"Holy shit!"
Gu Cheng's eyes flew wide open.
Even though he had braced himself, the item information before him still left him feeling as if his brain had been starved of oxygen.
A Heaven and Earth Spirit Fruit?
It could increase true essence spiritual energy?!
Something this miraculous actually existed?!
Had I transmigrated into a cultivation version of a tomb-raiding world?
Countless thoughts flashed through Gu Cheng's mind.
By then, he had reached the slope.
Delighted, he crouched down and reached to pull up the plant.
Suddenly.
He sensed something unusual about the current.
He turned to look.
Terror nearly scared his soul out of his body!
An enormous serpent was twisting its body, lunging straight at him.
Just as its jaws were about to close on him.
Gu Cheng instinctively hooked his fingers into the gaps between the rocks and pressed his body flat against the slope.
The serpent swooped down like an arrow loosed from a bow.
Gu Cheng could even see its gaping, bloody maw.
I'm done for. This is the end.
Gu Cheng shut his eyes in despair.
The serpent was about to swallow him whole.
But at that very instant, it suddenly veered sharply, twisting its body as it swept past Gu Cheng.
Gu Cheng had already closed his eyes and resigned himself to death.
Yet after a few seconds, all he felt was the violent churning of the water.
He felt no pain at all.
Huh?
He opened his eyes.
To his astonishment, the serpent had circled back and stopped a short distance from the slope, fixing him with a menacing stare from its lantern-sized eyes. Those eyes were terrifying.
It didn't eat me?!
Relief flooded Gu Cheng as he realized he had escaped death.
Then his heart, which had nearly stopped from fright, began beating again.
Only now it was beating a little too fast.
It felt as if every blood vessel in his body was about to burst.
At that moment.
He began studying the enormous serpent before him.
It was at least thirty or forty meters long and blue-green, its skin covered in armor-like scales everywhere except its belly. Above its eyes were two pronounced bulges, as though a pair of horns were about to sprout.
Holy hell, this was supposed to be a snake?!
Could this thing be a flood dragon?
The sight shook Gu Cheng to his core, nearly frightening him out of his wits.
Why didn't it eat me?
He also wondered how he had just escaped death.
Could it be... that it didn't eat people?
Gu Cheng tried to stand up and leave.
But the moment he moved, the serpent moved too.
Terrified, he immediately flattened himself against the slope again.
The serpent promptly stopped as well.
Gu Cheng tried once more.
The result was the same.
Fuck, what the hell was wrong with you?!
Either eat me now or let me leave!
Was it fun to toy with me?
Despite his fear, Gu Cheng was beginning to get angry.
He felt as though he was being toyed with.
He was now certain that the serpent wasn't sparing him out of kindness.
There had to be another reason.
His gaze happened to fall on the Golden Cup Longevity Fruit.
Suddenly, an idea struck him.
Could this serpent be its guardian beast?
Did it consider the fruit its exclusive property, waiting to devour it once it ripened?
Was it holding back because it was afraid of damaging the fruit while attacking me?
His thoughts began to clear.
The more Gu Cheng thought about it, the more convinced he became that his guess was right.
A serpent this large was practically unheard of.
Perhaps eating the Golden Cup Longevity Fruit was what had allowed it to grow so huge.
It might even have become a spirit.
At that thought.
He immediately began to worry.
What was he supposed to do now?!
He couldn't just stay here forever, could he?
He had been underwater for over thirty seconds.
And that earlier scare.
Had cost him some oxygen.
The air left in his lungs wouldn't last much longer.
He could hold out for another thirty seconds at most.
Although he had no idea what species this serpent was, whether it was aquatic or terrestrial, it could certainly stay underwater longer than he could.
If there was no other way.
Gu Cheng gritted his teeth and held the Little Divine Edge in a reverse grip in his right hand, bringing it across his chest.
He would have to fight it!
But even if he died, he wouldn't let it get off easy!
Gu Cheng steeled himself.
He reached out to grab the Golden Cup Longevity Fruit.
Seeing this, the serpent.
Flew into a rage.
With a twist of its body, it shot toward him like an arrow loosed from a bow.
With his life on the line.
Adrenaline surged through Gu Cheng.
He abandoned his attempt to grab the Golden Cup Longevity Fruit and kicked off at the same time.
His body shot more than a meter to the left.
He narrowly evaded the serpent's charge.
Then, in a flash of inspiration, he drove the Little Divine Edge in his right hand hard into the serpent's belly.
The Little Divine Edge truly deserved to be called a divine weapon.
It could slice through iron like mud, its sharpness unmatched.
Piercing the serpent felt like puncturing a sheet of paper.
But the instant the blade sank in, the tremendous momentum of the serpent's body nearly dragged him away.
His left hand instinctively caught the edge of the slope.
The force nearly tore his left hand off.
Fortunately, once the Little Divine Edge pierced the serpent, it sliced through its belly without resistance, as easily as cutting tofu.
The serpent's tremendous momentum immediately turned against it, ripping a seven- or eight-meter-long wound across its belly.
The wound was horrifying.
Bright red blood instantly poured out of the serpent's wound.
Then spread through the water.
Within moments, it had dyed the entire area red.
The serpent's body convulsed.
Its enormous bulk immediately began thrashing through the water.
Gu Cheng thought that if it could make a sound, its cries would surely have been agonizing.
But he had no time to dwell on that now.
Because his oxygen had finally run out.
His brain was starved of oxygen.
His lungs felt as though they were about to burst.
With his last shred of awareness, he grabbed the Golden Cup Longevity Fruit.
Then he kicked hard with both legs and rose toward the surface.
Those three or four meters.
Felt like the distance between life and death.
Wracked by pain, the serpent kept thrashing beneath the water.
Its powerful body wreaked havoc on everything it struck.
Shortly after Gu Cheng left, its tail struck the rocky slope, instantly smashing it apart.
Gu Cheng was gambling with his life.
Betting that he was lucky enough to survive.
Betting that the serpent wouldn't hit him.
When his head broke the surface, he knew he had won.
Hu Bayi, Wang Kaixuan, and Yingzi stood anxiously on the bank. As soon as they saw him surface, they desperately shouted for him to get ashore.