A shocking red message flashed by.
And Wang Wu exploded.
There was no time to wonder why; the only thing he could do was to slam into the rock on one side, while gripping the thick black snake tightly with his right claw. The scales on this creature were all a deep black, feeling like wrought iron to the touch.
Wang Wu's little claws popped out, yet he still couldn't manage to cut through them.
Such high defense.
"Bang!"
The Black Snake Priest was slammed hard against the rock, finally causing it to release its mouth, revealing four sharp and terrifying fangs. It swung its head, attempting to bite down on Wang Wu again.
But Wang Wu was faster, mainly because his Snake Poison Resistance was relatively high, so he wasn't paralyzed at all, his movements completely unaffected.
With a "bang," Wang Wu once again slammed the Black Snake Priest against the rock. This time, he put all his strength into it, as he was genuinely scared.
"Hiss hiss hiss!"
Although the Black Snake Priest had strong defense, such heavy blunt impacts were hard to endure.
Even though Wang Wu was still a juvenile, his species' size and tonnage spoke for itself. In this environment, surrounded by sharp, protruding rocks, the consecutive impacts caused two of the snake scales on one side to fall off, leaving the Black Snake Priest somewhat dumbfounded.
However, Wang Wu wouldn't give the Black Snake Priest any chance, clamping his claw tightly around its neck, like a wall.
Enduring the excruciating pain in his neck, and the dizziness from rapid blood loss, he continued to use the advantage of his body—impacting again, and again, crazily.
In less than five hits, the side of the Black Snake Priest's head was beaten into a bloody mess, its eyeball burst open, looking like it was not far from death.
Yet even this didn't quell Wang Wu's anger. He continued to scrape, hit, crash, stamp on it against the sharpest rocks until the entire snake head was a mess, only then did he sit down, greedily drinking snake blood and devouring the snake meat.
Meanwhile, his Level 1 Healing Talent automatically activated. Perhaps it was because of the snake blood, it felt as if a fiery blaze was burning inside him—no, it was purer Spiritual Qi.
He had just drained the snake blood, gaining a full 21 points of Spiritual Qi.
This Black Snake Priest was surely too plump!
Without hesitation, Wang Wu opened the attribute bar and upgraded his Healing Talent to Level 2.
Then, the effect was immediately different.
The heat flow within his body suddenly became larger, more intense, more fiery, like a tornado.
Immediately, the remaining satiety he had started visibly depleting.
"Your Level 2 Healing Talent has been activated. You consumed 10 points of satiety to be exempt from poison damage. You will consume 200 points of satiety, rapidly recovering 50 points of Life Value. This process will take one hour."
"Your Healing Talent has recorded a characteristic of the snake poison and has successfully perfected it, granting perfect resistance to this snake poison, (5/5)."
"You have gained permanent Ordinary Snake Poison Resistance (5/5), granting you 10% conventional growth and 10% additional growth. Current total growth is 12.2%."
"Friendly reminder: additional growth is not restricted by conventional growth limits."
---
Good heavens!
This Black Snake Priest must count as a demon, being so plump!
Wang Wu felt mixed emotions of surprise and delight as he dragged the Black Snake Priest's body back into the depths of the rock crevice to continue devouring the snake meat because it was truly delicious—he simply couldn't stop.
Moreover, the snake meat was also infused with a small amount of Spiritual Qi.
His satiety continually increased but was instantly consumed again, continuously converting into Life Force, slowly healing his wounds.
This Healing Talent was truly domineering and robust.
Except it required too much food.
When Wang Wu finished eating all the snake meat and gall bladder, his satiety had already returned to 300 points, with an additional harvest of 12 points of Spiritual Qi, bringing his total Spiritual Qi to 15.9 points.
As for Life Value, it had rapidly recovered by 50 points, with his total Life Value now at 62 points, finally putting his mind at rest.
Only then did he begin to reconsider the ambush that nearly cost him his life.
Why had the Black Snake Priest targeted him? How could someone like him, just a small passerby, attract the attention of such a formidable deity to ambush him?
Furthermore, why weren't there other Black Snakes assisting? Otherwise, he would truly be doomed this time.
Could it be that the Black Snake Race was collapsing?
Was the Black Snake Priest hiding here?
Various thoughts flashed, and Wang Wu couldn't help but feel a sense of sorrow. In just a few days, the Black Snake Race, the valley's supreme overlord, had fallen to such a state.
Thinking back to how early today the Wandering Mantis Blade Master even showed up to make its presence known, it was understandable.
Alas!
Truly, when the wall falls, everyone gives it a push; when the snake is kind, it gets ridden.
That night, there was indeed no more activity from above the cliff.
By the next morning, when Wang Wu awoke from his sleep, he heard his stomach growling loudly. His 300 points of satiety had dropped to zero, replaced by an increase in growth percentage by 0.5%, now at 12.7%, slowly growing.
Cautiously squeezing out from the rock crevice, he didn't see the Wandering Mantis Blade Master legion today, nor were there any signs of danger around, not even the Gray Mouse Knight who hated him so profoundly.
Heading a bit farther out, Wang Wu looked back up to the top of the cliff, and sure enough, the Black Snake Race's territory had been taken over by the Flame Scorpions.
At that moment, on the highest point of the cliff, at least thirty meters above the ground, a fire-red scorpion as large as a cauldron stood staunchly, flaunting its dual fiery glowing pincers like two flaming broadswords, paired with a nearly two-meter-long fiery tail barb, casting a fearsome presence.
And judging by its size, this Flame Scorpion had already monopolized the Black Snake Race's wealth, as it wasn't this large a few days ago.
Below the Flame Scorpion King were eight thirty-centimeter-long Flame Scorpions, though their fiery glow was noticeably thinner, at least two levels less.
These should be the Scorpion Clan's middle management, similar to the Black Snake Priests.
Further down were more than a dozen palm-sized Red Scorpions, with none possessing glow, at best matching the level of a Black Snake Assassin, or even a Black Snake Sentinel.
However, now that the Scorpion Race had taken hold here, their future growth should not be underestimated.
Wang Wu observed for a while before discreetly retreating once more.
In his view, the Scorpion Race's forces seemed rather thin, unable to fully control the entire cliff territory. He wasn't hoping to occupy any land but only to glean a bit of Spiritual Qi during the Golden Three Minutes.
He preferred to be friendly and was happy to be a good neighbor.
Of course, this was only taking advantage because the Scorpion Race had not yet established a firm foothold, preoccupied with various matters, temporarily unable to attend to everything. So just today, he wouldn't dare be so reckless tomorrow.
Cautiously, he climbed upward, timing his actions with the Purple Gold Three Minutes soon approaching the mark, he lay in wait at the spot from yesterday, approximately eight meters above ground, silently counted to three, and swiftly entered Level 4 Concealment State.
This position was rather good, allowing him to effortlessly enjoy at least one Golden Minute, even if not the entire Golden Three Minutes.
Today's goal was modest, for he currently had 15.9 points of Spiritual Qi, aiming only to gather 40 points of Spiritual Qi.