Chapter 201

Great Snake Yi is so arrogant, so recklessly proud.

Inside the Great Snake Cave, countless people waited silently, wave after wave of soul fluctuations spreading rapidly in the void, while leaders like Old Knife Wind of the major factions were hastily discussing.

Taotie Bird did not move.

Wu Tie also did not move.

Both narrowed their eyes, sizing each other up with equally dangerous glances, yet neither made a move.

Great Snake Yi's origins are mysterious, and he has brought such a powerful elite force, constantly calling for a blood sacrifice—clearly no good intention. Against such a formidable foe, only if Wu Tie and the Taotie Bird had lost their minds would they clash.

A wisp of shadow darted over; from within the shadow, Old Bai, who had deliberately smeared his fur mottled, emerged.

Hiding behind a large rock, Old Bai furtively whistled at Wu Tie.

Wu Tie pointed to Sun Zuo on the ground and made a gesture.

Old Bai hurried over, grabbed Sun Zuo in one swoop, then turned into a shadow and swiftly flowed into the distant darkness.

Wu Tie glanced at where Sun Zuo had been lying, then at those he had badly wounded, the hunt team members loyal to Sun Zuo, and he stomped his foot hard.

The invisible force field expanded with a 'whoosh'; originally formless and traceless, it now brimmed with tranquil electric energy. As the force field rapidly expanded, fine, visible five-colored electric arcs swayed in the void around Wu Tie.

This is why Wu Tie seldom uses his invisible force field nowadays.

After receiving the blessing of the Nuwa clan's ancestral spirits, Wu Tie condensed his glabellar dharma eye, awakening the God-Slaying Divine Thunder ability; in the force field condensed by his innate ability 'Commanding Heaven and Earth,' a mighty surge of thunderous power inexplicably appeared.

Once the invisible force field is released, its momentum is immensely grand, impossible to conceal from anyone.

Perhaps the current invisible force field would be more aptly called the 'God‑Slaying Thunder Domain.'

The five‑colored lightning‑flashing force field enveloped a radius of several hundred meters; the Taotie Bird was shaken by the dignified, immense thunderous power within the domain, its body trembling and leaving behind glittering traces of Cold Qi that drifted backward over a kilometer.

With a series of 'boom‑boom' sounds, dozens of thumb‑thick lightning bolts fell from the void, striking Sun Zuo's subordinates hard and blowing them straight into wisps of green smoke.

The chief culprit had already been captured alive; these lackeys… Wu Tie no longer had the interest to torment them.

His glabellar dharma eye opened slightly, dangerous five‑colored lightning flickering faintly; the surrounding thunder domain suddenly collapsed back toward the eye. Wu Tie reached out, pointed at the Taotie Bird, then fiercely pointed at Nuwa, and turned and walked away.

Along the way, the cultivators of the Golden Dead Spirits fled in all directions.

Having heard that the Gold‑Silver‑Copper Three Ghosts had been slain, they were terrified out of their wits and completely lost the will to resist.

Furthermore, Great Snake Yi led a large force to attack the Great Snake Cave, and the Golden Dead Spirits' morale utterly collapsed.

The low‑level lackeys only thought about how to escape with their lives.

As for the high‑level cultivators of the Meridian Pool and Chonglou realms, they were busy looting the treasury's wealth; with these riches, whether they fled on their own or defected to a new faction as a token of allegiance, it would be excellent.

The Blood Saber's large force had already reached the gate of the Golden Dead Spirits' encampment, but Old Knife Wind and company stopped there and did not launch an attack.

Old Knife Wind had a huge blood‑colored saber slowly rotating above his head; cold light flashed in his glabella, and sharp, blade‑like mental undulations shot out rapidly in all directions.

In the distance, wave after wave of mental undulations differing in nature and manifestation kept arriving, intertwining with Old Knife Wind's mental undulations.

In the distance, Great Snake Yi was shouting loudly again.

"You really won't move? Then don't blame me for striking too hard… you ants‑like lowlifes, being able to survive at one‑tenth… this is my benevolence outside the law."

Great Snake Yi burst into loud laughter, and the twenty thousand elite warriors he brought roared loudly, like a hurricane whipping up mad clouds across the void, shaking the entire Great Snake Cave so it trembled.

Several dozen li away, Old Bai returned to the caravan carrying the gravely injured, unconscious Sun Zuo.

He found Shi Fei and Iron Great Sword, whispered a few words with them, and the caravan immediately shrank back, discarding the wagons and pack animals used for show, then carefully retreated toward the Golden Dead Spirits' encampment.

Seeing Shi Fei and company in that state, the Taotie clan's warriors also refrained from attacking.

Everyone is smart; at this point, who would still fight chaotically, only adding trouble for themselves?

The Taotie clan's warriors withdrew to the side, began rescuing the dead and aiding the wounded, administering emergency treatment to their injured comrades.

A Meridian Pool realm expert wearing Xuanbing Ice Armor swiftly flew toward the Taotie Bird; facing the threat of Great Snake Yi, the Taotie clan's army, inexplicably drawn into this turmoil, must decide how to respond, and the Taotie Bird must make the call.

Wu Tie came to Old Knife Wind's side, slammed the White Tiger Split heavily onto the ground, then grinned: "That Great Snake Yi… is he crazy?"

He raised an eyebrow, glanced askance at Old Knife Wind, and Wu Tie chimed in: "Chief, let's go… and give him a piece of our mind!"

Wu Tie shouted: "That brat is so arrogant, we can't stand it… aren't they just a few black‑skinned snakes? Our Blood Saber has tens of thousands of elite brothers and nearly a million slaves—can't we take them down?"

Old Knife Wind glared at Wu Tie, waved his hand: "Quiet."

As the word 'Quiet' left his lips, a tearing‑through‑the‑air sound came from above; dozens of streaks of light and shadow shot through the air, with a few 'swish' sounds landing beside Old Knife Wind.

Twenty‑plus forces big and small in the Great Snake Cave, the leaders of the major factions, and the senior figures who had a say all rushed here urgently.

In effect, Old Knife Wind became the leader with the greatest say in the Great Snake Cave today.

It's simple: the Great Snake Cave is a lawless place where might makes right… Old Knife Wind just flattened the top‑ranked Golden Dead Spirits among the major powers, proving his formidable strength; he is the biggest of the big.

Dozens of ill‑favored cultivators shot knife‑like glances, swiftly sweeping over Old Knife Wind and the golden armor of the Blood Saber's senior ranks.

Such splendid, ostentatious armor made the leaders of those factions' eyes bloodshot.

Were it not for the threat of Great Snake Yi, they would truly want to join forces and pull a heist.

Of course, now is not the time to think about these messy problems.

A man with a dark complexion and snow‑white hair stepped forward two paces, his voice deep: "Old Knife Wind, we're old brothers; this matter needs careful calculation… the Great Snake clan… you ought to have heard of them."

Old Knife Wind nodded: "I've heard that back then, if someone hadn't accidentally obtained a few stalks of drunk‑dragon grass, mixed a few jars of drunk‑dragon liquor, and toppled the last pure‑blood descendant of the Great Snake clan… it would have been impossible to kill him."

He gave a cold chuckle, Old Knife Wind said grimly: "Even so, that old monster, before dying, still slaughtered how many heroes and good men? Not to mention others, my own lineal master‑ancestor was devoured alive and flayed by him…"

The leaders' eyes flickered.

Did Old Knife Wind's master‑ancestor take part in the siege of that great snake? Hey, does Old Knife Wind's background still have some origin?

But this also proves that Old Knife Wind is a bona fide enemy of Great Snake Yi.

Old Knife Wind swiftly glanced at the crowd and said coldly: "The ferocity and cruelty of the Great Snake clan need no further explanation; back then, in the Black Snake Domain and even the surrounding major domains, all living beings were their fodder—one meal could devour ten or twenty thousand people without even a burp."

"Now the descendants of the Great Snake have returned… hehe." Old Knife Wind said coldly: "If you don't want to become snake dung… then join forces and fight to the death."

A man with a pale, sallow complexion whose mana fluctuation wasn't strong hesitated a bit and said: "He only wants us to sacrifice half our manpower in a blood rite… why not just kill those slaves? Why fight to the death?"

Old Knife Wind grinned, and the several faction leaders with the strongest auras also laughed.

"Listen, listen, truly a breed unfit for the table… killing those slaves and completing the blood sacrifice would be fine enough, but if we do this, wouldn't it mean we submit and yield to that brat? Afterwards, would we still be able to hold our heads high?"

Old Blade Wind said coldly: "From now on, when that brat makes us offer them blood food, do we also have to send our wives, children, and elders up there?"

He shook his head, Old Blade Wind sighed: "Sometimes, yielding cannot be yielded… Once we yield this time, we can never stand firm again."

With a wild laugh, Old Blade Wind pointed; the blood-red saber above his head turned into a streaming light that whistled down, a strike faster than one could cover their ears, cleaving the middle-aged man in two with a single blow.

A wisp of black smoke like sand dust flashed within the blood-red saber; the middle-aged man's body exploded with a 'bang' into countless black grits, scattering everywhere.

Wu Tie's pupils contracted sharply.

This black smoke, like sand dust, was clearly not Old Blade Wind's original method; it resembled the handiwork of Osiris's subordinates.

In other words, Old Blade Wind must have obtained a miraculous cultivation method from Osiris, and in just a few days he has mastered it; the killing power of this strike is several times greater than before.

The faces of the surrounding faction leaders changed abruptly, and some, frightened, stepped back a few paces, all looking at Old Blade Wind with uncertain suspicion.

Old Blade Wind gazed arrogantly at the crowd: "Believe me, Old Blade Wind… this brat, we don't need to fear him; he has his abilities, we have our divine powers. Speaking of nothing else, just my six old brothers—who would even glance at him?"

The six Life Pool Realm experts who followed Old Blade Wind into Osiris's sleeping tomb and also gained benefits smiled in unison, restrained and inward, like peerless masters, their whole bodies exuding an inscrutable aura.

The black-faced, white-haired elder, along with the leaders of several other major forces, hesitated a moment, then simultaneously clasped fists and bowed to Old Blade Wind: "Old Blade Wind, this time we follow the Golden Undead Horse's lead. We'll muster our forces and give that brat a taste of our colors."

Old Blade Wind smiled and nodded: "All right, they only have about twenty thousand; our top-ten forces in the Great Serpent Cavern can together muster a hundred thousand, which is about right. As for the other forces… you don't need to send people; just bring the gold, silver, red, blue… from your storehouses."

A black miniature pyramid the size of a palm rose slowly from above Old Blade Wind's head; he pointed at it and smiled: "Everyone, this treasure of mine holds endless mysteries; if we feed it enough rare materials, it will continuously produce divine weapons and generals to slay the enemy."

Old Blade Wind laughed brightly: "Friends, it's just a bit of external wealth—you won't be reluctant to part with it, will you?"

Apart from those already aware of this matter belonging to the blood saber, everyone widened their eyes in disbelief, staring at the tiny pyramid.

Old Blade Wind also intended to show off; he waved his hand at the small pyramid, a burst of black qi shot out, countless black sand particles slammed onto the ground, the grit rolled, and a dozen three-meter-tall jackal-headed men tumbled together from the dust, then slowly straightened up.

The aura of these jackal-headed warriors was firmly at the Chonglou Realm.

Beneath their feet hovered a crude halo five or six meters in diameter, constantly contracting and expanding; strange deathly stillness surrounded them, and any cultivator who approached felt a faint chill, their blood and magic turning sluggish.

Having personally sensed the strength and eeriness of these jackal-headed warriors, the leaders of several major forces flickered with a hint of worry on their faces.

Meanwhile, the leaders of the medium-sized forces showed delighted expressions.

They need not deploy elite warriors; merely paying some external wealth would exempt them from this turmoil—what a good thing that is!

In the distance, atop the black serpent, Great Serpent Yi had lost his patience; gazing at the crowds rapidly retreating far away, he said coldly: "These ignorant wretches all deserve to die… then let us take matters into our own hands."

Lowering his gaze to the black serpent beneath his feet, Great Serpent Yi chuckled softly: "My brothers, come, let us give these wretches a proper lesson… let them learn what obedience and resignation mean."

Thirty-two black serpents simultaneously emitted a tremendous 'hiss', swaying their massive bodies, undulating segment by segment, they slithered from the passage into the Great Serpent Cavern. Their whole bodies exuded terrifying beastly might; even dozens of li away, the weak rat-people, dwarves, and the like were pressed limp to the ground, unable to move at all.

"Slaughter them all, eat them all…" Great Serpent Yi said calmly: "Leave about a tenth of the fire mouths; keep the male-to-female ratio at one to three or one to four, so they can quickly breed and produce more fodder."

Great Serpent Yi laughed cruelly; thick black scales sprouted beneath his skin, his body rose with repeated 'cracks', gradually turning him into a serpentine being thirty-odd meters tall, his head taking the form of a black snake.

He whipped his long lash hard; it exploded, turning into thousands of black long snakes that fell to the ground, shooting after the retreating figures ahead like arrows.

Throughout the Great Serpent Cavern came terrified shouts.

Twenty thousand elite warriors marched in perfect step, following Great Serpent Yi step by step as they advanced toward the core of the Great Serpent Cavern.