Two figures appeared amid the rugged mountains—they were none other than Lin Yu and Ding Meng. They had been walking through the Ten Thousand Mountains for three or four days and still could not find their way out; Lin Yu and Ding Meng were in just such a predicament.
According to Ding Meng, she had already spent seven or eight days walking after entering, yet she had encountered no danger along the way.
At that moment, Lin Yu felt a faint unease in his heart, as though something were warning him that danger was drawing near. He did not know how to explain it to Ding Meng. If he said it aloud, it would truly be hard for anyone to believe.
That sword appeared in his hand in an instant. Ding Meng stared at the sword in his hand and shot him a questioning look, as if asking, What is it? Why did you take out your sword? Lin Yu merely shook his head, signaling her not to overthink it.
"Playing hide-and-seek, are we? How interesting." Lin Yu suddenly spoke, having noticed the grass around them trembling as though some enormous creature were approaching.
With a sweep of his sword, the shrubs snapped apart. Lin Yu looked ahead, his eyes narrowing. He was genuinely startled. Before him was a python, undoubtedly a low-rank Devil Beast. A First-Rank Magic Beast might have been something he could not handle a few days ago, but now he had the courage to try.
What he had never expected, however, was for the python's coiled body to wrap directly around them. Even Ding Meng was left speechless at the sight. Her cultivation was not weaker than Lin Yu's, but her combat strength was truly beyond comparison. She was simply no match for this python.
Jin Yu directly wrapped an arm around her willow-slender waist and leaped up. The python flew into a rage in an instant. This was an ambush it had painstakingly set up; it had not expected to be discovered so easily. How could it let the two of them escape safely?
"Get out. Hide." Realizing the danger, he flung Ding Meng away while he himself fell into the encirclement. If one of them could escape alive, then one should escape alive. That was far better than both of them ending up as snake food.
The sword in Jin Yu's hand seemed to begin trembling at that moment. Outside, Ding Meng rolled twice across the ground, shuddered all over, and looked toward Lin Yu, who had already leaped up once more to battle the python.
At that moment, she did not know what came over her. A small dagger flew straight out. A Devil Beast's scales were incomparably hard; without a Spirit Artifact, they were difficult to pierce. Her ordinary dagger could do no more than draw the python's attention.
Jin Yu glanced down and shouted, "What are you doing? Get the hell out of here! Don't make trouble here." Hearing those words, Ding Meng did not know what she felt in her heart, but she turned and ran.
As she ran, she gritted her teeth and said angrily, "What can you do, Jin Yu? Even my parents have never spoken to me like that at home. Who do you think you are...?"
Suddenly, her words caught in her throat. If Jin Yu had not been trying to protect her, why would he have thrown her out and said those things?
In an instant, hot tears fell from her eyes. She turned, wanting to go back, yet in the end she could not take that step. He had gone to such lengths to let her escape—what would it mean if she went back now?
Within the encirclement, Lin Yu drove his sword into the ground and said, "Little crawler, with the likes of you, you still want to eat me? Let Grandpa Lin Yu teach you how to be a snake!" He twisted his body and pulled the sword free. His speed was tremendous, nearly reaching his peak.
When he had encountered those White Wolf Gang men that day, it had been no more than this. Yet this little worm before him truly made him panic.
The sword was still the sword of old, but the man was no longer the man of old.
Yet when he collided with the python, his body gained no advantage either. After three exchanges, he fell to the ground, blood spraying straight from his mouth.
"Ow, I really did underestimate you a little. Let me see just how formidable you are." He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. After all, he was now a Body Tempering cultivator; such heavy blows only benefited his physical body.
The sword moved again, striking straight for the heart like a dragon plunging into the Yellow River. The python raised its body upright. Clearly, it had begun to take Jin Yu seriously; otherwise, it would not have assumed such a posture. Jin Yu's mouth twitched twice, and he still leaped out of its encirclement.
If he had truly been caught by that seven-zhang-long giant snake just now, he would most likely have been strangled alive and become its food.
Jin Yu's strike was blocked once more. He had not expected the snake's hide to be so thick. Even with this Earth-Rank Spirit Weapon, he had not injured it in the slightest. Even the sword itself was trembling.
This time, Jin Yu held nothing back. The spiritual power within his body erupted completely in an instant. If Ding Meng had been here, she would likely have sighed several times over. The spiritual power Lin Yu now possessed was at least at the seventh stage of Body Tempering, yet he was only at the third stage.
"Kill..." Jin Yu's first true battle after leaving the mountains was actually against a giant python. No matter how thick its hide was, piercing through it and taking its blood essence to restore his losses would be no great matter.
Jin Yu was unlike his master, who knew that Devil Beasts between heaven and earth were few and would spare them a path to live. In Jin Yu's eyes, no matter what living creature offended him, all would be slain.
This battle had already alarmed many creatures within the mountains. They did not know what kind of battle this was, only that neither of these two beings was someone they could provoke. Flocks of birds returned to their nests, and all living things hid away.
In an instant, even the spiritual power between heaven and earth let out a faint, clear cry. Seeing this, Jin Yu drew a long breath, then looked over again and thought to himself, I must kill it within a hundred exchanges. Otherwise, I will be buried here.
He could clearly feel it—his body could only hold on for a hundred exchanges. Otherwise, he would become the python's lunch.
Ding Meng still had not gone far. She stood there, looking back toward the place she had been running from. She knew that the battle was not over yet, and Lin Yu had not been defeated.
Looking again at the python, several wounds had already appeared on its body, while Lin Yu also seemed somewhat exhausted. Even with an Earth-Rank Spirit Weapon, he was still no match for this python. He even sighed inwardly. From the very beginning, he had miscalculated. How was this a First-Rank Magic Beast?
A Second-Rank Devil Beast—it had absolutely reached the Second Rank. Otherwise, with a First-Rank Magic Beast's body, it would have long since been reduced to minced flesh beneath an Earth-Rank Spirit Weapon. The python was venomous, but he carried something even more poisonous than venom. Now he knew that only this method could get him through this crisis. He only hoped this python, whose intelligence had already greatly awakened, would not discover it.
P.S. If any big shots have recommendation tickets, please spare one. If you have not added the book to your shelf, Sansen thanks you all.
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