Crocodile blood trickled down the spear shaft, warm and slick. He Lingchuan heard that strange rasping again. “Hhhah, hhhah.” It was only now that he realized that the sounds he had heard earlier had actually been the crocodile’s cries of pain.0

For a fleeting instant, a dangerous thought crossed his mind.0

If I suddenly thrust this spear upward, could I drive it straight into the giant crocodile’s brain? Wouldn’t killing this monster once and for all be the only way to remove the threat?0

But the notion vanished as quickly as it came. If the giant crocodile were that easy to slay, would Wu Shaoyi not have tried already? And even if the strike succeeded, could he escape being dragged down in its death throes? He was, after all, standing in its mouth.0

So, He Lingchuan shoved the idea aside and set to work, grinding...0