Volume 2: Shenzhou Academy & The Battle of Venice
Chapter 115
Slaying the Giant Serpent, Harvesting a Warrior-Class Soul Essence
Darkness descended over Surge Chamber Number Seven like a suffocating shroud of mourning.
With the violent pop and flash of the final mana-crystal lamp blowing out, the entire subterranean chamber was plunged into viscous, pitch-black night. Suspended above the heads of the three hunters, an overwhelming stench of rot and putrid carrion blasted downward, scorching every inch of their exposed skin. Clinging to the vaulted ceiling above, two emerald-green orbs the size of spectral lanterns rolled slowly in their sockets, their vertical, metallic-gold slit pupils radiating a murderous, suffocating bloodlust.
CRACK... CRUNCH...
The reinforced concrete vault, over a meter thick, groaned and buckled under monstrous weight. Heavy chunks of fractured stone and sloughs of damp, moldering plaster rained down into the foul, pitch-black water that reached up to their chests.
A titanic coil of flesh armored in dark navy-blue scales slowly dangled downward. The serpent’s girth rivaled the fuel tank of a heavy-duty transport truck, spanning nearly two meters in diameter! Each massive hexagonal scale gleamed with serpentine, twisting arcane runes, continually exuding a dense, toxic green miasma.
This was no Servant-class beast!
Nor was it merely a twelve-meter Water-Dwelling Giant Python undergoing a routine molt, as the initial hunter report had claimed!
This was a mutated water serpent demon that had shattered through its evolutionary bottleneck to ascend into a genuine Warrior-class abomination: the Blue-Patterned Poison Python! Its colossal form wound along the vaulted storm drain for more than thirty meters, resembling an ominous subterranean earth dragon ruling over the foul depths of the Magic Capital’s sewers!
“Dammit all... Curse that bastard hunter report!” Hunter Captain Guo Mu cursed through chattering teeth, his metal shield clattering uncontrollably against his breastplate. “Magic-engraved scales... A body spanning over thirty meters... This is a bona fide Warrior-class beast! Fall back—run!”
Yet trapped inside a surge chamber flooded chest-deep with stagnant sludge, how could mere humans on foot outrun an apex aquatic predator?
HISSSS——!!
The giant serpent let out an ear-piercing hiss that tore through the stagnant air. Its colossal tail, measuring over ten meters long, whipped horizontally across the water’s surface, churning tens of thousands of liters of black filth into a towering three-meter tidal wave. Bearing the crushing kinetic force of a thousand tons, the violent deluge swept straight toward the concrete landing where the three hunters stood!
The shrieking gale-force pressure constricted Luo Xin’s chest. Faced with such a cataclysmic sweep, anyone foolish enough to turn their back and flee would instantly be pounded into meat paste!
“Earth Rock Shield – Thick Soil Rampart!!”
In his desperation, Captain Guo Mu bellowed at the top of his lungs. Seven ochre-brown Earth Star Particles aligned instantaneously into a glowing Star Track. Pouring every drop of his Earth mana into his hands, he slammed both palms violently onto the submerged concrete ledge.
BOOM! BOOM!!
Two massive slabs of solid rock, each a meter thick, surged up from the murky depths, interlocking seamlessly to form a rugged earthen bulwark shielding the entire squad.
Yet before the absolute, crushing might of a Warrior-class entity, the chasm dividing a Primary-tier mage from a Warrior-class beast was as vast as a fathomless abyss!
CRACK——KABOOM!!
The giant tail crashed head-on into the stone wall. The reinforced barrier detonated in an instant, exploding into hundreds of jagged stone shrapnel shards! The devastating residual impact of thousands of pounds slammed directly into Guo Mu’s heavy metal shield.
SNAP... CRUNCH!!
The enchanted shield buckled and warped inward like tin foil, smashing brutally against the veteran hunter’s sternum. The sickening sound of snapping ribs rang out with crisp horror.
PFFFFT...!!
Guo Mu’s eyes bulged in agony as a crimson fountain of blood erupted from his lips. His burly frame was hurled backward over fifteen meters, crashing violently into the reinforced concrete bulkhead before slumping into the foul black mud below, unconscious.
“Captain Guo!!”
Luo Xin screamed in despair. But before she could wade through the foul water to his side, a gust of putrid, foul-smelling wind slammed directly into her face.
The colossal serpent head of the Blue-Patterned Poison Python reared up right before her, less than ten paces away! Its cavernous, blood-red maw—large enough to swallow a minivan whole—gaped wide, disgorging a torrent of sizzling, caustic emerald venom that hurtled directly at her!
“Rippling Water Shield!”
She gritted her teeth until blood seeped from her gums, pouring the remainder of her mana into linking her Water Star Track. A rapidly swirling sphere of water materialized around her, enveloping her body in an orb of churning blue.
SIZZLE—HISS—CRACKLE——!!
The python’s corrosive venom rained down squarely onto the Water Shield. The monstrous toxins corroded the pristine barrier in the blink of an eye, dyeing the crystalline water an oily, pitch black. Tattered chunks of the protective barrier dissolved away until the entire sphere shattered into nothingness!
Noxious vapors rushed into Luo Xin’s lungs, plunging her into dizzying asphyxiation as she collapsed backward into the murky sewer water. Before her unfocused vision, the towering silhouette of the Blue-Patterned Poison Python blotted out the entire world. Four curved fangs, sharp and gleaming like polished steel sabers, hovered directly above her skull, acidic saliva dripping steadily onto her lapel.
The strike was less than half an arm’s length away!
Her mana reserves were completely drained, and Guo Mu lay lifeless in the muck, his fate unknown. In utter despair, Luo Xin squeezed her eyes shut and bit down hard on her lip, waiting for the cold embrace of death...
Yet the excruciating agony of being torn to shreds never came.
Instead, a firm hand encased in a hunter’s leather glove caught the collar of her tactical vest with pinpoint precision and hoisted her effortlessly into the air!
Luo Xin’s eyes snapped open to find herself gliding across the water at terrifying speed. Beneath the feet of the figure carrying her, ribbons of pitch-black mist rippled like spilled India ink, melding with the shadowy water below. The dark shroud buoyed them both across the fetid floodwaters without kicking up a single stray drop of filth!
Shadow Element – Shadow Slip!
In the span of a single breath, Lin Feng had traversed thirty meters across the surface, cleanly evading the giant serpent’s fatal lunge and setting her down against a raised, dry concrete platform.
“Y-You... Fan Chen...” Luo Xin gasped, her eyes wide with unmitigated shock as she stared at the silver-masked youth before her.
This rookie hunter who had joined their squad under the guise of an ordinary Primary Fire mage... How on earth could he execute such god-level, elusive Shadow magic?!
“Swallow your purifying pill. Keep an eye on Guo Mu.”
Lin Feng’s words were curt and chillingly calm. Beneath his silver mask, his sharp gaze remained locked onto the titanic serpent churning through the dark waters in search of its vanished prey.
“Have you lost your mind?! That’s a Warrior-class monster!” Luo Xin clutched her chest, coughing violently as she tried desperately to hold him back. “Use your Shadow Slip to retreat! We have to get out and alert the Hunter Union—”
Lin Feng did not reply. Stepping out from the shadows cast by the concrete ledge, he strode directly toward the edge of the murky water.
Flee? In Lin Feng’s lexicon, the word “flee” had never existed when facing a resource this priceless!
Beneath his weathered duster, the Primordial Dragon Pendant pressed against his chest was radiating a blistering, eager heat. It was the ancestral dao artifact’s ravenous craving for the bloodline and soul of a Warrior-class demonic beast! The Abyssal Thunder Wolf stood poised on the very threshold of breakthrough; if he could obtain an intact Warrior-class Soul Essence, the great black wolf would shed its mortal shell and officially undergo complete metamorphosis into a true Warrior-class sovereign!
This Blue-Patterned Poison Python was nothing less than heaven-sent fortune!
ROAAAR——!!
Realizing that the puny morsel that had slipped from its jaws dared to stand brazenly before it, the Blue-Patterned Poison Python threw back its massive head and roared in fury. Its amber eyes ignited with crimson bloodlust, and its thirty-meter frame tore through the dark waters like a runaway freight train, surging straight at him!
Lin Feng stood resolute amidst the dank subterranean gloom. With a flick of his left sleeve, a mysterious cosmic rift unfurled in the empty void:
“Abyssal, come out and warm up!”
AWOOOOO——!!
A savage, ear-splitting wolf howl ruptured the concrete drainage chamber!
The violet-black spatial rift tore wide open. A colossal silhouette resembling a heavy armored tank lunged forth, slamming all four thunder-wreathed paws onto the surface of the black water!
The Abyssal Thunder Wolf! Sleek obsidian lightning-scales coated its massive body, crackling with arcs of electric discharge. The obsidian horn crowning its forehead blazed with fierce violet thunder-fire. The suffocating bloodline pressure of an ancient sovereign predator radiated from its frame, causing the charging Blue-Patterned Poison Python to violently hitch in its tracks for a fraction of a second!
“Shred its eye!” Lin Feng commanded through their soul contract.
The Abyssal Thunder Wolf launched itself off the churning water. Banking off the reinforced concrete wall with explosive momentum, it flipped mid-air and plummeted straight down onto the giant serpent’s skull!
SKRRRSH! CLANG!
Twin lightning-wreathed talons raked violently across the monster’s eye socket, shattering three thick scales into fragments and sending jets of dark purple, corrosive blood spraying in every direction!
The giant python hissed in agonizing fury, its massive tail whipping back like an iron rod to pulverize the black wolf into paste. But the Abyssal Wolf nimbly leaped back, the obsidian horn atop its brow detonating with blinding arcs of lightning:
Lightning Dart Array!
Dozens of violet-black thunder darts whistled through the air like a storm of lethal arrows, embedding themselves deeply into the torn flesh of the serpent’s head and neck.
High-voltage electrical currents surged wildly through the beast’s meridians and spine. The colossal thirty-meter body of the Blue-Patterned Poison Python went into violent convulsions, its motor nervous system instantly locked in temporary paralysis!
Humiliated and maimed by an enemy smaller than itself, the Warrior-class monster’s rage exploded to its peak!
Its cords of muscle bunched beneath its scales, violently suffocating the residual currents. Rearing its gargantuan head high, its tunnel-sized maw unhinged to its absolute limit, exposing the slimy, crimson interior of its gullet as it plunged downward to swallow the Abyssal Thunder Wolf whole!
Its singular objective was to devour the wolf alive!
Yet the giant serpent had no idea that the black wolf had only ever been bait. The true hunter was already descending from directly above its head!
The Abyssal Thunder Wolf flashed backward.
At that exact instant, from the crest of the concrete vault ten meters above, a dark shadow tore through the gloom, plunging straight downward like a falling meteor!
Lin Feng!
Within his abyss-deep eyes ignited the towering, sovereign murderous aura of an absolute conqueror!
Inside his Sea of Consciousness, the vast Fire Star Nebula blazed like a boundless ocean of molten rubies. Forty-nine brilliant crimson Star Particles linked together with blinding, supernatural speed. Seven glowing Star Tracks intertwined and locked into place, forming a radiant Fire Star Pattern that spun furiously beneath his descending feet!
A tempest of apocalyptic mana erupted outward, blowing away all the toxic miasma and moisture in the surge chamber in an instant!
Watching from afar, Luo Xin froze, her breath catching in her throat:
“A Star Pattern... Intermediate magic... He’s an Intermediate Mage?!”
Never in her life had she witnessed a young hunter construct a Star Pattern with such grotesque, flawless speed!
Mid-air, Lin Feng clenched his right fist. Deep crimson flames swirled wildly around his forearm, condensing with such ferocious intensity that the surrounding air distorted and warped. The violent kinetic force materialized into the spectral visage of a ravenous fire dragon, baring its fangs in a deafening roar:
“Intermediate Fire Magic—”
“RAGING DRAGON BURST: SKY SHATTER!!”
Channeling every ounce of his Primordial Dragon force alongside his Intermediate flames, Lin Feng drove an earth-shattering blow straight down into the gaping, blood-red gullet of the colossal serpent!
BOOOOM——RUMBLE! CRASH!!
A cataclysmic detonation erupted from deep within the beast’s belly!
The blazing dragon head, burning at thousands of degrees Celsius, bored straight into the core of the monster’s anatomy before exploding violently outward, tearing from its stomach through every vital organ and tissue! The raging kinetic shockwave ripped through muscle and bone, while the hellish inferno incinerated its internal organs into fine cinders!
GURGLE... CHOKE... SPURT!!
The furious roar of the Blue-Patterned Poison Python died in its throat, choked down into a sickening, guttural death rattle.
From between the seams of its steel-hard scales along its thirty-meter length, geysers of roaring crimson fire and greasy black smoke erupted outward like a row of industrial flamethrowers! The flames consumed the beast from the inside out, transforming the titanic serpent into an enormous, thrashing pyre blazing amidst the flooded canal!
The stagnant floodwaters around it boiled furiously with rolling bubbles, vaporizing into thick clouds of scalding white steam. The pungent, nauseating stench of scorched serpent flesh permeated every corner of the subterranean tunnel.
THUUUD——!!
The gargantuan thirty-meter carcass of the Blue-Patterned Poison Python collapsed heavily into the boiling water, twitching feebly several times before falling completely still.
A bona fide Warrior-class mutated beast... had been roasted from the inside out by a single strike!
Lin Feng touched down steadily upon the charred, blackened skull of the serpent, the hems of his gray duster fluttering wildly in the sweltering thermal updrafts. With a casual flick of his right wrist, he extinguished the lingering embers upon the back of his hand, his eyes calm and unrippled as an autumn lake.
Right at this moment, from the shattered chest cavity of the slain serpent, an extraordinary glow slowly drifted up through the black smoke.
It was not the fragile, mindless remnant soul fragment typically seen upon a beast’s demise.
It was a brilliant, spherical mote of luminous jade-blue light, shining like flawless, pristine lapis lazuli. It radiated intact, potent spiritual fluctuations accompanied by the faint, majestic hiss of an ancient leviathan:
An intact Warrior-class Soul Essence! A miraculous one-in-a-hundred drop that rarely appeared even across thousands of slaughtered beasts!
On the open market of the Magic Capital, an intact Warrior-class Soul Essence was worth no less than eighty million Shenzhou yuan—a sum sufficient to purchase a lavish private estate or furnish an entire set of pinnacle-grade magic equipment!
Beneath the fabric of his shirt against Lin Feng’s chest, the Primordial Dragon Pendant suddenly flared white-hot like a burning ember!
A mystical, pitch-black glow cloaked the jade pendant. An irresistible gravitational pull erupted from the artifact, forming a miniature spiritual vortex that snatched the luminous jade-blue Warrior-class Soul Essence straight out of the air, pulling it directly into the depths of the pendant!
Hummm... hummm...
A pure stream of thermal energy washed through Lin Feng’s meridians, washing directly into his Sea of Consciousness. The artifact spirit of the Primordial Dragon Pendant thrummed with boundless jubilation, locking the pristine Warrior-class Soul Essence within its inner sanctum—primed and ready for the Abyssal Thunder Wolf’s chrysalis breakthrough!
Lin Feng gently brushed his fingers over the pendant at his chest. Beneath the silver mask, the corners of his lips curved into a satisfied smile.
This subterranean hunt had yielded a harvest far exceeding his wildest expectations!
He turned smoothly around and waved his sleeve, recalling the Abyssal Thunder Wolf back into the summoning dimension.
At that moment, along the far edge of the concrete platform, Hunter Captain Guo Mu was clutching his fractured chest, groaning as he dragged himself up from the sludge. Wiping the fresh trail of crimson from the corner of his mouth, he lifted trembling eyes toward the flooded canal churning with blistering steam.
Beside him, Luo Xin struggled to her feet, leaning heavily against the reinforced concrete wall to keep from collapsing.
Gradually, the billowing black smoke and dense clouds of steam settled.
What met their disbelieving eyes was not the gruesome aftermath of a slaughtered squad crushed underfoot...
It was the blackened, charred carcass of a titanic beast over thirty meters long. The surrounding waters still bubbled and hissed, thick with the overpowering stench of incinerated meat.
And towering atop the scorched skull of that colossal abomination stood the silver-masked youth in the gray duster. Both hands rested casually inside his trouser pockets, looking for all the world like an indifferent god of death who had merely stepped on an annoying insect along the road.
Absolute, suffocating silence descended upon the sewer chamber.
Guo Mu’s jaw dropped slack, his eyes bulging as his teeth clattered uncontrollably in shock. He stared at the smoldering remains of the Warrior-class monster, then back at the solitary silhouette of “Fan Chen.” His throat seized up, his trembling voice barely able to form coherent words:
“Y-You... What kind of monster are you really...”