Chapter 61: The Cretaceous Beast, Gusaniva Lizard!

A light drizzle began to fall across Chu Xu’s territory as dusk approached.

The gentle rain pattered down in the breeze, its falling sound resembling the soft notes of a zither, melodiously drifting through the air.

On a towering tree whose leaves had already been stripped bare by herbivorous dinosaurs, a tiny, exquisite Cimolestes peeked its little head out from the entrance of a tree hollow, peering outside with a timid and frightened expression.

Cimolestes, a small mammal belonging to the order Cimolestida under the infraclass Eutheria, measured only about twenty centimeters in length and resembled a tree shrew.

In this Late Cretaceous epoch when dinosaurs had not yet gone extinct, the Cimolestes was perhaps merely an insignificant creature at the bottom of the food chain, utterly negligible.

Yet in the Cenozoic era following the dinosaur extinction, the Cimolestes would seize the opportunity to step onto the grand stage of biological evolution, gradually evolving into the renowned Miacidae of the Cenozoic.

The Miacidae served as the common ancestors of later carnivorous mammals, eventually diverging into two major groups: Feliformia and Caniformia, which encompassed common beasts of prey such as felines, canines, ursids, and mustelids.

The little Cimolestes crouched at the edge of the tree hollow. Its mother had gone out hunting early that morning and still had not returned.

Her warnings were still ringing fresh in its ears: the outside world was fraught with danger, and under no circumstances should it venture out alone.

Yet the little Cimolestes, whose stomach was rumbling with hunger, could no longer restrain itself and felt compelled to risk leaving the tree hollow to survey the situation outside.

"Squeak, squeak~~"

The little Cimolestes rolled its bean-sized eyes left and right, spotting nothing unusual, only hearing the sound of raindrops pattering against the grass.

After hesitating for a good while, the little Cimolestes finally crawled out of the tree hollow, scrambling all the way down the tall, thick trunk.

It wanted to find its mother, but the grassland spread out before it was so vast that it had no idea where to begin looking.

Suddenly, amidst the grass that had likewise been grazed bare by herbivorous dinosaurs, the little Cimolestes spotted a pitch-black beetle—precisely the kind of delicious treat its mother frequently brought back for it.

Hunger drove the little Cimolestes to creep step by step toward the beetle, intending to catch it for a meal.

However, having never attempted hunting before, the little Cimolestes did not know how to conceal its approach, and its inadvertent rustling instantly startled the beetle, which immediately lifted its elytra, unfurled its wings, and flew away in panic.

"Squeak!!"

Anxious, the little Cimolestes sped up and chased after the beetle, but how could it possibly keep pace with a flying insect? In a fleeting moment, the beetle vanished from sight.

The little Cimolestes searched around for a long time without finding the beetle. Its maiden hunt had failed, and the exertion had only made its stomach ache with even sharper hunger.

Dejected, the little Cimolestes prepared to head back home and obediently wait for its mother’s return.

***

Just then, however, a hissing sound of flicking tongues arose from not far away, and a massive lizard revealed its form.

This was a Paleosaniwa, a reptilian species belonging to the family Varanidae within the order Squamata, measuring over three meters in length and weighing up to two hundred catties, comparable to the largest lizards of later eras, the Komodo dragon.

Like other monitor lizards, the Paleosaniwa possessed a flat, broad head with eyes positioned on either sides, and its cavernous mouth was filled with curved, sharp teeth edged with serrations designed to easily slice through skin and muscle.

Its signature characteristics included osteoderm scales embedded within the skin, providing formidable defense as if clad in an invisible chainmail; it also featured a hinge-like joint at the junction of its upper and lower jaws, allowing the lower jaw to dislocate and flare outward during feeding to maximize mouth aperture and assist in swallowing.

The Paleosaniwa’s diet included birds, small mammals, and small dinosaurs.

Much like that of the Komodo dragon, its saliva contained terrifying bacteria and venom that caused the victim's blood vessels to dilate and blood to fail to clot, subsequently leading to muscle paralysis and ultimately death from shock and excessive blood loss.

"Hiss, hiss!!"

The Paleosaniwa possessed an exceptionally keen sense of smell, its constantly flicking forked tongue acting like radar antennas to parse the scents carried on the breeze.

It quickly caught the scent of prey!

The Paleosaniwa grew instantly excited, rapidly moving its sturdy limbs to charge toward the location of the little Cimolestes.

"Squeak!!"

Before long, detecting the commotion, the little Cimolestes looked toward the sound, hoping it was its mother returning, only to find that the apparition appearing before it was a hideous and vicious giant lizard!

"Hiss, hiss!!"

Catching sight of the little Cimolestes, the Paleosaniwa’s eyes lit up instantly—this was a rare and delightful delicacy.

Despite its bulky appearance, the Paleosaniwa was by no means slow; upon discovering its prey, it immediately launched into a short-distance burst of speed at twenty kilometers per hour, rushing straight toward the little Cimolestes!

"Squeak, squeak, squeak!!"

Terrified out of its wits, the little Cimolestes turned and fled, screaming at the top of its lungs as it ran in a desperate bid to summon its mother.

Yet the little Cimolestes’ cries failed to summon its mother; instead, they drew a figure far more colossal and terrifying than the Paleosaniwa. To the little Cimolestes, it was nothing short of an insurmountable mountain!

A dinosaur!

It was the terrestrial apex predator, far more dreadful than this giant lizard! The deep-seated genetic terror of dinosaurs within the little Cimolestes was instantly ignited!

"My lucky day. The moment I step outside, I run into a little lizard."

Chu Xu strode forward in three quick steps, bringing his foot down with pinpoint accuracy right onto the Paleosaniwa's head, instantly crushing its skull into a flat pulp accompanied by an explosive splatter of blood and brain matter that smeared across the grass.

[Ding! You have hunted a Paleosaniwa, Evolution Points +20.]

Twenty evolution points were still a bit meager, but considering the opponent was crushed to death with a single stomp, it would have to suffice.

Much like venomous snakes, the Paleosaniwa's venom glands were located in its head, so once the head was removed and discarded, there was no need to worry about poisoning.

Casually scooping up the headless carcass of the Paleosaniwa, Chu Xu tossed it into his massive jaws and began to chew. The meat was neither dry nor greasy, remarkably similar to chicken, and the flavor was quite acceptable.

He had essentially tasted all the varieties of giant terrestrial lizards. When the opportunity arose another day, he would definitely have to sample a marine giant lizard—the meat of a Mosasaurus.

Not until he had finished devouring the entire Paleosaniwa did Chu Xu notice a small mammal cowering near his foot, stiff-limbed and paralyzed with fear, too terrified to even twitch.

It was a Cimolestes, and the first time he had ever laid eyes on one.

As for such tiny creatures smaller than his own toes, Chu Xu usually ignored them completely; hunting them yielded far less reward than the effort expended, with negligible evolution points and hardly any meat to speak of—not even enough to get stuck between his teeth.

However, regarding this Cimolestes that would later make a brilliant evolutionary splash, Chu Xu—who had been a paleontologist in his past life—felt a spark of interest. He lowered his massive head to examine it closely from top to bottom.

Yet another ugly-cute unkempt rodent, though faint outlines of future carnivorous mammals could dimly be discerned.

"Squeak!"

Confronted by such a ferocious head several times larger than itself, the little Cimolestes leaped straight up in fright, then neatly kicked its hind legs and passed out cold.

Chu Xu let out a helpless, bitter laugh.

He figured that if he left this frightened-unconscious little creature right here, it would likely become the target of other predators.

With that thought, Chu Xu casually scooped it up onto his palm and strode away.