Chapter Twenty-Four: The Shattered-Patterned Rock Python

“Master, Master! Look over here! I’ve found something incredible!”

“Oh? What did you find?”

“I’m not sure what it is, Master, come up here and see!” Catherine pointed to the upper half of a broken bamboo ladder. “There’s still half of it left, Master, hurry up and come!”

“Ha! Do I even need that thing?” Ling Mo laughed heartily, then naturally lifted his right foot and stepped forward as if climbing stairs, his step landing in midair. The action looked rather foolish, but something strange happened—though he stepped into empty space, it was as if some invisible force was supporting him! Maintaining a leisurely, unhurried posture as though strolling up a transparent staircase, he walked through the air and reached Catherine’s side in a few steps. “So, what did you find to get this excited?”

Though Catherine was hanging upside down, she had witnessed Ling Mo’s midair steps. Her eyes went wide and unfocused, her mouth agape, and a long string of drool ran down without her noticing. That move was simply too cool! Magic had floating and flight spells, but they were more like whipping up a strong gust to blow oneself into the air, and when airborne, one’s legs would flail about like lotus leaves in the wind—nothing compared to Ling Mo’s effortless grace!

“Hey!” Ling Mo waved a hand in front of Catherine’s face. She hurriedly wiped her mouth, blurting out, “Master, what kind of technique is that? It doesn’t look like magic at all, but it’s so awesome!”

Ling Mo patted her head. “I’ll explain it when you reach the right level. One day, you’ll master it too. Now you see how deep martial arts can be? But let’s put that aside—tell me, what did you find?”

Catherine, her heart racing with anticipation, pointed to a hollow beneath her. “Master, look! There’s a hole here! I just saw something good inside!”

Ling Mo leaned over to inspect it. The hole was pitch black, but nothing could impede his titanium-alloy eyes. The opening was less than a foot wide, yet it was astonishingly deep. Even from outside, one could tell the interior was spacious, cluttered with several crumpled white blocks, each as large as a human head. Ling Mo chuckled after just one glance. “You lucky girl, you’ve struck gold—these are snake eggs!”

“Snake eggs?” Catherine repeated. “Aren’t snake eggs supposed to be round? These are all wrinkled and yellowish—I barely recognized them.”

Ling Mo pointed to the egg deepest inside the hole. “This is a snake egg about to hatch. The nutrients inside have been nearly absorbed by the baby snake, so the shell has softened and begun to cave in, showing the curled-up hatchling within. Look at that egg near the bottom—see it? The pale brown scales are pressed right up against the shell. You can even see the scaly pattern from outside; it’s going to hatch in a few days!”

Catherine squinted to peer inside, then gasped in delight. “You’re right! Wow, that baby snake is huge! It hasn’t even hatched, and it’s as thick as a child’s arm!”

“That’s why you’re lucky. Do you know what kind of egg this is? It’s a genuine Tier Five magical beast—the egg of a Shattered-Pattern Rock Python!”

“Shattered-Pattern Rock Python!” Catherine’s breath caught. That was a famously fearsome beast! Even the smallest adults stretched ten meters long and were as thick as a water barrel. A python weighing a ton possessed unimaginable strength—it was said to have strangled mammoths! Its most terrifying trait was mastery over earth magic: it could shield itself in thick layers of soil and tunnel underground, silently lurking beneath its prey before erupting from below and swallowing its victim whole.

After her shock faded, Catherine’s delight surged anew. The egg of a Tier Five magical beast was the finest trophy imaginable! She flipped herself over and wriggled through the narrow opening, rummaging in the dimness and finally selecting the largest, roundest egg. With effort, she hugged it close and carefully stuffed it into her spatial pouch. As she was about to leave, she looked back at the pile, hesitated, then reached out her greedy hand…

“Don’t take any more,” Ling Mo stopped her. “It’s wasteful to hoard them. These last longer than animal carcasses, but not by much. One this size will feed you for days.”

Catherine nodded. She crawled out of the hole and slithered down the rock wall like a gecko, pressing her limbs and head tightly against the surface, gripping firmly with every move. Soon she had descended nearly ten meters, then released her grip and dropped from seven or eight meters up, flipping nimbly to land safely.

She shook out her arms and hissed through her teeth. “Moving while upside down is exhausting. My arms are numb—I can barely feel them. Master, is the rock python really so careless with its eggs? I thought snakes always guarded their nests.”

“The weather today is too nice. The mother has gone sunbathing. Snakes do stay in their nests for long stretches, but being cold-blooded, the mother needs to bask in the sun to heat up her body to forty or fifty degrees, then return and coil around the eggs, transferring that heat. The coiling is so powerful it leaves deep wrinkles on the shells.”

“So those wrinkles are from the mother squeezing them? Is the rock python’s control really that precise?”

“No, it’s quite the opposite. A Shattered-Pattern Rock Python lays about a hundred eggs at a time, but seventy or eighty are crushed by its own strength. The broken eggs are eaten to help the mother endure the long hatching period. Its optimal temperature is just above twenty degrees, so each sunbath is torturous. After hatching, a female is left weak and needs nearly two years to recover. So, for all its fearsome appearance, the rock python is actually a rather gentle mother—jump!”

Catherine had been listening intently to Ling Mo’s lecture when he suddenly shouted. Before she could process his words, her body leapt instinctively. At that very spot, a menacing snake head burst from the ground, jaws gaping one hundred and eighty degrees, with fangs half a foot long gleaming coldly as it lunged straight for her!

Her leap was clumsy and desperate, but it was just enough to dodge the fatal strike. She dared not look back; the instant she landed, she dropped and rolled wildly. A thick snake tail lashed the ground where she’d been, sending a storm of dirt and stones pelting her painfully. She didn’t need to look to know her back was likely bruised and battered—if that tail had struck her directly, she’d be dead for sure!

After two missed attacks, the giant python paused, coiling its exposed body, head raised high, tongue flickering, and cold eyes fixed on Catherine, ready to strike again.

Finally, Catherine had a moment to take in the monster’s appearance. Its body stretched at least fifteen meters, the thickest part nearly two feet wide, covered in deep brown scales patterned with white streaks like scattered flower petals—no wonder it was called the Shattered-Pattern Rock Python. Its tail was unlike that of ordinary snakes; instead of tapering, it ended in a spindle-shaped hammer that tapped the ground, faint earthy light glowing within.

Now, facing the beast, she was less than ten meters away. The pressure of being targeted by a Tier Five magical beast was immense. Catherine stared unblinking into its eyes, not daring to relax in the slightest. She wanted to run, but she couldn’t turn her back—the python would catch her in an instant. If she tried to turn, she was certain she’d be swallowed before she even finished moving.

“Looks like your spatial pouch isn’t very good—it’s leaked the scent of the eggs and drawn their mother here,” Ling Mo’s relaxed voice sounded from the side. “I’ve checked; this female has been fasting for at least three months while brooding, which is why her attack was a bit sluggish and you escaped. Her strength has dropped to the peak of Tier Four. You should be able to handle this—let’s make today’s training about escaping death from her jaws!”

Easy for you to say! I could just strangle you right now!

Catherine wanted to curse Ling Mo a thousand times over. She was just a lo