Xia Chuan's face remained expressionless, not responding to his words. He simply tilted his chin towards the direction of the sea and raised his index finger to his lips, making a shushing gesture. His fingers and face were both pale, lacking color due to his injuries. Against the dim light of dawn, they appeared especially cold.

Startled by his chilling demeanor, Dennis fell silent. He crouched down and crawled onto the boulder, poking his head out like a ferret stretching its neck to look around.

It was fine until he looked, but the moment he did, his calves trembled and he nearly fell back onto the ground in shock.

"What is that!" The words had barely left his throat before he swallowed them back, finally squeezing out a whisper. Xia Chuan narrowed his brown eyes, staring at the coastline for a moment before mouthing the answer: "Snakes."

Black and white striped, bizarrely fake-looking snakes...

These were not some two-finger wide, half-meter long, rope-like thin snakes. Xia Chuan estimated that the snakes were thicker than tree trunks, at least ten meters long. Their size and eerie appearance immediately brought to mind the giant snakes from horror movies.

With one gaping maw, they could easily swallow a person whole, not even needing to tear them apart. A coil of their long tails could strangle an ox to death.

Dealing with one or two such snakes would be tough enough, let alone a whole group of them! But Xia Chuan and Dennis' luck was just that bad - as far as the eye could see, the entire coastline was densely packed with these snakes, if not hundreds, then at least seventy or eighty of them.

They probably normally lived in the shallow sea near the coast, but for some unknown reason, they had collectively come ashore and were now grandly slithering towards the two men. However, due to their large numbers, they appeared entangled and crowded, their patterns crisscrossing, making one's eyes go dizzy. So much so that when Dennis first glanced over, he didn't even realize what they were.

Although these strange snakes looked thick, heavy, and were crowding each other, their speed of advancement was astonishingly fast. One second their tail tips were still trailing in the fine white sea foam, and the next second they were nearly upon them!

It was precisely because of this that Xia Chuan had only woken Dennis up, but did not hurriedly pull him away from the boulder. In the face of these incredibly fast giant snakes, making a big commotion would only draw more of their attention. By then, forget escaping, they probably wouldn't even leave behind a corpse.

Seeing the giant snakes approaching, Xia Chuan abruptly turned Dennis around, pulling him to crouch with his back pressed against the boulder, one foot in front and the other behind, braced against the rock, maintaining a posture ready to exert force at any moment.

His right hand's three fingers supported him on the ground, while his left hand nimbly felt around his waist. A military knife emerged from its sheath into his palm, the blade thin but strong, gleaming with a chilling light.

This was a knife Xia Chuan had tossed to Dennis before setting out. As a result, this guy had exclaimed "So cool!" before stuffing the knife into the bottom of his black backpack, as if the knife wasn't meant for self-defense, but was a blessed talisman.

But it was fortunate that Dennis had stuffed it at the bottom of his bag as a talisman, otherwise Xia Chuan would now be facing the plague of giant snakes empty-handed.

The bonfire in front of them hadn't gone out yet, but the flames were much weaker than before. Still, having it was better than not.

Normally, when encountering a snake in the wild, playing dead is better than trying to outrun it. If you haven't drawn its attention, it generally won't take the initiative to attack. Moreover, most snakes fear fire.

But in this place where even humans don't follow common sense, the former couldn't be counted on, while the latter probably still had a tiny bit of logic to it -

In the blink of an eye, those black and white giant snakes had gathered around the boulder. When they were still some distance from the two men, they all stopped their forward motion and raised their huge heads high, their golden pupils contracting, revealing a ferocious appearance.

Earlier when the distance was too great, Xia Chuan couldn't see clearly, but now with the giant snakes no more than two or three meters away, it was enough for him to make out their appearance.

They differed somewhat from modern snakes. The scales on their bodies looked much thicker and harder, layered one over the other, more like lizard skin than snakeskin. Their bodies were also not completely round, but slightly flattened, especially their heads, as if they had been pressed flat, probably to adapt to the pressure in the shallow sea.

Their front portions were raised ramrod straight, supporting their heads as they looked down on the two men pressed against the back of the boulder from on high, maintaining a safe distance from the burning bonfire. During this standoff, their flattened heads seemed to inflate bit by bit, like they were being pumped with air, becoming rounder as they adapted to the pressure on land.

This bizarre and odd scene disgusted Xia Chuan and Dennis. No matter how brave a person was, being surrounded by such a group of grotesque giant snakes would make anyone feel a bit sick. Let alone Dennis, whose courage was smaller than a soybean. Xia Chuan could clearly feel him trembling... at a high frequency.

In this standoff where even the wind had nearly stilled, Dennis' shaking was a bit too much.

Those giant snakes hissed, flicking out their forked tongues. Almost simultaneously, they moved their heads, uniformly turning towards Dennis, causing his legs to immediately go weak. He nearly knelt down before them right then and there.

Unfortunately, even if he really did kneel, it would be useless in front of these giant snakes. They flicked their tongues in Dennis' direction, then tilted their heads towards the bonfire, going back and forth a few times as if hesitating.

But after only a few seconds of hesitation, they tried slithering forward another short distance, getting closer to both the fire and Dennis.

The two giant snakes closest to the fire drew their heads back a little, but then discovering that the fire couldn't reach them for the time being, they confidently moved closer to Dennis again.

Xia Chuan's fingers gripping the knife tightened further, his eyes moving slightly as he repeatedly scanned the giant snakes, paying attention to their every move.

Suddenly, one of the burning dry branches lost its support and abruptly snapped, causing the entire bonfire to collapse, scattering sparks all around. In that instant, the dozens of giant snakes that had been tense suddenly moved. Their reared heads shot towards Dennis and Xia Chuan like arrows, their mouths gaping open, upper and lower jaws stretching to nearly 180 degrees.

Dennis stared in shock as the snake's mouth charged straight at him. The dark maw was like a huge, hollow net, engulfing him. The strong smell of the sea and blood sprayed onto his face, and the gleaming fangs were aimed right at his eyes. If the giant snake closed its mouth, his eyes would be pierced and his body torn apart.

He even felt the sharp teeth about to touch his eyeballs. Instinctively wanting to close his eyes, he instead felt his right arm tighten as he was pulled to the side by a tremendous force, nearly falling to the ground.

He heard the whoosh of a blade slicing through the air, followed by warm liquid splattering onto his face and body, the pungent smell of blood instantly filling his nostrils. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a huge snake head being completely severed, snake blood gushing from the neck like rain, spilling all over the ground.

The remaining dozens of giant snakes were stunned for a moment. Xia Chuan didn't wait for them to react before grabbing Dennis and shouting, "Get the fire!"

Although timid, Dennis wasn't stupid. Hearing Xia Chuan's words, while being dragged away, he snatched a few dry branches from the fire and gripped them in his hands.

At this point, he didn't care about the heat at all. His completely dumbfounded brain was half paralyzed. He clutched the torch like a lifeline, as if he would never let go, as Xia Chuan pulled him to hide behind the black rock surrounded by the giant snakes.

Of course, those giant snakes wouldn't give up easily. They immediately chased after the two, pouncing directly at them.

Xia Chuan swung his dagger extremely fast, the blade flashes almost weaving together. His explosive power and agility were simply astonishing. Moreover, this military dagger was quite long, and the blade was extremely sharp, able to cut through iron like mud, let alone slicing off snake heads.

Almost one or two heads per strike, like cutting melons and vegetables.

However, Dennis knew that Xia Chuan was injured. Everything he was doing now was forced, and he definitely couldn't last long, yet the giant snakes kept lunging forward relentlessly.

The tails, much thinner than the bodies, had tremendous force. Several times when they missed and whipped the ground, they made a crisp sound like a steel whip, stirring up a layer of sand.

No matter how capable Xia Chuan was, he was still just one person, and he had to protect Dennis as well. Soon, his dagger swings started to slow, and the dozens of giant pythons, seeing this, pounced even more excitedly.

Finally, Xia Chuan failed to decapitate one of the lunging giant snakes. The four fangs nearly pierced his heart. Just as he desperately rolled to the side trying to dodge, he heard Dennis let out a miserable scream.

When he turned back, he found that he and Dennis had been forced very close to the sea by the giant snakes, and Dennis' legs were wrapped by a snake tail, dragging him into the sea like a dead dog.

With Xia Chuan distracted for a moment, a giant snake's tail also slapped him on the waist. He had just grunted from the dull pain when he felt the snake tail tighten around his waist, then suddenly yank, also pulling him into the sea.

The instant before he entered the water, a familiar figure appeared on a reef not far away. He didn't know which side the man had climbed up from. Backlit by the hazy dawn light, his tall silhouette was outlined.

Before Xia Chuan could make a sound, he heard Dennis struggling and shouting in that direction, "Hey! You... come back... help!"

That man was none other than Shen Lan.

Obviously, he heard Dennis' cry for help. He looked in the direction of the two while crossing his arms. When his eyes met Xia Chuan's, he finally put down his arms, moved his neck from side to side, then leaped forward—

When he jumped up, he was still in human form. The moment he descended, his outline began to distort and expand rapidly.

At the edge of the sea, the sun finally revealed a bit of light, casting a faint golden glow on the changing silhouette, making each transformation starkly clear.

The moment he entered the water, the transforming outline finally took shape, solidifying into a huge, colossal body—about twenty meters long, almost comparable to a boat.

In the slightly opened maw, two rows of conical fangs gleamed coldly. The enormous tail made up more than half the body length. When it hit the water, it splashed up huge waves and a deafening sound.