With his arrival, countless little animals along the stream bank hurriedly bounded away. To them, Bai Chuan was obviously a terrifying predator.
And they were right. As the Eye King, he had few natural enemies. In his ecological niche, aside from the rare creatures who could match him or surpass him by a hair, he was invincible.
Come on, am I really that scary?
Watching the little animals flee in panic, Bai Chuan—who had never intended to hurt them—couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head.
As they disappeared, the world in his eyes fell quiet once more, turning lifeless and still. Only the stream continued to murmur along.
Perhaps this was the price of being king.
After a few self-mocking laughs, Bai Chuan drank his fill without hurry, then set off again.
His more-than-three-meter-long body slithered along in an S-shape, scales shifting in overlapping layers. The movement had an indescribable, fluid beauty to it. His tongue flicked in and out as he searched for the scent of his prey: other snakes.
Before long, he stopped, raised his upper body to look around, then began climbing a tall tree trunk.
The area was full of towering, dense woods. If he took even a little care to hide his tracks, he could easily conceal himself among the branches and wait for other snakes to show up.
Following the techniques stored in his memories, Bai Chuan soon found the perfect spot. He coiled quietly on a branch and waited for prey to come to him.
Time slipped by. Who knew how long had passed?
At one point, he saw a green vine snake try to eat some bird eggs, only to be gobbled up like a spicy strip by a returning hornbill. But he didn't make a move.
The snake was too small, and as for the hornbill—honestly, if he fought it head-on now, there was a good chance they'd both die. Not worth it, not worth it.
In this cruel world where the strong preyed on the weak, an injury meant an uncertain chance of survival. If the wound became infected or the rain poured down for days, being unable to find food would be a dead end.
Suddenly, Bai Chuan's spirits sharpened. He raised his head slightly, his tongue flicking rapidly to catch the scent molecules in the air. Prey had appeared.
Some distance below, a long snake over two meters in length had appeared at some point. Its scales were yellowish all over.
Bai Chuan recognized it at once. It was a python, though he didn't know the specific species.
Either way, it was his spicy strip.
He lifted his head a little and began uncoiling his body. His gaze fixed on the python. He couldn't move yet, or he might be spotted, and he guessed he wouldn't be able to catch it from this distance.
Down below, in that moment—
Among the fallen leaves, the python flicked its tongue as it slithered purposefully forward. Its body made a faint "shh, shh" sound as it moved, the weight pressing down on the leaves.
The sound was very soft, and the wind made it even harder to hear.
Soon, it was close.
In its line of sight was a mouse, hiding among a pile of leaves and munching on a plant fruit.
The python kept closing in. It was already nearing striking distance, but the mouse still hadn't noticed. Or perhaps it couldn't bear to abandon the fruit?
At the same time, Bai Chuan came down from the branch and followed close behind the python. He suddenly felt like a mantis stalking a cicada, with an oriole waiting behind it.
He wondered if there was a hunter waiting even farther back.
The next moment, with a sharp whoosh, the mouse's screams rang out, especially jarring in the quiet woods.
Bai Chuan calmly slithered over, ignoring the python, which had let go of its prey and was now backing away warily, making "huff, huff" sounds.
Why was he so unbothered?
Because, in his eyes, the python had no chance of escaping.
And that was exactly right. Snakes weren't fast on land, and as a king cobra, he wasn't the sort of snake known for lying in wait and striking from ambush.
His hunting style was bold and straightforward: he appeared openly before his prey, heedless of its displays and wariness, as if to tell it, "You're mine! Not even Jesus can save you!"
All he needed to do was determine whether his prey was venomous, then bite down and hold on tight, inject a large dose of venom, and wait for it to die.
Among venomous snakes, the ones more venomous than him were smaller, while the ones larger than him were less venomous. On top of that, he had high resistance to venom, so most toxins had no effect on him.
He was the perfect creature among snakes!
He didn't need any flashy ways of attacking. All he had to do was bite and inject!
The next moment, he raised his upper body, coiled up his strength, then lunged forward with blinding speed and seized the python's body in his jaws.
His sharp fangs easily pierced its yellowish scales and sank deep into the muscle. Then—he injected!
A golden-yellow blend of venom rapidly flooded into the python's body. To be safe, Bai Chuan injected a full 300 milligrams.
The python stared blankly at Bai Chuan, who had ignored its warnings and suddenly clamped down on its body. Then a stab of pain struck, followed by a warm current flowing into it, and it reflexively opened its mouth.
It didn't understand what was happening. It stared at it all in a daze.
One minute... two minutes...
At last, the venom began to take effect.
A violent agony and an intense feeling of suffocation seized the python. At last, it understood what was happening. It was going to die!
Only then did it finally know to fight back. It let out a weak "hiss" and struck at Bai Chuan's neck.
But did that do any good?
No!
He was the king of venomous snakes! How could the scales of a little python be tough enough to pierce?
If he were that fragile, the Eye King wouldn't have earned such a fearsome reputation.
As the saying went, no one gained a great reputation without merit. Before long, the python was left limp on the ground, barely alive.
The agony in its heart, its blood growing ever more viscous, and the pain of being unable to breathe were more than a little python could endure.
Only then did Bai Chuan contentedly release it, surveying his "spicy strip" for the day with satisfaction.
Just as he was about to start eating—
Suddenly, a faint but unmistakable sting struck a spot about four inches along his body. Alarm bells rang in his mind.
In an instant, he understood, almost instinctively. It was the ability he had strengthened just yesterday—Danger Sense—warning him that danger was near!
He jerked his neck around, opening his mouth in a threatening display as he scanned left and right.
The next moment—
A huge mouth lined with sharp, hooked fangs appeared from below, lunging straight for the underside of his neck.
There was no time to think. His upper-body muscles tensed, driving the spine that held him upright into a sharp lean to the right. He barely dodged the fierce strike.
Then, using the force of the movement, he coiled himself up like a coiling dragon.
That kind of soft, agile dodge was probably something only a snake could manage.
Only then did Bai Chuan have a chance to look at his attacker.
It had a triangular head with a slightly odd little horn on top. Its short, stout body was covered in strange diamond-shaped patterns, its coloring almost indistinguishable from the fallen leaves around it.
It seemed to have missed its strike and was slowly drawing back.
At the sight of it, Bai Chuan immediately recognized the attacker: a five-step snake!
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