Chapter 101 — The Yellow Bird

The trunk shook more violently still; even this incredible, towering tree seemed to tremble beneath the vast body of the Blackwater Mystic Serpent.

Like a beast of prey that had walked the earth since the dawn of time, the Blackwater Mystic Serpent coiled its enormous length about the trunk. Wherever it passed, branches and leaves lay in ruin, and the creeping vines and strange blossoms withered and shattered in droves. It advanced with swaying head and lashing tail, and the humans before it were, in that moment, no more than ants, beneath notice.

Lu Xueling's face had gone slightly pale. She stepped forward one pace, her eyes still fixed on the ancient leviathan drawing nearer and nearer, and said in a low voice to Zeng Shuyan beside her, "What is going on?"

Sweat stood on Zeng Shuyan's brow. "When we were down below just now, we suddenly came upon this dreadful beast. With the little cultivation we have, running was naturally all we could do. But at the time it seemed to pay us no mind—it was searching for something, and it soon left. I never imagined it would actually—actually climb up here."

The others exchanged glances. True, everyone present had achieved something in cultivation, far beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, but human strength has its limits, and before a beast of such terrifying power, any resistance was laughable.

Just as the Blackwater Mystic Serpent drew ever nearer, Jin Pingyue suddenly said, "This is bad. I fear this beast has come for the things in the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House as well."

The faces of all present changed at once.

Ming Li frowned slightly, his face impassive, but inwardly it came to him that when he had first entered the inner marsh of the Death Marsh and come to that wall of miasma, he had abruptly encountered a beast of inconceivable size within the poisonous fog. Because of the miasma he had not seen it clearly—but from that moment on, the peculiar rank stench of the place had seemed faintly familiar. Now it appeared that what he had met that day was none other than this Blackwater Mystic Serpent.

He watched the Blackwater Mystic Serpent press onward, its vast black body making the trunk shudder without cease, until one almost feared the trunk would be crushed beneath it. And there in midair, beneath the fangs of that enormous head, a forked scarlet tongue flicked in and out of the air, hissing softly toward the distant Heaven Emperor's Treasure House, as though in great excitement.

By now everyone could see plainly: the object of this leviathan was indeed the thing inside the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House behind them.

Ming Li turned and looked toward the Treasure House. The thick stone door stood unmoved as ever, and the sunlight that had earlier fallen only upon the sea of flowers before the door had now shifted onto the door itself. The four ancient seal characters—HEAVEN EMPEROR'S TREASURE HOUSE—glittered in the sun.

Facheng watched the vast serpent body loom closer like a moving hill, sighed softly, and turned quickly to the others. "This Blackwater Mystic Serpent is an ancient demonic beast, not something human strength can oppose. We are no match for it—there is no point in forcing the issue. We must go, quickly."

This, of course, everyone already knew. Zeng Shuyan, Lin Jinghong, and the others nodded. Over there Jin Pingyue gave a snort, plainly none too willing, though by her expression she too was preparing to leave.

The gathered cultivators summoned their treasures one after another, ready to scatter in all directions. Beside Ming Li's hand a dark azure glow slowly kindled as well; he turned to call to Xiao Hui, who was still hiding near the stone door—and at that very moment, a muffled rumbling sound came from the stone door of the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House.

At that instant, the sunlight at the horizon was falling upon the topmost horizontal stroke of the character HEAVEN among the four ancient seal characters.

"ROAR!"

Almost simultaneously, the Blackwater Mystic Serpent suddenly quickened its pace, hissing as it surged upward. The company was startled into alarm, and Jin Pingyue, Zeng Shuyan, Lin Jinghong, Facheng, and the rest were the first to take flight.

The air reeked of rank stench, and a fierce wind blew from somewhere, cutting at the face like a blade.

Ming Li suddenly wheeled and threw himself back, flying toward the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House. Facheng and the others, now in midair, were greatly startled; looking back, they saw the Blackwater Mystic Serpent in what seemed a towering rage, its huge eyes glaring wide, wisps of black vapor seemingly jetting from its mouth, its enormous body writhing without cease—and in the blink of an eye it had reached the very front of the Treasure House.

The stone door of the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House, so vast to human eyes, now looked to be no larger than the serpent's head.

Hanging in midair, Ming Li felt the darkness come down behind him all at once—that mountain-like darkness surging toward him like a tidal wave. He did not need to turn his head to know that the Blackwater Mystic Serpent's vast body was right behind him.

He transformed into a streak of azure light, racing like lightning before the leviathan's bulk, toward that stone door.

Ahead, the monkey Xiao Hui suddenly shrieked!

A dark shadow came crashing down, and the wind of it was so fierce that before it even touched him, it had already forced Ming Li's body violently aside.

Ming Li was greatly alarmed, but he was no longer the youth he had been beneath the Dead Spirit Abyss in those days. In an instant his will moved with his thought, as though he had eyes in the back of his head, and riding the Soul Devourer he slipped through the descending bulk of the Blackwater Mystic Serpent, dodging it by a hair's breadth.

Now the sound from the stone door of the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House grew steadily louder, and with a booming roar, under the sunlight, the great door—whole and unbroken until now—suddenly split open along a seam down its center, then slowly slid apart to either side.

Golden, dazzling, blinding light came surging out from that seam with a roar. Even in broad daylight it was so brilliant that the eye could not bear it, and even the sun rising slowly at the horizon seemed, in that moment, to dim.

As though something within the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House were roaring, thundering within that golden radiance!

The Blackwater Mystic Serpent's entire vast body suddenly snapped taut and gave a hiss that shook heaven and earth. Paying no heed to anything else, it drove its huge head straight at the stone door of the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House.

And that streak of azure light flying between it and the stone door seemed to have beaten it by a step—in a moment it would enter the Heaven Emperor's Treasure House...

If not for that sword, bright as autumn water—the Divine Sword of the Celestial Pivot.

A curtain of blue light, no one knew when, had come above Ming Li's head and gathered into a giant blade of light that came chopping down at him. The red light in Ming Li's eyes flared bright; the stone door was right before him, but if he did not block that blazing sword radiance, he would likely be cut in two on the spot. With no choice, his azure light reversed and shot up to meet it. Blue and azure light clashed violently against the black shadow clawing up behind him, and in an instant a shockwave of invisible force raced out in all directions—even Jin Pingyue and the others flying in midair could not keep their faces from changing.