After landing his strike, the Black Flood Dragon immediately shot backward, raising his foreclaws to guard against the lion turning to bite him in its pain.
Sure enough, the lion whipped its head around and leaped up, struggling with all its might.
Jin Si twisted and rolled, throwing up a skyful of snowy mist as he scrambled backward, opening up a gap in an instant.
"Roar!"
A low, furious lion's roar exploded through the river valley.
That bite had barely hurt, but the lion now knew it had been bitten by a venomous snake. Though it did not understand why the Great Black Snake had four claws, fury surged into its heart, and it wanted to stop and fight to the death for revenge.
Just then, a whistling sound approached overhead. The Five-Colored Demon Bird swept past like lightning. The lion's heart tightened. It knew the Demon Bird loved gouging out eyes, and the slightest carelessness would leave it struck. If it counterattacked now, it would be surrounded, with no way out alive.
It could only swallow its rage and flee for its life.
The Daoists were all startled. None had expected the Black Flood Dragon to be lying in ambush here. From the look of him, his sneak attack had clearly succeeded, and he was twisting and rolling rapidly away. As though it had known in advance, the Five-Colored Demon Bird swooped at precisely the right moment, forcing the lion to flee.
Seeing this, the Black Flood Dragon doubled back, slithering close to the ground like a black shadow in pursuit.
The lion could no longer afford to fight while retreating. It charged blindly onward, its enormous body pounding the ground so hard that snow shook loose from the branches on either side.
There was no time at all