Published: August 16, 2025
Chapter 198: Conflict
With a loud “bang,” the two mid-grade magical artifacts barely suffered two small notches from the centipede’s tentacles before snapping apart crisply, leaving Han Li momentarily stunned.
“So tough! Almost comparable to mid-grade magical artifacts in quality!” Han Li thought, feeling a bit lucky. If he hadn’t employed some small tricks, dealing with this giant centipede would have been much more troublesome.
Seeing that the throwing knives and Golden Bowl were not very effective, Han Li casually retracted them.
Though the creature had suffered a fatal wound, its vitality was incredibly strong. It kept writhing incessantly, clearly not going to die anytime soon. Frowning slightly, Han Li swiftly shifted his movement technique, flashing past the demonic beast’s head at high speed, no longer concerned with its life or death, and directly returned to the stone hall through the cave passage.
Inside the stone hall, the few green “Purple Monkey Flowers” remained unharmed, which filled Han Li with joy!
He took several identical jade boxes from his storage pouch and placed them on the ground. Then, carefully using his throwing knives, he delicately dug out the “Purple Monkey Flowers,” roots and small purple stones beneath included, and gently flew them back into his hands. He then carefully sealed them inside the jade boxes.
After harvesting and safely storing all the spirit medicines, Han Li finally exhaled deeply, his mind settling down.
He stretched lazily and casually glanced around the stone hall again to ensure nothing was missed before calmly exiting.
Passing by the spot where the giant centipede had been seriously wounded, Han Li noticed the beast lying motionless, utterly dead. A large pool of black venomous blood had oozed beneath it, filling that section of the cave with a nauseating stench that made Han Li feel dizzy and woozy.
Startled, Han Li realized the poison’s toxicity had spread into the air. He quickly consumed some Clear Spirit Powder, which alleviated the discomfort.
Stopping about seven or eight zhang away from the centipede’s corpse, he threw several knives randomly into its body, probing for any sign of movement. Seeing none, he relaxed and continued onward.
After just a few steps, Han Li halted, bent down, and pulled out a blackened short blade from the ground. Using two fingers, he wiped the black mud from the blade’s edge, and instantly it gleamed with golden light—the Sub Blades of the Golden Toad Mother and Child Blades.
It turned out that Han Li had been able to easily slice open the centipede’s abdomen during his brief disappearance by plunging all eight Sub Blades of the Golden Toad Mother and Child Blades into the ground of the passage. They lined up in a row along the cave floor, with the front half of their razor-sharp edges exposed above the surface.
Fearing the blades might shine too brightly and alert the demonic beast, Han Li had coated the blade edges with black mud to blend them into the dark cave. This camouflage made it nearly impossible for the creature to detect them.
Thus, when the giant centipede pressed close to the ground chasing Han Li, it was sliced open silently and unexpectedly by these embedded golden blades, meeting its demise there. As an upper-rank venomous insect demonic beast, it never had the chance to unleash its deadly poison techniques before being ambushed like this—truly a most unjust death!
Although Han Li did not yet know the centipede was an upper-rank demonic beast, he was certain that even if it wasn’t, it was undoubtedly at the top among mid-level demonic beasts. He was very pleased to have dispatched such a threat so easily.
Walking seven or eight more steps, bending down at each, he wiped and collected all the golden blades. Then, preparing to leave, he glanced at the centipede’s corpse once more and hesitated briefly before approaching it again.
Standing before the corpse, Han Li didn’t hesitate to stab the golden blade into the head, back, and tail. He found the back’s exoskeleton was the toughest, with the blade only penetrating half an inch, requiring substantial effort to cut through.