Before Snake Consort's words had even faded, her figure vanished from where she stood like a ghost. In the next instant, she appeared directly before the rock ledge where Lin Feng stood, suspended in midair!
Her dark green scales gleamed with a faint, sinister chill beneath the dim light. Black Killing Intent writhed around her like living creatures, making her resemble a nocturnal enchantress who held death in her grasp.
She used no weapon. She merely slowly raised the slender jade hand that had just killed her subordinate from afar, spread her five fingers slightly, and gently pressed downward toward Lin Feng's position!
"Myriad Snake Poison Prison!"
Boom!
As her palm descended, the space within dozens of meters around Lin Feng seemed to solidify in an instant!
The Profound Yin Fiendish Wind in the air let out shrill howls as it converged wildly, transforming into countless solid black venomous snakes formed from pure Killing Intent and toxic energy, densely packed and blotting out the sky!
These venomous snakes were lifelike, their scales grim and cold, their scarlet tongues flickering as they hissed with bone-chilling menace. From every direction—above and below—they lunged toward Lin Feng to devour him!
Every venomous snake contained a terrifying poison capable of corroding metal and stone and freezing blood. They also carried the might of heaven and earth summoned by a Martial Master, sealing off every possible path of evasion!
This strike had far surpassed the scope of the Martial Artist Realm. It was a true killing technique!
Lin Feng was instantly plunged into an unprecedented desperate situation!
A needle-like pain pricked at his skin. The poison had not even reached him, yet its corrosion was already taking effect!
The protective lightning around him fluctuated violently beneath the assault of countless venomous snakes, emitting sizzling sounds as it dissolved!
He could not retreat!
Nor was there any road left to retreat upon!
"Aah—!"
Lin Feng let out a roar like a wounded beast. His eyes instantly filled with bloodshot veins, and a ferocity savage to the extreme burst forth from the depths of his bones!
He pushed the cultivation methods of the Thunder Foundation Establishment Chapter and the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade to an unprecedented limit at the same time, even disregarding the tearing pain coursing through his meridians!
"Thunder Gang! Protect my body!!"
All the Thunder True Qi within him surged out with unprecedented madness. Rather than concentrating it at a single point, he spread it outward with all his might, forming a thick thunderous barrier around his body that burned fiercely and crackled with countless violent, restless purple lightning serpents!
"Rumble—!!"
Countless black venomous snakes slammed fiercely into the thunder barrier! A continuous barrage of thunderous explosions erupted!
Black qi and purple lightning intertwined, annihilated one another, and exploded wildly! The thunder barrier visibly dimmed and thinned, as though it could shatter at any moment!
"Pfft!"
Lin Feng's face turned pale as he violently spat out a mouthful of blood. It was a sign that he had overdrawn his true qi and damaged his meridians!
Yet the madness and resolve in his eyes did not diminish in the slightest. His feet seemed rooted to the rock ledge, nailed firmly in place as he weathered the terrifying attack without retreating a single step!
"Hm?"
Snake Consort, floating in the air, gave a soft cry of surprise. Another flicker of astonishment crossed her seductive face.
She had not expected a mere Late Stage Martial Artist to withstand her Myriad Snake Poison Prison head-on with Thunder Gang protecting his body—a move sufficient to kill an ordinary early-stage Martial Master! The rank of this thunder cultivation method likely far exceeded her estimates!
"Let's see how long you can hold on!"
A cold glint flashed through Snake Consort's eyes as she increased the force of her jade hand once more!
Crack!
A distinct crack finally appeared on the thunder barrier! Then, as if triggering a chain reaction, the crack rapidly spread!
The barrier was about to shatter, and Lin Feng was about to be devoured by ten thousand snakes!
At that razor-thin moment—
Something in Lin Feng's mind seemed to shatter!
All along, the incomplete core force-manipulation method of the second level of the Nine Heavens Thunder Blade—the part he had needed to explore and complete on his own—suddenly became incomparably clear under the immense pressure of life and death, opening up completely!
It was not the system's deduction, but the convergence of his own will, potential, and insight born from the brink of death. It came as naturally as water flowing into a channel!
Outside, ten thousand snakes hissed as poisonous qi surged to the heavens.
Yet in that instant, his heart fell into a strange silence.
It was as though he had returned to Thunder Listening Pavilion, standing before that Lightning Attracting Wood which had endured ninety-nine heavenly thunderbolts without falling.
It was as though he saw the Thunder Lizard Leader's savage jaws lunging at him in the secret realm.
It was as though he felt the unyielding will on the Cloud Climbing Ladder, taking step after step and crushing gravity beneath his feet.
Destruction, rebirth, defiance, dominance... all kinds of insights ultimately converged into a bolt of lightning that tore through the darkness!
He suddenly raised his head. On his bloodstained face, his eyes shone with terrifying brilliance, like two purple stars!
He no longer defended passively. Instead, he opened his mouth toward the endless tide of venomous snakes before him.
No sound came out.
Yet an invisible power containing the fundamental fluctuations of the True Meaning of Thunder spread outward from him. Like a stone dropped into a tranquil lake, it sent out rings of visible pale purple ripples that warped space itself!
Wherever these ripples passed, the frenzied black venomous snakes abruptly slowed and stiffened, as though they had been bound by an invisible force!
The energy structures within them, formed from Killing Intent and poison, became extremely unstable beneath the impact of those strange fluctuations carrying the thunderous might of heaven and earth. They even began to collapse and disintegrate on their own!
They were not shattered by lightning. Rather, their energy origins had been cowed and annihilated by a higher form of "intent"!
"Thunder Sound Soul Suppression!"
This was not a martial skill. It was a unique application Lin Feng had comprehended in desperate circumstances by combining his True Meaning of Thunder with his spiritual power!
Though it possessed no direct killing power, it targeted energy origins and spiritual cores, carrying formidable suppressive and disintegrating effects! It was especially effective against sinister and chaotic energies!
"What?!"
The composure and mockery on Snake Consort's face vanished completely for the first time, replaced by overwhelming shock and disbelief!
"Intent taking form and interfering with reality?! How is that possible?! You're only a Martial Artist!"
She could clearly sense that the energy structure of her Myriad Snake Poison Prison was rapidly being dismantled by that invisible thunderous soundwave!
This was no simple elemental suppression. It was the crushing force of a higher realm of intent!
At the instant Snake Consort's mind trembled and her offensive stalled—
"Now!"
A fierce glint flashed through Lin Feng's eyes. His right fist, which had been gathering power all along, carried the remaining strength from the shattered thunder barrier and the vast battle intent in his chest that demanded release as it smashed fiercely into the ground before him!
"Rumble!!"
His fist force poured into the rock layer, not to attack, but to—borrow force!
The enormous recoil caused the rock ledge beneath his feet to collapse and shatter with a deafening crash!
Borrowing that force, his body shot backward and upward like a cannonball leaving its barrel, heading straight for the exit above the gorge where the Black Whirlwind howled!
Escape!
Against a Martial Master at full strength, even after exhausting every trump card he had, he could only seize this sliver of survival!
If he continued fighting head-on, there would be nothing but a dead end!
"Trying to leave? Stay here for me!"
Snake Consort instantly snapped out of her shock, Killing Intent boiling in her eyes! She would never allow a mere Martial Artist Realm brat to escape from her grasp time and again, especially one who had displayed such terrifying potential!
She grabbed through the air with her jade hand. Five black claw shadows, condensed almost into substance, tore through the air and struck after yet arrived before, clawing toward Lin Feng's heart from behind! Their claw wind was sharp enough to pierce gold and iron!
Sensing the fatal danger attacking from behind, Lin Feng twisted sharply in midair. Lightning forcibly condensed around his left arm once more as he threw a backhanded punch at the five claw shadows!
Bang!
Thunder Fist collided with the claw shadows. A searing pain tore through Lin Feng's left arm, as though his bones were about to shatter. The tremendous force propelled him like a meteor, sending him hurtling even faster into the violent Black Whirlwind at the gorge's exit!
"Pfft!"
The instant his figure disappeared into the whirlwind, Lin Feng spat out another mouthful of blood, yet his eyes shone with frightening brightness.
Snake Consort flashed forward and appeared at the gorge's exit. Watching the violently churning Profound Yin Fiendish Wind—which even shredded apart the claw shadows she had unleashed—her expression darkened horribly.
Even she did not dare enter the fiendish wind of this core region lightly.
Behind her, the sole remaining guard stepped forward trembling. "My lady, should we pursue...?"
"Pursue? Go in there and die?" Snake Consort shot him a cold glance, and he immediately fell silent as a cicada in winter.
She stared at the Black Whirlwind that had swallowed Lin Feng, the light in her icy vertical pupils flickering uncertainly.
"What a Lin Feng... what a True Meaning of Thunder..."
"You won't get far... the clue to the 'key' must be on you!"
"Pass down my order. Seal off the hundred li around Black Wind Valley! He is seriously injured, and he forced his way into the core of the fiendish wind. He definitely will not hold out for long! Alive, bring me the man; dead... bring me his head and cultivation method!"
"Yes!"
Snake Consort stood where she was as the fierce wind whipped her long hair and armor. Seduction and killing intent intertwined around her.
She had a premonition: if she failed to completely strangle this boy today, he would become Shadow Kill Pavilion's most dangerous hidden threat in the future!
Before you continue