Blocking the way ahead was a white-scaled python more than a hundred feet long. A dim gleam shone through its fine, glossy white scales. Little Leopard's sword strike had opened a long gash across its hideous head, and the blood flowing from the wound made its already savage appearance even more terrifying.
"Hiss-!" The heavy wound Little Leopard had dealt its head was plainly not an outcome the white-scaled python had anticipated. The tremendous force of his sword strike sent its upper body reeling backward, and that brief recoil gave Little Leopard his chance.
Once Little Leopard saw what lay ahead, alarm seized him. He sucked in a sharp breath and forcibly reversed the Wild Goose Floating Heart Method, wrenching his forward momentum to a halt. "Argh-!"
Although practicing Tai Chi Fist had strengthened Little Leopard's meridians somewhat, the backlash from reversing his internal energy stretched them painfully, as though ten thousand ants had bitten him at once. Fortunately, the pain vanished as quickly as it came. A fierce, swelling agony surged through him, and he opened his mouth and spat out a fine mist of blood. His body flipped lightly in midair, and he barely managed to land before stumbling several steps backward. He stopped more than a hundred feet from the white-scaled python.
Before he could steady his footing, the python coiled and sprang, shooting fiercely toward Little Leopard like an arrow released from a fully drawn bow. Its lunging body carried a thick reek of blood and an icy killing intent.
That icy killing intent sent a chill down Little Leopard's back. Cold sweat beaded across his forehead and back. He longed to turn and flee immediately, but he knew he could not run now-he could not even turn around. In this dense forest, he could never outrun the python. Turning his back would leave him only one road: death.
Suppressing the blood surging through his body, Little Leopard shifted and began trading blows with the white python. It was extraordinarily agile, but its enormous body left it little room to maneuver in the dense forest. Relying on his nimble movements, Little Leopard twisted and dodged within that cramped space, occasionally striking back with the Black Gold Short Sword.
The Black Gold Short Sword was indeed incomparably sharp. Whenever it scraped across the white python's body, it invariably left another bloody cut. Even the dense white scales covering its skin could not hinder the blade in the slightest.
After several exchanges, the white python grew deeply wary of the short sword in Little Leopard's hand. Whenever he swung it, the beast instinctively dodged, buying him a considerable amount of time.
Man and python fought several more rounds in the dense forest, neither gaining the upper hand. The white python was an uncanny beast possessed of intelligence. Seeing that it could do nothing to Little Leopard, and with the gash on its head splitting open again under its violent movements, scarlet blood pouring out in torrents, it began to think of retreat. It suddenly spat a mouthful of white mist at him, drew back, and withdrew into the forest. A few twists of its body carried it deep among the trees, where it vanished without a trace.
Sensing something sinister about the white mist, Little Leopard retreated swiftly, not daring to let even a wisp touch him. Sure enough, wherever it spread, the surrounding vines and trees sizzled as though drenched in concentrated sulfuric acid. Some snapped apart; others rotted away. By the time the mist dispersed, the white-scaled python was long gone.
Even then, Little Leopard dared not lower his guard. He slowly activated his strange eyes, a faint red light flickering within them. Only after confirming that, within a third of a mile, there was no third living creature besides himself and the unconscious boar sprawled ahead did he finally relax.
"The beasts in the Vast Cang Mountains really are strange. Every last one is as cunning as a ghost. The moment things go wrong, they turn tail and run. They're far more timid than the beasts in the hills around the village!" Frowning slightly, Little Leopard skirted the area the white mist had covered and walked over to the unconscious boar.
"You damned thing. Let's see where you can run now!"
Little Leopard looked at the boar and spoke with some resentment.
He cut several hanging vines from an old tree nearby and tightly bound all four of the boar's legs.
By the time he finished wrestling with it, the boar had awakened and begun grunting, but Little Leopard ignored it. Dusk was already falling, and he did not have the courage to remain in this dense forest. Once he had secured the boar, he dragged it back along the route of his pursuit and out of the woods to the clear stream. He put away his short sword, washed the filthy blood spattered over his body, and rested for a while. When he looked at the sky again, it had gone completely dark. Then he glanced at the grunting boar beside him, and an inexplicable irritation rose in his heart.
"Damn it, this is only the first. There are still nine more!" Afraid of wasting time, he dared not linger. After a brief rest, he pulled the two Kunai from the tree where they had lodged, gripped them in his hands, and began searching along the forest's edge.
This time, he no longer dared play around with his newly learned technique using the Kunai. He obediently threw them just as he usually did in practice, so everything went fairly smoothly. In less than two hours, he caught four deer, two water deer, a mountain goat, and two beasts he could not name. He bound them all with vines and put them beside the boar.
By the time everything was ready, it was already midnight. Little Leopard dared not waste any more time. He dragged the ten living creatures, one by one, to the entrance of the Secluded Valley. Just as he was about to enter, a series of furious shouts reached his ears.
Startled, Little Leopard listened closely and recognized Blood Wuy a's voice. Could the legendary White-Robed Sword Saint, Lu Shaoyou, have caught up with him? He hurriedly dropped the quarry in his hands and crept into the valley. One look inside gave him a tremendous shock.
Beneath the moonlight, Blood Wuy a had become a streak of crimson, darting around above the pit roughly ten feet across in the valley as he battled a gigantic, hideous toad.
The hideous toad wore a layer of fine, bronze-colored scales and had six feet, each armed with sharp claws. Those hooked claws glimmered faintly blue, marking them at a glance as lethally poisonous. More terrifying still were the countless tightly clustered lumps protruding from its back. From time to time, they shot out streams of milky-white, murky fluid. The fluid was extremely corrosive. Little Leopard saw with his own eyes how a spray struck a rock and ate a hole the size of a bowl straight into it.
Most terrifying of all was its tongue-blindingly fast and incomparably sharp. Every flick forced Blood Wuy a back. It was clear that he was deeply wary of it.
"Good heavens, what sort of monster is that?!"
As man and monster fought fiercely, Little Leopard began entertaining a scheme of his own. Suddenly, a piercing howl rang in his ears. Blood Wuy a shot upward as though trying to escape. Refusing to let its advantage slip, the toad thrust hard with its two powerful hind legs and sprang after him. White, murky fluid shot from the lumps on its back, forming a great net that swept toward Blood Wuy a.
"You vile beast!"
Blood Wuy a roared, and the blood aura surrounding him suddenly swelled. It expanded and curled, gathering up every stream of murky venom hurtling toward him. Then a brilliant streak of blood-red light slashed downward, colliding squarely with the toad's outstretched tongue.
Although the toad's tongue was formidable and as tough as diamond, it was still made of flesh and blood. What Blood Wuy a brought down in his hand, however, was a genuine divine weapon. With one slash, dark blood spurted from the toad's mouth. It gave a miserable cry and fell from midair into the pit roughly ten feet across, never emerging again.
Blood Wuy a landed and staggered, nearly pitching headfirst into the pit. With a movement of his hand, he tucked an oddly shaped long saber into his sleeve.
"What are you hiding there for? Get in here!"
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