Temporary Retreat!

The Queen Medusa's vertical pupils narrowed slightly in the shadows.

That was a dangerous signal.

The instant Li Long saw those amber eyes change, he instinctively took half a step back. He had already drawn the Iron Rod from behind his waist, gripping it in its short-staff form.

Qian Yaoting reacted even faster. His six wings fully spread, a golden longsword formed in his right hand, and he turned slightly to shield Li Long.

The next second, the Queen Medusa moved.

Its head shot forward, its serpentine neck extending nearly twenty feet from behind the rocks where it had been coiled. The dark-gold serpent head opened its mouth and released a hoarse, low shriek.

The sound was not particularly loud, but it was piercing enough to bore into the skull, as if it had stabbed directly into the depths of their ears.

At the same time, countless small figures began emerging from the shadows around it. The highly venomous soul beasts lurking in the poison mist had been summoned.

The first to rush out were more than a dozen emerald-green venomous pythons as thick as arms. Their scales glimmered faintly in the dim light as they slithered swiftly across the ground, closing in on the two of them.

Several venomous scorpions nearly half a man tall followed close behind, their stingers raised high, beads of deep-purple venom gathering at their tips.

Farther away, countless poisonous spiders and venomous toads crawled out from the shadows between rock crevices and tree roots, a black mass flooding in from every direction like a tide.

Qian Yaoting's gaze turned cold.

He did not retreat a single step. Holding the golden longsword horizontally before him, the first soul ring beneath his feet lit up, and a dazzling layer of golden light abruptly covered the blade.