Exerting such force had to be costing him plenty of blood, because He Lingchuan could smell the metallic stench growing thicker. He could not tell whether it belonged to Wu Shaoyi, the giant crocodile, or both.
He Lingchuan had been wondering why the beast did not simply drag Wu Shaoyi under and drown him. As it turned out, Wu's spear was constantly propping its upper jaw open, and the monster could not bear the agony either.
This giant crocodile had roamed far and wide, devouring whatever it pleased—who could have foreseen it would encounter something that pricked its mouth so painfully here?
Judging by its thrashing, it was thoroughly enraged.
"Can't you just let go and jump out?"
"No! It's trying to ram me to death! I've tried twice already," Wu Shaoyi shouted. "This thing has intelligence!"
Most importantly, he was too severely wounded to run fast.
Even with its jaws wedged open, the demon crocodile possessed the bulk of a runaway locomotive. Whether on land or in water, a collision with it would knock anyone senseless.
*So inside its mouth is actually the safest place?* He Lingchuan smiled wryly as he pictured the ring of fangs down below.
"Then how am I supposed to help?"
"Think of something, hurry!" With someone appearing right above his head out of nowhere, Wu Shaoyi refused to let this godsend of a chance slip away. "I'll reward you handsomely!"
How was he supposed to save him? He Lingchuan was stumped.
Stab the giant crocodile to death with his broken saber? Don't be ridiculous—before he could even scratch through its thick hide, he would probably be flung into oblivion.
Find a stalactite to replace the spear? Impossible. The crocodile would never hold still and let him do as he pleased.
A dozen or more ideas flashed through his mind, and He Lingchuan rejected every single one.
Down below, Wu Shaoyi kept desperately urging him on.
Annoyed by his frantic badgering, He Lingchuan finally hollered, "Hey, crocodile demon... er, Crocodile God! Can you understand human speech?"
Earlier, he had clearly heard Wu Shaoyi address the beast as "Crocodile God."
The creature was preposterously huge, certainly a cultivated demon, but no one would call it a god without good reason.
Wu Shaoyi had to know where it came from.
Besides, Uncle Hao's sparrowhawk demon could understand human speech and speak human words. Perhaps this crocodile demon, whose cultivation seemed far more profound, could do the same?
It was worth a shot; trying wouldn't hurt.
So he called out again, "How about I help you remove that toothpick pricking your mouth?"
Compared to the monster's colossal size, a burly man like Wu Shaoyi was nothing more than a morsel of meat insufficient to fill that abyssal maw. Calling the spear a toothpick was hardly an exaggeration for the giant crocodile.
The moment he asked, the water abruptly stopped churning. Only a couple of faint ripples broke the quiet.
It was pitch-black below and He Lingchuan could see nothing, so he could only ask Wu Shaoyi, "How did it react?"
"It nodded." Wu Shaoyi sounded quite dejected. "It understands!"
Indeed, this was a Crocodile God that had once received incense offerings! Why had he fought it to the bitter end from the start, assuming it could not comprehend human speech?
Why drag a problem into mutual destruction when it could have been resolved through negotiation? At that thought, Wu Shaoyi wanted nothing more than to slap himself across the face.
Had his brain rusted over in a matter of life and death?
He Lingchuan let out a long breath of relief. Once communication was possible with a monster like this, didn't the difficulty of rescuing someone plummet?
He really was a little genius.
Next came negotiating terms. "Crocodile God, how about we strike a deal? I take out that toothpick for you, and in return, you spare the two of us and help us get ashore. What do you say?"
The next second, a chilling voice echoed in both their minds:
"Agreed."
Demons with cultivation mostly communicated with humans through mind-voice transmission, as their vocal cords were ill-suited for speech.
Was this huge crocodile really that agreeable? He Lingchuan was momentarily taken aback. "You'll keep your word?"
"The Jialong clan never lies!" the giant crocodile said. "I swear on the bloodline of my progenitor!"
He Lingchuan had indeed heard that demons generally did not lie, save for a few particular species.
He thought for a moment, took a candle from his storage space, lit it, and tossed it down to Wu Shaoyi.
Wu Shaoyi caught it with great difficulty.
Had the crocodile demon still been thrashing, such a simple action would have been impossible.
He Lingchuan instructed it, "Get out of the water first!"
The giant crocodile slowly swam forward, and soon its massive head emerged from the water.
Aided by the candlelight, the two men realized that the cavern was vast—half submerged, half raised above the lake surface.
There seemed to be something deeper inside the cavern, but that was hardly the priority right now. He Lingchuan glanced at it briefly and paid it no further heed.
Crawling onto the rocky bank beside the water, the demon crocodile rested its massive skull flat against the stone surface and held still.
"Get out."
Wu Shaoyi struggled with all his might, yet failed to climb out.
The intense struggle against the beast had completely depleted his strength; the moment he relaxed, he couldn't even lift his arms.
He tried twice more, unable to even stand.
The giant crocodile tilted its head, shook him out of its maw, and dumped him onto the rocky bank.
"Pull the spear out!"
Wu Shaoyi could barely stand, let alone summon the strength to pull the spear out for it.
He had no choice but to call to He Lingchuan for help. "Lad, come down and help!"
He Lingchuan thought to himself, *I'm safe up here, you know.*
He truly had no desire to climb down, but both Wu Shaoyi and the giant crocodile were pressing him urgently.
Both of them were thoroughly sick of each other.
Two neat rows of gaping, bloody punctures lined Wu Shaoyi's body, bleeding steadily with every passing second—wounds that could not be faked. Considering he had grappled with the giant crocodile for several shichen while carrying such grave injuries, He Lingchuan believed he was truly down to his last embers.
Had he not run into He Lingchuan, Wu Shaoyi would have died with his spear still wedged straight in the crocodile's mouth.
So Young Master He gave a heavy sigh, pinched his nose, and jumped down.
*Splash!* He hit the water.
Switching into a brisk crawl stroke, he swam over to the rocky bank.
He first dragged Wu Shaoyi deeper into the cavern, fed him a small medicinal pill, and then walked back toward the water's edge.
The giant crocodile was waiting for him right there with its maw wide open, tears streaming from the corners of its eyes.
Every single one of its teeth was longer than the broken saber in his hand, and that blood-red cavernous maw could easily swallow three grown men whole.
Standing beside it was hardly a pleasant experience.
He Lingchuan cautiously poked his head forward to peer inside, discovering that Wu Shaoyi's spear was wedged in an absolute stroke of uncanny precision: the spearhead was driven deep into the monster's palate, while the butt was wedged right in the cavity of a rotten tooth on its lower jaw.
Yes, this crocodile had tooth decay down to the roots—and quite a deep cavity, at that.
No wonder the wedged spear caused it such agonizing pain.
No wonder it had agreed to He Lingchuan's terms without a moment's hesitation.
What was missing out on one meal of human flesh compared to this? A toothache was truly unbearable.
Still, stepping into such a monstrous maw to play dentist required tremendous courage. He Lingchuan rubbed his hands together, then carefully lifted a foot and stepped onto its lower jaw.
The crocodile demon seemed to sense his hesitation and actually offered comfort: "You need not worry. I never eat the dentist." Crocodilians often lived alongside birds that picked rotting meat from between their teeth, helping them maintain oral hygiene.
"..." Looking up at the row of razor-sharp fangs hanging right above his forehead, He Lingchuan did not feel comforted in the slightest. The creature had atrocious halitosis; standing there any longer, he worried he might pass out from the stench.
How Wu Shaoyi had endured it was beyond him.
"Open wider," He Lingchuan told it plainly. "It needs to go a bit deeper into the palate first. Bear with it."
He gripped the spear and shoved it upward a little more.
Chapter 127