Snake Burst Technique

When Tang Wulin rushed through the connection between two carriages, the rancid stench that hit him head-on instantly made him frown.

Most of the lights in the first engine compartment had failed. Only a single emergency lamp overhead flickered on and off. Under its dim yellow light, shattered glass littered the floor, rattling in the draft blowing through the carriage.

The cab door stood wide open. Sparks crackled from the control console inside, its screen shattered into a spiderweb pattern and long since gone black, unable to display even a single digit.

The entire engine compartment was eerily quiet. Only the sizzling of shorted wires and the howling wind outside could be heard.

The faint screams he had heard earlier had stopped at some point. He could not sense the presence of a single living person.

"Where are they?"

Tang Wulin gripped the Golden Sacred Dragon Spear, lightening his steps as he slowly entered the crew lounge.

The next second, his pupils contracted slightly.

Several people lay scattered across the floor. There were attendants in sky-blue uniforms, train security officers wearing peaked caps, and two maintenance workers in overalls.

They had fallen in various positions amid half-dried pools of blood. Dark-red stains spread across the metal floor, flowing toward the lower areas along its grooves.

At a glance, there were seven or eight people in total, yet there was not the slightest sign of a struggle.

There were no cuts from bladed weapons, no scorch marks from soul power collisions, not even handprints from the dead clawing at the floor in their final struggles.

It was as if these people had suddenly collapsed without any warning, never even given the chance to resist.

Tang Wulin slowly approached the nearest female attendant and crouched beside her.

She looked to be in her early twenties. Her neatly pressed uniform was still immaculate, a small plastic ID badge pinned to her collar. Her hair had been combed perfectly, not a strand out of place.

Her eyes were closed, her face pale but peaceful. There was even a faint curve at the corner of her lips. She looked as though she had merely fallen asleep against the wall, with no sign whatsoever of having died a gruesome death.

If not for the glaring pool of blood beneath her, anyone would have thought she had simply pulled an all-nighter and taken a nap during the stop.

Tang Wulin's heart sank.

After hesitating for a second, he reached out and gently grabbed the attendant's arm, intending to shake her and see whether she still had a pulse or breath.

The instant his fingertips touched her sleeve, a strange sensation traveled back through them.

She was too light.

The attendant looked well-proportioned and had to weigh at least a hundred pounds, yet Tang Wulin lifted her arm with barely any effort.

She was absurdly light, like lifting a wad of hollow cotton or a dried skin sack. It was completely wrong for someone of her build.

Even stranger, when he lightly shook her arm, a faint rustling sound came from beneath her skin.

It was as if countless tiny things were wriggling beneath her flesh, bumping against one another and scraping over bone with tiny sounds. The dense noise sent chills down his spine.

A cold shiver instantly ran across Tang Wulin's back.

["She is already dead."

Tang San's voice suddenly rang out in his Spirit Sea, his tone grave.

"Get away from her immediately. The corpse has been tampered with. There's something inside."]

As soon as he finished speaking, Tang Wulin felt the skin beneath his fingertips suddenly bulge.

The next second—

"Rip!"

The sharp sound of flesh tearing was especially piercing in the deathly silent carriage.

Countless tiny gray-black snakes burst out from the attendant's chest!

They scrambled out through the torn wound. Some were as thin as hemp rope, while others were as thick as an adult's finger. Their bodies were covered in dark-gray scales slick with mucus, their heads the standard triangular shape of venomous snakes, with two coldly gleaming fangs protruding from their mouths.

The moment the first few snakes emerged, they lunged straight for Tang Wulin's face. A foul wind washed over him as their tongues hissed, venom dripping from their fangs.

Tang Wulin's heart tightened. He reacted swiftly, throwing himself backward and sliding two meters away with the force of his crouched position.

Several streams of dark-green venom grazed past his nose and splattered onto the metal floor. With a sizzle, white smoke rose as they corroded several shallow pits into the surface, melting even the steel.

He had barely steadied himself when something even more terrifying happened.

As the first corpse exploded, the remaining seven or eight staff corpses around him underwent mutations almost simultaneously.

"Rip—rip—"

The sounds of flesh tearing rose one after another.

Some burst open from the chest, some had snakes crawl out through their mouths, and some had their abdomens directly torn apart.

Countless gray-black snakes poured from the corpses like a tide. Blood and mangled organs splattered throughout the carriage, mixing with viscous bodily fluids that flowed across the floor.

The thick stench of blood and rot multiplied severalfold in an instant, churning his stomach until he nearly vomited everything inside it.

In only a few seconds, the floor of the entire first engine compartment was crawling with densely packed little snakes.

They writhed and tangled together like a black tide, converging toward Tang Wulin.

The rustling of scales scraping against the floor merged into one continuous sound, making his scalp tingle and every hair on his body stand on end.

Tang Wulin's expression darkened, but he did not panic in the slightest.

He suddenly raised his left hand, and blue-green soul power erupted in his palm.

"Blue Silver Grass, First Soul Skill, Hardening!"

A white soul ring slowly rose beneath his feet. Its glow was faint, yet it carried a steady, solid force.

Countless slender but tough stalks of Blue Silver Grass spread outward from him like a tide.

Faint purple-gold patterns ran along the stalks, traces left behind after destructive power had fused into them. The tip of every blade was as sharp as a steel needle, gleaming coldly under the dim lights.

"Go!"

Tang Wulin willed it.

Hundreds of Blue Silver Grass stalks straightened at once like countless arrows poised to fire, shooting toward the incoming swarm.

"Pfft—pfft—"

The piercing sounds came without end, as dense as raindrops striking glass.

These little snakes were not powerful to begin with. They did not even qualify as proper ten-year soul beasts. Once struck directly by the hardened Blue Silver Grass, they were almost always killed on the spot.

Their bodies were pierced straight through and nailed to the metal floor. After writhing a few times, they went completely rigid.

Even those lucky enough to evade the spikes would be affected as soon as their bodies touched the Blue Silver Grass stalks. The purple-gold destructive power clinging to the blades would instantly seep through their scales.

The little snakes would immediately stiffen, their bodies shriveling and blackening at a visible rate before finally turning into pools of foul black water that seeped into the cracks of the floor without leaving a trace.

In the blink of an eye, the several dozen snakes at the front had been completely cleared out.

Yet Tang Wulin's expression did not relax at all. Instead, it grew even more solemn.

Because he discovered that the black-red blood flowing from the dead snakes was intensely corrosive.

Whenever the Blue Silver Grass stalks came into contact with snake blood, they gave off sizzling sounds. Their leaves yellowed, withered, carbonized, and then snapped apart inch by inch at a visible rate.

Every batch of snakes he cleared cost him some Blue Silver Grass and consumed more of his soul power.

The snakes continued crawling out of the corpses without end, as though they could never be completely killed.

Meanwhile, his soul power was being consumed at a rapid pace.

More importantly, from beginning to end, he had not seen the true body of the Evil Soul Master with the Rotting Corpse Snake Martial Soul.

The enemy was hiding in the shadows, using these offspring snakes as expendable tools to gradually wear down his soul power.

The moment his soul power was exhausted and his mind weakened would be the best time for the enemy to strike.

"I can't keep dragging this out."

Tang Wulin gritted his teeth and quickly made his decision.

He had to find the Evil Soul Master's true body as soon as possible and end this quickly.

While controlling the Blue Silver Grass to continue slaughtering the incoming snakes, he kept backing away, his gaze rapidly sweeping every corner of the carriage.

Behind the cab's control console? There was no extra breathing in the shadows.

Inside the ventilation grates? The gaps were too narrow to hide an adult man.

Or in the shadows beneath the luggage racks? There were only a few scattered suitcases there, with no soul power fluctuations.

He carefully searched every possible hiding place, yet he could not detect any trace of the Evil Soul Master.

The enemy seemed to have completely blended into the snake swarm, concealing his tracks so thoroughly that not even the slightest soul power fluctuation leaked out.

Just then, Tang Wulin's gaze swept over several dead snakes near his feet, and his pupils abruptly shrank.

The little snake corpses that had just been pierced by the Blue Silver Grass had somehow begun to slowly swell.

Their originally shriveled bodies puffed up as if filled with air, growing larger and larger. Their snake skins stretched thin and nearly transparent, clearly revealing the black-green venom and miasma bubbles churning inside, like poisonous balloons ready to burst at any moment.

They swelled faster and faster, on the verge of reaching their limit.

The moment Tang Wulin saw that, he reacted immediately.

"Retract!"

With a thought, all the Blue Silver Grass spreading outward instantly pulled back, rapidly weaving together in layers before him.

One layer, two layers, three layers...

Dozens of Blue Silver Grass stalks crisscrossed one another, forming a half-meter-thick wall of vines.

Empowered by the Hardening soul skill, the stalks were as hard as refined iron. A faint layer of purple destructive power covered their surface, making them like an airtight shield.

He had only just completed his defense and had not even had time to catch his breath.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

A string of dense explosions erupted one after another in the cramped carriage.

Dozens of snake corpses exploded at the same time. Black-green poisonous mist and corrosive venom instantly splashed outward like a torrential rain of poison, spraying in every direction.

The shockwave, carrying the poisonous mist, slammed fiercely into the Blue Silver Grass wall, producing violent sizzling sounds of corrosion.

The outermost layer of Blue Silver Grass instantly blackened, withered, and snapped. The poisonous mist seeped inward layer by layer, continuously eating away at the wall's thickness.

A heavy stench of rot instantly filled the entire carriage. Even breathing became difficult, and every breath that entered his lungs burned with searing pain.

Dust kicked up by the explosions mixed with the poisonous mist, forming a gray haze that instantly reduced visibility to its lowest point. He could not see anything even half a meter away.

Tang Wulin held his breath and stared fixedly toward the densest part of the poisonous mist. Every muscle in his body was tensed to the limit, and even his clenched fingertips had turned white.

He instinctively remained vigilant of his surroundings, guarding against an ambush.

Suddenly! A black shadow shot out from the densest part of the poisonous mist without warning!

Like a bolt of black lightning, the figure used the explosion as cover and pounced down from the ceiling vent.

He was so fast that only an afterimage remained. A long blade was clutched in his hand as he drove straight for Tang Wulin's back, his angle viciously tricky.

The wind shrieked. Before the blade even arrived, a piercing stench had already rushed at him.

Tang Wulin had been prepared.

The instant he heard the wind behind him, he violently twisted at the waist and turned. The Golden Sacred Dragon Spear in his right hand swept across his front, perfectly blocking the point where the blade fell.

"Clang!"

A crisp, grating clash of metal rang out, making his eardrums ache.

The bone blade smashed viciously against the shaft of the Golden Sacred Dragon Spear, sending a spray of blinding sparks flying.

The immense force traveled through the spear shaft, numbing Tang Wulin's arms and making the web between his thumb and forefinger ache faintly as blood seeped out.

His feet involuntarily retreated two steps, his shoes scraping two shallow marks into the metal floor.

Only then did he clearly see the attacker's appearance.

The man wore the same black cloak as the Bat Owl Evil Soul Master from before, though he was shorter and thinner. His hood had fallen off during the pounce, revealing an extremely sinister face.

Several fine gray-black snake scales grew along both sides of his cheeks, extending all the way to his jawline.

His eyes had vertical slit pupils identical to a snake's, glowing with cold yellow light. Tang Wulin's reflection was visible in them, as if he were looking at prey already in hand.

His mouth curled into a strange grin, exposing two pointed venom fangs identical to those of the little snakes.

The blade in his hand was actually made from countless snake vertebrae, pieced together and polished into shape.

The bone blade was a ghastly white throughout, its edge covered in dense barbs and faintly glowing green. It had clearly been coated in deadly poison.

Twisted snake-shaped patterns were carved into the blade, enough to make anyone's scalp crawl.

"I never expected you to be such a green little brat."

The Evil Soul Master licked his lips, vicious greed gleaming in his slit pupils. His voice was hoarse, like a venomous snake hissing.

"You're so strong at such a young age, and your martial soul is so unique. If I refine you into a Corpse Snake Puppet, you'll definitely be far more useful than this trash."

Before his words had faded, he flipped his wrist.

The first bone blade slid down along the spear shaft, its edge scraping against the weapon with a piercing grinding sound as it tightly tangled Tang Wulin's spear path.

At the same time, his left hand reached behind his back and pulled out another identical bone blade.

The two bone blades attacked from above and below—one aimed for Tang Wulin's throat, the other stabbed toward his lower abdomen. The angles were tricky and vicious, every move a lethal strike, utterly sinister in style.

Tang Wulin had only just steadied himself, and he had little soul power left. He had no time to evade completely.

He sharply twisted aside and narrowly avoided the fatal strike at his throat, but he could not fully avoid the blade aimed at his lower abdomen.

"Pfft—"

The poisoned bone blade stabbed directly into his waist and abdomen, sinking more than an inch deep.

The icy blade pierced his skin, and a bone-deep pain instantly spread through him.

Venom seeped inward through the wound. The skin around it visibly turned bluish-black, spreading outward along his meridians.

The intense pain made Tang Wulin grunt. Beads of cold sweat the size of beans instantly formed on his forehead and rolled down his cheeks.

Yet instead of retreating, he took a large step forward and pressed himself close.

He knew very well that his soul power was nearly exhausted. The Blue Silver Grass could not last much longer. If he continued fighting a battle of attrition or relying on technique, he would be the one to die.

Since he could not avoid injury, then he would trade injury for injury.

In close combat, in a contest of strength, he might not lose.

"Courting death!"

The Evil Soul Master saw that his blade had struck true, and a triumphant, savage grin appeared on his face.

He exerted force through his wrist, intending to drive the bone blade deeper, completely shredding his opponent's internal organs and killing this brat on the spot.

But when he pulled, the blade did not move at all.

Looking down, he saw that the brat had tightly grabbed the arm holding the blade with his left hand.

That hand looked thin and small, yet it possessed shocking strength.

His five fingers clamped around the Evil Soul Master's forearm like iron pincers. It felt as though the bones were about to be crushed, making him suck in a sharp breath of pain.