The image in the Water Mirror suddenly shook.
The mire exploded completely.
Black sludge shot more than a thousand zhang into the sky, gouging out pit after pit as it rained down.
Old Ancestor Hunyuan and Old Ancestor Wuji retreated again and again. Behind them, the formation of over a dozen Longevity Realm experts fell into disarray, and some already felt their legs going weak.
Boom!
At the center of the mire, an enormous shadow slowly rose.
First came a head.
That head was as large as a city, blue-black all over, its skin riddled with festering holes. Sickly green mist poured from every one of them.
Two eyes sat atop its head, cloudy white and devoid of pupils. A mere turn of those eyes stirred up a foul wind.
Then came the body.
Its edges were nowhere to be seen. Amid the churning poison miasma, the creature's body merged with the entire Immortal-Fall Swamp. The mire was its flesh, and the bubbles were its breathing.
Old Ancestor Hunyuan stood rooted to the spot, his calves trembling uncontrollably.
"What... what the fuck is that thing?"
Old Ancestor Wuji's throat felt dry enough to smoke. "Immortal-Fall Swamp... Immortal-Fall Swamp. It's immortals that fall here. No wonder it has that name."
The Ancient Demon did not attack immediately.
It merely took a breath.
Whoosh—
A visible cloud of green mist sprayed from its festering nostrils, sweeping through the space in front of Old Ancestor Hunyuan.
Old Ancestor Hunyuan reacted swiftly, forming a hand seal and deploying his sect's guardian magic treasure, the Nine Heavens Black Iron Shield.
The Black Iron Shield hovered above his head, iron light swirling across it as layers of inscriptions lit up, protecting an area a hundred zhang across.
The green mist drifted onto the shield.
Sizzle.
The