73 Strange Horns

"Ugh… my head…" Rolling onto her back, her body ached as she sat upright.

Gingery touched her head; she rubbed away the headache that rang through her skull.

'Aiyah, what happened?'

Fanning the dust around her, Zhu Na Ran tried to hold back an oncoming sneeze as the fog gradually faded away.

"Ugh… why dust?" Squinting her eyes, she tried to make out any shapes through the darkness.

Fumbling through her robes, Zhu Na Ran pulled out a light talisman and activated it. Instantly, light flooded the darkened carven and glowed like a lone star in the night.

"Fuah," standing up, Zhu Na Ran shook her sore limbs, which ached as she moved. "Hah, that f*cking snake…

Causing this auntie so much trouble, ah…"

Whelp, what could she do now?

"Where am I?" From the looks of the surrounding area, she was in another cave.

Or, more accurately, a pit.

'Ah, yes.

Just what I needed, another pit to climb out of.'

And looking at the fallen debris and rubble, she may be a lot deeper in the mountain than she would like.

'Aiyah.

Who knew that the floors of the tunnel were so weak! Just one hit from that massive spike caused the floor to fall right beneath our feet!'

She couldn't remember much of how she got into this strange pit, but it is evident that wherever she was, her senior sister was nowhere in sight.

"Hah, maybe Senior Sister fell into a different section of a cave, or perhaps somewhere else all to gather.

She was a bit ahead of me," Zhu Na Ran mumbled as she looked at the caved-in ceiling.

After all, even if that fall was pretty bad, her senior sister was quite tough.

There's no way that she would go down in such an easy manner.

Perhaps her senior sister had already found her way back to the others and was waiting on her return.

'Ah, no use just waiting around, I have to get out of here!

Hmm, but I don't know if I can climb out of here.'

Although the fallen rocks and notches in the wall allowed her to climb up to a certain height, they were far and few between as the stones were oddly smooth.

"Aiyah, forget it. I better use my strength for something else."

Using the merger light, she looked around the area again; until her fingers found a hole with the faintest airflow.

'Hmm, what's this?'

Crouching down, she peered her eye through the hole, only to see more darkness on the other side.

'Is this possibly another tunnel?'

Pulling back, she shook out her arm. "Whelp, here goes nothing."

"Boom!"

The walls shook as she suddenly punched the wall. Though the wall had yet to break, a cratering crack appeared from the impact.

"Maybe one more time?" Using a little more qi, the wisps of energy encased her hand as they closed into another fist. "Hiyah!"

"Boom!"

After the second punch, the cracks became larger before the entire wall came tumbling down, sending another cloud of dust her way.

"ACHOO!

A-achoo!"

Sniffing, she whipped her nose with her handkerchief as her eyes watered from the dust.

'Aiyah, I should've placed up a barrier to avoid this dust!

It looks like there is a way out now!

Maybe...'

Peering into the darkness, she couldn't find anything unusual about it, as it just appeared to be another cave.

But, this could be another opportunity for her to get lost deeper within this labyrinth.

"Hah, having Senior Sister here would be nice.

I didn't even memorize that crazy map from before.

A path is a path.

Hehe, maybe I'll even find that crypt that the others were talking about!"

Now invigorated with the prospect of treasure, Zhu Na Ran set off into the dark unknown.

---

"Ahh, treasure, where are you?"

Zhu Na Ran's voice reverberated down the tunnel with only the slow drips of water hitting stone as her only answer to her question.

'Aiyah, this tunnel seems to be going on forever.' Looking back, she couldn't even see the entrance from whence she came. 'Maybe I should go back?

No, no, no. I'm already this far; no use going back now.'

Plus, if the tracking array was correct, she should bump into her senior sister sometime soon.

Walking through the darkened corridor with her light talisman leading the way, Zhu Na Ran searched for clues of how to escape this winding tunnel or possibly the crypt entrance.

Either one would be much appreciated.

"Puah, this is boring…" One could only walk alone in the dark for so long before losing interest in the experience.

Either that or she became brain dead from the fall that she lost any sense of fear.

'Aiyah, I wish Senior Sister was here…'

And they were doing so well earlier too! Ye Lian Hua was no longer ignoring her and even took the initiative to speak to her first!

Albeit for a 'subtle' warning, but still, progress.

However, before she could think more about the topic, the caves once again shook violently.

'Great! What's happening this time!'

Attempting to stabilize herself, Zhu Na Ran stretched her arms out, letting the tremors ride themselves out.

As if repeating the past, as soon as the shakes came, they stopped abruptly.

"Where are you, you scaly beast?"

"Hisss!" Popping out of the wall, the snake reared its hideous head right at her, its eyes gleaming as they locked themselves on her form.

"There you are."

---

"Wah!

Okay, this was a bad idea!" Dashing down the corridor, Zhu Na Ran picked up her pace as the serpent behind her crashed against the walls as its massive body struggled to make the sharp turns as it gave chase.

"Hisss!!!!"

"Aiyah!"

Zhu Na Ran couldn't believe her sh*tty luck!

How could that one critical hit miss?!

There was nothing between them other than empty air, and they were partially a breath away!

'Aiyah, this is what happens when you take short cuts!'

She knew that there was a chance that the technique that she used, 'Peach Blossom Tears,' wouldn't work as she was relatively new to it, but this!

This seems as if the world was playing a massive joke on her!

There was only a fifteen percent chance of failure, so how did that move to land in the merger fifteen percent?!

What about the other eighty-five percent?!

"Aiyah!" Sliding on her next turn, Zhu Na Ran scrambled to her feet before throwing out a random talisman.

As soon as it landed on the serpent's face, a puff of smoke appeared.

Not bothering to check if the talisman was effective, Zhu Na Ran continued to dash through the corridor.

"Hisss!"

Darting out of the fog, the snake shot towards her like an arrow locked onto its target.

'Aiyah!'

"Hisss!!!"

"Crash!"

'Huh?'

She was sure that she'd be in the stomach of the beast by now.

Not dead, of course, just disgusted at whatever's in there.

"Hiss!

Hisss!"

Looking up at the commotion, Zhu Na Ran saw the serpentine beast hissing at her as it struggled to make its way to her. Ramming its head, the serpent tried to force its way through the narrow opening, yet to no avail.

"Haha! Yes!" Seeing the serpent's pathetic attempt to squeeze through and fail, Zhu Na Rna couldn't help to dance around in glee. "Take that, you scaly worm!'

"Hisss!" Enraged, the snake sprayed out its seemingly acidic secretions, to which she happily skipped over and avoided.

'Ah, this is truly great.' Once she came down from her momentary high of happiness and jubilation,

"Drip, drip."

Suddenly the snake stopped struggling as it limply stayed in place.

'Hmm, weird.'

"Hah, have you given up now?"

"Hisss!" Lunging forward, the snake tried to take a bite out of her; however, it still couldn't move due to its massive horns attached to its head.

"Strange, why do I smell blood?"

Surely, she wasn't the one bleeding, so who was?

"Drip, drip…"

Zhu Na Ran could see streams of hot blood pouring down the snake's green head through the thin light.

"What the heck…" Cautiously stepping forward, she stretched her hand out to touch the snake's nose. Surprisingly, it didn't make a move to bite her hand.

'I knew that this serpent's horns were weird, but not this weird.'

Bringing the light closer to the serpent's face, she could see that, in fact, she was right about her initial thoughts.

The horns were, in fact, unnatural.

Unnatural to the fact that they were seemingly drilled into the snake's head!

'Wah! What kind of cruel person does this to animals! Or to anyone for that matter!

Perhaps this is why the snake attacked us in the first place. It must be in so much pain right now.'

"Don't worry, scaly; I'll help you out of this one.

You may have caused me trouble, but I'm not one to inflict my pain onto others."

The snake's metal contraption appeared to be one metal plate with several spikes on the top to imitate horns.

However, underneath, one could see several spikes holding the cruel helmet in place.

'Aiyah, that poor snake…'

Reaching into her interspatial bag, she took out her practice sword that her senior sister made her carry.

Although only a wooden blade crafted from an ironwood tree, it should be strong enough to leverage the metal plate off the snake's skull.

"Stand still, scaly."

Propping the sword's edge on the plate's front lip, she made sure not to poke into any of the snake's open wounds.

"There we go."

Once it was fitted securely under the plate, she tested its strength by moving it slightly enough to lift off its head, careful not to be too hasty.

"Hissss!!!!" A pained shriek came from the snake's mouth as its acidic spit came out.

"Whoa, easy easy," patting the snake's nose, Zhu Na Ran tried to comfort the injured beast.

'I better do this in one go to prevent the poor thing from being in further pain.'

"On the count of three," she muttered to herself as she adjusted the grip on the wooden blade's handle.

"One.

Two.

Three!"

"HISSS!!!"

"Clang!"

The helmet fell to the floor from the sudden loss of support, and the snake shook its head, finally free.