Epoch of Twilight
Chapter 53: Dramatized

Luo Yuan tried running and realized that his speed had only increased around two times, partly constrained by the limitations of his own energy.

However, he would still have seemed incredibly fast to an average person. They’d only be able to see a blurry shadow if he were to wield his knife or slash through something.

As expected, his Physique could not keep up with his advanced speed. His muscles ached and he huffed in exhaustion after only slashing around ten times or so.

Luo Yuan smiled wryly as he held on to his knife and approached the Rampage Lizard.

Even dead, the huge beast still gave out an oppressing aura that seemed to silence its surroundings completely. No other living creature made a sound.

The highly explosive bomb had burnt through the lizard’s stomach and blood was trickling from it. However, when Luo Yuan wiped away the burned skin, he was surprised to see that they were merely superficial injuries. The bomb could do nothing to destroy the beast’s defense.}

He forcefully pulled on one of its scales, and it made a crisp jade-like sound. It was sturdy, yet flexible, and showed no signs of breaking even after Luo Yuan had brutally pulled it to a 90 degree angle.

“Not too bad a material!” Luo Yuan praised, remaining calm. He was no more in the pathetic state he had been in; his blue rank equipment almost covered him from head to toe. He used Identification, and quickly grew disinterested as he discovered that there was nothing special about the scales.

He unscaled the lizard by drawing a line across the middle of its stomach, baring its coarse net-like skin and dissecting the corpse.

Once the stomach had been dissected, showcasing the animal’s innards, he was able to spot the heart. It was as big as a coconut. He cut it off immediately using his machete.

“Let’s hope I evolve this time. I’m gonna get as twisted as they come if this goes on for much longer.” He stared at the heart bitterly before finally, reluctantly taking a bite out of it.

The wave of nausea did not delay his ingestion of the organ. He ate the whole heart in just a matter of minutes.

The results were similar to the last few times. There were no additional benefits other than some excessive sweating and extra ecstasy.

Luo Yuan was slightly disappointed. He sighed as he resumed dissecting the animal.

He beheaded the Rampage Lizard with care, following the lines of the skull for fear of damaging his machete.

After struggling for a long time, he was finally able to slide the lizard’s brain, which weighed about 2.4 kilograms, into a plastic bag he’d found in his pocket.

He knew that the essence of the huge beast lay within its brain and heart, especially within its brain. He had only eaten the King Rat’s brain the other time, and his Sensory Perception had improved significantly.

Huang Jiahui and Wang Shishi had both eaten a significant amount of flesh, but it had done nothing much to increase their strength. They would not even have noticed the change, had Luo Yuan not pointed it out. It was evident that there was a huge difference between the brain and the flesh.

Luo Yuan tied the plastic bag and threw it aside as he began to observe parts of the beast’s body selectively. He chopped off both its hind legs, which were the most fleshy.

The Rampage Lizard’s hind legs were around 1.5 meters long, each of them weighing more than a hundred of catties, which equaled to a 100 kilograms in total.

Luo Yuan hoisted them without feeling much strain, but he could not bring along any more. His weak Physique would not allow him to last long, even though his Strength could handle the weight.

He went over to the lakeside to collect the black owl’s feathers.

A few black beetles the size of a human palm left the ivory white skeleton and escaped into the bushes in fear.

Luo Yuan noticed that there were about seven bullets under the skeleton. He guessed that the owl had either been killed by a nearby base or by fighter jet flying in the sky.

The feathers were everywhere. It took Luo Yuan a good ten minutes to collect them all. He gathered around 700 – 800 of them, which was well beyond his expectations. Of course, not all feathers were two feet long. Most of them were semiplumes. There were only seven tail feathers about two meters in length.

Luo Yuan chopped down a rattan that he found nearby and tied the feathers into a bundle.

Just as Luo Yuan was preparing to leave, the sound of water flowing came not far from him, at the same time that a rustling sound was heard from the surrounding forest.

Luo Yuan sensed the change in atmosphere and looked towards the center of the lake in suspense. Pupils contracted, he saw a gigantic shadow serpentine forward at an incredible speed, forming a long line on the surface of the lake.

Hundreds of mutated fish in various sizes flopped out of the lake in fear while the serpentining shadow headed in Luo Yuan’s direction. Luo Yuan quickly got up, holding onto the handle of his knife.

As the shadow approached the lakeside, its body slowly floated upwards until a malicious head the size of a millstone broke the surface, water pouring down its smooth scales.

Luo Yuan held in his breath.

This was a gigantic mutated snake. The one he had seen in Gaotang Town paled in comparison to this one. Its vertical, elliptical pupils possessed the chilling gaze that was characteristic of a cold-blooded creature.

Other than its pupils, form and scales though, nothing else about the beast resembled a snake.

Its mouth was elongated like a crocodile’s, baring a set of sharp, jagged teeth that looked exceptionally ferocious. There was also a small bump on its head and to Luo Yuan’s surprise, its large nostrils were fuming white mist.

All these formed an eerie, yet mysteriously valiant scene for Luo Yuan.

“Level E+ Mission unlocked, Kill Dragon Snake. 30 minutes time limit, Accept/Reject?”

“F*ck! Level E+ Mission.” Luo Yuan came back to his senses as a chill ran down his spine.

He immediately rejected the mission and ran for his life.

A Level E+ Mission meant that the creature was blue rank. Considering Luo Yuan’s capabilities at the time, there was no chance of winning at all. He probably would not even be able to break its defense.

His upgraded Dexterity surfaced at once, his surroundings flowing backwards in a blur as he shot more than 20 meters forward within just a few breaths’ time.

He huffed and looked back, noticing that the dragon snake was indeed serpentining towards him. However, it it did not seem to be in any hurry. It was trailing behind him lazily as if going on a picnic.

His heart calmed down slightly. The beast was clearly not after him. It was just attracted by the copper scent of the Rampage Lizard’s blood. It would probably still have eaten him for dessert though, if he had lingered around long though.

On that note, Luo Yuan changed direction at once.

Indeed, the dragon snake had stopped tailing him and was heading straight towards the lizard’s corpse.

Taking a relieved breath, he quickly ran back towards the spot where he had first observed the lake in hiding. However, a sense of dissatisfaction rose in him as he watched the snake feast on the lizard’s corpse.

He had placed all his haul near the dead animal, thinking that the black owl’s skeleton was not far from it and he could easily see anyone approaching from there. Now all of it would be gone. The gigantic snake would surely not leave anything behind for him.

His eyes glinted as they landed on the four remaining bombs inside the backpack.

“I’m leaving with a bang.”

He tied up the four bombs with a tough leaf and used another leaf to string together the triggering pins.

Luo Yuan collected everything he wanted under his left arm, and checked to see if anything had been left behind before standing up again. He felt that his energy had been replenished.

He pulled all four pins at once and threw the bundled bombs. The moment the bundle left his hand, he knew he had thrown it off target, but he didn’t have the time to give it much thought. He just turned and ran.

After waiting for an estimated amount of time, he turned to take a look back and his eyeballs almost dropped out of his head.

The bundled had passed the snake’s body and continued flying towards its back. If nothing had intercepted it, the bombs’ explosive range would probably only have reached the snake’s tail.

Perhaps the action had immensely offended the dragon snake’s dignity though, because the creature suddenly interrupted its meal and swallowed the bundle with a swish of its head.

Luo Yuan was beyond shocked. His mouth was hanging open and he seemed to have forgotten how to run.

The next moment, a dull boom was heard.

The dragon snake’s stomach expanded and its gigantic body jumped slightly in ricochet. The jounce had the snake puffing smoke on the ground as it raised its head and howled in pain, thrashing about in agony.

Those were highly explosive bombs, not just average fireworks. However strong the creature’s defense was on the outside, its insides were still made of flesh and blood. Even Luo Yuan could feel a pang of pain for it. He doubted there would even be an organ left intact after the detonation.

“It can’t possibly survive such a serious injury, no matter how strong it is. What a pity, I should’ve accepted the mission!” Luo Yuan thought regrettably.

However, regardless of how active his imagination was, he would never have imagined such a dramatic plot twist. He still felt like he was in a dream.

The dragon snake thrashed endlessly, emitting anguished cries. Its evolved vocal cords belted out bright, resonant sounds that reached Luo Yuan’s ears, even though he was a hundred meters away.

Just as Luo Yuan thought it was meeting its death, the snake stopped struggling and lifted its head several meters into the air, gazing around in a murderous glare.

It did a round check, but did not manage to find the culprit. With an enraged growl, it quickly serpentined back into the water, disappearing as several crimson swirls surfaced on the lake.

“It ran off just like that?” Luo Yuan mumbled to himself in disbelief. He stood up after quite a while and looked at the calm lake.

He stared at it in a daze, thinking that a gigantic corpse would probably surface not too long later. He wanted nothing to do with that, though. He would never dare swim across the lake. As a land creature, the water was far more dangerous for him than the forest.

He took a long look before he headed back.

The dragon snake had already ingested half the Rampage Lizard’s corpse. While the hind legs he had chopped off had remained untouched, he was crestfallen to see the plastic bag that contained the brain.

It looked like it had been squashed by something heavy. Not one bit of the lizard’s brain inside it could be salvaged.

“What’s this?”

He had found a half-buried scale beside the plastic bag. One that did not look like it belonged to the lizard.