Super Soldier in the City

Li Yifei was well-prepared, swinging his blade as he charged forward. The creature that emerged from the water was three meters long. Initially, he thought it was a crocodile, but as it left the water, Li Yifei saw it wasn’t a crocodile but an unfamiliar species. It had a fish’s mouth but also had limbs, even claws.

The creature burst out from the water, using the momentum to rush swiftly to Li Yifei.

Li Yifei unceremoniously slashed at it with his blade, while Xu Shanshan reached back to draw her weapon.

The sharp machete cut into the creature’s body, producing a sharp grinding sound. Although Li Yifei’s swing didn’t use True Qi, his strength was considerable, yet it only left a shallow wound on the creature’s body without cutting it open.

Li Yifei jumped back. The creature took a hit but wasn’t afraid. After landing, it opened its large mouth, its limbs vigorously propelling it towards Li Yifei.

"Watch out!" Xu Shanshan drew her machete, intending to assist, but Li Yifei stopped her, saying, "Be careful, there’s more in the pool."

Indeed, there was more than one creature in the pool. Just as Li Yifei finished speaking, there was a commotion in the pool, and four similarly sized creatures burst out. These strange creatures were equally quick once they left the water, even more agile than crocodile lizards. Their big mouths were filled with sharp teeth, leaving no doubt about their biting ability.

The four fish that emerged headed straight for Xu Shanshan, who was closer to them.

"Step back, don’t fight head-on," Li Yifei was somewhat concerned about Xu Shanshan’s safety. He swung his blade forcefully at a creature’s back, but the sharp edge only made a shallow mark. These creatures’ skin was exceptionally hard, like natural stone armor with strong defense.

After slashing, Li Yifei jumped up to Xu Shanshan’s side, helping her fend off an attacking fish.

Xu Shanshan initially felt some fear, but after adapting to the creatures’ power and appearance, her attack strength wasn’t weak either. True Qi infused into her blade, she asked, "Should we kill them directly?"

"Kill," Li Yifei answered. Unless they ran away now, these creatures would never give them a chance. If they didn’t kill them, they would be killed by these creatures.

The five fish roared, stomping loudly on the ground, surrounding Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan.

The blades they carried were sharp, but they were hastily bought from a store, not high-quality weapons. Continuous slashing on the creatures caused limited damage, and instead, dulled the blade in Li Yifei’s hand.

Li Yifei stomped on a creature’s head, pressing it to the ground, then jumped up, shouting to Xu Shanshan in mid-air, "Attack their limbs, the joints are very vulnerable."

Xu Shanshan responded, using her blade to push away a fish and slashed at another fish’s forepaw.

Her slash hit, and indeed, the joint of the creature’s forepaw was very fragile, directly being cut by Xu Shanshan, leaving a wound.

Finding a weak spot was good. Li Yifei attracted the attention of three creatures and in less than two minutes, disabled their limbs. The creatures roared repeatedly but could no longer attack.

Though the creatures were not dead, approaching them still risked a sudden attack. Meanwhile, Xu Shanshan had dealt with the other two creatures, leaving one dragging its broken body back into the water, and the other having its head directly severed by Xu Shanshan’s blade. However, even as the creature’s head was severed, Xu Shanshan’s blade chipped.

When Li Yifei returned, Xu Shanshan was slicing open the fish head, observing the cut.

"Ah... come over and see what this is," Xu Shanshan exclaimed in surprise, slicing the head open forcefully. As the fish head was cut open, something suddenly fell out, round and wrapped in a red meat membrane, rolling out heavily, about the size of a ping pong ball.

Li Yifei walked over, picked up the object, and cut open the outer meat membrane. Inside, amazingly, was something resembling a pearl.

"This..." Both were astonished. The creature’s head grew such a large pearl?

Li Yifei handed the extracted ’pearl’ to Xu Shanshan and went to the other creature, ending its life and then cutting open its head, searching for a while and similarly finding a ’pearl,’ though this one was slightly smaller.

After cutting open the heads of four fish, they found two ping pong ball-sized ’pearls’ and two slightly smaller ones, which made Xu Shanshan very happy. She went to the pool to clean the ’pearls’ and brought them back to show Li Yifei.

Although it looks like a pearl, it isn’t a real one. Li Yifei took it in hand and studied it for a while. The Li family had many pearls too, both bought and gifted; however, common pearls wouldn’t be this big.

"Marrow Beads?" The word slipped from Li Yifei’s mouth. Xu Shanshan’s eyes lit up. She had heard of that term as well. Like the Dragon Beads, they were rumored to be possessed only by dragons. Marrow Beads form in the brain, while Dragon Beads are found in the lower jaw of dragons.

Whether dragons existed or not, neither of them knew, but ancient dragon totems were derived from various animals—a snake body, protected by fish scales, a lion’s head as the snake’s head, lion’s tail as the snake’s tail, with deer antlers and eagle claws as the snake’s claws. Such combinations created the dragon, so it was possible they might have mistaken pearls from the brain of strange fish as the dragon’s Marrow Beads...

"Such luck..." Li Yifei held one of the beads and noticed its coolness. Not just in the palm, but a refreshing sensation seeped through his body from the bead. He closed his eyes to feel it, then said, "This thing can calm the mind and spirit; it seems it can aid in cultivation. It’s a good thing!"

Upon hearing Li Yifei’s words, Xu Shanshan turned back to look at the deep pool and said with some regret, "Let’s keep them then, what a pity one got away. That one didn’t get very far; it was seriously injured by my slash."

"Haha, it’s fine. We already have four. No one has ever discovered these strange fish. Who knows how many years they’ve lived in this mysterious pool. We shouldn’t kill them all; we should leave some behind."

"Alright, let’s remember this place. If these beads really prove useful, we could come back for more."

"I’m afraid it’s not so easy to find our way back. I’m already struggling to retrace our steps." Li Yifei looked around; the path they took was ruined by those ferocious army ants, leaving Li Yifei lost.

Xu Shanshan covered her mouth and chuckled, not mocking Li Yifei. She opened her backpack, rummaged for a while, found a pair of underwear, and wrapped the four beads, even carefully separating them to prevent any damage.

Li Yifei, standing nearby with Xu Shanshan’s knife in hand, remarked on her cautiousness, "No need to be too careful. Your knife couldn’t even harm them."

Xu Shanshan rolled her eyes at him with a look that seemed to say, "You don’t understand," and replied, "If they suffer even a tiny bit of damage, they wouldn’t be perfect. It would be ideal if we could catch a few more, so we each could have one back home."

"Haha, let’s go. Let’s leave this place, find somewhere to eat and rest, then continue our search." Li Yifei spoke as he attached the knife to Xu Shanshan’s backpack, took her hand, and held a knife in the other hand, clearing the path ahead.

A while after they left the deep pool, more strange fish emerged, at least a dozen, rushing to the shore and competing fiercely over the dead ones. In no time, they devoured their fallen companions completely. Afterward, they basked in the sun for a bit before flicking their tails and sliding back into the pool.

Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan moved more slowly. After descending the waterfall, the forest grew denser, and Li Yifei had to keep cutting lengthy paths with his knife.

They stopped here, staring at a large tree twenty meters ahead. It was thick and tall, but that wasn’t why they paused. It was because of what was on the tree.

A massive python, as thick as a barrel and over ten meters long, was coiled on the tree, its head hanging down, eyes squinting at Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan.

Both were Innate Experts. In their days trekking through the forest, emitting their aura was often enough to prevent common animals from bothering them. Even if something did come along accidentally, it would usually retreat, but this python was different. Not only did it not avoid them, but it also seemed to taunt them, flicking its tongue with its head slightly raised.

Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan exchanged glances. They had seen pythons of this size before. In the Amazon rainforest dwelled the largest pythons in the world, also called Green Anacondas, which could grow over ten meters long. However, they usually lived near water, relying on it because their massive size made hunting and movement difficult on land.

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Yet this one managed to climb a tree, doing so seemingly with ease.

They were here to find something. The stranger and more unusual the area was, the more it suggested the marked spot on the map was nearby. Likewise, finding Bai Shan became more likely. They weren’t here to destroy and didn’t need to kill everything they encountered.

Seeing such a massive python, Xu Shanshan was a bit intimidated. She turned to Li Yifei and said, "Perhaps we should go around to avoid it."

Li Yifei nodded in agreement, just as the python suddenly slithered down the tree. They then clearly saw it was even longer than the previous estimate of over ten meters, likely reaching around fifteen meters.

This might already be a new world record since the largest known Green Anaconda was about ten meters long.

As the python descended, it didn’t pause and slithered straight toward them. Xu Shanshan nervously drew her dulled knife.

Beside her, Li Yifei also drew his knife. Clearly, they couldn’t just walk away.

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