Mingliang sensed darkness engulfed everything around. His entire existence screamed for danger. A deep sense of crisis exploded within. Mingliang's body instinctively moved to a fighting position. But before he even moved an inch, something cut the connection between his mind and his body.

Something strange happened, first to his vision and next to his consciousness.

Something strange happened, first to his vision and next to his consciousness.

He felt, his vision shifted. Colors were changing. Forms were disappearing. A moment later, it was back to normal. Colors returned. Forms appeared again. But shortly after that, it kept on shifting, back and forth, from one vision to another. When his vision moved into this strange dimension, everything was dark and gloom. All the pieces of furniture were disappearing, and people changed into shadows of light. There, he saw a giant black snake coiled around Nina's body.

Its eyes were glowing green. It was staring at Mingliang with hatred. Its tongue flickered, in and out of its giant mouth that filled with sharp teeth.

The shifting's frequency was getting faster. At one point Mingliang could feel something blasted in his brain. And the shifting stopped. As soon as Mingliang's mind entered this strange world, the giant black snake slithered toward his position. That snake's face didn't allow it to have a rich expression, but Mingliang could swear that snake was grinning evilly at him.

As a cultivator, Mingliang's was significantly spiritually stronger compared to other people in that room, but still, he felt that he was nothing but a prey before that giant snake.

The snake arrogantly took its time, as it slithered toward Mingliang. It ignored other people in that room, and it seemed that only Mingliang could see the snake as well. Mingliang had no chance to confirm that. Instinctively, his attention focused on that snake.

Mingliang tried to move. He pleased to find that once he completely shifted to the other dimension, he could move freely once again. His intuition told him that his consciousness left his body to enter this place. He never experienced it before. If there was no giant snake wanted to eat him now, he would be jumping in joy.

The giant black snake sneered at him. It moved too fast for Mingliang to follow. Its huge body uncoiled. Within seconds it had him trapped in the middle.

Mingliang stared at its ridiculing face in anger.

Back in the room, as the giant snake concentrated to Mingliang, other people in the room was relieved from the previous pressure.

“Mingliang are you alright?!”, Robert alarmed. He saw Mingliang was in a daze and the water kept on pouring to Nina. Quickly he snatched the glass from Mingliang's hand.

Only then people started to notice Mingliang's condition. He was in a daze, staring at nothing with blank eyes. Sarah quickly took a towel to dry Nina's body. They all took a look at Nina and saw, her condition was much better now. She slept peacefully. Now, their concern was more about Mingliang, who sat there like a statue.

“Wait, leave him alone. I think Teacher is in trance, perhaps he's using *ngerogoh sukmo, his soul is leaving the body. It's better if we leave him alone.”, Somad hastily prevented them from approaching Mingliang.

*ngerogoh sukmo is a known term in Java supra-natural belief system : sukmo = soul, ngerogoh = an act of taking something out. Something closely simimlar to Astral projection.

The pastor snorted in disdain, “Black magic. I tell you all, what you do here is dangerous. You're dealing with occultism here.”

Somad stared at him in disbelief, “How dare you? My teacher put himself in danger to help, and you are saying stupid things like black magic and so on.”

“Dissolute! Look even his so-called disciple doesn't know how to respect older people.”, the pastor stared back angrily.

But Somad knew no fear. He used to live on the street before Mingliang found him a family, who was happy to have him in their house. They didn't adopt him. Instead, they gave him a job to help around the house. Some people might scold Mingliang for supporting underage employment, but Somad knew better and felt grateful for Mingliang's arrangement.

“Sorry dude, but I only give respect to those who deserve it, and I'm afraid you don't.”, the boy sneered tauntingly.

Somad's answer angered the pastor. He moved toward the boy threateningly, but the doctor who happened to stand near the pastor, stepped in, “Okay, stop the fuss. Pastor, you should know better than fighting with a boy.”

“Hmph! Well, someone should teach him not to spout nonsense.”, the pastor still glared at Somad angrily, but he realized how people might think of him if he insisted.

“You should stop provoking him too. You shouldn't give your teacher trouble”, The doctor said as he smiled warmly to Somad. The doctor liked the boy. He found his audacity interesting.

Somad turned his attention back to his teacher. The doctor's words reminded him of Mingliang's condition. More than other people in the room, the boy believed in Mingliang with all his heart. It was not an exaggeration if he said that Mingliang was the most important person in his life. Ever since he met Mingliang, his life changed to the better.

Mingliang treated him with sincerity. Some people use his poverty to take advantage of him. Some other people pitied him and treated him like they treated a lost puppy. Mingliang was different, Mingliang treated him with respect. Somad sensed trust, a trust to his character and potential. When he was with Mingliang, Somad felt confident.

Robert and Sarah turned to look at the doctor. Their raised eyebrows, expressed their question, should they believed in Somad?

The doctor nodded his head, “Let's wait and see first.”

“I know nothing about this stuff, and in such situation, I prefer to believe in the specialist.”, he grinned toward Somad and gave a stressing in the word specialist.

Somad grinned back, but he quickly turned his attention back to Mingliang. The boy tried to show his confidence to his teacher's ability, but deep inside he worried for Mingliang's safety. After all, he didn't know as much as he pretended to.

Mingliang's situation in the other dimension wasn't much promising. The giant snake surrounded him, forming a circle with a radius of about 5 meters. Once in a while, the snake attacked, trying to nip Mingliang with its sharp and poisonous fangs. Mingliang managed to avoid its attack, but he got the feeling that the snake intentionally let him avoided it.

The snake teased him, sometimes its wet tongue lightly brushed his face, leaving its fishy smell stuck on Mingliang's nose afterward. At the other time, it bumped its hard pliable body to Mingliang's, left him felt sore and bruised after the attack.

Mingliang tried to break through once, but the snake easily forced him back to the middle of the circle. The snake was toying with him.

After some time, Mingliang began to adapt to his new environment. He was calm enough to analyze his current situation. There were various skills he only knew in theory but never had a chance to give it a try. Slowly, he browsed through his memory, looking for a way to defeat the snake.

The snake swung its head lazily. Its eyes were glistening with evil glee. It was getting ready to nip at Mingliang again. Slowly it lost its smile. The snake saw Mingliang calmly stood his ground and observed.

Suddenly the snake felt anger raised in its heart, “Psshhhhhhhhhh!!!”

Like lightning, the snake charged toward Mingliang. Its mouth wide opened, readied to gobble up Mingliang in one gulp.

Mingliang's head looked small when placed between the giant snake's rows of sharp teeth. The teeth were closing in quick until it reached several inches before Mingliang's head.

“By Xuang Wu's name from Mount Wudang! Black Tortoise Armor and Shield Condense!” Mingliang shouted, a black shadow in the form of a giant tortoise with dragon-like head and tail, appeared around his body.

“Ding! Screech!”, sparks of fire flew everywhere as the giant snake's teeth hit the black tortoise shadow.

In the room, at the other dimension, the bronze medal in Mingliang's pocket buzzed a low humming sound.

In the spiritual dimension, the giant snake was hissing in anger and wildly attacking Mingliang, but that shadow of a giant black turtle kept it away from Mingliang. Sometimes it flickered like it was going to break at any time, but it held out.

Mingliang grunted in pain under the attack, he had to put all his effort to keep the black tortoise shadow from disintegrating under the giant snake relentless attack, 'Damn!...oh...fuck!fuck!fuck! I shouldn't choose to defend at a time like this.'

“Bang !” The giant snake attacked once more. It shook through Mingliang. For a moment, he felt his whole body trembled, and his consciousness faded for a moment. The black tortoise shadows flickered, but quickly he regained the control and stabilized the shadow.

'I should choose to draw the rune of wind god and avoid the attack.', Mingliang bitterly recalled when the giant snake suddenly attacked to kill. He lost his calm by that time and unconsciously chose to chant a defensive spell.

“Bang !”, the giant snake kept on attacking relentlessly.

'Ouch! You son of a bitch! Crap! Damn! If only I get a chance to change tactics.', Mingliang didn't have the guts to recall the defensive spell and chanted another. He didn't have the confidence to activate to spell at the same time as well.

It was a matter of experience. He didn't even have the confidence to cast a spell without the bronze medal. He was glad he brought the bronze medal with him, right now it kept sending spiritual energy and provided him with enough strength to hold the defense.

“Bang !”, Mingliang gritted his teeth, 'Wait! I think that damn snake is slowing down!'

“Bang !”

'Yes, he's surely slowing down. The intensity of his attack also reduce a bit.', A hope was surging and filled Mingliang's heart.

It directly affected his mental strength. He easily bore the next several attacks. He was silently observing his enemy, making a note of its every movement. The giant snake was desperately attacking. It didn't have many attack pattern. All of its attacks were either, trying to bite Mingliang, or hit him by a sweep of its tail. Mingliang could sense, the giant snake was getting panic now after all of its attacks didn't work.

'What should I do now? He's tiring himself out, but what should I do then? Should I keep defending? Or should I prepare to counter-attack?', trains of thoughts were running through Mingliang's mind.

Each choice had its own risk, and he didn't have much experience in battle. He was lucky that the giant snake itself wasn't smart. It only relied on brute strength.

'I got to take some risk. I can't stay in this passive position. The attacks are getting slower. I think I can cast another spell before the next one.', Mingliang steeled his heart to take control over the fight. He didn't want to stay passive.

He calculated the period between each attack. It would be very close, but he was quite sure he had enough time to make his plan work.

“Bang!”, the black tortoise shadow flickered, withstood the collision against the giant snake's whipping tail.

'Now!'

The black tortoise shadow flickered several times then disappeared. When the pattern broke, it caught the giant snake unprepared. The snake froze in its place for a few seconds. Its eyes were staring in disbelief before gleefully stared at Mingliang. It opened its jaws and charged once more.

Mingliang sneered, the giant snake had wasted too much time. Confidently his hand moved before his body. A bluish light came out of his hand, creating a pattern in the air before him.

Seeing those runes, the giant snake felt a real crisis for the first time since it met Mingliang. The snake wanted to stop, but it was too eager to attack. Now, the momentum prevented the snake to stop.

On the giant snake's path, a complicated rune appeared. An intricate blueish glittering line was forming symbols of ancient words and formations.

The snake crashed into the rune.

“SEAL!!!”, Mingliang shouted, his hands made a catching movement.

Instantly the rune rotated. It created a whirl and pulled the snake toward its center. The snake was struggling to free itself from the runes. Its giant body thrashed around to no avail. It slowly grew smaller and smaller, moving toward the center of the runes.

Mingliang didn't dare to relax his concentration even for a split of a second. The fight was far from over. He caught the snake, but now it was about who was stronger. It was a battle between his will against the will of the snake to free itself. Luckily he brought the bronze medal with him. It contained hundreds of years spiritual energy, gathered by his grandfather and father, provided Mingliang with abundant energy to use.

The energy flooded through Mingliang's vein, who continually fed it to the seal. Pain surged all over his body, his hand was numb, but Mingliang kept pushing the energy toward the seal. Through his connection to the seal, he could sense the strength of the giant snake. He realized, without the bronze medal, he already died by now.

Mingliang felt the battle had gone for hours. The giant snake was many times stronger than him, but it had spent most of its energy, in the early phase of the fight. Now, it still had to fight the seal.

The snake finally reached the point where it lost all its hope.

In the blink of an eye, the giant snake form turned into a small snake, wrapped by a blue ball of light.

Mingliang gasped for air. The battle was over, and a surge of ecstasy ran through his entire being. Now the danger was over. Leisurely he observed the seal.

“Surrender, or I shall destroy you.”, he lightly threatened the snake.

Mingliang felt the snake shivered inside the ball of light. He sensed anger and hatred, from the snake.

“Suit yourself.”, Mingliang sneered, he silently chanted a mantra.

The ball was sparkling with small thunder on its surface. The snake screamed without a sound inside the seal. Thunders lashed the snake over and over.

Seconds passed by, and Mingliang kept chanting the mantra. He didn't want to destroy the seal and the snake along with it. It was a rare opportunity to practice all the theories he learned from his father and grandfather.

When it crossed more than two minutes, Mingliang began to feel restless. He could sense the snake was quickly weakening. If the snake refused to surrender soon, then it would be destroyed under the torture.

By his current level of energy and experience, he couldn't maintain the seal for a long time. He didn't dare to take a risk and release the snake. Either the snake surrendered, or he would have to destroy the snake along with the seal.

'I surrender.', suddenly a weak thought transferred from within the seal.

A smile spread on Mingliang's face, “Sign the contract then. Make a vow that you will obey my command. You will never do anything to harm me, or people close to me. You will never have any evil intention toward me, or people close to me. Should you break your vow, may the heaven destroys your soul.”

Without any struggle, the snake swore its allegiance to Mingliang. Mingliang found the snake was a simple brute. It didn't try to keep any tricks in its sleeve and obediently vowed as commanded.

Once the snake finished, Mingliang relieved the seal. The snake maintained its small size and flew toward his wrist. Quickly it wrapped itself on Mingliang's right wrist.

After the snake submitted itself to Mingliang, he now had complete knowledge of its nature.

'What a barbaric bitch !?', to his surprise, it was a female snake, not a male snake, as he previously thought.

Mingliang can senses that the snake is extremely weak right now and need a lot of rest. Feels sorry for the snake, Mingliang gently feeds a small part of his energy to the snake. The snake shivers and Mingliang senses her loyalty slightly increases.

“Have some rest.”, Mingliang commanded the snake, and soon he felt the snake's consciousness dimmed.