Chapter 205

In the poisonous mist, the elite of the Bodhi clan were wailing.

Among the vine thickets, all the beings of the Giant Serpent Cavern were wailing.

In the distance, Taotie Ya broke through the thick Xuanbing ice, exposing a small half of the head of the black snake that had been sealed in frost.

He let out a joyous whistle and lunged forward, clasping the black snake's head with both hands and drawing a deep breath. The black snake's body convulsed violently, and a shrill wail erupted from within it, like a steam whistle blaring, shaking the entire Giant Serpent Cavern.

Thick streams of blood mist sprayed from the gaps in the black snake's scales, continuously sucked into Taotie Ya's body.

Behind Taotie Ya, amidst the bloody radiance, that ferocious beast gradually solidified somewhat, letting out a low growl that faintly suppressed the black snake's mournful howl.

Taotie Ya's body trembled, and a phantom resembling the black snake flashed across his face.

His aura surged rapidly; on his Xuanbing Ice Armor, cold flames shot up several dozen meters high, wave after wave of violent mana fluctuations wildly cascading outward, forcing several Bodhi clan experts who tried to rush forward to rescue to keep retreating.

Four Life Pond realm experts of the Taotie clan gritted their teeth and fixed their gaze on the black snake trapped in Xuanbing ice.

They sighed.

They knew that before their prince satisfied the Taotie greed in his bloodline, they could not gain any benefit from this black snake.

So they could only vent their anger on these few Life Pond realm experts of the Bodhi clan.

With a strange smile, the four Life Pond realm experts of the Taotie clan waved their hands, condensing freezing ice into exquisite, gleaming weapons of divine quality in their grips; they stepped on flowing light, trailing afterimages as they surged forward.

Having received the so-called heavenly artifact's blessing, the four Life Pond realm experts of the Taotie clan saw their strength skyrocket; their aura faintly touched the threshold above Life Pond realm, and with a single move they sent several Bodhi clan experts spitting blood and flying backward.

Retreating was useless.

The four Taotie clan experts flickered, almost teleporting, appearing and disappearing mysteriously in midair; they continually gave eerie laughs, and with the ice-forged weapons in their hands they left deep, bone-reaching wounds on their opponents.

Piercing Cold Qi froze the wounds, leaving no trace of blood nearby. The azure Cold Qi continually invaded their bodies along the meridians; these Taotie clan experts, already wounded by the Cold Qi, grew slower and slower in their movements.

They gazed in despair at the corpse frozen by the Cold Qi on the ground.

It was their companion, a companion of equal cultivation.

Right before their eyes, their companion had his Life Pond pierced by Taotie Ya's spear, his entire essence drained clean.

A few Bodhi clan experts felt a twinge of regret, wondering why they had gotten involved in this mission. Unable to withstand the Taotie clan experts' attacks, in desperation they exerted all their strength to cry out for help.

The black snake encased in ice writhed violently; its body had visibly withered, its scales lost their luster, becoming ashen like burnt firewood. The black snake's aura grew very faint, and the ferocity in its eyes faded away.

Its roar grew feeble, filled with despair and reluctance.

Over a hundred li away, two great black snakes were frantically writhing their bodies toward this spot, while eight or nine Bodhi clan experts roared angrily, transforming into streams of light as they rushed to reinforce.

Taotie Ya gleefully devoured the black snake's bloodline and power, murmuring in a low voice: 'Come on, come on, voluntarily delivering yourself? Good, good, couldn't be better… I can feel the power of the Blackwater Xuan Snake's bloodline, I can feel it… I'm about to obtain it!'

'This one isn't enough; bring another, then two, then three… the more, the better.'

Countless vines proliferated and swayed in the distance; countless human silhouettes twisted and snapped within the vines; the dying wails of innumerable beings shook the entire stone cavern.

Taotie Ya and all the Taotie clan warriors' eyes glowed with a ferocious red light.

They paid no heed to the surrounding carnage, focusing all their attention on these black snakes.

Taotie Ya took the lion's share; the four Life Pond realm experts would also get a large chunk of the meat, while the remaining Taotie clan warriors were content as long as they could sip some broth.

After all, this is the Blackwater Xuan Snake, a legendary primeval demon beast.

Even if they obtained only a trace of the Blackwater Xuan Snake's bloodline essence, for Taotie clan warriors it would be a tremendous boost, further greatly purifying their own Taotie bloodline, bringing limitless benefits to their future.

A large portion of the Giant Serpent Cavern was shrouded in green light.

Those eerie vines spread rapidly underground.

Under the mana stimulation of the Bodhi clan experts, the vines frenziedly consumed the nutrients in the Giant Serpent Cavern's soil, and even devoured the carcasses of the various beings they had slain as fertilizer, leaving not a trace.

The vines' coverage expanded rapidly; in the blink of an eye, a large portion of the Giant Serpent Cavern was engulfed by vines.

Nearly a million beings who failed to flee to the core of the Giant Serpent Cavern were devoured by the vines; they screamed in despair and cursed wildly.

Moreover, some low-ranking cultivators who usually banditized and were ferocious by nature attacked the vines like madmen in desperation; but their attacks had no effect on the ever-tougher vines, and they could scarcely even chop through a single vine.

After devouring enough essence and blood of beings, these vines gradually shifted from green to a blood-red hue.

The blood-red vines grew thicker and more supple; vines stretching over a thousand meters long writhed like monstrous pythons, wildly sweeping and ravaging.

The Giant Serpent Cavern became veritably a hell on earth; the air reeked of thick blood, and the countless wails of beings turned into a murky din that nearly drove people mad.

Shi Fei, Yan Hanlu, Lu Ji, Tie Dajian and the others took refuge behind a thick stone pillar.

They desperately resisted the frenzied human-wave assaults, while warily watching the distant vine thickets gradually swelling.

'Well, this is trouble,' Shi Fei patted his ample belly, shaking his head with a bitter expression: 'Old Bai, you had it easy—you're so small, a vine wrapping your neck, "crack," and you die clean and swift.'

He patted his own thick neck, much thicker than Old Bai's waist, and Shi Fei's big white face turned deathly pale.

'I'm doomed,' he said. 'If these things could kill me instantly, that would be fine, but my huge bulk can't be killed outright… they slowly suck me dry… heavens… this is worse than death by a thousand cuts.'

Yan Hanlu, Lu Ji, Tie Dajian and the others also had grim faces.

Even the faces of the Eighteen Guardian Heavenly Kings were grim to the extreme.

The territory under the Six Paths Palace's jurisdiction was indeed a poor, remote backwater; the war between the Six Paths Palace and the Changsheng Sect had already been considered brutal, but when had there ever been a conflict on such a massive scale?

A million beings were destroyed in an instant.

Hundreds of Life Pond realm cultivators were thrown into the battlefield, and they wantonly used great-power divine abilities to slaughter civilians…

Even though these 'civilians' of the Giant Serpent Cavern were hardly virtuous—each a sore‑headed, pus‑footed scoundrel—the slaughter of hundreds of thousands remained horrifically atrocious.

If such a war were to one day descend upon the Great Dragon Realm and press upon the Six Paths Palace's door…

The Eighteen Guardian Heavenly Kings simultaneously drew a deep breath; a hint of resolve flashed in their eyes, as if they had suddenly understood something, and the gold on their skin became both clearer and deeper.

'Guanzizai Bodhisattva…' the Eighteen Guardian Heavenly Kings, leading all the Six Paths Palace disciples, began to murmur the scripture transmitted by Wu Tie.

Amid the sky‑filled blood and the countless wails of departed souls, these Six Paths Palace disciples, together with Tie Dajian, unexpectedly entered some mysterious state of sudden enlightenment.

Their physical strength did not increase much, but their soul fluctuations surged rapidly, and their cultivation rose in an illogical manner.

Faint glimmers of light and shadow appeared behind many elite disciples of the Six Paths Palace, signifying that the Heavenly Lock Pagoda within them was continually being broken through, with heavenly mysteries constantly merging into their bodies.

The scriptures Wu Tie transmitted to the Six Paths Palace's lord produced a terrifying boost to the Six Paths Palace's foundation.

If the Six Paths Palace before was a mundane tiger, now its foundation has mutated into the legendary White Tiger Holy Beast, fundamentally changed.

Boom!

A muffled thunder-like huge sound came from within Tie Dajian's body.

A thumb-sized faint golden light appeared on his brow, and his whole presence felt utterly different from before.

Just a moment before, Tie Dajian felt like a formidable cultivator.

Just a moment later, Tie Jian's aura felt…… he had already risen above the mundane, already carrying a trace of non-human breath.

The resulting change was that Tie Dajian's burly, sturdy physique suddenly shriveled. His essence and blood burned away about seventy percent in that instant; for an ordinary person, this would already be lethal.

Tie Dajian felt no pain; instead, he showed a hint of a kind, tranquil smile that gave others a sense of safety.

To be honest, such a smile on his burly, hulking build is truly very out of place.

Boom!

Continuous muffled thunder erupted from within the eighteen Suppressing Palace Heavenly Kings; like Tie Dajian, their essence and blood suddenly burned away more than half.

Next came dozens of elite Six Paths Palace disciples with the deepest cultivation; they had been only at the half-step Life Pool Realm, but at this moment, drawn by the qi of Tie Dajian and the Suppressing Palace Heavenly Kings, their aura underwent a sudden, leap-like drastic change.

"Sumeru Vajra Seat!" the Great Heavenly King chanted in a low, prolonged voice.

The aura of Tie Dajian and dozens of Six Paths Palace disciples suddenly turned extraordinarily thick; they spewed strands of golden light from their pores, all the golden light quickly fused, the earth shuddered violently, as if an invisible great mountain in the void had ruthlessly crushed down.

The golden light traced above everyone's heads a mountain wholly crystalline and translucent, like a mountain forged of golden glazed tile.

The mountain was illusory, as if not of this world, yet the radiant, light-filled mountain pressed down slightly; a vast, mighty, awe-inspiring power that filled the eight directions surged like a raging tsunami, crushing all around.

Within a thirty-six-li radius, all the frantically fleeing natives of the Giant Snake Lair went limp, collapsing helplessly to the ground.

Vast swaths of vines within thirty-six li shattered with a bang, exploding into countless droplets of deadly poison that sprayed everywhere. The golden mountain spewed great clouds of golden mist; wherever the light passed, the toxins in the poisonous liquid were swept away, turning into harmless pure water.

Three black snakes charging wildly this way, over a dozen Bodhi Clan Life Pool Realm experts let out a miserable howl; the snakes spat out their tongues, gulped blood, their bones snapped like popping beans, they collapsed limp, and their scales were crushed to powder by an invisible weight.

Several more Bodhi Clan experts were even worse; ordered by Great Snake Yi to accompany the black snakes in battle, they were all just entering the Life Pool Realm. Under the crushing force of the Sumeru Vajra Seat's domineering, rigid power, their life pools shattered, their bones broke into fragments, and they were near death.

"As I thought." the eighteen Suppressing Palace Heavenly Kings sighed in unison, pressing hard on their chests with their right hands.

A point of golden light flared on their hearts, then specks of golden light boiled and surged into a blazing ball of golden flame; their bodies shone brightly, giving a feeling of extraordinary clarity and translucence.

That was a wonderful feeling imbued with the flavor of 'great wisdom'; the eighteen stout fellows skilled at slaughtering enemies into mountains of corpses and seas of blood now felt like sages, like buddhas—nothing like ordinary mortals.

"As I thought." Tie Dajian also laughed, thrusting his hand to strike his chest hard.

The three black snakes were crushed by the Sumeru Vajra Seat, their bones broken and severely injured, their five viscera and six organs almost pulverized; even their tenacious vitality forced them to emit mournful wails, the sound like blaring sirens, rumbling far away.

The Taotie Crow madly devouring the black snakes' bloodline suddenly lifted its head; the elites of the Taotie Clan also turned their heads, looking toward Tie Dajian and his group.

The howling also reached Great Snake Yi's ears.

Great Snake Yi was wailing and roaring; his right arm was blown to bits by the Exorcising Divine Thunder, he was in such pain he nearly fainted, and simultaneously a feeling of unprecedented fear welled up in his heart.

Wu Tie saw Great Snake Yi's face of pain and despair, and sensed his aura rapidly weakening.

Wu Tie's heart stirred; he opened his Glabellar Dharma Eye, stepped on a gust of wind and rose slowly, swiftly approaching Great Snake Yi; a point of lightning flickered in his Glabellar Dharma Eye, and Wu Tie shouted sternly: "Great Snake Yi, do you still want to blood‑sacrifice the Giant Snake Lair? Today I will first strip your skin, pull out your tendons, and then…"

An earth‑shaking thunderclap rang out; Wu Tie's brow emitted a bolt of Exorcising Divine Thunder that struck squarely the black snake beneath Great Snake Yi's feet.

That enormous black snake let out a miserable howl; its hundred‑meter‑thick body nearly got severed by Wu Tie's single thunderbolt.

Vast scales and flesh were shattered, leaving only a pitch‑black snake bone barely holding the body together.

Seeing Wu Tie draw nearer, Great Snake Yi let out a loud shout; a black leather strap at his waist flew up, turning into a huge black snake shadow that coiled around his whole body, protecting him at the center.

Afterward, Great Snake Yi stamped his foot on the head of the black snake beneath him and roared: "Go!"

The black snake staggered away with its grievous wounds, leaving with neat precision.

In the distance, the twenty‑plus intact black snakes likewise turned and left without a sound, dragging the Bodhi Clan people along behind them.