Mountain Devouring Giant Python, the Underground Abyss

"Master?"

"Master, you..."

Longyue and Jin Mie both stared at Li Yan with astonishment in their eyes.

Li Yan came back to himself, waking from that wondrous train of thought.

Several lines of text appeared before his eyes.

[You have comprehended one-tenth of the [Ancient Dao Runes].]

He had only comprehended one-tenth of them, yet Li Yan felt different.

It seemed these Ancient Dao Runes could be applied to spells, multiplying their power severalfold.

Li Yan wanted to experience that marvelous sensation once more.

It was as though he had returned to the dawn of chaos, before Pangu cleaved heaven and earth apart, when everything in the world was nothingness.

That feeling was even more wondrous than pursuing the immortal Dao.

Li Yan had sunk too deeply into it and could not pull himself free for a long while.

Only after quite some time did Li Yan gradually awaken from that floating, euphoric feeling.

"Hmm? What is it? Is there something on my face?"

Once fully awake, Li Yan noticed the strange looks in his two female disciples' eyes.

"Master, Golden Silk Sacred Runes were flowing over your body just now. They were so profound."

The Moonlight Sword Immortal leaned closer, her eyes full of reverence. "Master truly is an exalted immortal from the White Jade Capital. Even we cannot comprehend your Dao Patterns."

At that moment, the two of them believed in Li Yan's identity more firmly than ever.

The Ancient Dao Runes that had flowed from Li Yan's body were far too intricate to exist in the mortal world.

Seeing how utterly convinced his two female disciples were, Li Yan laughed to himself.

This journey had not only allowed him to save the Ember Extinguishing Immortal thirty thousand years early.

He had also grasped a wondrous kind of Dao Rune. If he applied it to spells, it might bring about an unexpected surprise.

However, once Li Yan came back to his senses, he noticed something strange.

He had already saved the Ember Extinguishing Immortal. By all rights, the wish of this dream should have been fulfilled.

Why had this dream not ended yet?

Could it be that this matter was not as simple as he had imagined?

Still, Li Yan had already brought the situation under control, and he had even seized the Blood Domain. Could there be some other twist?

Then he would take things one step at a time. If he got the chance, Li Yan also wanted to test the Ancient Dao Runes he had just mastered.

His hands itched. With his Invincible Body in the dream, he wanted to find someone to spar with and improve his spell proficiency.

Having made up his mind, Li Yan was in no hurry to leave the dream.

The Ember Extinguishing Immortal, whom he had saved, dropped to both knees. "Thank you, Master!"

"If Master had not descended into the mortal realm to save me, the consequences would have been unthinkable."

The Moonlight Sword Immortal quickly chimed in. "Without Master, this disciple would not even dare imagine it—especially since that blood poison could spread to others."

At that, Li Yan's lips curled into a smile as he teased them, "Speaking of this blood poison."

"I said I would help Jin Mie suck out the blood poison just now. Why did each of you seem so reluctant?"

Li Yan was in high spirits, so he could not resist teasing the two of them.

"Could it be that you thought your master was going to use his mouth to suck the blood poison out of her?"

The moment those words fell, both female disciples' faces flushed bright red.

"This... That..."

When it came to sucking poison out of a disciple, they really had let their imaginations run wild.

Li Yan had made it sound extremely grave just now, as though they were facing a great enemy.

In that situation, it had seemed as if the poison could only be sucked out with his mouth.

Who would have thought Li Yan merely raised a hand and circulated his power, drawing out the blood poison strand by strand?

After all that, they had simply imagined too many scenes themselves and brought about this awkwardness.

Jin Mie hurriedly denied it. "Master, I didn't! I absolutely didn't."

"We're... we're not children anymore."

Although the Ember Extinguishing Immortal's voice was loud as she defended herself, being loud proved nothing. It could not conceal her guilty conscience.

The thought of Master personally sucking out her poison with his mouth—impossible. She had never thought of that.

Longyue gave an awkward laugh from the side. "Master, we... we are both Mahayana Stage Immortals. Of course we would not think in that direction."

The two senior sisters exchanged glances. Each saw the other's embarrassment, as well as the happiness of having Master's protection.

As Mahayana Stage Immortals, wherever they looked—

There was no one left in this world with greater seniority than them. Their former aloofness was simply because they no longer had anyone to rely on.

After all, no one would show weakness before their peers or juniors.

But if they had a master, they too wanted to cast aside their outward aloofness and experience the feeling of being sheltered by an elder.

Just as Longyue and Jin Mie smiled at each other, the Dragon Tiger Immortal Venerable's voice rang out from above the skylight.

"Immortal! Something has happened!"

"The seal on Mount Mishan's Divine Tomb has loosened!"

The Dragon Tiger Immortal Venerable's voice shattered the warmth between the three of them.

Master and disciples had not seen one another for a hundred years, yet they had barely any time to reminisce before they could only fly out through the skylight.

Li Yan also knew that since the dream had not ended, something was still waiting for him.

But the instant he flew out through the skylight, the earth began to tremble.

Just as Li Yan and the other two landed from midair, a horrifying sight appeared before them.

The mountain's base had collapsed, and a bottomless opening had appeared in the ground.

Then—

A giant black-scaled python burrowed up from beneath Mount Mishan, its enormous body even eclipsing the entire mountain.

The python had a human head. Its facial features were blurred, leaving only the outline of a human face.

That monster, with a human face and serpent's body, slowly uttered several words.

"Li Yan, I have awaited you for a long time!"

After the human-faced python spoke, it opened its blood-filled maw and abruptly covered the entirety of Mount Mishan.

The magnificent sacred halls looked so tiny within its jaws.

Li Yan's group had no time to fly away before the entire serpent's mouth closed over them.

The cultivators watching from the outskirts were struck dumb with shock.

"Mishan Sacred City..."

"Was swallowed by that giant python!"

"Just how enormous must it be?!"

Before everyone's eyes, the whole Mishan Sacred City was swallowed by the serpent's mouth.

Its sharp fangs sliced through the mountain, producing dull, crunching cracks.

Before anyone could act, that giant serpent which had devoured the sacred city bit off the entire mountaintop!

Then its massive body began to sink, the sacred city held in its jaws as it dragged Li Yan and the others into the abyss.

The cultivators unleashed their Magic Treasures one after another, attempting to bombard the Mountain Devouring Giant Python.

But when their spells struck, they left only a few scratches on its scales.

The giant python sank into the earth just like that, leaving behind only half of Mishan City, bitten clean away. Li Yan and his group had already vanished.

Witnessing this scene, the pupils of the cultivators outside trembled violently.

"Where did this mountain-devouring serpent even come from?"

"The Dragon Tiger Immortal Venerable, the Moonlight Sword Immortal, the Ember Extinguishing Immortal..."

"And that immortal from the White Jade Capital—were they... were they eaten too?"

Everyone stared at the bottomless cavern, yet no one dared take a single step forward.

Li Yan's group, having been swallowed, had not failed to try saving themselves.

Li Yan immediately manifested a hundred-zhang Golden Body. The more than three-hundred-meter-tall Golden Body Dharma Aspect strained with all its might, propping open the serpent's jaws.

But before that blood-filled maw, large enough to swallow all of Mount Mishan, the hundred-zhang Golden Body Dharma Aspect was like a pen before a colossal beast, barely forcing open a narrow crack in its mouth.

Seeing this, Li Yan was certain that his Golden Body Dharma Aspect could not stop the Mountain Devouring Giant Python at all.

He could only watch helplessly as the giant python dragged everyone into the underground abyss.