A large, forked tongue flickered above her head, teasing the young girl with light jabs to her exposed nape.
An Fei attempted to struggle in protest, but the flexible muscles of the python had completely restricted even the most basic movements of her body, forcing her to endure the merciless torment on her soul and physique.
Most importantly, however, was that she couldn’t comprehend how exactly she had fallen into the devious snake’s plot.
It was clearly thirty meters away, how did it traverse such a distance without making a single disturbance, especially with its large body?
Furthermore, it could travel that far in a blink of an eye!?
Hiss…
The pair of golden eyes narrowed in laughter and delight at the young girl’s uncomfortable expression on her exposed countenance, unable in restraining itself from swooping in for another round of sardonic amusement.
The forked tongue jabbed at her right shoulder, intending to claim an early share to its prey.
Puff!
Before An Fei had obtained the opportunity to blink her eyes, the snake’s forked tongue that was as lethal as a sharpened and tempered pitchfork, dived towards her right collarbone.
However, a thick linen coat suddenly barred its way, releasing a tremendous force that surged through the python’s body.
Shaa!
The python screeched in pain, its massive head reeling backwards as an uncontrollable and certainly unbearable sensation threatened to fully cripple its tongue.
The enormous creature tempered its emotions to a stable plateau after a few moments, but the gaze directed towards the young girl was no longer filled with sarcastic mockery and contempt.
Instead, they were filled with a cruel malice and the intention to kill.
“Come on, come on, come on…” the girl whispered to herself in undisguised panic, clearly noticing that the muscles hidden behind the wall of scales had contracted once more.
This was no longer tormenting, the massive python clearly intended to squeeze her to death here as of this moment!
“…give form, give form… give form!”
A muted roar of angst and fear erupted from An Fei’s throat, and the compressed and cowering kernel of spiritual essence locked away within her heart reared its head in fury, screaming its condemnations to the world without restraint.
A torrential flood of warmth ravaged the interior of the young girl’s body, dividing into two equal channels that soared towards different locations on her body.
Before An Fei could properly determine where the warmth had originated from, a mixed sensation of the polar opposites of heat assuaged her right shoulder.
Pssh!
The soft decompression of a can suddenly pierced through the eerily silent forest, rustling the fatigued leaves once more. Soon, an enraged and pained roar shook the tranquilized forest, the earth quaking and quivering from the undue fury rained upon its defenseless back.
A river of blood flowed down a mountain of scales mottled with dazzling colors, bathing the tortured ground and returning a portion of the stripped vitality.
The massive python arched its head back in pure agony, its mind reeling in stunned shock. The pair of golden suns couldn’t help but glance towards its side in disbelief.
A massive hole the size of a human body had been drilled through its entire body, the inner organs vaporized from the intense release of spiritual essence.
A sea of blood continued to form on the ground, the charred and ashen earth receiving a baptism of blood as an offering.
To any living being, an injury as this where the inner organs had been vaporized and a massive hole torn out in the side… was sufficiently lethal.
Shraa!
The massive python reared its head to roar at the indifferent night, its mind exploding with fear and wrath. Its previously devious eyes scoured its vicinity, hunting for a small figure within the sea of grass and trees.
Soon, it had found its target. The forked tongue flickered with desperation of clinging to its greatly diminishing life, and with a tinge of regret.
–
An Fei ran into the depths of the forest without any reservations on her strength, only wishing to escape the python’s grasp as soon as possible.
The young girl had raced into the forest at an indirect angle towards the stream that stood behind the python.
As she continued to weave through the dense maze of trees and grass, the young girl couldn’t help but rub her neck.
Numerous purple bruises adorned her neck akin to a vicious choker, making breathing certainly painful and agonizing.
The python had ignored her vitals when it had tormented her, dispatching two-pronged strikes to her delicate flesh without mercy.
Rustle…
The quiet displacement of leaves nearby was exceptionally subtle and quiet, as if a byproduct of a natural phenomenon as that of the wind. However, the young girl tensed her neck in fear, the handle-less sword floating over her head releasing a murderous intent behind her.
At a time like this, only the massive python would be bored enough to chase after her.
“Kill!” An Fei whispered into the wind. “Sunder, break, and kill!”
The blade released a keen cry of sorrow and death, accelerating to a frightening speed as it raced towards the undergrowth a few meters behind the young girl.
The net of plants and shrubbery was reduced to scraps, producing a fierce clash of metal upon metal that roared throughout the desperately silent forest.
A sound like that, could only produced by a monstrous creature that was well familiar to An Fei.
Hiss!
The python didn’t bother to conceal its presence any further, its enormous body encircling around the young girl to block off all possible escape routes.
The pair of golden suns glared at the tiny human with a fierce and wary gaze, ready to lunge forward and lash out with its fangs at the slightest movement.
“Damn!”
The young girl couldn’t help but swear within her heart at the scene, her mood plummeting to an all-time low.
The python’s girth was easily twice her height, rendering a simple motion as encircling the young girl with its body sorely effective against An Fei. She could tell with a single glance that if she were to attempt to climb over its body to escape, then she would lose her head within moments.
…that was dependent on whether she could surmount a three-meter height without difficulty in the first place.
The steel sword hovered restlessly above her head, the blade singing a cry of death as it stared at the python’s eyes. Neither python nor blade dared to move, creating a delicate stalemate that forced the buzzing forest into silence.
The python discovered that the handle-less blade, regardless of its small size, posed a great threat to its life than the girl herself.
Though the large snake could eliminate its target in an instant, it feared that the sword would come reap its life before it could even move.
An Fei couldn’t help but hold back the sword, for she was fully aware of the overwhelming risk. The instant she ordered the sword to strike at the python, one lash of the tail and she could enter the path of reincarnation.
Thus, a young girl and a python glared at each other with outstretched eyes and constricted pupils, vigilance and murderous intent surging within the irises of gold and scarlet.
The leaves rustled in panic as they attempted to escape from the calamity, whereas the trees could only quake in their roots and pray for forgiveness and pity.
As time passed, the gentle breeze ruffled An Fei’s hair, providing a highly unwanted cool sensation to pool upon the ravaged skin of her neck.
“I need… to break this stalemate…” the young girl exhaled a breath of cold air in anxiety.
Her stamina, after her long burst of sprinting, had been completely depleted to the point that standing was the maximum limit of her abilities.
Her reserves of spiritual essence didn’t suffer a large blow, but the forming of the lotus petal and converging it into a blade did consume a considerable quantity.
The sword formed from the <Golden Lotus of Establishment> didn’t require spiritual essence to command its movements; at the least, she had not noticed any additional consumption.
Then… what was she supposed to do with the remaining spiritual essence? Make tofu with it?
“Break through…” An Fei suddenly muttered in a low voice, the pair of scarlet irises gleaming with a maniac light.
“Form the second lotus petal…”
The young girl immediately sat onto the grass, her eyes closed in concentration.
As the familiar, complex diagram of her body emerged within her consciousness, the blade without a handle swooped downwards to guard the young girl, preventing the python from even daring to advance.
Determine a Yang-attributed acupuncture point and a Yin-attributed acupuncture point to merge the pooled spiritual essence…
An Fei reflexively skipped over her Small Intestine Meridian, crossing over to her left shoulder, or more particularly, the Lung Meridian within her body.
Aligning with acupuncture points that were relatively parallel with the other regarding their position adjusted to her heart, the young girl focused onto the Zhong Fu acupuncture point, and the Yun Men acupuncture point.
However… what was she to instill into these acupuncture points whilst infusing spiritual essence in an attempt to trigger their attributes?
Trapped in a moment of pondering, An Fei slowly came to a visualization of the python releasing a teal shockwave as two malicious fangs darted towards her exposed throat…
