Chapter 63: Chapter 57: Black Ice Python
He had no destination. He just wandered around wherever his feet took him. In the first few months, he became a fighting maniac. He tested himself against any wild beasts that he found.
Sometimes, he intentionally attracted them to himself with the smell of blood. After he was satisfied, he calmed down. Instead of attracting attention, he began blending in with the forest. His makeshift clothes had already been torn so he had to create a new set with animal hide. They weren’t pretty but they did their job.
When he was getting nowhere, he started following any unusually strong beasts that he encountered. He was hoping that they would lead him to a natural treasure or a special place like the bamboo forest that was the reason behind their strength.
But that was mostly a bust. So, he started looking for the traces of Spirit Beasts. Ordinary beasts were no longer his match and he needed stronger opponents. He had lost track of time so he didn’t know how long had passed when he found a trace.
It was a pond. A deep pond. He had been observing it for a few days. Whenever an animal would try to quench their thirst, they would be dragged into the pond. He was fairly certain that a snake Spirit Beast had made its shelter in the pond. And considering its choice of shelter, he was able to deduce that it had abilities related to either water, ice, or possibly both.
So he started making a plan to hunt. He knew that he couldn’t fight it inside the pond because that would be pure idiocy. After a while, he came up with a simple but effective plan. He would lure it out by starving it. Anytime an animal came to the pond, he would kill them and leave their bodies on the ground. Close enough for the smell to spread, but far enough that the snake would have to come outside the pond.
A few days later, a pile of corpses had formed outside the pond. The scent would attract more animals but they all had the same end. Another few days passed, and it looked like the snake was becoming hungry. The water in the pond, which was usually still, was now roiling.
Seeing this, Zeke smiled and decided to provoke the snake a little bit. He collected blood from a beast that he had just killed and mixed it with mud to form a bloody mud ball. He chucked the ball into the pond.
The snake, attracted to the scent of blood, instantly devoured the ball. Then a huge snake head suddenly emerged from the pond, anger raging in its eyes. Zeke wasn’t hiding and was just staring at the snake. It had diamond shaped dark blue scales and a light blue dorsal fin. It stared at Zeke, recognising him as the source of its misfortune. Then, it looked at the big pile of corpses and it became even more enraged.
It hissed at him but didn’t attack. It seemed unwilling to leave the pond. This made Zeke even more determined. He could see the small protrusion on the snake’s forehead. It was a budding horn. Which meant that the snake was evolving towards a jiao. And that wasn’t something that just happened.
There must have been something, a natural treasure perhaps, with a draconic aura in the pond. Zeke kept on provoking the starving snake, with bloody mud balls, and even cooking his meals there. A month must’ve passed before the snake became completely desperate. Even a Spirit Beast needed to eat. It attacked Zeke but he was ready.
He had never let his guard down.
It opened his jaw, with the intention of swallowing Zeke whole in one go. Zeke dodged. unwilling to let him go, the snake conjured sharp shards made up black ice in its mouth and shot them towards Zeke. Zeke dodged as many as he could but was hit by some of them. Two to be precise. One had grazed him, while the other was lodged in his left arm.
If it weren’t for his inhumane pain tolerance, he would have fainted by now. The good and bad news was that the ice shard had stopped the blood from flowing.
Zeke dodged and jumped on its head. He pierced its head with his swordstaff, or at least tried to. But its scales deflected the blade. He had to do something and he had to do it quickly or else he would fall off.
He once again pierced his swordstaff but this time, he did so in between the small gap between two scales. The snake started thrashing, in an attempt to throw him off its body. But he held onto its dorsal fin and his swordstaff. It was not going well for Zeke. He was starting to lose sensation in his hand.
He decided that he had to end this quickly. He started gathering his Hell Qi in his right palm. His hand gained a reddish black hue. He took out his swordstaff and ran towards its big eyes. The snake was still thrashing its head violently, so it wasn’t easy but he somehow managed. He pierced the snake’s eye with his hand and pushed all the Hell Qi straight into its brain. A few moments later, the snake stopped thrashing.
It was finally dead.
Zeke just lay on its head. Although it didn’t look like it, this fight had taken a lot out of him. Not to mention his injured arm. He knew that he didn’t have the time to rest. He got up and took the ice shard out of his arm. No blood came out because the wound had frozen. It wasn’t completely frozen though and he was able to tell that it would thaw soon.
That gave him plenty of time to feast. He got down from the snake’s head and went towards its soft belly. He made a slit there and started cutting out pieces of meat from its body. He cut them into thin slices and ate as much as he possibly could. He would need a lot of energy to heal. Then he went towards the snake’s heart and took it out. He then ate it raw.
It was very chewy. He also felt a bit of a crunch and his body started becoming cold. He realized that he must have eaten the snake’s Spirit Core.
He got inside the body of the snake and started meditating. He had done so that he could avoid danger. No matter how appetizing the snake’s body smelt, no beast of weaker strength would come near it due to its aura. As he was fully focused on cultivating, Zeke didn’t realize how much time had passed. When he woke up, he had completely healed and the snake’s body had withered into a husk.
It was the result of his Hell Qi. he got out of the husk and lamented that he hadn’t collected the snake’s scales and fangs. But feeling that he had become stronger, he stopped feeling bad. He stretched a little bit and then dove into the pond. He swam and he swam until finally, he reached the bottom.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t dark. He looked at the source of light and found that it was an illumination pearl. If he wasn’t underwater, he would have gasped. Illumination pearls were rare and could be sold for very high prices. He swam towards it and picked it up.
Then he looked around for the natural treasure with the draconic aura. He discovered a blood red grass that looked like it had scales on it. It was a stalk of Dragon Blood Grass. It wasn’t fully mature yet and it wouldn’t be helpful to him in its current state.
It looked like it would mature in a few weeks so he decided to stay here until then. He swam back up and got out of the water. He stayed near the pond until the Dragon Blood Grass had matured. There was a reason behind his actions.
The Dragon Blood Grass was a natural treasure that every snake Spirit Beast coveted as it could help them evolve into a jiao. If they were lucky, and had some encounters, they could even transform into False Dragons.
But for humans, it was the perfect natural treasure for body tempering. Even more so for him because he already had a part of snake genes in him. Maybe it would have an unexpectedly positive effect on him. He harvested the Dragon Blood Grass and got out of the pond.
He was about to consume it but he heard a noise. He grew vigilant. He waited and it finally appeared in front of him. It was a horse. It was pure black except for its mane, which had dark red tips. What set it apart from other horses was the blood red horn with golden lines on its forehead.
Zeke was utterly shocked. It was a Bloodborne Unicorn.
