Only then did the students of Skywater Academy awaken as if from a dream.
Some turned to run, but their legs felt filled with lead. They could not take a single step.
The Nine Netherworld Dark Python's oppressive aura enveloped this stretch of sea. Its cold, savage presence made even breathing difficult, let alone escaping.
"We're... we're done for..."
A short-haired girl collapsed in the seawater, her face deathly pale and tears already welling in her eyes.
The others were no better off. Every one of them trembled; some clutched their companions' hands desperately, while others quivered so badly they could not utter a word.
Shui Bingyu struggled to shield her students. The Tidal Jewel's light had dimmed, barely sustaining a thin curtain of water.
But she knew that before the Nine Netherworld Dark Python, this barrier was no different from paper.
The Nine Netherworld Dark Python watched the terrified humans, a cruel sneer flashing in its dark-gold slit pupils.
It had a bellyful of rage with nowhere to vent it.
That boy had battered it relentlessly, leaving it covered in wounds and fleeing in disgrace. Even its poison prison had been frozen solid.
In its tens of thousands of years of life, when had it ever suffered such humiliation?
Now things were different.
A group of humans with feeble soul power stood in its path. It could not kill that boy, but slaughtering these people would be effortless.
The Nine Netherworld Dark Python opened its blood-gaping maw, dark-purple light gathering in its throat.
Nether Sea Soul Devourer.
This time, it held nothing back.
The beam was thicker and fiercer than before, carrying corrosive power concentrated to the utmost as it blasted toward Shui Bingyu and her students.
Shui Bingyu's pupils contracted sharply, and she drove the Tidal Jewel with