Where is it taking me? Jiang Hai muttered to himself as he walked cautiously. You two are so unreliable. Are you surrendering to the enemy at the last minute? At the same time, he glanced down at Xiao Huang and Xiao Bai, who were still playing at his feet. Unable to resist, he gave them a light kick.
Startled, Xiao Huang and Xiao Bai looked up at Jiang Hai with confused eyes. They clearly had no idea what they had done wrong.
"Hmph!" Jiang Hai sighed, observing their innocent faces. He took a deep breath and continued to follow the creature leading him deeper into the forest.
The forest wasn't particularly large, but it wasn't small either. Jiang Hai had never ventured this far into its depths before. It seemed this was the farthest he had walked today.
As he pressed onward, he eventually found himself in a small clearing. The vegetation had been deliberately cleared away, revealing a patch of bare earth. At the center lay a large puddle—too small to be called a lake.
Jiang Hai wasn't sure how the puddle had formed. Perhaps it was due to groundwater. The water was murky and turbid. On the far side of the puddle, a large hole had been dug, with some grass growing inside it.
As Jiang Hai approached the clearing, a few faint green lights appeared within the hole.
"An ambush?" His heart skipped a beat as he eyed the glowing lights warily. Ready to bolt at the first sign of danger, he tensed—but before he could react, the source of the green light stepped out of the hole.
Jiang Hai's shock quickly turned into recognition.
It was the North American mountain lion he had been feeding here.
The little lions had grown significantly—now about the size of medium dogs. When they saw Jiang Hai, they wagged their tongues and ran toward him excitedly. The last to emerge was the large mountain lion.
This was the very beast Du Famen had mistaken for a North American lion last time. It had surpassed its normal limits by absorbing Jiang Hai's spiritual energy and hunting spiritual-energy-infused rabbits and pheasants every day.
"It's you." Jiang Hai squatted down, circling his arm around the little lions as they jumped excitedly around him. He rubbed their heads vigorously.
Seeing them so lively, Jiang Hai laughed. He hadn't expected them to grow so fast.
"Ah, ah…" The mother mountain lion approached, nudging Jiang Hai with her massive head before howling twice in greeting. Jiang Hai chuckled—he was naturally fond of these ferocious animals, and watching these fierce big cats act so playful was endearingly contradictory.
"Alright, alright, you guys live here. But what about that anaconda?" Jiang Hai patted the mountain lions before glancing toward the puddle. The anaconda had been the one to bring him here, and the mountain lion family showed no hostility toward it. Jiang Hai hesitated, puzzled.
Perhaps sensing his gaze, the anaconda swam to the edge of the puddle and looked at Jiang Hai. It then struck the water's surface twice with its tail.
Suddenly, a huge figure rose from the murky water.
Jiang Hai swallowed hard.
The figure was a massive crocodile.
There was no denying it—seeing a crocodile emerge from turbid water was far more terrifying than spotting an anaconda on your head. Jiang Hai couldn't help but swallow nervously.
However, after surfacing, the crocodile simply stared at Jiang Hai with emotionless eyes, slowly crawling out of the water to stand silently beside the anaconda.
"Huh? This scene feels familiar…" Jiang Hai's mind reeled as a sudden flash of memory surfaced.
Crocodiles and anacondas—two creatures that shouldn't have been here—appeared right before him.
He was confused, but as the memory crystallized, he recognized them.
"Oh, those guys from the wild animal warehouse!" Jiang Hai slapped his forehead in realization.
No wonder Xiao Huang, Xiao Bai, and Jiujiu had warned him at first, then suddenly stopped reacting—like they hadn't even noticed these creatures.
And why could snakes, crocodiles, and mountain lions coexist peacefully here?
There was only one answer: spiritual energy.
Animals were far more sensitive than humans. Although Jiang Hai didn't know how these two escaped, after their escape, they had clearly found him and sensed the unique aura in this place.
Their ability to coexist peacefully was because they recognized the familiar spiritual energy in each other.
That was why these three lived in the forest, and why the anaconda had led Jiang Hai here after spotting him.
"It's you!" Jiang Hai released the small mountain lion beside him and stepped forward to stroke the heads of the two large creatures. But snakes and crocodiles were cold-blooded animals—they weren't like cats or dogs and didn't enjoy being touched on the head. After two attempts, they moved away without protest.
"Although I don't know how you got here, this place isn't bad. There's plenty of food in this forest. You can live here from now on," Jiang Hai said with a smile.
To be honest, Jiang Hai had planned to raise these two anyway—and now it seemed a great choice.
"The sand tiger shark has spiritual energy, and I raised it into a great white shark. The mountain lion has spiritual energy, and I've raised it into a North American lion. Now it's your turn—what will you become?" He looked at the crocodile and anaconda with a grin.
The anaconda was the largest snake Jiang Hai had seen. What could be bigger than an anaconda? The largest crocodile, perhaps?
With these three guarding his forest, Jiang Hai felt confident his territory was well protected.
He had even started naming them, but today he wasn't in the best condition and hadn't succeeded yet.
Still, he was excited for the future. If this giant snake grew far larger than ordinary snakes—and if the crocodile developed further—well, Jiang Hai remembered the Titanoboa, the mightiest cold-blooded animal after the dinosaurs went extinct.
It could grow over ten meters long. With careful cultivation, maybe this anaconda could reclaim the glory of its ancestors!
That would make the wild-anaconda movie plots seem less fictional.
As for crocodiles, the largest was the Sarcosuchus, over ten meters in length, a dinosaur hunter in its day. Jiang Hai had no dinosaurs to worry about.
But if his crocodile could also reach ten meters, that would be seriously cool.
After playing with them for a while, Jiang Hai injected a stream of spiritual energy into the three creatures. Since the little mountain lions hadn't fully grown, he gave them extra energy as well.
With everything done, Jiang Hai took Xiao Bai, Xiao Huang, and Jiujiu and left the forest.
He wondered what the forest would look like in the future. The thought gave him a small spark of anticipation.
Meanwhile, Jiang Hai's manor stood firm as a rock. He and his cowboys and sailors guarded the front lines.
In the sea, two huge sharks, over a dozen dolphins, and the giant squid formed a formidable defense.
On land near the shore, anacondas, crocodiles, and mountain lions stood guard.
Now, Jiang Hai was eager for someone to test his strength!
But just as Jiang Hai felt confident, someone in Boston was faring far worse.
Since Celanese's last offensive had been crushed by Jiang Hai, they had no foothold in Winthrop.
Now, they were like rats crossing the street—ignored and powerless. The Celanese delegation and their hooligans couldn't even buy a bottle of water in Winthrop.
So three days after that fateful night, the Celanese delegation left, but the hooligans remained in town. They relied on Augustine to go to Boston and bring back supplies daily. Life was miserable.
Peter—Celanese's leader who'd been driven out of town—sought out Faraday-Kirk, the man who promised them control of Winthrop and guaranteed their success.
Faraday-Kirk had wanted to deny it, but Celanese had recorded their conversation. They threatened to either force his hand or expose him.
The bribe money was enough to keep him in prison until his next life. He wanted to make amends, but Celanese refused compensation.
So, he reluctantly asked his contacts for help, visiting old friends in Winthrop.
After hearing his story, they said nothing but showed him Jiang Hai's tax bill for next year.
Faraday was stunned.
Jiang Hai had to pay over 600 million in taxes.
Four hundred million to the federal government, and about two hundred million to the state.
Though Boston was a major metro area, it ranked last among the top ten U.S. metros. They weren't New York—and didn't care about those hundreds of millions.
But here, they cared deeply. Jiang Hai was their God of Wealth.
Just as Jiang Hai said—no one dared to touch him.
(To be continued.)