The Nest

Lin Yun chased the Heaven-Swallowing Python through several streets.

Although the Heaven-Swallowing Python was severely injured, its speed in the water remained astonishingly fast. It fled frantically along the canal, its massive body leaving a churning wake of white foam in the water. Lin Yun sprinted at high speed across the ruins on the bank, nine Flying Daggers circling around him, ready to strike at any moment.

"You run fast." Lin Yun gritted his teeth and accelerated.

He knew that if the Heaven-Swallowing Python escaped into the depths of West Lake, he would never be able to catch it again. The water in West Lake was over dozens of meters deep with complex underwater terrain, and it was home to many other aquatic Monsters. In his current state, his chances of winning a fight against an injured High-Level Lord Rank monster underwater were slim.

The Heaven-Swallowing Python seemed to realize this as well, desperately fleeing toward the direction of West Lake.

Man and snake chased each other through the night, passing collapsed bridges, abandoned docks, and flooded streets. The surface of the canal grew wider and the water deeper—West Lake was almost here.

Lin Yun knew he could not wait any longer.

He accelerated, and the moment the Heaven-Swallowing Python was about to enter West Lake, he leaped onto its back.

The Heaven-Swallowing Python sensed the intruder on its back and twisted its body frantically, trying to shake him off. The giant snake body rolled in the water, kicking up waves several meters high. Lin Yun gripped the edge of a scale tightly with one hand, while his other hand held the Blood Shadow Battle Blade, hacking at the creature's body blow after blow.

But the scales of the Heaven-Swallowing Python were too thick; the battle blade could only leave shallow scratches on them.

Lin Yun gritted his teeth. He knew that he could not kill this snake using conventional methods. The defense of a High-Level Lord Rank could not be easily broken by the Spiritual Force and battle blade of an Intermediate War God.

He needed another way.

Lin Yun closed his eyes and sank his consciousness deep into his soul.

There, the fragments of the Death Law rotated slowly in the darkness like black stars. The insights from the Necromancy Inheritance Stele surged into his mind at this moment.

Soul Attack.

This was the most bizarre and lethal technique in necromancy, attacking the enemy's soul directly. In the Coiling Dragon World, this was the trump card of a Necromancer. In the Swallowed Star World, he had never used it, and he wasn't even sure if he could.

But now, he had no other choice.

Lin Yun converted all his Spiritual Force into soul power, condensing it into an invisible spike, and thrust it toward the depths of the Heaven-Swallowing Python's consciousness.

In that instant, he "saw" the soul of the Heaven-Swallowing Python.

It was a massive, deep-blue ball of light, larger than any undead creature he had ever seen in the Undead Realm. The ball of light was filled with brutality and madness, but in its deepest core, there was a warm glow—that was its protective instinct, the thing it refused to give up even in the face of death.

Lin Yun's soul spike pierced into that ball of light.

The soul of the Heaven-Swallowing Python trembled violently, emitting a silent scream. The sound did not travel through the air but exploded directly in Lin Yun's mind, shaking his very soul. Blood gushed from his nose, his ears buzzed, and his entire consciousness blurred.

The body of the Heaven-Swallowing Python stiffened suddenly, stopping its struggle. It floated in the water, its massive body swaying gently with the current as if it had lost consciousness.

Now!

Enduring the soul-tearing pain, Lin Yun controlled the nine Flying Daggers to fly out simultaneously. The daggers lined up in a straight row in the air, aiming at the spot on the top of the Heaven-Swallowing Python's head where the scales had been shattered by Lin Zheng earlier, and stabbed in continuously.

The first Flying Dagger pierced along the crack, deepening the wound by an inch.

The second, the third, the fourth... the daggers stabbed into the same wound one after another, each one going deeper than the last.

When the eighth Flying Dagger struck, the skull of the Heaven-Swallowing Python was penetrated.

The intense pain jolted the Heaven-Swallowing Python from its stupor. It let out a deafening hiss, its body twisting frantically, throwing Lin Yun off its back. Lin Yun tumbled in the water a few times, barely stabilizing himself.

On the head of the Heaven-Swallowing Python, a fist-sized bloody hole was gushing deep-blue blood. It was on the verge of death, but it did not fall. It used its last bit of strength to swim toward the bottom of the lake.

The Heaven-Swallowing Python's speed was very slow, but it persisted. Its massive body dragged a deep groove into the lake bed, blood continuously pouring from the wound and staining the surrounding lake water. It was like a dying warrior, using its last ounce of strength to return to a certain place.

Lin Yun hesitated for a moment, then followed.

The breathing of the Heaven-Swallowing Python grew weaker, and its body grew heavier. It finally swam to a ruin at the bottom of the lake—it was an ancient building submerged underwater, perhaps an old temple or palace by West Lake before the Great Nirvana. Huge stone pillars lay collapsed on the lake bed, broken walls were covered in water weeds, and exquisite carvings were faintly visible in the silt.

The Heaven-Swallowing Python swam to the entrance of the largest building in the ruins, and its body finally gave out. Its head slowly sank into the silt, and its final breath was squeezed from its body, turning into a string of bubbles rising toward the surface.

It was dead.

It died at the entrance of its lair, only a few steps away from its goal.

Lin Yun floated in the water, looking at the corpse of this giant python, a complex emotion rising in his heart. It could have swum upward, toward the surface to escape; that was its chance to live. But it chose to go downward, to the bottom of the lake, fleeing to these ruins until its last breath was exhausted.

It had risked everything to return here.

Why?

Lin Yun's gaze fell on the entrance of the ruins. In the darkness, a deep, cavernous opening was vaguely visible, pitch black inside, revealing nothing. But his Spiritual Force told him that there was something inside the cave.

A strange aura that made his heart race drifted slowly from the cave.

Lin Yun swam toward the entrance. The opening was narrow, just enough for one person to pass through. He turned sideways and squeezed in. Inside was a long corridor, the walls covered in faded reliefs. The passage was narrow, the water here barely flowed, and visibility was extremely low. Lin Yun's Spiritual Force could only cover a range of a dozen meters here.

He swam forward cautiously.

The corridor seemed endless. The further he went, the colder and clearer the water became. He did not know how long he had been swimming when the space ahead suddenly opened up.

Lin Yun surfaced and found himself in a massive stone chamber. There were cracks in the ceiling of the chamber, and moonlight spilled through them, casting mottled light and shadows on the dark water. In the center of the chamber was a protruding stone platform that was not submerged.

Lin Yun climbed onto the stone platform.

Then, he saw a plant.

It grew right in the center of the stone platform, entirely emerald green, crystal clear, and emitting a faint glow. The entire plant was only the size of a palm, with six leaves arranged in a circle at the top. Each leaf was as thin as a cicada's wing, and one could see the green light flowing within the veins. In the middle of the leaves, a round red fruit lay quietly, its surface smooth as a mirror, glowing with an alluring luster under the moonlight.

Lin Yun held his breath.

He had never seen a plant like this before; it did not resemble any species on Earth, looking more like something out of a legend.

He crouched down to observe the plant closely. Six leaves surrounded a red fruit, shaped with such regularity that it looked like a piece of art meticulously carved by human hands. The fragrance of the fruit was faint but refreshing, and a single whiff was enough to invigorate the spirit.

Was this the reason the Heaven-Swallowing Python had risked its life to return here—to guard this plant?

Lin Yun reached out and gently touched the red fruit. It trembled slightly, and a warm surge of energy flowed from his fingertip into his body, making his blood feel as if it were boiling, like a starving beast catching the scent of fresh blood.

His pupils contracted sharply.

This fruit...

Lin Yun took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He did not know what this plant was, what side effects it might have, or how long the Heaven-Swallowing Python had been guarding it. But now was not the time for research.

He took a sealed container from his backpack and carefully dug out the entire plant, roots and soil intact, placing it inside. The root system was shallow, anchored only in a thin layer of dirt on the surface of the stone platform, as if the plant did not require much nourishment.

After putting the container into his backpack, Lin Yun took one last look at the stone chamber.

Moonlight spilled through the cracks, shattering into silver light spots on the water's surface. The blurred reliefs on the stone walls flickered in the interplay of light and shadow, as if telling a forgotten story.

He did not know what the plant was, but he knew that anything capable of making a High-Level Lord Rank Monster fight to the death to protect it was definitely not an ordinary object.

Lin Yun turned and jumped into the water, swimming out along the tunnel he had come through.

By the time he emerged from the ruins, the corpse of the Heaven-Swallowing Python had already sunk into the silt at the entrance. Lin Yun glanced at the giant python before using his Spiritual Force to begin the dissection, packing away its intact scales, snake skin, snake gall, and other important materials before swimming upward.

The moment he broke the surface of the water, he took deep, gasping breaths of fresh air. Moonlight spilled onto the surface of the West Lake, shattering into silver light spots. The ruins on the shore stood silent in the night, as if keeping watch over something.

"Lin Yun! Lin Yun!"

Shen Yang's shout came from afar. The other members of the Thunder Blade Squad were searching along the lake shore. Lin Zheng was leaning on his blade, limping as he walked in the lead, his face full of anxiety. Liu Xu was being supported by Luo Fang; her face was pale, but her eyes were constantly searching for something.

Seeing Lin Yun's head emerge from the water, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"You brat!" Shen Yang ran over and pulled him onto the shore, "You scared us to death! You chased after it alone—do you have a death wish?"

Lin Yun gave a bitter smile. Soaked to the bone and exhausted, he sat down on the ground, looked up at the sky, and let out a long breath.

"It's dead," he said.

Lin Zheng walked over, leaning on his blade, and looked down at him: "Where is the body?"

"At the bottom of the lake, next to some ruins," Lin Yun said, "It was too big to bring back. I only took the snake gall, the scales, and the skin." Lin Yun pointed to the pile of snake skin that looked like a small hill and the hundreds of intact scales nearby. The scales were as exquisite as works of art, their camouflage patterns shifting colors in the light.

He took the snake gall out of his backpack. Under the moonlight, the gall was the size of a human head, deep blue throughout, and emitting a faint glow.

Lin Zheng looked at these items and remained silent for a long time.

"The snake gall, scales, and skin of a High-Level Lord Rank Heaven-Swallowing Python..." His voice was a bit hoarse, "On this trip, you earned more by yourself than all of us combined."

Lin Yun shook his head: "Without the captain blocking the front, without Sister Liu drawing its attention, and without everyone pinning it down, I couldn't have killed it alone. These materials should be divided according to the rules."

He paused and added, "Besides, I found something else at the bottom of the lake."

Everyone's eyes focused on him.

Lin Yun took the sealed container from his backpack and opened the lid. Under the moonlight, the emerald-green plant emitted a faint phosphorescence. The six leaves surrounded the central red fruit, looking too beautiful to be real.

Everyone held their breath.

"This is..." Shen Yang's eyes widened, "What is this?"

"I don't know," Lin Yun said, "But the Heaven-Swallowing Python risked its life to swim back there just to guard it. I found it in its nest."

Lin Zheng stared at the plant for a long time before speaking slowly: "When we get back, find someone to appraise it. Before that, don't tell anyone."

His gaze swept over everyone: "Today's events are classified. The fact that Lin Yun is a Spiritual Master, and the existence of this plant—no one is allowed to speak of it."

Everyone nodded in succession. They all understood what kind of trouble would follow if this information leaked out.

Lin Yun packed the sealed container away again, leaned against the wall, and closed his eyes.

His Spiritual Force was almost completely exhausted, and his soul power was nearly drained; he felt as if he had been hollowed out. But the corners of his mouth turned up slightly.

The Heaven-Swallowing Python was dead, and Liu Xu had survived. The wall between Lin Zheng and Liu Xu had finally collapsed as well.

Furthermore, he had obtained that mysterious plant.

This night was worth it.

He touched the sealed container in his backpack, his consciousness gradually sinking into sleep. This time, he really needed to rest.