Chapter 451: One Step Ahead of Bi Hali

It was the sound of scales scraping against the stone floor, the hissing of its breath, and, of course, the faint fishy odor from the reptile. An ordinary person could notice that, but to Bai Lang's keen eye, the place was no different from what he saw with the naked eye except for being black and white. The head of this snake monster was expected to look like a snake, but it resembled more a lizard or crocodile, and hair grew on its crown.

The moment the snake monster appeared it spotted Bai Lang and launched an attack with its body over twenty meters long and its massive head. Since Bai Lang could not see it, the monster's greatest weapon was nullified, forcing it to rely on its body and poisonous fangs to deal with the opponent.

"Can the snake monster digest stone?" Bai Lang thought of this as he dodged its attack. "If staring at prey petrifies it, its hunting would be extremely difficult; a slip could turn the prey into indigestible stone." With the monster's petrifying ability gone, it was no longer hard for Bai Lang to handle. All he needed to do was to study how to slay such a massive spirit beast.

It was fairly simple; the snake monster's skill was limited. Bai Lang now, like an eight‑armed monster, could draw power from the ground or the snake's body to change his movement at will. He bounced around the frenzied monster like an erratic projectile, occasionally sticking to its body, causing the creature to emit a roar it would never normally make. "It's becoming more like a crocodile, and it even cries."

Each time Bai Lang leveraged the snake monster, he forced his force beneath its scales. Indeed, its scale armor, as Bai Lang expected, was tougher than steel‑forged fish‑scale armor; ordinary blades could not pierce it, and blunt weapons were ineffective under the armor's shock absorption. Fortunately, Bai Lang was a martial arts master; his skill at penetrating force was not lacking, and each strike seeped under the scales, but how much damage beyond pain it inflicted on the monster was uncertain.

Bai Lang sensed the monster's vital Qi was extremely vigorous, so his attacks did not cause a heavy, fatal wound. In the end he resorted to his magic wand, though even he doubted its damage potential. If using the wand, the focus had to be on the snake's head—ideally shattering its eyes and breaking open the large plates of head scales, which would make Bai Lang's claws work more easily.

Cracking the head required technique; the monster now mainly attacked Bai Lang by biting with its head. But Bai Lang had his own method: he slammed his wand on the ground and shouted "Mami Red!" Black smoke erupted, forming a massive Hyena. The Hyena was about the size of an Asian elephant, and even against the snake monster it was a worthy opponent. Moreover, the monster's instant‑death eye seemed ineffective.

After locking eyes with the snake monster, the Hyena indeed shook its head and let out a laugh‑like roar, its body partially petrified, but the stone quickly faded as it shook its head and wagged its tail—this Hyena was not a fully living creature but a spirit beast. Under Bai Lang's command, the Hyena roared and lunged at the snake monster, allowing the monster to entangle and strangle it, while the Hyena seized the chance to bite the monster's neck with its huge jaws.

The Hyena's bite force was terrifying, as it chews through large bones; it immediately shattered the snake's scales, bit into flesh, even reaching bone. The snake monster emitted a painful, raging hiss while struggling to twist its head, biting the Hyena's shoulder and pouring venom into it. "It won't last long!" Bai Lang saw his chance, stepped on the monster to spring upward, and swung his wand to strike the tuft of feathers atop the snake's head.

Bai Lang's wand struck the snake's head hard; the feathers, along with blood and shattered scales, flew away or stuck to the wand tip. At that moment the Hyena turned to smoke—yes, it was dead, but as a spirit created by a spell it would reconstitute into a fine dog after twelve hours, and Bai Lang sensed the spell's core had changed… Yet the Hyena's disappearance also ripped a large piece of flesh from the monster's neck, leaving a huge gash that spurted black‑tinged blood.

The blood was also poisonous, bubbling on the ground and even slightly corrosive. Bai Lang's strike dealt considerable damage to the snake monster, and while his wand seemed a bit mismatched, fresh blood streamed from the monster's head like a creek. Bai Lang used the rebound force, and as he fell back down he gripped the wand with both hands and thrust it straight along the wound. The force of this hit was limited; the key was that Bai Lang had nowhere to draw power in the air, and stepping on air provided insufficient strength.

Nevertheless the snake's head remained severely wounded; blood gushed from its neck, forcing it to lower its head weakly. After Bai Lang landed, he quickly closed in, leapt onto the head, leaned his body back, gripped the wand firmly with both hands, and once again drove his waist, abdomen, and arms to thrust the wand heavily through the previous wound. This time it completely pierced the monster's skull, entered its brain, and Bai Lang's force spun down the wand, turning the brain into mush.

"This feeling… my wand is ruined?!" Bai Lang knew from the feel that the wand was likely broken; even a sturdy oak wand could not withstand his violent use— the snake monster's bones were indeed hard, and Bai Lang's own hands tingled. "Wong Ma Reverse Mami Red, Mami Red!" Bai Lang placed both hands on the wand's tip, which only showed a fist‑sized end, and chanted his universal spell—Anbani Red or the Six‑Word Great Ming Incantation.

Actually 'Jiji Rulings' would probably work, but without drawing a sigil in the air it feels ineffective. So he stuck with this incantation; Bai Lang felt nostalgia and peace, and the wand responded, emitting strange 'gugu‑kaka' sounds. The dying snake monster on the ground lost its yellow eye glow, its eyeballs withered, and its body twitched after the wand's noise.

Bai Lang let go and stood aside, watching the snake monster convulse; each convulsion reduced its size a notch and enlarged the gaps in its body. The process was rapid; after a few minutes the monster had shrunk by a quarter, its scales fell off and flesh dried, and the wand lodged in its skull slipped out as the monster rolled. "Hm?! That's a bit different from before." Bai Lang examined the wand in his hand closely.

The original oak shaft was gone, replaced by a warm, tactile, slightly springy ivory‑colored bone with distinct joints, though not sharp. The wand remained the same length and thickness, but weighed at least twice as much, and its tip became an oval, palm‑sized, yellow amber‑like sphere—warm to the touch yet extremely hard; even when Bai Lang squeezed it, there was no give.

The yellow amber bore a vertical line that seemed to shift, like a snake's eye… and at the tail end, a ring of tiny, fang‑like structures formed a capped head. "Snake Staff?" Bai Lang swung it, finding it very handy. "This loot is pretty good." To conceal it, he whispered "Mami Mami Red," and the wand reverted to its former shape and color…