Cold-blooded animal

Let's all be vigilant and hold our weapons. If anything unexpected happens, we'll immediately engage in combat,' said Captain Chi Qing to us.

Upon hearing this, I drew out my Gan Jiang sword and held it in my hand. Jietou took out his umbrella and golden wheel, while Xie Yilin had nothing but a small electric baton. Seeing her situation, I frowned because the tiny baton was clearly insufficient for the impending danger of battle. I worried about Xie Yilin and feared that she might be in danger.

After some hesitation, I handed her my Gan Jiang sword and said to her: 'Put away the electric baton; it won't be very useful when things get critical. Take this sword instead; it will protect you when you need it.'

'What?' Upon seeing my gesture, Captain Chi Qing looked at me curiously and asked: 'She can also wield the Gan Jiang sword? Aren't you afraid that its spirit will backlash against her?'

'Don't worry; I have already tamed its spirit. It will protect whoever I want it to protect without fail.' With a slight smile on my face, I handed the sword over to Xie Yilin.

'Thank you YiHeng,' Xie Yilin smiled slightly as she lifted up the Gan Jiang sword and blinked before saying: 'Is this broken-looking sword really so powerful?'

As soon as she finished speaking, there was a sudden dragon roar followed by a flash of golden light. Accompanied by Xie Yilin's exclamation of surprise, we saw that the Gan Jiang sword had suddenly slashed sideways into the hard stone wall leaving behind a half-foot deep crack.

After completing its strike, the Gan Jiang Sword returned to calmness once again while Xie Yilin still wore an astonished expression on her face.

'Tsk tsk, this sword has a bad temper. You'd better not speak ill of it, or else it will get angry,' I quickly comforted her.

'Oh, I see. Alright then, don't worry; I'll take good care of it.' Xie Yilin smiled awkwardly and then looked at me before asking: 'You gave me the sword, but what about yourself?'

Xie Yilin still didn't know about the mercy sword's situation.

'I have my own way; you don't need to worry about me.' I replied as I looked at her.

'Okay,' she nodded and took a step forward while subconsciously moving closer to my side.

'Since we're all ready now, let's continue forward,' Captain Chi Qing said as he led the way with Mo Ye Sword in one hand and flashlight in the other.

We followed him closely behind.

As we went deeper into the air-raid shelter, the environment became increasingly damp and cold. By the end of our journey through there, water had risen up to our ankles on the ground while droplets began falling from above. Fortunately for us wearing combat boots kept our feet dry; otherwise our shoes would have been soaked through long ago.

After walking for some distance further ahead suddenly appeared an open space that seemed like a warehouse filled with many opened sandbags lying around on its floor along with some rotting wooden boxes piled up in corners.

'Be careful!' As soon as we entered this room Captain Chi Qing whispered warning us to be cautious before shining his flashlight onto something on the ground which made us all frown.

The ground was very damp, covered with a layer of moist sand. Several wide and twisted imprints about half a foot in width were clearly printed on the sandy ground, indicating that it was most likely caused by an enormous snake slithering through here. The imprints were fresh, which meant that the snake had recently been to this place and should be nearby.

Upon seeing this situation, the three of us who originally did not have flashlights all turned them on at once and shone them around. "Over there - damn, it's really huge!" JIETOU exclaimed in a low voice after shining his flashlight for a while.

Hearing this, we quickly lifted our flashlights together and shone them towards the corner in the distance. When I saw what was there, I couldn't help but feel shocked. It was big - thick as a bucket with shiny black scales - simply terrifying! At this moment, under the light of our flashlights, I could only see a giant white-headed black snake coiled up in the corner of the stone room.

Because it was so large when coiled up like that its entire body looked like an enormous dark turd at first glance. Unlike ordinary feces though its top end is white; it's actually a white-headed black snake with fist-sized pink tumors on top of its head making it look extremely disgusting and terrifying.

The snake seemed to be sleeping soundly with its eyes closed without noticing us at all.

"YiHeng...I'm scared," said someone tremblingly while looking at the snake. Turning my head to look back I found out that Xie Yilin had tightly hugged my arm.

"Don't be afraid," I patted her hand reassuringly before frowning slightly as I looked towards another pitch-black hole next to where that serpent lay knowing full well we would need to pass by if we wanted to continue forward into deeper parts of the cave.

This was a bit of a dilemma. "Stand behind me and turn off your flashlights," I said to them, "I'll use my magic to confuse it while you take advantage of the opportunity to quickly pass by."

Chen Qingshuai whispered as he spoke, and with a wave of his Mo Ye sword and some incantations, the Heaven Covering Spell slowly unfolded to prepare for shielding the Snake's Eye.

"Okay, it's ready. You guys go ahead at full speed. I'll guide you," Chen Qingshuai said in a low voice to us.

Hearing this, Jietou rushed forward first, quickly passing by the side of the snake and entering the cave at the bottom of the stone chamber.

"Hiss..."

A low hissing sound came from the snake. Perhaps it was because Jietou had caused a gust of wind or vibration when passing by that made its white head suddenly rise up. It then began to look around alertly while sticking out its forked tongue.

Seeing this situation, I couldn't help but feel nervous, and Sherrylin was trembling with fear.

"Hurry!" Chen Qingshuai urged again.

Hearing this, I said to Sherrylin: "Don't be afraid. Just follow me."

"Okay...I'm just naturally afraid of cold-blooded animals. This snake is just too big..." Sherrylin replied while clinging tightly onto my arm like we were conjoined twins.

I smiled slightly and told her to close her eyes and stay calm before leading her slowly forward along with Chen Qingshuai following behind us holding his Mo Ye sword.