The creatures slung over his shoulders hung their necks, swaying with Shen Lan's steps. As the wind blew, a layer of fine fuzz on their bodies would be lifted... They were unmistakably two Pyroraptors.

Loosely coiled around his neck in two loops was the giant snake that Xia Chuan and the others had encountered before. As for what he was carrying in his hands, on one side was the ammonite that Xia Chuan and Dennis had eaten at the very beginning, while on the other side, it looked somewhat massive, with a neck as long and curved as a snake's, dragging lifelessly on the ground at the moment, but its body somewhat resembled that of a seal, with fin-like fore and hind limbs.

Xia Chuan couldn't quite recognize what that thing was for a moment, but Shen Lan's fully loaded appearance truly stunned him.

Along the way, he had actually grasped a bit of Shen Lan's characteristics - when judging other creatures, the criteria he used in most cases were "tasty" and "not tasty", and only for a few things he hadn't eaten before could he say a couple of serious words.

Based on this alone, Xia Chuan felt that Shen Lan placed quite a bit of importance on the aspect of eating, but he never thought this person could value it to such an extent. Just looking at the things hanging on his body and what he was carrying in his hands, Xia Chuan finally understood why he took about three hours longer to catch up -

The Pyroraptors and giant snake could be considered as being picked up and carried after defeating them, but the things he was holding in his hands... were clearly not something that would be found on land.

"...You went back to the sea to fish these out?" Stimulated by Shen Lan's appearance, Xia Chuan didn't have the mood to take a bath for the time being. While casually buttoning up his already unbuttoned shirt, he rolled up his sleeves and walked up to Shen Lan, raising his chin towards the two big fellows he was holding in his hands.

"You could even tell that?" Shen Lan tilted his head to look at the Pyroraptors slung over his shoulders and explained, "Originally, after dealing with this bunch, I planned to casually grab a couple and catch up with you guys, but then I ran into this snake again. Thinking its taste was quite fresh too, I brought it along as well. But when it comes to freshness, naturally seafood tastes even better, so I simply turned back and caught these two."

He bounced the things in his hands at Xia Chuan. "You've eaten this one before, the taste is not bad, right? This one tastes even better, I'll let you have a taste of its freshness."

Xia Chuan was simply at a loss for words. "..."

What kind of spirit was this, Xia Chuan couldn't comprehend it. He only knew that anyone with a slightly normal mind wouldn't turn back on the original path after rushing for most of the day, just for the sake of eating some local specialties...

In other words, during the time he was missing, Shen Lan not only beat up a group of Pyroraptors and a giant snake, but also retraced the entire long stretch through the dense forest they had traversed during the day, and caught two seafood goods along the way...

Calculating it this way, he actually only delayed for a little over three hours? Even with eight legs one wouldn't be faster than him!

But regardless of whether his mind was good or not, he ran this errand in order to let people have a taste of freshness. Xia Chuan couldn't stand there foolishly without appreciating the sentiment.

He swept his gaze up and down, and reached out to the millstone-like ammonite within his capability, saying, "Give it to me, I'll help you carry some."

"Oh." Shen Lan responded, but instead of handing over the ammonite, he offered his own neck. "If you want to help, take this snake. It's a bit suffocating hanging there."

Xia Chuan said without any good temper, "...You even know it's suffocating?"

His height of 1.83 meters wasn't short, but Shen Lan was still more than half a head taller than him. Usually it didn't matter, but at times like this, untying that snake took some effort. Xia Chuan reached out to lift the giant snake's head and tested its weight. Then, with a face full of dark lines, he waved at Shen Lan. "Lower your head."

Shen Lan obediently complied, and lowering his head wasn't enough. He simply bent over as well.

The position he leaned in was really too handy. That head of deep brown short hair was right in front of Xia Chuan's eyes. It looked a bit prickly but not too stiff, seemingly having a good hand feel... So Xia Chuan subconsciously raised his hand and patted the top of his head, stopping his tendency to continue lowering. "Alright, I'm not that short."

After patting, he froze.

After all, this action was indeed not very suitable to do to an adult, especially to such a tall and sturdy adult who was a whole size bigger than Xia Chuan... Moreover, although they had traveled together for a while and had some rapport, they couldn't be considered close friends who were very familiar with each other.

The last time he patted a head so naturally and handily was to a shepherd dog...

When Shen Lan wasn't paying attention, Xia Chuan gave his head a slightly apologetic look, then raised his hand and untied the giant snake coiled around his neck.

The snake's weight was heavier than imagined. Xia Chuan's hand strength wasn't small, but when he fully took it into his hands, he felt a sudden heaviness. He wasn't as wild as Shen Lan and naturally wouldn't coil the snake around his neck or sling it over his shoulders. Instead, he directly grabbed the half-open snake's mouth and dragged it to the edge of the bonfire.

Thump, thump, thump, several things fell to the ground. Dennis and Professor Linton, who were guarding the bonfire and roasting fish, were scared silly.

The two were petrified for a while, then loosened their hands, and the wooden skewers with fish fell to the ground with a plop.

"Wh-what are these things!" Dennis took a long time to find his soul back and asked, stammering.

Shen Lan said with an overbearing air, "Dinner."

This answer was too terrifying, scaring Professor Linton into a shiver. He probably never dreamed that one day he would have dinosaur meat for dinner...

"Pyroraptors... Boavus*... Ammonite... Plesiosaur?" The professor counted the dinners lying on the ground in a daze. When he counted the last two, his expression became even more dazed. "Were these two stranded in the forest?"

*T/N: The prehistoric snake

"He went back to the sea to fish for them," Xia Chuan answered for Shen Lan.

Professor Linton looked at Shen Lan with an incredulous face, as if looking at a beast. "Went back to the sea... to fish? You finished fishing so quickly and caught up?"

Shen Lan had unloaded his full load and was shaking his neck to loosen his muscles and bones. Upon hearing this, he was too lazy to open his mouth to explain and just very nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders.

Xia Chuan continued Professor Linton's words and said to Shen Lan, "Don't turn back next time, in case the road gets long and complicated and you can't find your way back. Tasting fresh food can be done anytime, and it's not like we won't run into rivers and seas later."

This would have been a normal word of caution, but when the words fell, Xia Chuan noticed a fleeting peculiarity in Shen Lan's expression, but it quickly returned to normal. Just as Xia Chuan was feeling a bit puzzled, Shen Lan, now with a normal expression, raised his hand, pointed behind him and said, "I saw the markers you left."

Actually, the way Xia Chuan left markers carried a strong military habit. Ordinary people might not easily find the correct path following those markers right away. He had left most of the path before he reacted, and was too lazy to change it.

"Looks a bit familiar." Shen Lan gave a simple and concise evaluation of the markers. After saying that, not only Xia Chuan was stunned for a moment, but Shen Lan himself also looked a bit dazed.

Combining Shen Lan's experience of losing most of his memories, along with the habits and postures he revealed from having received professional training, as well as the various incredible characteristics and abilities he possessed...

Xia Chuan was more firmly convinced that Shen Lan must also come from some military unit, and for some reason, got involved with some unknown experiments, which turned him into what he is now.

But since Shen Lan himself didn't remember, there was no use in Xia Chuan asking, so he didn't bring it up.

Dennis, who had been dumbfounded on the side, suddenly spoke up and asked, "How do we deal with this... for dinner?"

Shen Lan decisively said, "Eat it."

"Um... I mean, shouldn't we process it a bit? Like remove the hair, skin it, wash it or something?" Looking at the hard feathers and down all over the Pyroraptor, Dennis felt his throat getting a bit itchy. "I really can't... bite into it directly."

Xia Chuan and Shen Lan were stunned for a moment, obviously having forgotten about this. Without a word, they dragged this huge behemoth to the shallow river.

If you asked him to seriously cook, he certainly wouldn't, but he was very experienced in catching things in the wild to fill his stomach. It's just that this experience definitely wouldn't include dinosaur as a type of game.

So Xia Chuan pulled out the dagger from his waist, wanting to hand it to Shen Lan to let him demonstrate. But then he saw the latter had already knelt down on one knee, nimbly slicing open the Boavus's belly with his hands and feet, not using the dagger at all.

Xia Chuan: "..."

Although this pile of dinner was troublesome to process one by one, with the two of them working together, the processing was not slow. Very quickly, the giant snake was split in half, the internal organs removed and aired on the shore. The Pyroraptor lost all its feathers, plucked into two bald chickens...

Seeing that the processing was almost done, Xia Chuan walked to the shallow river and carefully washed the blood from his hands. While washing, he couldn't help but recall Shen Lan's fleeting strange expression. After thinking it over several times, he spoke up and asked, "You've been here for so long, have you really never tried to find an exit?"

Shen Lan swiftly dismantled the Pyroraptor and Boavus into pieces. He picked up a piece of meat and waved it at Xia Chuan like he was presenting a treasure, answering a question that wasn't asked, "Do you want to eat raw dinosaur sashimi or roasted dinosaur meat?"

Xia Chuan: "..." I'd rather dismantle you.

Shen Lan continued talking to himself, "When I transform into the Mosasaurus form, I feel raw meat is fresher, original flavor and tender. But when I'm human, I still feel roasted tastes better..."

Xia Chuan: "..."

After chatting about this and that for a long time, Xia Chuan simply stood up, shook the water from his hands, walked back in front of Shen Lan, and looked at him with light brown eyes, not speaking or refuting, letting him blabber on, giving off a vibe of quietly watching someone show off.

After being stared at for a while, Shen Lan finally couldn't continue his nonsense anymore. He paused his words, was quiet for a good while, then raised his deep blue eyes, shrugged at Xia Chuan and said, "I never intended to leave this place at all."