Interrupted by the voice, Lin Feng’s consciousness suddenly became hazy, momentarily forgetting the bomb blast that had knocked him out. Instead, his mind drifted to a memory from half a year ago when he was still a penniless, failing student. At this moment, he felt as if he was still following his usual routine, staying up late in an internet cafe until he was kicked out by the cafe owner for not having enough money to continue playing. Ignoring the shout from someone in the shadows, he stepped forward, only to hear, “Madman!” “Eh, who’s calling me? Xiao Yun, is that you?” Hearing a familiar call, before he could confirm who it was, the foot he had stepped forward with suddenly found no ground beneath it. Whoosh! He was falling headfirst into an abyss with no bottom in sight.
“Ah!” Lin Feng screamed, his voice quickly swallowed by the endless darkness. The bizarre dream layered upon itself, and when he awoke from his stupor, it was already bright daylight. Enduring pain as if his flesh were being torn from his bones, Lin Feng struggled to his feet. Before him was a valley filled with jagged rocks. Towering peaks soared into the clouds, their steep and perilous slopes looking as if they had been sliced by a knife. The rock face in front of him was smooth and slick, covered with thick, damp moss like a green coat. Around him, there were patches of tall, disheveled grass from which strange noises occasionally emanated, indicating the presence of unknown creatures within.
None of this matched his memory of Yushan City, nor was it anywhere he could recall. Even though his mind was in chaos, he was certain this was not where he originally lived. The visual shock of this time-space transition left Lin Feng breathless. This was unmistakably a deadly abyss.
Trying to suppress his wildly beating heart, suspecting he might still be dreaming, he pinched his thigh hard. The pain confirmed he was not dreaming. So, what was the explanation for what he was seeing? He had no recollection of falling off a cliff the previous night.
“Damn it, someone must want me dead, huh? Well, not that easy. If you want me dead, I’ll live, and live well! I’ll walk out of this godforsaken place, and when I do, I’ll grab a cleaver and chop that dead fatty!” (Hmm, dead fatty? Who’s that?) He cursed the imaginary dead fatty’s ancestors, determined to leave this valley and make sure that despicable fatty would suffer.
Picking up a dry branch to use as a makeshift crutch, he assessed the terrain and began to hobble out of the valley, ignoring the faint scent of blood in the air. At first, he thought it might be from his own wounds, but as he progressed, the smell grew stronger. There was something odd; this wasn’t just from his own blood. Could there be injured wild animals ahead? The thought of encountering carnivorous beasts made him reconsider his path, but with no other viable route and his current physical condition, climbing over the cliffs directly to the summit was out of the question. Staying put would only lead to worse outcomes, like starvation or dehydration in the valley.
Deciding to take his chances, he masked his mouth and nose and continued forward. Suddenly, the sound of fierce combat came from ahead. The noises of wild beasts fighting, trees snapping, and rocks crashing down made Lin Feng’s legs go weak. This was definitely not just a couple of stray cats or dogs; these were formidable creatures. “Just my luck, what I feared has come upon me!” he exclaimed, sitting down in shock.
The battle sounds continued until a series of earth-shaking crashes brought silence once more. Lin Feng listened intently, hearing nothing more. It seemed the beasts had either all died or moved on. The valley, with its sheer cliffs carved as if by an axe, left only one path forward, a narrow passage that seemed to lead out. To escape, he had no choice but to press on.
Approaching the area where the fight had taken place, he saw over ten severely damaged trees, their broken branches and leaves forming a large circle on the ground, with a mound of stones in the center. Nothing else was visible. “Thank goodness, they’re all gone,” he muttered, feeling relieved but still on edge due to the lingering murderous aura in the air.
As he carefully stepped over the debris, praying for safety, he felt his foot sink into something soft, like quicksand. His foot seemed to be swallowed by something underground, yet there was no pain, just a bizarre sensation of losing part of his body. In a daze, the mound of stones appeared to move.
Panicking, Lin Feng turned to run, but it was too late. The mound collapsed, and a giant snake, as thick as a beer barrel, shot out, instantly reaching him. With its mouth open wide, spewing a foul, red-black mist towards him, Lin Feng thought, “I’m dead!” In his dire straits, Lin Feng stumbled and fell to the ground. With no time to get up, he saw the snake’s head almost touching his hair. Sensing the danger, he quickly rolled to the side. Boom! The muddy fog hit the ground with an explosive sound, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air where he had just fallen. The fierce attack from the giant snake created a pit large enough to bury a man. The snake’s head plunged into the mud but for some reason did not immediately emerge. Instead, like a rat burrowing into the ground, it thrashed wildly within the pit, causing the surrounding area to collapse as if the earth itself was being torn apart. The ground, once solid, was now churned into a pool of molten liquid by the snake’s frantic movements.
As the vortex of mud created by the snake threatened to engulf him, Lin Feng, no longer feeling fear, clung desperately to nearby shrubs, his fingers cut to the bone by sharp thorns, yet he felt nothing. If only I had a knife, he thought. The snake, however, had no regard for Lin Feng’s wishes, continuing its frenzied rampage, reducing the small hill to nothing but a part of its massive, over 100-meter-long body. Under such immense force, everything in its path was pulverized.
Death seemed imminent, yet Lin Feng suddenly grew unusually calm. He focused intently on a highly protruding part of the snake’s belly, holding his breath, contemplating something. A strange sound began to echo in his mind, and the scene before his eyes shifted mysteriously. The image of the snake’s belly became increasingly clear, as if his eyes had telescopic capabilities, bringing what he was looking at right before him. It was truly an indescribable sensation, almost as if he had approached the snake out of sheer curiosity. The bulge appeared to have very thin skin, containing something the snake had swallowed alive, which was now struggling for its life. Through the stretched, almost translucent snake skin, Lin Feng could see the outline of the prey, clearly a large creature itself, still fighting to break free.
The snake was clearly in agony from the internal attacks, which explained its frantic behavior. No wonder it was burrowing into the ground so desperately, trying to knock out its prey with repeated impacts against the earth. Realizing the situation, Lin Feng felt a bit more at ease; he wasn’t the target of the snake’s madness; he had just unluckily stumbled upon its frenzy. However, with the snake in such a state, there was no guarantee it wouldn’t harm him, especially if it managed to escape. For his own safety, Lin Feng realized there was only one way out: kill the snake. Otherwise, any collision with it would be fatal.
Suddenly, a strange sound reached his ears. Looking again, the bulge on the snake seemed even larger, its scales cracking under the pressure. This bizarre sight gave Lin Feng the idea that a knife would be useful now. He thought the snake, despite its size, was vulnerable due to the internal attacks, and now was the moment to strike.
