“Cough!”

Even though Su Zhou had already rolled and pulled back his spear, trying his best to avoid the giant centipede's counterattack, the counterattack of a behemoth nearly ten meters long and weighing three tons still caused Su Zhou to almost cough up blood when he was slammed into the ceiling—as the saying goes, a good punch is like hanging a painting, but that refers to the technique, not the result. Su Zhou hadn't been punched, but rather turned into a painting by the centipede's head.

A sweet taste rose in his throat, and he resisted spitting out blood. His internal organs had undoubtedly been injured, and what was even more terrifying was that the giant centipede had gone berserk, leaping up and charging towards him in fury!

*Do!*

Suppressing the blood that threatened to spill, Su Zhou propped himself up with his spear, the two-meter-long shaft bracing against the concrete path in front of him, allowing him to nimbly dodge backward, evading the giant insect's head-on collision—the massive tremor and sound even triggered an eruption of spiritual energy, shattering several dozen centimeters of thick cement.

A second later, the giant centipede withdrew its head, and one could see that the pulverized concrete at the center of the impact had turned into grayish-white powder, falling like sand through an hourglass. The giant mandibles merely opened and closed slightly, cutting two deep gouges into the solid cement.

"Crap!" Even the usually calm Su Zhou was shocked pale by the power of this impact. Even with Yala's undying blood, he probably wouldn't survive being smashed into meat paste like that, not to mention those giant mandibles, which shimmered with light in his spiritual vision, were clearly made of extraordinary material!

"Luckily, I'm using a long spear shaft. If I had a straight blade or longsword, I'd have to engage in close combat right now!"

Perhaps it would be fine after awakening, but right now, playing close-quarters combat with a fiend that could easily smash concrete and devour steel bars with a single bite was not playing with fate; it was courting death!

Fortunately, the restorative power of Yala's undying blood was astonishing. In just a few seconds, Su Zhou felt the weakness in his body lessen considerably, but his stomach suddenly felt very hungry, and the battle had to continue—or rather, the thrilling excitement had just begun!

Coincidentally, the giant centipede was now beginning to charge again.

*Rumble!*

Facing the giant insect that had lost an eye and was rushing towards him like a high-speed train, Su Zhou could only leap left and right, rapidly advancing and retreating, maneuvering around the narrow sewer like a nimble bee, dodging and weaving in a three-dimensional environment.

It was truly fortunate that his weapon was extremely long, serving as an extension of his limbs and allowing him to display exceptional agility, always narrowly avoiding the giant insect's attacks, causing its impotent rage to result in repeated failures.

Of course, this wasn't to say that Su Zhou only dodged. In fact, facing this gigantic insect, he had been constantly seeking opportunities to attack and thrust, but the results were truly minimal.

"This carapace is too strange, too hard!"

In a single leap, he dodged the giant insect's sweeping tail, the sharp tail stinger scraping against the cement wall, creating a shower of bright sparks and a gash several inches deep. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Su Zhou flexed his arm muscles and thrust his spear into the middle of the centipede's side carapace, attempting to flip it over.

The impact of this thrust was at least a ton. If it struck ordinary steel armor, it would probably create a hole directly through it, and the person inside, even if not stabbed to death, would be shaken to death.

But striking the centipede felt like hitting something that yielded no force, slippery and treacherous, making it impossible to exert any power, and it simply slid off.

Black moss and woody roots covered the entire body of this centipede fiend, making it not only incredibly hard but also covered in a large amount of viscous sap... Coupled with the giant centipede's rapid movements, making it impossible to settle down and focus his power, Su Zhou could only wield the wooden stick, using the illusory blade of spirituality at its tip to strike and knock, gradually weakening the opponent with the 'Bixie' (evil-warding) power's damage to spirituality.

"This centipede is indeed wood-attribute... No, swords and sabers are useless against this carapace; it's impossible to cleave or pierce it. If only I had brought a long-handled sledgehammer from a construction site, or even a barbell!"

Propping himself up with the spear shaft, like a pole vault, he dodged another head-on charge from the giant insect. Su Zhou was now somewhat regretful.

After all, with his strength, a single blow from a construction hammer or barbell could probably teach this centipede what it meant to have its 'skull smashed'—but that wasn't realistic. At least now, the spear shaft strike was considered half a blunt weapon, and Su Zhou didn't have the extra mental energy to imagine such a possibility.

Currently, the battle between the giant centipede and Su Zhou was much like a game of Snake. The silent, advancing giant insect wielded its giant mandibles straight ahead, destroying the terrain and creating waves while stirring up a sweet, fishy gale. Su Zhou was the energy point that could move on its own, dodging and counterattacking in the confined space.

Logically speaking, the strange, sweet, fishy smell should also be a kind of poison, perhaps even an extraordinary poison, but the invulnerability to all poisons of the Perfect Body was taking effect, preventing him from being smoked into curling up and dying like the small insects in the black moss.

Su Zhou could even occasionally spare the time to poke at the giant insect's head, intending to shatter the nerve ganglia along the vulnerable compound eyes, or sweep horizontally, trying to break its huge mandibles.

Of course, he couldn't dodge every time. On several occasions, unable to dodge in time, Su Zhou could only face the enemy head-on, forced to unleash his full strength, just like at the beginning, using the spear to deflect the giant insect's charge, causing it to crash into the stone walls, smashing out potholes... And the energy required for this consumption and healing made him increasingly hungry.

The only comforting thing was that his attacks weren't truly useless. One could see that every time the spear shaft hit the giant centipede, the spiritual blade at the very tip would flash, causing the giant insect to instinctively contract and dodge, its movements gradually becoming sluggish, as if the spirituality within its body was damaged.

But calculating at the speed of Su Zhou's hunger, he felt that he probably couldn't kill the giant insect fiend before he became too hungry to escape.

"This centipede is interesting."

At this time, Yala was unhurried. After watching Su Zhou's battle with the centipede for a long time, it seemed to have finally confirmed something, then opened its mouth with a smile and said: "Centipedes, snakes, dragons and eels, these long, slender creatures are all in the same category in folklore. Centipedes and earthworms are respectively called heavenly dragons and earthly dragons... Although these are just folk nicknames, they can also indicate its characteristics."

"The fact that this fiend isn't afraid of my bloodline is enough to prove that its main body isn't actually a 'centipede', or even a 'long worm', but rather the wooden roots on its back. In other words, this centipede is just a 'living cordyceps' controlled by a strange spiritual plant—the roots in the center of its spine are the weakness; attack there."

"Is that so?"

After being reminded, Su Zhou looked back at the centipede in front of him and immediately noticed many anomalies—the pairs of limbs were actually sharp, transformed wooden roots, and wooden limbs, and the black moss and cyan tree roots on the back were even more obvious—they weren't rooted on the carapace but were themselves part of the giant insect, even its main body!

"Knowing what the main body is makes things easier!"

His eyes lit up, and he immediately changed his attack. Su Zhou abandoned attacking the giant insect's head and the seemingly fragile middle carapace. He leaped to the side, dodging the giant insect's fierce pounce, and the spear shaft in his hand swept down, cutting directly at the cyan tree roots in the center of the carapace!

*Whoosh!* The sound of the wind suddenly rose sharply, and the great force that could break a person's spine in half brought a whistling sound at the tip of the two-and-a-half-meter spear!

Compared to the solid carapace covered with black moss, the cyan tree roots were much more fragile. Although they were also extremely hard and located on the top of the back, which was extremely difficult to attack, it was not a problem for Su Zhou.

When Su Zhou's razor-sharp sweeping sound rang out, large swaths of sawdust scattered like snowflakes in the sewer. This kind of impact and damage caused the giant centipede to convulse instantly, and its movements began to slow down significantly!

The giant insect's slow movements were great news for Su Zhou—to be honest, this wooden centipede's only threats were its strength and size, but now that it had lost its agile speed, what was the use of its strength if it couldn't hit anyone? In this situation, its huge body was just a target.

Soon, after repeatedly dodging and sweeping away the tree roots on the surface of its carapace, and specifically using penetrating force to shatter the tree root structure behind the carapace, the wooden centipede's speed became slower and slower, its reaction became more and more sluggish, and eventually, it simply lost the power to charge, becoming completely listless.

The battle seemed to be over.

But Su Zhou wasn't a fool.

Even though the giant insect's movements had slowed down significantly, and half of its body was soaked in the groundwater, looking like it couldn't even crawl ashore, he didn't dare to underestimate it in the slightest.

--A centipede with a hundred legs does not fall down even when dead, let alone this is an extraordinary fiend cordyceps?

Faced with possible danger, Su Zhou never approached, just poked at it from a distance with his spear, wanting to pierce the opponent's last remaining compound eye!

And Su Zhou's calm choice saved his life.

Because the giant centipede, which had seemed sluggish, suddenly erupted at the last moment!

"*Splash!*"

Like a broken copper gong being struck violently, an ear-splitting spiritual sound rang out, and the heavy giant insect struck in the water, the surrounding meters of flowing water in the waterway were blown away in an instant, as if someone was shaking a bed sheet, causing huge waves to surge!

The wooden centipede's body was like a spring, changing from extreme stillness to extreme motion. It leaped up suddenly, like a bullet tearing through the water screen it had created, smashing it into clusters of mist. The pair of large mandibles in front of its mouth were opened to their maximum, clamping down on Su Zhou's chest!

Even though its nerve ganglia and spirituality had been shaken and cut to pieces, the insect's instinct was still extremely fierce!

"Well done!"

But at this time, Su Zhou had already prepared, and it could even be said that he was waiting for this moment!

Taking the full force of the huge spiritual sound that was enough to make an ordinary extraordinary person faint, he also shouted loudly, gripping the spear tightly with both hands, Su Zhou's arm muscles bulged like steel, erupting with the full power of his perfect body—the white, holy, evil-warding light burst out for a moment.

In the next instant, Su Zhou twisted the spear, turned his waist, stretched his arms, and concentrated all his strength. He swung the *chou* wood spear in his hand like a baseball bat, rapidly from right to left!

World-class batters can instantly accelerate a hit baseball to more than two hundred kilometers per hour, equivalent to a speed of nearly sixty meters per second, and Su Zhou's brute force was originally equivalent to that of a professional athlete, not to mention he now had the blessing of the Holy Serpent's spirit blood?

The giant insect's pounce had not yet reached Su Zhou when it was struck by such a heavy blow on the side—the clash of two great forces instantly caused the front end of the spear shaft to break directly, the spear flying out of his hand, and the wooden centipede, in addition to being scraped from head to tail by the Bixie blade, was also sent flying diagonally with its entire upper body, crashing into the stone walls on both sides together with Su Zhou, who was also bearing the reaction force!

*Bang, bang!*

Two consecutive crashing sounds rang out, and one could see that a small half of the giant insect's head carapace had been shattered! But what was exposed was not the flesh and blood tissue of a normal creature, but a bone structure and protein tissue penetrated by root-like veins. At this time, most of the tree roots had broken, and the internal organization began to slowly slow down its activity!

--Who said you can't kill monsters without a spearhead?

"...Gulp!"

On the other side, Su Zhou forcefully swallowed a mouthful of blood into his stomach, feeling like both of his hands were about to shatter. He gritted his teeth and forcibly stood up, taking a deep breath with a ferocious expression. In the short few seconds he breathed, the hidden injuries in his internal organs had completely healed.

It was just clearly visible that Su Zhou had lost a size in an instant. The few bits of fat on his cheeks, arms, and thighs had completely dried up and disappeared, turning his appearance into a gaunt and ferocious appearance like a muscle model, like a fierce ghost walking out of hell!

Without any nonsense, facing the centipede, which had been severely damaged and probably couldn't even move, Su Zhou immediately picked up the broken elm wood spear shaft and the spearhead engraved with evil-warding runes, which happened to roll in front of his feet. He decisively took a step, came to the giant centipede's side, and then aimed at the cracked carapace and stabbed it down directly!

"*Crack!*"

Even at this time, the wooden centipede still wanted to continue attacking. It barely moved its head, quickly turning it around, and its pair of giant mandibles were regardless of everything, wanting to bite Su Zhou in half.

*Pfft.*

But the half-broken spear was faster, already fixing it in place, unable to move. Su Zhou even cruelly stirred the spear shaft in its head several times, making 'boji boji' sounds.

At this point, the insect's body immediately curled up, then abruptly returned to straight, but even so, the insect still didn't die—the vitality of a fiend was terrifyingly tenacious. The wooden centipede's mandibles and pairs of limbs were still dancing non-stop, and its nearly ten-meter-long body was convulsing wildly, bringing much trouble to Su Zhou.

"Tsk."

An impatient sound rang out. Su Zhou, whose whole body was skin and bones, lit up with faint blue-purple light in his eyes. He bent down into a half-kneel, pressed down with his right hand, and roughly pressed the giant insect's head against the cement ground!

Nearly a ton of force erupted in an instant, accompanied by the sound of cracking bones and a suddenly thick sweet fishy smell. The wooden centipede's head, which had already been severely damaged, was immediately crushed for the most part.

Then, Su Zhou, with a seemingly crazy look in his eyes, directly grabbed a mandible on the front end of the wooden centipede, then silently snapped it off with a violent twist, tearing it off directly!

Next was the first segment of the limb, the second segment of the limb...

"Hey, this..."

Seeing this scene of tearing apart prey like a wild beast, exuding a violent aura, Yala instinctively wanted to speak.

But in the end, looking at the bones of who knows who in the distance, it shook its head and smiled without stopping him: "Never mind, it's good to vent a little."

Strong young people with a sense of justice always have to vent the resentment and rage in their hearts when they encounter unpleasant things.

"...Ha."

Until the end, Su Zhou, who had dismantled fourteen limbs on the front half of the wooden centipede, finally stopped his excessive actions.

He was panting with exhaustion, his face flushed red, and he almost sat down on the ground.

"How do you feel, Su Zhou?"

Yala unhurriedly swam out of the boy's temples. It stared at the wooden centipede in front of it, whose body was still twitching, but was undoubtedly completely defeated, and said with a smile: "The battle with 'fiends' and 'monsters'... Are you afraid?"

Without a flashlight, without the light of the evil-warding array, the underground sewer returned to darkness again.

And at this time, laughter came from the darkness.

"...Hum...Ha, hahaha!"

First he took a breath, then he laughed, laughed loudly. In response to the serpent spirit's question, Su Zhou showed a hearty smile. He stood up, stomped hard on the wooden centipede's head, causing white fluid to splash: "Afraid?"

Turning his heel and grinding, Su Zhou laughed frankly: "Yala, this might sound a little crude—right now, I'm so excited I'm gonna explode!"

"Sure enough, whether they're called magical beasts or demons, or some kind of weird fiends... These things aren't that strange at all!"

One could see that two points of blue-purple spiritual light lit up in the dark, humid mist, and the boy's cheerful voice came from within: "Even if they're monsters."

"Monsters die when they are killed!"