Chu Yunfei gripped the Abyss-Devouring Sword tightly, his eyes fixed on the little snake flicking its tongue ahead.
The little purple-gold snake, no thicker than a finger, lay coiled beside the Purple Nether Lightning Poison Lotus. It looked miniature, but the savage presence it exuded was even more terrifying than that ten-thousand-year-old skeleton.
"Purple-Gold Lightning Python!"
From within the cauldron in his sea of consciousness, Xiaoxiao Dragon's voice boomed like thunder, carrying an exceedingly rare tremor.
"Brat, what kind of luck is this?! That isn't an ordinary companion spirit beast. It's a variant whose ancient venomous python bloodline has undergone atavism! Once it reaches adulthood, its terrifying combat strength will absolutely rival mine at my peak!"
"Quick, hurry up and subdue it! This is a peerless savage beast comparable to a true dragon!" Xiaoxiao Dragon urged him wildly in his sea of consciousness, her voice brimming with irrepressible excitement.
Chu Yunfei stood motionless.
His heart burned, but the ten thousand years of combat experience from his previous life kept him absolutely rational.
His gaze swept over the fine purple-gold scales covering the little snake, and he quickly reached a conclusion.
This infant lightning python looked tiny, but the fluctuations of spiritual power lying dormant within it were extraordinarily terrifying.
The ninth level of the Spirit Martial Realm.
And it was a savage beast at the ninth level of the Spirit Martial Realm.
With its uniquely powerful physique alone, even warriors at the early stage of Heavenly Origin Realm probably would not dare provoke it lightly.
He had only just broken through to the third level of the Spirit Martial Realm, a full six minor realms below it.
A head-on assault would leave him with nine chances of death and one of survival.
Chu Yunfei lowered his sword-bearing right hand slightly, and the spiritual power within his dantian quietly circulated throughout his body.
If the enemy doesn't move, I won't move. He intended to find an opening in this ancient variant through absolute stillness.
Hiss!
The Purple-Gold Lightning Python had no martial honor whatsoever.
A shrill hiss erupted, sharp enough to pierce eardrums.
Its coiled body abruptly straightened, becoming a dazzling purple-gold afterimage as it suddenly attacked.
Too fast.
Its speed even surpassed the limits of the Divine Movement Art.
Chu Yunfei's eyes caught only a lightning-like afterimage shooting straight toward his face. His combat instincts from his previous life made him reflexively hold the Abyss-Devouring Sword across his chest.
Clang!
A deafening metallic collision echoed across the bottom of the cliff.
The terrifying force of the ninth level of the Spirit Martial Realm smashed into the blade like mountains toppling and seas overturning. Chu Yunfei's arms instantly went numb, and the webs between his thumbs and forefingers split and bled. He flew backward, sword and all, his feet forcibly plowing a deep furrow more than ten zhang long through the hard, rubble-strewn ground.
Having landed its first strike, the Purple-Gold Lightning Python gave Chu Yunfei no chance to catch his breath.
It twisted in midair and opened its jaws wide, a dazzling purple light bursting from deep within its scarlet mouth.
It spat out a fist-sized ball of lightning.
Destructive lightning interlaced across the ball's surface, while poisonous miasma thick as ink surged inside. It instantly expanded in midair to the size of a water vat, sealing off every possible route Chu Yunfei could use to dodge.
A violent pressure locked onto him.
"Purple-Gold Lightning Poison!"
Within his sea of consciousness, Xiaoxiao Dragon cried out, "That's Purple-Gold Lightning Poison! Anyone in the Spirit Martial Realm who touches it dies without fail. Even those in the Heavenly Origin Realm have to give it a wide berth! Brat, you've overestimated yourself! Dodge, now!"
To Xiaoxiao Dragon, Chu Yunfei had thoroughly kicked an iron plate this time. Even if he possessed a nascent myriad poison tyrant body, it was only nascent. How could it possibly withstand such supremely overbearing, destructive lightning poison?
If this strike landed squarely, not even his bones would remain.
There was nowhere to retreat.
Chu Yunfei had never intended to retreat at all.
Ferocity shone in his eyes. He drove the Abyss-Devouring Sword into the ground before him, his hands rapidly forming seals as the Boundless Creation Scripture pushed his nascent myriad poison tyrant body directly to its limits.
Beneath his flesh, dark-gold patterns instantly lit up, spreading over every inch of his skin.
Like an ancient poison god descending into the world, he neither dodged nor evaded. He thrust out his chest and charged straight into that destructive sphere of lightning poison.
Boom!
Lightning exploded, and purple-black poisonous mist instantly swallowed Chu Yunfei's figure. A violent shock wave of energy swept outward, grinding every black crystal on the ground into dust.
The Purple-Gold Lightning Python landed on the ground and raised its head high, its cold vertical pupils fixed on the churning lightning and poisonous mist.
The light gradually faded.
A tall, straight figure emerged from the poisonous mist.
Chu Yunfei stood proudly in place. The clothes on his upper body had long since turned to ash in the lightning, exposing his lean, powerful muscles. Not only did his body bear no signs of scorching or decay, but there was not even a single new wound.
The lightning poison capable of melting metal and stone was flowing along the dark-gold patterns on his skin, greedily devoured and absorbed by his body like water by a sponge.
The myriad poison tyrant body disregarded poisons of every grade.
The fiercer the poison, the greater the nourishment.
The Purple-Gold Lightning Python's scarlet vertical pupils froze, revealing astonishment. Its second attack, which it had just readied, was forcibly caught in its throat.
"Y-you... that nascent tyrant body of yours..."
In his sea of consciousness, Xiaoxiao Dragon stammered, her voice filled with incredulous shock. "It can actually absorb even Purple-Gold Lightning Poison directly? Isn't that way too broken?!"
Chu Yunfei ignored Xiaoxiao Dragon's exclamations.
Seizing the instant the lightning python was distracted, he stopped suppressing the presence within his body. The origin presence of his newly awakened myriad poison tyrant body poured from him without restraint.
The dark-gold poison origin spread outward as though it had tangible substance.
To the Purple-Gold Lightning Python, which fed on poison and lived by poison, this utterly pure myriad poison origin was like a sweet spring encountered by a desert traveler, exuding a fatal attraction that made even its soul tremble.
Chu Yunfei stood where he was, looking down at the savage beast several zhang away.
The Purple-Gold Lightning Python, which a moment ago had been baring its ferocity and flying into a bristling rage, instantly smoothed down every raised scale on its body upon catching that scent.
The way it looked at Chu Yunfei changed, shifting from a predator's coldness to intoxication filled with extreme yearning.
It tentatively slithered two feet closer.
Seeing that Chu Yunfei did not attack, it immediately picked up speed and slithered straight to his feet like a docile village dog.
Its triangular head rubbed against Chu Yunfei's calf with great affection, low, ingratiating hisses escaping its mouth.
Then it raised its head and opened its mouth.
A drop of essence blood shimmering with purple-gold light emerged from its mouth and floated before Chu Yunfei.
Its complete soul imprint was branded within that essence blood.
It was voluntarily acknowledging a master.
Within his sea of consciousness, Xiaoxiao Dragon's entire worldview collapsed.
"Has it gone mad?!"
Xiaoxiao Dragon cried out involuntarily, "This is the infant of an ancient savage beast comparable to a true dragon, a peerless savage beast at the ninth level of the Spirit Martial Realm! The fight isn't even over, and it voluntarily switched sides just because of a little scent you gave off? What kind of monster are you?!"
A faint smile curled at the corners of Chu Yunfei's mouth.
He promptly raised a finger, touched that drop of purple-gold essence blood, and pressed it directly into the center of his brow.
The master-servant contract was complete.
From that moment on, this ancient variant at the ninth level of the Spirit Martial Realm had become the sharpest trump card in his hand. Even if he had to cross realms to kill a Heavenly Origin Realm expert, he now had the confidence.
Chu Yunfei bent down and stroked the lightning python's cool scales.
The lightning python wound around his arm, shrinking into a snake coil only as thick as a thumb. It coiled around his wrist like a purple-gold bracelet.
Chu Yunfei forced out a trace of the tyrant body origin within him. The little creature immediately absorbed it eagerly, then fell asleep to digest it.
With the greatest threat removed, Chu Yunfei stepped onto the stone platform.
He reached out, gripped the sixth-grade spirit herb-the Purple Nether Lightning Poison Lotus, which radiated deep-purple electric light-and pulled it out by the roots.
The instant the spirit herb left the stone platform, the atmosphere throughout the bottom of Broken Remnant Cliff changed.
This sixth-grade spirit herb was the formation's core. The balance of the poisonous mist, maintained for ten thousand years, was utterly shattered. Violent air currents churned and raged at the cliff's bottom, and the remaining poisonous mist, previously suppressed below, began surging upward at an astonishing speed before gradually dissipating between heaven and earth.
From this day onward, Broken Remnant Cliff, a death zone through the ages, had no more poisonous miasma.
Above the Cangwu Mountain Range.
At the edge of Broken Remnant Cliff's summit.
Nangong Wuhen had already swallowed healing pills, temporarily suppressing his surging internal injuries. He straightened his damaged black robes and was about to turn away, his expression dark.
The instant he turned, his footsteps abruptly stopped.
He whipped his head around and stared fixedly below.
The purple-black sea of mist, previously as thick as a boiling pot of murky soup, was actually thinning rapidly amid violent churning.
The ten-thousand-year-old poisonous miasma that even Divine Sea Realm experts regarded with considerable dread was dissipating at a speed visible to the naked eye.
What was going on?
For the first time, extreme unease and bewildered suspicion appeared in Nangong Wuhen's eyes.
Broken Remnant Cliff's poisonous miasma had remained for ten thousand years, yet it suddenly vanished right after Chu Yunfei fell into it.
Coincidence?
In this cruel world of cultivation, he never believed in coincidences.
An inexplicable sense of panic crawled into his heart like a venomous snake.
His instincts told him that the Qi Condensation Realm trash he had knocked off the cliff had not only survived, but might even have obtained some heaven-defying opportunity at its bottom. If he failed to investigate this matter thoroughly, not only would he fail to retrieve the Giant Que Sword, but he might even leave behind a monstrous calamity.
The muscles in his cold face twitched slightly, and he took a white jade communication talisman from his storage ring.
He crushed the jade talisman to powder in one squeeze.
"Uncle Mo, I've discovered the key to the ancient Heaven-Slaying Sword Emperor's inheritance. Come to the Cangwu Mountain Range at once!"