Rock Python

The morning mist had not yet fully dispersed, and the outline of the Great Wilderness slowly emerged beneath the pale golden sunlight.

Lin Yi and the hunting party had already finished preparing, standing between the two massive totem pillars at the tribe's entrance.

Thirteen figures stood straight, spears, stone axes, and bone bows in hand, while the morning light stretched their shadows long and hard.

Lin Yi walked over to Biao, his tone serious and sincere. "Brother Biao, you should still lead and command this hunt.

"Although my cultivation has improved, my wilderness experience and understanding of Ferocious Beast's habits are still far inferior to yours. If I gave the orders, there would inevitably be oversights."

Biao looked at him, a flicker of understanding passing through those wind- and sand-weathered eyes.

He did not decline, merely nodded heavily. "Don't worry. Leave it to me."

After a pause, he added, "Hunting means gambling with your life. There can be no carelessness."

Lin Yi swept his gaze over the others. The sky was already bright, and sunlight had crossed the eastern ridge, bathing the entire tribe in warmth.

Biao took a deep breath and thrust his thick arm into the air. "Move out!"

This time, the group moved much faster than before.

Lin Yi was no longer the novice who needed everyone to deliberately slow down for him. The Blood Tide Realm and the enhancement brought by the "Savage Bull Diagram" had pushed his stamina and explosive strength beyond those of any veteran hunter present.

The group passed through increasingly familiar woodland and slopes, reaching the usual hunting grounds in less than an hour.

Biao stopped beside a protruding boulder and turned to signal for everyone to gather around.

He crouched and drew several circles in the dirt with the tip of his knife. "Same old rule: split into pairs and search separately for prey trails.

"Once you find a clue, don't act alone. Send a signal immediately, and wait until everyone arrives before surrounding the prey. Remember this—"

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping heavily across every face. "Seeking credit and going alone is courting death."

Everyone nodded in unison.

Before long, the thirteen figures split into six groups. Lin Yi was naturally assigned with Mang, whom he had worked with last time, while Biao operated alone, remaining in the middle to provide support.

Mang was half a head shorter than Biao, but his shoulders were nearly as broad. His whole body resembled a solid, squat wall. He was quiet and sparing with words, yet remarkably steady-handed.

Lin Yi moved through the forest beside him, while Mang handled most of the searching. He bent down to inspect lingering footprints, parted bushes to judge the direction of animal trails, and occasionally pinched up a small bit of dung to sniff at his nose. Then he could accurately identify the type of Ferocious Beast, roughly when it had passed through, and which direction it had gone.

Walking beside him, Lin Yi committed every movement and judgment to memory.

His Super Brain automatically sorted and catalogued those experiences, cross-referencing them with what Biao had taught him before.

"Brother Mang, how many years did it take you to accumulate all this experience?"

Without turning his head, Mang pushed aside a patch of grass. "I started following Brother Biao into the forest at fifteen. It's been twenty years now, I suppose. You've only been here a few days. No need to rush."

Lin Yi had just opened his mouth to respond when a shrill whistle, so urgent it had gone out of tune, suddenly exploded from not far behind them.

The sound was sharp and frantic, blasting three times in one breath. It was clearly an emergency!

Lin Yi and Mang's pupils contracted at the same time. Without exchanging a word, both of them pushed off with their feet, blood and qi flooding into their legs as they sprinted madly toward the whistle.

Bushes flattened behind them in a green wave, while crushed stones flew in every direction beneath their feet.

In barely a dozen breaths, the two burst out of the treeline, and the sight before them sent Lin Yi's blood rushing straight to his head.

In a relatively open stretch of rocky ground ahead, a gigantic python was coiled in the center.

The python was over three zhang long, its entire body covered in thick blue-black scales. The edges of those scales were sharp as blades, gleaming with a cold, hard sheen beneath the sunlight.

Its body was as thick as an adult man's waist, coiled layer upon layer. At the center of those coils, a figure was being slowly constricted.

Lin Yi recognized the fur vest.

It was Falcon, the youngest member of the hunting party aside from himself. Falcon usually spoke little, but he worked harder than anyone.

His face had already turned purple-red. His mouth was stretched wide, yet no sound came out, while his breastbone let out a teeth-grinding creak beneath the python's crushing coils.

The tribesman partnered with Falcon was desperately stabbing at the python's body with his spear. Yet the spearhead slid off most of the blue-black scales, leaving only a few shallow scratches between them. The giant python could not even be bothered to acknowledge him, intent only on swallowing its prey whole.

"Beast!"

A thunderclap-like roar exploded from Lin Yi's side.

Biao arrived almost at the same time as Lin Yi. His normally steady eyes were now blood-red, and he charged at the giant python like a crazed Ferocious Beast, even drawing his blade three parts faster than usual.

At the same time, Lin Yi activated the "Savage Bull Diagram." Blood-gold Divine Markings burst into light beneath his skin, and the phantom of a Savage Bull flashed behind him. He kicked off the ground, and amid the spray of shattered stones, shot forward like a cannonball.

Seeing so many people suddenly rush out, the giant python flicked its tongue and abruptly loosened its coils, attempting to turn and retreat into the rock crevices behind it.

But Lin Yi was faster. In the instant the giant python stretched out its body, he seized its tail!

His ten fingers clamped into the gaps between its scales like iron pincers. One hundred thousand jin of force poured forth, forcibly dragging the three-zhang python to a halt.

His feet sank deep into the gravelly ground, plowing two furrows behind him. Empowered by the blood-gold markings, every muscle in his body tightened as though forged from iron. He was like a stake driven into the earth, firmly tethering the enormous creature in place.

Seizing the opportunity, Biao swung his broad-backed saber and slashed viciously at the giant python's head!

Clang!

The blade struck the top of the snake's head. Several scales shattered, and a deep wound ran from above its eye socket all the way to the center of its brow. Dark python blood gushed from the wound.

But the armor-like scales were far tougher than expected. Though the slash had broken through the scales, it had failed to injure the skull beneath.

The wound roused the giant python's savagery. Its yellow-brown vertical pupils suddenly narrowed into slits. Its attempted escape came to an abrupt stop, replaced by the all-or-nothing posture of a desperate fight to the death.

The snake's tail suddenly exerted force within Lin Yi's grasp. Its blue-black muscles swelled by a full circle, as though countless tendons beneath its scales had all drawn taut at once.

Bang!