Yuan Ming’s pupils suddenly contracted, and his body quickly leaned back.

In the next instant, a wave splashed on the surface of the river, and a huge ferocious snake head suddenly rushed out of the water, opening its bloodthirsty mouth and biting towards Yuan Ming.

Fortunately, Yuan Ming dodged in time and was not bitten. The snake head, with its ten-foot-long python body, rushed straight up, reaching into the air and sweeping fiercely with its snake tail that emerged from the water, hitting Yuan Ming’s abdomen heavily.

With a loud bang!

Yuan Ming felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, and his whole body was thrown out by a tremendous force, finally stopping after breaking three old trees.

He struggled to stand up and immediately felt a sweet and bloody taste in his throat. He immediately realized that the water python that attacked him was much stronger than the previous forest python.

When dealing with the forest python, Yuan Ming was confident and did not transform because he was aware of the disadvantages of the fur transformation technique. He wanted to rely solely on the power of his human body to try to kill the fierce beast. But now, it was not possible.

He activated his internal mana with a single-handed gesture, transforming into a fierce white ape.

After stabilizing his figure, he realized that the water python that rushed out of the river was pitch black, covered in diamond-shaped scales, with a black spiral horn on its raised snake head. Its crimson eyes were bright and filled with bloodthirsty light.

“This is… the single-horned viper python?” Yuan Ming hesitated.

He had only seen the depiction of this creature in the “Illustrated Book of Ferocious Beasts” given to him by Zhao Tong. Its appearance was only 50% similar, but the textual description and the comparative characteristics were basically the same.

If it really was that creature, then it would be troublesome. Yuan Ming sighed inwardly.

At this moment, the black viper python had already launched an attack, its body swimming towards him, still maintaining its raised head posture. It opened its bloodthirsty mouth from above and sprayed towards Yuan Ming.

A purple smoke instantly spewed out from its mouth, rushing towards the ground and instantly engulfing an area of ten zhang in radius, causing the flowers and plants inside to wither and appear desolate.

“It has poisonous gas that can wither all plants and toxic gas that can be neutralized by the venom of the fire moss frog.” Yuan Ming silently remembered the description in the book and immediately confronted it.

Although this creature was not considered a high-level second-grade fierce beast, it was close to it and much more difficult to deal with than the average forest python.

Yuan Ming quickly retreated to avoid the spreading poisonous smoke.

“Roar…”

But just at this moment, a loud beast roar suddenly sounded, accompanied by a powerful hurricane, instantly accelerating the spread of the purple poisonous smoke, covering an area of one hundred zhang in no time.

No matter how fast Yuan Ming’s escape speed was, he couldn’t match the speed of the wind. He was immediately enveloped.

He instinctively held his breath and quickly fled towards the outskirts, but the purple smoke pervading the surroundings not only blocked his vision but also corroded the vines hanging from the trees.

Even the branches of the ancient trees became withered because of it. Yuan Ming tried to climb several times, but as soon as he grabbed them, the branches would rot and break, causing him to fall down.

“This is troublesome.” Yuan Ming frowned and could only hold his long sword in his hand, keeping a close eye on his surroundings.

Just at this moment, the ground under his feet suddenly trembled violently, and a black shadow moved horizontally, bringing a gust of wind.

Yuan Ming sensed the danger and quickly blocked with his sword.

With a clang sound!

The sword edge of the Green Fish Treasure Sword struck the scales of the single-horned viper python, splashing a shower of sparks.

The tremendous force once again forced Yuan Ming to retreat. Although he was not as embarrassed as before, the breath he had been holding was dispersed, and he involuntarily inhaled the purple poisonous smoke.

The moment the poisonous smoke entered his mouth, Yuan Ming’s mouth and throat immediately felt a burning and dry sensation, as if he had swallowed a piece of charcoal, causing pain and dryness, making him very uncomfortable.

Yuan Ming once again held his breath and focused his gaze on his surroundings.

In the pervading poisonous smoke, a black shadow attacked again. Inside it were two lanterns emitting red light, but it was not the body of the viper python, but its head rushing towards Yuan Ming.

Yuan Ming saw this and immediately exerted force in his arm, muscles swelling up, and his mana surged out from his dantian, pouring into the Green Fish Sword.

As soon as the single-horned viper python’s head approached, Yuan Ming raised his arm high and the long sword in his hand emitted a bright green light, slashing directly in the middle of the two red lanterns.

The huge head of the single-horned viper python seemed to be charging recklessly, but its direction control was extremely accurate.

The spiral horn on its head was like a spear thrusting straight towards Yuan Ming, colliding with the sword edge in his hand.

A metallic clash sounded, creating a tremor.

The long sword in Yuan Ming’s hand was almost shaken off by the tremendous force, and the single-horned viper python was also hit, causing its body to stagger, forcing it to shake its head and remove the force.

At this moment, Yuan Ming was faster and stabilized his figure before the python, taking a few steps forward. He tightly gripped the Green Fish Sword with both hands, turned his body in a large circle, and swung the sword horizontally at the abdomen of the single-horned viper python.

“Clang clang clang!”

As a shower of sparks flew, a flash of blood appeared.

Yuan Ming’s powerful strike left a cut on the scales of the single-horned viper python.

“If I can injure it, then I still have a chance to fight.” Yuan Ming felt relieved.

However, before he could be happy for a moment, the situation suddenly took a turn for the worse.

The ground under Yuan Ming suddenly shook violently, and the earth cracked, revealing a gap.

Before he could react, he had already fallen into the gap.

Immediately after, the cracked ground revealed half of the python’s body that had already coiled inside, waiting for Yuan Ming to fall before immediately constricting its snake body and entangling him in the middle.

Yuan Ming’s heart sank. This viper python had actually set a trap for him?

His whole body tightened, and a powerful force squeezed from all directions, making the bones in his chest and ribs creak, bile surged up, and his throat felt a bitter and dry sensation.

“What a strong force.” Yuan Ming thought to himself. He began to exert his full strength, trying to open the python’s snake body.

However, as soon as he resisted a little, the python’s strength increased exponentially. The friction sound of his chest bones became more frequent, and the feeling of heaviness in his chest intensified, making it difficult to breathe.

He forcefully pulled his arm holding the sword out, exerted his strength with one arm, and tried to swing the sword.

But at this moment, the poison he had just inhaled began to take effect. The circulation of his qi and blood suddenly became sluggish, although he could still mobilize his mana, his physical strength quickly weakened.

As the single-horned viper python tightened its binds again, Yuan Ming felt his arm go soft, and the long sword slipped from his hand, falling to the ground with a “crack” sound.

Faced with absolute strength, Yuan Ming felt despair for the first time.

The single-horned viper python saw that Yuan Ming was no longer armed and already showed signs of exhaustion. It no longer tightened its body but raised its head and approached Yuan Ming.

It looked down at him with its crimson eyes, revealing a hint of human-like emotions.

Yuan Ming sensed hatred, resentment, contempt, and cruelty from its eyes.

Obviously, this single-horned viper python was completely different from the fierce beasts he had encountered before. It not only had extremely strong strength but also high intelligence.

Yuan Ming’s blood flow was sluggish, and his strength was rapidly diminishing. He struggled to control his arm and groped around his body.

The single-horned viper python thought that he still had some means left, so it immediately tightened its body again.

“Uh…”

Yuan Ming couldn’t help but let out a painful cry, and his body became stiff.

The python no longer hesitated and its huge head rushed towards Yuan Ming, opening its mouth to swallow the prey in front of it.

Yuan Ming was bound and unable to dodge, he could only use one hand to form a spell, and with a low shout, he said, “Rise.”

In the next instant, a yellow halo lit up in front of the single-horned viper python, and large stalagmites suddenly rose from the ground, stabbing towards it.

After advancing to the third level of Qi Refinement, his Earth Spike Technique had also made considerable progress. Now, he could use the technique without touching the ground, and the speed of its execution had also increased.

However, the stone spikes formed by the Earth Spike Technique had limited power and could not break through the scales of the single-horned viper python. They only lifted its body, causing no harm.

The body of the single-horned viper python was lifted, causing its body to lose balance slightly. The snake head brushed past Yuan Ming’s side and failed to bite him.

But Yuan Ming’s hand had already accurately pierced into the wound on its abdomen.

The single-horned viper python felt pain, and its body immediately tilted backward, pulling out Yuan Ming’s hand that had been pierced into it.

Blood splattered, and the single-horned viper python became furious, once again opening its bloodthirsty mouth and biting towards Yuan Ming.

This time, Yuan Ming did not use the Earth Spike Technique or even try to dodge. Instead, he stared at the single-horned viper python and silently counted, “Three, two, one.”

When he finished counting, the single-horned viper python’s rushing head suddenly froze in mid-air.

In its crimson eyes, there was a momentary pause, followed by a struggling expression. Then, it started to struggle, and eventually, it released the constricting hold on Yuan Ming’s body, flipping over and violently thrashing on the ground.

Yuan Ming fell to the ground, coughing dryly, and quickly rolled forward, picking up the fallen Green Fish Sword and turning to look at the single-horned viper python.

He saw that the wound on its belly had widened, and inside, there were black vine-like things growing wildly, drilling into the python’s flesh and blood.

“It’s a good thing I didn’t throw it away earlier.” Yuan Ming felt relieved.

Just now, when he was entangled with the single-horned viper python, he had stuffed the piece of flesh tumor that had parasitized the black bear into its wound.

That thing looked like a stone, but when it encountered blood, it would absorb it crazily, resurrecting and competing for control of the host’s body.

And now, it was a critical moment when the single-horned viper python and the Bloodvine were fighting for control of the body.