The ancient return was exposed by his sister's live stream.

The spider's corpse was still emitting acrid black smoke on the ground. The girls covered their noses and walked around it, their steps much faster than before.

Moonmark ran in the lead, its little paws stomping on the rocks with a "clattering" sound, its tail held high, occasionally glancing back at Chen Hao as if to say, "This way."

The cave grew wider and wider, and there were more and more fluorites overhead. The light changed from dark green to light blue, shining on the rock walls like an underwater world.

But Chen Siyao had no interest in appreciating the scenery—she noticed that after the large spider from earlier, the spiderweb gradually disappeared, and other things began to appear on the rock wall.

"Brother," her voice was a little tense, "look at the wall."

Chen Hao looked in the direction she pointed. There was a snake in a crevice in the rock wall.

The snake wasn't big, about the thickness of a thumb, and was bluish-green. It was coiled in a crevice in the rocks, its tongue flicking. When it saw people, it neither ran away nor attacked; it simply stayed there quietly.

"A snake?" Yang Wanqing leaned closer for a look, then breathed a sigh of relief. "Luckily, it's not big."

Girls are naturally afraid of snakes; these slippery, silent creatures terrify them more than spiders. Imagine how much more frightening they would be if they were older.

Chen Siyao wasn't as optimistic as her. She continued walking forward, the beam of her flashlight sweeping across the rock wall—one, two, three… more and more snakes appeared in her field of vision.

Some are as small as chopsticks, others as large as arms; some are coiled in the crevices of rocks, some hang on stalactites, and some peek out from the holes in the rock walls.

Their colors varied—blue, black, mottled, golden—but they all had one thing in common: they were all motionless. Not dead, but as if waiting for something.

Cai Jingwen's voice was a little weak: "Why aren't these snakes moving?"

"They're waiting for us to get there," Chen Hao's voice came from ahead, calm. "Don't attack them first, and they won't attack you."

The girls followed closely behind him, lined up in a straight line, like a string of chicks being protected by a mother hen.

Yuehen stopped running, retreated, and followed at Chen Hao's feet, pricking up her ears to stare at the snakes on the rock walls on both sides, letting out low moans.

After walking about two hundred meters, the cave suddenly narrowed, turning into a canyon only wide enough for two people.

The rock walls on both sides were covered with snakes, big and small, thick and thin, intertwined like a living wall. There was a strong fishy smell in the air, mixed with the scent of mud and moss.

Chen Siyao's hands were trembling, but she still held up her phone. The chat was flooded with comments:

[Xue'er]: My God! There must be thousands of snakes!

【Yaoyao's Little Red Riding Hood】: I'm having trypophobia.

[Dongmen Chuixue]: Look at that golden line on the rock face, it's so thick! It must be as thick as a bowl!

【9527】: Why aren't these snakes moving? They look fake.

[Lin Yang, Department of Biology]: That's not right. Snakes are cold-blooded animals. With so many snakes gathered together, the temperature should be very low. But look, they're all flicking their tongues; that means they're active. This doesn't make sense.

Chen Hao walked at the front, his pace neither hurried nor slow. Wherever he passed, the snakes on both sides would slightly shrink back, as if making way. After they had passed, the snakes would gather again.

Yang Wanqing noticed this detail and whispered to Chen Siyao, "Yaoyao, have you noticed? Those snakes seem afraid of your brother."

Chen Siyao noticed it too. She didn't say anything, but quickened her pace.

The snakes gradually thinned out, and the cave widened again. The underground river turned from left to right, the sound of the water growing louder and echoing through the cave.

Just as Chen Siyao was about to breathe a sigh of relief, Chen Hao, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped. She almost bumped into his back.

"elder brother?"

Chen Hao did not answer. He looked ahead, his gaze piercing through the darkness and landing on the corner of the cave.

There is a bend in the underground river, where the water gathers into a deep pool, the surface of which is as calm as a black mirror.

"I can hear water," Yang Wanqing said. "Are we almost at the exit?"

Before the words were even finished, the surface of the deep pool began to churn. Not ripples, but churning—as if something was stirring beneath the surface.

The entire pool was churned and boiling. Water splashed onto the shore, hitting the girls' feet, icy cold.

"Step back." Chen Hao's voice wasn't loud, but it was clear.

The women all took a few steps back at the same time.

The water surface exploded. A gigantic snake head emerged from the water, as large as a small car. The snake head was entirely black, its scales gleaming metallically in the light of the fluorite.

Its eyes were golden, with vertical pupils like two lamps, staring straight at the people on the shore.

The tongue that sticks out of its mouth is as thick as an adult's arm, and the forked tip of its tongue trembles in the air, making a "hissing" sound.

Yang Wanqing screamed. Cai Jingwen covered her mouth, and Li Li's legs went weak; she had to hold onto the rock wall to keep from falling. Chen Siyao's hand holding the phone trembled violently, but she didn't put it down.

The snake slowly raised its body, getting higher and higher, longer and longer—five meters, ten meters, fifteen meters.

Its body rose segment by segment from the water, like a black pillar, topped with that terrifying head. It looked down at them, its golden vertical pupils devoid of emotion.

The live stream chat exploded:

[I am Ying Zheng]: Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! What is this?!

[Manman]: This isn't a snake! This is a monster!

[Lingying]: This is a prehistoric giant serpent, even bigger than the Titanoboa!

[Dongmen Chuixue]: Look at its head, it's bigger than a car!

[Professor Wang, Department of Biology, National Chiao Tung University]: This is impossible! The largest living snakes are the Amazonian anaconda and the reticulated python, with a maximum length of only seven or eight meters. This snake... looks to be over fifteen meters long! And it's still growing! This is not scientifically sound!

[Little Wang Who Loves Learning]: Even the ancient Titanoboa only reached a maximum length of twelve or thirteen meters. This one has already exceeded the maximum size limit of all known snake species!

Before the comments section had even finished loading, the snake moved. It opened its massive mouth, revealing four rows of sharp, inward-curving fangs, each as long as a fruit knife.

The giant python's throat was a dark, bottomless well. It pounced on Chen Hao with astonishing speed.

The girls screamed and backed away.

The giant python seemed to be thoroughly enraged by the intrusion of the group. It opened its huge mouth, its sharp fangs gleaming coldly, as if it wanted to swallow them all whole.

A strong gust of wind suddenly swept over them, and the girls huddled together in fright, their hearts seemingly stopping.

Chen Hao stretched out his hand. The girls and the viewers in the live stream all thought he was going to set the mountain on fire, just like he had burned the spider earlier.

The snake's gaping maw drew closer and closer, until she could see the mucus and barbs in its throat. Chen Siyao felt her heart was about to leap out of her throat.

Chen Hao's hand didn't burst into flames. He swung it forward—

"Smack."

A crisp sound echoed through the cave. There was no blazing flame, just an ordinary slap, as clean and crisp as a slap in the face on a normal day!

The girls were stunned. The live stream chat was flooded with question marks.

【I am Ying Zheng】: ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

【Yaoyao's Little Red Riding Hood】: ? ? ? ? ? ?

【New User 056】: ? ? ? ?

[Dongmen Chuixue]: What just happened?

【New User 974】: If I'm not blind... the god slapped that snake.

【New User 54】: A slap! You read that right, a slap.

The giant python, several tens of meters long, seemed to have been hit by a speeding truck, and its entire body flew out of the water.

It then spun horizontally twice in the air before crashing heavily into the rock wall. The impact created a large crater, and debris rained down.

The snake's body sprang back, crashing to the ground and splashing the underground river water several meters high.

The girls stared with their mouths open, unable to close them for a long time.

The live stream chat changed from question marks to exclamation marks:

[Qin Jia Xiaoyu]: A slap sent a snake tens of meters long flying? What kind of superhuman strength is that!

[Wu Tian]: Can anyone tell me how many kilograms that slap weighs? This must break a world record, right?