Chapter 95: Changes

Only by engaging in close-quarters combat did Bai Lang decide this. Looking at this strange situation now, time is probably "fixed"...... Although Bai Lang doesn't think the person doing this would have such great ability to carve out a fragment of time to form a closed loop, that's not what he's concerned about right now.

What he needs to focus on is killing the only possible variable before him—this giant snake, to see what the outcome will be. After all, there's nothing else to try, right? This snake is huge in size; its movement speed looks slow but is actually very fast, and Bai Lang, without hesitation, charged straight at its tail.

A quick battle won't do, because even now that strange yin chill keeps trying to seep into Bai Lang's body, draining his internal force and vitality. Bai Lang must face not only this giant snake that looks tough to handle, but also this all-pervasive yin chill.

There was no other way; he could only rely on his martial arts to resist. Bai Lang swung his arms, and instantly a large bell appeared on his surface, cast with fierce tiger man-eating patterns, enveloping him—right now, Bai Lang has gained some insight; his gang qi seems to have taken on a bit of form and intention.

Once it takes shape and connects with all his meridians, the fourth level would likely be achieved naturally. But he's still a bit short; "It seems one still has to break through the barrier by fighting!" Bai Lang instinctively feels this requires a big battle, as the Golden Bell Shield Divine Skill has always been cultivated by taking hits.

The previous lash of the giant snake's tail, while shattering the Golden Bell Shield, let Bai Lang, after re-forming the shield, feel his progress—a sense of further condensation, and also that the shield's internal force had become more substantial. "Breaking then establishing is indeed the shortcut for advancing in this hard-training martial art—but the problem is, if you break and can't re-establish, aren't you just dead?"

If possible, Bai Lang would rather not train this way. But now he's sprinting along the snake's body, lunging at its head to give it a fierce blow. "Every step I feel the yin chill underfoot; it seems this all-pervasive, devouring yin chill in this space is what this creature produced."

The snake twisted, its scales standing up like blades, but that meant nothing to Bai Lang—the Golden Bell Shield's technique fears no such blades. Yet black, faceless human shapes appeared on the snake's body, something he'd never seen before. These figures' feet were sunk into the snake's flesh; Bai Lang seemed to see them formed by rising slime.

"Anyway, this definitely isn't an ordinary giant cobra; rather, it's basically a huge yin entity!" Bai Lang lifted his foot and stomped down; beneath the bell a tiger claw appeared, slamming heavily into the snake's body. The tiger claw broke through the scales, and the bell followed suit, smashing down; amidst the bell's toll and the roar, the snake's flesh flew apart where struck.

However, Bai Lang's strike could only penetrate three feet deep—this depth probably just barely broke the snake's skin and flesh, still unable to reach its viscera—if it had any. The giant snake hissed, its huge head lunging straight at him; its long fangs in the mouth seemed as tall as two or three people.

"Futile grandeur!" Bai Lang dodged, then with momentum kicked the several black shapes trying to intercept him into drifting black ash—his kick naturally channeled internal force, and the violent internal force exploded inside those things, indeed annihilating them.

"No meridians or viscera at all!" Bai Lang grew more certain that the snake before him was not a living creature. Although it had broken skin and bled, that was merely appearance; perhaps the snake was just a certain form of usage.

The giant snake's bite missed, but Bai Lang seized the moment before the snake head retracted, exhaling and shouting as he brought his palms together; the Golden Bell Shield transformed into a small bell emitting golden light, hovering in his palm—being able to manifest this phenomenon shows his Golden Bell Shield has achieved something.

He thrust his palms forward, exerting all his force, and heavily struck the snake's head; a flash of golden light passed between his palms. The snake's head jerked back, but there was nothing particularly abnormal—instead, its mouth opened and spat out a black vapor; as its body trembled, Bai Lang could barely keep his footing and had to jump down quickly.

The snake then shrank a bit out of nowhere, yet its wounds healed instantly. The giant snake swept its tail sideways; Bai Lang, quick to seize the opportunity, didn't jump to dodge—his mind worked fast, the snake's open mouth was waiting for him to leap so he couldn't easily change posture. He crouched on the ground, grabbed a large slab of green stone, and angled it to block the sweeping strike.

Since the force didn't land solidly, Bai Lang was merely slammed hard into the ground by it; however, the illusory image of the Golden Bell Shield shattered again, and as the stone slab shattered where his arm supported it, his arm twisted and deformed. Bai Lang grunted and spat out a mouthful of blood—truly, this was the first time he'd suffered such an injury.

Before, it was only flesh wounds; this time, not only was his arm dislocated and fractured, but his viscera also suffered shock damage, and naturally his meridians were injured—although the Golden Bell Shield can be reforged after breaking, it certainly isn't without cost.

Bai Lang roared, using internal force to straighten his broken bones, then with a click he reconnected his dislocated arm; after spitting another mouthful of blood, he forcibly channeled internal force to reforge the Golden Bell Shield. This time the shield became smaller, just barely covering his upper body, yet it was also clearer.

The giant snake rolled in the ruins, "There's a fight to be had!" Bai Lang felt a bit confident; the snake seemed clumsy, at least unable to dodge in small-range attacks, so if he could keep striking its "vital point," he might hope to kill the monster quickly. "The question is where the vital point is? Seven cun definitely isn't right! If it were the seventh vertebra... this thing probably isn't a snake."

As Bai Lang had thought, after rolling a few times the giant snake suddenly stopped moving, and that yin chill erupted forth unprecedentedly; Bai Lang crossed his arms and directly channeled his power to shield himself. The snake began to rupture from its back, and a strange creature crawled out of its body. Meanwhile, the snake turned into yellow desiccated bones amidst the black mist.

The black mist was sucked up entirely by the creature opening its huge mouth like a long whale drinking water; Bai Lang also got a clear look at the monster—"A four-armed great ape?" Though strange, the creature before him was definitely an ape, and a ferocious great ape at that—Bai Lang had skimmed some miscellaneous books of this world and knew such a thing as an ape existed. "Apes can speak like humans, but the apes here seem all to be great apes? Yet what does 'fond of eating humans' mean?"

Four arms, standing height just over two people tall; leaving that aside, in close-quarters combat it's definitely more troublesome than the giant snake......