Spinning—spinning—the world was spinning... Shawn had no idea how much time had passed....
"Cough... cough... cough..."
Shawn Young spat out the icy water from his mouth, a cold sensation spreading through him. He slowly opened his eyes, surprised to find himself sitting on a hard floor, back in the same tunnel as before, surrounded by slick, damp ground. In front of him was still that wall with no way forward.
"Uh... How did I get back here? This is so weird..." Shawn stood up, scratched his head, and curiously reached out to touch the wall. He didn’t find anything unusual, but then he felt his foot kick something soft...
"Whoa! Another snake..." Instinctively terrified, he jumped up with all his might. He leapt so high that his head slammed into the tunnel ceiling—"Crash!" Debris rained down, and Shawn was shocked to see he’d smashed a dent into the ceiling and knocked down several bricks.
Strangely enough, his head didn’t hurt at all—just a little shaken. Shawn looked up at the tunnel ceiling, which was over three meters above his head. "Huh... How did I jump so high? And I busted a hole in that old ceiling! Is this what they call hidden human potential? That’s awesome...."
Once he recovered, Shawn glanced down and spotted a strange little snake, about three inches long and blazing red, lying limp in a corner. His eyelid twitched, and cold sweat broke out on his back. He froze, afraid the snake might suddenly lunge at him—he’d already suffered the tragedy of being bitten twice in one night! He remembered from a book: snakes usually don’t attack things that stay still.
After a long while, the fiery red snake didn’t move at all. Shawn finally mustered the courage to get closer. Looking carefully, he realized the snake was completely motionless—apparently dead. He breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he noticed a small scrap of cloth stuck to the red snake’s mouth. By now, Shawn’s eyesight was far beyond ordinary, so he could see clearly even in the dim tunnel—though he hadn’t realized it yet. He quickly recognized the cloth as a piece of his own underwear, with a few curly hairs stuck to it. Those were definitely his...
"Uh... Could this little snake really be the Scarlet Viper that’s cultivated for five thousand years? Doesn’t look like much! It bit my junk once and just died like that?" Shawn finally realized that this fiery red snake was the very "spirit beast"—the Scarlet Viper—Elder Thomas had mentioned!
Shawn prodded the Scarlet Viper’s corpse, confirming it was dead as dead could be. It didn’t look so scary now. He examined it for a while but couldn’t figure anything out, so he picked up the snake’s body and hurled it deeper into the tunnel, cursing, "Damn you, stupid snake! You bit my junk and left me burning down there..."
After a round of cursing, Shawn realized he needed to find a way out quickly. He couldn’t remember how he’d gotten into this weird tunnel, so he decided to search ahead, since the other end was blocked by a wall with no way through.
Luckily, his eyesight was now extraordinary, so moving through the tunnel wasn’t as tough as before. He searched for a long stretch, then suddenly came upon a fork in the tunnel. Shawn quickly turned into it, spotting an iron ladder leading up to the ceiling. Looking up, he saw a round, black metal manhole cover about a meter wide.
"Wow... Finally, an exit! I’m about to suffocate down here!" Shawn cheered and hurried up the iron ladder.
But when he reached the manhole cover, Shawn was disappointed to find it secured with a giant iron lock! Turns out the local community cops had started locking these covers to prevent metal thieves from stealing them.
"Damn! Just my luck! It’s locked—how am I supposed to get out now?" Shawn grumbled. Annoyed, a strange surge of power flooded into his hands. Without thinking, he swung at the manhole cover—"Boom!" With a dull crash, the huge iron lock exploded into pieces, and the manhole cover shot into the air and landed on a patch of grass nearby. Good thing it didn’t hit anyone—at over two hundred pounds, it could’ve killed somebody!
"Holy crap! When did I get so strong!? Am I possessed by Ultraman or something? Is it my destiny to save the world now?" Shawn leapt up onto the street, staring at his hands in awe, feeling like he could take on anything.
He basked in his own glory for a moment until a chilly night breeze reminded him it was still late at night, and he had no idea where in Nanning he was. Worst of all—he was wearing nothing but a tattered pair of underwear, with a hole bitten out by the Scarlet Viper and a few stubborn curly hairs poking through...
"Uh... If I want to be Ultraman and save the world, I should at least have some decent underwear!" Shawn muttered, deciding he needed to find a new pair before continuing his heroic mission.
Just then, Shawn heard voices and saw lights around the corner of a nearby street. Thanks to his enhanced hearing, he could make out a heated argument between several men and a woman—they were shoving each other and the woman sounded furious...