Fortunately, the old man did not linger in sorrow for long. He quickly bent down, picked up the key from the ground, and, with astonishing speed and practiced ease, unlocked the handcuffs, neck shackle, leg irons, and other restraints binding his joints.
In an instant, a surging aura erupted from his body. His severely suppressed cultivation was fully released and restored in the blink of an eye, and it even showed signs of advancing further, breaking through the shackles of its bottleneck!
Unfortunately, things did not go as he wished. The enormous one-horned giant python gave him no chance to catch his breath or fight back. Opening a terrifying, blood-red maw large enough to swallow a person whole, it lunged straight at him!
Faced with such a fierce attack, an icy, razor-sharp gleam flashed through the old man's eyes. He lightly pushed off the ground with both feet and sprang up, twisting aside with the nimble agility of a phantom to easily evade the python's fatal strike.
Without hesitation, the old man turned and raced toward a nearby rack laden with all manner of weapons and equipment, clearly intending to seize a suitable blade first.
That way, even against such a powerful snake demon, he would not be left entirely on the defensive, helplessly taking a beating. After all, having a sharp weapon in hand had to be better than facing an enemy bare-handed, didn't it?
Unexpectedly, the one-horned giant python seemed to have already seen straight through his intentions. As soon as it saw him dash toward the weapon rack, a mocking gleam of contempt flickered in its bronze-bell-sized eyes...
The python lashed out mercilessly with its thick, tree-trunk-like tail, producing a deep, deafening boom.
With enough force to topple mountains and overturn seas, that vicious lash swept