Chapter 94: Chapter Ninety‑Five: Standing Out

Deep, distant bell sounds reverberated through the city; the invisible floating 'ghosts' turned into pale powder and dissipated in the air under the bell's toll. Bai Lang sat cross-legged, palms pressed together before his chest, as the phantom of a great bell enveloped him.

The bell sound continued without cease, and Bai Lang felt internal force vibrations resonating with the bell within his body; this yang Internal Force swept away all the yin chill. Bai Lang rang the bell again, inside and outside unobstructed, with no abnormality left. He exhaled, lowering the external Golden Bell Cover—a considerable drain on Internal Force.

Bai Lang rose to his feet, but the ghost wall before him remained, perhaps there was something he hadn't figured out. After just a few steps, he suddenly cried out, 'A bone‑deep ulcer! How troublesome this thing is!' He felt the yin chill seeping in again from the Yongquan Palace and through his skin.

With his breath, that yin chill also struggled to enter through his nose and mouth. Bai Lang cursed, then pressed his palms together again; where his Internal Force surged, a copper bell formed to envelop him, and the bell rang once more.

This time Bai Lang was a little angry; a hint of killing intent appeared in the bell's tone, a phantom tiger roared with the bell as its cry, the sound wave almost visible to the naked eye, surging outward in all directions. Bai Lang stirred the White Tiger Killer Qi within him, trying to fuse it with his Internal Force to create a destructive sound wave.

This cannot be called a sound wave; it is actually an 'Intent Wave' aroused by Internal Force—ordinary people without martial arts cannot hear it, only those who sense Internal Force can hear this loud bell. As the bell roared, the inn and the opposite courtyard house began to crumble in the vibration.

Bai Lang exerted his Internal Force to the fullest, continuously consolidating his skill, now having reached the twelfth layer of skill. The tiger kept roaring, finally launching itself onto the bell; the bell's body, originally covered in Sanskrit, instantly bore bronze tiger‑head patterns that covered the script, while the bell's knob became a fierce tiger...

Bai Lang's skill was exhausted; in the bell's toll the inn split apart and gradually collapsed. Amid the ruins, a long black shadow lashed down violently. With a 'dong' sound, the copper bell formed by Bai Lang's Golden Bell Cover was shattered, and the shadow rebounded.

Bai Lang was flung away, slamming hard into a courtyard house; he broke through the outer wall and kept crashing in, reducing half the courtyard's rooms to rubble. Amid broken bricks and tiles, Bai Lang laughed 'hahaha' while coughing, blood flowing from his nose and mouth, and several ruptures marred his body.

'A ten‑wheel big truck is nothing more than this..... and there's still no one here.' Looking at his body, which seemed crushed by a tire, Bai Lang gave a wry smile in revolutionary optimism—he could also feel the recoil, and that black shadow was certainly not going to come out unscathed.

Bai Lang propped himself up; the broken bricks and tiles slid off him. He felt the patterned wounds on his body, wondering, 'Still markings... could it really be a whip?' He stepped out of the collapsed house and saw the black shadow—a black whip thicker than a water jar, at least ten‑plus meters long, its surface covered in scales.

'This isn't a whip at all—it's the tail of a giant snake!' Bai Lang groaned, 'What a huge snake, and all this filthy darkness!' A section of the giant snake's tail's scales had split, red blood flowing within; the injury looked worse than the surface break, for the tail was twitching.

Bai Lang's footsteps touched the ground, his qi and blood gradually recovering; the black giant snake could certainly sense it. As the inn's ruins heaved and settled, a pair of glowing orange‑yellow eyes appeared. The snake was truly enormous—its head scales were at least the size of a village millstone, and its head length rivaled a heavy truck.

'How can it be over forty meters long?' Bai Lang compared himself to the giant snake, unsure at first how to fight. Looking closely, the giant snake might not be merely a snake; the decaying aura emanating from its body made Bai Lang think it looked more like a pile of white bones or rotting corpses.

The giant snake's movement speed seemed slow, but with its long, thick body its actual speed was like a gust of wind. The snake's eyes fixed on Bai Lang, who seemed a tiny speck; Bai Lang saw no emotion in those eyes, nor could he tell whether the creature was alive or dead...

'Troublesome.' Feeling the Internal Force in his dantian, Bai Lang found the situation quite vexing—his Internal Force was at most about sixty percent, and his exterior‑martial‑arts‑trained flesh had also been injured when the Golden Bell Cover was shattered, so his bodily combat strength was at most sixty percent of its peak.

'This isn't good.' Even if his Internal Force and body were at peak and his spirit at its height, Bai Lang didn't think he could suppress the giant snake before him—perhaps it was meant to be faced by their group together. 'Where did the others go?' he muttered, staring fixedly at the snake's head.

The giant snake's hind half had been rebounded, its bones beneath the flesh possibly displaced, making movement awkward; thus the primary target must be its massive head. The snake raised its forehalf, standing about ten meters high, its neck snapping open. 'It's still a spectacled cobra! How can it be that big?' Bai Lang bent slightly, focusing all his attention on the snake's head.

Indeed, the snake opened its mouth; two water arrows turned into a poison mist covering an area of several zhang, spraying straight at him. Bai Lang circulated his Internal Force, channeling it into his feet; he stomped the ground, the force traveling up his spine like a great dragon's shudder, launching his body backward, while in mid‑air he twisted his waist and flung himself sideways, instantly changing direction.

This was truly like a big cat's move, quickly escaping the poison‑mist spray from the snake's mouth. Beneath the poison‑mist shroud, the ground was pitch black. Bai Lang detoured around the affected area, but for a moment he could find no suitable way to deal with the giant snake.

That snake is too huge; killing such a creature might indeed take a lot of time. 'As things stand, the sky probably won't brighten...' Bai Lang gritted his teeth and made his decision.