“Ah Zu, are we all going to die here?” Pei Mianman looked down at the giant ball of snakes below them. She could now clearly see the sinister and vile appearance of every single strange snake.
There was still some distance between that strange ball of snakes and themselves, but they could tell that it wouldn’t be long before more and more snakes would crawl their way up, and then catapult towards them.
“We won’t give up until the very last second,” Zu An said firmly. He was trying his best to think up possible methods of dealing with this densely-packed ball of strange snakes, but ended up throwing them out one after the other.
Pei Mianman looked up at him. “Will you feel regret if Chu Chuyan wasn’t by your side at your final moments?”
Zu An hacked away the incoming snakes. He shook his head and said, “Why would I regret that? I’m already quite satisfied having you here with me.”
Pei Mianman’s lips curved upwards when she heard this reply, and a hint of joy appeared on her pale cheeks. She suddenly thought of something and said with a sigh, “Say, how great would it be if the two of us had met first?”
Zu An subconsciously replied, “If we had met first, you wouldn’t have even given me a second glance.”
“At least you know yourself well,” Pei Mianman said, laughing. She was fully in agreement. Given her own personality, if it hadn’t been because Chu Chuyan had ended up marrying him, she wouldn’t have even given him a second look.
Zu An chuckled and said, “Why are you suddenly asking me something so weird? What, did you really fall in love with me?”
Unexpectedly, Pei Mianman didn’t get annoyed or embarrassed. Instead, she calmly raised her head, looking into his eyes with her own, which he noticed were pure and clear. Then, she suddenly pressed her lips against his.
Zu An was stunned. Those soft red lips and her sweet fragrance made his body quiver. He almost lost control of himself, and the incoming snakes almost reached him. He quickly swung his sword at them to stop them.
The moment dragged on, and Pei Mianman’s weak and pale face seemed to grow a little pink. She turned her head away in embarrassment. “Don’t misunderstand, I just felt that it would be a pity to die without ever experiencing a kiss, so I gave it a try. You don’t have to overthink it.”
Zu An was crestfallen. “Why does it sound like you would have been okay if it had been any random man?”
A slight smile spread across Pei Mianman’s face. “It didn’t have to be you.”
Zu An laughed and said, “There’s still many more things you haven’t tried yet. I’ll gladly take you for a ride.”
“Get lost!” Pei Mianman scoffed. However, no Rage points accompanied it, so it seemed she wasn’t actually angry.
The air of ambiguity that this exchange created gave this treacherous and vicious pit an unexpected hint of warmth, but both of them knew that they were running out of time.
The giant ball of snakes stopped, apparently happy with how close they were to their prey, and the ball stopped growing. A wave of strange snakes crawled to the top of the ball, preparing to launch themselves upwards.
The number of snakes attacking them had increased severalfold, and Zu An didn’t believe that he could stop all of them. Even if he made it through one wave, there would be many more to come. The two of them were already at the end of their ropes.
As despair began to creep in, a section of the wall nearby suddenly split open. A thick, greenish gray object thrust out, stabbing straight into the ball of snakes. It retracted again, drawing a staggering amount of struggling strange snakes in with it.
Sounds of chewing came from behind the hole in the wall, as if something was enjoying a snack.
Zu An and Pei Mianman looked at each other, not knowing what to say. Zu An swallowed with difficulty. “Was that… a tongue?”
Pei Mianman shared his horror. “I think so.”
That tongue was so big and long… What kind of creature has a tongue like that?
Zu An clearly remembered that the blood of those snakes were highly toxic and corrosive. However, that unknown creature behind that wall had chewed and swallowed them up just like that.
Won’t its stomach be left full of holes?
That tongue was a weird greenish gray color too, which doesn’t look healthy at all…
A bunch of random thoughts ran through Zu An’s mind. Those strange snakes that had been attacking them wave upon wave finally seemed to have met their natural predator, and they quickly scattered in alarm.
The massive ball of snakes, which had been massive just a second ago, instantly crumbled. The strange snakes seemed to lose all will to remain, and fled in all directions.
However, they had gathered in such great numbers that escaping was tricky, and the strange snakes at the center were unfortunately out of luck. As panic overtook them, they couldn’t manage to wriggle free in time, instead growing even more tangled together.
The massive tongue struck again, and this time, Zu An caught a much better view of it. The tongue wasn’t soft like what he had imagined, but seemed more like a steel spear. It instantly pierced through the ball of snakes and came out the other side. A mixture of snake blood and strange sticky saliva dripped from the tip of the tongue.
The tip of the tongue was sharp and had three prongs, and the edges of the tongue were barbed. It gave the two of them chills just by looking at it.
“What… What kind of monster is this?” Pei Mianman’s voice was extremely soft, as though she was scared of alerting the creature to their presence.
Zu An shook his head, unable to answer. He stared at the spot in the wall not too far away. That was surely where they had fallen in from! That was supposed to be their way out, yet they now had this new and terrifying gatekeeper to worry about.
Most of the snakes had either been eaten or had fled after the tongue thrust out a second time. The massive ball of snakes was almost completely gone. The terrifying tongue shot out a few more times, but did not find much joy each time.
The monster within the wall was clearly annoyed by this, and slowly emerged, its heavy footfalls echoing across the pit.
The first thing that caught their eye was a massive mouth filled with two rows of terrifying teeth. Every single tooth in that mouth seemed as long and sharp as a blade.
Saliva dripped continuously from its mouth and onto the ground. It was viscous and thick, and nauseatingly disgusting to look at.
Zu An swallowed. Why does this thing look a little like a T-Rex from the movies?
But he quickly changed his mind. Despite the similarities in their jaws, the other aspects of the monster were different. The first thing was its build. This monster looked like it was only about three meters tall, and its four limbs were better-proportioned. Even though its hind legs were a little beefier, the two arms in front weren’t tiny, and the sharp talons at the front end were definitely not just for show.
The point of its long tail was incredibly sharp as well, and fine ridges extruded from its tail and all the way up its spine, similar to the xenomorphs from the Alien movies in his previous world.
It’s head seemed rather weird as well, and was large and long. It was clearly a carnivore, yet a pair of horns perched on its head that made it seem like a herbivore, perhaps a goat.
However, that wasn’t the strangest thing about it. The most bizarre thing about it was that there were no eyes on its head!
Strange patterns covered the top of its head and its horns, giving it a ruthless and mysterious look.
“Those patterns are almost identical to the ones on the seal above!” Pei Mianman whispered to Zu An.
Zu An nodded. They were indeed exactly the same. In fact, the same patterns could be found on the bronze artifacts from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties that had been unearthed in his previous world.
This ancient beast opened its massive mouth and roared. However, it wasn’t as earth-shaking as they had imagined. It was hardly mighty or ferocious, but instead sounded quite… pathetic. It sounded like the wailing of an infant.
Despite this, those strange snakes slithered away like mice in the presence of a cat. Many of them even forgot how to flee, and froze in place instead.
Zu An and Pei Mianman also felt the blood drain from their faces. This sound went completely against their expectations, and sounded extremely off-putting. Paired with the creepy environment that they were in right now, any audience watching this in a theatre back home would have been scared half to death.
That monster leaped straight towards the highest concentration of snakes. Its tongue shot out again, piercing the snakes that were frozen in fear, and dragged them back into its mouth.
The rest of the snakes finally seemed to shake off whatever daze they were in, and began to flee as fast as they could.
Zu An finally noticed the creature’s eyes. Its eyes weren’t on its head, but rather, on its shoulders.
The legend of a certain ancient beast suddenly surfaced in his mind.
