# 137
**Chapter 137: Battle with the Snake Woman**
Look into your eyes?
Do I look sick to you? Why would I look into your eyes?
Without a word, Lin Qiye shut his eyes tight.
He knew the famous mythological creature Medusa. Though he wasn’t sure how much of the “turn-you-to-stone-with-a-glare” power the Snake Woman had inherited as her agent, caution cost nothing.
As long as he avoided eye contact, she couldn’t touch him.
Fighting with eyes closed might be impossible for others, but for Lin Qiye it was effortless; with his [Mortal Divine Realm] he hadn’t needed vision to gather information for ages.
Snake Woman: …
Seeing her signature trick stymied, she hissed in irritation. The black pythons formed from her hair shrieked and lunged at Lin Qiye, blotting out the sky.
He parried her hiltless blade and sprang back. Once the black pythons left her side they ballooned—each as thick as a water-barrel—snapping ancient trees in half with the lightest brush.
Among the swarm of monstrous snakes, Lin Qiye drifted like a leaf on the wind, slipping from every fang by a hair’s breadth, retreating dozens of metres in a single breath.
His expression darkened.
The Snake Woman’s methods were many and bizarre: unpredictable teleportation, petrifying eyes, mysterious snake-fang relic, and that writhing mane of pythons…
Fortunately, her cultivation wasn’t high; from her mental pressure she should be in the same “Pool” realm as he was. Yet how could her Forbidden Ruins span an entire street?
Usually, the stronger the ability, the smaller the Ruins’ range. After entering “Pool,” his [Mortal Divine Realm] covered a hundred metres, while [Darkest God’s Ruins] only fifty.
Her Ruins stretched at least three hundred. What did it even do?
While he pondered, she vanished again—reappearing atop a crumbling wall beside him. Legs coiling, she shot off the bricks like an arrow straight at Lin Qiye!
Screech—!!
Straight Blade met snake-fang in a grating shriek. Lin Qiye’s shut eyes flooded with darkness; the severed trunk beside him levitated and speared toward her!
Sharp logs, hurled like lances, tore through the serpent hair on her shoulder and knocked her mid-air off course. His second Straight Blade flashed—
Whoosh!
A blade-gleam. She twisted like an eel, dodging with uncanny grace, but a swath of her snake-hair was shorn away, drifting to the ground in black tufts.
She vaulted again, coiling atop another tree like a water-snake.
Eyes still closed, Lin Qiye tilted his head, mental power sweeping the spot she’d just vacated. A smile tugged at his lips.
He understood.
“Courting death!”
The Snake Woman brushed the severed locks, murder blazing in her eyes. Her hiltless blade spun; she vanished once more.
The instant she disappeared, Lin Qiye reversed his grip and stabbed backward at empty air—
She materialised straight onto the point!
Clink!
Snake-scale phantoms flared on her breast, blunting most of the thrust, yet the tip still pierced shallowly into flesh.
Her pupils shrank.
She flashed away again, crouching on a distant rooftop, clutching the wound, serpent eyes fixed on Lin Qiye in fury.
“You…”
Blades in hand, eyes sealed, Lin Qiye walked toward her through the night, unhurried.
“At first I thought the snake-eyes covering the street were just for show… until I realised they are your ability itself.
Snake-eyes on the ground, in the slush, in the bark, in wall-cracks…
Your teleportation isn’t free—you can only appear where a snake-eye is planted.
Once I knew that, your threat dropped sharply.”
He stopped beneath her roof.
“I’d wager your Forbidden Ruins—no, your God’s Ruins—lets you create snake-eye patterns from anything within range, then jump between them, faking instant movement.
At your current level, that’s all it can do.
Strip away the teleport, and with only that mane of snakes and your sloppy swordplay, you’re no match for me.
As for your petrifying gaze…”
His eyes opened slowly: left blazing gold, right pitch-black. Two divine auras, opposite yet balanced, rippled from him.
“Let’s test it—when we lock eyes, will I turn to stone first… or will you die?”
The twin godly pressures slammed into her gaze. Three divine wills collided across the air—
Pfft!
Her mind felt torn in half; she spat blood, face ashen.
“Aaaahh!!”
Clawing at her eyes, she doubled over; bloody tears streamed between her fingers.
The divine light faded from Lin Qiye’s eyes. He glanced at his arm: grey patches were already spreading, the skin numb.
So this is the petrifying eye…
Terrifying, but at her level she’d need ten seconds of eye contact to fully petrify another “Pool” realm. Under his twin-god pressure she’d be lucky to last five.
While she reeled, darkness thickened around him. He tapped the ground and ghosted onto the rooftop.
Blade flashing, he slashed for her neck.
She knelt, wracked with pain, seeing the strike only too late—hatred blazing in her serpent pupils.
Clang!
A silver halberd intercepted the Straight Blade inches from her throat.
Lin Qiye frowned. A man of about thirty stood before her.
With a light shake of the halberd he sent Lin Qiye stumbling back several steps, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.
“Hello.” The newcomer rested the halberd on his shoulder, gaze calm, voice polite.
“I’m Han Shaoyun, Thirteenth Seat of the [Believers].”