It was different than what he expected.
When he first made the decision to take the drug, he expected to feel excruciating pain or a stifling feeling in his chest.
He expected something big to change about him, yet to his surprise he felt nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Both his mind and his body were completely numb. It was as if he wasn't even him anymore.
It could almost be described as looking at himself in the third person.
While he was exploring this odd sensation, his body suddenly leapt to the side. Doing a couple of flips, it rolled over to his fallen saber and picked it up.
And lying there where he was just standing, the tail of the serpent slid itself out of the ground.
Clearly if that attack had landed, he would've been in quite a precarious situation. But his body acted on instinct and immediately dodged it with little to no difficulty.
This was weird.
His mind tingled with the sensation of overwhelming power as he suddenly shot forward with his arm stretched out.
Xue Chang watched his own body quickly convert the invisible formations in the air to form chains that ensnared the snake.
Next it took hold of his saber and thrusted it into the crevices of the beast's scales.
Unfortunately the saber wasn't a piercing weapon made for thrusting so it didn't go far.
But it didn't matter as he used the saber, which was stuck between the scales, as leverage to swing himself up upon the snake.
And in a shockingly brutal display, his own body pulled his arm back and struck out with such a powerful punch that his arm had actually shattered and turned into mush.
The flesh, bones, and tendons all combined together into a gross sticky paste.
It was a complete self mutilation.
But this attack wasn't in vain. While it did not do much, it did ever so slightly push the monster's head back. But now his right arm was completely useless.
Or so he thought.
Yet to his surprise, his body unleashed an unbelievable amount of life force in an instant. With the unprecedentedly large amount of life force being released, his arm regenerated in an instant.
Yet ninety percent of all the life force he spent went to waste as it dissipated into the air.
A shockingly effective and inefficient method of regeneration. He had never seen something so ludicrous before.
And neither had the snake as even its eyes widened from the sight.
But as soon as the arm was repaired, it was immediately destroyed again as his body once again slammed it into the serpent's head.
Over and over again this process repeated. Attack, mutilation, and regeneration. Attack, mutilation, and regeneration. Attack, multinational, and regeneration.
Xue Chang wasn't sure how many times this action persisted, but what he did know was that through this insane procedure he was actually able to push back the monster step by step!
"It seemed you've overdosed in the drug. Your mind has gone completely blank and right now your body is just acting in instinct."
Yong Heng couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was crazy enough when Xue Chang chose to take an ENTIRE bottle of blue crystal powder, but to see the fighting prowess he obtained through it was even more terrifying.
He couldn't help but once again tell himself how he made a good decision.
"Xue Chang! Pay attention to what your body is doing. Although it is mindless and is just acting like a beast, its moves and actions are well versed. This is exactly how you should be using your abilities as an Aeonic embryo!"
Xue Chang didn't need this reminder. He already was entranced by how his own body was acting. Overexerting his body to its very limits and using life force to regenerate everything in an instant, since his body kept getting destroyed and repaired the muscles never got tired, plus its unpredictable movements made it quite the annoying opponent.
But this brute strength wasn't enough to stop the creature.
Although he was barely able to knock it around, in reality he hadn't even injured it properly.
In fact, the only real injury Xue Chang had dealt was when he sliced its eye, but that had already been healed since cultivators could use spiritual force to heal wounds.
His only real advantage was that no cultivator came even close to healing as quickly as he did. And he's yet to hear about one completely recovering from a lost limb.
Suddenly just as he was about to release another punch, the serpent reared its head back and slammed itself into Xue Chang.
With a crazed look in its eyes, it charged forward without stopping for even a second. Howling in anger from an ant actually pushing it back, it increased its slithering speed even further.
Meanwhile Xue Chang gritted his teeth as he planted both of his feet right into the ground in an attempt to stop the charge.
His legs tore off and healed themselves over and over again while he was being pushed back.
And finally both man and monster were dragged into the lava lake!
The situation had taken a turn for the worse. While the serpent could swim around casually in the water, Xue Chang wasn't as lucky!
His body began to wildly scratch at the snake's head in hope of it releasing him, but he couldn't do anything to it whatsoever.
His body began to rapidly melt at shocking speeds, so he was forced to put all of his attention into his regeneration.
Even Xue Chang's consciousness, which was watching this happen in the third person, had to silence all extra thoughts as he too focused on regenerating every part that was destroyed.
Once again he entered a process of destruction and repair, but this time it was actually life threatening to him!
If he even gave a hint of leeway he would be killed in an instant.
The serpent continued to drag the two of them even deeper into the lake while Xue Chang went into a catatonic state.
Despite having a virtually unlimited amount of life force, it was a huge mental strain for him to continuing abusing it like that. If this went in any longer he would be unable to focus properly and would lose control over his healing abilities.
Yet he couldn't stop. He had to try to ignore the mental strain and continue on:
But it wasn't enough. Eventually he lost his grip on his mind and his healing began to slow and waver.
Until eventually only a small amount of regeneration could occur at a time.
This was the end for him.
But, despite being unable to heal himself, he was still barely conscious.
Although he was sure his body had burnt to a crisp, he could still think and move properly. And more importantly his mind and body were in sync once again!
Looking over to his shoulder, he saw the earth fire eating away at his flesh ceaselessly. Yet it was moving so slowly.
No it wasn't just that. But it almost seemed to be becoming slower as time passed.
Although Xue Chang had no idea what was going on, he knew one thing for sure. This was his chance!
Wrapping his arms around the snake who was pressing its head against him, he thought back to how his body acted before and released a gargled scream.
In a single motion, his twisted his hip and arms around a full one hundred and eighty degree!
The bones in his arms shattered to pieces while his spine snapped in half, but even so his sudden burst of strength surprised the confident beast.
The motion caused its head to swing to the side, taking its body along with it. This freeing Xue Chang from his predicament!
Without even thinking, he brought his arms forward and swam. He swam for dear life using what strength he could muster to get him out of the pool of lava.
And a few seconds later, a bruised naked body shot out of the lava lake and onto the stone floor.
Coughing and gasping for air, he grasped his neck which just moments prior had been burnt and torn.
Yet he couldn't even feel a single scar on it now.
But he could worry about this later. What was most important was finishing his plan.
Rushing toward his fallen robe on the side and wrapping it around himself, Xue Chang collected his saber near the cavern entrance and rushed toward the opening.
But just before he could escape through it, another explosion occurred in the lake and the serpent landed right in front of the cave entrance.
"You really don't know when to give up do you you bastard?"
The monster gave a hiss in replay before preparing to strike again.
Xue Chang began to take careful steps backwards over to the wall near the entrance.
And before he could do anything else, the tail of the snake pierced directly into his abdomen in one side and out the other, stabbing itself directly into the wall behind him.
Xue Chang felt his organs getting punctured and torn apart as more blood trickled down his mouth.
Honestly he's probably bled more today in this cavern than most people would in their lifetime.
While thinking this to himself, he stared at the monster with a light smirk on his face.
"Check mate-"
Hearing the words of the human before it, the snake gave off a confused look before hearing a light rumbling shook the entire cavern and rocks and stones fell from the ceiling.
The snake look dow in realization as it thought back to its prior action of throwing its opponents to the wall and Xue Chang's odd action of crashing into the wall randomly as well.
It was smart enough to fit the pieces together, and the conclusion it came to frightened it.
Without a hint of hesitation, it attempted to rush back to the lava lake and avoid the collapse of the cavern.
But to its surprise, it was unable to move.
Looking behind it, it could see Xue Chang gripping onto the end of the tail that impaled his body tightly.
And before either one of them could make another sound, the cave collapsed.