Snake King

Biodata

Power Progression

Appearance

• Snake King killed near the underground river: Three zhang long, with deep-azure scales approaching black, slit pupils, and a flame-like azure marking on its forehead. Dark-green venom dripping from its fangs corrodes the surrounding rock 29.
• Vine-symbiotic Snake King: Approximately fifty feet long, with vines covering its body, amber slit pupils, and three forehead bone spikes arranged in a triangle. Green patterns on the central spike pulse in rhythm with the snake-shaped embryo inside the Green Vine’s flower bud 30.
• Scales: A recovered scale from the cave battle is bowl-sized, with serrated blue-black edges. Water Scorpion venom has pitted it without penetrating it 30.

Behavior

Snake Kings are described as cunning rather than indiscriminately aggressive. When faced with late-stage Qi Refining cultivators, they retreat into the ravine’s complicated underground waterways, where their swimming speed makes pursuit dangerous 8.

Competition for newly sprouted Green Vine roots disrupts their usual behavior. Ranked Snake Kings leave their nests for days, and hissing rises from the ravine nightly instead of the beasts appearing only about once a month. Evidence in the cave shows that Snake Kings also fight one another to the death over the roots 28 30.

The symbiotic specimen actively protects its Green Vine. When Yin Jiu’s centipedes poison the plant, it abandons its immediate opponents to attack him and clear the insects away. During the final assault, it stands before the vine rather than continuing to dodge 32.

Abilities & Skills

Corrosive Venom

Snake Kings use venom both directly and as a projected mist 11 29 31.

• Ordinary Ink-Scaled Snakes store their deadliest venom in a sac at the third segment of the spine, rather than solely in their fangs 11.
• The first hunted Snake King’s azure-black mist burns two Red Centipedes into ash 29.
• The symbiotic specimen’s venom dissolves attacking Red Centipedes, corrodes Lu Zhao’s Mystic Water Shield, and melts an initial volley of ice cones 31.
• Venom found in the cave has dissolved the flesh of Ironclad Water Scorpions 30.
• Lu Zhao’s fully amplified ice cones can penetrate the symbiotic Snake King’s mist with only a slight loss of speed 32.

Strength and Armored Scales

Their bodies withstand substantial punishment, while their tails can damage puppets and cultivators alike 29 31 32.

• The first hunted specimen cracks the black-iron armor on an Ironwood Guard’s arm and nearly pulls the puppet apart while restrained 29.
• The symbiotic Snake King smashes Chen Moyang into a stalactite, breaking bones after his defenses collapse 31.
• It knocks an Ironwood Guard backward and shatters the puppet’s protective spiritual glow 32.
• Its defenses are not absolute: amplified ice cones penetrate its flesh, and Liu Fengchun’s Snake-Head Staff breaks its spine 32.

Ambush and Aquatic Movement

Snake Kings exploit the ravine’s terrain to strike unexpectedly and escape stronger enemies 8 29.

• They swim rapidly through the interconnected underground rivers 8.
• The specimen hunted in the underground passage attacks from above, bringing down overhead stalactites 29.
• Snake attacks commonly coincide with the new and full moons, using rising underground waters to conceal their movements 11.

Innate Rock-Merging Spell

The vine-symbiotic Snake King possesses an innate spell that lets it merge into earth and stone 31.

• It bursts from a cave wall without the usual noise of scraping scales, disrupting the cultivators’ planned formation ambush 31.
• It emerges behind Lu Zhao and later reappears several hundred feet away after disappearing underground 31 32.
• Innate spells normally consume enough energy to discourage repeated use in quick succession. The symbiotic specimen can nevertheless use its spell repeatedly, which Lu Zhao attributes to its unusual symbiosis 32.

Green Vine Symbiosis

The Snake King and Young Green Vine share life essence, making a prolonged battle unfavorable for the cultivators 31.

• Liu Fengchun states that the Snake King will not leave the range of the vine’s roots 30.
• The vine wraps its roots around the snake when it returns to the plant’s side 31.
• Yin Jiu’s Blood-Burning Fire Poison temporarily prevents the vine from assisting its partner, creating the opening needed to kill the Snake King 32.

History

Threat to Green Vine Ravine

The Zhou Household’s garrison assignment identifies the ravine’s venomous, ambush-prone snakes as a threat to cultivators and spirit herbs. Their numbers, together with the Snake Kings’ ability to evade stronger cultivators underground, prevent an easy extermination 8.

Chen Jianghe pursues a Snake King into an underground river and receives its venomous mist directly to the head. Liu Fengchun recounts the incident while warning newer guards away from the three northern river mouths after the hour of the Dog 11.

During a later patrol, Lu Zhao uses ice cones and a Frost Rat Puppet to immobilize and kill a Snake King. The remaining snakes retreat into the underground river 22.

Competition for the Green Vine Roots

A surge in snake activity leads the guards to consult Zhou Qixing. He explains that buried remnants of a century-old Qiulong Green Vine have sprouted again. The new growth releases a scent that attracts Ink-Scaled Snakes, while the roots’ wood spirit essence enables bloodline mutation 28.

Zhou Qixing expects the young plants to be in the strongest Snake King’s nest. Lu Zhao, Liu Fengchun, Yin Jiu, and Chen Moyang organize a hunt, each seeking different materials from the snakes and vine 28 29.

First Hunt

The party encounters a three-zhang Snake King that ambushes them from overhead. Lu Zhao’s Ironwood Guard clamps onto its tail despite severe damage to its arm. The others exploit the restraint with a formation, staff strikes, ice cones, and poisoned needles, killing the beast 29.

While dividing its remains, Lu Zhao discovers thick Green Vine Remnant Roots inside its abdomen and claims them, adding ten spirit stones to compensate the others 30.

The Symbiotic Snake King

Deeper in the cave system, the party finds a destroyed Water Scorpion colony and evidence of a fatal battle between two Snake Kings. They deduce that the victor obtained the new sprout’s remnant roots and swallowed the loser’s remains. Farther inside, a Young Green Vine feeds on a dead Snake King, while a living, vine-covered specimen emerges nearby 30.

The cultivators plan to restrain the living Snake King while Yin Jiu attacks the vine. Before the formation can be established, the snake ambushes them through the rock and severely injures Chen Moyang. Lu Zhao holds it off with his shield, Dharma Disc, and two Ironwood Guards 31.

Yin Jiu’s centipedes poison the Green Vine, cutting off its assistance. Lu Zhao’s amplified ice cones and puppets wound the snake, and Liu Fengchun breaks its spine with the Snake-Head Staff. Continued attacks finally kill it, after which Liu Fengchun binds the surviving vine 32.

Harvested Materials