Chapter 89: Silver Striped Golden Snake
Just as Jian Chen stabbed downwards with his Light Wind Sword, a golden vine-like thing flew out of the water and attacked Jian Chen.
When Jian Chen’s sword and the golden vine-like thing collided into each other, Jian Chen’s downward momentum was stopped. His whole body maintained a stabbing posture while he was suspended in midair. The tip of his sword accurately pierced the head of the golden vine-like creature.
This scene lasted for a span of two breaths. Suddenly, from the forest next to the river, another golden vine suddenly burst out from the tall grass and flew at Jian Chen.
Jian Chen’s face didn’t change from the sudden ambush. Bracing his arm as he prepared to borrow the power of the golden vine-like thing below him to gain momentum, he kicked off of his attacker and whirled through the air, landing firmly down by the riverside. The moment he hit the ground, he immediately sprinted to where his clothes were and put them on.
After putting on his clothes, Jian Chen looked up to assess the golden vine-like thing only to find out that it was a golden snake. Its entire body was golden in color, but there were a few silver lines going from the top of its head to its tail. It was also long in length; just the exposed area alone was almost 6 meters long. The moment Jian Chen noticed the silver streak on its body, he was stunned. It seemed like he had remembered something, as his face suddenly changed dramatically. He couldn’t help but exclaim loudly, “Silver Striped Golden Snake!”
The Silver Striped Golden Snake was something that Jian Chen had read about before from the books in the academy’s library. It was a rare magical beast that was regarded as the emperor of serpents. In the entire Tian Yuan Continent, considering the tens of thousands of magical beasts, the population size of Silver Striped Golden Snakes barely even reached three digits. .
The Silver Striped Golden Snake wasn’t precious because of its rarity, but because of its body. Whether it was for meat or blood, it was very valuable. The venom in its body was especially precious; it belonged to the type of goods in the Tian Yuan Continent where there was no market, even if people offered high prices for them.
This was because if this highly toxic venom was specially refined, it could even kill a Peak Heaven Saint Master. Moreover, purging this venom was impossible. Unless one had the blood of the Silver Striped Golden Snake, there was no other method; even a Radiant Saint Master wouldn’t be able to do anything about it. Although the Light Saint Force had mystical healing effects, and could detoxify many poisons, it simply couldn’t remove the unique and highly toxic venom that a Silver Striped Golden Snake possessed, as well as several other rather special types of venom. At most, a Radiant Saint Master would only be able to temporarily suppress the poison; however, completely purging it was impossible.
Also, the Silver Striped Golden Snake was different compared to any other snake. Not only was it long it was also relatively thin. It could be said that a few Silver Striped Golden Snakes that reached the Class 5 Magical Beast rank would reach up to a hundred meters long, but their widths would not even be thirty centimeters wide.
A Class 6 Silver Striped Golden Snake was able to control the size of its body, and could even shrink its body down to one or two meters long.
Not only were Class 6 Silver Striped Golden Snakes very strong, but rumors said that they could fly through the air and burrow into the ground. Its venom was unrivaled, and even a Heaven Saint Master would be afraid of the consequences of being infected by one.
In the ancient records, a hundred years ago in the Holy Empire, a Class 6 Silver Striped Golden Snake had laid waste to a King City with the population of ten million people in the time it took for a candle wick to burn out. Every single person was killed by the potent venom even decayed corpses. All that was left in the city was the stench of fresh blood that rose endlessly into the air.
After this horrifying event, the Holy Empire sent out over ten Heaven Saint Masters to go kill the Silver Striped Golden Snake. But before half a day was over, seven of the Heaven Saint Masters were killed by the poison with the remaining few having serious injuries or were poisoned heavily. However not long afterwards, the remaining few experts that were poisoned died as well.
This event had caused every single Saint Ruler in the Holy Empire to become shocked. In the end, a Saint Ruler finally fought the Silver Striped Golden Snake in an earth shattering battle that had only led in the withdrawal of the beast instead of killing it.
But in the end, everyone knew how strong a Silver Striped Golden Snake could become.
Recalling the information he had read about this beast back in Kargath Library, Jian Chen looked at the golden colored snake with a horrified look of disbelief. His heart couldn’t help, but begin to race rapidly. He didn’t think that he would come across the rare Silver Striped Golden Snake in such a desolate place like the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts; it was only the outskirts of the Mountain Range, where it should’ve been hard to even encounter one on the entire Tian Yuan Continent.
Sweeping his eyes over the wrist sized snake attentively, Jian Chen had to concede to the fact that he had come across a Silver Striped Golden Snake.
“What terrible luck, how could I come across such a thing?” Jian Chen quickly calmed himself, but inwardly, he was still cursing to himself. He knew how terrifying a Silver Striped Golden Snake could be despite never seeing one in real life. Just reading about it was enough for Jian Chen to understand that with his current Great Saint strength, fighting against a Silver Striped Golden Snake was extremely troublesome.
Jian Chen heavily stared at the Silver Striped Golden Snake only ten meters away from him, his gaze filled with vigilance. He gripped his sword tightly as he thought about the fact that the Silver Striped Golden Snake he encountered was no ordinary magical beast. A single mistake could possible cause him to lose his life today.
This was definitely the most dangerous encounter that Jian Chen had experienced since he had first entered the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts. It was to the point where he was unsure if he would be able to leave the place alive.
If it was any other strong magical beast that Jian Chen couldn’t defeat, he would still be able to run away. But the moment he recognized the Silver Striped Golden Snake, he had already given up all such notions He was fast; even if he just relied on his Saint’s strength, he could surpass the speed of a wind attribute practitioner. However, Jian Chen was sure that his speed was incomparable to the snake’s; he wouldn’t even be qualified to carry the shoes for the snake if it owned any.
That was because the Silver Striped Golden Snake was extremely fast while running in a straight line. Although it wasn’t the fastest magical beast, when it came to the ones that crawled on the ground, the Silver Striped Golden Snake was in the top three. When compared to humanity, unless you had the wind attribute and were multiple ranks higher than the snake, then you wouldn’t be fast enough to outrun it.
“When seeing a Silver Striped Golden Snake, one cannot run away in a straight line, or else a dead end will be the only thing that’ll greet them. I don’t know how strong this snake is either; if it is a Class 1 Magical Beast, then the danger will be significantly smaller, and I might be able to kill it. If it’s a Class 2 Magical Beast, then there will be a bigger threat to my life, but I should be able to run away from it with no problem.” Jian Chen muttered. Right now, his only wish was for the snake to not be too strong; otherwise, he didn’t think he would be able to leave this place alive.
As Jian Chen was pondering to himself in that brief moment, the Silver Striped Golden Snake suddenly opened its mouth and spat out a gray poisonous mist that quickly floated over to where Jian Chen stood. As it floated over, every single plant life in the mist immediately began to wilt, and even the larger trees were noticeably changing. In a flash, it looked as if its very life was being drained away quickly.
The moment the gray gas drew closer, Jian Chen’s head started to feel a little dizzy. At the same time, Jian Chen felt as if his strength was being sucked right out of him.
Feeling the change that was happening in his body, Jian Chen’s eyes widened in shock; he realized the Silver Striped Golden Snake could directly contaminate the air with its poison. Now he finally knew how terrifying the poison was; it was no wonder that the poison could easily kill a Heaven Saint Master.
Without hesitating, he bit down onto his tongue with his teeth. The piercing pain from his tongue finally cleared away the dizziness he was feeling. After that, he jumped further back, and began to circulate his Saint Force around him so that the strength draining sensation was weakened.
Once again calming himself down, Jian Chen narrowed his eyes in concentration. Although he hadn’t fought the Silver Striped Golden Snake yet and only experienced its poison, Jian Chen could deduce that this snake was at the very least a Class 2 Magical Beast.
Seeing the poisonous fog float closer, Jian Chen didn’t hesitate before immediately holding his breath. His legs glided across the floor as he ran further away from the poison.
The moment Jian Chen began to move, so did the snake. Turning into a golden streak of light, it flew towards Jian Chen at a speed multiple times faster than him.
Although the Silver Striped Golden Snake was only the size of his wrist in width, it was still very fast. In the blink of an eye, it had already caught up to where Jian Chen was, with its mouth wide open: ready to bite his neck.
Right as the Silver Striped Golden Snake was about to bite into Jian Chen’s neck, Jian Chen tilted his head in this crucial moment and retreated backwards. At the same time, his Light Wind Sword flickered into view in his right hand. With a single swing, a silver light came trailing behind the blade, slashing at the snake. With a large amount of Sword Qi concentrated together, the sword trail left behind looked like the lunar moon, and left a dazzling effect. Jian Chen had used his entire strength in that one swing.
The Light Wind Sword met no obstructions as it smoothly stabbed towards the Silver Striped Golden Snake. But there was no excitement on Jian Chen’s face; in fact, his face had started to look quite unsightly, as his sword didn’t pierce through the scaly skin of the snake. Not a single mark could be seen on the scales.
“What a strong defense.” Jian Chen gasped, his face deathly pale; because of his cultivation methods, his attacking power was extraordinarily strong. Although he only had the power of a Great Saint, his attack was not much weaker than a Saint Master’s. But an attack with his entire strength hadn’t left even a single trace on the Silver Striped Golden Snake. By this point, Jian Chen was aware that this Silver Striped Golden Snake was at the very least a Class 3 Magical Beast, maybe a Class 4 Magical Beast. This was not a fight Jian Chen could afford to have.
If it were an ordinary Class 3 Magical Beast, Jian Chen would have to expend a little more energy to kill it, but the Silver Striped Snake couldn’t be evaluated the same way as a normal magical beast could.