Cloudsky Mountain, home to the Swallowing Heaven Python Clan's Ancestral Land.
"How strange. This is already the third time in over a thousand years. Why has our emperor paid so much attention to the Swallowing Heaven Python Clan, constantly demanding that we offer up our clan's geniuses?"
"If this continues, the Swallowing Heaven Python Clan will have no one to carry on after the older generation, and our strength will plummet."
"What exactly has the Swallowing Heaven Python Clan done to offend our emperor?"
Inside the great hall, a Swallowing Heaven Python coiled around a stone pillar, his voice rumbling through the surroundings.
This Swallowing Heaven Python was not particularly large, nor were the fluctuations of power around him especially strong. Yet there was one obvious difference between him and the other Swallowing Heaven Pythons in the clan:
Two conspicuous bulges protruded from his forehead, as though something was growing inside them, about to break out of its shell.
This Swallowing Heaven Python was the current patriarch of the Swallowing Heaven Python Clan:
Yun Kong.
"Patriarch, perhaps you are worrying too much. Over these thousand years, our emperor has not merely taken notice of the Swallowing Heaven Python Clan. Other spirit serpents and flood dragons have also drawn his attention."
"Our clans have all received the same treatment. Every three hundred years, we must offer up our most outstanding juniors."
Below Yun Kong, another Swallowing Heaven Python, white currents of air gushing from his entire body, coiled around an enormous stone pillar.
This was Yun Ye, the Swallowing Heaven Python Clan's Second Elder.
"I truly don't understand what our emperor intends to do. Could he still retain some of the bestial nature he had before attaining the Dao, treating the Spirit Serpent Clan and Flood Dragon Clan as food?"
Yun