Chapter 88: The Dark Sorcerer and the Giant Serpent, Both Badly Wounded

The monster clans had already been mentioned earlier: the ancient demons prized taking human form for cultivation, and aside from the initial stage of gathering qi being different, everything else was the same as for the human race.

Fierce beasts, however, were entirely different. They cultivated the body as their primary path and mana as a secondary one. Their first four realms were:

Awakening Spirit

Transforming into a Beast

Returning to Ancestry

Communion with the Divine

Fierce beasts at the Communion with the Divine realm had their bloodline revert to its ancestral source, awakening innate abilities granted by that bloodline. Depending on their level, these fell into three categories: arts, secret techniques, and divine powers.

What this enormous serpent had awakened, astonishingly, was a rare serpent-demon divine power: Azure Venom Barrier.

Its stinking maw opened wide, and green poison mist, like a parasitic leech, surged forward unstoppable, turning anything it touched into a pool of pus at once.

There was not even time to wash it away with mana. The empty black robes strewn across the ground told the full terror of that poison.

The three peak Dao-body survivors owed their lives to Commander Hai’s unique defensive secret art; otherwise, they would have perished on the spot.

Cao Chengyu observed in secret for a while and soon understood how that fellow was defending himself.

This Commander Hai must have cultivated some kind of water-aligned Dao body, and his water-control art had reached a wondrous level.

Whenever the giant serpent spat out poison mist, he would manipulate a water shield to absorb it all, producing those continuous strikes of green water pillars.

Behind him there was already nearly five cubic meters of green poisonous water.

With such ample ammunition, if things continued this way, the giant serpent would be doomed before long.

Yet that commander was an early Violet Mansion cultivator, while Cao Chengyu was only at the early Dao-body realm. Though he was but one step away from the middle stage, this was a full realm of difference across the divide. He was not sure he could defeat him.

To be safe, he decided to watch a little longer.

But in the very next moment, the situation reversed in an instant. Divine powers were something Cao Chengyu had never even touched before; in essence, they were an overwhelmingly powerful force that surpassed even top-grade arts!

For the fierce serpent to unleash one at the Communion with the Divine realm, it could only be thanks to the blessing of its bloodline—or perhaps because its former master, the Venerable Serpent Lord, had been no ordinary figure.

Since divine powers were so formidable, how could mere water-control techniques hope to solve the problem?

Hidden in the shadows, Cao Chengyu could see clearly.

That mass of poisonous water, which had been treated as reserve “ammunition,” began to stretch and spread little by little, silently and invisibly encircling the four of them.

In an instant it lunged, swallowing them whole and sealing them within.

The three peak Dao-body cultivators dissolved at a speed visible to the naked eye, like chunks of ice doused with boiling water. This time, not even their clothes were left behind.

Only the Violet Mansion commander let out a furious cry, and a purple upper crescent moon rose behind him. A hazy violet light covered his body, resisting the poison’s erosion.

Cao Chengyu clicked his tongue in amazement. The ability to manifest such an omen was exclusive to Violet Mansion cultivators.

It was the outer expression of the Violet Mansion forged within the sea of consciousness. This man’s purple upper crescent moon omen was anything but simple. He had obviously cultivated using an advanced method, and to have formed a Violet Mansion by around the age of a hundred was enough to call him a genius.

This ambush had caused grievous losses on his side, leaving only a lone seedling. Yet the giant serpent was not faring well either.

By rank, divine powers were only something that Nascent Soul grand cultivators were qualified to begin studying.

The serpent had relied on its bloodline talent to force it across realms, and the loss of power was enormous.

Its might had also diminished.

The poison mist earlier had obviously been only a crude initial application; now the two sides had fallen into a stalemate.

Cao Chengyu’s sly gaze swept the great hall several times before he quickly found his target.

At the deepest part of the hall stood a statue of the Venerable Serpent Lord, mostly black in color and quite handsome in appearance. From its ears hung two serpent-shaped ornaments, and between its feet sat a gilded throne carved in the form of a snake.

The entire statue was over a hundred meters tall. Floating at its chest were five white light spheres, and through the glow one could faintly make out the items within.

This arrangement clearly preserved a legacy!

This was the inheritance of a Nascent Soul Venerable. Even the Five Elements Sect had no grand cultivator of the Nascent Soul realm, and Cao Chengyu’s eyes burned hot.

Wait a little longer.

Wait until the serpent and the Violet Mansion cultivator clashed a few more times.

The purple upper crescent moon held against the poison for quite some time, but in the end the human side was weaker by a shade and could no longer endure.

Commander Hai was nearly tearing his eyes out. How could he be willing to perish here so ignobly?

He had gone to great lengths to trade for information about the Venerable Serpent Lord from within the Shadow Tower, and even hired nearby Shadow Tower members as part of the mission. All of it was for the sake of laying down a Nascent Soul foundation for his future advancement to Gold Core!

He was unwilling to accept this. Even if they were to die together, he would make this serpent pay the price.

Night Demon Shadow! Giant Form!

With a thunderous roar, the shadow beneath him suddenly swelled, becoming almost tangible. Strand by strand, like muscle fibers, it rapidly spread over his human shape.

In the blink of an eye, a five-meter-tall black giant stood in his place.

The upper crescent moon behind him shifted to the front and directly imprinted itself upon his chest.

Commander Hai bellowed, and a pair of purple crescent shadow wings unfurled from his back. His eyes turned blood-red, and a single horn rose from his head.

His mouth split into a grin, and just like the serpent’s gaping maw, his fangs were thicker than fingers. Saliva dripped down; his long tongue writhed.

“Yikes... this is turning into demonic transformation, isn’t it? Could this guy be a demon cultivator?”

Cao Chengyu silently complained to himself.

With his body changed so drastically, Commander Hai now completely ignored the poison’s assault, letting it corrode his black skin. The pain only stirred his ferocity further.

A shadow flashed, almost like teleportation, and he suddenly appeared beneath the giant serpent’s head.

His massive fist clenched.

One hand, Mountain-Crushing Dragon Ascension!

A deafening boom!

The giant serpent, which was over ten meters long, was left at the mercy of Commander Hai in his shadow-demon state, battered like a worm.

His physical strength was utterly crushed, yet the erosion of the Azure Venom Barrier would not be enough to take his life in the short term.

This caused the situation to reverse completely.

The empty great hall thundered nonstop, and tiny cracks began to split the floor.

Hunter and prey traded places again and again, and Cao Chengyu watched with thrilling intensity. Such exaggerated force—fortunately, he had not rushed out earlier.

In Commander Hai’s current state, Cao Chengyu absolutely could not beat him.

Amid the thunderous blows, the serpent’s hissing gradually weakened. Its scales were in tatters, and blood flowed across the floor.

One section of its tail had simply been torn off, a miserable sight indeed.

With the final ascending dragon strike, the fierce serpent’s head jolted once, and that pitch-black arm actually burst through the top of its skull.

With an injury that penetrated the head so completely, not even immortals could save it now.

As the battle in the hall came to an end, Cao Chengyu grew even more cautious, waiting for Commander Hai to return to his original form. A secret art of this sort of explosive power would certainly have severe side effects.

With no one nearby, this was not something he would dare to use unless it was the last possible moment.

As he expected, in less than half a minute, the black giant deflated rapidly like a punctured balloon.

The backlash of the secret art followed close behind.

Its right arm and right leg withered at once, all flesh and blood sucked dry by the recoil, shriveled and gaunt like a corpse.

Its aura also fell sharply, giving the distinct impression that its realm itself was on the verge of collapse.