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After this period of contact with Midorima, Tagitsuhime had gained some understanding of his capabilities.
If Midorima felt like it, he could roast the remaining eight pythons to a crisp. Whether or not to skewer them first would depend entirely on his whim.
Therefore, to achieve the desired effect, rules had to be established in advance. Otherwise, these pythons below probably wouldn't last until the day they evolved into a great serpent.
"So, how is it going?" No sooner had Tagitsuhime stuffed a skewer of tender snake meat into her mouth than she heard someone speak behind her. She turned hurriedly to see Ichikishimahime.
"How do you think it's going?" Tagitsuhime handed a skewer of snake meat to Ichikishimahime. "I was afraid he might actually kill all those snakes, so I set some rules for him ahead of time."
"How can you eat this stuff?" Ichikishimahime protested verbally but acted otherwise, stuffing the snake meat into her own mouth.
"Isn't this what Ryūchi Cave has the most of?" Tagitsuhime licked her lips. "Besides, we're different from them. What's wrong with eating a little snake meat? Are only those mindless beasts allowed to eat it, but not us?"
"Well, that's not it either," Ichikishimahime shook her head, tossing the bamboo skewer over the cliff. Simultaneously, she floated to the edge of the precipice, looking down imperiously into the valley.
The six snakes below continued their slaughter, while Midorima remained right in the midst of all the pythons, his body covered in blood. Moreover, his entire aura had noticeably changed compared to before.
He seemed less like a human and more inclined toward a serpent.
"Be careful. Midorima seems to be trending toward transforming into a snake... If he truly becomes one, that's a failure," Ichikishimahime said, doing a mid-air somersault to hang upside down as she looked at Tagitsuhime.
"It's fine. He always reverts to human form at the most critical moment."
"Oh? That's strange, isn't it?" Ichikishimahime expressed surprise.
"That's... it means he can regulate the amount of natural energy he absorbs..."
"Then the blood on him..."
"Oh, that's his own blood... He hasn't truly integrated with the environment yet, which leaves him in a 'non-human' state. The pythons perceive him as one of their own, so they keep attacking him continuously. However, after being attacked, his wounds heal rapidly. There's no life-threatening danger. But this situation probably won't last much longer," Tagitsuhime explained.
"Why?" Ichikishimahime asked, puzzled.
"Don't you really know? When only four snakes remain, one of them will be capable of swallowing him whole in one gulp. Tsk tsk. If he can't successfully integrate with the environment before that, he'll just have to wait to be devoured by one of the great serpents and eventually become...excrement," Tagitsuhime said, rolling her eyes.
"You seem to dislike him," Ichikishimahime stared at Tagitsuhime.
"Not at all," Tagitsuhime rested her chin in her hand. "I'm just frustrated... Because Midorima 'took a different path' in the early stages, his progress has been significantly delayed. For anyone else, they should have already merged with nature by now."
"Or they might have been eaten by the pythons," Ichikishimahime added. "Not just anyone can persevere to the end. You're not worried about him, are you?"
"Pfft—"
Upon hearing Ichikishimahime's words, Tagitsuhime spat out the snake meat in her mouth.
The morsel of meat traced a high arc through the air.
"Hey, I'm telling you, you definitely shouldn't worry about him. Based on my observations, he still has plenty of time."
Ichikishimahime's gaze followed the piece of meat, watching as it plummeted into the ravine.
"How do you know?"
"And you say you're not worried about him? Hehe... Of the six snakes down there, four are roughly the same size. Any snake trying to swallow Midorima would likely be attacked by the others. Barring accidents, he faces no imminent danger of being devoured before the great serpent emerges..."
Ichikishimahime kept her eyes fixed on that piece of meat until it landed squarely on Midorima's head. Instantly, her expression grew tense.
"Oh no!"
"What's wrong?" Tagitsuhime was startled.
"Midorima has become the target of the other six snakes!" Ichikishimahime said anxiously.
"Huh?" Tagitsuhime didn't understand.
"That piece of meat you just spat out landed on Midorima's head. It seems to have attracted the attention of all six pythons," Ichikishimahime's smile was stiff.
"Eh... What!?" Tagitsuhime nearly tumbled from her perch in the air, hastily joining Ichikishimahime to peer down into the valley.
The six pythons were coiled around each other in a tangled knot, encircling Midorima. Each serpent had arched its body.
Clearly, these pythons were preparing to launch a fierce assault. Although their size wasn't as great as Garaga's, swallowing Midorima whole wasn't impossible—just extremely difficult. It would likely require a very long digestion period, and during that time of impaired mobility, that particular snake would be vulnerable to attacks from the others.
Regardless, Midorima, having drawn the attention of all six serpents, was now in an extremely perilous situation.
"What should we do? Kill all the snakes?" Ichikishimahime asked.
Tagitsuhime hesitated.
Counting from when she started overseeing Midorima's sage training, two months had already passed.
If they killed these snakes now, all the previous effort would be wasted. More importantly, there would be no benchmark to gauge Midorima's progress.
"The snakes are moving..." Ichikishimahime said.
Tagitsuhime snapped back to attention, her gaze falling to the valley floor. The six snakes were engaging in three separate pairs of combat, and the "battlefields" were also moving away from Midorima.
"What's going on?" Tagitsuhime was astonished.
Surprisingly, the snakes were not attacking Midorima.
"I don't know. It seems those snakes are somewhat afraid of Midorima... He couldn't be undergoing 'Great Serpentification,' could he?" Ichikishimahime exclaimed in a hushed voice.
"..." Tagitsuhime shot Ichikishimahime an annoyed glance.
How could such a thing be possible?
However, Midorima had indeed made these snakes feel fear. It should be said that the chakra he was emitting was repelling the approaching pythons.
But this situation was not common...
Midorima's current training method had significantly prolonged the learning process for sage arts.
"By the way, how long has it been since he rested?" Ichikishimahime asked.
"Him?" Tagitsuhime was taken aback, thinking back. "Three days, right? He hasn't come up for three days..."
Ichikishimahime stared at the pythons tearing into each other, giving a slight shake of her head.
Those pythons had completely lost themselves, savagely ripping into each other's bodies. Some even seemed intent on swallowing their opponents whole.
This feeling was like two warriors displaying their might before a monarch.
Yes, in the eyes of these pythons, Midorima was like a king, looking down from on high upon the six serpents locked in mortal combat.
Something happened... Something must have happened to Midorima...
"What happens next?" Ichikishimahime asked Tagitsuhime.
Tagitsuhime shook her head.
"I... I don't know either..."
Other practitioners either got bitten to death by the snakes or successfully merged with the environment, enabling them to refine large amounts of sage chakra.
But Midorima's situation... she really couldn't make sense of it.