Vengeful Dinosaurs

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, six months had passed.

Ever since that day when he had devoured the partially developed dinosaur egg, regained a bit of strength, and narrowly escaped the nesting grounds before the parent dinosaur returned, Haoyuan had calmed his mind to focus entirely on boosting his energy absorption and conversion efficiency.

He enhanced his various physical functions to extract energy with maximum efficiency.

To that end, he tirelessly stole dinosaur eggs every day, quickly becoming a notorious egg thief in the eyes of the parent dinosaurs.

They wished nothing more than to tear him apart and skin him alive.

The guarding of the dinosaur eggs grew increasingly strict.

Consequently, Haoyuan's egg-thieving lifestyle became harder and harder to sustain.

There was no helping it; with his enhanced absorption and conversion efficiency, his appetite had grown immensely, drawing the dinosaurs' keen attention.

For his own safety, he could only shift his focus toward the newly hatched dinosaur young.

He staked out their nests, lay in ambush, and watched them unceasingly, snapping up whichever hatchling strayed from the group.

As days turned into weeks, he gradually became the childhood nightmare of the young dinosaurs, leaving an indelible trauma on their fragile, juvenile minds.

His very presence struck terror into their hearts.

To them, that white silhouette was like the Grim Reaper itself.

Until one day, when he moved to strike at a stray hatchling once more, a bloody maw suddenly lunged toward him.

Haoyuan was startled. Fortunately, to survive and evade the pursuit of the parent dinosaurs, he had allocated some points into his agility—allowing him to slither faster and react with greater speed.

Thus, by a hair's breadth, he dodged the surprise attack of that gaping maw.

Catching his breath, he realized it was actually a juvenile dinosaur.

One of those smaller dinosaur hatchlings had grown up. It seemed to remember him, its eyes blazing with vengeful fury.

Right now, compared to Haoyuan, this juvenile dinosaur was already quite massive—and it had come for revenge.

Haoyuan was over three meters long, which was already fairly large for a snake and considerably larger than the baseline of his original species.

Yet a snake's body was slender and elongated; in terms of weight, he was simply no match for a dinosaur that, while relatively short in length, was tall, thick, and solid.

With proper defense, this juvenile dinosaur could easily use its sheer weight to trample him to death.

Haoyuan had no venom, and even if he did, it would at best result in mutual destruction.

Venom was the most inefficient means of survival; even if he had the choice, Haoyuan wouldn't pick it.

Venom was too precious and required immense amounts of energy to synthesize.

Injecting venom heavily drained physical energy, easily leaving a snake in a weakened state.

It could only be used in ambushes to avoid being wasted.

Rather than wasting energy synthesizing venom, it was far better to rely on constriction.

Looking at the rage-filled juvenile dinosaur before him and the partially hardened frill on its skull, Haoyuan had no desire to clash with it. A fight would easily draw the attention of other herbivorous dinosaurs.

There were also smaller carnivorous dinosaurs roaming the area, and any commotion could easily invite a third party to take advantage of them.

Otherwise, in a one-on-one duel, Haoyuan felt he wouldn't necessarily lose.

He was a constrictor snake, after all, and his constriction strength had been steadily increased in the past.

His actual strength was definitely greater than it appeared on the surface.

Yet even if he killed it, there was no real value in doing so.

Compared to him right now, this dinosaur was far too massive to swallow whole. An ancient snake's jaw couldn't unhinge and stretch as wide as modern snakes from his past life.

If he couldn't swallow it, killing it would be a complete waste of stamina.

Snakes were prone to exhaustion; if a constriction struggle dragged on for too long, he would need to rest for an extended period.

Crossing paths with another predator during that recovery period would mean certain death.

After weighing the pros and cons in his mind, Haoyuan decisively chose to retreat. However, to prevent pursuit, he put on a fierce facade, hissing menacingly to intimidate the rash young dinosaur as he backed away.

To his surprise, the juvenile dinosaur matched his pace and kept close, refusing to let him out of its sight.

Then, right before his stunned eyes, it let out a series of resonant bellows.

Haoyuan immediately realized that it was calling for reinforcements.

It wanted other dinosaurs to gang up on him!

“Damn it, that's not playing fair!”

Haoyuan cursed inwardly. Dropping his menacing act, he turned tail and bolted.

Fortunately, he had watched plenty of nature documentaries in his past life. If he had been a dumb snake who continued trying to posture and intimidate, he probably would have been surrounded and slaughtered.

Slithering with nimble haste under the juvenile dinosaur's stunned gaze, Haoyuan's snow-white figure swiftly vanished beneath the fern-covered leaf litter.

Furious, the creature stomped its feet in helpless rage, howling and bellowing in frustration.

Yet it didn't dare give chase deep into the thick ferns.

First, straying too far from the adult dinosaurs made it vulnerable to carnivorous predators; second, it was deeply traumatized from being ambushed by Haoyuan in its infancy, terrified that he might suddenly leap out and devour it.

Thus, it could only wander off in dejection.

Haoyuan thought this was just an isolated incident, but a few days later, while hunting a stray hatchling elsewhere, another juvenile dinosaur came chasing after him.

And it wasn't the same dinosaur as before.

Haoyuan realized instantly that he had become public enemy number one among the dinosaur youth—every single one of them wanted him dead.

He had hunted them when they were small, and now that they were growing up, they all wanted to hunt him down.

“...” Haoyuan was utterly speechless.

He never expected dinosaurs to hold such fierce grudges.

Now that both the adults and the juveniles were keeping a close eye out for him, hunting them had become exceedingly difficult.

But evolution required energy.

Right now, he had no claws, and his teeth couldn't tear apart a juvenile dinosaur. Otherwise, he would have long since put them on his menu.

“Sigh...”

Left with no choice, he could only funnel more energy into boosting his speed.

Winter was fast approaching. This region had a temperate climate with distinct seasons, making hibernation mandatory.

Before hibernating, he had to stockpile enough fat and energy.

As for spending energy to bypass hibernation entirely? It was far too early for that.

He wanted to prioritize developing claws and teeth so he could target juvenile dinosaurs.

Sensing subtle adjustments taking place in his physical structure and musculature, his agility and stamina surged significantly.

A chilly glint flared within Haoyuan's golden slit pupils.

“Hehehe, little dinosaurs, I will be the shadow of death that haunts you for the rest of your lives!”

And so, in the days that followed, scenes like this played out frequently:

A young dinosaur would stray just a little too far from the herd, wandering near the bushes or ferns.

Whoosh!

“Sneak attack!”

A white blur, so fast it left only an afterimage, flashed by.

Before the young dinosaur could even let out a whimper, it vanished.

Its companion nearby didn't even realize what had happened.

It only heard a brief rustle in the grass.

Startled, it lifted its head and looked around in confusion.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Lowering its head, it went back to eating the chewed-up vegetation brought by its parents.

“Just scaring myself.”

Whoosh!

A dark shadow flashed before its eyes, and its head plunged into a warm, reeking abyss.

“Huh?”

Scoring a double kill, Haoyuan delightfully gulped down the young dinosaur and immediately changed hunting grounds.

By the time the juvenile dinosaurs lying in wait nearby reacted, he had already vanished without a trace.

This routine continued for some time until the young dinosaurs gradually grew too large, forcing Haoyuan to abandon hunting them.

However, the experience gained from repeatedly hunting prey of that size prompted him to turn his sights toward similarly sized small carnivorous dinosaurs, lizards, frogs, and mammals.

He welcomed all comers.

Eventually, he ate all suitable prey in the area to near extinction.

Having finally stockpiled enough energy before winter arrived, he sought out the depths of a cave dinosaur nest and sank into deep slumber.

Thanks to the skull framework that ancient snakes still retained, the energy required to reshape his skull into that of a dragon was somewhat reduced, though it still demanded a massive amount.

After upgrading his body's energy absorption and conversion efficiency, speed, and stamina, Haoyuan didn't have much energy left, so he could only choose to reinforce his skull and grow sharp, menacing teeth first.

The claws he had originally planned to grow were pushed back.

Five-clawed limbs were indeed advantageous for combat, but what he needed most right now was the ability to tear apart and consume larger prey.

Furthermore, expanding his body size had to be prioritized to facilitate constriction.

Claws would likely have to be delayed even further.

“Sigh, life as a snake is tough.”