Chapter 332: Xiao Qing: You

"Xiao Qing, I'm fine. The Dao Jun said this is a good thing."

After ending the chat, Xiao Bai recounted the entire incident in detail.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Qing was stunned into silence: "Is humanity really that important to demons? I've followed my nature—and it's brought me no harm!"

"Xiao Qing!" Xiao Bai shook her head. "The Dao Jun is a senior cultivator; everything he teaches is always right. We're ignorant, unaware of cultivation—listening to him is the only wise choice."

Xiao Qing chuckled: "Oh? Sister, you've only known the Dao Jun a few days, and you're already this obedient?"

"You're mocking me, Xiao Qing!" Xiao Bai's face flushed red, and she launched into a playful scuffle.

Suddenly, both fell silent and turned toward the nearby forest.

The next instant, a hissing sound filled the air, and a creature with a human head and serpent body appeared before them.

Human head and serpent body—this was the divine form of the ancient ancestors Fuxi and Nüwa. But this creature radiated only demonic, chilling malice.

"Chang Pan, what are you doing here?"

Xiao Qing's eyes narrowed. "You've been following me!"

"If I hadn't followed you, how would I have known you met Xiao Bai—and didn't bring her back to see the Snake Mother, my lord?!" Chang Pan sneered. "Xiao Qing, have you forgotten the taste of the Solar Soul-Severing Scale?"

"Hmph!" Xiao Qing sneered, pointing at the blackened scale on the ground. "You mean this?!"

Chang Pan stared—and her eyes sharpened. "You dared remove the Solar Soul-Severing Scale on your own?! Xiao Qing, how dare you!!"

"Dare?!" Xiao Qing's expression turned fierce. "Out of respect for our shared serpent nature, leave now. Or don't blame me for showing no mercy."

Within the Snake Den, Xiao Qing had only ever bonded with Xiao Bai; she clashed with all other serpent demons.

After all, compared to those serpent demons whose beast forms had not fully shed, Xiao Qing and Xiao Bai—perfectly human-shaped demons—were aberrations, and their exclusion was only natural.

Moreover, the Snake Mother ruled through intimidation, and Xiao Qing now knew her vile intentions—how could she still harbor any fondness for the den's denizens?

The Solar Soul-Severing Scale—its agony still made her body ache whenever she recalled it. She never wanted to feel it again.

"Show no mercy?!" Chang Pan sneered. "You don't think I came alone, do you?"

As she spoke, rustling sounds erupted from the forest, and a group of serpent demons burst forth.

These demons were no different from Chang Pan—all still trapped in beast forms, radiating chilling, ferocious demonic energy.

"Big Brother Chang Pan, we're here!"

"Xiao Qing and Xiao Bai really did transform into human forms—just as you said. Let's seize them and bind them back to the Snake Den for the reward!"

"Yes, yes! We've hated them for ages. To take human form—isn't that forgetting we're demons, the mortal enemies of humans?!"

"Enemies!!!"

Listening to the mob's clamor, Xiao Qing's fury surged: "I told you to leave—and you won't? Then don't leave today. You find us unbearable? I've long found you unbearable!"

Rekindling old grudges, Xiao Qing suddenly summoned a longsword. A flash of blade-light erupted, forming a vast curtain of light that engulfed every demon before her.

"Bold! You dare resist?!"

"No!"

"Ahh…"

At first, the mob relied on their numbers for courage—but when the blade-light fell, they realized its chill was absolute, its killing intent boundless, its power far beyond their wildest fears.

In an instant, dozens of serpent demons were decapitated, their corpses falling as sword victims.

"Xiao Qing, you really killed them?" Xiao Bai stared in shock, utterly unprepared for Xiao Qing's decisiveness.

Didn't you just say you were sparing them out of shared serpent kinship?

How could you change your mind so quickly?

"Sister, they were too annoying! I gave them a chance to leave—but they refused, forcing me to act!" Xiao Qing pouted, wounded.

Xiao Bai sighed: "Well, they're dead now. Let's leave quickly. If the Snake Mother realizes and brings her old comrades to hunt us, are we going to slaughter them all?"

She also recalled their earlier conversation, and new clarity dawned: these dead kin were demons who cultivated only power, obeyed only instinct, and never developed wisdom.

Had they possessed even a shred of wisdom, understood when to retreat, they wouldn't have rushed forward at Xiao Qing's earlier sword strike—even if they only suspected, even if they didn't know who wielded it, they'd have fled to safety long ago.

"Sister, I'm afraid we can't leave."

Xiao Qing sighed, gazing into the mountainside forest—and saw serpents, endless and vast.

One after another, serpent demons either took human-head-serpent-body forms, or merely condensed their demonic energy into monstrous bodies as wide as water jars, stretching dozens of zhang long, radiating icy, lethal aura…

So dense they numbered in the thousands, crushing trees into chaos.

Any ordinary human seeing this sight would have been paralyzed with dread, skin crawling with goosebumps.

Fortunately, Xiao Qing and Xiao Bai were both serpent demons—they felt no fear, only frowns.

"Xiao Qing, let's fly upward. If we keep fighting down here, the Snake Den will have no one left."

Xiao Qing's eyes narrowed. "Sister, if we just flee like this, everyone will think we're afraid!"

"Xiao Qing!!"

"Fine, I'll follow your advice."

Xiao Qing sighed, took Xiao Bai's hand, and used true qi to pierce the sky and soar upward.

"Where do you think you're going?!"

The next instant, a furious roar split the air. Violent demonic energy surged, and a dark cloud formed, slamming straight toward Xiao Qing and Xiao Bai.

"Slice!"

Xiao Bai's eyes sharpened—her own ferocity surfaced.

After all, she was still a young demon, barely cultivated; though naturally kind, her beast nature remained.

She had already chosen to retreat—why did the Snake Mother still relentlessly pursue?

She never wanted to kill her own kind!

Xiao Qing was even worse—her eyes blazed with fury, sword in hand, she unleashed the Pure Yang Sword Art.

"You pathetic little path—how dare you show off your tricks before the master?!"

In an instant, pure Yang energy filled the sky, and a presence that seemed to pack heaven and earth spread outward, directly震慑 the snake demon watching from the woods into collapsing to the ground, trembling all over.

The Pure Yang Sword appeared in this world for the first time; its sword-light cut through the dark clouds, sunlight poured down once more, and for a moment the sky blazed bright.

Puh!

High in the sky, a giant snake was severed in two, falling down from the middle.

Xiao Bai: "The Snake Mother is dead?!"

Xiao Qing: "Sister, the Snake Mother is dead — we don't have to keep running, do we?"