This time, though, it was like stirring up a hornet's nest.
The enormous python raised its head high.
A nauseating stench of blood and decay poured from its bottomless, gaping maw.
"Ah!"
The green-robed cultivator's hair hung loose, and terror had shattered his courage. He had completely lost his reason and could no longer think. In a panic, he activated the spirit talisman clenched tightly in his hand.
At once, green light blazed.
A square seal appeared.
Spirit light flowed across it, faintly reflecting lakes and mountains.
A talisman treasure forged by a Spirit Transformation cultivator.
At first, it was only the size of a palm.
But amid the jade-green light, it quickly swelled, becoming as immense as a towering mountain in the blink of an eye.
A rumble filled the air as it crashed down toward the giant python's head.
The green-robed cultivator didn't even look back. Terror-stricken, he turned and fled without hesitation.
"Hiss..."
A grating hiss, like the scrape of teeth, rang out.
The python didn't lunge to devour its prey. Instead, it held its head high and flicked its forked tongue.
A tremendous sucking sound came from the air.
The green-robed cultivator, who had been fleeing for his life, suddenly stopped in midair.
It wasn't that he wanted to stop. He was powerless to move.
He felt a tremendous force pulling at him, leaving him unable to stir. His whole body trembled, his face filled with terror.
"No..."
He cried out to the heavens.
But as the sucking sound grew louder, a layer of bloody mist drifted from his seven orifices and the pores of his body.
He was like a deflating wineskin. His skin rapidly lost its luster, and the middle-aged man who had looked barely forty saw his thick black hair dry out in moments. Before long, he had become a withered old man.
His eyes went dull, and the life left him.
At last, his corpse fell from the sky, reduced to a dried husk.
"G-g-g..."
The red-robed woman had witnessed it all. Her teeth chattered, cold sweat covering her head, and she clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.
She wasn't grieving. She simply felt the terror of seeing one of her own meet such a fate; watching the green-robed cultivator die made her feel like a hare mourning a dead fox.
What could she do?
She didn't dare run.
The warning was right before her eyes.
But staying here meant being swallowed by the serpent all the same.
She was afraid of death, of course. Even someone brave and fearless, who wouldn't so much as furrow their brow with a blade at their throat, would surely tremble at a death like this.
Just then, the python turned its head.
Though it had just devoured a Nascent Soul Cultivator, it was clearly still unsatisfied.
Its cold, venomous eyes fixed on the feast before it.
Madam Wei was on the verge of breaking down.
She didn't want to die.
But she had no choice now.
She gripped an object tightly in her hand.
She wasn't preparing to fight back. She meant to take her own life.
"At least I got to see my enemy die before me."
The red-robed woman gave a bitter laugh.
Then she abruptly thrust the short sword in her hand toward her dantian.
She meant to destroy her Nascent Soul along with herself, then detonate all the spiritual power in her body—not to hurt the enemy, but to keep her corpse from ending up in the serpent's belly.
It was the best choice she could make when all other options had run out.
But the next moment, she realized in horror that she couldn't move.
A cold gleam shone in the python's enormous, narrow eyes, with perhaps a hint of mockery.
As if to say: A tiny morsel thinks it can shake a tree? Did you really think you had any chance to struggle against this king?
The python had made no sound.
Yet Madam Wei felt as though she could read its eyes.
She was more terrified than ever.
Not only could she not move, but the spiritual power in her dantian and meridians seemed frozen solid.
What kind of demon was this?
It was not only enormous; its cultivation was probably beyond imagination.
Just then, the python's head slowly drew near.
Like Mount Tai bearing down upon her, its vast bulk nearly blotted out the entire sky. The stench of its drool was enough to make her retch.
At that very moment—
Clang...
Metal rang against metal.
The clouds split open.
It was as if something had suddenly torn the gloom to shreds—the gloom that had made even the blazing sun hide behind the clouds when the great demon appeared.
The sky cleared once more, and sunlight spilled through the clouds.
It fell upon her, driving away the chill and bringing warmth.
Madam Wei, who had already closed her eyes and awaited death, suddenly opened them.
Then, to her astonishment, she found she was still alive.
Not only that, but her numb hands and feet could move again. The spiritual power within her, which had seemed sealed in ice, began to stir, like spring returning to a frozen land.
She had escaped death, but after her initial joy, confusion took hold.
Had some powerful senior arrived?
But why couldn't she sense the immense spiritual power such a person should give off?
Wait—that towering sword intent...
Madam Wei suddenly realized what had changed everything.
She turned her head sharply and saw that the giant python's attention had long since left her.
High in the sky, above the nine heavens, a sword hung aloft, its Sword Qi soaring into the heavens.
Its tip pointed straight at the giant python.
The beast was no longer as relaxed and carefree as before, as if nothing could concern it.
Instead, a rumbling filled the air. The python's body, stretching for who knew hundreds or thousands of miles, trembled.
Its shuddering shook the ground.
Boulders tumbled down the mountainside; chickens scattered and dogs leaped about; the trees bent low once more.
A cold gleam shone in its eyes, yet it couldn't control the fear in its heart.
Even the Black Python Demon King found it hard to believe.
In a daze, it was transported back ten thousand years. Back then, it had been a tiny black snake, slithering through the forest.
Suddenly, a downpour had begun. The rumble of thunder had filled it with a fear etched deep into its soul—the fear of heavenly thunder.
And now, it was the same.
No, it was worse.
Back then, though the heavenly thunder had been terrifying, it hadn't thundered for its sake. But now, the Black Python Demon King could feel that its very life force had been completely locked onto by its opponent.
Its eyes glimmered with a chilling light, yet it didn't dare move a muscle.
The two were worlds apart in size.
And yet, at this moment, it felt as if it were the small, helpless one.
It didn't dare move, but the Locust Wood Immortal Sword wasn't going to wait around.
It had come here to kill its enemy, not merely to intimidate it.
Its master had said it was now a mature immortal sword, and it had to learn to slay demons on its own.
Though it didn't understand, it had to carry out its master's will.
And so...
Like a flood of silver light, like a thunderbolt streaking across the sky.
The immortal sword hanging high above the nine heavens seemed to turn into a blinding sun.
Sunlight spilled down, shining upon all things.
The earth crumbled into grains; the trees dissolved and vanished on the wind.
Beneath that blazing sun, all things seemed to melt like spring snow.
And the enormous Black Python Demon King, stretching as far as the eye could see like a mountain range, saw its immense demonic aura crumble away...
Its vast demonic body vanished on the wind. This peerless great demon, in that instant, was no more than a clay chicken or earthen dog—utterly defenseless.