The Samsara Jade

Chapter 21

Bones snapped and broke under his weight. Li Chen fell into the mud again, completely buried in the filth. 

"Ugh," Li Chen grunted, pushing the broken bones off his chest. 

He checked his arms. There was no pain. His bones were perfectly fine. The Void-Iron Physique had easily absorbed the terrible impact. He was bruised, but he was not broken. 

He stood up, wiping the thick mud from his eyes. 

The fight was ugly. It was not a beautiful battle between elegant cultivators. It was a brutal, desperate brawl in the dark dirt. 

The Shadow Viper did not wait for Li Chen to recover. It slithered rapidly across the top of the mud. Because it was a creature of the dark chasm, it moved over the slippery sludge effortlessly. 

The viper raised its upper body high into the air, towering fifteen feet above Li Chen. It looked down at him with its glowing red eyes, filled with absolute hatred. 

It struck again. This time, it did not aim to bite. 

The snake lunged forward and slammed its massive head directly into Li Chen’s chest. 

Boom! 

Li Chen was knocked flat onto his back into the deep mud. Before he could roll away, the Shadow Viper moved. 

Like a thick black rope, the snake’s massive body wrapped around Li Chen’s legs. Then it wrapped around his waist. Then it wrapped around his chest and arms. 

In less than two seconds, Li Chen was completely trapped inside the crushing coils of the giant beast. 

The Shadow Viper began to squeeze. 

A Rank-1 demonic snake could easily crush a large boulder into dust with its coils. It tightened its muscles, trying to break every single bone in Li Chen’s body. 

Li Chen felt an incredible, terrible pressure pushing against him from all sides. He could not breathe. The air was forced out of his lungs. His arms were pinned tightly against his sides. 

"Grrrrr," Li Chen growled, his face turning red from the lack of air. 

He tried to push his arms outward to break the snake's grip. His Void-Iron muscles bulged with explosive strength. The dull metallic shine of his skin glowed brightly in the dark. 

The snake squeezed harder. The sound of Li Chen’s iron-hard body grinding against the tough black scales filled the air. Screech. Screech. It sounded like metal rubbing against metal. 

For a whole minute, it was a test of pure, brutal strength. The snake tried to crush him, and Li Chen’s Void-Iron Physique refused to break. 

Li Chen’s ribs ached, but they did not snap. His skin was bruised, but it did not tear. 

The Shadow Viper realized that crushing this strange, metallic boy was not going to work. The boy was too hard. The snake decided to use its ultimate weapon. 

The snake uncoiled the top half of its body. It pulled its massive head back, hovering just a few feet away from Li Chen’s face. 

It opened its jaws wide. The two giant, terrible fangs dripped with a fresh, thick, black venom. This was a deadly neurotoxin. It was strong enough to paralyze a herd of elephants and rot their blood into black water in seconds. 

The snake stared into Li Chen’s eyes, hissed loudly, and struck directly at his left shoulder. 

"Now!" Li Chen thought. 

Because his arms were finally free from the upper coils, Li Chen moved incredibly fast. He did not try to punch the snake. He did not try to block the fangs. 

He intentionally raised his left arm, offering it to the beast. 

CRUNCH! 

The Shadow Viper’s massive jaws clamped down violently on Li Chen’s left forearm. 

The bite force of the Rank-1 beast was tremendous. Even with his Void-Iron skin, the sharp points of the giant fangs pierced through his metallic flesh. They sank deep into his arm, scraping against the hard bone underneath. 

"Ah!" Li Chen let out a sharp cry of pain. 

Instantly, the snake pumped a massive amount of its deadly black neurotoxin directly into Li Chen’s bloodstream. 

Li Chen felt an absolute, terrifying chill shoot up his arm. It was not hot like the acid fog; it was freezing cold. The venom felt like a river of ice rushing toward his heart. Its goal was to freeze his brain, stop his lungs, and kill him instantly. 

The Shadow Viper’s red eyes gleamed with cruel victory. It prepared to pull its fangs out and wait for the boy to die. 

But it could not pull away. 

Li Chen did not fall down. He did not freeze. He did not die. 

Instead, a slow, bloody, terrifying smile appeared on Li Chen’s face. 

"Got you," Li Chen whispered. 

With his free right hand, Li Chen reached up and grabbed the Shadow Viper tightly by the back of its massive neck. His iron fingers dug deeply under the snake's black scales, locking his grip so tightly that the snake could not move its head at all. 

At the same time, Li Chen clamped his left arm tightly against his chest, trapping the snake’s fangs deep inside his own flesh. 

The giant snake was completely locked in place. It was chained to Li Chen. 

"You want to eat me?" Li Chen roared, his black eyes burning with a deep, bottomless hunger. "I will eat you!"

Li Chen closed his eyes and unleashed the full, terrifying power of the Heavenly Void Devouring Art. 

"Swallowing the Heavens' Breath!" 

Inside Li Chen’s dantian, the Primordial Chaos Root exploded into action. The dark vortex spun so fast it became a blur of absolute blackness. It was no longer a gentle, careful blacksmith. It was a starving, ancient god that had just been handed a massive feast. 

A terrifying, pulling force erupted from Li Chen’s body. 

The freezing black neurotoxin that was rushing toward his heart suddenly stopped. The dark Qi of the Chaos Root grabbed the venom violently. It did not just stop the poison; it dragged it forcefully down into the vortex. 

The neurotoxin was powerful, but it was just fuel. The Chaos Root crushed the freezing poison instantly, breaking its deadly structure and turning it into a massive wave of pure, rich dark Qi. 

But Li Chen did not stop at the venom. 

The Devouring Art extended outward. It traveled up Li Chen’s left arm, right into the deep bite wounds, and connected directly into the snake’s body. It also traveled through his right hand, which was gripping the snake's neck. 

Two massive, invisible vacuums opened up, directly feeding on the Shadow Viper. 

"HISSSSSS?!" 

The Shadow Viper let out a sound of absolute terror. It suddenly realized it had made a terrible mistake. It had not bitten a weak human boy. It had bitten a living black hole. 

The snake felt its demonic Qi—the energy it had spent a hundred years gathering in the chasm—being violently ripped out of its body. 

The dark, wild energy of the Rank-1 beast flowed out of its fangs and out of its neck, rushing into Li Chen like a massive, unstoppable river. 

The snake thrashed wildly. It uncoiled its body from Li Chen’s legs and whipped its heavy tail against the mud, splashing black dirt high into the air. It tried to pull its head away. It pulled so hard it almost ripped its own fangs out of its mouth. 

But Li Chen’s grip was like an iron vise. He held on tightly, his feet planted firmly in the mud. 

"More!" Li Chen shouted. "Give me everything!"