Cave Refuge

Confronted with this abnormal situation, Dong Tianyu was only briefly stunned before he immediately figured out the reason. The eight heads of the Fake Yamata no Orochi, though each had its own thoughts, shared one lower body.

Because of this, even though Dong Tianyu had just injured two of the snake heads, infuriating those two and making them determined to fight him to the death, the remaining six heads remained relatively calm, and under their control, the body continued to dive deeper.

Although Dong Tianyu didn't think the other six snake heads would easily give up the idea of attacking him, perhaps they felt that it was difficult to attack him while he was flying in the air, so they were sinking now, waiting for Dong Tianyu to descend to the surface of the water to launch a surprise attack on him.

Watching the Fake Yamata no Orochi only sink and not leave, Dong Tianyu felt his speculation was very likely to be correct.

When Dong Tianyu tentatively released the Wave Rider from the Cave, the snake heads of the Fake Yamata no Orochi submerged in the water suddenly lifted, just as Dong Tianyu thought the Fake Yamata no Orochi would launch an attack. He didn't expect it to stay obediently underwater, not immediately attacking.

Although he didn't know what that creature was up to, Dong Tianyu had no intention of summoning the Companion Spiritual Treasure and diving into the water to provoke the other party.

Since it could stay submerged and patient for the time being, Dong Tianyu wasn't going to foolishly dive into the water and seek death.

At this moment, Dong Tianyu, using his Divine Sense to lock on to the other party, retracted the Wave Rider back into the water and then took out another medium-sized boat.

When the Wave Rider disappeared, the body of the Fake Yamata no Orochi moved abruptly, and when Dong Tianyu took out another medium-sized boat, the creature's previously tense body relaxed again.

If it weren't for Dong Tianyu closely monitoring the Fake Yamata no Orochi with his Divine Sense, he wouldn't have noticed the subtle change in its body.

After confirming his thoughts, Dong Tianyu didn't land on the boat. Instead, he took out several live animals from the Cave and threw them onto the boat. He noticed the snake's pupils briefly narrowed.

Noticing this, Dong Tianyu finally confirmed how the Fake Yamata no Orochi in the deep water had initially found him.

It is said that most snakes possess heat-sensing organs. It seemed this Fake Yamata no Orochi also had this ability, and perhaps due to some mutation or evolution, its thermal imaging range was quite broad.

Even though the creature was submerged at the bottom, Dong Tianyu surmised that it, like him, was using thermal imaging to lock onto his position all this time. Indeed, when Dong Tianyu switched boats, he also lowered his altitude.

But after changing the boats, he immediately ascended again, which is why the underwater snake heads reacted as they did.

And now, when Dong Tianyu released the livestock on the boat, the reaction of the snake heads underwater further confirmed that his guess was right.

To verify his suspicion, Dong Tianyu immediately used the Invisibility Technique, which instantaneously shielded the energy unintentionally emanating from his body. This way, the Fake Yamata no Orochi underwater couldn't rely on heat to lock onto Dong Tianyu's position.

The few animals that Dong Tianyu had released were perfect to distract the attention of the Fake Yamata no Orochi underwater in place of Dong Tianyu.

Once he ascended with Sword Control, the recently released medium-sized boat began to move forward at Dong Tianyu's remote command.

As the boat carrying the livestock on the water surface began to move, the Fake Yamata no Orochi, which had already reached the sea floor, also started moving slowly. And it was swimming in the same direction as the medium-sized boat above.

Seeing the Fake Yamata no Orochi stayed underneath the medium-sized boat the whole time, Dong Tianyu also calmed down, wanting to see just how much patience the creature had and for how long it would resist attacking.

As the medium-sized boat continued to move, the Fake Yamata no Orochi's patience underwater was much stronger than Dong Tianyu had anticipated. As the sun set in the west and the moon hung high in the sky, the Fake Yamata no Orochi that had been following underwater finally could not bear it any longer.

At first, it slowly ascended, and when it surfaced below the medium-sized ship, eight snake heads burst out of the water from around the vessel, one snake head wrapping tightly around the ship's hull like a rope.

At that moment, the livestock moving about on the deck were instantly crushed by the coiling snake heads, their bones shattered and piercing through their skin, with blood spurting out in a flash.

It's said that a snake's tongue can keenly capture different scents in the air; as the blood of the livestock oozed from their bodies, the originally frenzied snake heads suddenly showed an expression of immense pleasure.

Even the few snake heads that had been hovering nearby slowly approached the bound ship, licking the blood-soaked deck with their tongues.

As the snake head binding the ship's body tightened its grip once more, the vessel started to creak and groan, and the livestock trapped on deck, now subjected to violent pressure, gushed even more blood from their wounds.

Along with the increasing flow of blood from the livestock, one of the snake heads, which had only been licking the deck, suddenly bit into the unbound stern of the ship.

After the snake head bit into the stern, the one that had been coiling around the vessel suddenly relaxed, and the one holding the stern shook its head vigorously, tossing the several hundred-ton boat into the air the moment the hold was released.

And because the snake head released its hold on the ship, the bodies of the livestock, which had been squeezed and bleeding on the deck, now fell into the water, soaked in blood.

The carcasses of the livestock, stained with blood, were swallowed by the waiting snake heads as soon as they hit the water, not even having started to sink yet.

Unlike most terrestrial creatures, snakes, without the ability to chew, swallow their prey whole.

The few livestock that fell into the water were large in size but amounted to mere toothpick meat for the feasting snake heads.

Meanwhile, the snake head that had flung the medium-sized ship into the air had already opened its gaping maw, waiting for the vessel to fall into its position.

Normally, despite the snake heads' large size, swallowing a medium-sized ship would still be somewhat challenging, but snakes are different from other animals in that their upper and lower jaws can separate.

Even ordinary snakes before the catastrophe could swallow prey larger than their body size, and this snake head possessed the same ability.

While the body below the snake head seemed slender, snakes have excellent flexibility in their body expansion and contraction, ensuring that what can be swallowed won't rupture their body during the process.

Moreover, the Fake Yamata no Orochi is different from common snakes. Common snakes are slender all over, while the body of the Fake Yamata no Orochi is slender from the bifurcation of the snake head.

But the site where the bifurcations meet until the tail is more robust, otherwise it wouldn't be able to support the movements of the Fake Yamata no Orochi.

Therefore, so long as the swallowed items reach the middle section of its body, there's no danger of bursting.

When the medium-sized ship was tossed up into the sky and about to fall back down, the snake head beneath it instantly jumped out of the water, biting into the front half of the vessel, intending to let the inertia of the falling ship carry it straight into its stomach.

Zachary had not expected the snake head to be so clever, even understanding the law of gravity to help it swallow the target quickly.

As the whole ship slid into the body of the Fake Yamata no Orochi through its mouth, Zachary not only felt no disappointment but a sense of smug satisfaction spread across his face.

One shouldn't speak recklessly, nor should one eat carelessly.