Floating down from the air once again, he neatly gathered the fallen chunks of snake meat and stuffed them into his mouth.
A burst of juice erupted with every bite as he chewed.
“Ugh, the taste... It's so gamey! Blech...”
Haoyuan almost threw up. Was snake meat really this disgusting? The smell was truly hard to bear.
It would probably taste better in a stew, with plenty of seasonings to remove the gamey odor and lock in the freshness, paired with a plump hen to simmer into an aromatic Dragon-Phoenix Soup.
Ah...
Haoyuan tried his best to imagine he was chewing on Dragon-Phoenix Soup as he forced it down.
The snake meat melted as soon as it hit his stomach.
His powerful Digestion ability converted it into clean Energy Points.
Energy Points +3,800
“3,800...”
Haoyuan couldn't help but complain inwardly. Only that much?
Even a random, ordinary mimic monster yielded at least a hundred thousand or several hundred thousand Energy Points.
A special variant like the pseudo-wyrm gave up to hundreds of millions.
Yet a fifteen-meter-long Titanoboa only gave three thousand eight hundred!
Haoyuan couldn't handle it. At this rate, it would take him forever to gather enough points.
No, he had to change his tactics and see if he could find some special variants.
Even if he couldn't find any, hunting down some reclusive individuals with Large Size would still be good.
Having figured out his approach, Haoyuan raised his head and soared straight into the high sky.
He then looked down at the earth, slowly slithering as he searched for those hidden, reclusive places.
Mimic monsters were hard to distinguish, but extraordinary individuals might be easier to find.
Haoyuan patrolled all the way like this, gradually slithering toward the depths of the rainforest.
Suddenly, a magnificent scene caught his attention.
In the murky waters of the river's upper reaches, hundreds of Titanoboas were intertwined, wrapped together into a colossal ball of flesh.
They wriggled and rolled within it, a sight that was quite sanity-draining.
“What are these snakes doing?”
Haoyuan felt like he was asking the obvious; this looked exactly like a snake mating ball.
But what kind of snake was so formidable that it could take on an entire crowd alone?
Intrigued, Haoyuan memorized the location and slithered away.
He would return to take a look once he estimated they had finished mating.
Searching along the way, he kept a close eye out for places that might harbor giant monsters.
However, after wandering around for a long time, he found nothing.
How about going back to see if those snakes are done?
Just as he thought this and began to slither back, a sudden change below caught his attention.
“Did the ground of that green swamp just move?”
He felt suspicious.
His massive body wound downward as he activated Optical Camouflage.
Seen from afar, starting from his head, his body gradually became transparent until he was completely concealed.
Haoyuan descended from an altitude of a thousand meters down to two hundred meters.
As he descended closer, the swamp before him grew larger.
He also gradually noticed the unusual nature of this swamp.
There wasn't a single Titanoboa here.
Haoyuan was somewhat shocked.
Normally, swamps should be prime ambush spots for Titanoboas, yet there wasn't even one in a swamp of this size.
“Something's fishy.”
Haoyuan was certain.
So, he moved even closer, until he was only fifty meters above the mottled green swamp bed.
At this height, any subtle abnormality had nowhere to hide.
He quickly discovered distinct skin textures on the surface.
“So that's where you're hiding!”
Haoyuan smiled to himself.
Visually estimating, its exposed body size was about twenty-two meters. It was quite large.
Opening his mouth, he gathered surging lightning.
The behemoth still crouching in the water suddenly sensed a blue and white light flashing in the sky.
It immediately pulled back its green, camouflaged back and looked up at the sky.
Reflected in its giant, crystal-clear eyes was the brilliant and dazzling lightning.
With a thunderous boom, a massive crash echoed.
Before the behemoth could even react, it was struck by an extremely thick bolt of lightning and blasted into the water. When it floated back up, its white belly was already facing the sky.
“So it's just a giant frog.”
Haoyuan laughed merrily.
Landing on the ground, he grabbed the giant frog and devoured it like a whirlwind sweeping away clouds.
“This tastes much better.”
He nodded as he ate, satisfying his appetite.
All the Energy Points rolled in, equivalent to about three pseudo-wyrms.
His ice- and water-attribute divine abilities were further enhanced.
His poison resistance increased.
“Not bad.”
Haoyuan nodded in satisfaction.
“Alright, next, it's time to check on that mating ball of snakes.”
...
Even before he reached the place, he saw massive splashes suddenly erupting on the river's surface.
A massive figure suddenly rolled up from beneath, wrapping itself around the colossal ball of snakes.
Seeing this, Haoyuan's speed surged. With a few whips of his tail, he arrived at the scene.
Below, a thick, dark-green silhouette was tightly constricting the flesh ball like steel rebar.
A massive snake head emerged from beneath the water's surface, sinking its teeth into the males coiled together in the ball of flesh, tearing away large chunks of meat.
Blood splattered violently. Countless male snakes were severed into several sections, letting out painful hisses as they tumbled off the giant flesh ball one after another.
The giant snake swallowed the flesh whole. A crimson gleam flashed in its eyes as it tore away another massive chunk of meat from the ball.
Blood splattered everywhere as many male snakes were severed, twitching and writhing as they fell.
Many male snakes scrambled to escape the flesh ball, but they were already tightly coiled together, and now they were locked in this giant snake's deathly constriction, making it extremely difficult to break free.
Only a very few lucky ones managed to slide off the flesh ball and make a hasty escape.
“How tragic.”
Haoyuan couldn't help but marvel.
He only knew that female praying mantises would eat the males after mating, but he hadn't expected Titanoboas to have a similar habit.
“It's practically an all-you-can-eat buffet.”
Even though they were of the same species, eating them so ruthlessly was truly a bit terrifying to watch.
A single mating sacrificing hundreds of male pythons; Titanoboas were truly terrifying.
Just as Haoyuan was watching with great interest, a massive piece of black driftwood slowly floated down from the upper reaches of the river.
“?”
He cast a puzzled glance, only to realize that it wasn't driftwood at all, but a giant crocodile of colossal size.
The giant crocodile drew close to the flesh ball, then suddenly lunged out. Opening its bloody mouth, it bit down hard on the dark-green giant snake's neck.
Then, with a violent twist of its body, it initiated a death roll.
“The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind? Interesting.” Haoyuan smiled and continued to watch.
The giant snake, not expecting a sneak attack, let out a painful screech but cleverly wriggled its body in the direction of the giant crocodile's roll.
With every roll the giant crocodile made, the snake's thick, long body coiled up along with it, wrapping around it once.
After a few rounds, the giant crocodile was completely tied up.
Tightening its body like steel, the giant snake reversed the situation and initiated a constriction of its own.
The giant crocodile was clearly in distress but did not let go. Its back began to vibrate, releasing an extremely powerful infrasonic wave.
This caused countless fine water droplets in the surrounding waters to splash and dance violently upward, looking like an upside-down waterfall—a highly spectacular sight.
The giant snake was clearly unable to withstand this vibration. Its body shook along with it, and it hissed incessantly.
After dancing violently for a moment, the water droplets splashed from the giant crocodile's back suddenly crashed back down, and an invisible wave instantly rippled outward, sweeping in all directions and easily slicing the surrounding trees in half.
Haoyuan's eyes lit up. He hadn't expected the giant crocodile to possess such a wide-range destructive ability.
Struck by the wave's impact, the dark-green giant snake's internal organs violently churned, causing it to let out a painful roar.
Seizing the advantage, the giant crocodile pressed on. Water droplets splashed and leaped upward once more, then suddenly crashed back down as the invisible ripple surged outward yet again.
Rate on N.U.
