Chapter 324: Still Saying You

A colossal creature, dozens of meters tall and over a hundred meters long, with eight heads and eight tails, slithered along the shore; its body, formed from seawater mixed with votive energy, left dark, heavy marks on the land.

Toxins refined from legend dripped from its surface and spread, rising into the air; any ordinary person who merely touched a drop would instantly fall silent.

"What the hell is this thing? Why doesn't it ever fight back? Do normal god-beasts have this kind of stubbornness?"

Bai Yi, draped in a poison-repelling incantation, gasped for breath, gripping one tail with both hands, yet like a plow, half her body had been dragged into the ground.

Seeing her nearly buried, the exhausted owner of Moyu Pavilion simply stepped closer and said:

"You'd better think of this thing as a spirit ghost—though most of its power comes from a false god, its core is the obsession of that previous corpse, or perhaps the spiritual pact forged by whoever sealed this fragment of the false god. Either way, it's now acting like a spirit ghost fulfilling its original body's obsession: carrying out orders. Unless you truly threaten its existence, you can't stop it!"

"If you've got time to spout theories like that, why not come up with a solution? Even just casting 'Earth to Steel' would help—this muddy shore won't even let you stand!" Bai Yi was nailed into the ground like a spike, yet still dragged by the Eight-Headed Serpent's terrifying strength; to avoid collapsing flat, she adopted a water-skimming posture, but could not resist the force generated by its massive size.

Luckily, the Eight-Headed Serpent had no combat intent; otherwise, a single tail swipe would have driven Bai Yi straight into the earth.

"Even if you cast it, it won't help—the size difference is too great. All it'd do is turn your sinking into sliding on the surface. By the way, why not revert to your true form? Look at Old Liu—he's putting out way more effort than you." The owner of Moyu Pavilion glanced over to the far end of another serpent tail, where a water buffalo nearly ten meters tall at the shoulder clung tightly to the tail; though also being dragged, it at least seemed to be exerting real force.

"I'm not that giant dumb ox—reverting to my true form would only make me look even smaller!" Not only was her human form petite, but her true form was no bigger than a palm. If this thing were a true great demon, she might try slipping inside to pull off something clever—but this thing was just a water blob; she truly had no good plan…

"Wait!"

Suddenly, Bai Yi realized and cried out:

"If it's a spirit ghost, what about the Spirit-Subduing Incantation? Can we use it? Force a spiritual pact!"

"You thought of it? We thought of it long ago. Spiritual pacts require first subduing the false god before signing—over a dozen people already tried the fourth ghost-capturing technique, and it did nothing! If we had more oil, I'd bet they'd already be considering deep-frying the ghost!"

The owner of Moyu Pavilion assessed his remaining magical energy and sighed helplessly. To kill this great demon wasn't actually difficult—if his guess was right, the high-level cultivators still inside the city had already begun preparing rituals and setting up ritual altars.

In at most half an hour, they could summon a true deity from the Thunder or Fire Bureau; then no demon or specter would be a threat.

But the problem was, in half an hour, this thing would already be inside the city. Even just cleaning up its toxic leakage could take forever, and casting poison-repelling spells on civilians was impossible (not enough magical energy), and evacuation? The port city had a million people—how could you possibly evacuate them all?

As he pondered what other suitable spells might be useful, Bai Yi suddenly released her grip and leapt out of the trench she'd plowed.

Without waiting for the owner of Moyu Pavilion to ask, she grabbed his collar and shot off.

Not just him—nearly all the great demons present simultaneously halted their actions, snatched up nearby human cultivators who hadn't reacted yet, and fled.

Those human cultivators farther away reacted half a beat late, but seeing everyone run, anyone not an idiot followed suit.

Only after they'd put distance between themselves and the Eight-Headed Serpent did the intense sense of danger arrive.

"This…"

Before he could finish the word, golden-red lightning exploded into a thunderbolt stretching from heaven to earth, slamming into the junction between the Eight-Headed Serpent's head and tail—the thick, unnatural part of its body. Wild lightning leapt wildly across its form; the body built from seawater, evil spirits, and corrupted vows evaporated and boiled under the Lei Guang, toxic vapor turning into dark red mist that dispersed, only to be instantly shattered again by the lightning.

A fishy stench spread with the thunder; electrolyzed hydrogen mixed with oxygen reignited by sparks, causing a secondary explosion.

Fire and lightning instantly engulfed the middle section of the Eight-Headed Serpent's body; the blinding glare and sudden temperature spike blew away the ozone smell.

"So… so powerful a thunder art!"

The owner of Moyu Pavilion stared in disbelief at the terrifying thunder art; beside him, Bai Yi kept rubbing her body, trying to flatten her bristling hairs.

In that instant, she had felt death approaching more acutely than ever before—the sensation she hadn't felt since her transformation.

Compared to humans, demonic races, due to their early reliance on spiritual proxies, could free up more mental threads after transformation (Note ①), meaning they possessed far keener intuition than human cultivators.

Only when her taut skin gradually relaxed did she notice her coiled long hair had fully stood on end; fortunately, many around her looked the same, so she quickly smoothed it down, avoiding humiliation.

"Aaang!"

A roar, part dragon's cry, part surging sea, erupted from the eight serpent heads; sixteen eyes, like molten copper, turned simultaneously toward the figure descending from the sky.

"No wonder the current Shenxiao Sect's wandering cultivator—this golden-red hue differs greatly from ordinary Five-Element thunder arts. It's not the 'Jiutian Yingyuan Leisheng Puhua Tianzun Yushu Baojing,' is it? Could it be the legendary 'Gao Shang Shenxiao Yushu Zhan Kan Wu Lei Dafa'? The golden-red color matches fire and earth—earth thunder to avert calamity, divine thunder to slay demons. Truly an excellent art!"

The owner of Moyu Pavilion wore a look of reverence; beside him, Bai Yi suddenly slapped him hard—

"What are you blabbering about now? Don't you see it's stopped? Get the altar set up right now!"

"Ah… oh!" At Bai Yi's reminder, the owner of Moyu Pavilion snapped to attention, immediately pulling materials from his Hutan Bag and beginning to arrange the ritual altar. The problem with Folklore World cultivators was that they needed rituals to maximize spell potency.

Earlier, the goal was interception, so no setup was possible; now that the great serpent had halted, everyone pulled out their best techniques. By the time Feng Xue landed, he saw dozens of small and large offering tables and ritual altars, scattered like paper offerings during the Ghost Festival, spread out beside the towering eight-headed serpent…

(End of Chapter)