A powerful pressure suddenly appeared and swept across the entire river.
Then the whirlpool from before appeared in the river again. As it formed, the white snake emerged before Qin An and Emperor Xuanwu.
Qin An frowned and studied the white snake, sensing something different.
The white snake now carried the scent of fear.
The scent was unsettling, though that unease did not come from Qin An or Emperor Xuanwu themselves.
In other words, they had nothing that should frighten the white snake. Its fear could only come from someone else.
At that moment, Qin An and Emperor Xuanwu saw what the white snake feared.
A terrifying figure had appeared on the distant horizon.
The figure was anything but small. It towered between heaven and earth, hundreds of meters tall.
The moment the figure appeared, he took a step toward Qin An and Emperor Xuanwu.
That single step swallowed a vast distance.
As the distance vanished, Qin An and Emperor Xuanwu finally saw what he was.
He was a giant clad in battered leather armor, his face covered in countless wounds.
Boundless black Qi seeped from those wounds, as though it might spread at any moment. A powerful sense of dread gripped them.
Then the giant fixed them with a greedy gaze.
That greed seemed to spread across the entire sky in an instant.
The white snake's voice grew urgent. "Leave, now! If you stay, death and eternal desolation await you!"
Qin An said nothing. Neither did Emperor Xuanwu. They immediately reached out to the Sea of Hope.
The giant before them exerted even more pressure than those Heavenly Demons.
Even from the Ancestral Machine Emperor at the Perfection of the Selfless Realm, Qin An had never sensed anything so terrifying.
But from this giant, Qin An felt terror pushed