Rainy night, forest, monsters...
fear!
The tree canopy is very lush, and the leaves catch all the raindrops, not letting a single drop fall directly to the ground, until they can no longer hold the raindrops, and the excess raindrops gather into large drops that fall under the tree. So the rain in the forest is crackling, with large drops of water falling continuously.
The rotten leaves on the ground are very thick and have absorbed a lot of water, becoming like a swamp. When water drops hit them, a strange "puff" sound is made.
A strange "puff puff puff" sound kept ringing, and in the distance but not visible nearby, there were also the continuous singing of birds and roaring of beasts, like a horror concerto in the dark night.
The master and the disciple sat side by side in the tree hole, leaning against the tree wall behind them, looking at the darkness outside through the transparent water film.
In fact, they couldn't see anything, but they didn't know what to do.
Suddenly, at some point, I heard very light footsteps climbing up from under the tree. From the sound of its pads and nails touching the tree trunk, I realized it was some kind of cat or leopard.
“Master…” Li Shiyin called softly, with fear in her voice.
"Shh!" Qin Ran quickly told her to be quiet.
The big cat went up the tree, and soon, there was another rustling sound of a snake. From the sound of it crawling on the ground, I knew it was a fairly large snake, slithering through the swamp, climbing up the tree, passing through the tree hole, and then...
Stopped.
In an instant, Li Shiyin and Qin Ran both stopped breathing.
The giant snake stopped outside the tree hole, and its tongue kept hitting the water film, making a very light "boom boom" sound.
The sound is extremely rhythmic and extremely terrifying.
Although there was a formation, Qin Ran still quietly took up the seal and compressed the Dantian cyclone, ready to deal with the giant snake that might come in at any time.
"Ah..."
Suddenly, the cat in the tree roared, and the "pop" sound of the snake's tongue hitting the water film stopped. There was a terrible silence outside the tree hole for a few seconds, and then the "rustling" sound of the snake was heard again. The giant snake left and continued to climb up the tree.
The tree hole remained quiet until the terrifying rustling sound could no longer be heard. Then the sound of Li Shiyin's gentle exhalation could be heard. After a while, Qin Ran took a deep breath.
"Master, why did the snake listen to the tiger?" Li Shiyin asked quietly.
"That's not a tiger, it's probably some kind of leopard." Qin Ran answered in a low voice, "It's hard to say what the relationship between them is. It's not necessarily a subordinate relationship..."
The two of them squeezed into a small tree hole, sitting close to each other. After experiencing a tense moment just now, they calmed down and found that the temperature in the tree hole was much higher.
Qin Ran felt himself sweating. After he started practicing, he was already
He hadn't sweated in years, but now he was sweating. He knew why.
In this tree hole, he seemed to smell a warm and faint fragrance...
“Qin Ran, oh Qin Ran, this is animal instinct, it’s hormones, it’s hormonal interference.” Qin Ran kept scolding himself in his heart.
"You are a cultivator who has cut off worldly desires. You are a person who wants to become an immortal. How can you let such low-level animality disturb your mind? You are a human, a cultivator, an immortal, not an animal!"
"Master, which one is more powerful, a snake or a leopard?" Li Shiyin asked again.
She seemed to move closer to me, and the warm breath from her mouth was particularly sweet when she spoke.
"It's an illusion, an hallucination, a demon in my heart!" Qin Ran's heart was constantly torn.
"Judging from the smell alone, the snake is stronger." He answered in a steady voice. It was dark enough in the tree hole that no one could see his struggling face.
"Snakes are stronger?" Li Shiyin was surprised. "What kind of snake is it? What realm is it in?"
“I don’t know what kind of snake it is, but judging from its aura, it’s equivalent to the Jindan stage, and a relatively powerful Jindan stage at that.” Qin Ran replied.
"Taishang Laojun, Queen Mother, Tathagata Buddha, the saint Confucius, the second saint Yan Hui..." He recalled some noble characters in his mind, "Liu Xiahui who remained calm even when a woman sat on his lap..."
"Liuxia Hui?" Li Shiyin asked, "Who is Liuxia Hui?"
"Ah?!" Qin Ran was stunned. Did he accidentally say what was in his heart
“Liu Xia Hui, um…” Qin Ran’s voice finally showed panic, “He was an ancient gentleman with noble moral character.”
"What does it mean to be calm and collected?"
“Ah!!!” Qin Ran was panicked for a moment. He even read this
"Yes, well, what I mean is..." He stammered and couldn't say anything.
Fortunately, at this moment, a loud "bang" suddenly sounded outside the tree hole, drawing their attention away.
"roar!!!"
Immediately afterwards, there was another loud roar. Judging from the sound, it was probably the leopard.
After it roared, a bright beam of light appeared. Qin Ran looked carefully in the light and recognized that it was a golden clouded leopard, an adult the size of a bull, and must be at the Jindan stage. At this moment, it was on the ground, breathing towards the tree.
The beam of light flickered, and then another extremely heavy object fell from the tree, hitting the dead branches and leaves with a "bang", splashing countless water. The water flew more than ten meters away, and a lot of water splashed on the water film in the tree hole.
This time it was obviously the giant snake that fell down. After it landed, it slid quickly, coiled up, and stood up with its head upright, in a defensive position.
Royal posture...
Therefore, the relationship between the giant snake and the giant leopard is no longer a subordinate relationship, nor is it even friendly, but a hostile relationship.
The snake is the tree that stalks the leopard, the snake is an active attacking predator!
At this time, the snake coiled up to defend itself, probably because the leopard was injured.
When the beam of light came on just now, Qin Ran could clearly see that there were two black tooth holes on the neck of the golden clouded leopard. It was obvious that the snake was defending itself, waiting for the leopard's poison to take effect.
The leopard was not willing to be captured. It bared its teeth, let out a warning growl, and walked back and forth around the coiled snake, looking for an opportunity to attack.
After pulling for a long time, the leopard suddenly realized that if he didn't take action, he might not have another chance, so he stopped wandering, leaned down, pounced forward, with his claws first and his teeth behind, trying to hold the giant snake down first and then bite it.
Unfortunately, the leopard did not anticipate that the moment it realized that it might not have the chance to take action, it already had no chance. At this time, the snake venom had entered its body and its movements had slowed down.
In a life-and-death struggle, if the movement slowed down, it would die. The snake looked for an opportunity, and suddenly ejected its tightly compressed body like a spring, biting the leopard's neck.
The leopard failed to avoid it and was bitten on the neck again. It struggled with its claws waving, but the snake did not give it a chance and quickly wrapped its body around it, tightly wrapping around its torso.
The sound outside the tree hole became smaller and smaller. It was the sound of the leopard struggling that became smaller and smaller. After a while, it finally disappeared.
The snake loosened its grip on the leopard and went deeper into the forest.
The sound of the snake gradually faded away. Qin Ran frowned and asked, "It didn't just swallow it?"
Instead of eating it directly, where would it go with it? Do snakes have such habits? He didn't know much about it.
"Is the snake gone?" Li Shiyin asked.
“Hmm.” Qin Ran shook his head. Although he was puzzled, he had no intention of exploring... That was not exploring, that was seeking death.
The noises from the snake and the leopard stopped, and the tree hole suddenly became extremely quiet, even awkward. The chirping of birds and the roaring of animals in the darkness outside the tree hole began to sound again.
Qin Ran was not a chatty person. He thought for a while, but couldn't find anything to say, so he pretended to sleep.
After a while, bored Li Shiyin called out to her master a few times, and found that he had fallen asleep. For some reason, she suddenly sighed and murmured twice: "Master? Master?!"
Then she also fell asleep, leaning on Qin Ran's shoulder.
At first, both of them pretended to sleep, but after sleeping for a while, the fatigue of the day took over and they really fell asleep.
Until, at some point in the middle of the night, the ground suddenly began to shake...
Qin Ran was startled awake!