Ambush

Yue Shi reacted with lightning speed. After being coiled by the black snake, he reached back and slammed a claw into its body.

The decaying curse was injected instantly.

Sizzle!

The black snake let out a pained hiss. The section of its body that had been clawed began to rot and stench at a visible rate.

The dragging force vanished. The severed snake body fell to the floor of the vehicle, twitching twice in a futile struggle.

But the attack didn't stop there.

Hiss! Hiss!

In the next second, two more black pythons, as thick as an adult's calf, lunged at Yue Shi from different angles.

Their gaping maws looked ready to swallow him whole.

A foul, fishy wind blew against his face.

Yue Shi didn't even bother to move.

Bang! Bang!

Two dull impacts rang out almost simultaneously.

The two fierce pythons were stopped dead in their tracks, as if they had hit an invisible wall just three centimeters from his body. His demon feathers perfectly blocked the pure physical impact.

Reeling from the pain, the two pythons flicked their tongues in rage, letting out threatening hisses while spraying venom from their fangs!

However, the venom was also blocked by the invisible barrier. It formed into droplets that rolled onto the floor, sizzling as they evaporated into clouds of pale purple toxic mist, turning the air inside the vehicle foul and dangerous.

Yue Shi looked around. The vehicle's entrance was already blocked by several twisting, writhing black snakes. They were so densely packed that it made one's skin crawl.

Even now, he hadn't seen the attacker's true face, nor did he know if the opponent was human or supernatural.

All he knew was that the opponent seemed to be able to manipulate snakes.

Suppressing his irritation, Yue Shi stepped toward the corner where he had first noticed something unusual.

The light inside the vehicle was too dim. It was only after he got much closer that he finally saw the figure's true form—

It was actually a "serpentine girl"!

Her upper body was that of a seemingly pure and innocent little girl. She looked pitiful and naive, like a delicate white flower, her face carrying a sense of childlike innocence.

But below her waist was a long, slender snake tail covered in pitch-black scales!

The serpentine girl's overall frame was small and dainty. She was curled up motionless in the darkest corner of the vehicle, like food hibernating in the cold. No wonder Yue Shi hadn't noticed her at first.

She wore a white uniform on her upper body, the same style as the Glory Association members who had been at the meeting in the Investigation Bureau.

Thus, she was likely a member of the Glory Association as well. It was just impossible to tell immediately whether she was a transcendent with a unique form or a tamed supernatural creature.

That brainless head really was a trap.

Yue Shi's alertness spiked. Someone had anticipated that he or someone like him would come and had specifically set an ambush here.

The serpentine girl's bright red tongue flicked in and out, her seemingly innocent eyes locking onto Yue Shi's position with precision.

Countless black venomous snakes of various sizes were constantly slithering out from beneath her coiled tail, hissing as they gradually surrounded Yue Shi.

“Aren't you going to show yourself?” the serpentine girl spoke. Her voice was as youthful and crisp as a young child's, creating a jarring contrast with the horrific scene around them.

Yue Shi constricted his throat to make his voice hoarse and unpleasant as he countered, “How did you find me?”

This was the question that concerned him most. If his concealment failed, it meant a massive potential threat.

A smug smile appeared on the serpentine girl's face. Her tongue's sensory capabilities were extremely keen. Although she couldn't directly "see" through invisibility, she could sense the subtle airflow, temperature, and vibrations in every inch of the vehicle.

Only the spot where Yue Shi stood formed a perfect "sensory void." It was as if a piece of a complete painting had been crudely erased, making it incredibly conspicuous. Thus, she had determined his location through the process of elimination.

So what if he could turn invisible? Within a confined space, as long as everything else could be seen, the one place that couldn't be seen was undoubtedly where the problem lay!

These thoughts flashed through her mind, but she would never voice them. She didn't have the bad habit of answering an enemy's questions or helping them fix their flaws.

Seeing that he wouldn't get an answer, Yue Shi stopped wasting words and moved straight to the kill.

He didn't summon his signature ravens to deal with the snakes. Instead, he locked onto the serpentine girl's main body and activated his most unavoidable instant-death curse—【Death Sentence】!

“You... it's time for you to die.”

The cold words pronouncing death fell from Yue Shi's lips.

The moment the words left his mouth, an overwhelmingly powerful judgment of "death" abruptly descended upon the serpentine girl!

The smug smile on the serpentine girl's face instantly froze, replaced by an expression of extreme shock and disbelief. She seemed completely unable to comprehend what was happening.

Her small body stiffened as her vitality ebbed away. The light in her eyes faded rapidly, like a candle being snuffed out.

Then, she collapsed, her life force extinguished.

She didn't even have time to struggle.

With the serpentine girl's death, the snakes she had been controlling lost their direction and fell into chaos. Some spun in place aimlessly, others began to bite each other, and some tried to flee the vehicle.

Expressionless, Yue Shi flicked his fingers, clawing and tearing until he had swiftly cleared the snakes one by one.

The interior of the vehicle was soon filled with a thick stench of rot and blood.

“What happened?”

Just then, the voice of the anonymous caller came through the phone Yue Shi was still holding, sounding suspicious and alarmed.

The other party had clearly heard the strange noises, and the sudden silence that followed led them to conclude that the situation had changed.

“It's nothing, just ran into an ambush,” Yue Shi replied flatly, as if he had merely swatted a mosquito.

The anonymous caller was silent for a moment before saying, “...It seems the trouble has been handled.”

“Mm,” Yue Shi grunted in response, his gaze falling on the serpentine girl's corpse. He reached out, aiming his palm at the cooling body.

An invisible suction was generated once more. The source within the serpentine girl turned into a stream of pure energy that surged into his body.

The "progress bar" flickered with light, advancing a small notch. It was now very close to the second marker.

Just a little more... and he would unlock his next supernatural power.

Yue Shi felt the growing power within him, his gaze becoming even colder.

He looked out of the containment vehicle. After such a commotion, the people from the Glory Association should have arrived by now, shouldn't they?

Even though it was a trap, who was the hunter, and who was the prey?

At that thought, Yue Shi spoke directly into the phone, “You are also an experimental subject who escaped from the lab.”

It wasn't a question, but a statement of fact.

The moment the words were spoken, the other end of the line fell into a long silence. Only the faint crackle of static proved the call hadn't been disconnected.

This silence was, in itself, the best answer.

After a long while, the processed voice spoke again. “...Yes. I am.”

He admitted it outright.