The Seven-Colored Heaven-Swallowing Python

"Xiao... Zhan..." Her red lips parted, and the two words fell like beads of ice, still carrying a bone-deep chill. Yet somewhere in them, a hint of ineffable complexity and... curiosity had quietly emerged. Her figure swayed, seven-colored radiance flowing around her like a dream. In an instant, she melted into space, leaving behind only a brilliant afterimage before vanishing without a trace.

At the summit of the Demon Peak of Bones!

The Burning Heaven Holy Seal had dealt Saint Gu You a grievous blow, while the explosive power of Xiao Zhan's newly attained Dou Zun realm had been spent in that battle. The flaming phoenix wings on his back instantly dimmed, and the dragon-scale armor covering him flickered like a candle guttering in the wind. His aura fluctuated violently, and his strength fell from the Dou Zun realm back to Peak Dou Zong. His face was as pale as paper, and his body swayed slightly. Clearly, he had paid an unimaginable price for that strike.

"You ant! This Saint... will annihilate your body and soul!!!"

Tens of thousands of feet away, Saint Gu You's furious, near-mad roar rang out from the ruins of the collapsed bone mountain, shaking the heavens and echoing without end! An even more terrifying, even more frigid aura burst forth, carrying a will to destroy at any cost. Pale soul flame surged out like an erupting volcano, scattering the bone dust that filled the sky! Gu You's figure rose into the air again. His right arm had been severed at the shoulder, and pale soul flame burned fiercely at the stump, twisting as it tried to reshape the limb. But the lingering Dragon-Phoenix Holy Might and Chaos True Meaning stubbornly blocked it, thwarting his efforts! His aura was no longer at its former peak, yet killing intent blazed in his swirling, pale eyes like icy blades, enough to freeze a person's soul!

He said no more. He pointed his remaining left hand at Xiao Zhan from afar! At his fingertip, a pale point of light condensed to the utmost, embodying the pure source of "annihilation." It shot forth silently, like the kiss of death, carrying endless destruction and despair!

"Nirvana... Soul Finger!"

The finger beam was as fine as a thread, yet moved faster than thought could follow. Space silently vanished in its wake like thin paper, leaving behind an eternal black trail, as if the God of Death had carved his mark into the world. An absolute stillness that froze life and erased existence instantly locked onto the exhausted Xiao Zhan, leaving him nowhere to hide! This was Saint Gu You's killing blow, unleashed in a fury and infused with the annihilation laws at his core. He meant to erase Xiao Zhan completely!

There was nowhere to dodge, nothing to block it with. All resistance seemed futile!

"Father—!" Xiao Yan's pupils contracted, his eyes filled with terror and helplessness. The Chaos Fire Seed beat wildly in his palm, unleashing a sea of flames, but he could not reach his father in time. All he could do was watch as the fatal attack closed in!

At that critical moment, with life and death hanging in the balance!

"Hmph!"

A cold, haughty snort, as if it had come from the ninth heaven, rang out like thunder at the summit of the Demon Peak, making even the air tremble!

Space before Xiao Zhan rippled like water stirred by an invisible hand. A graceful figure wreathed in seven-colored radiance appeared before them as if she had crossed through time and space! It was Queen Medusa, reborn from her cocoon, peerlessly magnificent!

She raised a jade-like hand, her slender fingers graceful as orchids. With a light flick, she sent it toward the incoming Nirvana Soul Finger!

Hum!

A point of energy, condensed to the utmost and gleaming with a seven-colored, glasslike sheen, shot from her fingertip as if by teleportation. It struck the Nirvana Soul Finger with unerring precision, as though fate itself had arranged the encounter!

Hiss—!!!

There was no earth-shaking explosion, no deafening boom—only a faint, almost inaudible sound, like morning dew dripping, yet concealing boundless power and mystery!

The instant the seven-colored point of light met the Nirvana Soul Finger, it was like stars colliding with the dark of night, yet the result was entirely different! The terrifying finger beam, which contained a Saint's annihilation laws and could easily erase a Dou Zun expert, vanished soundlessly before the seven-colored light, like spring snow beneath the morning sun—as if it had never left a trace in this world!

The seven-colored point of light still carried some of its power. It became a tiny, brilliant streak of light and pierced through layers of space in an instant, shooting like an arrow toward the enraged Saint Gu You tens of thousands of feet away!

The swirling pale eyes of Saint Gu You contracted sharply, as if an unseen terror had seized his soul! A boundless warning, born of instinct for survival, washed over him. With no time to think, he hurriedly raised his remaining left hand and set up layer upon layer of pale soul-flame barriers before him, building one desperate defense after another!

Pfft!

Yet the seven-colored light pierced through every barrier without the slightest resistance, like a red-hot knife slicing through butter. It struck Saint Gu You squarely in the chest, as if fate itself had passed its precise judgment!

"Ugh—!" Saint Gu You grunted, his body lurching violently like a lone boat swept up by a gale! At the spot on his chest struck by the light, a tiny seven-colored, glasslike mark appeared. Fine cracks spread rapidly from it, weaving together like a spiderweb! A domineering force of seven-colored energy, containing the primal sources of devouring and annihilation, clung to him like a bone-boring maggot and fiercely eroded his Saintly essence! It was not fatal, but it gnawed at him like a persistent bone-deep affliction, bringing unending pain and a constant loss of his power at its source. The agony was unbearable!

"The Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python?! Or... its complete form?!" Saint Gu You stared fixedly at the graceful figure shrouded in seven-colored radiance. His voice held incredulous shock and a trace of deep wariness! The pressure rising from the depths of her bloodline made even him, a Saint, feel an unprecedented threat—as though he faced the most irresistible existence in all creation!

Queen Medusa hovered before Xiao Zhan, her seven-colored palace gown fluttering in the wind like a rainbow flowing across the horizon. Seven-colored divine light shimmered in her purple-gold eyes, like an exotic flower blooming in a deep galaxy. She gazed coldly and majestically at Saint Gu You in the distance. She made no further move, yet the supreme pressure that came from primordial antiquity—and the terrifying power she had just displayed by casually erasing a Saint's attack—had already become an invisible giant hand, the strongest deterrent of all, enough to make heaven and earth change color!

The seven-colored cracks on Saint Gu You's chest continued to bring the pain of erosion. At the stump of his severed arm, Dragon-Phoenix Holy Might and Chaos True Meaning intertwined stubbornly, causing his power at its source to keep draining away like a breached riverbank, impossible to stem. He stared at Queen Medusa amid the seven-colored radiance, his gaze blazing as if he meant to see through her. Then he looked at Xiao Zhan behind her, whose aura was unsteady but whose eyes were cold; at Xiao Yan below, watching him warily with Chaos flames leaping in his palm; and at Xiao Yi Xian, whose aura grew ever more mysterious, like a figure lost in the mist.

"Good... very good!" The fury in Saint Gu You's swirling pale eyes gradually subsided, replaced by icy venom and deep calculation. "Xiao Zhan... Medusa... and those two brats carrying the aura of the Immortal Hall... This Saint will remember you! One day, I'll repay you a hundredfold for this grudge and hatred!"

"The Soul Hall... will fight you... to the death!"

His icy voice seemed to come from the depths of hell, carrying boundless venom and curses as it rang across the summit of the Demon Peak. Before his words had fully faded, the pale soul flame around Saint Gu You suddenly blazed like an erupting volcano! Space twisted violently beneath that terrifying force, as though an invisible giant hand were kneading it at will. His figure gradually blurred, like ink dissolving in water—illusory and unreal—before vanishing completely amid the ripples of distorted space. All that remained was a chest wound deeply eroded by seven-colored cracks, his power at its source continuing to leak away, and his icy, venomous warning, which lingered in the air and sent chills through all who heard it.

The Saint... had finally retreated!

Silence once more enveloped the battered, scarred Demon Peak of Bones. Only the Chaos Demon Flame licked at the bones, crackling like the whispers of the God of Death, while the ragged, hurried breathing of those who had survived the ordeal told of the harrowing battle that had just unfolded.

Xiao Zhan gazed at the graceful figure before him, her back wreathed in seven-colored radiance. He felt that familiar yet now even more unfathomable, frigid pressure. His bloodstained lips struggled to form the faintest smile, and his hoarse voice carried the weariness and emotion of a man finally able to let out a breath:

"You... finally woke up..."