79: Serpents

Silver had never felt as much fear and panic as he did when he saw the countless number of serpents at the bottom of the hole.

Even when he faced the crimson lions, he was still able to maintain a little bit of composure. But as he fell and got closer to the countless serpents, Silver screamed and panicked.

Something about the countless number of serpents caused him to feel an intense and unreasonable type of fear which he could not explain.

The mental stress his mind had gone through and the immense exhaustion he felt also prevented him from maintaining his sanity.

He flailed his arms as he fell and screamed with tears streaming down his face.

As Silver tumbled haphazardly in the air, his arms hit the wall of the hole, and Silver looked at the wall with a fearful expression.

He was borderline crazy at this point.

Just as he looked at the wall, his eyes caught sight of a dried tree branch and he subconsciously grabbed it. However, he grabbed it with his left hand.

"Gahh!"

He released a painful scream, and the pain jolted him from his panicked state.

With red eyes, he quickly grabbed the tree branch with his right hand and removed his left hand before the pain became too unbearable for him

Silver exhaled and inhaled heavily, and then he looked up, fully expecting the male crimson lion to be there.

And just as he expected, the male crimson lion was there, and he was not alone. His partner, the female crimson lion was also beside him.

However, their expressions, aura, and stance was strange. Despite Silver been at a distance that was not far at all for the crimson lions to reach, they did not go after him.

In fact, their gaze was on the countless number of snakes beneath Silver, and he could perceive caution and wariness in their gaze.

"Don't tell me."

A thought appeared in Silver's mind, and he felt his skin crawl. His heart skipped several beats, and his throat became dry.

He gulped and he shakily looked below him.

His eyes reflected the appearance of the countless crawling snakes which were hissing at the two crimson lions.

When Silver saw this, a confused expression appeared on his face because he knew that the crimson lions would definitely not have stopped and be wary just because of the countless snakes beneath him.

Although they were strong, much stronger than the savage wolf he killed, Silver did not perceive any snake that was as strong as the crimson lions.

'Can I not perceive it because it's too powerful for me to perceive or there's something else I'm missing entirely.'

Silver thought, and then he saw it.

The snakes began rising, almost like the ground was pushing them upward. But Silver was absolutely sure it was not the ground, and then he saw it.

The snakes began falling apart and what was pushing the snakes apart was revealed. And when Silver saw what it was, he could not help but curse.

"Why me? Come on o fate and luck, why fucking me?"

Silver honestly felt like giving up since what he had gone through during his rite of passage was just too much for him.

In fact, he felt like just jumping into the den of snakes below him so that they could put him out of his misery.

It was just too much for him.

Too too much for him.

Not only did he encounter humans which he should have never encountered. He also had to escape from not just one, but TWO Nightmare beasts! He also had to survive a beast tide and a fall from a massive height.

He had to survive all of these and more as a TWELVE YEAR OLD.

Heck, Silver knew that even his father would have to be careful of all that he had encountered, and he was just tired. He just wanted to sleep for as long as possible.

He had to survive so much in such a short period, and now, beneath him was a beast which even two crimson lions had to be wary about.

Silver did not know the beast nor had he ever heard about such a beast, but what knew was that the beast was a serpent.

A very large, a very humongous, a very gigantic black serpent with four horns on its head.

The serpent's mere presence induced an unspeakable amount of fear, terror, and despair in his heart, and Silver almost let go and gave up.

He felt that if the beast so much as glance at him, Silver's body might give out and he would leave his grip on the dried tree branch and fall into the den of the snakes.

His instincts, his entire being, his everything told him that the serpent was stronger than the two crimson lions combined together. He even felt that the two crimson lions stood no chance against the serpent.

'What sort of beast is that. Its mere presence is so pressuring and suffocating. I'm almost losing consciousness just from its presence.'

'This is too much for me. I'm not even a cultivator yet!'

Silver thought with tears in his eyes while looking around for a way to survive. He wasn't sure if he would find one, but there was no harm in looking right?

Silver's quickly looked around, knowing that time was of the essence. The moment the large serpent fully rose, he knew his chances of survival would become extremely low and maybe he'll even none.

For all he knew, the serpent could decide to kill him before it chose to deal with the two crimson lions. And even if it did not, Silver knew he would not be able to survive the massive shockwave and after effects of the fight between the crimson lions and the serpent.

Despite all these thoughts that Silver had, only five seconds had gone by.

Silver looked around with a panicked expression, and to his horror, he found nothing he could use to escape.

"No! Not yet! There has to be a way. A way for me to survive. I don't want to die here."

Hiss!

Just as Silver said these words, he heard a hiss from below him, and he looked down. When he did, he noticed two things.

First, there was a hole in the wall of the snake's den.

Second, a serpent was coming after him.