Tearing the Rock Python Apart

The massive tail actually wrenched itself free from Lin Yi's embrace! The tremendous friction scraped his palms raw and red, and several torn scales scattered at his feet.

But Lin Yi merely shook his hands, tossed the broken scales to the ground, and did not pause for even a moment. He kicked off again and charged forward.

As he ran wildly, his voice carried suppressed fury but remained clear and urgent. "Brother Biao! End this quickly! Falcon is still in its stomach—he might still be saved!"

At the words "might still be saved," the bloodshot in Biao's eyes deepened.

Without another word, he raised his blade and lunged again. This slash was faster and fiercer, cutting diagonally toward the giant python's vital spot.

But the giant python was incredibly swift. Its head jerked aside, and the blade slid across its scales, leaving only a white mark.

"Fuck! What the hell are you dodging for?!" Biao cursed wildly, panic making him lose his rhythm.

Lin Yi was attacking fiercely as well.

He closed in and threw a fist wrapped in surging blood and qi at the python's flank. Yet the python's body twisted with unimaginable flexibility, and his punch struck empty air, its force blasting several shards of stone away.

No. This thing was too slippery. It had tremendous strength, hard scales, and no lack of speed. Ordinary attacks could not pin it down at all.

"Brother Biao! We have to restrain it!"

Though Biao was furious, the instincts honed through years of hunting remained. At Lin Yi's words, inspiration flashed through his mind like lightning striking flint. He simply hurled his broadsword to the ground and pounced barehanded! He was going to seize the beast's head!

A cold gleam, almost mocking, flashed through the giant python's vertical pupils. Its huge body swayed, nimbly slipping out of Biao's charge.

But Lin Yi had already calculated it.

After his previous punch missed, he had not withdrawn his momentum at all. Instead, he used the force of his rush to circle around the python's side. At the very instant Biao lunged into empty air, Lin Yi closed in from the other side!

The giant python had avoided Biao, and the balance of its body had shifted right toward Lin Yi.

Lin Yi brought his arms together and clamped down on the giant python's tail once more!

This time, he held nothing back.

Fifty thousand jin of blood and qi, amplified fully by the Savage Bull Diagram, became a full hundred thousand jin of strength flooding into his arms. His ten fingers punched straight through the scales and dug into the flesh of the snake's tail!

Dark python blood surged through the gaps between his fingers. The excruciating pain made the giant python's scales bristle all over, and its tail thrashed madly, whipping stone chips and dirt into the air.

But Lin Yi did not let go.

His feet sank deep into the earth. The snake's tail dragged him across the ground, plowing out a long trench, yet the hands embedded in its flesh did not budge in the slightest.

"Brother Biao! Now!"

Biao seized that fleeting opening and leaped forward, his heavy body crashing directly onto the giant python's head.

He straddled the back of the snake's head, both hands pressing hard against either side and pinning its gaping jaws before him. The python's tongue hissed out frantically, but it could not move an inch.

Biao leaned close to the tightly shut snake mouth. He suddenly thrust his hands toward either side of its jaws, trying with all his might to pry them open.

But with his strength alone, even the eighty-five thousand jin force of the Mountain-Sinking Realm was not enough to overcome the giant python's bite.

Lin Yi released the snake's tail and sprinted from its rear to its head, taking up position opposite Biao. Their eyes met, and no needless words were exchanged.

"Grab the upper jaw."

"Leave the lower jaw to me."

Two pairs of hands simultaneously gripped the upper and lower edges of the giant python's mouth.

Lin Yi drove the Savage Bull Diagram to its limit. Blood-gold patterns nearly burst from beneath his skin, while the phantom Savage Bull behind him solidified until it was almost tangible. A hundred thousand jin of explosive power poured forth in full force.

Biao let out a muffled roar as well, pouring all eighty-five thousand jin of his Mountain-Sinking strength into his arms without reserve.

"Open the fuck up—!"

Two furious roars erupted at once!

The giant python twisted madly, its blue-black body lashing across the ground like a burning whip. But the two men's strength locked its head in an iron grip.

Scales shattered, flesh split, and a teeth-grating crack of dislocated bone sounded from the snake's jaw joints—

Riiip—!

Gray-black python blood gushed out. An entire giant python three zhang long was forcibly torn in half from its mouth by the two of them!

The snake's body spasmed and writhed on the ground, its thick tail slapping the rocky shore with thunderous cracks, but it soon lost all strength completely.

And rolling out from the split snake belly along with blood and innards was a human-shaped figure, covered head to toe in slime and gore.

Falcon.

Lin Yi and Biao released their grips at the same time, tossing the halves of the snake carcass onto the ground.

The two panted heavily, dark python blood splashed all over them. They looked as if they had just been dragged out of a pool of blood.

The tribesman partnered with Falcon was the first to rush forward, trembling fingers reaching beneath Falcon's nose.

"...He's still breathing!"

When he shouted those words, his voice was already choked with sobs.

But immediately afterward, his face darkened sharply. Lin Yi stepped closer to look, and his heart tightened.

Falcon's entire body was limp. His limbs and torso hung at unnatural angles, and the displaced bulges of broken bones could clearly be felt in his arms and thighs.

Those were the marks left by the giant python's crushing constriction. Almost no bone in his entire body remained intact.

Biao crouched beside him, his still-bloodshot eyes fixed on Falcon's face, pale to the point of nearly turning bluish-gray. He clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

He turned and swept his gaze over the other tribesmen who had gradually arrived. His Adam's apple bobbed several times before he forced out two words in a low voice.

"...Carry him back."

The surroundings were silent as death. Only heavy breathing remained, along with the wind's mournful howl over the rocky shore.

The hunters who had gathered formed a silent circle. Someone removed his outer robe and gently covered Falcon with it.

From the moment Lin Yi and Biao heard the whistle and rushed over, through the battle and the tearing apart of the python, until Falcon was pulled from its belly, the process had seemed long—but in truth, only a little over two minutes had passed.

Lin Yi rose to his feet. He looked down at his palms covered in python blood, then at the snake corpse that had gone utterly still on the ground, and finally at Falcon, whom the tribesmen carefully lifted flat in their arms.

Silently, he walked to Falcon's side and gently placed his fingers on Falcon's wrist.

The pulse was as weak as a thread about to snap, liable to break completely at the slightest touch.

He withdrew his hand, his gaze as heavy as a stagnant pool.

"...Back to the tribe."