Chapter 69 Crazy Python Disaster

The tree canopy overhead was actually very close to us—only about two or three meters away—so we could see the snake’s scales very clearly. It was a tree python as thick as a bucket at the widest part, but I couldn’t tell how long it was since most of its body was hidden in the dense canopy. To my surprise, the snake’s scales looked brownish-gold in the light of the miner’s lamps, as if the snake was gilded.

When we climbed up earlier, there definitely weren’t any pythons around, which meant that this one must have slithered through the tree canopies while we were resting. Pythons usually moved very slowly and stealthily when they weren’t hunting, and there was still a slight wind blowing through the trees, filling the jungle with the sound of rustling leaves. We were all so exhausted that we didn’t notice anything at all. Even Pan Zi, who was keeping watch, didn’t notice its approach.

However, it wasn’t all that surprising that there were pythons here—tropical rainforests were their usual habitat. Plus, we had seen so many strange things that a big snake wasn’t enough to make us nervous.

Pan Zi and the others, having experienced so much in their lives, remained surprisingly calm. No one moved or screamed. We didn’t know whether the snake was interested in us or not, but this kind of snake had a long attack range—if we moved rashly and startled it, it would attack in an instant. With us being stuck in the tree, we would definitely suffer heavy losses.

We remained frozen as the tree python slowly wound its way down, hung its huge head over the branch above us, and looked down at us. Those angry yellow eyes set against the backdrop of the dark night made us all feel extremely uncomfortable.

Pan Zi, who had already raised his gun, was still trying to wake Fatty up, but the bastard continued to sleep and wouldn’t wake up no matter how hard Pan Zi pushed him. Poker-Face had one hand on his black-gold blade that was hanging across his lower back while his other hand was holding his knife in a reverse grip. Everyone instinctively shrank back, trying to keep as far away from the snake as possible.

I was behind everyone, so I knew that if this thing wanted to attack, it wouldn’t go after me first. With that thought in mind, I looked towards the base of the tree and wondered if we could jump down. After all, we were in a tree—and quite high up at that—so moving around would be difficult and might result in injuries.

After the heavy rain, the waterfalls on both sides of the cliff had separated into a large number of streams at the bottom of the canyon. Now these streams had merged, turning the muddy ground under the trees into a black pool. There would be tree roots and thick mud hidden underneath, making it difficult to predict whether we could escape or not.

Still thinking, I turned to look at the rainforest in front of me. But just as I did, I suddenly heard the sound of rustling leaves overhead again. This time, however, it seemed to coming from behind me.

Looking back, I felt my whole body break out in a cold sweat—a smaller tree python was hanging right behind my neck. It was also brownish-gold, but it was only about as thick as a thigh. It was hanging about an arm’s length away from my face, so close that its stench assaulted my nostrils.

I was so scared that I recoiled, but the others were still shrinking back from the other snake, so we ended up crowded together with nowhere to go.

Everyone froze, not daring to move or hardly breathe as we stared at the snakes and the snakes stared at us.

I couldn’t help but find the situation a little odd—pythons were solitary animals and very territorial. They rarely hunted together unless it was the mating season. Could it be that the rainy season here was their mating season? What a horrible time for us to come here. These two pythons—one in front and one behind us—seemed to be deliberately trying to catch us in a pincer movement. They were probably a male and female who had just finished mating. I suddenly recalled the human corpse in the snake bones and felt sick. Damn it, I thought to myself, I don’t want to be your postcoital snack.

The two pythons remained still for a long time, but no one dared to move. They probably rarely saw people and couldn’t figure out what the situation was so they didn’t dare attack. Moreover, Poker-Face and Pan Zi were staring into the snakes’ eyes, looking like two fierce and imposing stone statues. The pythons seemed to sense the potential danger and hesitated.

After about ten minutes, the two pythons, unable to find an opening, seemed to give up and slowly retreated back into the canopy.

Seeing them both slither back up, I couldn’t help but quietly breathe a sigh of relief. I saw Pan Zi’s tense body slowly relax and the barrel of his gun slower lower and started rejoicing in my heart. To be honest, it was better not to fight a snake in a place like this—the snake’s attack power was one thing, but even slipping and falling out of the tree would be enough to do us in.

But just as I finally dared to breathe and relax a little, Fatty suddenly turned over, let out a loud snore, and made a long nasally sound.

The sound was so sudden in the extreme quiet that everyone jumped in fright. A Ning hurriedly pressed her hand over his mouth, but it was too late—the whole tree shook violently and a nasty stench suddenly filled the air as the larger tree python’s head appeared in front of us again. This time, the snake’s body was already arched into a U-shape, making it obvious that it was about to attack.

Pan Zi immediately raised his gun, but he was a step too slow—the python struck as fast as lightning. Pan Zi managed to move his head away in time, but the snake’s head slid past him and headed right for Poker-Face, who was standing behind him. With his field of view partially blocked, Poker-Face couldn’t dodge in time, and the snake’s fangs sank into his shoulder. The python then coiled its muscular body up until it looked like a coiled dragon and slammed into the snake bones at our feet with the force of a strong gale. The impact knocked us over as the crumbling pile of bones immediately fell apart. Then, the whole structure beneath our feet collapsed, and we fell in a shower of snake bones.

Fortunately, there were a lot of vines wrapped around the snake bones, connecting the broken pieces together like tendons, so that even though half the structure collapsed, the rest was caught by the vines. My hands and feet scrabbled for purchase before I finally managed to grab a vine, sliding down a few meters before coming to a stop. When I looked up, I saw that the python had pulled Poker-Face into the air and was wrapping itself tightly around him, its grip growing tighter and tighter as it coiled around itself. Poker-Face struggled hard, but there was nothing he could do since his black-gold sword seemed to have been lost somewhere in the struggle.

I anxiously shouted at Pan Zi to hurry up and shoot, but when I turned my head, I couldn’t see him at all—I didn’t know where he had fallen. At this time, I saw Poker-Face suddenly shrug his shoulders, and then his whole body shrunk. He slipped out of the python’s tight coils, landed on a branch with a roll, jumped onto the tangled cluster of vines, and slid down to my side while shouting at me, “Give me your knife!”

I hurriedly tried to draw it, but I was so nervous that I couldn’t pull it out no matter how hard I tried. At this time, the python finally realized that its prey had escaped and rushed back towards our tree, clearly enraged. It appeared in front of us in the blink of an eye, lunging forward to strike again.

“Oh shit!” I shouted, seeing that ferocious mouth coming right towards my face. I figured few people had ever seen such a terrifying sight. Poker-Face grabbed one of the vines, pulled a bone out of it, and threw it towards the python. It quickly dodged, but that was enough to buy us some time. “Jump down!” Poker-Face shouted at me.

But at that moment, my brain seemed to stop working. I didn’t know what I was thinking, but I reflexively curled into a ball and stopped moving right as the snake reared its head to strike again. Poker-Face tsked and then sent me flying out of the tree with a hard kick.

The force was so strong that the vine I was holding onto snapped. Panicking, I scrambled to grab onto something else, but my hands came up empty. I fell straight down, hitting several branches along the way before eventually landing heavily on the ground. Fortunately, there was water and mud below—after rolling end over end, I finally came to a stop flat on my stomach. My mouth was full of mud, but my body didn’t hurt very much.

While I was still in a daze, someone helped me up and started dragging me away. We had only gone a few steps when I started to feel a burning pain spread throughout my whole body. I wiped the mud off of my face and saw that A Ning and Fatty were the ones dragging me along. Looking around, I saw that all the miner’s lamps had fallen into the mud and gone out, making it difficult to see anything clearly. Pan Zi had his gun aimed up at the tree, but from our position, it was too dark to see what was going on up in the canopy.

“How are you feeling?” A Ning asked me.

I shook my head and said that I was fine. They continued dragging me further away, but I immediately started protesting, “Wait, that guy is still up there. We can’t leave him!”

No sooner had the words left my mouth than the whole tree started shaking wildly, and then Poker-Face, like a monkey, stepped on the trunk and jumped down. At the same time, there was an explosion of leaves and bark as a huge black shadow appeared behind him like a gust of wind. The two shadows were almost tangled together as they fell into the muddy water. The ensuing splash didn’t even have time to settle before I saw the python lunge towards Poker-Face. He ducked low, but then disappeared as another wave of water surged up.

Seeing this, I thought to myself, Fuck, he’s actually fighting this snake bare-handed! Then I immediately shouted, “Pan Zi, hurry up and help him!”

But before I had even finished speaking, Pan Zi was already rushing over with a curse. He moved his head to avoid the spray, raised his gun, took aim, and finally fired the first shot. He was an extremely competent marksman, so he hit the snake in the head with that first shot. As the snake writhed in the air and drew back, Poker-Face rolled out from under its body, leaped up, and made his escape. But the snake didn’t die—it twisted violently and, like a spring, lunged to attack him again. Pan Zi immediately shot it again, causing it to jerk back, then he started backing away while shouting at us, “I’ll cover you! Get out of here—!”

But before he could finish speaking, the other python suddenly dropped down from the tree, sank its fangs into his shoulder, and lifted him into the air.

The attack was so fast that none of us had time to react. All we could do was stare in shock as he was lifted into the air. I watched him scramble to grab onto something and suddenly felt my heart sink—he’s done for!

But Pan Zi showed no fear in the face of danger. Before I even realized what was happening, I saw him grab his knife and stab upwards, somehow managing to plunge it right into the snake’s eye. The python’s whole body constricted in pain, and then it loosened its grip. Pan Zi was thrown to the side, where he hit a tree and rolled down it before landing on the ground, his face covered in blood. A Ning grabbed two cold fireworks from her backpack, slammed the ends against her knees to ignite them, and then rushed between the python and Pan Zi, blocking the python with the cold flames. “Grab him and run!” She shouted at us.

“No!” I shouted back. “Cold fireworks aren’t warm enough to drive it back!”

“You might know it, but the snake doesn’t!” She snapped.

Fatty and I rushed over, lifted Pan Zi up, and ran into the forest. But before we had gone a few steps, we were suddenly hit with a wave of muddy water. Turning around, I saw that the larger python Poker-Face had fought was still alive. Its head was covered in blood and its huge body was furiously chasing Poker-Face, who was rushing right towards us. The giant python danced wildly behind him, almost looking like it was flying.

Seeing this situation, two thoughts suddenly popped into my head: “The python is pissed!” and “The consequences will be serious!” I suddenly felt my legs go weak, but then I heard Poker-Face shout “Get down!” Fatty grabbed me and ran a few steps forward before yanking me to lie down in the water. The python was there in an instant, but Poker-Face and A Ning rolled to avoid it, landing in the mud. I could feel the huge python’s body slither over my back as it rushed forward, but it was moving too fast to stop itself from crashing into a nearby tree. It slammed into it so hard that the big tree almost broke, causing leaves and branches to fall down like rain.

We got up, so disoriented that we couldn’t tell which way was up. Fatty started cursing loudly, clearly pissed beyond reason, “Fucking bastard, I’ll kill you!” Then he pulled the knife from my belt and rushed towards the stunned python. I leaped up and grabbed him, preventing him from going any further. Poker-Face also got up, and I saw that his shoulder was covered in blood—the wound was obviously very serious. Panting, he pointed to the trees on one side and shouted to us, “Run! There’s something wrong with these snakes!”

Seeing Poker-Face hurt like this, Fatty let out a curse and then hurriedly picked up Pan Zi and threw Pan Zi’s gun to me. I lifted the gun up and moved to the rear as we all fled straight into the jungle. As soon as I ran into the cover of the bushes, I heard the sounds of splashing water behind me—the snake was coming again.

We had no time to look behind us since the ground was full of extremely lush bushes and ferns that were covered in thorns. As soon as we rushed in, the thorns slid over our exposed skin, leaving bloody scratches behind. I grimaced in pain but clenched my teeth and ignored it, focusing all of my attention on running away.

No one could have imagined that we could run that fast through the jungle. If we had moved at this speed from the beginning, we would have crossed the entire canyon as early as noon today. We quickly rushed to the cliffs, but the waterfalls from earlier were still cascading down in a steady torrent. The streams of water below were knee-deep, which forced us to slow down.

We looked back—damn, the snake was still hot on our trail, looking like a coiled dragon as it swiftly followed us through the bushes. We needed to keep running, but the only thing in front of us was a waterfall—we had nowhere to go. Fatty cursed, “Damn it, who was leading the way?”

We all started to panic—the water here was so deep that it made it difficult to move, but we knew that pythons could move very easily in water. This time, the situation was really bad. But just as we were starting to lose hope, A Ning saw something and shouted, “There!”

Following the light of her miner’s lamp, we saw a crevice behind one of the waterfalls that looked like the perfect place to hide. “Quickly, quickly!” Fatty shouted at us.

We rushed over and ran through the waterfall, finding that the crevice was very narrow and the inside was full of water—the python definitely wouldn’t be able to get inside. We squeezed in, having to turn sideways just to fit, but Fatty couldn’t get in no matter how hard he tried.

We tried to drag him in with all our strength as he tried to push himself in from the outside, but only one leg made it in. A Ning directed the light of her miner’s lamp out of the crevice, and we could see the huge silhouette of the snake’s head right outside the curtain of water. Fatty immediately panicked and started shouting, “What are you doing?! Turn it off! Turn it off!”

I covered his mouth and hissed at him to shut up, but everyone knew that it was useless to hide. We all grabbed our weapons and got ready to fight to the death.

But strangely enough, the python only hovered on the other side of the waterfall without sticking its head in. It slithered back and forth a few times before eventually turning and leaving.

We all looked at each other in confusion. If the snake had poked its head in just a little bit, Fatty would have definitely been screwed. We obviously couldn’t have stood by and watched, so it would have turned into a life-or-death battle, even if the snake was already half-dead. Why did it suddenly leave? Was it afraid of the waterfall?

At this time, we suddenly heard a series of sounds coming from deeper in the crevice, like that of a chicken clucking. Since the water rumbling outside wasn’t very loud, we could all hear it very clearly.

Feeling alarmed at suddenly hearing a chicken clucking in a place like this, everyone immediately turned their heads. Now that we had the energy to observe our shelter, we found that the water didn’t even reach our waists. We didn’t see anything from our current position, so we went a little deeper and saw something sitting on a rock at the far end of the crevice. This thing was completely hidden in the darkness, hovering right outside the halo of light cast by the miner’s lamp.

My eyes were still struggling to adjust so I couldn’t see clearly, but as soon as I saw this thing’s indistinct outline, I immediately felt uneasy. Unable to pinpoint what was so strange about it, I asked A Ning to shine the miner’s lamp in that direction.

As the light swept over that part of the crevice, the thing’s true identity was finally revealed. For about two or three seconds, I stared at it in shock, not realizing what I was seeing. But even when it finally hit me, I still couldn’t believe my eyes.

In the innermost part of the crevice, I saw a snake about as thick as my wrist. It wasn’t a python, but it was red all over and its head was shaped like a very sharp triangle with a big cockscomb on top of it. But the thing I found hardest to believe was that this snake was actually standing up straight, like a person without any arms or legs. Its head was lowered, and it was looking at me with an ominous glint in its eyes.

As I looked into the snake’s eyes, I found that I could hardly move. I continued to stare at it until A Ning tugged on my arm, distracting me. That was when I realized what I had seen, and why the giant python had given up on us. With this revelation, fear I hadn’t felt since childhood started to spread throughout my whole body.

<Chapter 68><Table of Contents><Chapter 70>

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If I remember right, I think I know what happens next chapter. Prepare yourselves…