Chapter 221: Dragon and the Strange Snake's Lair

They now seem only interested in that corpse; if I disturb them, they'll become interested…

Fang Xu couldn't even imagine what would happen next.

Hearing the strange snakes gnawing on the corpse, Fang Xu slowly stepped back a few steps, then prepared to leave this place.

The damaged world was mostly occupied by that corpse; after staying away from it, Fang Xu began to carefully search elsewhere.

Fortunately, this damaged world seems to have only that terrifying corpse as an anomaly.

And only this kind of strange creature, the strange snakes.

Elsewhere, the land is largely shattered, with lava flowing across.

Fang Xu quickly arrived before a raised hill.

After climbing up cautiously, seeing no abnormalities around and still able to see the huge corpse in the distance, Fang Xu sat down cross-legged.

He hadn't forgotten why he came here.

After sitting down, he left part of his divine sense on guard, then devoted himself entirely to cultivating the Divine Soul Dao.

Cultivation knows no day or month.

The damaged world also had no sunrise or sunset; Fang Xu didn't know how long he had cultivated, but he felt his Profound Water Soul had grown considerably, and he incidentally grasped some Divine Soul Dao techniques while understanding its cultivation method.

Now in his sea of consciousness, the Profound Water Soul is already like a solid entity.

Clad in a dark robe, its appearance is the same as Fang Xu's own.

The Profound Water Soul sits quietly atop the Nine-Layer Dao Foundation, using the Divine Soul Dao to cultivate while also absorbing the foundation's power to strengthen itself.

Compared to the Divine Soul Dao, he seems to have an additional way to enhance the soul.

Before long, much time had passed.

While Fang Xu was wholeheartedly cultivating, the guarding divine sense he kept outside his body suddenly fluctuated, startling him into hastily withdrawing from his cultivation state.

The peaceful period had lasted so long that he almost forgot there were still terrifying strange snakes in this damaged world.

When his awareness returned to his body, Fang Xu rose and discovered that what had triggered his guarding divine sense was a huge strange snake, its body covered in scales and over ten zhang in length.

That strange snake undulated its body, slowly heading toward the hill where Fang Xu was.

Seeing this, Fang Xu was quite curious.

Why isn't it staying in that huge corpse, but running over here to do what?

Carefully hiding his body behind a towering sharp stone pillar, Fang Xu silently observed the giant snake's movements.

The giant snake didn't notice him, straightly moving to the hill's base and then directly burrowing into a hidden cave beneath it.

Seeing this, Fang Xu was somewhat astonished.

Could the hill I chose actually be this creature's nest?

No way!

Aren't all those strange snakes supposed to make that huge corpse their home, eating, drinking, and excreting inside it?

Why is this one alone so odd?

Before he could figure it out, another strange snake came undulating its body from afar toward this spot.

This giant snake looks noticeably stronger than the previous one, and it even has a white horn growing on its head.

Upon arriving before the hill, this giant snake seemed to sense something, raising its massive head slowly and glancing toward where Fang Xu was hiding.

But the hill is hundreds of zhang tall; even lifting its head, the giant snake couldn't see Fang Xu's figure.

After probing around, finding nothing, the giant snake also burrowed straight into the cave.

Soon afterward, the hill beneath his feet emitted some strange tremors.

After about a quarter of an hour, the two giant snakes emerged one after another from inside.

Without looking back, they crawled toward that corpse.

The two giant snakes, one ahead of the other, Fang Xu observed them carefully and finally noticed something.

These two giant snakes appear to be a male and a female.

Just now, burrowing beneath the hill, they likely did so for mating.

Pah!

What a pair of bastards, actually playing poker right under my nose!

Fang Xu gave a light scoff, then curiously used his divine soul power to sweep toward the hill beneath him.

The hill's interior could actually hold two giant strange snakes playing poker inside, proving the internal space is huge.

The divine soul power penetrated the thick rock, and Fang Xu almost got startled enough to fall from above!

This!

What the hell is this hill!?

It's clearly a giant skull!

After the shock, Fang Xu examined the towering sharp stone pillar before him closely for a moment and realized it wasn't a stone pillar at all, but a horn growing from the skull!

Stroking the pillar, he gazed toward the distant huge corpse.

Fang Xu followed the corpse's direction, looking toward where its head should be.

Sure enough, he couldn't find the corpse's head.

It seems the massive skull beneath him is actually the brain of that body.

However, the flesh and marrow inside this skull have been hollowed out by the strange snakes.

Most of its interior is just empty space.

Under the sweep of his divine soul power, Fang Xu quickly discovered a strange spot.

It is a region located at the glabella of the skull.

When his divine soul power swept here, it was actually blocked by some strange power.

With curiosity, Fang Xu jumped down from the top of the head, and then found a huge hole on the side.

This position……should be the location of the giant's eye.

However, the giant's eyeball is gone, leaving only a huge hollow.

Following the hollow, Fang Xu arrived at the interior of the head.

The winding, complex passages left Fang Xu momentarily unsure where to go.

Closing his eyes, using the perception of his soul power, Fang Xu quickly confirmed the direction and then moved toward the spot he sensed between the eyebrows.

Soon, he arrived before a gray wall.

In his soul perception, that strange fluctuation was emanating from behind this gray wall.

And this gray wall should be the giant's skull.

Fang Xu saw many impact and bite marks on it.

Obviously, that group of strange snakes also knew there was something good behind this bone wall, and they kept trying to force it open.

However, the giant's bone is extremely hard, and the strange snakes cannot open it.

Fang Xu approached and lightly tapped the bone wall, discovering that although the wall isn't very thick, it is unusually hard.

To open it, one must exert full effort.

But if I forcefully attack the bone wall here, it will surely alert those strange snakes.

Cannot break it with brute force; I must consider other methods.

After some thought, a silver long sword gradually appeared in Fang Xu's hand.

This sword is the sharpest of the seven swords in the sword case.

The blade is thin as a cicada's wing, and having been nurtured by Fang Xu as a life-bound artifact during this period, absorbing the power of the aperture space, it has become extremely sharp!

Holding the long sword, Fang Xu thrust forward suddenly, discovering that the bone wall ahead was pierced about an inch deep.

There's hope!

Seeing this, Fang Xu struck again.

Thus, sword after sword, not knowing how long he had stabbed, the bone wall before him was finally hollowed out into a small cavity.

Crouching, he slipped through the hole, and Fang Xu instantly smelled a strange foul odor.

Then came into view a huge meat egg.

The meat egg's surface was covered with complex patterns, as if alive, slowly throbbing.

Fang Xu dared not approach, carefully probing the strange meat egg with his soul power.

It is obvious that this meat egg has nothing to do with the strange snakes.

After all, this area is where the strange snakes have tried many times without success to open.

Having no relation to the strange snakes, the meat egg is likely part of the corpse itself.

His soul power circled the meat egg for an inspection, but Fang Xu found nothing.

Because the complex patterns covering the meat egg's surface are like a strange formation, blocking Fang Xu's soul power from outside.

It seems, to find out what's inside the meat egg, I must open it myself.

Fang Xu walked over slowly, preparing to split the meat egg with the long sword in his hand.

The meat egg ahead suddenly flickered a few times, then a terrifying suction force surged forward!

Fang Xu, unprepared, was directly sucked in by that terrifying suction.

Before his body even touched the meat egg, his entire Blood Qi Power was rapidly drained by it.

Feeling his Blood Qi Power swiftly draining, Fang Xu immediately flickered his body to try to evade.

But this suction is simply too strong.

Watching as he drew nearer to the meat egg, the rate of Blood Qi loss grew faster and faster.

A flash of ferocity crossed Fang Xu's eyes, and a large amount of black liquid flowed out from his body!

These black liquids directly transformed into a black-clad Fang Xu, whose hand gradually condensed into a black long sword!

Swish!

The black-clad Fang Xu raised his hand and the blade fell!

The pitch-black long sword directly split the meat egg in half, and the terrifying suction surrounding it vanished instantly.

After the Xuan Water Soul returned to his body, Fang Xu's steps staggered slightly.

Just that instant, over half of his Blood Qi was sucked away by the meat egg before him.

What the heck is this thing?

It's too terrifying!

He walked over slowly to the split meat egg and examined it.

Suddenly he discovered something wriggling inside the split meat egg!

Fang Xu took a close look, and it turned out to be a miniature little dragon!

And it has five claws!

The little dragon's body lacks scales, yet it already has a rudimentary draconic form, currently struggling in half of the meat egg.

Seeing the little fellow unable to break free from the meat egg's mucus, Fang Xu frowned, used his long sword to slash open the surrounding mucus, allowing the little fellow to crawl out.

After the little dragon freed itself from the mucus, it stumbled over to Fang Xu and let out a tender roar.

The sound somewhat resembled a lamb's bleat.

Fang Xu curiously crouched, extended a finger, and picked up the little dragon.

The little fellow's five claws struggled, its body wriggling, seeming to dislike being held like that.

"As a mighty divine dragon, how could I be trapped here?"

「Besides, dragons hatch from eggs, but this probably isn't that kind of egg, right? 」

Fang Xu said to himself, not minding at all the little dragon's incessant struggling and hissing in his hand.

「What's your relation to that giant's corpse? 」

The little dragon tilted its head, its small eyes blinking.

「It's the owner of this skull. 」

Fang Xu asked again.

The little dragon's eyes blinked again, and it let out two "mee" sounds.

「Forget it. 」

Fang Xu also knew that he couldn't communicate with it.

Right now, that pack of monster snakes could return at any moment, so I need to leave here quickly.

He picked up the little dragon in his hand, then came out from inside the giant skull and jumped straight onto the top of the skull.

He casually tossed the little dragon aside and then resumed cultivation.

The little dragon cried out twice at him, seeing no reaction, it helplessly lay where it was, opening its round little eyes to size up Fang Xu.

A lot of time passed again.

In the distance, two giant snakes were preparing to enter the giant's corpse's skull to mate.

Sensing the giant snakes' aura, the little dragon grew uneasy, its thin body swooping into Fang Xu's embrace.

Startled by it, Fang Xu frowned and looked at the two approaching giant snakes.

After seeing them drill into the skull, Fang Xu was about to resume closed-eye cultivation, but suddenly heard an angry roar coming from inside the giant skull beneath him.

Immediately after, the two giant snakes swiftly darted out of the skull and crawled toward the distant giant corpse.

Seeing this, Fang Xu waited until they were sure they had discovered the bone wall he had opened and also saw the split-open flesh egg.

「We must not let them disturb the monster snakes near the giant corpse! 」

Thinking this, his form flashed and his hand-held sword instantly slashed out!

A soundless sword beam directly severed the head of the female snake that had just emerged from the cave.

Then, using spatial law, his form instantly appeared above the male snake.

Swish!

The male snake hadn't even reacted before being cleaved in two by Fang Xu's sword in hand!

After dealing with the two monster snakes, Fang Xu glanced toward the giant corpse; seeing no other monster snakes disturbed, he immediately decided to dispose of the two giant snakes' corpses.

But at that moment, the little dragon in his embrace stretched out its little head.

After glancing at the giant snake's corpse, it immediately lunged forward.

Its frail body looked like an ant before the giant snake's corpse.

Crunch!

Crunch!

Lunging onto the giant snake's corpse, the little dragon began to frantically gnaw.

Seeing this, Fan Xu was somewhat startled.

These monster snakes feed on the giant corpse, while the little dragon feeds on the giant snakes.

And the little dragon itself was born from a flesh egg at the giant's brow.

The relationship among these three is truly complicated.

Seeing the little dragon happily chewing away, Fang Xu did not let it continue eating here.

He waved his hand, rolling up the two giant snakes' corpses and dropping them onto the giant's skull.

「Eat here. 」

He tossed the little dragon onto the two giant snakes' corpses, and he didn't bother to see if it could finish them.

He went on cultivating by himself.

The frequency of these giant snakes mating is not high.

Moreover, each time they come to mate, they are successful-year giant snakes with body-grown scales.

More importantly, they haven't even noticed that many of their mates coming to mate have disappeared.

This instead gave Fang Xu opportunities to defeat them one by one.

The number of giant snakes slain keeps increasing.

And after devouring numerous giant snake corpses, the little dragon's body has grown to about one zhang in length.

As time spent with Fang Xu lengthened, both could now communicate simply via their souls.

「So boring. 」

That day, as Fang Xu was cultivating, the little dragon's voice suddenly sounded in his sea of consciousness.

Fang Xu frowned and opened his eyes.

「Didn't I tell you not to suddenly speak in my sea of consciousness? What if I go into qi deviation? 」

The little dragon flicked its tail nonchalantly.

「I want to go hunting. 」

「Hunting? 」

Fang Xu glanced at the distant giant corpse: 「You want to go hunt those monster snakes? 」

「They are called Xiyu. 」

「Have you awakened your memories? 」

Seeing the little dragon actually know the name of those monster snakes, Fang Xu immediately asked curiously.

Xiao Long nodded: "I've awakened some memories, but not many."

"What exactly are you?" Fang Xu asked.

"Dragon!" Xiao Long rolled his eyes at him.

Fang Xu seized its neck and shoved it to the ground, saying, "Mind your attitude—do you think I won't pull out your dragon tendons?"

Xiao Long struggled a few times, seeing it couldn't break free, it quickly begged for mercy: "I was wrong."

Only then did Fang Xu release it: "Can you beat those evil lurkers?"

"Can't beat the old ones, but can beat the young ones."

"I'm faster than them."

Xiao Long came from the passage.

Fang Xu pondered for a moment, then nodded: "Then go."

"Remember this: don't let them surround you, and don't bring trouble to me."

Among the giant's corpse, there are still many evil lurkers; if surrounded, he might not be able to withstand it.

"Understood." As soon as Xiao Long finished speaking, its body had already flown toward the giant's corpse. (End of chapter)