Living steadily in the world of gods and mystery

"Boom!"

Chen Li felt an irresistible force coming his way, and both his body and sword were flung away, smashing heavily against the wall. His head felt scrambled, but fortunately, the golden glow of his amulet shielded him from the worst of the damage, leaving him unscathed.

Before he could catch his breath, the hair on his body stood on end, and his heart nearly skipped a beat. In the blink of an eye, all his strength burst forth, and like a taut bow releasing, his body shot toward the opposite wall like a bolt of lightning.

The moment he moved,

a massive head swooped by, missing him by mere inches, and slammed into the mud wall.

Chen Li pushed off the wall with the tip of his foot, channeled surging Spiritual Power into his long sword, and twisted his body to strike down viciously at the snake’s body once more.

The Mana of the Traction Skill combined with the sharpness of the Second Order magic sword delivered a terrifyingly lethal blow, tearing through the Demon Beast’s Protective Spirit Light again and leaving a horrific wound.

"Ao!"

The Demon Beast let out a roar like tearing silk, shocked and furious, twisting its body to try to bite him, but its head heavily struck the mud wall instead.

After delivering a sword strike, Chen Li didn’t linger in place for even a moment but sprinted crazily along the wall towards the tail of the Demon Beast.

He wasn’t sure whether to regret digging the tunnel so large or to be grateful for its small size. The passage was two meters high and no more than one and a half meters wide, meaning the Demon Beast occupied most of the space and thus, couldn’t turn around.

The Demon Beast, not lacking in intelligence, seemed to realize this as well.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Its massive body began to thrash wildly, fiercely slamming into the tunnel, a force so tremendous it was astounding.

Chen Li’s ears rang with blasts, and the entire passage violently shook as the walls, like putty, twisted and deformed. Thankfully, the soil of the tunnel was sticky clay, which is extremely viscous. No matter how fiercely it struck, there was not the slightest sign of collapse.

While running, Chen Li narrowly dodged twice before he was hit by the huge snake body again. His body, like a meteor, embedded heavily into the mud wall, sinking into it.

The golden light flickered, barely holding on.

But this time, he didn’t plan to dodge.

He poured surging Spiritual Power into the sword in his hand.

Seizing an opportunity, he used the Scolding Skill and then, pushing off from the wall with his hand, he slashed once more at the furiously writhing snake body.

No longer a hit-and-run approach.

He ferociously hacked at the snake’s body with his long sword in his hand.

Indeed, each strike drew blood, each strike carved flesh; for a moment, the Demon Beast could neither advance nor retreat. It wanted to turn and bite, but it couldn’t. Its body reflexively convulsed in pain and squirmed, even halting its thrashing for a while.

This made Chen Li’s attacks even smoother.

Chen Li followed the wound, slashing furiously.

Swinging his sword more than a dozen times each second.

After only seven or eight strikes,

the huge snake body was nearly severed in two, with some of its innards dragging out.

"Crash!"

The sword struck the spine, emitting a chilling thud.

"Die, die, die..."

Chen Li’s eyes were bloodshot, not caring if he might damage the magic sword, he continued to hack wildly as if venting.

After five or six strikes,

the spine broke with a sword strike.

"Ao!"

The severely injured Demon Beast uttered a wretched howl, and the ground shook violently. The two large sections of the snake body twisted frantically.

With a "bang," Chen Li was flung by the snake’s body once more. Standing up, he didn’t care about the blood spilling from his mouth, grinned ferociously, and charged again.

The Mana of the Traction Skill rapidly probed internally, controlled by his will, pulling out a long strip of the creature’s innards. When there was nothing left to extract, his fingers continuously shot Spiritual Power into the cavity of the snake’s belly, blasting it apart from the inside.

During this, he was occasionally flung by the unconsciously twisting snake body.

But he quickly stood up again.

And continued the attack.

The golden glow disappeared, and he used another Amulet.

Gradually, the Demon Beast’s struggles grew weaker.

Chen Li was also nearly drained of both physical and Spiritual Power, hating that he couldn’t just sit down right there. But at the moment, what worried him most was Zhou Hong. He had no time to check on her during the fight, and how was she now?

"Zhou Hong, Zhou Hong!"

"Are you alright?"

There was no response.

In the tunnel, apart from the sound of the snake body’s writhing, it was silent.

His face changed, and his heart sank.

Hesitating for a moment, he pushed his exhausted body to move step by step forward.

A centipede dies but never falls down. The Demon Beast was still slowly wriggling, but it was clear it was on its last breath. Its entire body’s aura had faded away. Even though it was about to die, the residual might of the Second Order beast was still oppressive, pressing down on one’s breath.

Walking up to such a creature, one couldn’t help but have their heart leap and flesh quiver.

It was the most resplendent and beautiful creature he had ever seen, every inch of it exuding a mysterious aura that struck fear into those who gazed upon it, each of its scales the size of a palm, shimmering blue, and intricately patterned with golden designs.

Soon, he spotted the head of the snake. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The enormous and fierce snake head lay limply on the ground, thick blood continuously flowing from its mouth, a pair of green eyes staring blankly ahead. The tunnels nearby were extremely twisted, even featuring a hole several meters deep.

In its final moments, it seemed to have attempted to escape through a hole, but evidently, it had failed.

Chen Li fired a Spiritual Power flick at the opponent’s resentful eyes.

With a "bang".

A spray of blood burst from the eyes.

Even a Second-Order Demon Beast, relying purely on its physical body, would find it difficult to withstand a spell as powerful as a first-level-five.

Of course, scales were an exception.

Seeing that the serpent demon didn’t move, Chen Li finally felt his heart settle.

He quickly stepped over the snake’s head, searching for Zhou Hong’s figure, and soon saw a touch of red on the ground.

Chen Li’s heart tightened, and he hurried over, lifting her up and reaching to check her breath.

Thankfully, she had just fainted.

Clearly, she had been knocked unconscious by the terrifying screams of the demon beast moments ago.

Back at the snake’s body, he had felt as if his ears would burst, seeing stars, and with Zhou Hong right in front of it, and within such a narrow passage, where the sound couldn’t escape, had he been in her place, he doubted he would have fared much better.

Zhou Hong soon slowly regained consciousness, leaning weakly in Chen Li’s arms, her face pale, when she suddenly remembered something and said excitedly:

"The serpent demon... Let’s run!"

"It’s okay, the serpent demon is dead, we’re safe now."

"Wait, the serpent demon is dead? How did it die?" Zhou Hong’s eyes widened.

"Of course, it was killed by me, we survived." Chen Li laughed.

Yes, they had survived.

It was only at this very moment that he felt a strong surge of excitement and joy welling up in his heart.

His entire being relaxed.

This time it had been extremely dangerous, a near brush with death.

Maybe a single oversight could have led to a different outcome.

"This was a Second-Order Demon Beast... Are you lying to me?" Zhou Hong still couldn’t believe it.

Seeing her adorable reaction, Chen Li couldn’t help but kiss her.

"Look in front of you!"

Chen Li put Zhou Hong down.

She mustered her courage, stepped up to take a closer look, and couldn’t help but turn pale: "It’s really dead!?"

"Alright, don’t look anymore. You just woke up from fainting, you’re still weak; better go rest now." Amid Zhou Hong’s exclamation, he scooped her up and walked step by step toward the distant bedroom:

"If it hadn’t gone into the tunnel, I might have really had no way to deal with it. Heh, it really brought about its own demise."

Zhou Hong wrapped her arms around her man’s strong body, feeling a deep sense of security. Her beautiful eyes sparkled as she gazed at him, completely smitten.

The bedroom was a mess.

Objects thrown all around.

It was as if an earthquake had passed, with walls and ceilings twisted out of shape.

Chen Li placed Zhou Hong on the bed: "Now you rest well, sleep till daylight, and don’t get up again. I’ll take care of the rest."

"Mhm!" Zhou Hong obediently agreed.

...

Chen Li returned to the tunnel, and the serpent demon was still twitching, its vitality was downright terrifying.

He glanced at it then turned away, quickly crossing its body to another passage that opened up onto the street.

This spot had been blown open into a large hole; the serpent demon had entered through here.

Stepping out of the hole, the outside was nothing but ruins, a nearby grove of trees looking as though they had been hit by a typhoon, leaning every which way.

He scanned the vicinity and estimated that probably seven or eight households had been affected by the disaster.

Chen Li didn’t dare to delay any longer. If he waited any longer, scavengers might soon appear.

He found a large rock, fashioned it with a magic sword into a half-ton slab, and sealed the entrance once again.

Then, before the scavengers arrived, he quickly searched around the area, even roughly checking the households’ tunnels.

Unfortunately, he only found two Low-grade Magical Instruments and three Low-grade Spirit Stones.

"Ordinary Loose Cultivators really are poor." Chen Li played with the Magic Artifacts in his hands and sighed internally.

Not lingering outside any longer, he quickly made his way back home.

ps: Sorry for the delay, battle scenes are truly hard to write.