Serpent and Bird Battle

Shi Feiyang discovered that the island had beautiful scenery and a pleasant climate, with ancient trees towering into the sky and lush flowers and grasses. After spending day after day soaking in the water, he rather missed the feeling of sunshine on his body, so he went ashore to explore.

He first rolled around on the grass, then sucked several hundred wild fruits over to eat. After becoming a dragon, even his tastes had changed. The fruits were clearly sour and astringent, yet he now found them delicious.

On the eastern side of the island, a serpent and a bird were fighting.

The Sea Serpent was a kind of sea snake, its body thin and long, measuring at least thirty zhang from head to tail, yet only as thick as a washbasin. Its scales were a riot of colors, refracting brilliant red light as it rolled beneath the sun. It had two heads, both glossy black.

Locked in mortal combat with it was a great Vulture roughly a zhang tall, with a head like a condor's and a beak like an eagle's. A tuft of slender, arrowlike feathers grew atop its head, resembling dozens of extremely fine steel needles. Its tail bore many long, slender plumes in five colors, much like a peacock's.

The Vulture looked exceedingly fierce and was a natural nemesis of snakes. Its sharp beak had clamped onto the vital spot seven inches below one serpent head, but the serpent's body was so long that it had bound the bird tight, constricting its neck and wings alike. Its other head had bitten firmly into the root of the bird's wing.

Locked together in a deadly tangle, the two rolled across the ground, each spraying core energy from its mouth. Both streams shimmered with dazzling colors, beautiful and brilliant, forming a great bank of multicolored mist that spread over roughly a mu of ground.

Seeing that both creatures had attained a measure of cultivation, Shi Feiyang tried to intervene. "Stop fighting, both of you!"

The serpent and the bird immediately stopped moving. Still biting each other, they turned their eyes toward him.

Shi Feiyang said, "What are you fighting over? Isn't it better to stay alive and well? Why fight until you both end up badly hurt?"

The serpent and bird ignored him, continuing to bite each other without moving or making a sound. But they grew still more wary, as though facing a formidable enemy. Deeply apprehensive of this suddenly appearing Black Dragon, the serpent's scales and the bird's feathers bristled.

Shi Feiyang leisurely approached them, then suddenly spotted a strange Immortal Herb not far away. "Oh, so you're fighting over this? What kind of herb is it?"

The Immortal Herb was indeed bizarre. Its leaves were emerald green, and a stalk rose from their center to a height of more than three feet. Atop it sat a flower the size of a thermos cup, resembling a tulip, but deep purple. Its petals were slightly open, releasing an extraordinarily rich fragrance.

Shi Feiyang drew close and looked down carefully. Inside the petals grew a fruit resembling a fetus not yet carried to term. Its little hands and feet were already fully formed, and it curled within the layers of petals, seemingly not far from being "delivered" into the world.

"What kind of Immortal Herb is this? It's simply extraordinary!"

He voiced his admiration and was just about to turn back to ask them when the bird and serpent suddenly released each other and lunged at him together.

Both creatures recognized the newly arrived Black Dragon as a more powerful rival, so, their minds meeting without a word, they joined forces to kill him first!

The Vulture first expelled a stream of five-colored core energy, with a crystalline primal core the size of a longan fruit wrapped inside it, and hurled it at the dragon's head. The Two-Headed Monster Serpent sprayed a cloud of lethally poisonous, five-colored mist.

Shi Feiyang had anticipated their attack. Seeing it come, he spat out his own two Inner Cores, but did not send them crashing into the enemy's. One water and one fire, they circled each other at high speed, forming a Taiji Diagram in an instant. It flew over and enclosed the Vulture's Inner Core. Yin and yang gave rise to each other, water and fire harmonized, and they forcibly "clamped" it in place before drawing it back.

The Vulture was greatly alarmed and frantically sucked inward, trying to retrieve its Inner Core, but could not move it at all. Shi Feiyang drew all three Inner Cores into his belly.

The Monster Serpent's poisonous mist could not harm Shi Feiyang at all. It opened its venomous jaws and bit hard into his tail, while its thirty-odd-zhang body twisted toward him, seeking to coil around the Black Dragon and constrict him to death.

A sharp pain shot through Shi Feiyang's tail, and he sensed a large quantity of venom being injected into him. Somewhat angered, he spat out the White Light Sword.

Dazzling white light flashed out of thin air and vanished. One of the Serpent Monster's heads was severed cleanly at the point where its neck branched.

That head had been bitten by the Vulture earlier and was already half dead, hanging limp all the while. Shi Feiyang's blow was a small punishment meant as a stern warning, urging it to stop immediately rather than seek its own death.

But the serpent was venomous and spiteful. With one head severed, rage surged into its heart, and it spat out the lethally poisonous inner core it had painstakingly cultivated for a thousand years. It was the Poison King of the sea, having roamed unchecked for a millennium without encountering a creature more venomous than itself. It refused to believe that this black dragon would dare swallow its inner core as he had swallowed the black bird's. If he truly did, all the better—the poison would kill him!

Sure enough, Shi Feiyang used the same method and swallowed its Inner Cores as well.

The Serpent Monster immediately worked its magic to activate the Inner Cores and poison Shi Feiyang to death. Yet its Inner Cores were like a clay ox entering the sea: all connection to them vanished completely, and no matter how hard it tried, there was no response.

Little did it know that although Shi Feiyang's Black Dragon body was not itself venomous, he had spent the past year and more at Dinghu Peak studying poisonous substances extensively, even deliberately taking poison to cultivate. Even the Poison Darts of the Crow-Venom Thorn felt no worse than bee stings when they struck him. Formidable though these Inner Cores were, they still fell short of the magical treasure Bruninga had refined using the demonic sect's secret arts.

After Shi Feiyang took their Inner Cores, the Vulture knew it was no match for him. Having already been caught in the serpent's jaws, it knew it could not win, so it stopped attacking and turned to flee. The serpent, however, did not know what was good for it. Unwilling to relinquish its Inner Cores and still hoping for a miracle, it expected the Black Dragon to suddenly collapse from the poison. It lunged forward again, clamping onto Shi Feiyang's tail without letting go and desperately injecting venom.

Shi Feiyang seized its vital spot seven inches below the head with one claw and forcibly pulled it away from his body. The serpent bent its head down to bite his dragon claw, but he caught its head with his other claw and gave a powerful tug, tearing the head clean off.

The serpent head still refused to die, snapping its jaws, while its headless body rolled endlessly across the ground, spraying blood everywhere.

Feiyang threw both the serpent's head and body into the sea, then approached the Vulture again.

When the Serpent Monster had bitten the Vulture, it had injected a great deal of venom into its body. Earlier, its Inner Cores had allowed it to hold on, but now that Shi Feiyang had swallowed them, the poison began to take effect. It collapsed on the ground, the skin beneath its feathers turning black.

Seeing the enormous Black Dragon approach, the Vulture cried out in terror and spread its wings, wanting to make the desperate stand of a cornered beast. Yet it could not even get to its feet, all outward ferocity and inward weakness.

Shi Feiyang grasped its head, pried open its beak, and spat the five-colored Inner Cores he had taken back into its mouth.

With its lost Inner Cores restored, the Vulture's eyes filled with utter astonishment.

Seeing how deeply the poison had taken hold, Shi Feiyang took out a Detoxifying Elixir he had refined himself and fed it to the bird.

After swallowing the pill, the Vulture leaned its upper body against the ground and panted violently. Its wings spread to support it, it crouched half sitting, half squatting, with its eyes fixed warily on Shi Feiyang.

Shi Feiyang said, "You don't need to be afraid of me. I never intended to kill you. I want to ask you—what is that Immortal Herb over there called?"

The Vulture stared at him without making a sound.

"Can you not speak yet? Can you call, then? Give a few cries to express how you feel right now. I can understand, and then I'll teach you how to convey information through your calls."

The Vulture still said nothing, merely staring fixedly at him.

After asking several times without receiving a response, Shi Feiyang grew bored. "Forget it. I'll study it myself."

He left the Vulture behind and returned to the Immortal Herb, bending down to examine it carefully.

Thank you to "Distinguished Scholar Shaking Out His Robes" for the ten-thousand-coin tip, and to brother "Leaning Alone Beneath the West River Moon" for your tip and support. Thank you!