You promised to wreak havoc on the dungeon, but instead you've got Dragon Slime!

"This is the secondary seal of the snake bone totem. With it, you can activate the anti-poison mechanism we left behind."

"We'll help you kill that snake."

"You'd better keep your promises."

Ron took the bone talisman, his fingers tightened, and he nodded.

"I never change my word."

Half an hour later, a roar came from the direction of the bottom of Snake Bone Valley.

That venomous beast has awakened.

The moment the Poison King awoke, the entire Snake Bone Valley trembled.

It wasn't an earthquake, but rather a kind of "movement" coming from the bottom of the valley—like something churning underwater, causing rocks to float, and the toxic fumes on the ground turning into swirling eddies.

Ron stood on the high platform of the Serpentbone Clan, overlooking the entire valley.

The poison king below hadn't revealed its whole body yet; what was first shown was its tail—a dark bluish-black color, so thick it didn't resemble a snake at all, but rather a piece of decayed stone pillar, which slammed against the valley wall with each swing, leaving a large patch of poisonous patterns.

The valley walls were instantly stained black, and pebbles littered the ground.

"How long has it been since it was last touched?" Ron asked casually.

The old clan chief next to him exhaled a breath of stale air: "The last time it moved was two years ago, when the poisonous fog rose thirty meters."

"If they really make a move this time, none of us will survive until tomorrow morning."

"If you want to kill it, do it now."

Ron nodded and rolled off the platform.

He didn't commit his entire army; in this terrain, it's better to launch a surprise attack than a frontal assault.

Bone dragons are not suited to flying, but bone snakes can burrow underground through poisonous mist. With the help of illusionary shadow soldiers to create chaos, and then having the warriors of the remnant tribe take a side route, crawling over from the side of the valley to seal off the tail.

He gave each team three antidote pills.

This was just obtained from the remnant tribe. One pill is enough to suppress poison for half a day, and it can suppress poison even without equipment.

He was on the front lines.

He wore bone armor, but the plates were all replaced with "stone scales," a specialty of Snake Bone Valley, which had a remarkable effect on resisting poison.

The venomous monster at the bottom of the valley finally revealed most of its body.

Its head was as big as a cow's, its eyes were white, like a dead snake coming back to life, and there were several cracks on its skull. A broken bone spur was sticking out from its nose, making it look extremely ferocious.

As soon as it opened its mouth, it spat out a large cloud of green mist, and viscous liquid dripped down from between its teeth, even corroding the ground with a hissing sound.

Ron pulled out a bone blade and charged without saying a word.

The first wave to charge was the illusionary forces.

Fifty shadow soldiers, clad in light armor, ran frantically around the Poison King.

Annoyed by the disturbance, the Poison King suddenly swung its tail, snapping several sections of the valley wall in half.

Then it flipped over and leaped up, ready to crash down, but Ron had already reached its lower abdomen.

He grabbed onto a protruding bone pillar in the ground, used it as leverage to leap upwards, flipped in mid-air, and stabbed himself hard under the armpit.

The knife failed to penetrate.

Too hard.

But he didn't expect to draw blood with a single strike; he just wanted to test just how thick the thing's defenses were.

The Poison King thrashed him violently in pain, throwing him away.

Upon landing, he tumbled several times before regaining his balance, with blood trickling from his mouth.

"It's harder than I expected," he muttered, wiping his mouth.

"Come."

With a wave of his hand, five bone snakes burst forth from the ground at the same time.

These five were buried in advance, all carrying "bone-exploding balls" specifically designed to explode near the abdomen.

As soon as the snakes emerged from the ground, they immediately began to coil around the Poison King's belly scales.

The Poison King roared and struggled, but the bone snakes held on tightly and wouldn't let go. Finally, they exploded with a few loud "bangs".

A wave of poison surged through the entire valley.

Ron stood on the outer perimeter, his armor billowing backward from the poison gas.

Viser charged in from the right, shouting as he gave orders, "Still alive!"

"What was blown up was a section of its secondary body; the main core remained untouched!"

Ron sneered, "Then keep blowing them up."

"The remnant clan has made their move!"

The Snake Bone Clan members climbed down the valley wall, each carrying a "Snake-Patterned Bone Hammer" specifically designed to counter the Poison King.

That hammer wasn't made of iron; it was made of the skull and spine of a venomous snake strung together. When it struck, it carried a "disruptive poison" property, which could cause the poison king's body to become chaotic for a short time.

Fifty soldiers were divided into four groups and surrounded the enemy from all sides, smashing them relentlessly.

The Poison King has gone berserk.

It stopped moving its tail and began to "coil" – its entire body rolled like a giant python, pulling all the bone soldiers and warriors that attacked it into its body, preparing to strangle them in one go.

Ron stood on high ground, assessed the opportunity, and stomped on a bone rune, crushing it.

With a loud bang, the people the clan leader had arranged ignited a bone array at the top of the valley, forcibly creating a bright green poisonous vein in the air, "cutting" the Poison King from head to toe.

The Poison King let out a shriek, its entire body twisting wildly, and blood gushed from its wounds like ink, splattering across the entire valley floor.

Before it could catch its breath, Ron jumped down and stabbed the wound again.

After the cut went in, it brought out a large clump of rotten flesh.

The Poison King wailed and rolled twice before finally collapsing.

Viser frowned as he looked at the black blood and scattered bone spurs on the ground. "Is it over?" he asked.

Ron stepped on the Poison King's corpse and looked around.

"not yet."

"Keep its skeleton, burn the internal organs, and collect the blood."

"We'll use this to make poison pills later."

Viser nodded and turned to make the arrangements.

The poisonous gas in Snake Bone Valley dissipated somewhat, and the remnants of the tribe began to relocate their camp.

The old patriarch walked up to Ron and handed him a rolled-up leather letter.

"We've guarded it for seventeen years, and today is the day you finish."

"The snake bone totem is yours."

Ron took it and put it in his pocket.

"I said, help me fight this battle, and I'll give you a way out."

"From this day forward, Snake Bone Valley belongs to me, and you are all my people."

The old man nodded and said nothing more.

Firelight gradually rose at the bottom of the valley, the poisonous fog dissipated in the night wind, and for the first time, the air was finally less pungent.

Ron stood on the Poison King's skeleton and narrowed his eyes.

After the Poison King died, the smell of Snake Bone Valley changed.

The toxic fog dissipated quickly, and the humidity dropped as well. The wind in the valley could now blow directly to the bottom of the valley instead of circling around the foot of the mountain.

Ron stood on a rocky platform, watching the busy activity below.

The Snake Bone Clan has begun dismantling their camp.

They acted swiftly, leaving nothing behind—tents, bone pillars, poison wells—and packing all usable materials into animal hide bags, even covering the bloodstains with a layer of grass ash.

This is a "root-and-branch relocation".

The old clan chief made it very clear: "We will not leave any trouble behind."

Ron understood.

He was more concerned with the snake bone totem in his hand.

It was a piece that looked like both bone and skin, with a surface covered in dense, almost invisible etched lines, like snake scales, yet connected in a regular, closed loop.

Claudia came up and handed him a sealed canister of venom.

"These are the venom sacs around the heart of that king cobra. We collected eight in total. The venom is so pure that it's enough for us to brew ten batches of antidote."

Ron didn't take it, but instead handed the totem to her.

"Take it and analyze it."

"The structure on the totem is not only for protection against poison, but may also be able to locate underground poison veins."

Claudia paused, looked down at the object, and hesitated, "It's not a weapon?"

“No.” Ron glanced back at the valley.

"Weapons are for killing, this thing is for guarding the valley."

"It knows every change in the earth's veins at the bottom of this valley. If you can really understand this totem, it's like you can know at any time where the poisonous gas is concentrated, where it's suitable to deploy troops, and where it's suitable to release poison in this mountain range."

"This is the terrain key."

Claudia nodded, carefully put away the totem, wrapped it up tightly, and placed it in her bosom.

At the other end of the valley, Viser was counting heads.

This battle was fierce. Although the Poison King died quickly, his venom sprays and rolls wiped out a significant portion of the front-line combatants.

Thirty percent of the Bone Soldiers were lost, the Demolition Team was wiped out, and the Illusionary Force suffered the fewest casualties, but the post-battle maintenance costs were high.