Chereads / The Serpent That Devours the World / Chapter 34 - Chapter 34: Escaping the Serpent's… Stomach

Chapter 34 - Chapter 34: Escaping the Serpent's… Stomach

"Huff…"

Enormous columns of air spewed forth from the giant serpent's nostrils, mixing with the seawater, transforming into violent undersea whirlpools.

This colossal being slumbering on the seafloor had not fully awakened, still in a daze. Its transparent pupils, which seemed as tranquil as lakes, were filled with a profound sense of blankness and lack of focus, without any focal point.

Although this world was very strange in all sorts of ways, completely inconsistent with the knowledge Meng had learned as a human, with snakes not even having any distinction between warm-blooded and cold-blooded, in many aspects, it was curiously alike to the snake habits Meng had known before.

In the knowledge humans had learned, most snakes in that world were cold-blooded creatures. They easily lost heat and had to bask in the sun to obtain warmth. Otherwise, if the temperature was too low, their bodies would gradually become stiff, their movements sluggish, their reactions slow, or they might even fall into hibernation, not moving at all. However, this also gave snakes the ability to eat their fill once and then go for a long time without eating again, thus maintaining their low energy consumption.

But what was strange was that this trait was also reflected in Jormungandr, who couldn't be considered warm-blooded or cold-blooded at all.

For a period of time after waking up, the serpent's body would still temporarily maintain that low-consumption state. Its thoughts, reactions, and movements would all be in an extremely sluggish state, making it difficult to quickly restore its combat power until the passage of time, when the serpent would gradually become more alert. This could be considered a weakness of the serpent.

However, generally speaking, the serpent often only needed less than two or three minutes to recover its state, so it didn't really matter. And now, the serpent was in a state like being jolted awake by a thunderclap in the dead of night, utterly disoriented.

And the reason for being startled awake was very simple…

The position of that heat source in its belly was off.

No matter how deeply it slept, no matter how slow its reactions were, the fact that the furnace constantly providing it with heat was gradually moving from its intestines towards its throat was enough to make this drowsily sleeping serpent instinctively feel that something was amiss, thus startling it awake.

"It seems… somewhere… in… somewhere… stomach… not right…"

Because it had just been startled awake, its brain was still in a daze, pondering. Its already not-so-keen mind, coupled with this sluggish state, successfully made the serpent's logical thinking exceptionally fragmented and incoherent.

The serpent's body could clearly feel that something was wrong, but its brain couldn't figure out what was going on for the time being.

Its restless body was unconsciously stirring in the deep sea, causing the entire ocean to churn, triggering countless tsunamis and huge waves on the surface.

The moonlit night sky gradually became more and more overcast, and clouds began to gather in the firmament…

The serpent's movements were manifested in another way inside its body.

The crimson flesh walls and the solid ground of flesh and blood underfoot had all been quietly sleeping, but with the serpent's awakening, these flesh walls began to squirm restlessly.

A very obvious point was that these flesh walls were all gradually contracting as they squirmed and writhed, as if some bizarre living things had awakened.

"What's going on…"

Thor looked around, perplexed.

"Jormungandr seems to have woken up… Quick, run!"

Loki looked at the writhing flesh and revolting blood vessels, as if realizing something, and hurriedly said loudly to the sun goddess Sol beside him, who was holding the reins.

"What?"

The sun goddess Sol, who hadn't responded in time, couldn't help but ask.

"Hurry and run! It's awake! If we don't run, its intestines will trap us here and then digest us!!!"

There was no time for further explanation. Loki shouted urgently.

And as if to confirm Loki's words, suddenly, from the flesh walls made of flesh and blood, countless tentacles made of solid muscle, like whips, extended out from the flesh walls. The tips even had slender, sickle-like, metallic hook-shaped objects, looking extremely fierce.

"Whoosh!"

Accompanied by sharp sounds of air being sliced, the metallic hooks of the tentacles collided with the sun chariot, pulling, crashing, hooking, tugging, rubbing against the sun chariot, creating dazzling sparks, enough to show how incredibly keen they were. And these tentacles then nimbly wriggled forward, wrapping around the sun chariot like vines, quickly binding the sun chariot tightly, making it unable to break free.

Even the heavy chariot that could carry the sun made creaking sounds as if it couldn't bear the burden under the savage tugging of these tentacles, slowly being dragged down by these ferocious appendages.

"Hmph!"

But with a cold snort, all of a sudden, countless bolts of lightning roared, lashing out at those flesh tentacles without mercy. In an instant, numerous tentacles were severed.

And the sun goddess Sol also reacted, flicking the reins in her hands. The two flaming horses immediately galloped forward like dragons. The originally stalled sun chariot then sped through the air at an unimaginable speed.

"What are those things!"

Due to the loud wind, the sun goddess driving the chariot had to turn her head and shout loudly at Loki behind her.

"I don't know!"

Faced with Sol's question, Loki had no choice but to shout back at her helplessly.

Everything beside them flashed by like fleeting shadows. In the serpent's intestines, as dark and vast as an abyss, only the sun chariot, glowing with countless brilliant lights as it soared through the air, could illuminate everything around it.

And under the illumination of this light, all sorts of bizarre things that had been originally sleeping began to stir one after another. Countless thick and thin tentacles of flesh and blood whistled as they extended out from the flesh walls, like countless flying lassos trying to hook onto the sun chariot to obstruct its departure, then drag it back into the deepest part of the serpent's stomach.

However, perhaps this alone would have been enough to deal with most ordinary creatures, but when facing three gods of great renown, this was clearly not sufficient.

Even without moving, just the countless raging thunderbolts enveloping the sun chariot were enough to sever all the tentacles that dared to attack.

However, there were simply too many tentacles, surging forth relentlessly like living things, constantly flying towards the speeding sun chariot, so many that even Thor felt deeply irritated.

"D*mn it, Loki! After we get out, I'm definitely going to have a good reckoning with you!"

Casually sending a bolt of lightning to cut off a thick tentacle that suddenly attacked, Thor's fury had nowhere to vent. He glared at Loki with eyes wide open and bellowed.

The logic of this thunder god was very simple. The giant serpent was Loki's offspring, so if it weren't for Loki, there wouldn't be so many issues.

And faced with Thor's rage, Loki could only shout back helplessly:

"Let's talk about that after we escape first!"

He was not wrong. With the passage of time, the originally extremely spacious flesh intestines were squirming and contracting, as if wanting to trap them all to death here. And this also meant that in front of them, the escape passage was also becoming narrower and narrower.

Outside, on the seafloor.

The serpent, feeling that something seemed wrong inside its body, unconsciously lifted its head in its confused thoughts. And the immense tremors caused by its colossal body actually lifted the silt that had been buried on the seafloor for tens of thousands of years, instantly making the originally clear seawater in the entire sea area turbid.

"Rumble…"

On the calm sea, an unfathomable amount of seawater suddenly erupted with the sound of mountains collapsing and seas churning. A black, low mountain peak emerged from the water surface, then ten peaks, a hundred peaks, a thousand peaks…

A vast land with countless mountain peaks on it, and still expanding, gradually surfaced from the sea.

No, it wasn't land. It was a colossal being too immense to imagine.

Those mountain peaks were not mountain peaks, but its black scales. That land was the immense serpent head of that colossal being, too huge to describe.

This colossal being unconsciously raised its head. It exhaled the long-lost air towards the overcast, gloomy sky. Then, two enormous tornadoes spewed out from its nostrils.

"Crack!!!"

In an instant, in the overcast night sky, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled. Lightning danced in the heavens, and dazzling flashes illuminated the dark and gloomy night sky.

Torrential rain then fell, falling into the surging sea with towering waves, falling onto the enormous monster that caused all this, as if the entire sky was in awe, feeling dread and trembling before this unprecedentedly immense monster in the universe.