The great snake's back was pitch-black, its belly pure white, golden patterns encircling its entire body. Two small bumps protruded from the top of its head.
The great snake was enormous, coiled within the shattered cauldron and standing more than a dozen zhang tall.
The golden-patterned great snake suddenly raised its head and looked toward Li Qingxian, narrowing its eyes as its scarlet tongue flicked out with a hiss.
Li Qingxian found it difficult to breathe. His vision blurred, and the full view of the Imperial Palace darkened.
Shen Xiaoyi grabbed the sleeve at Li Qingxian's upper arm and sighed. "What a pity. It was just a little short. I only sensed a vague aura of the Ninefold Grand Momentum Configuration. What about you?"
"I saw nine incomplete great cauldrons," Li Qingxian said.
"How could that be? You're not..." Shen Xiaoyi stared at Li Qingxian in shock, disbelief written all over his face.
"What am I not?"
"Nothing. Tell me what you saw."
Li Qingxian described the nine cauldrons, then finally mentioned the golden-patterned great snake.
"You really... I don't even know how to praise you. This is far too unexpected." Shen Xiaoyi looked at Li Qingxian with a foolish grin, his face full of simple-minded delight.
"That golden-patterned great snake was the Grand Momentum Configuration laid down by the Heaven's Mandate Sect?"
Shen Xiaoyi laughed. "What great snake? That was a Nine-Pattern Golden Python, a famed great beast. The Heaven's Mandate Sect used the Nine-Pattern Golden Python as Fate Material to set up the Golden Python Stealing Dragon Configuration! You're incredible. Even an Upper Rank Fate Arts Master standing here might not have been able to see it directly as you did."
"Perhaps it was because of Obelisk Fate Mountain."
"Or perhaps because of that mysterious Bronze Four-Aspects Square