Black Water Mysterious Snake

No sooner had Oldest Nian finished speaking than he moved to attack. At that moment, his right eye suddenly doubled in size and turned scarlet. From that enormous crimson eye, a red beam shot toward Jiang Ming.

Jiang Ming was not surprised to see that the crimson beam carried an evil aura. Though it was incredibly fast to others, in Jiang Ming's eyes, it crawled as slowly as a snail. He took a step and instantly appeared behind and to the right, his methods unfathomable as gods and ghosts. Seeing Jiang Ming standing with his hands behind his back, his Daoist robe fluttering in the wind, remaining calm and leisurely before the crimson beam, Oldest Nian was stunned, his eyes full of disbelief. Not to mention Wild Dog and the others behind him.

"What, are you out of tricks?" Seeing Oldest Nian stop attacking in shock at his ghostlike speed, Jiang Ming's words sounded like the greatest mockery to Oldest Nian and the others.

Oldest Nian quickly recovered from his shock. Crimson light surged repeatedly from his eye, firing like arrows as several attacks appeared above, below, left, and right of Jiang Ming. Jiang Ming waved his right hand, and a three-foot-thick wall of green qi instantly formed around him, blocking the attacks. The crimson beams continually struck Jiang Ming's shield with bang, bang, bang sounds, but the corrosive power they carried could do nothing to his Protective Qi Shield.

From behind the qi wall, Jiang Ming saw Oldest Nian's furious, dumbfounded expression. The corner of his mouth curled up as he smiled. "Now it's my turn... Die!"

As soon as he spoke, Jiang Ming formed a sword gesture with the fingers of his right hand. Sword qi and sword intent flowed around his fingertips. He stepped forward and instantly appeared before Oldest Nian, sending a streak of sword qi toward his heart. Seeing Jiang Ming suddenly appear before him, Oldest Nian's pupils constricted in terror. His forehead creased, brows rose, and mouth parted as he instinctively tried to retreat and evade the attack. But how could Jiang Ming's full-power sword qi compare to the one he had fired at Wild Dog earlier? The difference was like that between the speed of sound and the speed of light. You might evade sound, but light? Could you dodge it? As the saying went, when the King of Hell wanted you dead by the third watch, who dared keep you alive until the fifth? In this world of Zhu Xian, if Jiang Ming truly wanted someone dead, there might be those he could not kill—but Oldest Nian certainly was not among them.

Before Wild Dog's stunned eyes, Jiang Ming killed Oldest Nian. A bloody hole appeared over Oldest Nian's heart, blood spraying everywhere. His face was filled with disbelief. He could not believe that, before he had even restored the glory of the Blood Refinement Hall, he would die at the hands of a mere brat. Carrying that disbelief, Oldest Nian went to meet Black Heart Old Ghost, his body crashing heavily to the ground.

Jiang Ming murmured to Oldest Nian's corpse, "I told you, you should have found yourself a new boss. Otherwise... this is the result."

Seeing this, Wild Dog and the young woman dared not linger. They immediately fled, with only one thought in their minds: run, run with all their strength. Wild Dog was quite clever. The moment he saw Oldest Nian's attack fail, he had slowly shifted away and hidden in the distance. Once Oldest Nian died, he fled without looking back, terrified of following in Oldest Nian's footsteps.

The young woman, however, had been extremely confident in Oldest Nian and reacted more slowly. Only after seeing him fall did she think to run, but by then it was too late. Jiang Ming fired a streak of sword qi at the fleeing beauty. Since she was not known for her speed, the sword qi struck her at once, and her body fell into the abyss beyond the huge boulder, vanishing from Jiang Ming's sight.

Jiang Ming had no intention of killing Wild Dog. After all, after destroying the Blood Refinement Hall, there had to be a witness, a herald to spread the news. Otherwise, would he not have destroyed the Blood Refinement Hall for nothing? Doing good deeds without leaving his name was not Jiang Ming's style. To him, not only did he have to leave his name, he had to leave it in a big way. Why not carve a sentence onto the boulder: "Jiang Ming, disciple of Tian Buyi of Qingyun Da Zhu Peak, destroyed the Blood Refinement Hall here today."

No sooner thought than done—this was one of Jiang Ming's finest virtues. And so, he had already walked over to the boulder and begun carving.

According to ancient legends, in Netherworld Abyss, people were born, grew old, fell ill, and died, but only the soul was indestructible. When a lifetime ended, the soul left the body and went to be reborn, cycle after cycle, endlessly reincarnating. Yet there were resentful spirits in this world. Because of the three poisons of greed, anger, and delusion, because of fear, hatred, dread, and terror, they clung to the mortal world, looked back upon their former lives, and refused to be reborn. These were called "yin spirits."

Because of its unique environment, Netherworld Abyss had become a gathering place for yin spirits throughout the world. As time passed, their numbers grew ever greater. Even masters at the Shangqing level might not be able to leave safely if they remained here for too long. What was more, Black Water Mysterious Snake dwelled in the Ruthless Sea below, making the place incomparably dangerous.

Seeing the bottomless abyss, Jiang Ming immediately activated his Protective Qi Shield and rode the Soaring Frost Sword down into its depths. From time to time, he muttered, "Spicy snake, here I come."

He did not know how long he flew, but Jiang Ming eventually saw countless lights while riding the Soaring Frost Sword. These countless lights surrounding him were innumerable yin spirits. They drifted aimlessly, taking on countless faces—male and female, old and young, beautiful and ugly. As though they had sensed something, the yin spirits went mad and rushed toward Jiang Ming.

The sight gave Jiang Ming a headache. He immediately expanded his Protective Qi Shield and covered its surface with countless streaks of sword qi carrying destructive properties. Only then did the yin spirits dare not rush forward. Yet they did not leave either, merely following Jiang Ming and lingering outside the shield. Once the shield was removed, Jiang Ming believed they would pounce without hesitation.

Maintaining the shield and controlling his flying sword, Jiang Ming flew toward the shore of the Ruthless Sea, hoping Black Water Mysterious Snake would appear. More importantly, he hoped it would not run away.

After much effort, Jiang Ming finally reached the Ruthless Sea. Faint waves lapped at the shore as countless yin spirits drifted along the bank. Only then did Jiang Ming feel he had reached his destination. He stood on the shore and watched for a long time, but Black Water Mysterious Snake did not appear. Left with no choice, he flew along the shoreline, occasionally firing Three Points Divine Finger into the sea, hoping to make enough noise to draw the snake's attention.

Suddenly, a tremendous change occurred in the Ruthless Sea. Over the pitch-black waters, two enormous lanterns glowing with ghostly green light slowly lit up. From afar, Jiang Ming saw that these lights were truly strange. They were not round, but long and narrow from top to bottom. In their centers were two thin, pitch-black slits that radiated cold, vicious intent.

An incomparably enormous black serpent slowly emerged before Jiang Ming. Its lower body was coiled, its snake body submerged in the seawater. Jiang Ming himself was not even one-third as thick as that massive body. The serpent's upper body and head alone, raised into the air, stood dozens of zhang above the ground. Its snake eyes, glowing with faint green light, looked down from above at Jiang Ming, who was no more than an ant to it. So it really is Black Water Mysterious Snake.

But the instant he saw Black Water Mysterious Snake, Jiang Ming became somewhat worried. It seemed spicy snake was not happening after all. Look at this snake—it was so huge. What kind of enormous pot, and how many ingredients, would it take to stew it?

It's so huge. My Storage Ring might not even fit it! And I don't have that many ingredients right now!