However, it was not entirely true that there was no good news at all.
The moment the trigger was pulled, Tang Ling witnessed another kind of power—the power of the handgun.
The tiny action of pulling a trigger shook the giant snake. Although did not get blasted to smithereens, it was shaken to the point where a scale in the size of a palm almost fell off.
This handgun certainly could not kill the giant snake but it would be enough to stall it!
There were only seven chances to attack. That was what Quark repeatedly mentioned to Tang Lin when he went over the last details.
While his body was still moving in the air, Tang Ling’s mind restarted the relentless calculations.
Factoring in his own chance of escaping, he would have to stall the giant snake for at least seven seconds. The most ideal outcome would be all seven chances of attacking stalling the giant snake for a second each time.
On top of that, each point when the trigger was pulled must be perfectly connected to the moment when the giant snake recovered from its movements. Only with no mistakes made, the ‘perfect seven seconds’ could be achieved.
Only those who had been through life and death understood that even the slightest window of 0.1 seconds could change the outcome entirely.
The biggest difference between reality and imagination was, if the imagination world was a perfect ‘blank’, all you need to do is perform everything accordingly and there wouldn’t be any mistakes in the outcome.
What was reality? It was filled with messy and muddled mud pools that prevented a clear look. There were always a little too many uncontrollable variables disturbing everything.
The attack of the Desert Eagle could not stall the giant snake for a whole second.
In fact, a vehement blazing ram attack could only stop the seemingly slumbering giant snake for less than half a second.
Then, its fury rose. Even Tang Ling, who had not touched the ground, felt it.
Inside the darkness, its scarlet red snake tongue hissed ceaselessly as it emanated a screech that irritated the mind.
Then, Tang Ling saw a deeper level of rage erupt from its eyes. It was total fury spewing out of it!
In that exact moment, Tang Ling had a strange misconception that the snake seemed to have sensed that he killed six of its children.
Rustling echoed from every direction all of a sudden. What accompanied the ripples of rustles was a soft clank of metal clashing.
It was the noise of someone stepping onto the ladder and it was a rather familiar stepping force. Despite knowing that he was in a messy situation, Tang Ling was aware that it was his little sister who had climbed up the stairs first. Quark had kept his promise.
The noise seemed to bring him a tremendous power of warmth. It soothed Tang Ling’s heart instantly.
He was extremely calm. He was so calm that he saw the furious giant snake straighten its body and swing its tail lightly to crush the bricks beneath its body before it ‘stood’ up. It stood up completely beyond Tang Ling’s comprehension. Using its tail, which was less than a meter in length, it supported its giant body.
The dust and pebbles danced along with a terrifying sense of suppression.
“It actually seems funny.” Tang Ling had completely calmed down. He looked at the giant snake whose head was pressed against the ceiling because of its height. He felt standing up like this must be rather exhausting.
Both the giant snake standing up and Tang Ling’s thoughts happened in an instant.
Right after Tang Ling’s thought sprang, he pulled the trigger again without any hesitation.
The snake’s body was so huge that to Tang Ling, who had Precise Instinct since young and hunted beasts for a living, he did not even have to think about whether or not he could shoot it accurately.
He even closed his eyes and fired a shot based on his instinct.
This was another secret that Tang Ling could not explain. When he was under an extremely pressured environment and danger, instead of relying on his feelings, he turned it off to allow his instinct to take over. As a result, his attack would result in an unexpected outcome.
This instinct of his might not work every time, but being in a fight of such caliber, other than believing in himself, what else could he rely on?
This shot was fired unusually decisively. Lesson learned, Tang Ling remembered what Quark told him and he coiled his wrist.
He finally was able to endure the powerful recoil, but another scary fact toppled Tang Ling’s perception.
The giant snake stood up just so that it could use the force at its tail to launch itself forward at Tang Ling like a spring.
However, the shot he fired perfectly landed on the launching point of its body as it tried to propel itself forward, but the projectile halted its plan.
It was difficult to imagine a giant launching itself towards himself. If he did not have such an astonishing attack method, Tang Ling was certain that the giant snake did not even have to do anything, and by relying solely on the force of it launching itself, the powerful impact would grind him into a pile of meat paste.
Bang!
As a thud rattled as he landed, blood came out gushing from Tang Ling’s nose and formed two bloody lines.
Given the result of the high-speed calculation, this was the cost he had to pay. He had to bite his tongue strongly to keep his dizzy and exploding brain awake.
Without a second thought, both Tang Ling and the snake’s bodies formed a 29° angled position. He exerted his strength once more and swung backward.
On the other hand, the giant snake’s fully prepared single attack was interrupted by this assault, so its anger boiled to a new high.
When the launching point was attacked, its huge body uncontrollably tilted towards the right side of the wall like a falling pillar. Half a second later, it crashed hard against the wall, producing a heavy and loud crash.
Dozen of its scales were damaged in the process because the force of the crash was originally its own launching strength that it had charged up.
As the wind whistled beside his ears, it did not stop Tang Ling from hearing a second sound going up the ladder. It was Grandma.
Tang Ling’s mouth corner curled up into a smile. It looked like he was relieved, but it also seemed like he was flashing a sneer at the giant snake.
Why should he be afraid of its previous emotions?
The anger that blossomed in battle was much scarier than a lethal injury!
As expected, the giant snake which regained control of its body did not choose to launch itself forward again. Instead, it chose to slither towards Tang Ling instantly.
However, based on the location where it had fallen down and the direction where Tang Ling was retreating, crawling was destined to be unusually difficult, so it still had to adjust to the discomfort.
Its size was not an advantage at all this time. The slight adjustment it was forced to make would surely delay more of its time.
Another second had passed.
A beam of light lit up. A clear voice boomed followed by the last set of footsteps climbing up the ladder, “Damn it! There’s a den of black-horned purple-striped snake is here! You’d better hurry up.”
It was Quark.
At that moment, he switched on the ignited tube and tossed it into the tunnel.
Tang Ling’s heart swelled with a tad of gratitude. Since the den of snakes were startled, the light in the environment would be much more of an advantage to his fight.
Expressing his gratitude without being distracted with a nod, after Tang Ling landed on the ground, he chose a new angle and jumped backward to draw distance from the giant snake once more.
He also shut his eyes and fired another shot at a suitable time. This shot landed on the second turning point of the giant snake’s crawling body, slightly displacing its body.
Unfortunately for it, that exact spot crippled it from slithering forward anymore. All it could do was pause for a moment so that its head could lead its body forward again.
Landing, picking a new angle and shooting, Tang Ling carried out every step in an organized fashion.
His fingertips which originally felt cold had completely warmed up without him realizing it whilst the fury that would only boil during battles started to rise in his heart.
The only other trouble was that large den of writhing black-horned purple-striped snakes.