On the southern border of Xishan and the border of the Crimson Toad Clan, a million-strong serpent army was arrayed against a wall of flames. Upon this wall stood hundreds of thousands of toads, the colossal structure stretching endlessly, dividing the territories of the two races.
No fools dwelled among the Eastern Wasteland clans; seeing the giant wooden great wall built by Xishan in the northeast, they too had erected a fire wall, one that was difficult to attack but easy to defend.
Above the great wall, Venerable Mo Chan flew out. Upon seeing the million-strong serpent army, his heart trembled. Clan Leader Chi Hun had taken three million elite tribesmen, leaving three to four million toads scattered across various locations. Some were already on their way, while others were fleeing towards the Red Wood Clan.
The clan had only three Golden Immortal Venerables. The Clan Leader and another Golden Immortal Venerable had taken the clan's foundation with them. He alone was unwilling to pledge allegiance to the Red Wood Clan. Having witnessed the might of the Black Lizard Upper Clan, he believed Xishan, no matter how strong, would surely not withstand the Black Lizard Upper Clan's onslaught!
Mo Chan, though he had recovered from the life-force wound sustained on Misty Pearl Island, had lost tens of thousands of years of cultivation. He had also lost the ability to procreate, and his cultivation had made little progress.
Venerable Mo Chan ascended, stamping his foot. A powerful aura of a Golden Immortal Venerable swept out in all directions, shaking the giant snakes before him, making them unable to stand firm.
Du snorted coldly and unleashed a palm strike. Accompanying the sharp sword qi was a toxic miasma. The palm strike, like a mountain and sea, could flatten mountains and seas, pressing down. It not only repelled Mo Chan's aura but also aimed to shatter the ten-thousand-mile fire wall.
Mo Chan quickly extended a finger, his sleeve billowing. A black arrow shot through the air, piercing the colossal palm. Immediately, the palm began to shatter from the center, dispersing and vanishing.
“Which Xishan Golden Immortal Venerable is here?” he asked, looking up at the serpent army and speaking in a loud voice.
Venerable Du stepped forward, sneering, “Venerable of Xishan, Du.”
Venerable Mo Chan forced a smile and said, “Venerable Du leads a great army here. Do you intend to annihilate my Crimson Toads? Is it not an overestimation of your abilities for you alone to do so?”
“If it were the Crimson Toad Clan in its prime, I naturally could not defeat you alone. But now, with only you as a Golden Immortal Venerable, what do I have to fear?”
Mo Chan’s heart fluttered. It seemed the other party already knew about the Clan Leader leading his troops to flee. He calmed his mind and scoffed, “So what if they fled? The Black Lizard Upper Clan has already made their move. Xishan is also on the brink of destruction!”
“Oh? I would like to see how the Black Lizard Upper Clan will destroy Xishan,” Qing Ling stepped out from below. With his Profound Glazed pupils fixed on Mo Chan, he spoke without any emotion, “Is it merely skulking behind smaller clans and sowing discord?”
“You… Qing Ling!” Mo Chan's eyes instantly filled with ferocity. Surging hatred caused his chest to tremble. He wished he could torment the handsome man before him to death!
Despite his intense hatred, he did not rashly attack. He looked behind him and said, “Fellow Daoist Hei Dao, I request your assistance.”
As the words fell, a burly man with a coiled dragon’s head stepped out of the void. His cultivation, at the middle stage of Golden Immortal, was immensely profound. “Mo Chan, you cannot even defeat this single Golden Immortal?”
Mo Chan put on a smile and said, “Fellow Daoist, you are unaware that that Heavenly rank green snake is a congenital deity. His strength has reached Golden Immortal, and his methods are extremely bizarre. Your clan’s Saintess and I were injured by this child’s methods back then. Fellow Daoist, you must be extremely cautious.”
Hei Dao sneered, “Good! Since that is the case, I shall gauge his abilities.”
Upon seeing the burly man with the coiled dragon’s head, Qing Ling’s expression darkened, but he did not lose his composure. Instead, he transmitted his voice to Du, “Clan Brother, you go and fight that Mo Chan. Although he has lived a long time and possesses extraordinary divine abilities, his body is already failing and cannot last. You only need to wear him down. When he is exhausted, then strike with all your might. Even if you cannot kill him, you will cripple him! Remember to use what I gave you.”
Venerable Du nodded in response. His figure then moved, and he began to engage Mo Chan.
Meanwhile, Qing Ling transmitted his voice to dozens of Heavenly rank tribesmen, dividing them into forces and attacking in formation.
Below, the serpent army surged forward. Thousands upon thousands of spiritual snakes emerged from the front of the ranks, spewing forth a vast amount of water that accumulated on the ground, forming currents that surged towards the fire wall.
Although the fire wall was not ordinary fire, without the replenishment of Crimson Fire spiritual energy by Golden Immortal Venerables, the Heavenly rank tribesmen alone could not withstand the advance of five million spiritual snakes!
Qing Ling suddenly smiled at Venerable Hei Dao before him. Black light flickered in his dark pupils. The right eye of the Spring God represented the poison of absolute decay. With the opening and closing of his right eye, the order of spring turned the life force of heaven and earth upside down, as the two forces of life and death were inverted.
Then, Qing Ling pointed from a distance, and the Sky-Covering Rope shot out like a green arrow, as fast as lightning.
Venerable Hei Dao reacted even faster. A long saber instantly appeared in his hand. He slashed down, and malevolent energy followed the saber, the blade’s edge fused with the miasma, breaking through all obstacles.
The Sky-Covering Rope was split by the black great dao into nine strands. The nine green threads, like nine needles threading green silk, circled and weaved around Hei Dao. Venerable Hei Dao’s saber swung faster and faster, but each time the miasma-infused blade struck, it was only the tip of a Sky-Covering Rope strand. The clash of blade and thread produced an endless ding-dong sound. No matter how formidable his saber qi was, it could not even scratch the surface of this high-grade spiritual treasure.
Hei Dao grew increasingly angry as he chopped. His heart became more and more agitated because, after thousands of shuttles, the Sky-Covering Rope threads began to intertwine, gradually weaving a circular green net around him, slowly enveloping him.
But what he failed to notice was that a sliver of black light had appeared in his eyes at some point. As Hei Dao circulated his mana and his meridians transported qi faster, the black light spread across his pupils at an accelerating rate.
Qing Ling’s mind split into two. While he controlled the Sky-Covering Rope to bind Venerable Hei Dao, he took a yellow gourd from his waist and tilted it. Green mist poured out, filling the sky and heading towards the fire wall.
As the green mist dissipated, immense figures emerged from the haze. Green giants stood up, each with only a pair of eyes on their faces and no other features. There were over ten thousand of them.
More than ten thousand green giants charged at the forefront, taking the toads’ fire attacks. Some were incinerated by hundreds of fire attacks, but others brazenly charged forward, directly scaling the fire wall. Blue water light flowed over their bodies, resisting the flames. They reached the city walls and began a frenzied slaughter of the lower-ranking toads.
Although some were killed by Heavenly rank toads, more and more green giants climbed the walls, causing chaos in patches across the great wall. Below, the million spiritual snakes moved in unison, carrying the massive torrents they had accumulated for a long time and crashing into the Crimson Flame Great Wall.
"Boom—"
"Rumble—"
The million serpent bodies, carrying the floods, shattered the fire wall!
At that moment, Mo Chan knew that his descendants were all finished. Without the great wall to block them, tens of thousands of spiritual toads faced five million spiritual snakes and had no power to resist.
Venerable Hei Dao, no longer able to care about anything else, instantly heightened his aura. Boundless malevolent energy surged forth, transforming into a black god’s dharma image, with three heads and six arms, soaring higher than the heavens, reaching a hundred thousand zhang. The black miasma body merged with the miasma dharma image. The three ferocious giant heads roared, and waves of black sound swept across thousands of miles. His feet stomped down, directly crushing the Sky-Covering Rope with the weight of billions, forming a force field that prevented the green threads from moving.
Qing Ling’s expression also brightened. His face flushed and paled. Hei Dao had finally unleashed the power of a Golden Immortal Venerable!
He quickly rose and flew high, also manifesting the Spring God’s divine form. With a human body and a serpent tail, he towered over ten thousand zhang. The Spring Order Abundant Diagram in his glabella unfurled. A divine finger emerged, and the Dao pattern of “Spring” appeared at his fingertip. A vast amount of mana surged from his body, and with a single finger of Spring’s birth and transformation of qi, ten thousand Eastern green rainbows arose, carrying the laws of life force into the sky.
The Black God dharma image condensed the miasma from the nine heavens, and black ominous clouds instantly shrouded the sky for a hundred thousand li. The three heads roared, and the six arms were raised. A terrifying and powerful voice echoed for thousands of miles: “Nine Heavens Miasma Thunder, resplendent, summon it!”
In the next moment, ten thousand black miasma divine thunder descended from the nine heavens, illuminating the mountains and rivers for thousands of miles, as if it were the wrath of heaven, the roaring of all gods, and ten thousand bolts of lightning striking the earth.
"Boom—"
"Boom—"
The deafening roar, as if heaven and earth were splitting open and mountains were toppling, made the millions of snakes dare not move. The toads trembled and could not open their eyes.
Between heaven and earth, the law of “Life” and the law of miasma collided. The miasma-summoned divine thunder shattered all laws, and the green light gradually dimmed.
After the lightning, a spring breeze blew again between heaven and earth. The destructive blow of the thunder nurtured new wood qi. The Spring God’s body was covered in wounds. Blood fell onto the vast expanse, mingling with wind and rain. Flowers bloomed again, grass turned green again, and the warm spring sun shone upon the world once more.
Hei Dao, having dispersed the Black God dharma image, sneered. Seeing the critically injured Qing Ling, he was about to slash down again, to slaughter this Holy Son!
The Holy Son must not be harmed, under the premise that the Holy Son had not made a move. The Holy Son must not die, under the premise that the clan was not annihilated. In Hei Dao’s eyes, Xishan was doomed to destruction, and Qing Ling had taken the initiative to attack, so he believed he was not violating the Twelve Ranks of the Dragon Clan.
However, the Spring God, now covered in wounds, smiled gently, warming all beings. Hei Dao felt as if he were bathed in the warm sun of winter, his limbs and bones all comfortable and relaxed, his primordial spirit as if bathed in a spring breeze, extremely soothed.
In his dazed state, his mind remained clear. He thought, “Not good!” The miasma spirit in his primordial spirit was about to surge out again, but Qing Ling’s dark right eye suddenly closed and reopened. Waves of dark laws vanished into the void, triggering the life-force poison that had long been hidden in Hei Dao’s eyes. An extremely painful sensation spread throughout his body, making it impossible for his primordial spirit to concentrate.
However, his body was being nourished by the Spring Order Abundant Diagram, a source of spiritual solace. The extreme pleasure and extreme pain were superimposed on Hei Dao, like being in the midst of ice and fire.
At the same time, traces of life-force light flew out of Venerable Hei Dao’s body and merged into the Spring Diagram. Qing Ling’s primordial spirit, seated cross-legged in his spiritual aperture, was doing his utmost to urge the divine diagram’s intent to absorb the life force.
And at this moment, a world-shattering scream came from afar. Venerable Mo Chan’s arm flew into the sky and then turned into dust.
Mo Chan’s ancient face was tinged with a grayish-green hue, clearly having been poisoned. His internal mana was already contaminated with the Ten Thousand Tears Poison and the Five Steps Absolute Poison, a double poisoning. If he had not been a toad with a natural resistance to toxins, he would have lost the strength to even move by now.
Venerable Du’s sword struck true. With each successive strike, he cut out a sky of absolute poison. Ten thousand sword lights enveloped the surroundings. The Five Steps Poison covered the sky, leaving no room for escape. Venerable Du raised his sword to the sky, declaring, “In this land of five poisons, the enemy is fish, and I am the butcher. Surrender!”
The sword light, brilliant for an instant, filled the sky.