Deep within the cave at the bottom of the lake, the Gold-Patterned Black Serpent lay coiled, its body of over ninety meters piled into a mountain of flesh.
The Gold-Patterned Black Serpent was not asleep. It was fully alert.
Its slit pupils hid behind half-closed eyelids, like two amber beads.
Reflected in those pupils were the disturbed currents at the cave entrance and the bubbles churned up by the approaching "food."
Half a month earlier, it had capsized a small boat carrying five people.
It had eaten four of them.
And let one go.
The human with the severed leg had struggled onto a piece of driftwood and paddled toward shore in terror.
The Gold-Patterned Black Serpent had watched him leave from underwater, without pursuing him to kill him and fill its belly a little more.
It had lived for sixty-three years, and its intelligence had long surpassed that of ordinary animals and common mutant beasts.
Its intelligence told it to let that man go. He would bring back more flesh and blood for it to feast on.
More precisely, food with richer qi and blood.
Recently, for some unknown reason, not only had the depths of the great marsh grown restless, but food had also become scarce along its outskirts.
The Gold-Patterned Black Serpent could feel the restraint within its body loosening.
Each time it swallowed a martial artist's flesh and blood, that barrier thinned a little. Perhaps a few more meals like those two presences outside would let it complete its transformation.
After sixty-three long years of waiting, only the final step remained.
And now, the prey delivered to its door was even more succulent than it had expected.
More than twenty presences streamed in through the entrance. One was especially rich and potent, like a torch burning