Chapter 43: The Sovereign and His Subjects

Baichuan's personality was the type that either didn't do something at all, or once decided, would never hesitate again.

Now that his mind was set, the next moment his gaze at that crocodile's eyes turned fierce.

He immediately slowed down, and at the same time did his utmost to mimic the surrounding environment.

The reason for this was that Baichuan knew well that crocodiles were not particularly sensitive to the movement of water currents, and as long as he reduced the disturbance, combined with his stealth, he could completely launch a surprise attack on this crocodile first.

But he also had to be quick, because that crocodile was about to come ashore, and it wasn't easy to ambush on land...

Just as he thought this, the next moment Baichuan's eyes lit up.

Because this crocodile had actually turned its back to the riverbank to feed; perhaps emboldened by being the river's Banzhu, it dared to eat with its back to the bank—wasn't this giving him the perfect opportunity?

Thus, Baichuan took advantage of this blind spot and quietly crept up onto the bank from behind the crocodile.

After that, he stopped moving, holding his breath and silently watching the crocodile's actions.

He watched helplessly as it kept tearing off chunks of flesh and blood from the gray leaf monkey—first the left arm, then the thigh...

Until...

"Now!"

Baichuan, who had been watching intently, saw the crocodile swallow another bloody chunk of meat and tilt its head back with its mouth closed in that instant.

His body, already arched like a bow underwater, suddenly gathered force, like a bowstring drawn to the full—in an instant—

Burst!

In a flash, Baichuan used this powerful Burst to shoot straight out, opening his massive snake maw, aiming for the crocodile's closed mouth.

In a mere instant, he carried tremendous impact force and bit down on the crocodile's large mouth, and only then did the massive sound of breaking water just begin to ring out.

Before the crocodile could react, amid the two being tumbled by the tremendous force, his flexible and resilient snake body followed up closely, starting from below the neck and coiling around the crocodile's neck, forelimbs, and abdomen, only encountering a small struggle of resistance when reaching the hind limbs—but it was too late!

Not long after, on the ground by the bank, two enormous beasts could be seen tangled together.

A dragon-like serpentine creature used its slender body to tightly bind a nearly two-meter-long aquatic Banzhu crocodile.

And at this moment, Baichuan, realizing his ambush had succeeded, was overjoyed, and immediately began to slowly but steadily constrict his body inch by inch.

Attempting to squeeze the prey's living space inch by inch.

At this point, this caiman finally reacted as well, its long and dangerous mouth about to open wide and bite down fiercely—but—

It wouldn't budge at all!

The crocodile was baffled, what was going on? Why couldn't it open its mouth? Its greatest weapon was controlled, and the biological instinct deep within told it that danger had arrived!

It began to struggle frantically, trying to swing its body left and right, but this only gave the snake body more room to constrict faster.

Unable to swing left and right, it began trying to perform a death roll.

Yet still, it didn't move an inch.

Because Baichuan had already bound it tight—how could it possibly struggle free?

This was the tremendous advantage brought by knowing how to think and being deeply familiar with the crocodile's weaknesses.

As long as the gap between the two wasn't too great, once a fatal weakness was found, you would have no power to resist!

No matter how strong or invincible you were, as long as you still had obvious weaknesses, you couldn't escape being seized by an intelligent creature and killed.

With the crocodile unable to use any of its three signature moves, its death was already predetermined.

One must know that Baichuan wasn't limited to just a python's abilities—the next moment, accompanied by two "puchi" sounds.

The crocodile's eyes bulged, its four small claws flailed wildly, and before long, streams of bright red, pungent blood flowed out, staining the ground red.

Only then did Baichuan leisurely pull out his sharp claws, and then viciously stab in again.

Sound after sound, like cloth being pierced, began to ring out continuously by the bank, and each sound was accompanied by the sound of water.

That was blood! That was the blood brought out by the sharp claws!

The blood flowed faster and faster, gradually staining this patch of ground red, and along the slope, it crept into the water.

Thus the river surface turned red too, and fish and shrimp of all sizes came out to feast.

As waves of intense pain struck, the crocodile's struggling resistance grew weaker and weaker, and what followed was an increasingly effortless constriction kill.

"Ka—"

A crisp sound of bone breaking appeared—that was the crocodile's forelimb bone being crushed.

Under this chain reaction, the crocodile gradually lost the strength to struggle, and finally, accompanied by a massive sound of tearing silk.

This 1.7-meter-long crocodile was completely gutted by Baichuan, and a large string of steaming hot internal organs spurted out with a "pu."

And only then did Baichuan slowly release his binding body, quietly watching this already thoroughly dead crocodile.

He felt a bit dazed, as if this was the first time he had taken down an ecological niche Banzhu head-on without using his most proficient venom.

Although he had already guessed the outcome before, when this scene truly arrived, Baichuan still couldn't quite believe it.

After a daze, Baichuan finally came back to his senses, raised his proud snake head toward the sky, and laughed silently.

At this moment, perhaps he was laughing at himself for being too unconfident, or perhaps laughing at himself for finally growing to this point, or perhaps laughing at how terrifying the power he now possessed was.

Of course, it could also simply be that he just felt like laughing.

Who knows—seize the day when life is at its peak.

After a long while, he lowered his head again, swept a glance at the various predators that had unknowingly crept closer, a trace of disdain flashed in his eyes, and he paid no heed to their arrival.

Perhaps they thought they were hiding very well? Little did they know that in his eyes, they were as bright and glaring as a torch in the dead of night.

Let them look, then—he wanted to see which of them would dare to overestimate itself and come forward to steal food.

At this moment, even if they all came at him, Baichuan wouldn't feel a shred of fear, because behind him was the vast, bottomless great river—what did he have to fear?

At worst, he'd dive into the water, swim far away, come ashore, and ambush them one by one until they were dead.

With this thought, Baichuan clawed at the crocodile's flesh again and again, bringing up chunk after chunk of bloody, delicious meat, elegantly raising his slender neck and swallowing mouthful after mouthful of tender, fresh spoils of war.

Drip, drip, drip—the blood kept flowing, splashing all over the surrounding ground along Baichuan's claws, and the pungent smell of blood began to permeate this space.

It stimulated the surrounding hungry beasts until their eyes turned red with hunger, yet not a single one dared to show itself.

At this moment, he was like an arrogant monarch dining with elegant slowness before his royal hall, while the starving beasts around him crouched low, their eyes reddened with hunger, all his subjects.

"Wooo—"

A jungle cat with a tawny-brown body, black rings on its legs and tail, and a slender, agile build could not help leaping out.

It arched its lithe body and sprang forward in a pounce; the innate lightning-fast reflexes of a feline gave the starving creature the boldness to snatch food from right before a snake.

Yet Baichuan only glanced at it, the right claw gripping the flesh and blood moving without the slightest disruption, continuing to bring it toward his mouth.

His left claw, however, rose up, and an invisible surge of high-energy current instantly coiled around it, lashing out in a flash at the oncoming jungle cat.

"Ow—!"

A shrill scream rang out, accompanied by the acrid stench of singed fur; the jungle cat limped back, one front leg hitching, its golden eyes with black pupils brimming with agony.

In the end it retreated, its face full of unwillingness.

If anyone had looked closely at this moment, they would have noticed that a chunk of flesh was already missing from the jungle cat's foreleg on one side — as for where that chunk of flesh had gone?

It was lying quietly, hide and hair, in Baichuan's claw.

The next instant, Baichuan swallowed it in a single gulp.

(End of Chapter)