Chapter 299: Hidden Dragons and Crouching Tigers |
They had a full day for this trip.
Qin Ziwu and the others were assigned to retrieve cards from the surrounding altars.
Qin Ziwen, meanwhile, brought Du Yu to the riverbank.
The two of them checked the fish traps they had placed last time.
"Master, this trap has been damaged," Du Yu said, pulling a trap out of the water.
Water gushed out noisily through large gaps.
On the edges of the cage, there were clear gnaw marks.
The wire mesh of the cage body was deformed and twisted, and all the fish inside had escaped.
"This bite work, it's clearly the handiwork of a crocodile," Qin Ziwen observed for a moment. Based on the degree of deformation and the direction of the crushing force, he made his judgment at a glance.
They checked the remaining traps one after another, and only two had escaped destruction.
One was because it was "air force"—the bait placed inside had disappeared.
The other was because of a snake inside it.
It shimmered with a silvery light, its scales dazzling to the eyes.
When the cage was pulled out from the lush, grassy riverbank, a thick, silver snake, as thick as a child's arm, was rolling wildly inside, spinning like a hula hoop.
Qin Ziwen's hand jerked, almost throwing the cage back into the water.
He glanced at the large snake in the cage and cast Insight.
[Superhuman · Silver Thread Snake: ☆☆☆]
"So it's this thing," Qin Ziwen sighed with feeling.
Superhuman, Silver Thread Snake.
It was indeed the same snake they had seen last time.
However, out of caution, Qin Ziwen did not open the cage.
He thought carefully; if he counted this Silver Thread Snake...
At this stage, the number of superhuman animals hunted by his Home had already reached three, right?
The minimum standard for constructing the Miracle Building, the Ancient Hunting Mausoleum, was ten superhuman prey. They had already achieved 3/10 progress.
The Silver Thread Snake, trapped in the cage, was lifted out of the water. Sensing the change in environment, it began to thrash violently.
Water splashed everywhere, some droplets landing on the back of his hand.
A moment later, a faint stinging sensation came.
Qin Ziwen frowned, looking down at the back of his hand where the water droplets had landed. The area was already starting to turn red.
"This snake is that poisonous?!"
Qin Ziwen hurriedly put the cage down.
Water that had been in contact with the snake's body and then separated, just landing on his hand, could cause a burning sensation.
How potent must the snake's own venom be then?
No wonder it was a superhuman-level snake beast.
Qin Ziwen probed with a stick. Before he even got close to the cage, it provoked a fierce counterattack from the Silver Thread Snake.
Its slender head slammed violently against the cage body again and again. It opened its wide mouth, exposing two long, protruding fangs to the air.
"Too fierce," Qin Ziwen frowned.
He was struggling with how to handle this superhuman venomous snake. Based on its current behavior, not only was its venom incredibly potent, but its temperament was also extremely irritable and aggressive.
The slightest mistake could lead to serious consequences.
"If we're talking about raising it, we don't have a suitable building, and ordinary people probably don't have the skill for it either," Du Yu advised against his master keeping this venomous snake.
Qin Ziwen tried to communicate with the Silver Thread Snake using Resonance.
But it had no effect. Instead, the snake's displayed aggression grew even more intense.
There was no other way. Qin Ziwen finally had to give the order, "Kill it."
If it were kept in the Home, and someone with ulterior motives secretly used it or released it, given its speed, it would be extremely dangerous within the Home.
After some effort, they finally managed to kill the Silver Thread Snake through the cage.
They waited for quite a while longer, repeatedly testing it with a stick. As soon as the slender stick touched the Silver Thread Snake's mouth,
the already dead Silver Thread Snake suddenly opened its mouth, biting down on the stick and refusing to let go.
Qin Ziwen sighed with feeling, "I've long heard that snakes still have nerve reflexes after death, that a decapitated snake can still bite and inject venom. It seems that's indeed true."
It's worth mentioning that killing this Silver Thread Snake did not drop a card. This indicates that apart from the current map, returning to previous maps to hunt beasts cannot yield cards; they can only be obtained by searching altars.
After waiting a long time and repeatedly testing it, they confirmed it was truly cold and dead.
Only then did Du Yu open the cage, grab its tail, and slowly pull it out. Finally, he grasped the area just behind the Silver Thread Snake's head with five fingers, squeezing tightly, then raised it high. The snake's tail almost exactly reached the ground.
This snake was a full two and a half meters long.
A flicker of surprise passed through Du Yu's eyes. "Master, this snake is very light."
"Let me see."
Qin Ziwen took it over and discovered that while this Silver Thread Snake looked sizable, its actual weight was less than two pounds. It was light as a feather, no wonder its speed could be so fast.
After extraction, they finally obtained 800 milligrams of venom from the Silver Thread Snake's body.
Transparent, viscous venom lay quietly at the bottom of the vial.
Just looking at this stuff made Qin Ziwen's temples throb incessantly.
"This thing, its venom is very potent," Qin Ziwen pondered. He needed to find a suitable target to test its venom.
If stored for too long, the venom's potency would volatilize.
Qin Ziwen thought of the upcoming sea voyage. This venom could be carried along for unexpected needs.
Qin Ziwen took all the cages back for people to repair, planning to place them around again once fixed.
Since there could be one Silver Thread Snake, there might be a second.
Speaking of which, this forest's resources were so abundant. The probability of having a second superhuman beast after having one was quite high.
Having dealt with the venomous snake matter,
Qin Ziwen mounted the Crowned Eagle's back. He planned to thoroughly survey the surrounding area. If there were suitable places, he could try leaving anchor points, allowing him to change the initial arrival location next time.
He remembered that downstream of the forest was a plain. Qin Ziwen mounted the Crowned Eagle's back, sitting side-by-side with Du Yu, and flew downstream along the river's direction.
Ahead, above the forest, several birds were circling at low altitude.
Sensing the Crowned Eagle's approach, these birds scattered in panic.
"Screech—"
The Crowned Eagle let out an arrogant cry, its sound carrying far. Wherever it passed, all fell silent. The monkeys that had been making a racket along both riverbanks trembled and hid under the tree canopies.
Looking down from high altitude, the river below resembled a jade-blue ribbon inlaid within the forest.
On the calm river surface downstream, numerous crocodiles, looking like floating logs, gathered in groups. At a rough glance, the downstream area had almost become a crocodile paradise.
No wonder the crocodiles couldn't be exterminated. After killing so many, more would appear upstream after some time, Qin Ziwen understood. Suddenly, his gaze sharpened.
As the river surface gradually widened, this section of the river was nearly ten times the width of the section near the residential complex.
And on such a broad river surface, he saw an extremely thick, long, dark shadow, moving slowly underwater in an S-shape.
Wherever it passed, the crocodiles scattered.
Judging by its length compared to the crocodiles, this suspected giant python shadow was likely no less than thirty meters long.
It swam around for a while before diving into the deeper parts of the river and disappearing from view.
"Hidden dragons and crouching tigers..." Qin Ziwen sighed with feeling. He suddenly felt that perhaps giant beasts like the Giant Toad were not unique in this forest.
After flying for over ten minutes, the scenery below abruptly changed. It was like two distinctly separate boundaries dividing the dark green forest from the light green grassland.
Further away was an endless, vast grassland.
...