Chapter 7: Hidden Weapons in the Serpent’s Belly

What slipped out from the belly of the golden python was not a beast, but a human! To find a person inside a serpent’s stomach was already terrifying enough, but what made one’s skin crawl was that this person was not whole—a man partially digested by the golden python, whose body had been broken down but not entirely dissolved.

After steadying his emotions, Chu Feng examined the corpse carefully.

The body, ravaged by the serpent’s violent stomach acids, was badly corroded; the features had been utterly destroyed, leaving only the barest outline that revealed it had been a man, and moreover, a martial artist.

He was naked—not because he had originally been so, but because the python’s stomach acids had long since eaten away his clothing.

“All his clothes have vanished, yet only the outer layer of his body is corroded. Clearly, this martial artist possessed significant strength, or else his body would not have been so resilient!” Chu Feng mused, and suddenly his eyes flashed. In the dead man’s hand, he spotted something the size of a thumb, clutched tightly.

“What’s this? It survived immersion in the python’s stomach fluids and remains completely intact?” Intrigued, Chu Feng pried open the ruined hand and took the thumb-sized object.

It looked delicate but felt weighty in his palm, pitch-black in color, and shaped much like a segment of bamboo.

One end of the bamboo segment was hollow, revealing an opening the size of a cherry pit, while the other end was sealed.

Chu Feng, an inexperienced martial artist, had little knowledge of such things and could not guess what it might be.

Yet his mind was agile and imagination vivid. Considering the fist-sized wound on the golden python, which seemed aligned with where the martial artist’s hand had struck, he quickly drew a conclusion.

“A hidden weapon! This tiny thing is likely a powerful, advanced hidden weapon. I should examine it carefully and see if that’s the case.”

He set about his investigation, examining the bamboo segment under the bright moonlight, ultimately deciding to start with the sealed end.

He twisted it, and sure enough, the sealed end unscrewed!

After removing a small plug, Chu Feng found inside the bamboo’s heart six or seven cherry-pit-sized beads arranged in a row, pressed by two tiny springs, poised as if an arrow drawn taut.

“It is indeed a hidden weapon! And a most intricate one!” Chu Feng rejoiced. Such a sophisticated device could be carried easily; this was not something that could be purchased with gold or silver. The only question was how powerful it truly was.

He placed the weapon in his palm and pressed its tail with his little finger.

Pfft!

A soft sound echoed, and two large trees several yards away quivered gently.

Chu Feng rushed over to assess the damage wrought by the hidden weapon.

The two trees appeared unharmed at first glance, but his keen eye spotted a transparent hole at the center of each trunk, no larger than a cherry pit.

He checked the second tree, a yard farther out; it too had been pierced clean through by a cherry-pit-sized hole.

“So, when I triggered the hidden weapon, it launched a cherry-pit-sized projectile that pierced both tree trunks in an instant! The speed and force of this attack are truly terrifying!”

Shocked, Chu Feng pushed against the trunks. With a thunderous crash, both trees toppled.

Such ferocious power—no wonder it had inflicted a deadly wound upon the golden python!

However, Chu Feng immediately noticed a drawback.

This weapon clearly relied on powerful internal springs to propel those tiny projectiles at blinding speed, and each attack consumed a bead. The beads, once fired, were lost, as with the one just sent flying—who knew where it had landed, and it could not be retrieved.

“Wait—the beads glimmer with a metallic sheen, and seem to be metal. I could place one in my storage pouch and see if I can replicate it! If that works, using this hidden weapon would be far more convenient!”

With this thought, Chu Feng aimed the weapon at the python’s belly and pressed lightly with his pinky.

Pfft—a spray of blood erupted. The python’s corpse was struck again, this time leaving a wound the size of a fist.

Once more, it proved that the golden python’s fatal injury had indeed been caused by this weapon.

Chu Feng immediately set to work, searching through the serpent’s ruined wound with bloodied hands, and finally retrieved the bead he had just shot.

It was indeed made of metal, heavier than a typical iron bead. Chu Feng placed it in his storage pouch and then began to deal with the scene before him.

This unfortunate martial artist, unknown in origin, wielded a powerful hidden weapon. Had he triggered it a moment sooner, he might not have been swallowed by the golden python.

Chu Feng considered dragging the body to the river, but thought better of it; instead, he buried it where it lay. Having taken the hidden weapon, he felt it only right to let the man rest in peace as a gesture of thanks, easing his own conscience.

He dug a shallow grave and buried the martial artist, then turned to slaughtering the golden python.

Such a terrifying serpent would not be eaten by anyone lacking courage or martial prowess. Chu Feng, emboldened and strengthened, no longer feared the dead python; in his eyes, it was simply a pile of meat—prime food, inspiring no terror.

He butchered the golden python, slicing it into chunks, and extracted the enormous gall bladder, as large as a wine vat, which he placed on the ironwood frame to roast.

For a martial artist, the value of a snake’s gall is already high, but the gall of a golden python far exceeds that, its worth as incomparable as the difference between a bonfire’s heat and an oil lamp’s glow.

As he ate roasted python gall, Chu Feng checked his storage pouch.

Just as he expected, the beads fired by the hidden weapon could indeed be replicated in the storage pouch. He had placed one inside, and now there were three. The addition of two more beads meant the weapon could be used twice more!

To his delight, he found that his stash of silver ingots and battle shadow iron had also increased. The gold ingot taken from the mountain leopard had multiplied to eight!

Eight gold ingots—eight hundred silver! This alone recouped all the money spent today on beast meat, ironwood, iron sword grass, and the large cauldron.

Chu Feng was overjoyed, his spirits soaring.

It seemed, after enduring years of hardship, fortune had finally smiled upon him. Not only did he possess a storage pouch capable of producing gold items, he had acquired a powerful hidden weapon, and a cache of precious python meat—blessings raining from the sky!

Yet Chu Feng knew that a true martial artist should pursue power within, not rely excessively on external things.

Dependence on such aids could weaken the warrior’s heart; should he lose them, he would remain fragile. Like an eagle, one must learn to fly on one’s own, not rely on anything else, to truly soar. Otherwise, such an eagle would be less than a sparrow.

This realization gave Chu Feng clarity.

Such insight greatly strengthened his martial heart, and the strength of that heart was the very foundation of a martial artist’s achievements and future.

In other words, Chu Feng’s physical prowess had not changed, but his inner self had advanced and grown stronger.