findings of those smarter than him, to understand the thoughts and ideas of those geniuses.

Many research findings weren’t publicly disclosed; they were kept within those important databases with restricted access.

The Federation Bureau had many important and detailed records that Feng Yi couldn’t access due to his insufficient clearance level.

To reach that higher level of database access, Feng Yi needed to gain more experience within the Bureau and raise his rank.

If at first joining the Bureau was just a precaution against the day he might be exposed, now he had the additional motivation of "necessity for survival."

With numerous thoughts running through his mind, Feng Yi couldn’t fall asleep, or perhaps he wasn’t sleepy since he had slept enough while in the cave.

After resting on the stone beach for two hours, Feng Yi shouldered his bag; it was time to return.

For Feng Yi, whether he moved during the day or night made little difference.

The next day, the clouds in the mountains dissipated early, and the sunlight was bright and clear.

The mountain flora and fauna bustled with life.

And on this day, Feng Yi’s rare good fortune came in the form of a scent he detected while picking wild fruit next to a tree.

The scent of his target.

Quickly finishing the wild fruits in hand, he followed the scent. Along the way, he found a waterhole to wash off the smell from his hands. Once they were dry, he took his camera and moved closer to the target, concealing his presence.

Under a large boulder, hidden in the shadows behind the grass, were yellow and red patterns.

Feng Yi was excited.

Look what I’ve found!

A Qin Emperor striped snake!

Feng Yi adjusted the lens and took several photos and a video of the little creature hidden inside. After setting up the camera, he moved in to catch the snake.

To justify his excursion into the mountains, he had used the excuse that he was searching for snakes. Lucky to actually encounter one, he needed to gather substantial evidence to account for it later and to show off his findings.

Feng Yi caught the Qin Emperor striped snake that was hiding under the stone.

Just by its colors, it did resemble the Cabbage Pit Viper.

The difference was obvious at the head.

After all, Cabbage Pit Viper’s other name, Cabbage Iron Head, hinted at its large triangular head, fitting the stereotype of venomous snakes.

The Qin Emperor striped snake, however, had a rounder head.

With a snake coiled around one hand and a camera in the other, Feng Yi took close-up shots of it.

Now there’s something to write for the mission report!