Chapter 24 - Life Threatening Encounter

Beads of sweat were trickling down Li Jie's neck, yet his body felt chilly as if the surrounding temperature had gone down immediately, which was quite contradicting to the whole situation that was occurring at the moment,

whereas the snake beast in front of him was of a fire element which was instead heating up the surrounding with it's presence,

wherever the snake moved around, that place had burnt marks on it, such was the case of the tree trunk on which the snake was currently coiling around,

ready to pounce at it's prey, who was frozen with fear, Li Jie could feel his fear increasing every second even if in his mind he knew that it was useless to be afraid and that he should be brave but the creature in front of him was just too terrifying to fight against,

while the beast in front of him wasn't of the fabled king rank but it was still too hard to fight against this creature who was already of the mortal stage, which was the second stage in the path of beast cultivation whereas he himself was just a novice.

If it was any other mortal stage except for the special ones, Li Jie wouldn't be as anxious as he was right now, because the Lesser Flaming Viper in front of him was of special category even among those of the same stage while having less intelligence it still was of cunning and ruthless nature,

it's fireball which it spits out as an attack was of toxic nature, where even one drop of the saliva of this beast could corrode a human's skin and it also had a poisonous spike at the end of it's tail which It kept hidden to attack it's enemy unaware.

It was an extremely troublesome beast to deal with, even for those of the master stage, Li Jie held onto his sword which was clinging at his waist,

he couldn't help but curse at his misfortune that the belt on which he attached the sword was too tightened, such that he couldn't even take out the sword stealthily as he first wanted to,

he knew using the sword to fight was no more an option because the minute he even loses a little bit of focus, he will be attacked right at that moment,

all of a sudden as if finding the situation annoying the snake suddenly moved at a rapid speed towards the left side of Li Jie which made him confused for a second,

but he suddenly realized it was a feint because the Lesser Flaming Viper used it's tail to attack him at his face which was almost nearing his face, trying his best to move his body,

Li Jie shifted sideways to avoid the attack but it still ended up grazing on the back of his neck, realizing that he wasn't wounded deeply, touching the back of his neck he rejoiced but still ran in panic while the Lesser Flaming Viper was following behind him in full throttle, the boy ran while the beast kept chasing him.

Li Jie realized that he didn't even have a proper weapon nor any type of armor to protect himself, he felt himself to be too naive for the first time, he realized that while he had the fact in his mind that he must be cautious at all times, he didn't even properly act on it in real life,

was he really cautious as he should be, the answer was no, he was completely the opposite of what he was striving for,

he just went on doing whatever he wished for at the moment because of his faith in his parents but here in the wilderness,

there was no one who would look after him, while running madly Li Jie kept on praying in his heart for some kind of escape from this Lesser Flaming Viper,

just one spit or a bite would be enough to immobilize him, feeling the Lesser Flaming Viper nearing him,

Li Jie steeled his heart and suddenly took out the sharp-edged stone from his breast pocket with which he used to hunt small beasts, and threw right at the Lesser Flaming Viper,

to which the Lesser Flaming Viper immediately responded by spitting a small fiery ball at the oncoming stone which was surprisingly turned to ashes,

witnessing such a horrifying scene, Li Jie increased his speed and sprinted deeper into the forest which was occupied by beasts of higher strength, feeling as if losing his breath and his untrained legs which were at the limit, yet he still kept on running being fully aware of the fate that will befall him,

if he even slowed down a bit, feeling himself nearing the limit and the Lesser Flaming Viper closing in on him, Li Jie felt that maybe he will not live to see another day maybe today is the last day of his life, while he wanted to give up due to exhaustion and him losing his speed, yet he still kept on running,

holding onto a single ray of hope which will help him survive, his legs turned weary, his mind was fatigued, his body was worn out, finally, his legs gave up as he fell near a tree, feeling something nearing him,

Li Jie felt that maybe this is it, he felt sad that he won't be able to fulfill his promise that he made to himself of keeping his family safe, but he never regretted his decision while it would have been better if he was alive,

still there are some things which are out of control, he knew facing the looming sensation of death which was brought out by the Lesser Flaming Viper in front of him who was nearing him and ready to bite into it's preys flesh.

As soon as the slithering Lesser Flaming Viper made it's way towards Li Jie, it opened it's mouth showing it's venomous fang pouncing on him when out of the blue a thorn shaped thick tail pierced behind the Lesser Flaming Viper's head where the thorn can be seen protruding out of the Lesser Flaming Viper's mouth which was bleeding continuously and had particles of ice covering it's face.

the Lesser Flaming Viper was pulled by some creature which had the thorn at the end of it's tail, the creature had pincers with which it tore apart the body of the Lesser Flaming Viper and started devouring it voraciously, looking at what was transpiring in front of him,

Li Jie was shocked to his core, because the beast which was in front of him was also of the mortal stage but it was one of the rare beasts found in the continent called Ice-Tailed Scorpion whose bloodline was of a higher stage while not comparable to the vermilion bird with thin bloodline of a divine beast, it was still strong enough to handle special beasts of the same stage with a sneak attack.