As Qin Hua was eyeing Su Yan enviously, Lu Chen peeked his head in and asked curiously. "You guys moved to this cave? What happened to the other one?" 

He had gone to take a small stroll and when he returned all three had disappeared. So he followed the giant paw tracks and came to this one.

Woof! Qin Hua barked and returned to observing Su Yan. She was too tired or rather too jealous to try and communicate now.

She once again started drawing circles in the sand and began her breathing exercises while ignoring Lu Chen. 

He as well didn't poke her since she was clearly in a mood and silently sat down to absorb mana again. 

Silence filled the small cave opening, but suddenly… a loud bark echoed in the many underground tunnels.

It was an enraged frustrated exasperated bark!

Qin Hua stood on all fours, her eyes unbelievably wide.

[I am dumb. I am so fucking dumb. I am an idiot.] She cursed herself repeatedly staring at the circles in front of her.

All this while she had completely overlooked something that was right under her nose. She never noticed this obvious method of communication!

"What happened little white? Are you alright?" Lu Chen who was sitting opposite her was shocked by this unexpected behavior and worriedly asked.

Woof! Woof! Qin Hua lifted her head up to stare at the guy with big crazy eyes.

She then ran over to him excitedly and wrapped her paws around him, even giving him a couple of licks.

Lu Chen had no idea what was going on. "What happened little white?" He hesitantly asked as she had just now looked like she was in a bad mood, but suddenly she was jumping up and down in joy?! 

Was this puberty? Did female dogs also go through mood fluctuations? 

Especially considering that anything and everything was mutated now, Lu Chen scratched his chin in puzzlement.

"Do you perhaps need a male dog to mate with?"

Qin Hua froze and then retracted her paws that were wrapped around the guy. Yup, both these guys were equally hateful!

Lu Chen could sense her staring daggers at him. So he quickly tried to salvage the situation. "Sorry. Sorry. I misspoke." He squeezed out a small smile.

Qin Hua growled and moved back. Before the person's imagination could run wild, she decided to start doing the thing that she should have done a long time ago!

She first wiped clean the ground in front of Lu Chen with her paw to make sure that it was a clean slate.

And then she began writing…

"MY NAME IS QIN HUA"

"I AM NOT A DOG"

"I AM A HUMAN BEING"

"I DIED AND BECAME A DOG RIGHT BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE BEGAN"

Woof? She looked up to see if Lu Chen followed her but the other party was staring at her dumbfounded.

The dog and the human looked at each other for a while before Lu Chen softly sighed, as everything that had been eluding his understanding finally fell into place.

But reincarnation? Something like that sounded truly unbelievable!

Given any other circumstance, he wouldn't be inclined to trust her words, but after everything that they had gone through, it didn't seem that improbable to him.

Also, the way she was familiar with their language, her train of thoughts in all the sticky situations they had been together in, her quick wit and presence of mind… everything was way too human for him to not believe her!

He looked at the dog and had several questions to ask her, but the thing that bugged him the most was something else.

"How… how did you die?" He muttered hesitantly.

Qin Hua did not plan to hide anything from him and answered him honestly. Their relationship and the inherent trust between them were still the same after all.

But she decided not to tell him about the system for now as it was something even she didn't understand and she wouldn't know how to begin explaining even if she wanted to.

"Poisoned by family." She wrote down.

"What? Are you serious?" Lu Chen even re-read whatever she had scribbled on the floor twice.

Qin Hua shook her head and scribbled again. "Forget about past life."

"Ah. I guess so… Ya, that's not important." The dog seemed a bit lonely, so Lu Chen was about to pull her and give her a big hug, but he stopped realizing that things were not so simple now.

He now understood why his puppy alone had never been fond of petting!

Chuckling wryly he raised his hand to just pat her lightly on the head. "Let's forget about the past." He repeated her words.

"Thank you for protecting me and my friend all these days."

"Together!" Qin Hua nodded, and scribbled, giving the other party a thumbs up with her paw which looked ridiculously comical coming from a ferocious wolf like her.

Lu Chen chuckled. "Yes, together." He then paused and added. "Hmm… For now, let's not reveal this to others."

The dog nodded, bobbing her head up and down.

Qin Hua couldn't believe how easy this was! And she was finally able to talk to someone…

[Ah! Woof! Woof! The cultivation technique.]

She quickly then started drawing the things that she wanted to communicate in the first place. Thankfully, she was good at drawing before becoming a beast, so she was somewhat able to do it properly.

She drew a series of human images, all seated in meditative poses, and indicated the flow patterns of mana in the body.

Both Lu Chen and the cat were kicked out of the cave opening as she began drawing everything elaborately, taking up all the space. 

With her speed and agility, this was finished sooner than expected and within a few minutes, the full superior mana core technique was etched into the cave walls and floors like some sort of prehistoric caveman depictions.

She double checked all the details from top to bottom and only then signaled Lu Chen to come in and take a look.

Meanwhile, she began explaining everything in words on the corridor ground outside that opening.