This water snake was larger than the one he had just encountered, its body as round as a chimney.
With a violent surge, a powerful current rushed toward him.
Although Li Ziran did not know the Snake Woman's level, this one was certainly no ordinary creature. Its Iris ability to see through Transformation Spells was even stronger.
Li Ziran was a little bewildered. What exactly was this thing?
Li Ziran instinctively wanted to retreat, but a voice in his mind told him not to move.
He noticed something strange. This powerful Snake Woman seemed not to have noticed him—or rather, her vision appeared ridiculously weak.
The thick snake body slowly swam around Li Ziran, yet it did not launch a deadly strike at him like a python.
Li Ziran could clearly see her orderly, finely packed scales reflecting a dim blue glow in the pool as the water slowly flowed past them.
Weak eyesight was a common trait among aquatic creatures. In water with extremely poor visibility, many creatures naturally abandoned vision and instead used smell and their skin's senses to locate prey.
Li Ziran held his breath, pressing his whole body tightly against the water plants without moving.
His judgment was correct.
Although the water snake lingered nearby, it could not lock onto its target. After circling through the water plants several times, it slowly swam away.
Li Ziran let out a long breath. In that instant, it felt as though he had walked through hell. Even at the freezing bottom of the pool, he seemed to have broken out in a cold sweat.
Only after the water snake had completely disappeared from view did Li Ziran gently kick with his hind legs, using the water's recoil to glide forward a short distance.
He needed silence. He had to avoid causing any disturbance.
After kicking for two breaths, Li Ziran knew he was temporarily safe. But he did not dare rest for even a moment and began accelerating. He had to find the slave group as soon as possible.
Suddenly, a flash of black light streaked past.
A powerful scaled body wrapped around Li Ziran's slender frame, coiling around him layer by layer like a winch. Terrifying constricting force pressed inward, crushing his organs.
In an instant, Li Ziran felt his throat tighten, and blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
[Snake Constriction]
The water snake used its long, slender body to capture prey through layer after layer of coils, strangling it until it suffocated.
Li Ziran instantly understood. The Snake Women did not act alone. They were truly a social species.
Though he had evaded one Snake Woman's pursuit, he had fallen into another's trap.
To be precise, he had never escaped the Snake Women's encirclement from the very beginning.
Li Ziran knew the rules of survival well, and that was precisely why he was afraid. Countless examples had shown him that once caught in a Snake Woman's constriction, there was almost no chance of escape.
He desperately tried to untie his belt and release the Ram-headed People, but his hands were locked tightly by the snake's body. The more he struggled, the tighter it constricted.
Creak!
He could hear the sound of his bones reaching their limit. In only a few seconds, his bones would be crushed, and his entire body would become a pile of mangled flesh.
He was going to die!
At this moment, he was actually trembling!
This snake had attacked too decisively, at too perfect a time. It had completely suppressed every means he had.
She was an exceptional hunter.
Li Ziran had to admit it. But now, he was the prey.
Fear made him think of the days when he had first arrived in the Wasteland, when he had first become a slave.
With no family or friends around, there was no one he could turn to.
He had thought about death before, more than once.
The Wasteland—no, the Red Soil Continent—had always been a naked animal world.
Here, you either ate others or were eaten. He was merely one link in the food chain.
Even though he understood that, when this moment truly arrived, he was still afraid.
"Am I really going to die like this?"
Li Ziran murmured softly in his heart. He had already given up struggling. There was no helping it; every survival instinct told him there was no way out.
He understood his circumstances better than anyone.
Li Ziran closed his eyes. He could hear his bones crackling, hear the snake body rubbing against his skin with an electric hiss, and see the thin snake shadows constantly gathering in the distance, along with the faint sounds of flicking tongues.
"This should be the last sound I ever hear! Living two lives isn't a loss!"
A smile rested on Li Ziran's lips. Perhaps now was the right time to give up.
Silence!
Oppression!
Darkness!
Endless darkness, as if he had sunk into a bottomless abyss, coldness invading his soul.
"So cold... so cold... so cold..."
Li Ziran shuddered. He could not stop himself from shuddering. This cold was impossible to resist. Right now, all he wanted was a little warmth. Just a little.
He did not want to die, nor did he like this icy coldness.
But there was nothing around him except darkness. Nothing but darkness. If there was anything else, it was endless cold.
The cold scraped at his soul layer by layer like blades, without end.
"Gulubalam!"
A voice suddenly appeared in the icy world, young and warm.
"Who?" Li Ziran asked.
"Gulubalam!"
It was still that voice, so weak that it was almost inaudible.
Li Ziran could not understand it or make sense of it, but the voice stood out in that freezing world like a flickering flame.
He knew this feeling well. It was exactly like the first time his master had transmitted spiritual power to him.
"Gulubalam!" Li Ziran unconsciously chanted. In that instant, a trace of warmth appeared, and the cold binding him rapidly melted away as though spring had come.
"Is this... spiritual power transmission?"
As a Witch Doctor, no one understood his current sensation better than he did. That incantation seemed to be a spiritual link, endlessly transmitting Origin's spiritual power into his mind.
"Gulubalam!"
Li Ziran called out again. This time, he opened his eyes directly. He was still underwater, still wrapped by that slender water snake, and his bones were still creaking at their breaking point.
But everything was different. He seemed to see a transparent sphere lodged within the python's body.
"Gulubalam!"
This time, it became even clearer. Like a ribbon, Li Ziran reached out casually, and the ribbon sprang up along his fingers, slid down his slender arm, and drilled straight into his mind.
In an instant, it was as if a great bronze bell had rung inside his head. Waves of spiritual power bloomed, carving out a blank space within his utterly dark mind.
He saw blankness, blankness like paper, like clouds.
"This is... the Spirit World?"
Li Ziran could not believe it. In that brief instant, countless streams of Origin's inexhaustible spiritual power seemed to gather toward him, opening up an independent world.
His master had told him that the Spirit World had no color. Only after opening it would one understand what color it was.
At this moment, Li Ziran seemed to understand.
But now, his Spirit World had opened.
"Could that just now have been the mysterious Devouring Curse?"
Li Ziran opened his eyes. The terrifying constricting force around him had long since vanished completely. With a gentle struggle, the water snake that had been capable of completely crushing him loosened instantly like a woman's waistband. After twisting his waist a few times, he easily broke free.
Without his support, the slender water snake sank directly toward the bottom.
At some point, this terrifying hunter had already become a corpse.
"What happened?"
Li Ziran's mind was completely muddled. What exactly had happened in that instant?
Just now...
It was as though he had eaten a full meal. With a point of the wand in his hand, an emerald-green Tadpole Script naturally formed. In the blink of an eye, a small Transformation Array had already been drawn.
Now that he had broken free from the canvas restraints, he could directly cast the Transformation Spell with his immense spiritual power.
He raised his wand and pointed ahead. The water snake that had just left was immediately enveloped in blue light, rapidly transforming within the membrane into a green-skinned frog.
So powerful!
Li Ziran cried out inwardly. From preparation to activation, the Transformation Spell had been instantaneous.
His ability had improved dramatically, but what confused him was that he had no idea how it had improved.
And...
Had that really been the Devouring Curse?
The Devouring Curse worth 3.7 gold coins?
Who had taught it to him?
Li Ziran abruptly lowered his head and looked toward his waist, only to see the one-eyed frog lifting its head and looking back at him.
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