Bang! A shot severed one of a Monster Snake's tentacles. The snake rolled wildly through the swarm in pain and sank its fangs into another Monster Snake's neck. The trick seemed to work. Luo Qian gathered every bullet he had left. Besides the "high-powered bullets" Zheng Daoguang had given him, there were the ordinary ones Xiao Xiangzi had made for him—about a hundred rounds in all. The Sniper Rifle was remarkably accurate. Almost every shot struck a snake, and before he knew it, he had fired the lot.
Losing over a hundred Monster Snakes caused considerable chaos in the swarm, but it did not make the vicious creatures retreat in the face of difficulty. Their companions' blood only stirred their savagery and drew over ten thousand more snakes. The number besieging the Torch Dragon Boat did not fall; it kept growing. A dense "coat of snakes" had wrapped itself around the orange glow. From overhead to beneath the water, Monster Snakes were everywhere: sharp teeth, blue forked tongues, blood-red eyes, and glowing blue tentacles packed so tightly together that Luo Qian's scalp prickled!
From outside, not a trace of the Torch Dragon Lamp's orange light could be seen. The little Torch Dragon Boat had vanished completely beneath a mountain of snakes.
The sea suddenly churned, and furious waves rose dozens of meters high. The Giant Snake and Giant Turtle appeared and disappeared amid the waves, with no telling which had the upper hand. Whenever a huge claw or snake tail broke the surface, it struck desperately at its opponent. Luo Qian saw none of this. He would rather the Giant Turtle win; then he might still have a sliver of hope. The sea's Monster Snakes were all food to it. Presumably, it would have no appetite for Luo Qian, whom