As the comparatively cold air stroked Williams face his whole body became instantly cold as he brought up his arms in an instinctive way to defend himself.

The strike was swift and brutal as a black scaled snake tail as large as him stroke his arms as they blocked it from reaching his chest. Williams many dials allowed him to properly respond, he didn't have time to channel his Qi from his dantian so instead he simply used the Qi that was naturally flowing through the meridians of his arms at the time and the Qi that was normally in his arms from his own body strengthening. The surprise attack also left no time to properly utilize the Qi to form a proper defense instead all the Qi in the meridians was explosively released too act as a counter force while the natural Qi in his body was burned to reinforce it to another level.

Unfortunately this desperate defensive measure was not enough to perfectly block the attack as William felt himself leave the ground and his bone broke in a spectacular loud noise. The strength of the blow was enough to send the unprepared William flying several dozing meters before he landed on the ground and rolled as the speed slowed. William knew from the strength in the surprise strike that this wasn't a opponent that he could deal with by only relying on his own battle power, especially not now that the other side had managed to succeed in their surprise attack.

Williams had already started reaching for his pouches when he was in the air. There was a small silver lining as the sudden ambush had made Williams adrenaline spike to a level he had only felt when the Mantis Queen had shot her Qi beam. The adrenaline was enough to dull the pain that was coursing through his arms, the pain became worse when he moved them but not moving them would undoubtedly leave him dead so William gritted his teeth as he continued.

The first pouch was opened and William instantly took out and used a barrier talisman as soon as he had it in his hand. Any slower and he would have been devoured as a snake mouth large enough to swallow him whole was right in front of him, covering his whole vision.

A spherical barrier was deployed and stopped the snake from closing it's mouth around him. Not that the snake seemed to care as it wriggled and started to unhinge it's mouth to devour the barrier itself. The snake apparently being scared that William would escape from the barrier, started to coil it's whole body around the barrier, soon enough the parts of the barrier that wasn't covered by the snake's mouth was being enclosed by the rest of its body. A perfect prison with the light of the barrier being the only thing allowing William to see anything.

A second light soon joined the barriers light as William used a healing talisman. The feeling of pure regenerative Qi entering his body was comfortable, at least until it reached the parts of him that was damaged. William hadn't even noticed it but apparently his defense had left much to desire as some of the healing Qi started to work in his chest, the healing was uncomfortable but not painful. At least not enough to override Williams adrenaline.

William looked around as the healing began and his heart started to beat even faster. There were no way to escape and the snake had now manage to bring it's mouth around a third of the barrier, something William wanted to take advantage of. Reaching outside the barrier to attack the snake was too risky but William had another way.

"You tried to take advantage of that sneak attack to get an advantage, it seems only fair that I pay you back."

There was a rustling sound as the snake unravel itself and stopped trying to eat the barrier as its instinct warned it of danger. William activated the talisman in his hand. A bright light came off the talismans as destructive Qi was unleashed from it, leaving William and the barrier alone but trying to wreck havoc on anything else.

A screech of pain and beastial fury was unleashed from the snake as it hadn't manage to disengage fast enough to leave the talismans range.

This was the first time William had managed to see the snake in its entirety. It was large, unnaturally large. It had at a minimum one and a half meter diameter. From tail to head it was even worse, being an intimidating nineteen meter at least, it was hard to tell as it wasn't stretched out, instead staying in a aptly named serpentine pose. The tail and main body was sheer black but the parts of its body closer to its head was dark green, becoming brighter the closer it was to the head, the head itself being pure green. It's eyes were bright orange sometimes shifting for only a moment to yellow before changing back to its almost glowing orange colour. The stare it directed towards William was filled with fury and hunger.

A conflicted expression came to Williams as he saw the extent of its injuries, he was partially happy seeing it injured after its unjust ambush against him but it looked to disgusting for him to truly gain any joy from its state.

Most of its body was covered in blood as more of its body had been inside the range of the attack than had been outside. The injuries were incredibly gruesome as it looked like someone had gone insane as they slashed it's body without end, leaving its scales minced and the hide under hanging from its body like vines. This revealed it's raw muscles, some of the muscles had been spared the worst while others looked identical to its hide to the point where one couldn't tell where it's hide ended and it's muscles started, it was all just unidentifiable meat.

The twitching from the snake was constant as it tried to adjust it's body to both have a sight on William and not allow the more hurt parts of its body touch anything. The revealed muscles continued twitching even after the snake found a position that it was happy with.

Grass which had just moments before been green were now red as everything around the snake was drenched in its blood.

William was still in the barrier as he was having a stare down with the snake, while his healing was reaching it's end stage. He hadn't really paused in the middle of a battle to look at what was happening and doing it now was putting a damper on his mood.

For just a moment William thought about healing the snake, but this thought was quickly squashed as he reminded himself that the snake had started this.

The healing was done and it was time to continue the fight now.

Surprisingly the first move was done by the snake as it brought it's tail forward, as it flicked the tail a distorted slash of air was shot out. The air slash was completely ineffective as the barrier blocked it.

The snake was seemingly expecting this as it had started to circle the barrier from a distance. While William could focus the attack talisman he felt that he should end it with his own blade. Besides, in this fight he had already used three of the four different talismans, it seemed appropriate to use the last one and experience it's effect in a proper fight.

A light came from the last talisman as William put it on his chest. The boosting talisman would mainly affect all of his physical aspects. Secondly he took out a fire attributed Qi stone and inserted it into his swords pommel. The pommel itself shined a little as the stone merged with the metal pommel. The more of the stone was absorbed the more of the shining pommel turned red. With the preparation done William waited for his chance.

Another air slash came from the snake as it continued prodding the barrier. Why it simply hadn't left was beyond William.

William fully used his newly boosted power as he shot out from the barrier immediately after another air slash. Sending Qi into the sword further boosted the fire power from the Qi stone, but this wasn't the end as the added forest attribute Qi feeding into the fire attribute showed it's effect as the swords blade was now surrounded by a fire aura.

William arrived next to the snake's head before trying to decapitate it. The snake jerked backwards to dodge the blow while attacking with its tail. William neither blocked or dodged the blow, instead deflecting it and using the added force to spin and use the extra force to slash down on the tail. The slash was strong enough to cut almost a quarter of a meter deep before stopping as the tail was simply to thick and tough to be completely cut off.

There was no hesitation as William dodged backwards as the snakes head came down hard where he had just been standing. William approached to try attack the snakes head again. This time was slightly better as William tried to pierce into its eye. The snake once again shifted it's head but not enough to perfectly dodge the strike. The strike bit into the snakes face, above the intended target. The blood running from the wound ran downwards covering one of the snakes eyes.

The snake became more careful as it stopped trying to attack with its fangs and mouth and started to only use it's tail to send air slashes and rarely used it to physically attack William. Unfortunately for the snake William was fully using the newly made blind spot to avoid all attacks.

A sound like someone was banging on a pot was coming from the snake as it backed away and stared at William. William himself used this opportunity to take a small breather, this was the first time he had fought with something this big. The second largest thing William had fought was the Mantis Queen but this snake was far larger.

Both William and the snake made their movement at the same time. William tried to advance but had to stop as the snake opened it's mouth. First came an air blast that William only managed to partly avoid as half of his body was struck with enough force to throw him backwards, but his defense was going enough to stop any major damage.

As his back struck the ground the snake made its second move as air rushed towards it's mouth. The wind from this was strong enough to drag William up into the air and towards the snake. William wanted to use his sword but if the snake managed to survive then he would be forced to fight the snake with only a knife and his hands so William threw the knife instead. William had no real training with throwing weapons but the air current guided the knife right into the snakes throat, where it deeply pierced because the added force from the wind.

There was a immediate reaction as the snake shut it's mouth as it flinched from the new wound. William used this moment to stabilize his pose before rushing towards the snake. William wanted to pierce it's head where he believed the brain was but another change in position from the snake made the strike instead cleave into its left nostril and cut upwards, ending in between it's eyes.

The snake tried to throw it's full weight on William as it threw it's head into the air before slamming it downwards making William back off.

Dust from the ground covered Williams sight as he moved backwards to avoid being surprised attacked through the dust. As William feared a air blast stirred up even more dust as William dodged before once again entering a defensive pose.

There was a slight rumbling as the snake moved before William realized it was becoming more distant. William still fearing an ambush shifted his position to run around the dust cloud instead of through it.

As William thought the snake was currently running away. Apparently wounded enough to finally understand that it should leave.

William ran after the beast. The snakes wounds making it slow enough for William to be able to close the distance, but it periodically used it's tail to send air slash towards William. While no air slash managed to hit William it was enough to slow down William as he was forced to dodge them. Eventually William was forced to stop the pursuit as the distance was neither shrinking nor growing any larger but he was running out of Qi and fighting the snake without any Qi would end badly for him.

"Fuck"

William didn't even try to search for Rigel and Victor as he instead stopped feeding his sword with Qi and canceled the boosting talisman. He then stabilized his Qi as it had grown increasingly chaotic.

Rigel appeared as he congratulated him.

"You surprised me again, I really thought that I would have to help you, but you did great in defeating the child Bashe. Good job."

The first response of William was to smile and thank Rigel for his compliment before he realized what had been said.

"Than... Child?"

Rigel smiled a little as he responded, before realizing that this might hurt Williams pride too much so he added a white lie.

"Yes, that was a child. Maybe on the edge of becoming an adolescent."

Williams smile visible faded as his confidence crumbled and his world view was shaken. He knew that there were a multitude of creatures with unfathomable power but hearing that the opponent that had brought him to the verge of death was a child that he had only managed to win against because he used talismans to help himself and cripple it was beyond shocking.

Rigel decided to give some information that William apparently lacked when he noticed the almost visible depression on Williams face.

"William do you know the basic categories of beasts who uses Qi?"

William started to absently minded repeat what he knew.

"Qi beasts are the most common beasts who uses Qi. They can be as weak as a child or as strong as a divine celestial depending on the species. Spirit beasts are as much beasts as they are spirits."

The next category made William shake himself from his stupor as he realized Rigel wanted to go somewhere with this.

"Mythical beasts are beasts who uses Qi and can even use 'laws' and manipulate the world so most of them can rival celestials in their power. Divine beasts are the same as Mythical beasts except they have a divine origin, usually born from a God or created by a God. Primordial beasts are the same as mythical but they have inside themselves energy from the beginning, primordial energy, they are usually called walking disasters as a average one could single-handedly destroy a medium sized sect without issue."

Rigel was happy as he nodded and continued the conversation.

"Good, a little short and lacking detail but good enough at the moment. Then do you know what category the Bashe belong too?"

William knew that Rigel wouldn't bring this up if it was a normal Qi beasts, and while there were a lot of sub categories like demonic beasts but since Rigel was satisfied with this then the snake should belong to one of the mentioned categories.

"Is if a mythical beast?"

Rigel confirmed it while adding more information.

"Yes, it's a mythical beast which when fully grown use both the space and wind affinity. It also has dragon blood in its linage making it's body incredibly strong."

This made William happier as he thought of how he managed to defeat a mythical beast. A second later he became a little sad as the body of a mythical beast with dragon blood in it would be a great treasure.

Of course this disappointment didn't last as he remembered all the blood it had spilled.

"Rigel, can you help me gather the blood?"

William had no way to gather the blood so he was forced to ask Rigel as he still didn't see Victor.

"Yeah, let's go and gather it."

A question came from William as he was watching Rigel waving his hands to telekinetically gather the blood into several glass containers.

"Where is grandpa anyways?"

"He left after you defeated the Bashe. He is going to the clan to inform them about what we found here and bring some people to handle it. He should be back by nightfall."

A slight disappointment came to William as he realized that Victor wasn't here. A short-lived feeling as Rigel put several glass containers next to him.

"Quite a good deal for four talismans and a simply sturdy knife."

"My knife!"

The anger William had for the Bashe was reignited as he remembered that the snake had ran away with his knife still in its throat. Not that the knife was any sort of treasure but he liked it and it had already saved him a few times during this journey, he wanted it back.