Returning to Extreme Night City
"The eyes are where the life essence of the Mankestre snake is, and it looks like this huge snake is about to die!"
Murphy looked at the huge snake, which was in its last moments, and said rather bleakly.
"Be optimistic my old friend!" Towards Murphy’s bleakness, Leylin discovered that he actually could not utter any words of comfort.
After all, the casualties, this time, were too much. From a group of roughly 30 people, the Black Iron Guards were completely wiped out, and Murphy was the only acolyte that survived.
Moreover, the city lord and the Grand Knight, Viscount Jackson, was severely injured at this moment, and his life was in peril.
And the source of them all was this huge Mankestre snake!
"City lord? Right, Leylin! Hurry and look at Jackson!" Murphy slapped his forehead.
"You only thought of him now?" Leylin was rather speechless, and walked around the huge snake corpse, coming to the other side.
Viscount Jackson was lying on his back on the ground and his chest was sunken in a cavity. On the corners of his lips were traces of blood, and he was in an unconscious state.
Leylin hurriedly took a look, "3 broken ribs and the arm and leg bones are all also broken. As for the rest they are fine. With the vitality of a Grand Knight, he should be conscious in a few hours.
"That’s good! This is the only good news I’ve heard all day today!"
Murphy walked towards that huge, lifeless snake, and said, "This seems to be a Mankestre snake which has not yet grown to its adult stage. If it was an adult withering huge snake, it could be very likely that the water content in our bodies would have been sucked dry the very moment we entered the cave!"
The huge Mankestre snake’s head fell onto the floor, and a pair of eye-shaped pearls were pierced by the pyramid shaft, and dazzling fluid flowed out from within.
"Even so, the materials on this huge snake, would also be worth thousands of magic crystals!"
Murphy caressed the yellow-brown scales of the huge snake as he muttered to himself.
Suddenly, the other eye of the Mankestre snake opened! Its gaze, filled with hatred, immediately landed on Murphy. It opened its jaws, and the razor-sharp teeth was about to snap Murphy into two.
This huge snake was not completely dead!
Earlier it had feigned its death, and right now, it finally revealed its razor-sharp teeth and was about to kill this repulsive human.
Against such an attack, Murphy was completely not protected and he stood there stunned, not moving at all.
"Be careful!"
Right when the snow-white teeth was about to land on Murphy, a silver chain suddenly flew out and wrapped itself on Murphy’s waist, pulling him out of danger’s way.
A black arrow directly pierced the other eye of the snake, and the Mankestre snake continuously writhed and finally ceased moving.
* Huff! Huff! Huff! *
Murphy panted violently, "Ley... Leylin, thank you! I owe you my life!"
"No problem! You gave your support to me back then too, didn’t you?" Leylin smiled as his gaze fixed on the huge snake, up until when the A.I. Chip’s voice sounded, [Target has completely lost all signs of life] did he heave a sigh of relief.
Under the detection of the A.I. Chip, although there were no more energy movements from the huge snake earlier, there was still a thermal response.
Of course, many kinds of creatures must be dead for a while before all thermal signs completely vanish.
However, because of that, Leylin was even more vigilant. Besides, intentionally or accidentally, he led Murphy forward and finally verified whether the large snake was truly dead.
"What a pity! If this Mankestre snake were to die before, its other eye would have absolutely been valued over 1000 magic crystals, but right now, the value of the whole corpse is greatly reduced."
Leylin was somewhat helpless at he looked to Murphy, who was at his side.
"About the attack earlier- you actually did not dodge it, which makes me rather surprised!"
An unexpected flush reddened Murphy’s cheeks, "After using the rune shackles, my spiritual force and magic power are greatly weakened. In this period, I am just another old geezer on the street...."
With regards to Leylin, who saved him earlier, right now it could be said that Murphy trusted him greatly and actually even shared such a secret with him.
"Alright! Let’s hurry and harvest the materials of this Mankestre snake, and then return to Extreme Night City!"
Leylin sized up the chaotic scene. Leylin and the three of them had absolutely no way to move those corpses on the ground, so they could only return back to Extreme Night City and ask people to retrieve these corpses.
With the death of the huge Mankestre snake, this area should no longer pose a threat in future.
"Haha... This time Leylin, your contributions have been the most, so you should be allowed to harvest the best material!" Murphy smiled.
Concerning this matter, Leylin did not have any notions of killing Murphy and claiming all the loot for himself.
Murphy did help him earlier, and on the other hand, right now Murphy and him were the only two acolytes left, so he would definitely monopolise a large portion of the resources, thus he did not have to take a risk and kill people.
From the whole Mankestre snake, the most valuable ingredient would be its eyes, after which the remaining materials would only add up to a total of 1000 to 2000 magic crystals, which was not enough to bewitch Leylin yet.
If right now there was some rare materials worth ten thousand magic crystals, who knew if Leylin would harbour some bad intentions.
"Decent scales, combined with the snake skin, should be able to produce many sets of soft armour." Leylin went forward and unsheathed his cross blade, before dissecting the huge snake. Murphy too helped by his side.
After a moment of being busy, Leylin and Murphy had harvested some of the more valuable portions of the huge snake. As for the remaining items, they could only be transported with help from the city lord’s castle.
......
* Gu Lu Lu * The axles of the carriage resounded continuously, and Viscount Jackson opened his eyes.
"I am...still alive?" What entered his vision was a sky filled with resplendent starlight, and he felt his body rising and falling in accordance with the movements of the horse carriage.
Viscount Jackson discovered that his chest was already bandaged, and a refreshing feeling dispersed the pain, which showed that the healing process was extremely professional.
"Who was it that saved me?" A doubt crossed Viscount Jackson’s mind, and he tried hard to untangle his thoughts.
"City lord! You are finally awake!" A face with a white beard and white eyebrows appeared in front of Viscount Jackson.
"How is it? Do you still retain your memories?" Murphy shook his finger in front of Viscount Jackson.
"Was it you who saved me? How are the others?" Viscount Jackson struggled to speak, and his voice sounded hoarse, like a ruined bellow.
"It wasn’t me, but Leylin who saved you!" Murphy pointed at Leylin who was driving, "We three are the only survivors of the whole group... After exiting the woods, it took me a while to obtain this spacious horse carriage...."
"They’re all dead?" Viscount Jackson flung his head to the side and an unexplainable sorrow welled from the bottom of his heart.
"Lord Viscount! It seems like you are alright now!" Leylin turned back, and tossed a green bottled potion, "This is a healing potion, I hope it will be of use to you!"
Murphy caught it, and fed it into the mouth of Viscount Jackson.
After taking the potion, Viscount Jackson only felt a hot wave surging through his four limbs, and he finally regained some energy from it.
"Towards Leylin’s generosity and grace of saving my life, I will definitely repay you when we return!"
"If possible, please give me all of the Hove Violet Leaves in the castle. That would be the greatest recompense!" Leylin raised his request without a tinge of restraint.
"Of course!" Jackson was stunned, before immediately agreeing.
With the advance of the horse carriage, the silhouette of Extreme Night City gradually appeared.
A few soldiers were still guarding the post, scrutinising the people that came and went.
......
Jackson looked at the distant scene, and his eyes quivered, and finally two streams of tears flowed....
The city lord’s castle’s reconnoiter group had perished completely. Even news of Viscount Jackson, as a Grand Knight, having been seriously injured had spread and immediately caused an uproar in Extreme Night City.
Even after two days, the news did not die down. Instead, it even spread throughout the area,
As the city lord of Extreme Night City, Viscount Jackson always used his status as a Grand Knight to suppress many dark factions. However, when the news of him being injured spread, it caused several ripples and undercurrents inside the city.
At this moment, the strength of the city castle was waning, even the few acolytes who were friendly towards Viscount Jackson had died. Jackson who was nurturing his grief had to face with all these, and was rather overwhelmed by all these.
Leylin who stayed in the villa outside the city heard some of the news.
However, since he had returned from the venture, he always holed himself in the experiment lab, and even refused many invitations from the city lord’s castle and other factions.
Under the bright light, Leylin stared; his eyes fixated on a petri-dish.
On the surface of the glass petri-dish, a small red lump of flesh continuously swelled, and from it grew many tentacles.
Leylin picked up another pipette, and placed a drop of the yellow potion on the lump of meat.
* Sssii! * The meat dissolved, and turned into a puddle of crimson-red with yellowish blood fluid.
"I have finally managed to purify it, the primordial blood essence of the huge snake!" Leylin looked at the petri-dish, as if seeing the most precious treasure in this world.
"A.I. Chip! Scan composition!"
[Beep! Mission establishing, scanning in progress...]
[The list of genes has been generated, comparing to database....]
"99.8%......"
[Beep! Similarity of the blood essence with a normal huge python: 99.8%! Determined as the blood essence of original huge pythons! After remodelling in the later stage, there were new types of genes...]
The A.I. Chip continuously reported the conclusions, and even projected the list of genes in front of Leylin’s eyes.
From the multicoloured image, the blood essence of the huge Mankestre snake that Leylin saw earlier was actually the same with regular huge pythons.
"Indeed! This huge python is the result of an experiment by magicians!" Leylin nodded his head. He still remembered clearly that after the A.I. Chip had scanned the huge python, it had added the words half-adult to its name.
However, if not for the accuracy of the A.I. Chip down to the atomic level, Leylin would never unravel the secret behind it. Even other magicians would not be able to realise the difference.
"Two more days, and that area should be calm again!"
Leylin informed his subordinates that he was going to undergo a very long duration of experimentation and that they are not to bother him with any matters and then he secretly left the villa.