Chapter 42: I Cannot Die at Your Hands

Deep within the cavern, an utterly unjust scene was unfolding: a delicate girl lay sprawled on the ground, helpless as a giant python coiled around her and crawled wantonly over her body, rubbing against her until her skin flushed ever more deeply and her breathing grew increasingly labored, as though the creature were about to cruelly rob her of her life.

The sensation of impending suffocation made her consciousness grow hazier by the moment, while the figure before her blurred indistinctly. At last, when the giant python slid past her chest and continued onward, she could endure no more.

“Y-you… let me go…” If this continued, she truly would suffocate.

“Let you go? That can be arranged. But first, you must tell me—how did a fox demon like you possess a human body and be reborn within it?!”

To Mingxi, this question was truly idiotic.

“How should I know how such an absurd thing happened? Do you think I wanted to become human? Not only is a human’s lifespan short, but the body is also so pathetically fragile. If you’re willing, we might as well switch places! You can become this useless human, and I’ll take your place as a snake demon!”

She would rather be a giant python than remain such a miserable, worthless human.

Yet after hearing her words, a strange smile appeared upon the python’s face.

“You really are interesting.” The serpent gave an eerie smile, a hint of inexplicable wicked charm lurking within it.

Interesting? Interesting, your sister!

It was bad enough that these two snakes were flaunting their affection so shamelessly in front of her, a widowed cannon-fodder character. Now they were even mocking her!

Mingxi had intended to curse them a few times, but for some reason, a powerful sensation of oxygen deprivation suddenly overwhelmed her.

A wave of aching pressure swept through her entire body. Only then did she realize that the creature’s body was tightening around her more and more.

Her breath was slowly being stolen away, yet she had no strength to struggle. This feeling… was absolutely dreadful.

As her consciousness gradually faded, Mingxi could already foresee her fate. Whether she was devoured or violated would depend entirely upon the creature’s whim.

However, before losing consciousness, there was one thing she needed to reconsider. Although becoming human had never been her choice, she had decided to keep living rather than abandon this body. After all… she still had an unfinished responsibility—

She had to raise Mingxi’s child to adulthood. Though the child was not her own, though she had never been a mother, though she possessed none of a mother’s affection for her child, and though she knew that, if Xiaotong grew up beside her, the child would most likely become a petty thief who stole chickens and picked pockets…

Even so… she absolutely could not abandon this child!

So… snake demon… I cannot die at your hands yet…

I cannot…

When the girl beneath him gradually lost consciousness and fell into a coma, tears unexpectedly glistening at the corners of her eyes, the enormous python could not help but be startled.

A few seconds later, the python shook its head in confusion and sighed. Looking down at the unconscious girl beneath him, he found a faintly warm smile curving at the corners of his mouth.

His massive body seemed to slowly melt apart as crimson radiance coiled around him. The shape of his head shed its serpentine form and gradually condensed into that of a human. In the next instant, he had completely transformed.

His handsome face, touched with a trace of wickedness, revealed a seductive, sinister charm as he stared darkly at her.

The giant python murmured, “I truly never imagined… that it would be you.”

Just as he was about to lift Mingxi into his arms, a faint sound suddenly came from the mouth of the cavern. The python whipped around.

…He knew without a doubt that it was Ji Yan.