“White snake?” Yang Hao laughed heartily, thinking Li Zu was joking. Li Zu said, “I found a tunnel leading inside, but it’s full of snakes, and there’s a particularly large white one. It’s not Bai Suzhen, but Bai Jingjing.”
“In the water?” Yang Hao asked. Li Zu nodded and started looking for his backpack. “Did we bring any explosives?”
“Do you want to blow up the tunnel along with them?” Liang Wan said. “We need to find a way to lure those snakes up here.”
Li Zu thought to himself that it was easy for her to say; she hadn’t seen what those snakes looked like. She wasn’t Fahai; those arrogant women could really get people killed.
Su Wan, who was feeling a bit dazed, said, “Li Zu, is the white snake really that big? Like the size of a bowl?”
“How do you know?”
Su Wan looked behind Li Zu, and the three of them turned to look at him.
In the filtration pool behind them, a giant white snake had already emerged from the water, looking at them with an attacking posture. All its scales were spread out, making it look nothing like a snake.
“This is a dragon, right?” Yang Hao said, dumbfounded, as he retreated to Su Wan’s side. Su Wan tossed the loaded folding submachine gun to Yang Hao. At the same time, all the snake’s scales retracted, and its entire body streamlined as it lunged forward like lightning.
Yang Hao hadn’t even aimed the submachine gun properly when the snake’s head was already upon him. He executed a soccer-style dodge and narrowly avoided it, only to hear Su Wan scream as he was already wrapped up in the air by the white snake.
Liang Wan was so shocked that she was pushed back four or five steps by Li Zu. Li Zu stepped forward, picked up another gun from the sand, brushed off the sand, and turned to start shooting with Yang Hao.
Bai Suzhen was hit, blood and scales flying, and she flung Su Wan away, retreating into the water. Yang Hao and Li Zu both sighed in relief and walked to the edge of the filtration pool, looking at the murky water, where the sand had already been stirred up.
“Fahai, you don’t understand love,” Yang Hao sang a line: “With a gun in hand, getting the scriptures from the West is no problem.” Saying that, he swept the filtration pool with gunfire again.
Li Zu ran to find Su Wan with Liang Wan. Su Wan had two bloody bites on his thigh, oozing black blood. He couldn’t speak anymore, just looked at Li Zu with that kind of expression reminiscent of Tony Leung in “East Meets West,” as if to say: Why is it me again?
Liang Wan rushed to save Su Wan again. Li Zu was hesitating about which side to help when he turned around to see Yang Hao spraying bullets. As he walked, suddenly, “whoosh,” he stepped into the water.
That idiot really wasn’t very bright! Li Zu cursed and rushed back. Yang Hao climbed out of the water again. Once on shore, he ran wildly.
As he brushed past Li Zu, he saw the entire surface of the water explode in an instant, with countless black snakes bursting through the surface, gliding towards him like rain.
Li Zu quickly stopped and turned around, seeing that Yang Hao had already jumped into a makeshift cover he had set up earlier. He rolled over, and as he lowered his head, Yang Hao began firing. Four or five snakes were shot and exploded in mid-air. Li Zu got up and joined the fray, bullets flying everywhere.
The initial dozen or so black snakes were shot down, but more black snakes flew out from the filtration pool, overflowing like boiling water in a pot, the black mass bubbling over.

Li Cu stared blankly as the two people stopped shooting, grabbed their bags, and quickly retreated to Su Wan’s side. All the snakes converged towards them. Yang Hao fired and killed the ones that got too close, while Su Wan said, “I thought the last time was the last time in my life I would be bitten by a snake. I didn’t expect to be bitten again just now. I feel like I can’t possibly be bitten again. Now it seems that that bite was just my one-thousandth time being bitten.”

After Liang Wan finished injecting Su Wan, she turned to look at the approaching snake swarm. There was no time to process sadness and fear, but the despair of death made her sigh.

“Saxophone,” Li Cu suddenly thought of something, took it out, and handed it to Su Wan. “Play. Do you have the strength?”

“What do you want to hear? A lament? I don’t want to play this part for myself; I’ll play a piece for you common folks. It’s really, really joyful.”

“Anything will do, just make some noise,” Li Cu urged.

Su Wan licked his bluish lips and began to blow with all his might. With one big breath, blood spurted from the wound on his thigh. Liang Wan pressed down on him, and the off-key sound of the saxophone began to echo throughout the room.

Yang Hao and Li Cu fired shots, knocking away the snakes that got too close, but the bullets quickly ran out, and the encirclement grew tighter. Su Wan looked like he wanted to give up, but Li Cu shouted, “Keep playing! Don’t stop until the snakes crawl into your saxophone!”

Su Wan began to blow wildly, using all his strength, and the entire room resonated. Then, they heard some sounds beyond the slithering of the snakes.

In the darkness, there was no light, and the flashlight couldn’t reach above the pool, but the sound came from that direction.

“Listen to my command. If I tell you to stop blowing, then don’t blow. Everyone, don’t move, don’t shoot,” Li Cu said, pointing the flashlight in that direction, coldly staring into the darkness. He saw something flash in the shadows and shouted, “Stop!”

Everyone followed his command and halted. Suddenly, the surroundings fell silent, leaving only the sound of snakes slithering on the sand.

Almost simultaneously, a dozen claws of the Hydra emerged from the darkness, stopping right in front of them, the claws spread wide and menacingly frozen in mid-air.

Half a second later, the claws began to descend, and in an instant, the dozen venomous snakes in front of them were snatched away. Then, from the unseen darkness, the sound of countless grains of sand exploding filled the air.

Remaining motionless, the venomous snakes began to attack the Hydra, clearly showing that the biological toxins had no effect on the plant.

They remained in a standoff for an hour, during which they could only move their eyes, tracking the vines and black snakes as they flew by, especially when they brushed close to their faces. The four of them blinked in unison, and then they began to sweat.

They waited until all the noise had disappeared. Only then did the tense nerves of the few gradually relax. The flashlight was still in Wu Xie’s hand, his muscles had turned to stone, and Su Wan was completely unconscious.

Li Cu slightly moved the flashlight to look around and saw that the vines of the Hydra had filled all the space here.

“What do we do now?” Yang Hao mouthed to Li Cu.

Li Cuoxin thought to himself, “Why is everyone asking me? How would I know?” He lowered his head and carefully pulled a plastic bag from Su Wan’s pocket with his other hand. Inside was a napkin. Unsure if it was enough, he noticed that the handprints on his back had long been washed away by the rain.

He opened the plastic bag and took out the napkin, handing it to the nearest Hydra vine. Not just this vine, but four or five others in the distance began to retreat as well. Li Cuoxin felt a sense of relief; could it really work like this? Just as he thought about taking a step forward, he was suddenly pulled back by Yang Hao.

Yang Hao gestured upward with his eyelid. Li Cuoxin looked up and saw a white snake hanging down from above, causing the vines to retreat in response. The scales of the white snake opened up, and Li Cuoxin suddenly noticed that many white stones had been artificially embedded within those scales.

As the white snake descended before them, its neck suddenly opened like a cobra, revealing a terrifyingly large face.