The Black Flood Dragon lay low in a natural shallow groove in the rock, concealed by the curtain of rain and its mist.
Rainwater mixed with fine shards of ice flowed into the groove. It was cold, but Jin Si remained perfectly still. Blocked by his body, the water overflowed and ran down the rock into other channels. Within the oppressive black clouds weighing down on the mountain, lightning had already built to its breaking point.
A lightning strike could fall at any moment, right onto this ridge.
The people in the tents had been chatting about trivial matters. Listening any longer would be a waste of effort, and lurking too long invited unforeseen complications.
It was time to launch his ambush.
He inhaled deeply. Icy air flooded through his nostrils into his lungs as he gathered Spiritual Qi in his abdomen, mixed it with venom, and compressed it into mist. The sharp, curved talons of his right front paw hooked around the large iron nail in the rock, waiting for the moment to pull.
Ignoring the tents belonging to the ordinary mortals, he locked firmly onto the five cultivators.
Keenly sensing the invisible contact of energy between the clouds and the ridge, he jerked his right paw back, wrenching out the iron nail with a small scattering of stone fragments.
A dazzling, jagged bolt connected the black clouds to a nearby tree!
All five cultivators' expressions changed at once. They tore through their tents and rushed out, finding the mountain ridge washed deathly pale by the white light.
They saw no sign of the terrifying Demon Bird.
Instead, a dark shape, resembling a snake yet not quite one, stood in the curtain of rain nearby, its jaws spread wide and thick white mist churning in its mouth.
Thunder exploded,