Chapter 326

Chapter 326: Struggling Together

Just as the Chaos Demon Gods stepped into the Crystal Walls to invade Valaharl, the Giant God found himself in a tough spot.

“What do you mean, you fish?”

“Why are you following me everywhere I go?”

Trilobite should have been in a good mood.

After all, he had found a sucker… I mean, a quality customer.

Just by looking at the PPT and getting a quick “mental experience,” the customer paid 3000 points of Chaos Energy.

Now, he guessed the customer was working hard to save up money to buy his body.

But when Trilobite took a few steps forward, his good mood vanished.

Not only was the entrance to the First New Themis blocked, but now Valaharl’s entrance had become a “Crocodile Pool”!

“Ah no, it should be a Haisigen Toothfish Pool.”

Even though Trilobite was now a postosuchus, he still didn’t dare jump into the water to fight the River Lord, Haisigen Toothfish; it was like how tigers didn’t dare jump into water to face crocodiles.

Plus, it wasn’t even a fair fight.

Going in would mean getting jumped by a crowd.

“So why are you big fish blocking my door?”

“You’re making it so I can’t go home…”

“Don’t you have better things to do?”

“Hey, is there a police officer?”

“I’m calling the police!”

…

Just as Trilobite thought about calling the police over the Haisigen Toothfish…

“Splash… splash… splash…”

Suddenly, splashing sounds came from the shallow water nearby.

That was footsteps!

Trilobite nervously turned his head.

He stood up with a thud, trying to look taller!

As a postosuchus, he belonged to the Bopolong family; the main species, the Bopolong, was famous for Walking on Two Legs.

So a postosuchus could stand on two legs, walk, and even run for a bit.

The only problem was their heavy weight and upright stance meant they couldn’t hold it long.

But Trilobite was different.

He was a postosuchus with an air sac breathing system just like a dinosaur’s.

This made “Trilobite the postosuchus” great at keeping light.

Although Trilobite still walked awkwardly on two legs due to how his pelvic and leg bones connected, he moved faster than most top predators of his time with his swaggering, splayed-foot gait.

Trilobite was quite pleased with this situation.

None who ran faster matched his size, and none larger could outrun him.

So when facing a threat, his first move was to stand upright!

This wasn’t about showing respect.

Standing tall made him appear larger—a tactic modern bears still use to intimidate foes. It also positioned him perfectly for a quick escape.

If intimidation failed, fleeing was always an option.

But after staring intently, Trilobite realized he’d been fighting wits with thin air.

“Hah.”

“Who do we have here?”

“If it isn’t that rascal of a crocodile?”

“The croc ancestor itself—Yuan Crocodile.”

“Hmm…”

Trilobite tilted his head, sizing up the creature.

“I recall Yuan Crocodiles usually stay small, just one or two meters long.”

“This guy must’ve gobbled growth hormones or something. Nearly four meters? Damn impressive!”

“Sniff… sniff…”

As Trilobite observed…

His mouth watered.

In the system vision, the creature glowed "dark red"—marking this "croc ancestor" as the juiciest, most delectable prey.

Though it stretched nearly four meters and weighed over two hundred kilos—rivaling modern lions or tigers—it was no match for the five-and-a-half-meter, half-ton postosuchus.

Forget using the saber teeth inherited from Duncker’s fish; one headbutt from that monster would send this oversized Yuan Crocodile reeling.

But then—

“Hiss—”

Unfamiliar yet haunting symbols flickered across the Yuan Crocodile’s forehead and stomach.

Almost instantly…

“Holy cow, it just turned green?”

“Seriously…?”

“Off the menu now?”

Green and blue in the system vision meant "non-edible targets." Eating one wouldn’t just fail to boost Chaos Energy—it’d drain him!

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

All interest in the creature vanished instantly.

"Go, go, go…"

"I’m annoyed."

"Get lost!"

Trilobite held his hands in front of his chest and kept waving them outward.

It looked like a brown bear waving.

"Roar—!"

He let out a roar.

He knew this creature didn’t understand his words, but the roar and gestures should get the point across, right?

Yet at that moment, the creature shuffled toward him with a groveling, shameless air.

Somehow, Trilobite detected a fawning expression on that lizard-like face—the eyes, the movements…

It strongly resembled Jia Gui from "Underground Station."

As if saying, "This way, sir, hee hee."

"Hey, what’re you doing, acting like some lapdog?"

Trilobite was still puzzling over it…

"Ha… hiss…"

The Yuan Crocodile whimpered timidly at him, then crept forward, tail wagging, glancing back at every step.

Trilobite thought for a moment…

"Oh!"

"Got it!"

"Some critters actually behave this way!"

"Yeah, that explains everything!"

—-

"Holy crap!"

"Gimmerly, what insane scheme did you cook up!"

"You’ll get me killed!"

Mr. Yuan Crocodile—or Morax—led the "Giant God" forward, trembling like a leaf.

The moment he saw the Giant God, its colossal, towering Divine Body stunned him!

So immense!

So ruggedly powerful!

Such a Divine Body would rank among the elite even in the Chaos Council, no—the Core Council of Chaos!

But what truly petrified Morax, what stole the breath from this mighty demon god, was the terrifying aura radiating from the Giant God.

"I smelled an extremely cruel metallic scent!"

"I also smelled the endless, strange changes!"

"But strangely, something that completely contradicted ‘change’ yet was ‘constant persistence’ still existed!"

"Finally, there was a strong feeling of pleasure after extreme gluttony…"

"Oh my!"

"This…"

"Monster!"

"It’s a monster!"

In that instant of contact, Morax felt the overwhelming murderous intent and greed from the Giant God.

He wanted to run, but fear gripped him.

Fortunately, the Giant God reined in his murderous intent, though he remained cautious and seemed to despise Morax, wanting to drive him away.

Morax felt quite aggrieved.

"I am a core councilor too! Am I really so insignificant?"

Yet in the end, he set aside his pride as a core councilor and shamelessly begged the Giant God.

The Giant God seemed to understand his intentions and relaxed his attack position.

"Ah…"

"It seemed the wise Giant God had guessed my plan—lead the way!"

"I was still considered an ally of Walifer on the surface, so I naturally knew the positions of those Chaos Demon Gods; in fact, if we went around to the other side of the Crystal Walls, we could take a shortcut, directly attack the vicinity of the Sacred Ground of Dantalin, and ambush those arrogant Chaos Demon Gods!"

"What a strategist, completely understanding my meaning without needing to communicate."

As Morax crawled forward with his heavy divine body, he frequently looked back, casting admiring glances at the Giant God, whose expression stayed the same, showing no emotions, aloof, mysterious, and wise.

—-

"How did I forget?"

Trilobite followed behind the Yuan Crocodile, watching his awkward, sycophantic demeanor, nodding in satisfaction.

"Many animals had this mutually beneficial relationship in hunting."

"In simple terms, it was ‘colluding.’"

"However, in the animal kingdom, those who truly colluded were not wolves and jackals."

The "wolves" and "jackals" in the saying "wolf and jackal colluding" could likely refer to one type of animal: wolves.

The "jackal" was, in truth, an injured wolf.

Ancient people observed wolves caring for their injured or disabled companions without fully understanding the social structure within a wolf pack, so they called the front-limbed injured or disabled wolves "jackals" and came up with the idiom "wolf and jackal colluding."

In the natural world, true "collusion" happened between coyotes and badgers.

These two often teamed up to hunt rodents.

Coyotes used their keen eyesight to spot prey, but they weren’t good at digging; once the rodents burrowed into a hole, they were stuck.

The badger was good at digging, but being short-sighted made spotting rodents difficult.

Thus, these two animals began cooperating.

Typically, the coyote would find rodents and drive them into burrows, while the badger dug to trap or flush out the prey, sharing the spoils together.

"So…"

Trilobite recalled Yuan Crocodile’s fawning, bootlicking demeanor and suddenly understood.

"Are postosuchus and Yuan Crocodile like coyote and badger?"

"Yuan Crocodile finds suitable prey and lures postosuchus over."

"Then after postosuchus kills the prey, Yuan Crocodile scrambles for scraps?"

Of course, this might not even be possible. Even if true, it differed greatly from the coyote-badger partnership.

Coyotes and badgers have similar sizes and equal standing.

But the gap between postosuchus and Yuan Crocodile was enormous.

Even if an "alliance" existed, the mighty postosuchus would dominate while the weaker Yuan Crocodile remained subordinate.

"Wow! What a discovery!"

"With fossil evidence, I could publish seven or eight papers and land one in Nature!"

Trilobite felt the thrill of uncovering ancient secrets—that "morning enlightenment" satisfaction.

His joy grew as he realized…

"Yuan Crocodile’s truly dependable!"

"It helped me bypass those Haisigen Toothfish."

"Moreover…"

Returning to Valaharl, Trilobite felt undaunted despite the ruins.

Because…

"Sniff… sniff…"

The air hung thick with the scent of food!

"Roar…"

A deep roar echoed through the mist, instilling fear in every Chaos Demon God’s heart.

The time for slaughter had come!