C335 The Snake Devoured the Python
Yu Zhu was a being beyond the ordinary.
Three centuries prior, she was abandoned in the Serpent Spine Mountains by Yu Yuan, almost entirely suppressed by a binding seal, struggling to break free from the swamp that held her captive.
She harbored a deep-seated hatred for all who came near, silently eliminating the many who ventured into the Serpent Spine Mountains for trials, driven by their own greed.
She longed for Yu Yuan to fulfill his promise and rescue her.
That wait lasted three hundred years.
During that time, she survived alone in the lightless swamp. The profound loneliness, helplessness, and the desolation of abandonment constantly gnawed at her, turning her nascent spiritual wisdom towards a darker, more brutal and merciless nature.
Yet, ultimately, Yu Yuan did return, albeit belatedly.
After explaining that his delay was due to an unexpected detour in his path of reincarnation, and after the earth-shattering events in Gloomhollow, she chose to forgive and accept him.
She regarded Yu Yuan as a father figure and joined him in returning to the Lost Lands, a place in harmony with her Way of Heaven.
It was only upon arriving that she discovered the Forgotten Ruins were her true birthplace, to which Yu Yuan had brought her after her creation, before taking her to the Serpent Spine Mountains.
The mountains were part of the Sacred Hands' domain, and at that time, Yu Yuan was the revered leader of the Order of Healing.
Thus, he had control over the Serpent Spine Mountains.
The unforeseen betrayal by his senior brother, which delayed the path of reincarnation by three centuries, was something Yu Yuan had not anticipated, resulting in a significant loss of time.
"With us, you will be free from any constraints, able to roam the vast world and witness the marvels of the extraterrestrial realms," Bai Shang, in his guise as a scholar, employed the seductive arts that the Terra Fiend Clan excelled in.
"Why be subjugated by an insignificant human youth? A being of your superior intelligence should ascend to the heavens, revered and worshipped by countless creatures."
He had long recognized that despite her three hundred years of life, Yu Zhu, as an alien soul archdemon, was but a mere child in the grand scheme of her existence.
Having lived in the Serpent Spine Mountains for a long time with minimal human contact, her mental state remained quite simple, making her easily susceptible to deception and persuasion.
Should Yu Zhu decide to assist them, their endeavors in the Forgotten Ruins would proceed with greater stability and ease.
Indeed, Shen Feiqing and Yu Yuan were delighted to later discover the existence of such an anomaly as Yu Zhu.
Without Yu Zhu, the massive Shura head buried deep beneath the ruins would not have been located and retrieved so swiftly.
It was Shen Feiqing's timely communication that enabled him to arrive just in time.
In his view, Yu Zhu, who resonated with the Way of Heaven in the Forgotten Ruins, seemed to have been nurtured by the Forgotten Ruins themselves, sharing many commonalities with their Terra Fiend lineage.
Regrettably, Yu Zhu remained impassive to his earnest entreaties.
"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"
The myriad of hair-thin white snakes biting at Yu Yuan's back turned to ash one after another.
The dignified and majestic Python Queen Xu Zixi materialized behind Yu Yuan.
Seven fierce pythons, brimming with vitality, burst forth from her garments, taking on solid form.
The pythons scattered, eagerly consuming the slender white snakes.
Xu Zixi stood suspended in the void. As the White Bone Crutch was thrust toward her, she smiled and produced a jade flute from her sleeve.
The sound of the white jade flute was piercing, designed to target the white-haired crone alone.
The crone wielding the White Bone Crutch suddenly had two orbs of white light converge at her ears, inexplicably rushing inside.
With a stifled grunt, the trajectory of her sword-sharp White Bone Crutch, aimed at Yu Yuan, became erratic and twisted.
Xu Zixi nonchalantly tossed her jade flute.
A radiant divine light, swift as arc light, struck the White Bone Crutch with a "Ding," then continued its trajectory toward the crone's neck.
The flute pierced through the white-haired crone's neck, circled back, and returned to Xu Zixi's hand.
Xu Zixi held the jade flute with a slight furrow in her brow, sensing that the situation was too easily controlled.
The enigmatic white-haired crone, an alien soul who had fled the Moonfall Sanctuary, was one of the three shadows behind the empress. She should not have been so easily subdued. Zixi couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.
"Zixi! Be careful!" The High Oracle called out, his robes billowing as he strode through the air, ascending with each step.
Beams of soul light, as intense as the sun, soared upward, targeting the purple silk. His aim was clear: Shen Feiqing, who was concealed within, extracting the demonic essence from Wei Feng's blood.
"Eh?" Zixi's frown deepened at the High Oracle's alert.
The white-haired crone, with her neck impaled by the jade flute, still bore a twisted smile. When the flute was removed, the wound closed without a trace of blood, as if magically stitched together in the blink of an eye.
The eyes beneath the White Bone Crutch grew more menacing and chilling as she began to chuckle ominously.
"Your seven pythons!" Yu Yuan, his finger still on the brown eye of the Shura in the Dark Realm, sensed impending doom.
His heaven soul, reaching out to the Soulforge Pool in the forbidden area, had become exceptionally perceptive. The icy will of the Dark Realm's Shura pierced him, sharpening the vigilance of his three souls of heaven, earth, and man. He realized the faint remnant soul of the white snake, engulfed by the pythons, was inexplicably growing stronger.
"It's not the python consuming the snake, but the snake within the python's body, bolstering itself with its vitality! Her white snake is tearing apart and devouring your pythons!" Yu Yuan warned loudly.
Xu Zixi's face paled as she grasped the gravity of the situation. The white snakes, too easily dispatched and devoured by the pythons, defied all logic.
"Python Queen, Xu Zixi, you are of human flesh, yet you practice the dark arts."
The white-haired crone, gripping her White Bone Crutch, spoke with a chilling tone, "Gaining the recognition of Shadow's Keep and advancing ever further on the path of demonic cultivation indeed marks you as a formidable individual. The Aberrant Souls you've nurtured with your own vitality are strong, and you've even achieved the extraordinary feat of Dragon Devour. Now, I shall give you a taste of your own medicine."
"I've figured out who you are," Yan Qiling retorted with a cold huff.
At that moment, Yu Yuan interjected, "A demon snake, banished by Shadow's Keep and confined within the forbidden area! Like Loong Tianxiao, it was utterly annihilated, leaving only its demon soul behind in this world. Your demon soul was infused into that White Bone Crutch. Someone must have found it and taken it out of the forbidden area."
"That's her!" Yan Qiling's eyes shone with realization.
As Yu Yuan revealed the origins of the white-haired crone, he received a revelation—the sword spirit was reawakening. The sword spirit, dispersed among the numerous sword lights within his arm bone, and the remnant soul, was still present. Once it coalesced again, the sword spirit would fully awaken, endowed with spiritual wisdom and memories.
Yu Yuan couldn't have been unaware of the crone's history from the start, only to suddenly become informed. It must have been the sword spirit, stirring to life once more after a year's slumber. Then, the sword spirit must have detected the crone's vitality and conveyed the details of her past to Yu Yuan.
"Senior Xu, in life, that demon snake possessed a peak eighth-level bloodline, on par with a late-stage Solar Spirit cultivator. Please proceed with caution," Yu Yuan advised, as his entire arm began to split and bleed profusely.
