The bottom of the pool.
A shadowy corner.
The python clamped Pang Jian in its sinister jaws. Its body rapidly stiffened and went numb from some strange, scorching heat. The remnant beast soul of the Dark Giant Python felt a vast, formidable power seal it in place.
After passing through its transformation, the python's eyes had turned as dark as obsidian. Deep within them, countless hair-thin spirit serpents could be seen, slowly drowning in a blazing sea of light.
Each pitch-black spirit serpent, as fine as a strand of hair, was a wisp of beast soul it had refined. Now they were rapidly melting away.
The Dark Giant Python, clinging to this frail shell, found its beast soul firmly locked down by that vast, strange power. It wanted to flee, but couldn't.
All it could do was send out mournful pleas through its beast soul.
Who knew how long it lasted? It seemed like only an instant, yet also like an entire age. At last, its already fragmented beast soul stopped evaporating.
Then it heard Pang Jian muttering softly in his heart, "This guy's fangs don't seem very sharp."
The Dark Giant Python also sensed the boy it held in its mouth suddenly shove it away.
It looked at him with eyes full of pain and regret, only to find him studying it strangely as well. One thought after another seemed to be forming in the boy's mind.
It couldn't know any thoughts unrelated to itself, but whenever the boy thought of using it, it sensed it at once.
"If I can ride it into battle underwater, things should go much more smoothly."
As soon as the thought arose, the python flared with anger. Then it felt wisps of its beast soul being eroded once more.
It was instantly overcome with fear.
Looking at the Bronze Pendant hanging over the boy's chest, it suddenly had a flash of insight. To win itself a chance at survival, it took the initiative and drew closer.
It forced its long neck beneath the boy, offering itself as his mount in the water.
In the end, it's only a shell belonging to one of my kind, taken over by another. It won't tarnish my dignity.
It silently consoled itself.
It soon discovered that after fulfilling the boy's expectations, not only had its beast soul stopped disappearing, but some of the soul that had been swallowed by the sea of light had quietly returned.
Its spirit immediately lifted. As it recovered some lost memories, it finally understood one thing.
—So long as it obediently followed the boy's thoughts and humbly cooperated, it could gather up its beast soul and restore it to wholeness!
It tried to communicate with the boy, hoping he would keep giving it orders, but discovered he couldn't hear its thoughts.
It could only passively sense the boy's intentions, and even then, only the small portion related to itself.
In the dark, it felt as if a pair of unseen eyes watched it like a god, keeping it from touching forbidden things.
The Dark Giant Python had lost part of its beast soul and many crucial memories. It no longer knew why it had been so hostile toward the boy.
It only vaguely remembered that the Bronze Pendant hanging from the boy's chest was the most terrifying thing in the world.
To it, that object represented supreme majesty. No being could ever be allowed to profane it.
"Strange."
Freed from the snake's jaws, Pang Jian stared in bewilderment at the python that had tried to kill him, only to come over and carry him on its neck.
The spot on his back where the python's fangs had closed had only a few punctures. His bones hadn't been broken.
The wounds had bled a little, then quickly stopped.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't understand why such a vicious, cunning creature had suddenly become so tame and docile.
The snake inside this python wasn't even Hong Tai's. It was the great fiend lurking in Blackwater Pool.
Looking at the python's body, with bones stretching dozens of meters, Pang Jian found the Black Strange Snake possessing the smaller python more and more inexplicable.
I should join the battle.
The instant the thought surfaced, the python that had made itself his mount swam toward the Phoenix Bone.
Pang Jian was startled. Unable to speak underwater, he thought, Not yet!
The python halted at once.
Pang Jian's expression turned utterly strange. He tested it with a few more thoughts, trying to make the now-docile python move in different directions.
Wherever he thought of going, the python went, as if it were an extension of his limbs, a part of his body.
It can actually read my thoughts. This thing really is extraordinary, worthy of being a sentient spirit beast. But Zhou Qingchen and Han Duping never said spirit beasts could read other people's minds.
Unable to make sense of it, Pang Jian tried the python several more times. In the end, he confirmed that the Strange Snake, which had possessed one of its own kind, really did obey his every command.
What bothered Pang Jian was that he couldn't learn what the Strange Snake was thinking. He didn't know why it was in the pool, or why it obeyed him.
Still, with the Strange Snake's help, he felt even more confident about getting involved.
The wonder within the Phoenix Bone must be what caused my transformation. I might as well try my luck.
He didn't hurry to drive the python out. Instead, he remained hidden, watching the battle around the Phoenix Bone and waiting for the perfect opportunity.
Still at the bottom of the pool.
Bound by the Silver Net, Ning Yao puffed out her cheeks. Now and then she watched Hong Tai and three Pulse-Opening Realm experts join forces to hunt down the Ouyang Family's famous good-for-nothing. Then she glanced toward the place where the python had vanished.
She had seen Pang Jian wave goodbye to her before heading toward the dark patch beside the rock wall.
The python Hong Tai had sent to search for Pang Jian had swum that way too. It must have found where he was hiding.
But why hadn't the python reappeared?
Ning Yao felt Pang Jian had thoroughly humiliated her, and now she secretly resented him. She would have been glad to see the python tear him to pieces.
But she waited a long time, and the python never showed itself.
She was trying to hold her breath for as long as possible. Even though Hong Tai and the others had stopped paying attention to her, she didn't dare move around.
The more she struggled and twisted, the faster she would lose her breath. Even at the Pulse-Opening Realm, she couldn't last very long.
On the surface of the pool.
The alluring woman standing atop the Phoenix Bone had hesitated for a long time. At last, she could hold back no longer.
"Go down. Become my eyes and show me what's happening at the bottom of the pool."
With an elegant wave of her hand in the thin blood mist, she gave the order. The Dark Ghost cultivators at the Qi Refining Realm, possessed by Spirit Sha, dove into the water one after another.
As they entered the pool, the scene below unfolded across her mind like a complete, three-dimensional image from every angle.
The Phoenix Bone embedded in the Dark Giant Python's head; the battle around it; the strange state of Ouyang Duanhai, whose heart had been devoured by Phoenix Marrow; the way Hong Tai and Jin Yang kept glancing at the Phoenix Marrow spots within the bone; and Ning Yao staring absently toward a shadowy corner.
She saw it all.
But it wasn't enough for her.
She kept sending thoughts to the Spirit Sha, ordering the possessed Dark Ghost cultivators to spread out farther and search for the mastermind who had kept the Dark Giant Python captive.
Gradually, one of the Dark Ghost cultivators possessed by Spirit Sha finally headed toward the shadowy corner Ning Yao had been watching.
I can't join the battle against Hong Tai and the others, or that Humanoid Monster, just yet. But these Qi Refining Realm nobodies dare to come into the water looking for me? They really don't value their lives.
Pang Jian sneered inwardly. He glanced back at the stone door, now shut with only a narrow crack left, and silently committed its location to memory again.
Come with me. Let's slaughter them!
At the thought, the python possessed by the Dark Giant Python shot out from the shadowy corner where Pang Jian was hiding.
Underwater, the python suddenly became the quickest, most nimble creature in the pool. When it emerged without a sound, the Dark Ghost cultivator possessed by Spirit Sha didn't notice a thing.
"Pfft!"
A spear thrust forward, blooming into a flower of blood on the Qi Refining Realm Dark Ghost cultivator's forehead.
Obeying Pang Jian's thoughts and striving to restore its beast soul, the Dark Giant Python was astonished to see Spirit Sha lodged within the man's head, ripe for it to devour.
Deep in its obsidian-like eyes, two dark pools resembling Blackwater Pool appeared, and eddies quietly formed in their waters.
The dark pools within its eyes and the strange eddies in the pool water drew a hazy gray shadow out of the "flower of blood" on the Dark Ghost cultivator's forehead.
The shadow vanished into the Dark Giant Python's black eyes in an instant.
"I once swore I'd avenge you, Brother Zhou. If the chance arises and I'm able, I'll kill everyone involved."
After spearing the Dark Ghost cultivator, Pang Jian had already fixed his gaze on his next target. He hadn't noticed that inside the head of the Dark Ghost cultivator he believed dead, something else had been lurking all along.
He wasn't cultivating the Pot-Heaven Qi Cultivation Art, so he didn't know the Dark Giant Python had discovered anything. It was feeding by hunting down Spirit Sha.
"Next."
Killing intent rose in his heart again, and the Dark Giant Python beneath him eagerly cooperated.
The true master of Blackwater Pool carried Pang Jian through the water on a shell countless times weaker than its real body, racing along beneath the surface.
Pang Jian struck again and again with the Dragon-Patterned Spear.
The Dark Ghost cultivators who entered the water afterward, controlled by the mysterious woman's thoughts, died one after another beneath his spear.
At the bottom of the pool.
Ning Yao sat up inside the Silver Net, staring blankly as Pang Jian rode the spirit beast that had belonged to Hong Tai, Dragon-Patterned Spear in hand, and slaughtered the incoming Dark Ghost cultivators one by one.
Her beautiful eyes were filled with disbelief. She felt as if she were trapped in a nightmare.
Atop the Phoenix Bone.
Within the hazy blood mist, the alluring figure of the beautiful blood shadow stamped her foot and cursed, "Damn little thief! He's blinded all my eyes!"
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