Chapter 192: Half a Month
A python, with flesh horns on its head and a body that faintly emitted a metallic sheen, coiled up and watched the group surrounding it with vigilance, continually emitting threatening hisses.
This nearly twenty-foot python was much smaller compared to the giant pythons of the Forest 01 World Fragment, but it was strong enough when compared to the size of an ordinary snake.
Moreover, its scale armor was tough enough to resist common blades, making it quite difficult to deal with.
"Be careful, this creature is tough to handle. It almost killed us before,"
one of the trainee soldiers lowered his voice, sounding somewhat nervous.
But at that moment,
with a whoosh, the coiled snake's head exploded on cue!
It burst into a splash of blood.
Even with its head blown apart, the snake's body still writhed and rolled violently, appearing quite horrific.
"It's already dead, and you still don't dare approach? If you were facing a Titan, you'd probably pee your pants."
Tao Yu's figure gracefully arrived, settling on a nearby treetop like a falling leaf, "encouraging" the three people before him.
Upon hearing this, they stepped forward without a word and cooperatively restrained the snake's body. They began to peel and cut along the texture of the scales skillfully and tacitly.
Satisfied with their practiced movements, Tao Yu leaped over, his hand turning into a claw to pierce through the tough snake skin, directly snatching the snake gallbladder. Then he left quickly with his flowing movements, heading to the next location that had sounded an alarm.
Tao Yu had been in this unnamed forest for half a month and was quite enjoying himself, almost loath to return to civilization.
The body of the Bosque Python was incredibly valuable; its snake skin was light yet tough, and could even withstand common swords, making it excellent armor material.
The snake meat was edible and could even increase Qi-Blood. The effect of eating it roasted was no less than that of Qi-tonic Soup!
To know that the purpose of Qi-tonic Soup was to stimulate the maximum Qi-Blood at the lowest cost using various ingredients, directly consuming snake meat was, in fact, an extravagant act.
The most critical part was the Bosque Python's gallbladder.
The Yuan Force of a Bosque Python wasn't high, with the gallbladder providing only about five or six points, and it contained no skill information.
But the Bosque Python's gallbladder had a minor effect on enhancing the physical body. Although there was a limit to its use and diminishing effects, each gallbladder could initially sell for five or six hundred Yuan Force, and later on, selling for two or three hundred Yuan Force was no problem at all.
The key was, this was different from Aliens. The skills of Aliens would eventually stop selling and directly extract Yuan Force, yielding only about twenty or thirty per creature.
However, the Bosque Python's gallbladder wouldn't drop in price like Alien's skills and become dirt cheap.
In terms of sustainability, it was even stronger than that of the Aliens!
Unfortunately, their breeding ability certainly couldn't compare with that of the Aliens, which were mainly about quantity over quality.
"Based on the ecosystem, if such a strong creature also had strong reproductive abilities, it would have either run rampant or gone extinct due to lack of food a long time ago,"
Tao Yu didn't hold out much hope for the Bosque Python's reproductive abilities. He only hoped that the biological researchers in the Inner City or Floating City would be effective and find a suitable breeding method.
Chirp~
Just then, a sharp sound suddenly came from ahead.
Following the Light Body Technique, Tao Yu arrived and saw three trainee soldiers continuously retreating while a snake and a sculpture fought fiercely before them.
The sculpture was huge and extremely ugly with sparsely arranged feathers and a hooked beak. Its yellow and black feathers looked filthy, and on top of its head was a blood-red fleshy lump, with thick legs.
There was also a pair of constantly flapping small wings that starkly contrasted its large body, making it clear it couldn't fly.
"Well, well, I haven't seen you in half a month,"
Tao Yu said upon seeing the Divine Sculpture, revealing a trace of interest on his face.
This was the companion of Sword Devil Dugu Qiubai. Due to years of companionship, it possessed extremely strong combat skills, and with the daily consumption of snake gallbladders, coupled with its innate exceptional talent, it had immense strength.
"It's a pity it can't fly, and then it's too ugly, otherwise it would really be the perfect mount,"
Tao Yu sighed and then, with a leap, he directly pounced towards the Divine Sculpture and the Busk Snake ahead.
The ugly bird, upon seeing Tao Yu's pounce, immediately emitted a threatening, hoarse, and deep sound, while the Busk Snake took the opportunity to strike at it.
Tao Yu flicked his finger, and a tiny pebble, empowered by his force, tore through the air and, like a precision-guided missile, instantly hit the snake's head.
Upon impact, the force imbued in the pebble erupted, followed by the infusion of Big Dipper True Qi causing an explosion, mixed with the Fist Intention of Turning False into True and the added Shadow Force.
With no time to react, the hard snake's head was instantly blasted into a spray of flesh, scattering in all directions.
The Divine Sculpture, which had been preying on Busk Snakes for many years, understood all too well how tough this kind of opponent was, with the snake's head being much harder than its belly.
Seeing Tao Yu fell the Busk Snake, over two zhang long, with a single strike, truly made even the bird's eyes widen in amazement.
The screeching sound quieted down, and it suddenly became much more obedient.
"Indeed, it's clever, but this Finger-Flicking Divine Power is really handy,"
Tao Yu gave a wry smile, then with a grab of the Nine Yin Divine Claw, he extracted the snake gallbladder and directly swallowed it.
Before reaching his saturation point, Tao Yu only intended to bring back one sample.
The strike just now was a variation after the deification of the Finger-Flicking Divine Power, turning into a merciless firing machine that combined all of Tao Yu's abilities, a development that both shocked and delighted him.
Finger-Flicking Divine Power was by the book, and after Deification, compared to other deified skills, it was quite ordinary, just with the added mental guidance, similar to the Basic Shooting ability.
But it just so happened to be able to successfully merge with many of Tao Yu's abilities, which truly made it a little gem.
The Nine Yin Divine Claw also left Tao Yu quite satisfied because it could be linked with the Spiral Nine Shadows.
After Deification and the infusion of Shadow Force, the residual shadow could synchronously carry a trace of the Nine Yin Divine Claw's strength, allowing the afterimage to possess certain offensive capabilities without switching positions!
So far, Tao Yu's experiments showed that only the power of the Nine Yin Divine Claw could blend into the Shadow Force.
"The Nine Yin Divine Claw itself already has a connection with Spiral Nine Shadows; after Deification, their synergy has become even closer,"
Tao Yu had only ever seen TV dramas before and was unaware of the relationship between the Nine Yin Divine Claw and Spiral Nine Shadows. Now that he had begun to practice them, he learned of their some connections.
"It's just a pity that even after reducing the speed to tenfold, the Yuan Force still keeps dropping sharply. I'll have to reduce the speed further; I can't afford a lull..."
Tao Yu saw his Yuan Force had dropped below the ten thousand mark and appeared somewhat helpless.
In fact, he was already being very conservative, making every effort to not invest Yuan Force in his techniques or limit it to a mere twofold as a token gesture.
The primary focus was on the Northern Dipper, followed by the Meditation Technique and Breathing Technique.
But you simply can't fight the fact that there are too many areas of consumption, and as strength increases, the consumption rate also increases proportionally.
Moreover, Spiral Nine Shadows and Finger-Flicking Divine Power still require a small investment of Yuan Force in the initial stages.
"I need to find time to go back and sell the first batch; I can't keep spending it here."
By now, the information and some of the items Tao Yu had found, he felt, could completely sustain his consumption.
"First, I'll go see what's at Dugu Qiubai's place."
The Busk Snakes around here will have to be farmed sooner or later. The old snakes can be used as breeding stock and should not be overly hunted anymore.
By now, all the students from the 104th training legion have participated in the killing, along with Cheng Lixue and Zhang Hao, the Chosen Ones without a doubt have been selected.
Eren, Cheng Lixue, Zhang Hao, all three were among them!