Lu Chen said no more, his gaze falling on the pitch-black hole at the center of the clearing.
The hole remained tranquil, utterly still.
Yet he could sense that faint, intermittent aura still lingering below.
That snake was still there.
He walked over, stopped at the edge of the hole, and looked down.
The hole was deep, its destination unknown. A frigid aura surged up from below, carrying dense deathly energy. That deathly energy was identical to the Undead Monarch's aura—perhaps even more concentrated.
He suddenly recalled Gu Ming's final words: "The hatchling is no ordinary demon beast, but an ancient variant. It must be raised through blood sacrifice before it can grow."
An ancient variant.
What did it have to do with the Undead Monarch?
As he pondered this, he suddenly sensed the aura below move.
That snake was climbing upward.
Lu Chen's gaze sharpened. "Fall back," he said to Tuoba Shan.
Tuoba Shan froze for a moment, then hurriedly led the disciples back.
Lu Chen stood at the edge of the hole, his right hand gripping the Azure Dragon Halberd while his left clasped a snake fang.
The snake fang was a relic left behind by Gu Ming and could be used to track the little snake. At this moment, it glowed faintly, as though responding to something.
Below, that aura drew closer and closer.
Suddenly, a ghostly green figure shot out of the hole!
It was a snake, entirely ghostly green, over three meters long and as thick as a bowl. Its scales gleamed with an eerie light, while its golden vertical pupils brimmed with savagery and bloodlust.
But unlike the newly hatched snake from before, this one was larger and its aura stronger—the peak of the Supernatural Power Realm, only one step away from breaking through