The Prodigal Son

"That's true."

Xu Wan nodded slightly, "However, taking so many scales with us is a troublesome matter."

"Why bother with the trouble when you have something good?"

Qin Yu didn't take it seriously. "Give me a hundred pounds of bricks, and I can't move them at all! Give me a hundred pounds of gold, and I can run like the wind!"

These scales are both light and hard. If a complete set of armor and body armor could be made from these scales, the weakness of heavy cavalry would no longer be a weakness!

If you put this cavalry unit on the battlefield, it would be like an ancient version of titanium alloy armored troops!

Qin Yu was getting more and more excited as he thought about it.

If Ning Huang's true energy hadn't been not yet fully recovered, he would have hoped for two more or even more of these strange snakes!

"Oh, I see!"

Qi Dachui realized what was happening, scratched his head sheepishly, and chuckled sheepishly, "Thirteenth Young Master, I'll never call you a pervert again."

"..."

Qin Yu's face twitched slightly again, then he waved his hand, "Alright, alright, forget about whether it's perverted or not! Let's quickly skin this thing and roast some of this strange snake's meat to eat! This snake is so big, maybe eating its meat will give us divine power!"

Upon hearing Qin Yu's words, Qi Dachui's eyes lit up, and his gaze towards the strange snake's corpse changed.

"Big Hammer, don't listen to his nonsense."

Nan Que'er noticed Qi Dachui's gaze and teased Qin Yu, "If you roast it, its power might disappear! Why don't you try eating a couple of pieces first?"

She even ate tiger meat in southern Xinjiang!

She didn't gain the tiger's power either!

This guy doesn't practice his skills properly every day; all he thinks about is taking shortcuts!

"Let's forget about eating raw meat and drinking blood!"

Qin Yu smiled and then instructed, "You and Xu Wan light a bunch of fires over there and keep an eye on the surroundings for us. Leave the skinning to Da Chui and me!"

"All right!"

Nan Que'er nodded gently, "Perfect timing, I'm a little hungry too."

After that, Qin Yu and Qi Dachui got busy.

Ning Huang neither made a move nor spoke; he simply sat to the side, staring thoughtfully at the corpse of the strange snake.

Qin Yu didn't care about him; right now, only three words were on Qin Yu's mind: "Find the inner core."

Regardless of whether it exists or not, let's look for it first!

The scales of this strange snake are indeed very hard.

Qin Yu and Qi Dachui spent a great deal of effort to pry off a ring of scales, cut off a few pieces of meat and gave them to Xu Wan and the others to roast, and then the two of them began to skin the meat.

Once the opening is made, peeling the skin becomes relatively easy.

After Xu Wan and Nan Que'er finished grilling the meat, they also peeled off the skin of the strange snake.

Although the scales of this strange snake are not heavy, its large size and large number make it weigh at least four or five hundred pounds, including the skin and scales.

After peeling off the monstrous snake's skin, Qin Yu immediately began searching for its inner core.

However, after searching the entire corpse of the strange snake, he found no so-called inner core, but he did find a large, foul-smelling snake gall.

Disappointed, Qin Yu kicked the corpse of the strange snake.

Got it!

It seems we can't count on the inner alchemy!

Let's see if there are any rare and precious herbs after it gets light!

There must be a reason why this thing can grow so big and has such hard scales!

At this moment, Xu Wan and Nan Que'er also finished grilling the meat.

The group sat together around the fire, eating roasted meat.

Qin Yu took a bite, but felt no surge of spiritual energy at all; instead, it was very dry.

It doesn't taste like chicken, nor is it crunchy.

It feels like an unscrupulous merchant using a bunch of random, nonsensical ingredients to make synthetic beef that's been overcooked.

However, this thing does have its advantages.

At least there's no technology or grueling work involved.

Qin Yu tried to comfort himself while struggling to chew the incredibly old meat.

"Do you think this strange snake grew to such a size after being bathed in the blood of a god?"

At this moment, Nan Que'er suddenly spoke up, half-jokingly asking the group a question.

"What are you thinking about!"

Xu Wan rolled her eyes at Nan Que'er, "That was so many years ago. This strange snake couldn't possibly have lived for thousands of years, could it?"

If this strange snake has truly lived for over a thousand years, even ten more Ninghuangs wouldn't be a match for it.

"With this kind of flesh, I would believe it if you said this strange snake had lived for thousands of years."

Qin Yu muttered a weak complaint, then swallowed the meat in his mouth and turned to look at Ning Huang, who remained silent. "Senior, you seem to have something on your mind. What are you thinking about?"

"It's nothing."

Ning Huang responded casually, "I just feel this place is a bit strange."

"..."

Hearing Ning Huang's words, even Qi Dachui was speechless.

Is there even a question?

There's definitely something strange about this place!

The fog is thick again, and this strange snake has appeared once more.

If this isn't strange, then it would be truly strange.

Ning Huang didn't say anything more to them and continued to ponder.

Seeing this, the others didn't disturb Ning Huang and continued chatting on their own.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, they lit a bonfire some distance away from the monstrous snake's corpse and took turns resting.

All night long, they could hear various sounds coming from the direction of the strange snake's corpse.

There were roars of wild beasts and sounds of fighting over food.

Fortunately, there was meat readily available, and no wild beasts dared to attack them, allowing them to spend a vigilant but peaceful night.

Even after daybreak, the fog remained thick and wouldn't dissipate.

When they returned to the serpent's corpse, they were stunned by what they saw.

In just one night, the corpse of the enormous serpent had vanished, leaving only a long skeleton.

How many predators must there be!

"Look!"

Just as they were secretly shocked, Xu Wan's voice suddenly rang out.

The group immediately gathered around Xu Wan.

Looking in the direction Xu Wan was pointing, they saw a clear crawling trail on the ground.

This crawling track was noticeably narrower than the one left by the strange snake.

They carefully followed the tracks they had made and eventually arrived at the hot spring again.

However, when they saw the scene in the hot spring, they were stunned.

In the hot spring, the corpse of a giant python, more than two zhang long, floated on the surface of the water.

This giant python was between the size of the two giant pythons they had killed.

However, due to the gas inside its body, this giant python didn't look much smaller than the strange snake from yesterday.

However, this giant python looked exactly like a python.

It has no scales or external gills.

There were no visible wounds on his body.

Nan Que'er stared at the giant python's corpse in the water, blinked, and said with a wild imagination, "Do you think it might have committed suicide for love?"

"..."

Qin Yu was both amused and exasperated. He raised his hand and gently poked Nan Que'er's forehead. "Being love-struck is a disease; it needs treatment!"

Nan Que'er swatted Qin Yu's paw away, sniffing defiantly, "Does this giant python have any wounds? What else could it be but a double suicide?"

Qin Yu squatted down, feeling the temperature of the hot spring water again, and slowly said, "They were most likely scalded to death!"