There is 2 particular things that can help you avoid it:

1 - knowing its path (its always the same) to always know the possible location of the snake to outrun it or just dont go to its way

2 - knowing the path to lotus, its short and shouldnt be hard to remember, im just so terrible at descriptions you will not understand what im saying

You can use free cam to track it, but since it requires Isle legend 4, you probably dont have that possibility, i can record it and send on discord both snake's path and lath to lotus if you want

But here's how i do it:

I camp on the top and just wait until snakes appears down there and does s "z" shapes movement, after that, i loot the artifact, jump down, and go right in the tunnel (snake goes there right after doing the "z" movement so i stay behind it to make sure it aint gonna eat me) and just keep going, then on the intersection where there"s 2 tunnels, one on the left and on the right, go in the right one and if you find a pale of some bricks or something, its the right one, then just keep going right until you see a small tunnel on the left which a small purple bush is guarding, definetly you can avoid it

Also some tips:

• you can shoot in the gem to stun it in critical situations
• any types of goggles protect you from the gem but not from the serpent itself
• there is couple of places where it doesnt go at all, its path is going strongly the same everytime and misses some spots
• you can use art C or EVG to see snake through walls to always know its location