Rumble!
A muffled thunderclap exploded. Several snake demons in Nine-Headed Mountain first shuddered, then raised their heads toward the lightning thorns that had split the firmament. They exchanged glances and could not help sighing.
One snake demon said with lingering fear, "These past few days, the thunder over our Nine-Headed Mountain hasn't let up at all."
"Wasn't the weather fine before? Why has the sky been so strange these past few days?"
Another snake demon picked up the thread. "Who says it hasn't? Didn't our previous leader get struck dead by a bolt of heavenly thunder while patrolling the mountain?"
"The general above said there's simply more thunder these days, so we should all be careful."
The snake demons hid beneath a tree for a while. Only after confirming that the wave of thunder had passed did they hurry onward to patrol the mountain.
Yet before they had gone even twenty li, another series of muffled thunderclaps boomed overhead. Thick blue-white bolts of lightning lashed out in all directions.
But the snake demons had no time to dodge the thunder. They could only lower their heads and press on, terrified that they would miss the time and fail to return to the camp.
Indeed, there had been far more thunder these past few days than usual.
It was clearly not thunderstorm season, and no one in the mountains was undergoing tribulation. Yet bolts of lightning came one wave after another, making all of Nine-Headed Mountain seem shrouded in thunderclouds.
Suddenly, a resplendent flash split the dark clouds. A blinding bolt of lightning tore through the gloom like a dragon's claw, bursting with dazzling radiance. In an instant, it illuminated heaven and earth, followed by a deafening roar that shook the world.
That peal of thunder was like the might of