Chapter 6 — I'll Make the Wolf King Pay in This Life

The snake flicked its tail, not bothering to argue. Chi Loc Minh walked to the window, gazing down at the city sprawl below. The thirty-second floor. In her previous life, she had fallen from the hundredth. In this life, she stood on the thirty-second, looking toward the heavens. Her phone buzzed. A message from Tong Soc: “The pilot mining phase has been moved up. The first shipment of ore samples will arrive tomorrow afternoon.” Chi Loc Minh typed back a simple, “Understood.” Tomorrow, she would secure the ore and feed it to An Cuu Uyen. The day after, Le Hanh would arrive. Whether there was enough time left, she would have to leave to fate.

“An Cuu Uyen.”

“Hmm.”

The snake pressed its face against the glass, eyes half-closed in a sleepy daze.

“If you consume the ore tomorrow, how much can you recover?”

It pondered for a moment.

“Ten kilograms of high-purity rare earth ore… roughly eight to ten percent.”

“And what can ten percent actually accomplish?”

“The distance of my teleportation will increase by two kilometers. The number of uses will triple.” It hesitated. “Furthermore, I will be able to release the Primordial Beast Aura.”

“What does that mean?”

“All beastmen with a bloodline rank lower than mine will instinctively experience terror and be forced to retreat under the weight of my presence.”

The snake’s golden slit pupils widened. “Le Hanh is the Wolf King; his bloodline rank is not low. However, he carries fragments of my essence within his body—those fragments will resonate.” Chi Loc Minh’s eyes ignited.

“You mean you can use your aura to influence the fragments inside him?”

“Theoretically, yes.”

An Cuu Uyen explained, “He swallowed three of my fragments to empower himself. But those fragments remain mine at their core. As long as I recover ten percent or more, I can attempt to summon them.”

“Summon them? As in?”

“Forcibly extract them from his body.”

Chi Loc Minh’s breath hitched.

“And what effect will that have on him?”

“It will be like having three-tenths of the blood drained from his veins.”

The snake’s voice was cold and indifferent. “He will not die, but he will be instantly weakened.” Chi Loc Minh stood before the window, her mind racing with rapid calculations. She didn't need to outfight him. She only needed to time it perfectly—the moment he moved to strike, she would summon the fragments and drain his strength. Then, flee. No—not flee. Counter-kill.

“If the fragments return to you,” Chi Loc Minh turned to face the serpent, “what will your total recovery reach?”

A flicker of brilliance ignited in An Cuu Uyen’s vertical pupils.

“Three fragments… twenty-five percent. Added to the ten percent base. A total of thirty-five percent.” Thirty-five percent. Far exceeding the minimum needed to defeat him. The corner of Chi Loc Minh’s mouth curled upward.

“An Cuu Uyen.”

“Hmm?”

“The day after tomorrow, we won’t be running anymore.”

The snake tilted its head.

“The day after tomorrow, we strike back.”

An Cuu Uyen stared at her for three seconds. Then, it performed an action it had not done in thirty thousand years. Its tail tip curled up and twitched back and forth twice. It was like a dog wagging its tail. Realizing what it had done, the tail immediately stiffened and was quickly pulled back.

“I am merely… in agreement with your strategy.”

It turned its head toward the window. “I have no other intentions.”

“Understood.”

Chi Loc Minh suppressed a laugh. “No other intentions.”

The third day arrived. The ore had come. Tong Soc had personally sent a specialized vehicle—a sealed metal crate containing ten kilograms of high-purity rare earth ore, neatly cut. Each block emitted a shimmering silver light, and the air held a crisp, ozone-like scent. Chi Loc Minh placed the crate on the living room floor and opened it. An Cuu Uyen slithered from the window, leaning in to inspect the contents. Its vertical pupils suddenly dilated.

“This…”

“Eat.”

Chi Loc Minh stepped back. The snake’s body began to tremble slightly. It opened its mouth. Chi Loc Minh expected it to eat slowly, piece by piece. Instead—An Cuu Uyen’s jaw unhinged to an impossible angle. Though the snake was only half a meter long, its mouth opened four times the width of its head. The fist-sized blocks of ore were swallowed whole. Chi Loc Minh watched, stunned, as the solid stones were gulped down like sunflower seeds; she could even hear the faint, rhythmic cracking sounds coming from within its belly. Ten kilograms of ore. Two minutes. Gone.

An Cuu Uyen closed its mouth, and its entire body began to glow. Golden light seeped from beneath its scales, growing so blindingly bright that Chi Loc Minh had to shield her eyes. The light lasted for nearly a minute. When it finally faded, Chi Loc Minh lowered her hand. On the sofa, there was no longer a half-meter snake. Instead, a black python nearly one and a half meters long lay coiled. As thick as a human arm, its scales were smooth like obsidian, each rimmed with intricate, winding golden veins. Its triangular head was held high, and in its golden vertical pupils, a terrifying majesty was awakening.

“Twelve percent.”

An Cuu Uyen’s voice had completely changed. It was no longer the resonance of a cello, but something deeper, like a tremor from the depths of the earth.

“Two percent more than expected. The purity of this batch was higher than I had estimated.”

Chi Loc Minh looked at the giant black python. To be honest, it was a bit hair-raising.

“Can you… shrink back down?”

An Cuu Uyen glanced at her, its body contracting slightly until it returned to its half-meter length.

“Satisfied?”

“Yes.”

Chi Loc Minh sighed with relief. “A one-and-a-half-meter snake sprawling in the living room would surely have the neighbors calling the police.”

“My true form is three hundred meters long,” the snake remarked dryly.

“…Please refrain from revealing your true form in this apartment, thank you.”

An Cuu Uyen let out a soft, mocking hiss. Chi Loc Minh sat on the sofa and scooped it up into her lap. The snake’s body felt warmer than before. It had been ice-cold, but now it held a living temperature, like a stone left to bake in the sun.

“Explain the plan,” she urged. An Cuu Uyen curled up on her knees, resting its head against her wrist.

“When Le Hanh arrives, I will release the Primordial Beast Aura first. Ordinary beastmen will immediately collapse to their knees. He will not kneel, but the fragments within him will resonate—in that brief moment, he will be paralyzed for three seconds.”

“Are three seconds enough?”

“They are. Within those three seconds, I will initiate the summoning ritual to tear the fragments from his body.”

“Is the extraction painful?”

“Excrutiatingly so.” The snake’s tone was calm. “It is akin to pulling tendons directly from the bone marrow.”

Chi Loc Minh thought for a moment. In her past life, Le Hanh had stood on the balcony watching her fall from the hundredth floor. The pain of tendons being pulled in three seconds? He was getting off light.

“And after the extraction?”

“The fragments return to me. I recover to thirty-five percent; Le Hanh is weakened by thirty percent. With my strength rising and his falling, that is when—”

“You crush him.”

“I crush him,” the snake confirmed.

Chi Loc Minh nodded. “And if there is an unforeseen complication? If he arrives earlier, if he does not come alone, if the ritual fails—”

“Chi Loc Minh.” An Cuu Uyen lifted its head, its golden eyes locking onto hers. “I have existed for thirty thousand years. In those thirty thousand years, I have lost only once—the time those low-born beastmen conspired to seal me away.” Its tail patted the back of her hand. “There will not be a second time.”

Chi Loc Minh looked down at it. As the snake spoke, even though it was still just a half-meter “noodle,” what she saw in its eyes was real. The arrogance of thirty millennia. It wasn't boasting. It was stating a fact.

“Alright,” Chi Loc Minh said. “I trust you.”

An Cuu Uyen’s tail patted her hand again. This time, it didn't feel like a casual tap. It felt like a vow.

At 4:17 PM, the security system triggered an alarm. Chi Loc Minh’s phone pinged with a notification: Someone was attempting a forced entry at the first-floor lobby. She pulled up the surveillance footage. Le Hanh. He stood in the lobby, confronted by four security guards blocking his path. He hadn't even struck them. He simply stood there. But the guards’ faces were ghostly white, their legs shaking violently. The pressure of a beastman’s aura.