The scene left everyone frozen in place. Cai Zhao stammered out the question first. "How is Chen Fuguang still alive after being swallowed?" Mu Qingyan, who had learned the habits of rare beasts from his father, answered grimly. "If he doesn't die soon, the python will slowly crush his bones and let him rot in its belly. He'd have been better off dying from the bite." Chen Fuguang's laughter still echoed off the four ice walls. Then a flash of white cut through the cave. The giant python's tongue lashed out and swept Qinong's body into its coils. A wet cracking sound followed, and two streaks of blood ran from the corners of the beast's mouth. Something struck the ice with a small, bright chime. Qinong's coral hairpin had fallen loose from her hair. She must have injured Chen Fuguang after tricking him with her mental technique, or shoved him into the ice cave believing he had no way to survive. Instead the python had swallowed him w...
Mu Qingyan had made his name on nerve and daring, and even a beast as ancient and monstrous as this one couldn't shake him. He grabbed Cai Zhao's arm, ready to pull her away from the cracked opening, but she planted her feet and refused to move, her face taut with worry. "Qian Xueshen is still down there!" "He wanted a death match, and now he's got one. What does that have to do with us?" Mu Qingyan asked. "You're just going to stand here and watch him die?" Mu Qingyan looked ready to knock her out cold and carry her off. "We need to go, now, before we end up down there with him." "Go on ahead. I'll meet you at the bottom of the mountain." Cai Zhao didn't wait for an argument. She wrenched her arm free and ran toward the crack in the ice. Mu Qingyan was left standing there with empty hands and nothing to say. "...You don't even believe that yourself." The broken mouth of the ice cave dropped a...