The Great Snake Emerges

Zhou Bao had found a way to make a living, and his career was back on track. Li Ye had also fulfilled one of his wishes.

Li Ye returned to the Corpse Refining Courtyard in the afternoon. He had only slept lightly for two hours before getting up.

In fact, ever since Li Ye entered the Body Tempering Stage, his physical constitution had improved greatly. Even if he slept a few hours less each day, or didn't sleep at all, it wouldn't affect his condition.

Night fell:

The Corpse Deliverers carried in a body on a stretcher.

Then a large group of Black-Clad Academicians flooded in.

Li Ye entered the Corpse Incineration Hall.

It was just an ordinary corpse, with only slight signs of Corpse Transformation.

Li Ye burned the corpse without a hitch.

He gained a stretch of Body Tempering cultivation.

Half a month passed in a flash.

During that time, several Corpse Incinerators died in the Corpse Refining Courtyard, sending a wave of shock through their ranks.

Li Ye's days passed peacefully. He hadn't encountered any Fierce Corpses during that half month.

At most, the corpses had shown signs of Corpse Transformation, and they were dealt with easily by Li Ye, who was now an old hand.

However, of the fifteen corpses Li Ye had handled over the past half month, eight had died from Yang Depletion.

All eight had died at Yihongyuan.

"I've reached a strength of two thousand seven hundred jin, but my cultivation at the Ninth Layer of Body Tempering still shows no sign of reaching Great Perfection."

In the courtyard, Li Ye thought to himself.

Before, he would have broken through long ago.

After dealing with a Fierce Corpse, Li Ye would always cultivate the Nine Heavens Crimson Thunder Art.

Now, as he circulated his energy, a faint crimson light appeared on his skin. He had already gained some proficiency.

Yet even with the cultivation he'd gained from practicing the Nine Heavens Crimson Thunder Art, combined with the power granted by the Corpse Incineration Furnace, he still hadn't broken through to the Qi Gathering Stage.

Li Ye was starting to feel the urge to take on more work.

Should he go out and uphold justice for a while?

Or take a part-time job, like becoming an Assassin?

"Something's not right!"

"Licheng City is a human city, after all. That Snake Demon at Yihongyuan has been far too brazen, killing eight people in half a month. Isn't she afraid of drawing attention?"

Li Ye thought, then considered a possibility. "Maybe she isn't afraid."

"Maybe those who died in her bed didn't die from lust, but... had their Yang essence sucked dry."

"That Snake Demon is cultivating some kind of wicked art. She's almost finished, so she's started devouring humans without restraint."

The Snake Demon's state of mind was strikingly similar to Li Ye's own desperate desire to break through to the Qi Gathering Realm.

Li Ye felt his guess was probably right. She was on the verge of completing her cultivation.

She would definitely leave Licheng City afterward. But before she left, might she do something?

Snakes were cold-blooded creatures. It was hard to say whether this Snake Demon might unleash utter destruction upon Licheng City before she left.

Suddenly, a loud shout rang out in every direction. "Get out of the way! This time, I'm going to kill that beast."

"Exactly! It's killed so many of our people. We can't let it get away."

Sharp sword cries rang through the sky.

Li Ye leaped onto a rooftop and saw a group of Divine Concealment Sect experts riding magical artifacts, surging down the mountain with murderous intent.

What was going on?

Had some Ruthless Person appeared nearby?

Li Ye walked out the gate and saw a crowd of Corpse Incinerators huddled outside, all talking at once:

"Immortals! Another batch of immortals who can fly through the sky and burrow underground."

"To see immortals in this lifetime... I can die without regrets, knowing I haven't come into this world for nothing."

Licheng City:

Rumble!

The earth shook and the sky trembled. Dust billowed into the heavens, the air shuddered violently, and deafening explosions rang out.

A Great Snake slithered through the city. Its body was astonishingly huge, hundreds of meters long and over two meters in diameter. It was pure white from head to tail, and radiated a terrifying aura.

How could a snake this huge exist in the world? It was almost impossible to imagine.

Under the crushing weight of its enormous body, whole rows of buildings collapsed and shattered like bubbles. Stones shot through the air, and many living creatures perished.

The people of Licheng City felt their hair stand on end and were gripped by terror.

Yet plenty of experts were attacking the Snake Demon too.

"...Is that really Yun Yue, the Courtesan of Yihongyuan?"

On an arched bridge, a middle-aged man stared at the Great Snake in utter shock, looking as if he were about to fall apart.

Yun Yue, the Courtesan, was the most beautiful woman in Licheng City, and countless men flocked to her.

Alas, the courtesan's price was outrageously high. Ordinary men had no chance of getting close to her.

Almost all those who spent the night with her were prominent men of some renown.

But that did nothing to diminish the other men's infatuation and admiration for her.

What no one could have imagined, however, was that Yun Yue, the Courtesan, who haunted the dreams of countless men in Licheng City, was a White Snake.

"Look, you old fool! This is the courtesan you've been mooning over. Go on, go on, rush up and get cozy with it. I won't stop you, I swear."

"No wonder so many men died in her bed. What could she possibly do with your three-inch twig?"

A burly woman grabbed her husband by the ear and scolded him fiercely.

She was burly, but not ugly. She had a decent figure, and was of middling beauty, but her fierce temperament left her with little femininity.

News that people kept dying in Yun Yue's bed at Yihongyuan had long since spread, but it hadn't dampened people's adoration of her.

If anything, it had only stirred up some men's desire to conquer her.

Quite a few had been eager to try their luck, resulting in eight men dying in her bed over the past half month.

Only today, when she was exposed, had she revealed her true form.

At that moment, many men in Licheng City wore expressions of utter despair.

"I'll shoot it dead!"

A mighty-looking man held a dark-gold greatbow. His powerful arms drew the bowstring taut as a full moon, and a faint gleam flowed over the metal arrow nocked against it.

The bow was actually a powerful magical artifact with fearsome destructive power.

"Great Perfection in Qi Gathering! He's Hunter King Baili Chang Gong!"

Someone cried out in alarm.

Bang!

Hunter King Baili Chang Gong released the bowstring with his right hand. It shuddered with a low twang, and the arrow vanished from it, streaking like a meteor toward the Great Snake ahead.

But the Snake Skin was astonishingly tough. The next moment, it deflected the arrow, leaving itself completely unharmed.

"What? Even Hunter King's arrow can't hurt it?"

"Is this the physical constitution of the Demon Race?"

The crowd was horrified.

Hunter King wasn't the only one attacking. Many experts, heroes of the martial world, and sword-wielding knights throughout the city were fighting too.

One magical artifact after another flashed with dazzling light as they struck at the Great Snake.

But the Great Snake was too fast. Few attacks managed to land on it.

A young man in light clothes, holding a long sword, shouted, "Don't get bogged down fighting inside the city. Drive it outside!"

The young man was none other than Qin Yu, Li Ye's Fourth Junior Brother.

Compared to when he'd faced the Night Roaming God, Qin Yu now seemed like a completely different person.

They hadn't seen each other for many days, and in that time he had already broken through to the first layer of the Object Manipulation Realm.

Faint Dao Patterns appeared on the long sword in his hand. It was incomparably sharp and radiated an imposing aura.

Yet even with Qin Yu's current strength, he could only leave faint scratches on the White Snake.

That little bit of damage was nothing to her.

"Fourth Senior Brother, this beast's bloodline is extraordinary. I'm afraid it'll take someone at the fifth or sixth layer of the Object Manipulation Realm to kill it. Don't be reckless. Let's hold it off and wait for the elders."

A beautiful, long-haired young woman spoke to Qin Yu.

Her face was fair, her features small and delicate, and her bright eyes sparkled. She had a refined, otherworldly beauty.

The girl was called Lin Jing, one of the Eight Great True Disciples of the Divine Concealment Sect.

She ranked sixth.

"Humans, you've gone too far!"

"But... if you think you can keep me here, you're dreaming!"

The Great Snake ahead spoke in human language. Her voice was that of a woman, clear and sweet, yet cold.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

As the Great Snake spoke, a blinding light burst from her enormous body, sending several experts flying and making them cough up blood.

"It's transforming! We can't let it succeed!"

A wounded cultivator ignored his injuries and shouted.