Chapter 5: Kill

The Wubushe, scientific name Jianwenfu, is a venomous monotypic snake under the suborder Serpentes, family Viperidae, subfamily Crotalinae, and is known as the "Rotting Flesh King."

As for why Baichuan knew this so well, besides the fact that its venom really is strong, it was mostly thanks to netizens from his previous life.

They said that if this snake bites you, you can't take five steps before you drop — so what if he only took four steps, and every time he met someone he borrowed one more? Wouldn't he make it to the hospital?

After learning who the attacker was, Baichuan first relaxed, then got angry.

Good grief, you measly little fatty snake under one and a half meters long, a DD-tier figure in the venomous snake infighting, and you dare attack him, a dignified King Cobra who bears the titles "King of Venomous Snakes" and "Bane of Venomous Snakes"?

Aren't you just asking for death?!

The next moment, a fierce glint suddenly rose in Baichuan's eyes. He raised the upper half of his body high, his neck spreading out, looking as imposing as a monarch draped in a cloak.

In an instant, a massive shadow loomed over this short, fat, stubby little snake.

Compared side by side, it was like an adult facing a child.

Seeing this, the Jianwenfu was a little panicked too, because the size gap was just too extreme, and helplessly began to back down.

It lowered its head, not daring to hold it high, while warily arching its body and letting out "hiss hiss" sounds, as if telling him "I'm not to be trifled with, don't come any closer!" — all the while trying to retreat.

But would Baichuan let it leave at this point?

Attack and then run away — does it really take me, Mr. Bai, for a pushover? There's no such good deal under heaven!

He was seen arching his snake head and launching forward, instantly diving down from above.

Seeing this, the Jianwenfu, which had been watching him closely, was startled too. At the same time, its arched snake body sprang out, its jaws opening wide as it lunged in for a bite.

In an instant, Baichuan felt a slight itch on his neck — that was Danger Perception triggering again to warn him that the enemy's attack point was right there.

Seeing this, Baichuan smiled — this was the moment he'd been waiting for!

The next moment, mid-dive, his head braked sharply, and with the aid of his powerful body he pulled back, successfully dodging the Jianwenfu's lunging bite.

Then, once its strength was spent, he suddenly flung his jaws wide, two sharp fangs sprang out, and bit hard into the Jianwenfu's soft neck — and refused to let go.

A massive amount of lethal mixed venom began to be injected.

Faster than words can tell, the whole process was over in the blink of an eye.

The whole process looked as if that Jianwenfu had stretched its weak point right up to Baichuan's mouth and let him bite it.

In fact, that wasn't the case — this was because Baichuan knew snake habits well, or rather, that snakes can't stand provocation. He first used his Danger Perception ability.

He lightly made a feint as if about to attack, faked it out, drawing the Jianwenfu to counterattack — in truth, he barely exerted any force throughout the whole process.

Then, the instant Danger Perception triggered, he, who had always been ready, immediately exerted force and pulled his upper body back.

Once its attacking force was spent, he bit the opponent's vital spot with lightning speed, taking down the Jianwenfu without a scratch.

This is probably the huge help brought by human intelligence — when you plan ahead against the unsuspecting, who else but you would take the loss?

And in nature, taking a loss means injury or death.

Although even if he followed the normal King Cobra's head-on fighting style, he could still take down this Jianwenfu easily — whether he'd get hurt was another matter.

After all, no matter how thick and hard his scales were, no matter how high his venom resistance, there was still a chance of getting hurt and failing, even if that probability was below one percent.

But isn't it better to take no damage at all?

You have to know that even tigers, such powerful beasts, know to ambush and one-shot their prey to avoid any resistance.

No matter how arrogant he was, he wouldn't abandon human intelligence.

……

Five minutes later, Baichuan looked at the two somewhat stiff snakes lying on the ground and felt a little conflicted.

Which one should he eat? Right now his body was just over three meters long, and these two snakes — one over two meters, one one-point-four meters — he could at most eat only one.

After some thought, he ultimately gave up on the Jinshe; he really couldn't think of any useful ability it had, but the Jianwenfu did possess an ability he'd been coveting for a long time.

Heat sensing! Also known as heat-sensing pit organs, infrared sensors.

This ability is unique to the subfamily Crotalinae and the family Python — on Crotalinae it's called heat-sensing pit organs, on Python it's called lip pits.

It can sense the heat in the outside world and form an image in its mind, the image taking the form of infrared thermography.

This is simply a super powerful tool for finding food or evading enemies.

Although he had no points right now and couldn't evolve it, the chance to obtain this ability template was right before his eyes — could you bear to give it up?

Baichuan couldn't bear to give it up. What if he missed this chance — who knew when he'd run into it again.

Once decided, Baichuan began to eat.

And so he once again discovered a huge weakness of snakes — a huge weakness that exists in every kind of snake!

That is, when eating, he was at his most vulnerable moment. If an enemy appeared at this time, he couldn't put up any resistance at all.

Yes — any resistance at all was impossible.

Because when the heavy, massive food was exactly half-swallowed, his greatest weapon, the mouth he depended on for survival, was blocked shut by the food… blocked shut…

At this point, whether he wanted to spit the food back out or swallow it completely, both took time.

And when an accident happened, did he still have time to speak of?

In the past, when he had no ability to change anything, he didn't care much — after all, thinking more was useless, he could only helplessly endure it.

But now that he had the chance to change things, he found himself increasingly unable to tolerate this flaw!

Besides, in the future if he caught enough food and couldn't finish it all, would he have to agonize over choosing only one?

And have to eat it all on the spot before leaving? You have to know that when a snake is full of food, it's also at a relatively weak moment.

"Hiss~ why does it feel like the more I think about it, the more flaws snakes have?"

Thinking and thinking, Baichuan suddenly realized snakes had so many flaws!

So is there an ultimate creature similar to a snake but more perfect?

One that has the snake's supremely flexible body, yet lacks the snake's vulnerable period when eating, and can carry food with it to a safer place to eat, instead of having to eat it all on the spot before leaving?

"Decided! The next step is to gradually solve the snake's flaws while growing stronger!"

Having discovered the snake's flaws, Baichuan hereby set his first small goal!

……

"My spicy strips!"

After eating and drinking his fill, Baichuan cast a few more reluctant glances at the food left behind, then left the spot with great reluctance.

There was no need to worry about waste — in this beautiful great outdoors, nothing would ever go to waste.

Whatever he couldn't finish and left behind would, before long, attract a swarm of little creatures to gnaw it clean — ants, birds, all sorts of insects, and even Laoshu were all possible.

In this world that was both beautiful and cruel, today it's either you eating them or them eating you; no matter how glorious you were in life, how your roar could shake the mountains and forests, how all beasts bowed before you—

—in death, you're still nothing but a handful of yellow earth.

(End of chapter)