Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

The mutated Garuda snake, as thick as a thigh, lay on the ground. Its head had been reduced to a pool of bloody, rotten flesh. Only its body, covered in tumors, still twitched occasionally due to nerve reflexes, slapping the ground with a crisp cracking sound.

Xilun stood beside the snake carcass, his chest heaving violently.

He slowly opened his right hand, his fingertips still trembling slightly, his fingernails filled with slippery snake scale fragments and dark red flesh.

The sensation was disgusting, yet it also carried a scalding, intoxicating power.

He vaguely saw a thin black line burrow into his palm and disappear.

"hiss……"

Finally, someone in the crowd gasped in shock.

That was Czech. He was still clutching the bent, rusty iron rod in his hand, his eyes wide like copper bells, staring intently at Xilun's blood-stained hand.

What just happened happened too fast and too violently.

He tore the snake's head apart with his bare hands.

This visual impact is far more direct and bloody than Instructor Renn breaking the tree branch from a distance.

"Silon..."

Kanavi swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

He strode forward, first glancing at the snake carcass on the ground, then looking up at the calm-faced Xilen, his eyes becoming unusually strange.

"You little rascal...when did you become so good?"

Canavi lowered his voice, his tone tinged with a mixture of probing and disbelief, "You've developed strength?"

Xilun shook the blood off his hands, took out a blackened rag from his pocket and wiped his fingers, then nodded.

"Just started practicing."

His voice was hoarse but steady, showing no trace of the excitement he had just experienced in the battle.

Kanavi took a deep breath.

Although he had suspected it beforehand, hearing Xilun admit it to himself still gave him a jolt of fear.

In just five days, this usually quiet and poor boy who worked as a porter at the dock actually developed real strength.

"Well done."

Kanavi patted Xilen's shoulder forcefully, a glint of shrewdness flashing in his eyes.

He didn't ask Xilun how he learned it. He swept the ground, squatted down, took out a folding knife from his waist, and skillfully poked at the snake corpse's broken head.

"This is a Gara Mystic Serpent, but its shape is wrong."

Kanavi used the tip of his knife to pick up a scale with fleshy growths and examined it closely. "The scales are thicker, the color is darker, and there are these growths... This is a mutant."

"A mutant?" Xilun frowned slightly.

"They must have ingested alchemy waste discharged from nearby factories."

Kanavi tapped the snake's body with the back of his knife, producing a dull thud, like striking hardwood. "This mutation isn't severe, but the skin is tougher. This thing is valuable from head to toe."

At this point, a glint of green appeared in Kanavi's shrewd eyes.

He looked up at Xilun: "You killed this snake, it's yours. Can you handle it?"

Xilun shook his head.

Aside from his immense strength, he didn't even have a decent knife in that dark and damp dockside dormitory, let alone any materials to process this extraordinary creature.

"If you can't handle it, give it to me."

Kanavi immediately replied, speaking rapidly, "My dad's place buys everything. Snake skin can be used to make leather armor linings, snake gallbladders are the main ingredient in antidotes, and although snake meat is a bit sour, people on the black market buy it to make soup for replenishing energy."

He held up a finger and waved it in front of Xiren.

"Let's calculate the total, here's a round number: 10 shillings."

10 shillings.

It costs around 500 yuan, which can last a month in West Virginia.

"The main problem is that the mutation level isn't high. If it were a bit bigger, even just the snake gallbladder could sell for £1," Kanavi explained, seemingly worried that Siron might think it was too little.

"it is good."

Without any hesitation, Xilun said, "You sell it, whatever you get is what you pay for."

He was well aware of his situation.

Without a channel, this snake is nothing more than a pile of rotten, stinking flesh in his hands.

Even though they will definitely take a cut if we hand it over to Kanavi, that's just how business works.

"readily!"

Kanavi grinned, revealing a set of somewhat yellowed teeth.

He stopped talking and the folding knife in his hand flew between his fingers, his movements as skilled as a butcher who had been slaughtering pigs for many years.

laugh--

The blade sliced ​​along the white line on the snake's belly, making a sound like tearing cloth.

The foul-smelling black blood gushed out instantly, staining the surrounding soil black.

Without changing his expression, Kanavi reached into the slippery snake's belly with both hands and pulled hard.

Splash!

A whole bunch of colorful entrails were pulled out and tossed aside.

The male students who had originally wanted to come over and watch the commotion turned pale instantly upon seeing this scene, covered their mouths, gagged, and retreated several meters away.

To these students who grew up in a sheltered environment, this scene was too barbaric and disgusting.

Only Xilun remained standing in place, watching expressionlessly.

He had seen even more disgusting things at the docks.

The rotting floating corpses, the large rats in the sewers, the thighs severed by machines... compared to these, this was nothing more than a simple slaughter.

the other side.

With Fina's help, Daisy managed to stand up.

Her face was still as pale as paper, and the hem of her white dress was stained red with blood. It was from the cuts she had made when she fell, caused by the rubble, and also from the scratches left by the snake.

"Daisy, are you alright?"

Several boys finally realized what was happening and surrounded her, offering words of comfort and concern.

Daisy ignored them.

"No need for help, I can walk."

Her voice was cold, carrying a kind of aristocratic reserve and pride.

But when her gaze swept over the snake carcass being dismembered by Kanavi, and the silent, gaunt figure standing to the side, a barely concealed shock flashed deep in her eyes.

Daisy pursed her lips, wanting to say something, but looking at Xilun's indifferent profile, she ultimately said nothing.

……

By the time we got back to the city, it was completely dark.

The gas lamps by the roadside lit up, their dim yellow light spreading through the mist and casting long shadows on everyone.

At the fork in the road, the trainees dispersed.

After such a terrifying experience, no one was in the mood for a meal together anymore.

Kanavi was carrying a burlap sack that was still dripping blood; it contained the skinned snake and the processed snake meat and gallbladders.

"I'll give you the money before class tomorrow."

Kanavi tossed the sack over his shoulder with a bold gesture, "Oh, right, this is for you."

He freed one hand, pulled a crumpled handwritten book from his pocket, and tossed it to Xilun.

Xilun caught it and glanced at it under the streetlight.

The cover is written in a crooked, colloquial style as "Basic Grammar of Classical Literature".

"This is what I used to use at the church school; it still has my notes on it."

Kanavi pointed above, "Didn't you want to study classical literature? This stuff is better than buying new books at the bookstore. The foundation of mysticism is classical literature, but those big tomes of mysticism are too profound. You should memorize these few hundred commonly used words first."

Xilun stroked the rough cover of the book, a slight thought stirring in his heart.

Thanks.

"Don't mention it. I might need your help in the future."

Kanavi waved his hand, whistled, picked up the bag of bloody spoils, and disappeared into the dark alley.

Xilun watched his retreating figure, carefully tucked the book into her bosom, and placed it close to her chest.