The giant pythons that had been coiled up resting throughout the forest were startled into action, all slithering out in search of food.
Qi Yanxuan, who had already walked some distance away, faintly heard the sounds of massive serpents slithering and people screaming. He activated his wood-element ability to sense the area this was practically a snake pit, he thought, though his face betrayed no emotion.
Suddenly, he grabbed Shen Yanqing and Shen Yanshan.
The group behind them came to a halt. Though puzzled, no one spoke up; they simply waited quietly for their leader’s instructions.
Qi Yanxuan said nothing, only lifted his gaze toward a giant python coiled around a large tree not far away.
Everyone followed his line of sight. Wrapped around the tree was a python as thick as a water bucket, its jet-black scales so smooth they seemed to gleam. The python’s head was raised high, its red vertical pupils fixed on the group, its forked tongue flicking in and out.
At the sight of it, everyone frantically clapped their hands over their mouths, terrified of making a sound that might provoke the python. A child’s whimper had barely begun before his father muffled his mouth. Everyone trembled with fear, but not a single person dared to faint.
Before anyone could move, the python in the tree stirred.
The python dove down, its massive body crashing to the ground and sending up a layer of dry leaves. The group stood frozen as if under a petrification spell. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to run the python was simply too fast, leaving them no time to react.
Just as they came to their senses and were about to flee, they saw the python ensnared in a massive net of purple lightning.
“Lei Gong! It’s Lei Gong, the Thunder God, come to save us!” an old man in the crowd cried out excitedly.
The elders all knelt toward the sky, chanting over and over, “Lei Gong! Please save us!”
Qi Yanxuan internally groaned. Mistaken for the Thunder God again. Does Lei Gong look this handsome? He rolled his eyes so hard they nearly fell out of his head, though his face showed nothing. He simply quietly increased the output of his lightning ability, tightening the net.
The python shrieked in agony toward the sky, and in an instant it was sliced into pieces by the ever-tightening lightning net. The pieces sizzled and smoked on the surface, and a faint aroma of cooked meat drifted through the air.
For a long while, the crowd was eerily silent. Then someone’s stomach let out a loud “gurgle,” breaking the stillness.
Coming back to their senses, everyone wiped cold sweat from their brows.
“We almost died here. This forest is way too dangerous!” a burly man said, wiping his forehead, still shaken.
“No kidding! Thank goodness the heavens were watching over us and Lei Gong helped us, or we’d have been nothing but delivery meals!”
Qi Yanxuan ignored the crowd still busy lamenting. He took Shen Yanqing’s hand and went over to the pile of python pieces to pick out meat.
The Kaoshan Village people had no interest in chatting either. Having just escaped danger, their eyes instinctively sought out Shen Yanqing and Qi Yanxuan, wanting to ask which way to go next, only to see the two of them off collecting meat.
One by one, they all followed along. By the time the people in the back snapped out of their daze, every member of Kaoshan Village was returning carrying a chunk of meat.
Seeing this, everyone else rushed forward to grab meat as well. The python might be absurdly huge, but it was still edible. In a famine year like this, forget meat, anything without poison was food.
While this side was joyfully dividing up the meat, screams kept ringing out elsewhere as more people were swallowed by the giant pythons. In their blind panic, one group of fleeing people happened to run straight toward Qi Yanxuan’s location.
Who knew whether to call them lucky or Qi Yanxuan’s group unlucky, these people were courting death themselves, and in the end they were dragging trouble right toward them.
Just as Qi Yanxuan’s group set off again, the sound of running came from behind. Everyone turned to look, only to see several hundred people fleeing toward them, with two giant pythons hot on their heels.
Everyone was on the verge of tears. One had just died, and now two more showed up, were they going to survive this? And had Thunder God left or not?
Seeing that crowd about to charge into their group, Qi Yanxuan’s face darkened with anger. These people were trying to use them as shields!
He immediately activated his ability, conjuring a massive purple lightning net that stretched across the space between the two groups. If those people charged through and scattered the crowd, forget being eaten by the pythons, even if they weren’t eaten, they’d be trampled to death in the chaos.
Everyone who saw the purple lightning net breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness! Thunder God is still here! That single thought passed through everyone’s minds in silent agreement.
But the breath they’d just let out was sucked right back in and the next moment, they were vomiting their guts out.
The people who crashed into the lightning net were electrocuted instantly, forcing the crowd to a halt. And the result of stopping was being swallowed one by one by the pythons behind them.
Qi Yanxuan showed no reaction. In the apocalypse, he’d seen scenes far more disgusting than this. At least the pythons swallowed people whole—zombies ate people alive, tearing into raw flesh.
Though he had no fondness for those people, the pythons still had to be dealt with. He quietly conjured two more lightning nets that sliced the pythons into pieces, then withdrew his ability.
Only when the crowd saw the pythons reduced to chunks did they relax. But this time, not a single person went to collect the snake meat. Everyone had witnessed those two snakes devour people, and just thinking about it made them gag, let alone eating the meat.
Perhaps because the flight from disaster hadn’t been going on for long, most people still held onto their humanity. Given enough time, forget snake meat that had eaten people, they might even be able to stomach human flesh.
The crowd set off once more, paying no attention to the several hundred survivors trailing behind them. Those people were all empty-handed, what if they tried to rob them? So everyone kept their guard up against them.
Several thousand people had gone searching for water, but only a few hundred returned. Who knew whether the rest had died or fled in other directions, though in such a dangerous place, survival was probably unlikely.
Night fell.
No one dared stop. They still hadn’t left the python territory, so everyone pressed on, carrying torches.
Shen Yanqing walked at the front with a flashlight, standing out conspicuously.
The moment Qi Yanxuan took out the flashlight, Shen Yanqing’s eyes swept over the crowd, gauging their reactions.
The Kaoshan Village people were curious but showed no other reaction. Along the way, they’d seen Qi Yanxuan pull out plenty of strange and unusual things it was old news to them.
As for the others, even if they had any schemes, they wouldn’t dare act. They still needed these people to guide them.
Seeing him like this, Qi Yanxuan knew Shen Yanqing was wary of anyone getting wicked ideas. He didn’t mind, if anyone blind enough tried something, he’d just kill them. Then he handed the flashlight to Shen Yanqing.
As an ability user, the dark had little effect on Qi Yanxuan, but Shen Yanqing was an ordinary person, and torchlight was limited at night. If he got careless and hurt himself, Qi Yanxuan would be the one aching over it.
***
The moonlight faded and dawn’s first light appeared before they finally began to hear birdsong.
“Whew! Looks like we’re out of the python territory!” Shen Kui, holding his son, spoke in a voice as loud as a roar, even his sleeping son jolted awake.
His wife gave his arm a hard twist. “Why are you being so loud? We just got out, what if the giant python hears us and comes chasing after us?”
“Okay, okay! I’ll keep my voice down,” Shen Kui replied to his wife in a hushed tone.
“Let’s walk a bit farther and find an open spot to rest,” Shen Yanshan said, continuing to move forward.