Chapter 507: On the Verge of Death

The monster before them perfectly matched a description from the ancient Chinese text *Shanhaijing* (Classic of Mountains and Seas): a beast with the body of a sheep but the face of a human, eyes beneath its armpits, tiger teeth, human claws, and a cry like an infant. It was called Paoxiao and was known to devour humans.

Paoxiao also had a more familiar name: Taotie!

"What kind of luck do I have?" he thought. "First a swarm of strange snakes, and now an ancient ferocious beast. Could my bad luck possibly get any worse?"

"Wait, by the law of luck conservation, wouldn't I be able to draw something incredibly rare and powerful from a lottery right now?"

Of course, this was just a fleeting thought. He certainly couldn't afford to be distracted by a lottery draw at this moment.

Pei Mianman tightened her grip on his arm. The creature below clearly terrified her; people naturally react that way to the unknown.

"Do you think it will discover us?" Pei Mianman had recovered slightly and used a spiritual energy transmission to ask Zu An, clearly worried that even the slightest sound would reach the monster.

Zu An was also uncertain. "Surely we won't be that unlucky."

As soon as he said it, he wanted to slap himself. He had been in this world for too long, and his vigilance had clearly dropped. Why was he casually setting himself up for bad luck?

Fortunately, the Taotie did not look up at them. Instead, it continued its search among the strange snakes, constantly rooting through the piles of bones for traces of them.

Each time its tongue shot out, the skulls shattered, and it would hook out a few strange snakes from inside to feast on.

Zu An realized why he had seen so many shattered bones earlier. At the time, they hadn't looked like they were damaged by weapons, and he had assumed they were weathered by time. He hadn't expected them to be a byproduct of this creature's eating habits.

At the same time, he secretly disdained the strange snakes, who showed no resistance whatsoever. "Just charge it!" he thought. "Even ants can kill an elephant if there are enough of them!"

"They were so aggressive against us just now, but now they're meek and subservient when facing a real challenge?"

Despite his grumbling, he quietly reminded Pei Mianman, "This is a good opportunity. Let's use the passage to escape while it's eating."

He was actually somewhat grateful. If the Taotie hadn't appeared, they would likely have been forced to their deaths by the strange snakes. Now, not only was the threat of the snakes gone, but they didn't even need to search for an exit. The only thing they needed to be careful about was not being discovered by the Taotie.

For now, the creature seemed content to feast, evidently oblivious to their presence.

Pei Mianman nodded, a hint of joy in her eyes. She didn't want to spend another second in this dreadful place.

The two quietly moved towards the nearby cave entrance. As they had anticipated, the entrance was indeed near where they had fallen, about five or six meters from the bottom of the pit.

This height would be difficult for an ordinary person to climb, and the walls had been specially treated, making it hard even for cultivators to ascend once they fell. This naturally kept any secrets within undiscovered.

Zu An alternately wedged the Tai'e Sword and the Death-Certain Dagger into the wall, steadily climbing until they reached the entrance.

The entrance was still slick with mucus left by the Taotie, making it feel extremely disgusting to step on. There seemed to be a lot more of it further down the passage.

However, the sight of the upward-sloping passage filled them with such joy at the prospect of escape that they no longer cared about their surroundings.

Pei Mianman smiled, wondering what to say to him. After all, her previous bold kiss had been under the mistaken belief that they were certainly going to die. Now that they had escaped, remembering it felt a little awkward. Although he was divorced from Chuuyan, taking her best friend's man still felt somewhat uncomfortable.

Just then, a blood blossom suddenly bloomed on her shoulder. The smile on her face froze instantly as she looked down in shock, realizing a hideous tongue had pierced straight through her body.

Before she could even process what happened, a powerful force from behind ripped her away. Already severely injured and weakened, and despite having recovered a little spiritual energy, her shoulder bone was now pierced, and her remaining energy was instantly scattered. She had no strength left to hold onto Zu An and was pulled backward, flying through the air.

From Zu An's perspective, he saw the Taotie's suddenly extended tongue pierce Pei Mianman's shoulder, then pull her flying towards its mouth.

With the two rows of menacing fangs in the Taotie's mouth, it was easy to imagine that a mere snap would cut a human body into several pieces, then chew it into a pulp of flesh.

Seeing Pei Mianman's desperate eyes as she flew backward, and her hand desperately reaching out to grasp him, Zu An's eyes instantly reddened. He let out a roar and immediately gave chase.

The creature retracted its tongue incredibly fast. He clearly wouldn't make it at his normal speed, so he quickly summoned Gale.

After such a long time, his Gale skill was only barely usable, and the teleportation range was significantly shorter than usual. The only fortunate thing was that the creature's tongue was nowhere near a hundred meters long.

Pei Mianman had been utterly despairing, never imagining such a tragic death for herself. She thought it would have been better to die by the strange snakes earlier, at least that way there wouldn't have been this prolonged agony.

But in the next second, she suddenly saw Zu An appear beside her as if a divine warrior had descended from the heavens. It all felt so surreal that she wondered if it was just her imagination.

Zu An had no time to explain. Holding her with one arm, he wielded the Death-Certain Dagger with the other and chopped directly at the part of the tongue piercing her back.

At the same time, he was filled with worry. The Taotie's tongue didn't look like an ordinary tongue; it was more like a spear—straight, hard, and covered in barbs. He worried he wouldn't be able to sever it in one go, which would mean failing to prevent the creature from swallowing Pei Mianman.

Fortunately, the Death-Certain Dagger lived up to its name, cutting through the tongue as if it were mud and cleanly severing a section of it.

A piercing shriek echoed, clearly indicating the Taotie was in considerable pain from its severed tongue.

Zu An, holding Pei Mianman, fell from mid-air. He quickly asked, "Manman, are you alright?"

"It's really you? Am I not dreaming?" Pei Mianman cried tears of joy, looking at Zu An as if she had a million things to say. But then she suddenly frowned and groaned in pain.

Zu An quickly pulled out the section of tongue embedded in her shoulder. The moment he touched it, a searing pain shot through his hand. He immediately threw the tongue aside and saw that his hand was scorched, indicating the creature's blood was highly corrosive, likely due to its prolonged diet of the strange snakes.

Zu An cursed inwardly. This characteristic was as annoying as something from an Alien movie.

He quickly checked Pei Mianman's injury, seeing a gaping, smoking hole in her shoulder. The creature's highly corrosive blood was clearly ravaging her body.

Zu An instantly panicked. He quickly took out the antidotes Ji Dengtu had given him, but they had no effect whatsoever when applied. Clearly, Ji Dengtu had never encountered a Taotie, so how could he have developed an antidote for its venom?

Zu An then hastily drew the Tai'e Sword, intending to scrape away the corroding flesh. However, the wound was too large; he had no way to begin. If he were to truly scrape it, her entire shoulder might be lost, leading to an even quicker death.

His eyes reddened, and his fingernails pressed so hard into his palms they almost dug into his flesh.

Pei Mianman, however, showed a look of relief. "Ah Zu, you don't need to trouble yourself trying to save me. I know this injury is fatal… Do you know how happy I was to see you appear beside me just now, when I was about to be dragged into that monster's mouth? At that moment, I just thought, why didn't I get together with you sooner… Chuuyan, family duties, I don't care about any of it…"

Tears streamed from her beautiful peach blossom eyes, and her speech became increasingly disjointed as she spoke, clearly at the brink of death.

Zu An felt as if his heart had been pierced by a knife, a sudden, inexplicable pain. He quickly said, "No, I absolutely won't let you die!"

As he desperately searched for a way to save her, Pei Mianman cried out in terror, "Quick… run… leave me!"

Heavy footsteps echoed from behind them. Zu An looked back and saw the colossal Taotie approaching them, its face contorted in fury.

Zu An was greatly alarmed. Hadn't he wounded this creature with his Death-Certain Dagger? Why wasn't it dead?