Yi Yang crouched in the shadows of a recess in the cliff, suppressing his aura to the utmost, as though he had become one with the cold rock behind him.
His divine sense spread silently into the dense forest west of the valley like an intangible, invisible spiderweb.
Hiss, hiss-
A teeth-grating scraping sounded. As it rose, several waist-high bushes toppled to either side, and a red-scaled python five zhang long slithered out of the forest shadows.
Crimson scales covered its entire body. As it slid along the ground, its scales scraped the frozen soil, leaving a scorched black trail.
Its two lantern-sized eyes glowed a ghostly green, and its forked tongue flickered ceaselessly. The rank, hot vapor it exhaled settled on the surrounding vines and grass, whose leaves visibly drooped, withered, and blackened.
Highly venomous.
Yi Yang swept his divine sense over the python, and his heart sank.
Profound Mystery Third Realm, early Dharma Body.
An extremely faint blood-colored phantom also coiled around the red-scaled python. Its outline bore a seventy-percent resemblance to the python itself-the "Dharma Aspect Manifestation" unique to Dharma Body Realm demon beasts.
Seeing this as well, Lu Qinglan held her breath and tightened her right hand around the sword at her waist, unable to help feeling nervous. A Dharma Body Realm great demon capable of dominating a stretch of the mountains' outskirts had already appeared.
But after emerging from the forest, the Scarlet-Scaled Python did not enter the valley directly.
It slithered onto a large, moss-covered bluestone outside the valley and coiled its enormous body. Raising its flat, triangular head high, it flicked its tongue rapidly toward the hundred-zhang ironwood inside the valley, probing.
It inhaled the Wood Spirit Soul Fruit's drifting fragrance. Its belly swelled, every crimson scale on its body stood on end,