Four Giant Stones

The desert at sunset was exquisitely beautiful, but none of them had the leisure to appreciate it now.

They all looked around stubbornly with despair in their eyes, unwilling to accept such a reality.

"It can't be, it can't be," Tang Yuan repeated endlessly, gesturing anxiously. "So many clues pointed here. The Heaven Rain Clan must be here, they must be. Let's keep looking, keep looking..."

Jiang Ruoyun said uneasily, "Feng Gege, should we go a little farther ahead? Those murals and maps have been around for so many years. There may have been some discrepancies."

Ye Fan let out a heavy sigh. "The terrain here is flat. One look is enough to see there is nowhere a mountain could possibly be. Let alone walking a little farther—even if we walked for several more days, it would probably be the same."

Lu Feng forced a smile onto his stiff face, wanting to offer everyone a few words of comfort, but when he opened his mouth, he did not know what to say.

He could still wait. He could continue searching for the Northern Essence Water. But Ruo Shui clearly could not wait any longer.

If the Northern Essence Water was not here, then the only thing awaiting Ruo Shui was death when the poison erupted.

Miao Qiuyun suddenly spoke suspiciously. "Do you smell a strange, fishy stench?"

Jiang Ruoyun nodded. "A little, I think. Maybe it's the smell of some beasts that died here and rotted away."

"No!" Lu Feng and Tang Yuan suddenly spoke in unison, their faces grave. "It's the Su Snake's scent!"

At their words, Jiang Ruoyun and the others went pale at once. No wonder that stench had felt vaguely familiar.

Miao Qiuyun asked in a trembling voice, "Wasn't the Su Snake teleported away? How could it appear in this area?"

Lu Feng pondered for a moment before speaking. "If the destination of that altar's teleportation was not nearby, then there is only one explanation. It may have caught our scent and followed us here."

Miao Qiuyun said fearfully, "Then shouldn't we run?"

Before Lu Feng and the others could respond, Ye Fan's cold voice reached them.

"I was just worrying about where to find it! If you want to run, then run. It swallowed my Pi Yuan Cauldron. I have to cut open its belly and retrieve it."

Hearing Ye Fan's words, Lu Feng and Tang Yuan's gazes immediately hardened.

If they could recover the Pi Yuan Cauldron, there might still be a sliver of hope for Ruo Shui's poison. They would not have to cling to the sole, hopeless possibility of obtaining the Northern Essence Water.

At that moment, Lu Feng and the others resolutely shifted their attention away from the despair of failing to find Arm Cloud Mountain and toward dealing with the Su Snake.

Though Miao Qiuyun was frightened, there was nothing she could do now but follow the others as they tracked the fishy stench.

Fearing they might alert it beforehand, they chose to approach on foot and put away the Black Leaf Boat.

After traveling roughly a hundred meters, the stench became noticeably stronger.

Looking at the distant scene, Jiang Ruoyun lowered her voice. "Quick, look. Is that... a mountain?"

Everyone froze and turned their eyes toward a spot over a hundred meters away.

There stood four small "mountains"... strictly speaking, they were merely small earthen mounds, boulders not much larger than ordinary houses, rising from the Sand Surface.

From afar, they looked like some gigantic bird had relieved itself in four round, bulging heaps onto a golden-yellow sand table.

Tang Yuan could not help but grow suspicious. "Why would there be four such huge rocks there for no reason?"

As he spoke, he stomped on the yellow sand beneath his feet. "It is just as loose and soft as elsewhere. It should not be able to support that kind of weight. Rocks like those ought to have sunk long ago."

"Be careful," Lu Feng warned vigilantly, sensing a thread of unease.

Ye Fan agreed. "The Su Snake can condense Earth Element Qi. It would not be impossible for it to petrify rocks this large. This may be its temporary nest."

Upon hearing this, Tang Yuan examined the Four Giant Stones in the distance again. They were arranged in an arc, indeed resembling a defensive barrier. The gaps between each giant stone seemed sizable at first glance, but for a creature as massive as the Su Snake, they were just wide enough for it to coil and pass through.

Viewed this way, Ye Fan's explanation was indeed plausible.

If that was the truth, then the Su Snake had clearly not followed their scent here. It had arrived before them, perhaps having been teleported directly here. That was rather extraordinary.

The group cautiously approached the giant stones.

Before they drew near, they caught a faint scent of blood amid the thick fishy stench.

"It's injured?" Ye Fan asked in delight.

Tang Yuan remained wary. "It may have just finished hunting another beast."

As they spoke quietly, a chilling killing intent suddenly closed in.

Everyone's footsteps halted abruptly.

Turning around, they saw Sand Balls the size of fists suddenly hurtling toward them from ahead, swift and violent like a torrential downpour.

Miao Qiuyun cried out, "These are... Third Uncle's Exploding Balls?"

Lu Feng had studied this method while traveling earlier. Hearing Miao Qiuyun's words, he immediately confirmed it. They were indeed Third Uncle's Exploding Balls.

Though they could not see the Su Snake, everyone was now basically certain that the serpent was here.

After all, before Third Uncle had left after being possessed by the Ghost Conch, he had been sitting atop the Su Snake's head.

Tang Yuan unleashed a chain of punches at the incoming Sand Balls, detonating them one after another in midair and sending dust and sand soaring across the sky.

An attack nearly at the Heaven Soul Realm's four-breath level!

Tang Yuan rubbed his faintly aching hands, a flicker of fear flashing through his eyes. Even Sand Balls launched from such a distance could carry this degree of force. Third Uncle's current strength had surely far surpassed his normal state.

"He's over there!"

Jiang Ruoyun pointed at the top of the third giant stone among the Four Giant Stones in the distance and cried out.

Everyone looked over and saw that Third Uncle was indeed standing atop that giant stone. As though he sensed their attention, Third Uncle suddenly shot forward along the rock face and drifted down.

Before he reached the ground, the yellow sand beneath the giant stone suddenly exploded. The Su Snake's enormous head burst from beneath the sand, met the descending Third Uncle, and steadily caught him.

It looked exactly as though it had become Third Uncle's Mount.

Having successfully mounted the Su Snake, Third Uncle directed it slowly toward them.

Another, even fiercer wave of Sand Balls swept toward them along the way, nearly sealing off every route of retreat.

Heaven Soul Realm, five breaths—nearly the six-breath level!

Feeling the strength Third Uncle possessed after being possessed by the Ghost Conch, they all felt as though they could barely breathe.

Amid his shock, Ye Fan suddenly laughed. "He has grown stronger, but that beast's aura has weakened greatly!"

Lu Feng and Tang Yuan were stunned for a moment, then realized it as well.

From the look of things, Third Uncle's strength had likely been granted by the Su Snake, at the cost of its own power.

Even so, a Soul Master at the Heaven Soul Realm's five- or six-breath level combined with a vicious beast of comparable strength was still not an opponent they could easily contend with.

"Split them apart!"

After a brief silence, Lu Feng, Tang Yuan, and Ye Fan spoke at the same time, a rare occurrence.

Clearly, they had all realized the connection between Third Uncle and the Su Snake.

Holding the Immortal Silk Five-Petal Brocade, Jiang Ruoyun said resolutely, "I'll deal with the giant snake. You control Third Uncle as quickly as possible."

Seeing Lu Feng's worried expression as he tried to speak, Jiang Ruoyun added, "Don't worry, Feng Gege. Yun'er's Dragon Play Whip is best suited for this situation. I may not be able to defeat it, but holding it back for half an hour should not be a problem."

Only then did Lu Feng relent.

After Tang Yuan withstood another round of attacks, he seized an opening and charged at the Su Snake. From Fourth Uncle's account, he had gained a certain understanding of the Su Snake. Thus, he immediately used the secret art Dragon Enters Nine Underworlds, increasing the speed at which his spiritual energy circulated and reducing the effectiveness of the Su Snake's Earth Element Qi stagnation technique to the lowest possible level.

Whenever the spiritual energy within his body had just begun to congeal, the swiftly circulating energy that followed would forcefully wash over it.

Lu Feng supported Tang Yuan from the side. After more than ten exchanges, he finally found an opening and cut in, using a streak of Sword Light to force Third Uncle off the Su Snake's head.

Jiang Ruoyun, who had long been waiting for this opportunity, seized the moment and lashed out with the Immortal Silk Five-Petal Brocade. Blossoms of whip force swept up waves of sand like ocean tides, separating the landed Third Uncle from the Su Snake.

The trio's seamless cooperation pushed the situation in the direction they had hoped for, and they began fighting them separately.

Unlike Tang Yuan's method of countering the Su Snake's stagnating power, although Jiang Ruoyun had cultivated the secret art of the Love Tomb, it had not given her any particularly outstanding improvement in the speed of her spiritual energy circulation.

Thus, she chose an entirely different method.

Following Fourth Uncle's advice when he had introduced the Su Snake, she used her own Earth Element Qi as bait, attaching it to the long whip in her hand.

Whenever the Su Snake's stagnating power descended, she would precisely send out a whip strike beforehand, allowing that strange stagnating power to act first upon the blossoms of whip force she had swept out.

The instant those whip blossoms froze and were about to reach her, another whip strike had already formed.

She was always half a beat faster than the Su Snake's attacks.

That level of control alone gave the impression that she was, in an indirect way, toying with the Su Snake in the palm of her hand.

It also created many stunning, magnificent sights. The dust and sand swept up by her whip force, frozen by the Su Snake's power, transformed into bizarre hollow sculptures suspended in the air, spectacular and varied.

Though Jiang Ruoyun had temporarily restrained the Su Snake, there was not the slightest ease or joy on her face. Through their brief exchange, she had discovered that the Su Snake seemed to be constrained and controlled by someone. It had not displayed much aggression of its own.

That was why she could manipulate it so easily.

This made her worry about Lu Feng and Tang Yuan's battlefield. If the Su Snake was being controlled by someone, then Third Uncle's current condition was likely far more complicated than merely being possessed by the Ghost Conch.

He likely possessed a specific consciousness or memories, enough to command an existence like the Su Snake.

At that thought, Jiang Ruoyun's gaze subconsciously swept toward where Lu Feng and Tang Yuan were.

Yet she saw that the two were fiercely entangled with Third Uncle using the same Exploding Ball attacks. As far as the eye could see, Sand Balls filled the sky, flying and bursting in endless succession, creating a scene of tremendous clamor.

If not for the chilling killing intent spilling out from within, anyone unaware of the situation might have mistaken it for a snowball fight of some sort—except the snowballs had been replaced by strange Sand Balls.