Chapter 1127: The Third Invasion of the Serpent Horde

The second wave of the Snake Pack wasn’t made up of bright red Devastation Snakes this time. Instead, hundreds of medium-sized snakes, each two to four meters long with all sorts of patterns, surged forward.

Once these snakes poured into the valley’s river, the chaotic battle became a brawl of wolves, bears and now snakes. Just when the fighting hit its peak, Crippled Wolf let out a furious roar and leapt into the fray.

Xia Qing, ever sharp-eyed, spotted a dozen or so striking little green snakes with crimson eyes hidden among the others. Rather than coming ashore, these little snakes fought upstream, racing south against the current.

Xia Qing recognized those little things instantly.

Last fall, while patrolling Section Three of Hill Forty-Nine’s valley, she found one just like it. Sensing it wasn’t your average snake, she took it back and kept it in the Snake Box.

Then that spring, the little snake suddenly erupted with a Devastation Element magnetic field, setting off the first emergency Devastation Snake disaster protocol in Section One of the North.

So it’s not just the red Devastation Snakes—these green ones came out of Python Lake too!

Xia Qing hadn’t received an attack order and wasn’t planning to join the chaos. Instead she kept her sights on the four and a half giant pythons gliding across the lake, searching for the ones that had vanished below the surface.

“Awoooo~~~”

From the western front, the youthful howls of Little Wolf and Little Wolf’s little sister suddenly echoed through the chaos.

Xia Qing whipped her head around to look, but due to the terrain she couldn’t see what was happening on that side. Still, her keen hearing picked up the thuds and crashes coming from the west.

A python was ramming at the rock dam she’d built across the river, trying to get into Hill Sixty. Only a giant python could make all that noise.

Those roars from the west kicked the valley fighting into overdrive. Several seven-meter-long pythons lurking beneath the river suddenly exploded up, ambushing Evolved Wolves and Evolved Bears either in or near the river.

“Awooo—oo—” Crippled Wolf howled as he broke from the battle and led four other adult Evolved Wolves to the western river. As he swept past Xia Qing, his hind paw tapped her right leg as a signal.

Xia Qing caught on immediately. She spun around and swung her rifle into position, finger squeezing the trigger.

“Bang bang bang—”

With quick, precise shots, she took down five seven-meter pythons in the river, then swung her sights back over the lake.

Just as she’d predicted, only one and a half giant pythons still protruded above the water, 2,000 meters away.

As a top-tier Level 9.5 Vision-Evolved sniper, Xia Qing calmly locked eyes with the golden-eyed giant python. She ignored the Black Loach whose head barely peeked above the water beside it.

At this distance, she could have picked off the python’s golden eye with a perfect shot—but Xia Qing didn’t pull the trigger.

She wasn’t holding back because of any human regulation about provoking Apex beasts. She’d already allied with the Northern Wolf Pack and the pythons were trespassing on their territory; they were the aggressors here. She could riddle that python with bullets and it wouldn’t break a single rule.

No, she held her fire because that wasn’t the only python in the lake. If she took out the golden-eyed python, next time the snakes attacked, their commander would probably retreat further away—2,500 meters or more—or even stay hidden underwater, out of her range.

If that happened, their leader would slip beyond the farthest edge of her effective range. Unless things hit a critical point, Xia Qing couldn’t afford to open fire on the golden-eyed python.

For now, her job was to ferret out the seven giant pythons submerged in the lake and stop them from slipping into the main battlefield at the valley.

She knew at least one was on the western flank near Hill Sixty. But where were the others?

“Roar! Roar—!”

From the eastern slope of Hill Sixty-One, the rage-filled bellow of an Evolved Bear cut through the air. From Xia Qing’s angle she couldn’t see, but she knew a giant python was attacking there. The Bear King roared, and two giant bears left the valley to reinforce the front.

Seven missing giant pythons—and now both Hill Sixty on the west and Sixty-One on the east were under threat. No time to wait. Time to go on the attack!

Xia Qing sprang to her feet and dashed south, climbing the three-meter cliff on the lake’s edge. She steadied her rifle toward the distant golden-eyed python as her eyes watched the waters below.

Sure enough, a giant python hiding below took the bait!

About twenty meters from her perch, the reeds atop the water started shaking strangely. Suddenly, a Speed-Evolved Python burst from the water, jaws wide open, lunging at Xia Qing perched on the cliff.

The moment it opened its jaws, the python’s head swelled to three times its original size. Two rows of backward-curved fangs glistened with silvery threads, catching the light. Xia Qing could even hear the terrifying crunch of its skull bones shifting as it grew.

That sickening sound sent Xia Qing’s adrenaline skyrocketing.

Just as the monster lunged—big enough to swallow three Xia Qings at once—two wolves dashed in, letting out sharp warning howls as they leaped toward her.

“Bang!” Xia Qing’s bullet shot straight into the python’s slimy, dark-red mouth. Then she rolled sideways, narrowly dodging the attack.

“Thud!”

Hit by her shot, the python crashed into the cliff rocks, echoing with a dull smack.

But to her surprise, the sniper round didn’t finish it off! It writhed with shocking agility and lunged again at Xia Qing, who was tumbling away.

That’s when the Alpha, evolved for speed, raked its claws right at the python’s eyes. The python ignored the distraction, still hellbent on sinking its jaws into Xia Qing.

That instant, a second giant python burst out of the water. Now she was being attacked from both sides.

“Bang!”

Her second bullet drilled into the first python’s eye, turning its brain to mush.

“Queen, fall back!” Xia Qing barked, dropping her rifle to snag Lame Wolf and yank her out of the line of fire. With a quick toss, she hurled a prepared grenade straight into the reeking maw of the second python just as it lunged for her again.

“Boom!”

Not even the fiercest python can match human firepower. In less than ten seconds, both monsters were dead, sprawled across the cliff.

“Up we go—!”

Letting go of Lame Wolf, Xia Qing gripped the convulsing corpse of the first python. With both arms she heaved its tail out of the water and flung it onto the cliff’s edge.

She’d known after her first shot failed to kill it that it had to be a Hardness-Evolved python. That was prized material for making Protective Suits—no way was she letting it get dragged back under.

“Screee—ee—”

“Crack!”

“Splash!”

Two thousand meters away, the golden-eyed python blew up in fury. Its neck scales bristled and scraped together with an ear-splitting screech. It slammed its enormous body on the water, making waves boil across the lake.

With their python chief enraged, Xia Qing instantly brought her sniper rifle to bear, hunting for the next threat.

But when the frothing waters calmed, the golden-eyed python and the Black Loach had vanished. Not a single other python surfaced, either. Only the splashing from the last frantic python smashing against the cliff sent icy foam flying into the air.

Once sure there were no more giant pythons nearby, Xia Qing dragged the grenade-blasted python up onto the bank and laid it beside the first.

The Alpha lifted its snout and howled twice, then led Lame Wolf, who’d been barking at Xia Qing, back into the valley for the ongoing fight.

Xia Qing stayed prone on the cliff, her sniper scope locking down every inch of water within 2,200 meters.

Not a single python dared to surface again for the rest of the invasion.

Half an hour later, the pythons trying to break through on both the eastern and western fronts retreated as well.

By the end of the invasion, four wolves and one bear were wounded. Two giant pythons—both over fourteen meters long—along with five seven-meter pythons lay dead. As for the medium and small snakes killed? Too many to count.

The Wolf Pack and Bear Pack had held on, driving back the Serpent Horde’s third invasion without losing a single member and keeping their territory safe.