The Python Grows Horns

Under the pool.

Gazing up at the heroic figure of the boy riding the snake, Ning Yao looked dazed. For a moment, she was completely entranced.

Only when she began to sink did she suddenly come to her senses and hurriedly resume swimming upward in an utterly ungainly manner.

Unlike Pang Jian, who was well versed in swimming and moved through the water like a fish, the Ning family's young lady swam like a dog paddling. Her movements were stiff and clumsy.

Seeing the boy clamp his legs around the python's neck, his body straight as a sword as he repeatedly thrust his spear at Jin Yang, Ning Yao secretly regretted never having learned to swim properly.

The boy was skilled in the water, cleverly using the python's momentum. Each time he thrust at Jin Yang, his spear landed with tremendous force.

Jin Yang, whom even Hong Tai had to serve with care, fled in a panic, blood blossoms appearing across his body one after another.

But how could a mere hunter's son have such tigerish courage, daring to slaughter a high-ranking Dark Ghost from the Fourth Realm?

Was he not afraid the Dark Ghost would take its mad revenge, capturing and torturing him without mercy?

As Ning Yao recalled what had happened, she suddenly realized that ever since they entered the Cenji Mountains, Pang Jian had seemed to hold the initiative at every turn in their dealings. He appeared to be an unremarkable boy her own age, but—

Even her exalted status as a young lady of the Ning Family had made no difference.

Pang Jian had always regarded her without either deference or disdain, never treating her like anyone particularly remarkable.

That was nothing like the way the common folk she had met in Linshan Town treated her.

"He's definitely hiding a lot from me!"

She became all the more certain that Pang Jian's origins were no simple matter.

Perhaps Pang Jian really was a survivor from some Blood Moon, Galaxy Alliance, or Yin Spirit Temple in the Upper Realm. Perhaps he had killed the real Pang siblings after leaving the Cenji Mountains, then waited for a search party like hers to arrive.

Ning Yao could not help wondering, What exactly is he plotting?

At the peak of the Phoenix Bone that jutted above the water.

The graceful figure shrouded in blood mist was both tense and excited. Her pair of bewitching, eerie eyes stared fixedly below.

Beneath the Phoenix Bone, the liquid amber glimmer representing the Phoenix Marrow was slowly rising toward her.

Luo Hongyan, who had no real flesh and blood, habitually posed as if taking a deep breath, then remembered that she did not need to breathe at all.

"When the Phoenix Marrow had fully formed, it sensed that Ouyang Duanhai had been consumed by it. To keep from being refined by him, it had no choice but to float upward."

"That boy called Jin Yang clearly has decent cultivation talent. How did he not become its host?"

Luo Hongyan furrowed her brow in thought.

She knew something about the Phoenix Marrow's nature.

Legend had it that when the Heavenly Phoenix suffered a grievous wound, its feathers and bones, separated from its body, would instinctively seek out something brimming with blood and vital energy. After killing it, they would gather its vast essence of flesh and blood to refine a new Phoenix Marrow.

If a Phoenix Bone was too far away from the Heavenly Phoenix's true body, then after the Phoenix Marrow formed, it would choose a nearby living creature as its host. By devouring the creature's soul and flesh, it would complete the first awakening of its own consciousness.

Whenever Phoenix Marrow formed within a Phoenix Bone, it possessed an independent intelligence.

Every drop of Phoenix Marrow in the same area would choose a living creature as its host. Each one was an independent entity.

The Phoenix Marrow would also instinctively fight and devour one another, merging to form the strongest "Heavenly Phoenix Divine Guard."

The "Heavenly Phoenix Divine Guard" had the duty and obligation to protect the Heavenly Phoenix. In the end, they would be summoned back to its side.

After returning to the Heavenly Phoenix, the "Heavenly Phoenix Divine Guards" scattered across the world and forged through mutual slaughter would transform into a new feather bone brimming with divine power, becoming part of the Heavenly Phoenix's wings once more.

If a Phoenix Bone that fell into the Cenji Mountains managed to kill a fierce creature like the Dark Giant Python the instant it struck the ground, a drop of Phoenix Marrow could form inside it.

Whenever Phoenix Marrow formed inside one of the fallen Phoenix Bones, it would choose someone nearby, like Ouyang Duanhai, to host it.

Everyone possessed by the Phoenix Marrow would instinctively seek out other Phoenix Bones and Phoenix Marrow. They would either refine the Phoenix Marrow within them or devour others who had been consumed by it, like themselves.

That was their mission.

Since the Phoenix Marrow gained an independent consciousness the instant it formed, it would also avoid being refined by its kind. It would want to find a suitable living host as soon as possible.

"Since I have no flesh and blood body, only a spirit form, it will never choose me."

Luo Hongyan pondered as the Phoenix Marrow inside the bone drew closer and closer, her heart in a constant torment.

In her spirit form, she could enter the Phoenix Bone beneath her and quickly sink down. She was confident she could intercept the Phoenix Marrow and claim it for herself, turning it into vital nourishment for building a body.

But the moment she fused with the Phoenix Marrow, she would inevitably clash with the intelligence born within it.

Until she dissolved the Phoenix Marrow's independent consciousness, she would be at her weakest. And as soon as she descended from above onto the Phoenix Bone, her spirit form would be exposed. Someone watchful at the bottom of the pool would surely see her.

She had a feeling that the being who had brought the Dark Giant Python from the Fifth Realm and kept it in the Blackwater Pool was waiting for greedy seekers of Phoenix Marrow like her to show themselves.

Her desire was almost overflowing, yet she still forced herself not to act.

She decided to wait a little longer.

All around her in the air hovered spirits refined from Pulse-Opening Realm cultivators, like Luo Meng. One after another, they waited for her command.

"Pfft!"

Underwater, Pang Jian gripped the Dragon-Patterned Spear tightly. Using the Dark Giant Python's force as it swam through the water, along with his own surging divine strength, he stabbed several bloody holes in Jin Yang.

History always repeated itself in astonishing ways.

Before he fell into the water, Jin Yang had controlled seven Cicada Wing Swords and chased after him, striking again and again.

Now Pang Jian was the one gripping the Dragon-Patterned Spear, repeatedly punching bloody holes through Jin Yang's body.

It was not that he wanted to slowly torture Jin Yang. He had no time for that. Rather, Jin Yang had reached the Pulse-Opening Realm, and whenever Pang Jian's spearhead pierced toward his back, Jin Yang could instantly shift position underwater.

Pang Jian's otherwise lethal thrusts could only leave bloody holes in nonlethal parts of Jin Yang's body.

Pang Jian quickly accepted the reality: Jin Yang was no low-level Qi Refining Realm Dark Ghost cultivator. He could not kill him with a single thrust.

So that was what it meant for a cultivator to be one realm higher. Even underwater, they could avoid blows to their vitals.

Fortunately, Jin Yang could not outrun the Dark Giant Python. Every time Pang Jian swept past him, he could adjust his direction and attack again.

Jin Yang had been swimming upward close along the Phoenix Bone. Bloody holes marked his waist, abdomen, legs, and shoulders, but he still did not stray far from the bone.

The Dark Giant Python, controlled by Pang Jian's thoughts, also kept its distance from Jin Yang, who was clinging close to the Phoenix Bone, as though it feared the Phoenix Marrow inside might take the opportunity to fly out.

After a while, neither Pang Jian nor Jin Yang, locked in their chase, had made it out of the pool.

Instead, Ning Yao, the worst swimmer with the ugliest form, had been so intent on reaching the surface for air that she was the first to leap out of the water.

She raised her head above the surface, swept her wet hair away from her face, and gulped down air.

Something suddenly stirred in her. She turned to look.

A procession of dim, gray shadows floated around the Phoenix Bone. Among them was one figure who was unmistakably the burly man loyal to Shangguan Qin.

Atop the Phoenix Bone, surrounded by several gray shadows, stood a graceful figure shrouded in blood mist, mysterious and powerful.

"The Demoness from the stone pile!"

Ning Yao cried out, realizing that the surface was dangerous too. The water might actually be safer.

"Perhaps she would work as a host."

"She has a body of flesh and blood. Earlier, when I had just broken through the seal, I wasn't strong enough to possess her. But now..."

"Whoosh!"

A streak of blood-red lightning suddenly shot toward her.

Ning Yao hesitated. When she saw the blood-red bolt fly out of the blood mist, it was already too late to duck back into the pool.

The bolt flashed into her brow.

Immediately, a breathtakingly beautiful figure, alluring enough to bring ruin to a kingdom, appeared indistinctly in her mind. In a sweet, intoxicating voice, she laughed and said, "Sorry, I'll borrow your body for a while. Please bear with me for a few days."

The instant she said this, Ning Yao discovered that she had been imprisoned within her own body. She could still faintly see the scene before her through her own eyes.

But her thoughts and consciousness could no longer control her body. She could not even speak.

"Don't worry. You won't die for now."

Luo Hongyan whispered, then leaped out of the water in Ning Yao's body and landed lightly atop the Phoenix Bone.

Once Ning Yao's body had its feet firmly on the ground, Luo Hongyan thought that now she had a body of flesh and blood, the Phoenix Marrow with an independent consciousness might have nowhere better to turn. When it ran out of options, it should come to her on its own.

Then she would give it a great "surprise."

"Scatter."

She gracefully waved her pale jade arm, and the spirits like Luo Meng drifted away to various spots around the Blackwater Pool.

Then she crouched down and looked into the water through Ning Yao's eyes.

Jin Yang was still swimming upward, with Pang Jian riding the python in hot pursuit. The two of them were now very close to the surface, close enough for her to see clearly.

As she watched, she saw the Dark Ghost youth named Jin Yang take another spear thrust from Pang Jian.

Having lost too much blood, Jin Yang suddenly grew dizzy for an instant, and his limbs went limp underwater.

"He's dead."

She shook her head gently.

Just as if she had pronounced his death sentence, the boy riding the snake suddenly lit up. He aimed the spear at Jin Yang's vital spots and stabbed him several times in the back of the neck and the heart.

After making sure Jin Yang was truly dead, the boy abruptly dismounted the snake and reached the corpse, pulling a Green Jade Lotus Leaf from his chest.

A pleased smile appeared in his eyes. He pressed the enormous leaf reverently against his heart.

Only then did the boy head toward the Black-White King Python, which seemed unwilling to get too close to the Phoenix Bone and was waiting at a distance.

From atop the Phoenix Bone, Luo Hongyan looked down into the water through Ning Yao's eyes. A powerful sense of alarm suddenly seized her, and she turned to look at the Black-White King Python she had been thinking about.

The Black-White King Python's eyes, once green, were now completely black. Its pupils seemed like two deep pools of water.

Deep within the Black-White King Python's strange eyes, she saw tiny black snakes, thin as strands of hair, quietly slithering about.

Luo Hongyan gathered her divine sense and used her divine power to reinforce Ning Yao's eyes, examining the Black-White King Python's pair of obsidian-like pupils.

She saw it clearly in an instant.

In the pitch-black depths of its eyes, like pools of water, every slender little snake had olive-green scales and tiny black spots along its body.

And on each little snake's forehead, a tiny horn was just beginning to emerge.

"Once a python grows scales, it becomes a boa; once a boa grows horns, it is about to become a flood dragon; once a flood dragon grows legs and claws, it becomes a dragon!"

Luo Hongyan's expression changed abruptly.

"Inside the Black-White King Python is the beast soul of the Dark Giant Python! The Dark Giant Python that was killed by the Phoenix Bone had already begun to grow horns. It was clearly in the midst of transforming into a flood dragon!"

Once she saw the truth, Luo Hongyan panicked.

She finally understood why the Black-White King Python was so powerful that it could even devour the spirits she had refined.

She also suddenly realized why no horns had been visible on the enormous skeleton of the Dark Giant Python. When the Phoenix Bone fell from the sky, it had been aimed at the horns just beginning to emerge from the Dark Giant Python.

First, the Phoenix Bone had shattered the Dark Giant Python's budding horns. Then it pierced through its skull and pinned it to the bottom of the pool.