Another side

Great Wasteland, by the Luo River, deep in Luojia Mountain. A pitch-black cave hidden within the mountain.

No one could say when the cave had formed. It seemed to have existed since ancient times.

Yet it was hidden so well that few people by the Luo River even knew of it. The handful who did called it the Blood Dragon Cave.

It was said to have earned this name because every fifteenth day of the month, when the moon shone bright and the wind rose high, it would blaze with a fierce red light, while the faint roar of a gigantic beast echoed from within.

Those who knew of its existence believed the sound was a dragon's roar, and claimed that an ancient blood dragon was sealed deep inside the cave.

A thousand years ago, people had occasionally ventured inside. Some had even been powerful cultivators, but the cave was a maze, and it held strange, indescribable dangers. Those who explored it rarely met a good end.

As time went by, no one dared to explore the Blood Dragon Cave anymore. Several thousand years passed, and its story gradually faded into the mists of time.

At that moment

Deep inside the Blood Dragon Cave lay a vast, open cavern.

There

Blood-red clouds blanketed the place, and evil, demonic energy scattered everywhere—a scene of pure wickedness.

The Five Turbid Qi between heaven and earth poured into the cavern in an endless stream, transforming into Evil Qi and gathering into an ominous, uncanny mass.

Amid the boundless Evil Qi, a gigantic eyeball, a hundred meters across, slowly emerged.

"Number 25 is dead. Who'll go to Dragon-Raising Temple and find out what happened to that useless fool?"

"Number 7, how about you?"

A sinister voice emerged from the giant eyeball.

As the words fell, an eyeball smaller than the first surfaced from another place where the Evil Qi seethed. The number seven was etched on it.

The Seventh Eye slowly opened. A hazy stream of light appeared, transforming into a young man.

He was handsome and imposing, dressed in a scholar's robe of blue and white. He held a long sword for slaying demons, and with his feather fan and scholar's cap, he stood out from the crowd.

"Number 1, Dragon-Raising Temple cultivates Spirit Snake Spiritual Light, which is the perfect counter to the Giant Rat devil. Why send me?"

Number 7 frowned and continued, "Besides, you, Number 9, and Number 25 have always been in charge of Dragon-Raising Temple. Why not send Number 9? He's been coveting the Spirit Snake flesh there for ages, hoping to devour and refine it so he can evolve."

At his words, a trace of blood flickered in the giant eyeball's gaze. A dark silhouette seemed to loom within it, and the sinister voice spoke again. "Number 9 has more important matters. The Luojia Mountain ruins have revealed signs of their location. Number 9 must pinpoint them. We've spent all these years plotting this. This time, there can be no mistakes."

"One hundred Devil Zombie Blood Pills."

"All you have to do is secretly investigate what happened to Number 25 at Dragon-Raising Temple. You don't need to clash with the temple."

Number 7 was taken aback. Frowning, he asked, "What's at Dragon-Raising Temple that has you in such a hurry, Number 1? A hundred Devil Zombie Blood Pills... You're really willing to pay. Could the temple have something to do with these ruins?"

"But that doesn't make sense. You started plotting against Dragon-Raising Temple three years ago... What are you really after?"

Number 7 voiced his suspicions, but after waiting a long while without an answer from Number 1, he pursed his lips and continued, "I don't mind going, but I need a few elemental spirit rats. I know you still have forces in Yanfeng Nation, and you must have some in reserve. One. I only need one elemental spirit rat, and I'll go investigate."

"How about it?"

The giant eyeball stared at Number 7. After a long silence, the Evil Qi around it gathered, and a red spirit rat appeared before them, unconscious.

"This is a Fire Rat. You know how precious it is. I expect a prompt report on what happened to Number 25."

"And from now on, call me Devil Lord!"

With that, the giant eyeball vanished in an instant, leaving the young man, Number 7, standing motionless for a long time.

Clutching the spirit rat, Number 7 eventually popped it into his mouth. After a suffocating bout of chewing, blazing flames suddenly rose from his body.

"Heh... He really thinks he's the Hundred-Eyed Devil."

"Who knows where the flowers will fall, or who will be the last stag standing? The winner's still anyone's guess!"

Time flew by. Three days had passed since Su Qingqiu shed his skin.

This molt had been far more difficult than he had imagined.

Spirit Serpents were supposed to fall asleep while shedding their skin. But during the process, Su Qingqiu had been jolted awake by the pain three separate times.

The first time was when the skin on his head split. The instant it had fully peeled away, it had felt as though his whole head had been struck by lightning, accompanied by a searing pain beyond anything he could imagine.

The Crimson Fire Horn was fully merging into his frontal bone.

It was becoming a part of him.

The second time was at the snake's seven-inch point. After the scales there fell away one by one, they began to grow back in reverse, and the Spiritual Patterns on each new scale were unlike those on any of the others.

They were harder, darker, and filled with an unimaginable amount of fire-aspected Spiritual Light.

Dragons had reverse scales. Touch one, and they would fly into a rage.

After gaining the Crimson Fire Horn, Su Qingqiu had already begun to reveal how different he was from ordinary Spirit Serpents.

Now he had even grown a reverse scale.

The third time came after he had shed his entire skin. The instant the molt was complete, he felt as though he were in a furnace, his soul on the verge of splitting apart.

The agony was unbearable.

He had no idea how he had endured it.

When he slowly woke, he felt as though his body brimmed with explosive strength. Flames blazed around him, and the air nearby warped in the scorching heat.

The spot where Su Qingqiu had coiled inside the Dragon Bone bore a white scorch mark. The sheer heat of the flames released as he shed his skin was plain to see.

Body Strength: 104.9

Body Defense: 144.6

Crimson Fire Spiritual Light: 9000

Combat Power Assessment: 1024

Both of his physical attributes had broken a hundred, and his defense had nearly reached a hundred and fifty.

What did that mean?

It meant that ordinary human weapons could barely leave a mark on him. Even a cultivator in the Refining Essence into Qi stage, using spells reinforced with magic power and Daoism Cultivation, would find it exceedingly difficult to penetrate his defenses without a divine weapon.

Generally speaking, the Human Race of the Great Profound Realm divided cultivation into three stages: Refining Essence, Refining Qi, and Refining Spirit. The Ten Nations and Twelve Veins had their own ranks within this system.

Three stages, nine grades.

First grade was the highest.

Ninth grade was the foundation.

Ninth-grade cultivators absorbed spiritual energy and transformed it into the Dao; at eighth grade, Spiritual Patterns formed naturally...

The lower three grades were common, but the middle three were rare. Even Dragon-Raising Temple had few cultivators of that level.

As for the upper three grades, they existed only in legends.

So with his natural defenses alone, Su Qingqiu could ignore attacks from the lower three grades. Build the thickest armor and take the lightest beating—his strategy was already starting to pay off.

Of course, it was hard to judge his exact strength. After all, the Spirit Snake's path of transforming into a dragon was entirely different from the path followed by the Human Race of the Ten Nations and Twelve Veins.

Human cultivation was varied and unpredictable, relying on the Spiritual Light of natural treasures. Spirit beasts, by contrast, relied on brute strength and went straight at things, using their innate abilities.

All in all, each had its strengths. They belonged to entirely different systems and couldn't be compared.