Chapter 213: Turning Hostile

On the riverbank.

Da She Yi and Mu Cang exchanged greetings, you saying a sentence, me saying a sentence, me saying a sentence, you saying a sentence.

Mu Cang was furious and flustered, and Da She Yi also became angry out of embarrassment.

Both sides were busy shirking responsibility.

After all, the black snake youths that Da She Yi had painstakingly trained lost four of them this time.

And the Bodhi Clan's elite army likewise lost over ten thousand.

Amid the splashing saliva of the two arguing, scattered, in groups of three or five, Bodhi Clan soldiers followed the secret markings and came over.

When they charged into the Great Snake Cave, these Bodhi Clan elites were each clad in bright armor, spirited and high-handed, arrogant beyond compare.

Now, the soldiers rushing back were each discarding helmets and armor, throwing away their weapons; many had tattered clothes, bodies covered in scale wounds, and some were injured by various spells, their hair burnt clean off.

At first glance, they looked like a bunch of expelled beggars, even worse off than beggars.

Da She Yi and Mu Cang fell silent, staring blankly at the soldiers returning one after another.

After about half an hour, only over two thousand soldiers found this riverbank, each sitting dazedly with empty eyes, unable to stand even when the Bodhi Clan commanders shouted at them.

Speaking of which, those Bodhi Clan commanders... were actually even worse.

They fled much faster than these ordinary soldiers, having arrived here a while ago, while the Bodhi Clan soldiers slowly trickled in.

The commanders who fled did so at breakneck speed, and their standing in their own soldiers' hearts has plummeted.

"Your fault." Mu Cang suddenly spoke, his tone calm, thousands of golden Bodhi-leaf-shaped sword lights whirling rapidly around him: "Because of your inaction, our clan has suffered such heavy losses."

"You're the one who commanded the troops." Da She Yi shouted rudely: "It's your incompetence that caused the loss of men and generals, leaving us like this."

Da She Yi, irritated, flicked his tail, and instantly a large section of the distant rock wall collapsed with a huge roar.

Behind that rock wall lay an underground river; after the wall collapsed, a torrent dozens of zhang thick surged out from above, instantly filling the sky with boiling white mist.

"I remember that before setting out, you boasted that twenty thousand elites could sweep the Black Snake Domain and even conquer at least ten neighboring great domains in one go."

Da She Yi spat out a long serpentine tongue, continuously puffing out wisps of heavy earthen qi from his huge mouth.

He snarled with a laugh: "I remember clearly that you were the ones who said that…… I can't command even a single soldier of yours, and the battle turned out like this—of course it's your fault, isn't it?"

His armor shattered, several deep bone-reaching wounds marred his chest, his neck sliced by Lao Dao Feng's blood-red curved blade, damaging his trachea and making breathing difficult, Bodhi Clan's commander-in-chief Mu Dan stepped forward slowly.

In the clash at the Great Snake Cave, Mu Dan and Lao Dao Feng and others had a brief exchange of blows.

Lao Dao Feng inherited Osiris's legacy, greatly boosting his combat power; though Mu Dan's actual cultivation far surpassed Lao Dao Feng, he suffered successive severe injuries under Lao Dao Feng's strange methods.

Especially, the deathly power from Osiris on Lao Dao Feng's curved blade invaded his body; although Mu Dan had taken healing medicine, his wounds showed little improvement.

Two Bodhi Clan commanders supported Mu Dan, and with their help he slowly made his way to Da She Yi.

"That's right; I told the Clan Leader and the Elders that our clan's twenty thousand elites could sweep the Black Snake Domain and even conquer ten surrounding great domains with ease."

Mu Dan sighed.

His windpipe injured by the blade, his voice was hoarse and a bit leaky, sounding quite unpleasant.

"But… Da She Yi, it's your inaction, your lack of cooperation, your fleeing the battlefield that completely disrupted our battle plan." Mu Dan narrowed his eyes, coldly regarding Da She Yi: "You, you ruined our operation."

"Therefore, the responsibility for this defeat surely lies with you." Mu Dan said urgently: "Even if you are Miss Tu's husband, you cannot escape blame."

"You want me to take the blame?" Da She Yi's tone changed.

"What do you think, will the Clan Leader and Elders believe whom?" Mu Dan said coldly: "You, even if you are Miss Tu's husband, are merely an outsider… whereas we, we are the direct-line members of the Bodhi Clan."

In the distance, on the rock wall, in the crevices, the Gluttonbird's body twitched slightly, greedily eyeing Da She Yi's massive form, its gaze occasionally sweeping over those black snake youths.

He muttered under his breath: "What nonsense? Fight! Fight! Fight…… A bunch of useless wastes, why are you chattering here? What result could you possibly reach by talking?"

"Lost is lost, with so many dead—do you really think you can escape the clan's punishment? You bunch of idiots… why waste breath? Fight, fight, fight!" The Gluttonbird's body trembled slightly as it urgently hissed low.

"Maybe both sides are just buying time?" Wa Yao, far more attentive than the Gluttonbird, gazed into the distance and suddenly noticed the Bodhi Clan commanders busily taking pills, while Da She Yi… his body also had something odd.

Da She Yi's massive body occupied the entire river channel.

From head to tail he stretched tens of li; his lower half followed the river's bend, so Mu Dan, Mu Cang and others couldn't see what his lower half was doing, but Wa Yao could see it clearly.

Da She Yi's thick, long tail had driven deep into a rock wall, at least five or six li into it.

Thick, heavy streams of earthen qi continually welled up from the rock wall, flowing along Da She Yi's tail into his body. His black scale armor faintly glimmered, especially at the edges of the scales, where a faint heavy earthen yellow appeared.

He was drawing upon the earth's power.

What's more frightening, halfway along his tail a half-human figure emerged from beneath the scales.

Looking closely, that was Da She Yi's humanoid form.

That half‑body figure stood about ten or so meters tall, its skin smooth and faintly glowing yellow. As the earth's power was continually drawn by the serpent's body, the figure's right shoulder twitched rapidly, and where there had been nothing, a half‑arm had grown.

The Bodhi Clan's Life Pond Realm experts were busy taking pills, healing their wounds while restoring their mana.

Da She Yi further used a secret technique, employing his serpentine body to confuse Mu Dan, Mu Cang and the others, while simultaneously drawing earthly power to regenerate his arm that had been blown apart.

"All sharp people," the Gluttonbird chuckled, following Wa Yao's gaze and noticing the anomaly on Da She Yi's tail.

Time trickled by.

Da She Yi's arm had grown to near the wrist.

Those Bodhi Clan commanders, their breaths also steadied; they breathed deeply, a vortex of heaven‑earth primordial energy forming above their heads, strands like flowing water continually sucked into the vortex and poured into their bodies.

Many of them had shattered armor; they discarded the weakened gear, took out spare brand‑new battle armor, and donned it neatly.

Breathing deeply, nearly a hundred Life Pond Realm commanders had, intentionally or not, surrounded dozens of black snake youths in their midst.

The black snake youths weren't stupid either; they likewise formed a circular formation, and as they breathed slowly, their forms gradually shifted from human semblance to fully black‑scaled serpent‑human shapes.

Standing over five meters tall, their bodies were encased in heavy black scales.

Those black snake youths' grim‑green eyes locked onto the Bodhi Clan commanders, the aura between them nearly solidifying into substance.

"Then let's go plead our case before the Clan Leader and Elders." Da She Yi suddenly bellowed: "I really don't believe the Clan Leader and Elders will buy your nonsense…… I, Da She Yi, actually get to decide the life or death of twenty thousand people?"

"Even if there are Elders on good terms with you who would cover for you, I still trust the Clan Leader, and moreover…"

Da She Yi's roar was cut off by Mu Dan's rebuke: "What about the Clan Leader? You are the Clan Leader's son‑in‑law…… you've caused our clan to lose men and generals—will the Clan Leader still shield you? Once we take you down…"

A long, bright, whistle-like roar suddenly came from inside Dashe Yi's belly; he spat out his forked tongue, which stabbed fiercely toward Mutan's chest like a long spear.

The two generals beside Mutan lifted him up in one motion, and with a flash they retreated several li with his body.

Dashe Yi's forked tongue almost grazed Mutan's face as it swept past; a strong fishy stench spread in all directions, and the saliva and foam from Dashe Yi's tongue sprayed Mutan and the two generals all over.

The golden Bodhi-leaf-shaped sword light beside Mucang suddenly shot up into the sky; countless sword lights spun rapidly, forming a golden vortex that covered Dashe Yi's head.

The sword light tore at Dashe Yi's head scales, sending small scale fragments flying off continuously.

Dashe Yi suddenly opened his mouth; a point of yellow light flickered inside, and the ground beneath Mucang's feet split open, revealing a chasm seven or eight feet wide, two or three zhang long, and bottomless.

Yellow vapor gushed from the fissure, a terrifying suction surged out, grabbing Mucang's body and forcibly dragging him downward.

Mucang let out a roar; his two legs sank into the ground, he slammed his hands down on the left and right ground, wind and thunder rolled beneath his feet, lifting his body up into the sky.

"My Giant Snake Clan..." Dashe Yi bellowed loudly.

The split fissure suddenly sealed inward, and then came Mucang's anguished scream; the lower part of his body was tightly clamped by the closing earth. Terrifying pressure came from all sides, crushing his lower body into a pulp.

Dashe Yi's body rapidly shrank, from tens of li in length down to about twenty meters.

His body became smaller, but more agile.

Dashe Yi twisted his body, kicking up a gale as he lunged at the trapped Mucang.

"Because of your incompetence, the Bodhi Clan army has been wiped out... If I report back like this, there should be no problem, right?" Dashe Yi opened his huge mouth and lunged to bite Mucang's head, while roaring hoarsely: "The Bodhi Clan doesn't lack trash like you, but they lack a genius like me!"

Mucang jerked his head up; his lower half had been ground into paste, the intense pain almost made him faint.

Dashe Yi opened his huge mouth and lunged at him; Mucang suddenly opened his mouth, spewing a blue light from which a fist-sized pearl wrapped in thunderlight shot out, precisely landing inside Dashe Yi's mouth.

Dashe Yi froze; the next instant, a thunderclap rang out, and countless bolts of electricity shot from the gaps between his teeth.

Dashe Yi's body violently rolled and twitched; his twenty-meter-long frame flickered with blinding electricity everywhere, his body jumping up and down as tiny black scales stood up like blades, dragging countless chaotic marks across the ground.

"Hey, how does the Azure Thunder Spirit Pearl taste?" Mucang laughed loudly: "Do you know why I'm called Mucang?"

The Azure Thunder Spirit Pearl clung tightly to Dashe Yi's mouth; countless electric currents continually surged into his body, Dashe Yi convulsed from the shocks, and at this point it was difficult for him to revert to his giant snake form.

Several Bodhi Clan generals flew forward, holding various metal stakes and chains, clearly a set of wondrous treasures designed specifically to imprison enemies.

The metal stakes slammed into the ground, digging deep into the rocky earth.

Lengths of metal chains whistled as they formed a great net, layer upon layer descending to cover Dashe Yi from above.

Those black-snake youths howled, spitting out their forked tongues, and brutally charged at the Bodhi Clan generals surrounding them.

Mutan gave a cold snort, flipped his right hand, and a green wooden token appeared in his palm.

He shook the token and said coldly: "You dare defy the Clan Chief's order?"

His body crackling with electricity, Dashe Yi, who had been beaten to the point of ecstasy, suddenly stiffened on the ground; he widened his eyes in disbelief, looking at the black-snake youths he had nurtured from childhood, infusing them with his essence and transforming their bloodlines through painstaking effort.

These youths unexpectedly transformed into human form one after another, then knelt reverently before that wooden token.

"You..." Dashe Yi opened his mouth and spat a mouthful of old blood mixed with black smoke dozens of zhang away: "Traitors!"

A chain locked tightly around Dashe Yi's neck; the chain jerked tight, and his forked tongue shot out unusually long.

"Traitors? They are my Bodhi Clan's people, my Bodhi Clan's loyal subjects—how could they be traitors?" Mutan gave a detached cold smile, shaking his head mockingly at Dashe Yi: "I've said it before—you're an outsider."

"If you can help us conquer the Black Snake Domain, you will naturally be useful."

"But... since we have lost this battle, the responsibility must be yours."

Mutan let out a light sigh, shook his head, and muttered softly: "But I never expected our clan's warriors to be so useless..."

Mucang and the Bodhi Clan generals exchanged a glance, hung their heads, and remained silent.

"Each generation is worse than the last!" Mutan let out a long, sorrowful sigh.