A Once-in-a-Millennium Opportunity: The Contest of Incense Blending (Part 2)

Ji Er, who had been following cautiously behind, felt his scalp go numb at the sound. As Ji Yuan's personal attendant, he too possessed upper-stage Spirit Communion cultivation and had always known how to read the situation. Seeing that the lord ahead had flown into a rage, he was about to step out, confess, and apologize before matters became irreparable. Yet just as he was about to speak, Jiu Yan did not turn around. Instead, a long plume of Killing Intent rose hissing behind him against the roaring sea wind. With a twist, it transformed into a gigantic python thirty zhang long, coiling through clouds and mist, its scales gleaming coldly. Its pupils were murky yellow and dark, huge as lanterns, casting a dim, chilling light directly toward him. Then came another sharp hiss. The python opened a bottomless maw wide enough to swallow an elephant and pounced to kill. As it moved, this stretch of coastal mudflat seemed to plunge into a bottomless abyss—gloomy and miserable, winds whistling, damp cold breath licking at his face. Ji Er's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He wanted to scream, "Misunderstanding!" but the Killing Intent had seized him, and no sound would leave his throat. In the end, only one thought remained in his heart: I'm dead! Yet at that very moment, two booming blasts erupted from the distant mudflats behind him. Two surging auras crossed dozens of li through the air and fought the python's Killing Intent from afar. The python, trailing its grim Killing Intent, swept over his head. His blood froze solid, and the shockwave it raised flung him onto his back. Just then, on the upside-down mudflat before his eyes, a blazing sword light abruptly shot up, meeting the mist-riding python head-on. Its metallic cry rang out,