Yuan Ming seized the opportunity, channeling the extreme force of his Energy Storage Arm into the Green Fish Sword, along with all of his mana.
He soared high into the air, abandoning slashing attacks in favor of the more powerful Armor Breaking thrust, lunging at the Single-Horned Viper Python.
The latter was entangled by the Blood Soul Vine and was utterly unable to attend to Yuan Ming at the moment.
Yuan Ming's long sword met no resistance, piercing directly into the Viper Python's right eye and plunging in deeply.
With a soft "pff" sound.
A spray of blood erupted; the python, which had been struggling violently, suddenly went rigid and then shot up, flinging Yuan Ming off its back.
Immediately after, the python's body contracted and twisted, nearly curling into a ball, but it didn't struggle for long before it lost strength and stopped moving altogether.
After climbing to his feet, Yuan Ming pounced back, stepping on the python's head and pulling out the Green Fish Sword.
He grasped the sword with both hands and hacked wildly at the python's chest, splattering scales and blood until chaos reigned.
This was not Yuan Ming acting in a flurry of rage, but rather out of urgency to locate the python's heart before the Blood Soul Vine could completely parasitize it. Otherwise, it might return to life and animate once again, which could spell disaster in his current weakened state.
After a difficult bout of chopping, Yuan Ming finally split open the python's chest and saw its faintly beating heart, already crawling with black threads.
Without a moment's hesitation, he thrust his sword and in just a few strokes, reduced the python's heart to mush.
Having done all this, Yuan Ming finally exhaled in relief, removed the Blood Storage Bag from his body, placed it at the wound, and began to collect Blood Food.
But just at that moment, another unexpected change occurred.
The Single-Horned Viper Python, which was thought to be thoroughly dead, suddenly began to move again. From within its wounds, dozens of thumb-thick black vines sprouted and instantly wrapped around Yuan Ming.
At this time, Yuan Ming, still poisoned and having expended too much mana, could not continue to forcefully drive his Qi-Blood. His vision blurred, his body lacked strength, and he was nearly devoid of the capacity to resist.
Yet, the head of the Single-Horned Viper Python once again rose, maintaining the same condescending stance as before.
However, the sole remaining red eye lacked the previously seen humanoid emotions, now vacant and dull; it was evidently under the control of the Blood Soul Vine.
Bound by the vines, Yuan Ming was brought before the python's head, only then noticing a black growth twitching and contracting in the hollow where his sword had pierced the right eye.
"It seems it doesn't need to reside in the heart..." Yuan Ming realized, but it was already too late.
The vines delivered him inch by inch towards the gaping maw of the Viper Python. Despite a desperate struggle, he inevitably faced the fate of falling into the serpent's mouth.
Yuan Ming tried hard to concentrate, attempting to recover clarity in his vision, but failed to do so. Even faced with this deathly situation, completely devoid of hope, he still refused to give up.
To fight with all his might was to cling onto a sliver of hope. To admit defeat meant certain death!
Inside him, the third-layer Cultivation Technique of the Nine Elements Technique revolved frantically, trying to continue gathering mana so he might fight once more. But this desperate, last-minute effort was ultimately fruitless.
Yuan Ming was swallowed by the Single-Horned Viper Python nonetheless.
Just as the serpent's jaws were about to close on him, Yuan Ming's eyes began to redden, and a surge of violent and brutal emotions foreign to him suddenly poured into his mind.
Within these emotions were anger, hatred, bloodlust, and many others Yuan Ming found repulsive. Only one matched his own current feelings, and that was unwillingness to accept his fate.
Unwilling to be defeated, unwilling to die, unwilling to surrender.
The next instant, Yuan Ming almost drowned in that torrent of complex emotions, nearly losing his mind.
But at the crucial moment, a warmth from his arm steadied his mind, allowing him to control the nearly berserk emotions.
Simultaneously, Yuan Ming felt the White Ape Beast Skin on his body tighten abruptly, intensifying the connection he felt to his own bloodline. His Qi-Blood, which had been stagnant throughout his body, now boiled fiercely once again.
Yuan Ming felt a scorching heat all over, as torrents of Qi-Blood rushed towards his chest.
Subsequently, his chest swelled as bones spontaneously grew, and a pale golden arm burst forth from his chest, tearing through the vines that bound him, its fingers piercing the Viper Python's right eye like blades.
The golden arm seized the writhing black mass within the eye socket and clenched tightly.
With a soft "bang," the black growth exploded into powder.
Following that, the body of the Single-Horned Viper Python rapidly shriveled and withered, and the parasitic vines within turned to ashes in an instant.
Yuan Ming regained his freedom and tumbled to the ground.
He quickly looked in astonishment at the lone arm that had emerged from his chest, and even forgot about collecting Blood Food.
The limb resembled an ape's arm but bore pale golden hairs, looking like it was grafted onto his White Ape body, utterly out of place.
"Could it be that this White Ape Beast Skin still has room to evolve?" Yuan Ming thought with shock and awe.
With a thought, the third arm clenched and threw a punch, propelling his body forward forcibly, the strength even surpassing that of his original arms.
"I wonder if this arm can be retracted. I surely can't be stuck with an extra limb on my chest forever; that would be too strange," Yuan Ming pondered silently.
Who would have known that, as his heartfelt words were spoken, the golden ape arm on his chest truly retracted back in.
He quickly felt his chest, where everything was as usual, without the slightest change.
After pondering for a moment, Yuan Ming immediately took out the Blood Storage Bag to collect Blood Food. After stripping the single horn from its head, he hurriedly left.
...
In the blink of an eye, several more months passed, and Ten Thousand Mountains was now in the depths of winter.
The great snow sealed the mountains, leaving a thousand miles of landscape in white.
Over these months, Yuan Ming continually practiced his cultivation without rest and kept hunting fierce beasts for Blood Food, gradually getting better and better at it, often handing over more than required, sometimes even ten times more.
Of course, he would use the Fur Cloak Technique as little as possible.
Considering that it hadn't been a year and a half since he formally became a Fur Beast Slave, he had already handed in a total of five hundred and seven portions of Blood Food.
The goal to complete a thousand portions within three years to become a Registered Disciple of Biluo Cave before completely falling through didn't seem so out of reach anymore.
On this day, in the early morning.
Yuan Ming was walking through the snowy forests of the mountains with a thick deer leg slung over his shoulder, taking deep and shallow steps.
His skin was dark, and his face rough, making him look indistinguishable from the Southern Border People, or even the Wild Men.
After winter sealed the mountains with snow, many bear-like and viper python-like fierce beasts fell into hibernation, and the activity of other fierce beasts greatly decreased, making hunting much more difficult than before.
Yuan Ming had left the morning of the day before yesterday and was only now returning from the outside. Had it not been for good luck in encountering a Black Horned Deer, he might have returned empty-handed.
As he passed through a pine forest, he suddenly heard a commotion ahead, as if there was a fight.
Yuan Ming's first instinct was to leave by another route. Besides hunting fierce beasts to accumulate points, he didn't care much about anything else, especially since the backlash from the Fur Cloak Technique was becoming increasingly severe with his growing cultivation.
Especially after the third golden ape arm had grown, using the Fur Cloak Technique would make the violent qi within his chest even more intense, the bloodthirsty and violent emotions repeatedly challenging his reason.
Yuan Ming didn't know how much longer the incense burner hidden in his arm could suppress this backlash.
Just as he decided to take another route to leave, he suddenly heard a somewhat familiar voice, "You scums from Hyena Hall, if it weren't for my serious injury, with just the two of you, would you dare to lay a hand on me?"
"Hagon?" Yuan Ming thought to himself.
In response to the voice were several sneers of ridicule and disdain, followed by the sound of combat.
Yuan Ming sighed, put down the deer leg he was carrying, and hurried over.
Before he could approach, a figure had already flown out from a thick bush.
Yuan Ming, with quick reflexes, caught the man's back. Using his left foot as a pivot, he spun around in a circle, dissipating the force of the collision and steadying the man to stand in place.
Then, two more people jumped out from behind the shrubbery, each holding a sharp knife in hand.
Upon seeing Yuan Ming, the two were visibly startled, and then one of them, with a long, pointed chin and monkey cheeks, immediately shouted, "Who are you? Want to meddle?"
The other one had already raised his sharp knife, pointing it at Yuan Ming's nose.
"Brother Yuan?" Hagon's face was pale, his forehead covered in sweat, and he called out in surprise as well.
His clothes were soaked in blood, with an exaggeratedly large tear wound on his waist and abdomen. There were also knife wounds of regular shape on his arms, all in all, more than ten in number.
"What have you done to yourself, how did you end up so miserable?" Yuan Ming frowned and said.
"I..." Before Hagon could finish speaking, his body softened, collapsing against Yuan Ming.
Looking at the unconscious Hagon, Yuan Ming was somewhat helpless.
"You two, get lost now!" he lifted his head to look at the two pursuers and shouted.
"You're asking for it?" The guy with the pointed chin and monkey cheeks yelled and lunged at Yuan Ming.
Yuan Ming's eyes flashed, and he raised one hand, softly chanting, "Arise!"
As his words fell, a layer of earthy yellow light shone from the ground; the pointed chin and monkey cheeks guy let out a scream as the foot he stepped forward with was impaled by a sharp stalagmite rising from the ground.
The other, seeing this, hastily looked at his own feet and retreated quickly.
Yuan Ming couldn't be bothered to deal with them, so he picked up Hagon and carried him over his shoulder, leaving with him.
Having picked up a living person, Yuan Ming couldn't return to his cave headquarters; he had to turn towards a temporary resting spot he frequented.
It was a decayed and broken treehouse that appeared to have been the dwelling of a Fur Beast Slave in the past; it had been abandoned for a long time. Yuan Ming tidied it up a bit, and it was barely usable.
He brought Hagon inside the treehouse, treated his wounds with the medicine powder he had exchanged for, and then went outside to start a bonfire and roast the Black Horned Deer leg.