Chapter 349: Still Claiming 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 fervent prayers, left dark, indelible marks on the land.

Toxins refined from legend dripped from its surface, spreading and evaporating; 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 act this stubborn?”

Bai Yi, draped in a poison-repelling incantation, panted heavily, gripping one tail with both hands, yet her lower half was being dragged into the earth like a plow.

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

“You’d better think of this as a spirit ghost—though most of its power comes from the false god, its core is the obsession of that previous corpse, or perhaps the spirit pact forged by whoever sealed this fragment of the false god. Either way, it’s now acting like a spirit ghost fulfilling its original form’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 think of a solution? Even just cast ‘Earth to Steel’ under my feet! This muddy shore won’t even let me stand!” Bai Yi was nailed into the ground like a spike, yet still dragged forward by the Eight-Headed Serpent’s terrifying strength; to avoid collapsing flat, she adopted a sliding posture, but could not resist the sheer force of its massive body.

Luckily, the Eight-Headed Serpent had no combat intent—if it had merely flicked one tail, it would have driven Bai Yi straight into the earth.

“Even if you cast it, it won’t help—too big a size difference. At best, you’d just slide on the surface instead of sinking in. By the way, why not revert to your true form? Look at Old Liu—he’s pulling way harder 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, her true form was no bigger than a palm. If this thing were a true great demon, she might have tried slipping inside to pull off something clever—but this was just a water blob; she truly had no good options…

“Wait!”

Suddenly, Bai Yi realized something and cried out:

“If it’s a spirit ghost, what about the Spirit-Subduing Incantation? Can we use it? Force a spirit pact!”

“You think of it now? We thought of it already. Spirit 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 frying the ghost!”

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

In no more than half an hour, they could summon a true deity from the Thunder or Fire Bureau—then no demon or ghost would be a threat.

But the problem was, in half an hour, this thing would be inside the city. Even just the poison leakage alone would take ages to clean up, and casting poison-repelling spells on civilians was impossible (not enough magical energy), and evacuation? The port 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 stupid 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 of the Eight-Headed Serpent’s head and tail—the thick, unnatural part of its body. Wild lightning danced wildly across its form; its body, woven from seawater, evil spirits, and corrupted prayers, evaporated and boiled under the lightning, releasing toxic steam as dark red mist, only to be instantly shattered again by the lightning.

A fishy stench spread with the thunder; hydrogen and oxygen from electrolysis reignited by sparks caused secondary explosions.

Fire and lightning instantly engulfed the serpent’s midsection; the blinding glare and sudden rise in temperature scattered 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 drawing near—something she hadn’t experienced 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; she quickly smoothed it down, avoiding humiliation.

“Aaang!”

A roar, part dragon’s cry, part surging tide, erupted from the eight serpent heads; sixteen eyes, like molten copper, fixed on the figure descending from the sky.

“No wonder the current walking disciple of Shenxiao Sect—this golden-red hue differs from ordinary Five Elements thunder arts. It’s not the ‘Jade Pivot Scripture of the Universal Thunder Lord of the Nine Heavens,’ is it? Could it be the legendary ‘Supreme Shenxiao Jade Pivot Severing and Judging Five Thunder Art’? The golden-red color matches fire and earth—earth thunder to avert disaster, divine thunder to slay demons. Truly an excellent art!”

The owner of Moyu Pavilion gazed in reverence; beside him, Bai Yi slapped him hard—

“What are you blabbering about? Don’t you see it’s stopped? Get the altar set up now!”

“Ah… oh!” At Bai Yi’s reminder, the owner of Moyu Pavilion snapped to attention, immediately pulling materials from his Bag of Holding and beginning to set up the altar. The problem with folk-world cultivators was that they needed rituals to unleash their spells’ full power.

Earlier, the goal had been interception—no time to prepare. 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 altars, scattered like paper offerings during the Ghost Festival, spread out beside the towering eight-headed serpent…

(End of Chapter)