Black Snake Twilight

A startling red message flashed past.

Wang Wu exploded.

There was no time to think about why. The only thing he could do was ram headfirst into the rock beside him, while his right claw clamped tightly around that thick Black Snake. Its scales were dark as iron, and felt like raw pig iron to the touch.

Wang Wu even extended his little claws, yet he still could not scratch through them.

Its defense was insanely high.

"Bang!"

The Black Snake Priest was slammed viciously against the rock. At last, it loosened its jaws, revealing four sharp, terrifying fangs. With a flick of its head, it actually tried to bite Wang Wu again.

But Wang Wu was faster. Mainly because his Snake Venom Resistance was relatively high, he had not been paralyzed at all, and his movements were completely unaffected.

With another bang, Wang Wu smashed the Black Snake Priest against the rock again. This time, he used every ounce of strength he had, even the strength he would have needed to suck milk. He was truly terrified.

"Hisss!"

Though the Black Snake Priest had formidable defense, such heavy blunt-force blows were not easy to endure.

Wang Wu might still have been a juvenile, but his species' size and weight were there for all to see. Moreover, this was the kind of environment where sharp, jutting rocks surrounded them. After two consecutive impacts, two scales had been knocked off one side of the Black Snake Priest's body. It looked utterly dazed.

But Wang Wu would not give the Black Snake Priest even the slightest chance. One claw locked tightly around the Black Snake's neck, pinning it against the rock.

At the same time, enduring the piercing agony in his neck and the dizziness caused by rapid blood loss, he continued using the advantage of his body, crazily smashing it again, again, and again with his momentum.

In fewer than five blows, one side of the Black Snake Priest's head had been battered into a bloody pulp. Even its eyeball had burst. It was clearly not far from death.

Yet this still could not soothe Wang Wu's hatred. He continued grinding, battering, charging, and trampling it against the sharpest rocks until its entire head was reduced to mush. Only then did he sit down hard and gulp down snake blood, tearing into snake flesh.

At the same time, his Level 1 Self-Healing Talent activated automatically. He did not know why—perhaps it was because he had drunk the snake blood—but it felt as if a ball of fire was burning inside his body. No, it was purer Spiritual Qi.

The moment he drank all the snake blood, he gained a full 21 points of Spiritual Qi.

This Black Snake Priest was way too fat.

Without hesitation, Wang Wu opened the Attribute Bar and upgraded his Self-Healing Talent to Level 2.

The effect immediately became different.

The hot current inside his body suddenly grew larger, greater, and more scorching, like a tornado.

Right afterward, the Satiety he had left began visibly draining away.

"Your Level 2 Self-Healing Talent has activated. You consumed 10 points of Satiety to negate poison damage. You will consume 200 points of Satiety to rapidly restore 50 Health Points. This process will take one hour."

"Your Self-Healing Talent recorded some of the characteristics of the snake venom and has now successfully perfected them. You have gained perfect resistance to this type of snake venom. (5/5)"

"You have gained permanent Normal Snake Venom Resistance (5/5). You have therefore gained 10% Regular Growth Rate and 10% Extra Growth Rate. Your current total Growth Rate is 12.2%."

"Friendly reminder: Extra Growth Rate is not restricted by Regular Growth Rate."

--

What a haul!

This Black Snake Priest had to count as some kind of monster, right? It was so fat!

Wang Wu was both startled and delighted. He dragged the Black Snake Priest's corpse back into the depths of the rock crevice and continued devouring the snake meat like mad. It was simply too delicious—he could not stop.

And the snake meat actually contained a small amount of Spiritual Qi as well.

His Satiety kept rising, only to be continuously consumed again, endlessly transforming into life force that slowly repaired his wounds.

This Self-Healing Talent was simply too overbearing, too powerful.

It just required far too much food.

By the time Wang Wu had eaten all the snake meat, snake gallbladder, and everything else, his Satiety had already recovered to 300 points. He gained another 12 points of Spiritual Qi, bringing the total Spiritual Qi in his body to 15.9 points.

As for his Health Points, they had rapidly recovered by 50, bringing his total to 62. At last, the stone in his heart fell to the ground.

Only then did he begin reconsidering this ambush that had nearly cost him his little life.

How had that Black Snake Priest targeted him? He was just a tiny passerby, hardly worth such a mighty figure lowering itself to ambush him.

And why had no other Black Snakes come to cooperate? Otherwise, he really would have been dead this time.

Could the Black Snake Clan have been finished?

Had that Black Snake Priest hidden here to conceal itself?

All sorts of thoughts flashed through his mind. Wang Wu also felt sorrowful. In just a few days, the Black Snake Clan, once the valley's foremost overlord, had fallen into such a state.

Thinking of how even the Wandering Mantis Swordsmen had come to make their presence known early that morning, the situation was clear at a glance.

Alas!

When the wall fell, everyone pushed it; when the snake was kind, everyone rode it.

That night, there truly was no further movement above the cliff.

When Wang Wu woke from sleep early the next morning, he heard his stomach growling loudly. His 300 points of Satiety had dropped straight to zero, replaced by another 0.5% increase in Growth Rate, which had reached 12.7%. He was growing little by little.

Carefully emerging from the rock crevice, he did not see the Wandering Mantis Swordsman Legion today, nor did he see any danger nearby. Even the Gray Rat Knights, who hated him to the bone, were nowhere to be found.

After walking a little farther away, Wang Wu turned back and looked up toward the top of the cliff. Sure enough, the Black Snake Clan's territory had already been occupied by the Flame Scorpions.

At the cliff's highest point, atop a huge boulder at least thirty meters above the ground, a Crimson Scorpion at least as large as a cooking pot stood there arrogantly. It waved its flaming, streaming-light pincers, like two massive flaming blades. Combined with the barbed flaming tail nearly two meters long, it looked terrifyingly mighty.

And judging by the look of it, this Flame Scorpion King had already monopolized the Black Snake Clan's wealth. A few days ago, it had not been nearly this large.

Beneath the Flame Scorpion King were eight Flame Scorpions around thirty centimeters long, but the flaming light on their bodies was clearly far dimmer, at least two tiers below.

Below them were more than a dozen palm-sized red scorpions. They did not possess even a trace of flaming light, at most comparable to Black Snake Assassins, perhaps even Black Snake Sentinels.

But now that the Scorpion Tribe occupied this place, their future growth could not be underestimated.

Wang Wu observed for a moment, then sneaked back again.

In his view, the Scorpion Tribe's forces were somewhat thin. They could not completely control the entire cliff territory. He did not ask to take advantage of the chance to seize a patch of land; he only hoped to mooch a little Spiritual Qi during the Golden Three Minutes.

He was still accustomed to being kind to others and happy to be a good neighbor.

Of course, this was also because the Scorpion Tribe had yet to gain a firm foothold. With a thousand threads and ten thousand loose ends to deal with, they temporarily could not spare the attention. So he would only do this today. Tomorrow, he would not dare be so presumptuous.

Carefully climbing upward, he timed it for the imminent arrival of the Violet Gold Three Minutes. He lay in wait at yesterday's spot, about eight meters above the ground. After three seconds of silence, he swiftly entered Level 4 Stealth.

This position was still quite good. Though he could not enjoy all of the Golden Three Minutes, enjoying the Golden One Minute would be no problem at all.

His goal today was not very high either. He already had 15.9 points of Spiritual Qi, so he only needed to gather 40 points.