Chapter 105

Main Text Chapter One Hundred and Six: Blade Edge

In the Primordial White Cloud Mushroom-growing Rock Mountain Cave, there actually lived such a huge blue-scaled

The blue-scaled monster snake was truly unexpected; worse, it had already slipped into the water and swum toward our raft. Since it happened suddenly, Pangzi didn't even have time to fire, but even if the Sword Might were turned into a machine gun, it probably wouldn't inflict fatal damage on a snake this huge.

By now, we naturally couldn't just sit and wait for death. Pangzi, Shirley Yang, and I shouted together, rolled up our sleeves, and desperately paddled the raft with the bamboo poles and gun butts in our hands. Unexpectedly, countless Water Pig Bees hung beneath the raft, weighing over a hundred catties, making the raft sit too deep in the water, so it couldn't move fast at all.

As long as that blue-scaled monster snake coils its body and smashes the raft, we will fall into the river.

There was no room for retreat. The three of us paddled frantically with the bamboo poles, but because we were so panicked, our force was neither balanced nor coordinated. The raft, which had been drifting slowly forward, now had three opposing forces added to it, causing it to spin in place on the water.

I suddenly recalled that during the Vietnam War, I heard people say that if a person eats ten... big

garlic, even tigers and giant pythons wouldn't dare bite him. I hurriedly rummaged through my travel bag, clearly remembering I had brought two bulbs of mosquito-repelling garlic, but now I couldn't find them no matter what.

Just as I spoke, before we could act, suddenly the floor shook and the whole

raft shot up from the water surface; it turned out the blue-scaled giant snake, with a triangular head the size of a rice bucket, had lifted the raft.

The raft was shoved forward over ten meters by the snake's head, then slammed heavily back onto the water surface; if it weren't for

Pangzi gripping the middle tightly, the raft would have capsized long ago. Even so, it violently rocked back and forth in the water, soaking me through; I couldn't tell if it was from the water or a cold sweat, and at that moment I forgot to be afraid, only thinking, 'Yunnan bamboo is really damn tough.'

The giant python with flashing blue scales bumped the raft once, then coiled its body and dove back into the deep water.

There, just one look at its posture told us it was preparing for a second attack.

I remember when we fought in Vietnam, our unit often marched through deep, dense mountain forests and encountered large pythons more than once.

Poisonous snakes, yet I had never seen a python attack in this bizarre manner—why merely butt our raft with its head when it could simply coil its body around the raft, leaving us no chance at all?

At that moment Shirley Yang realized and shouted, "This python wants to swallow the water boar wasps beneath the boat; it's coming for them." Those water boar wasps, looking like fat maggots, have extremely high nutritional value and are the favorite snack of water snakes and pythons. But after eating the snack, it would surely take us three as its main course; this monster python is so huge that I, Shirley Yang, and Pangzi together would barely be enough for one meal.

The water below was utterly dark, making it impossible to see what was happening; all we could see was the water parting, bamboo.

The raft was bumped again and flew up; this time we drew on experience, exerting all our strength to hold the raft's balance firmly. Even so, when it fell back onto the water surface, we still nearly capsized.

A thought suddenly flashed through my mind: perhaps those terracotta warriors in the river channel were not actually

but were slaves used by King Xian to feed this giant python; otherwise, if it only ate ordinary animals, how could this python have grown so huge? Although nearly two thousand years have passed, a python could not possibly live that long; perhaps this one is merely a descendant of the monster python King Xian kept back then, its ancestors who knows how many times larger. Truly, we have walked into the dragon's pool and tiger's den.

The raft swayed like a lotus leaf in the wind, ready to fall apart at any moment. We could only cling tightly to it, with no spare hand to paddle and escape. The water boar wasps beneath the raft had been gulped down twice by the blue-scaled giant python, leaving almost none; the python obviously still wanted more, its massive body rolled, its jaws opened wide, and it lunged straight at Shirley Yang at the raft's stern.

I and Pangzi wanted to rescue her, but there was no time; Shirley Yang reacted incredibly fast. At some point she had already taken the Diamond Umbrella from her back, saw the python's huge mouth approaching from the left at meteor speed, she opened the umbrella and blocked with all her strength. The python's jaws were stopped by the arched umbrella, its tremendous bite force could not be exerted, and Shirley Yang was knocked off the raft like a broken kite, flying into the distant water.

I turned my head and saw Shirley Yang's tactical flashlight on her mountaineer's helmet flicker in the water and then vanish, as if she had sunk; it was too dark over there to see anything, so we could not tell what had happened to her.

Besides our gear fixed on the raft, the balance depended entirely on the three of us' weight; when Shirley Yang fell into the water, the entire raft lurched forward and slowly tipped up.

Just as the raft was about to capsize, Pangzi, though usually restless, had weathered big winds and waves; in the crisis he hastily threw himself backward, lying flat in the raft's middle, with his backpack still strapped behind, and his backward weight brought the raft, which had been tilting forward and lifting, back down.

Pangzi lay on the raft, and even in the chaos he didn't forget to shout curses, then fired a shot at the blue-scaled python in the water; the 'Sword Might' air gun has strong penetration, using medium steel balls, and the shot hit the python's left eye, making blood spurt out.

The python's blood flowed into the water, and from afar a foul, fishy stench could be smelled. Having never suffered such a loss, the python flew into a rage, thrashing violently, kicking up countless spray, its whole body flung sideways and slammed hard into our raft.

Shirley Yang fell into the dark water; in this huge cavern, aside from the strong searchlight at the front of the raft, only our helmet-mounted tactical flashlights were visible, so we could not see where she had landed; all around was pitch black, and I could not even tell whether she was alive or dead.

The nickel-foil strong-light searchlight mounted on the front of the raft had been knocked out, making the surroundings even darker. Seeing the python grit its teeth and surge toward us, we had no choice but to fight like cornered beasts. The bamboo pole we used for paddling had disappeared, so I used the entrenching shovel to push water and steer, trying to keep the raft as far as possible from the python's attack range. Pangzi fumbled frantically to reload the 'Sword Might' with steel balls.

However, the blue-scaled giant python's body was so huge that even if we fitted the raft with a motor we could not escape; this time it intended to finish us in one move, using its body to crush our insignificant raft.

I shouted at Pangzi, "Little Fatty, quit dragging your feet, or we'll die here in glorious sacrifice!"

The nickel-foil strong-light searchlight mounted on the front of the raft had been knocked out, making the surroundings even darker. Seeing the python grit its teeth and surge toward us, we had no choice but to fight like cornered beasts. The bamboo pole we used for paddling had disappeared, so I used the entrenching shovel to push water and steer, trying to keep the raft as far as possible from the python's attack range. Pangzi fumbled frantically to reload the 'Sword Might' with steel balls.

However, the blue-scaled giant python's body was so huge that even if we fitted the raft with a motor we could not escape; this time it intended to finish us in one move, using its body to crush our insignificant raft.

I shouted at Pangzi, "Little Fatty, quit dragging your feet, or we'll die here in glorious sacrifice!"

Pangzi gritted his teeth and stared, having just loaded the steel balls into the 'Sword Might' magazine. Though this gun's theoretical rate of fire is not low—trained hands can fire twenty-two steel balls per minute—in this life‑or‑death chaos, managing to reload a second time is already beyond what an ordinary person could do.

Pangzi fired without hesitation, but the raft shook so violently that the shot went wide; there was no time to reload. He instinctively drew the **** pistol from his waist, pushed the safety, pulled the bolt, aimed and fired—in less than a second he completed the series of actions, firing off a burst of 'bang bang bang bang bang' with all bullets aimed at the python's head.

In the darkness I could not tell whether I had hit the target. After expending all the bullets I swung my arm, wanting to toss the empty gun away, but then I thought better of it, not wanting to waste the money I had spent on the pistol. Just as I was about to look for something else to continue the death struggle, I saw the blue-scaled python flip its body and turn its head, swimming away into the distance.

This turn of events truly exceeded what I and Pangzi had expected; we were already out of options, ready to jump into the water and fight hand‑to‑hand, yet the python, which had overwhelming advantage, suddenly turned and fled. Could it have been intimidated by our heroic aura?

Suddenly a scraping sound of countless iron leaves came from the eastern water; the rust‑on‑iron screech made the back of one's neck go cold, like scraping two pieces of foam plastic, a noise that most sharply stimulates the brain's nerves.

Suddenly the water beside the raft parted and a tactical flashlight's beam sprang up—it was Shirley Yang, who had swum back. She wiped water from her face, her lips already blue from the cold river, and before even climbing onto the raft she said, "Are you two trying to abandon me in the water?"

Seeing Pangzi and me, Shirley Yang having escaped death, we also breathed a sigh of relief. Just now we had been too tense to think, and we hurriedly told her, "How could we? The organization was just about to send comrades to rescue you—who would have thought you'd swim back yourself, leaving no chance for them to show their stuff." Having said that, we reached out and hauled Shirley Yang onto the raft. After the scuffle, the Diamond Umbrella handed down by her grandfather was not lost in the water but still clung in her hand.

Only the sound of iron sheets scraping grew louder and denser in the distance; in the direction where the blue‑scaled python had swum off, the water looked as if it were boiling, as though some aquatic creatures were desperately fighting there.

Since the searchlight had been knocked out, nothing could be seen far away, but the tactical flashlight on our mountaineer's helmets showed the nearby river water turning dark‑red, completely dyed by a large amount of blood.

We dared not lose another second; we hurriedly used the entrenching shovel to paddle, turned the raft, and rushed toward the exit of the Mushroom Rock cave, the scraping of the iron leaves behind us growing ever more intense.

If we didn't see clearly, we could never rest easy; Shirley Yang fired a flare from her signal gun toward the direction, and the illumination lit the distant water like a snowfield, revealing countless palm‑sized golden‑scaled fish swarming the blue‑scaled python, each fish bearing two rows of jagged, saw‑like sharp teeth that could tear a strip of flesh and skin from the python's body in a single bite.

The fish numbered in the thousands, swirling and rolling around the blue‑scaled python, biting and hissing; the more blood flowed, the more excited the fish became, snarling like madmen. Poor the mighty python, a tiger unable to withstand a pack of wolves, was surrounded so tightly that not even water could leak through; in less than half a minute the fiendish school stripped it clean, leaving not even a bone fragment.

The scraping sound of those iron leaves was exactly the noise made by the fish's teeth; Shirley Yang's face suddenly changed, and she kept urging Pangzi and me to paddle faster: "Paddle! Paddle! These are saber‑toothed viper fish, saber‑toothed viper fish! They go berserk at the sight of blood!"

Even without Shirley Yang's warning, we dared not slack; to those saber‑toothed viper fish the huge python looked like nothing more than a turkey feast, offering no chance to resist, and with their numbers so vast they were impossible to withstand—our only hope was to paddle for our lives to the outlet, since these fish have no legs.

I suspect those saber‑toothed viper fish that turn red at the smell of blood have gathered in a nearby underground channel; because we shot the python and made it bleed, they swarmed in. In nature one thing checks another, the interplay of mutual generation and restriction is vividly played out in this Mushroom Rock cave—I do not know what creature is the natural enemy of the saber‑toothed viper fish, but it certainly is not humans like us; in the water we have only the option to flee.

Seeing the bloody, mangled scene, Pangzi's face turned green with fright; he swung his arms and paddled with the entrenching shovel, shouting, "Run, run, I damn well fear nothing more than man‑eating fish—I didn't check the almanac before leaving today, so whatever I fear, that's what shows up."

Shirley Yang and I also exerted ourselves to the utmost, doing everything possible to increase the raft's speed; while I paddled with the entrenching shovel I told Pangzi, "I feel the same as you—I dread these fish most of all; if we manage to escape today, we will vow before the Buddha that for the rest of our lives we will not eat a single bite of fish."

Pangzi said, "Exactly, exactly—I fear eating fish most, and second I fear seeing blood, especially I can't bear to see my own blood."

Before his words even finished, the scraping of the iron leaves grew from far to near, already surrounding our raft; from beneath came a chorus of 'crunch crack' as the fish's teeth gnawed, this piercing screech made every hair on my head stand on end.

It seems the few water boar wasps left after the python's meal have now become cheap fodder for the saber‑toothed viper fish; moreover, the ropes binding the raft are also being shredded by the fish's saw‑like sharp teeth.