The Neighbor Has Longevity Snakes, and So Do We

Qin Luming removed the handle of the entrenching tool and inspected the saw blade component hidden inside. He gripped the handle and swung it a few times, but still felt the combination felt better in his hand.

His assembled entrenching tool was over eighty centimeters long and had twenty functions... possibly even more, depending on how he used it. He could even add more components, but the current ones were the most commonly used. There was no need to add components for less frequent functions.

In a wilderness survival situation, if he could only choose between an entrenching tool and a Swiss Army knife, Qin Luming would definitely choose the entrenching tool.

Every man should have three entrenching tools: one in the car, one at home, and one as a spare... Qin Luming had seen an advertisement where a man caught his wife cheating, and he used an entrenching tool to block bullets from the lover's handgun, then finished the enemy with a swing of the shovel, even managing to dig a grave for the lover on the side.

An entrenching tool would be useless against an otherworldly great demon king like Zhou Nan, but it could provide Qin Luming with considerable assistance against that two-thousand-pound Big Black Pig.

Qin Luming had conceived an inspirational plot for the Big Black Pig yesterday, but he could still soberly recognize the danger posed by a two-thousand-pound Big Black Pig. A single stomp from it could shatter a person's bones.

Moreover, judging from yesterday's chase, the Big Black Pig's strength and speed were terrifying. When it charged at full speed, Qin Luming felt that without utilizing Zuozuo's power, he would have absolutely no chance of withstanding its impact.

Qin Luming walked diagonally down the hillside. There was a faint trace of a road here, and judging by the trash left on the path, Yang Xiaoyan and her group had also taken this direction and route.

Qin Luming had already been in this vicinity last night. The daytime view was completely different from the night. The dam was now before him, no longer appearing like a dangerous, mysterious beast in hibernation. Its majestic and imposing aura was more likely to evoke emotion. The progress of human civilization was accompanied by harmonious coexistence with nature, as well as its transformation. Various wonders of civilization sprouted from the natural world, some integrating into nature to become part of the landscape, truly breathtaking.

Qin Luming stopped again at the "No Admittance" warning sign he had seen last night. Behind this sign was a path covered in vines and obscured by many extending branches and leaves from the bushes.

The end of the path led to a tunnel. Qin Luming, unfamiliar with the dam's layout and structure, couldn't determine which part of the dam the tunnel led to.

Qin Luming searched for traces left by Yang Xiaoyan's group. He didn't actually care about their survival; he was just looking out of humanitarian concern.

They were all adults. If they went exploring in an undeveloped or even forbidden area, they should have considered the potential dangers before setting out and taken responsibility. Others had no obligation or responsibility to risk their lives to rescue them.

Qin Luming hoped they were alright, but if they were indeed missing, Qin Luming would stay here to warn the search and rescue teams who would inevitably come to help to proceed with caution, and he would offer any assistance within his capabilities.

Using the entrenching tool to cut through the thorns ahead, Qin Luming avoided the path leading to the dam and skirted around it again from the side.

He had considered the possibility of encountering the Big Black Pig again... that thing had been observing Qin Luming from the shadows last night, and it felt quite intelligent. Qin Luming hadn't sensed any hostility for the moment, so he just needed to be careful.

So far, there were no signs of large piles of pig dung along the way, only some faint rustling sounds in the nearby grass and bushes, likely from small animals like snakes, rats, rabbits, and insects.

Qin Luming suddenly wondered if, besides the Big Black Pig, other animals in this area also exhibited gigantism.

As he was thinking this, a gaping maw suddenly lunged forward, exuding a strong, fishy odor. Qin Luming saw sharp teeth on the upper jaw of the maw, a quivering forked tongue, and the disgusting structure of the mouth and throat up close. The stretched flesh and tissue seemed to indicate that the bones inside had expanded, ready to swallow Qin Luming whole.

Only a giant python would be so fond of swallowing its prey whole in such a crude and brutal manner.

Qin Luming's left foot remained still as his right foot pivoted. He spun around and leaped up, without even time to feel fear, already gripping the entrenching tool and slashing it towards the python's neck.

Blood and flesh splattered. The upper half of the snake's body, which was lunging in mid-air, writhed, while the lower half twisted violently into a knot before quickly shaking itself free. The tail thrashed through the surrounding bushes. A small part of the snake's head was still attached to its body. The python twisted its form and slithered past Qin Luming, disappearing into a small patch of dense forest near the dam ahead.

Qin Luming's heart pounded violently. He had lived a privileged life since childhood and, despite participating in many outdoor activities, he had always been with elders, friends, and relatives. Transportation, safety, and food were all taken care of by others. He had rarely encountered dangers of this magnitude, like being attacked by a giant snake.

Much of the outdoor survival and wilderness first aid knowledge he had learned could be applied without much practice, but a scene of being attacked by a wild beast was not something that could be easily handled by learning in a classroom!

Fortunately, his physical condition was extraordinary now, and his reactions were quick. It was pure unconscious instinct that allowed him to escape danger. If it were any other ordinary person who only had wilderness survival knowledge in their head but lacked practical experience, they would have already become food for the python.

Qin Luming patted his chest, calming his breathing, then looked at the blood and flesh remaining on the entrenching tool's blade. He wiped it clean on the grass before starting to reflect. That python was just too big!

Generally, in the environment around City A, normal pythons were at most three to five meters long. Qin Luming roughly estimated the python from earlier to be over ten meters long.

Furthermore, pythons preferred to hunt at night. The current temperature was barely twenty degrees Celsius, while the temperature for python hunting and activity was generally above thirty degrees.

Qin Luming had only ever seen Amazon anacondas that were over ten meters long. These were ovoviviparous squamates and were very different from pythons in the order Squamata... Qin Luming had noticed that the snake's teeth were curved backward, just like an anaconda's. As for whether ordinary giant pythons' teeth were also like that, Qin Luming didn't know.

As the large snake fled, Qin Luming also noticed its abdomen. It wasn't particularly bloated, not like it had swallowed Yang Xiaoyan and her group.

But this didn't mean they were safe. Besides this large snake, it was entirely possible that other large wild animals were present. It was even possible that the snake's companions had swallowed Yang Xiaoyan and the others, and this snake, stimulated by the encounter, was lying in wait by the roadside, expecting others to show up.

Qin Luming looked at the entrenching tool, then at his hands. After hesitating, and with the day still young, he decided to search the surroundings a bit longer. If it got close to dark, he would retreat quickly regardless of whether he found any clues about Yang Xiaoyan's group.

He took out his phone and checked it, trying to send messages and connect to the network. As expected, this area was already isolated from the outside world in terms of information networks.

As for whether this isolation was due to geographical reasons or other factors, he had no way of knowing. The two-thousand-pound Big Black Pig he saw last night, and the giant snake he saw a few days ago, both indicated that this place was very strange.