Chapter 10: Blazing Flame Serpent Clan

Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Blazing Flame Serpent Clan

Ye Xuan judged that they clearly knew far more about the Scarlet Moon Forest than he did. He accepted their advice completely. After all, he had no intention of dying early.

His hands pressed together and he bowed his head respectfully. "This junior will heed Senior Hao’s advice."

"I’ll take my leave."

He turned and walked into the forest. Hao Yue and Bai Ling’er tried to stop him again, but it was too late.

All they could do was sigh. Even Foundation Establishment cultivators hesitated to enter that forest, since its dangers came in many forms.

Yet Ye Xuan, still only at Qi Gathering, was recklessly risking his life to search for something they couldn’t even guess at.

In truth, Ye Xuan didn’t know what he would find there either. He had come only because Qingyu recommended it. All he could do was trust the white snake.

The two of them entered the forest. Qingyu immediately leaped off Ye Xuan’s neck and slithered across the ground in a different direction.

"All right. Where are you going?" Ye Xuan asked.

Qingyu didn’t respond but kept crawling toward somewhere. All around Ye Xuan, he began to feel a killing intent, as if the dark forest were staring at him.

He summoned his sword with his qi threads, controlling it well and letting it float at his side.

His steps stopped when he saw a swarm of black-and-red scaled snakes gathered ahead. His hand moved to the sword and grasped it, ready to unleash his fire-element fighting technique.

The snakes turned and hissed at Ye Xuan, then slithered toward him.

Just as he was about to swing his sword, he froze, because Qingyu let out a low growl that all of them could hear.

"What the—"

To his surprise, the black-and-red snakes opened a path for Qingyu, as if they no longer saw Ye Xuan as a threat.

Ye Xuan was clearly stunned. He walked past them, still following Qingyu from behind.

It was further proof that Qingyu held a higher status among the snake spiritual beast races.

It wasn’t only snakes. Qingyu growled again when a swarm of red-stinger scorpions gathered in front of Ye Xuan. They did the same thing: they opened a path for Ye Xuan and Qingyu.

Seeing this, he felt certain that the white snake Qingyu was no ordinary spiritual beast. Ye Xuan studied their behavior.

They only obeyed the strong.

Qingyu’s growl was enough to tell them that she stood above them.

Now... my suspicion about the Seven-Colored Lightning Python is growing even stronger.

Even so, Ye Xuan kept hold of his sword in case some monster recklessly attacked them. He had to stay alert even though Qingyu had handled everything.

Their steps stopped when they reached the Red Waterfall, red as blood. Ye Xuan’s eyes widened as he remembered Hao Yue’s advice from earlier.

"A red waterfall? The home of the Blazing Flame Serpent? This place is dangerous, Qingyu."

Qingyu glanced back and responded only with a soft hiss. Unexpectedly, he saw Qingyu leap into the red pool and dive beneath the surface.

"Qingyu...?"

"This is crazy. What is it actually doing?" Ye Xuan complained.

The moment Qingyu left him, Ye Xuan sensed a pack of forest monsters closing in.

He turned and saw that the snakes and scorpions who had opened the path for him were now turning to attack.

I’ll die if I’m not with that snake.

Damn it, I have no other choice!

Ye Xuan put his sword away and gathered his courage, then threw himself into the pool. Although the water was red, he could see clearly, as if it were perfectly clear.

He held his breath and watched Qingyu swim down into the depths. He hadn’t expected the waterfall’s pool to be so deep.

In the end, Ye Xuan swam after Qingyu. The deeper he dove, the stronger the water pressure grew, until it felt as if his body were being crushed.

As Qingyu approached the bottom, her movements suddenly became familiar.

It was as if she had done this before.

Deep in the pool, a red rune glowed on Qingyu’s forehead. A red beam shot toward a rock at the bottom of the pool, which turned out to be a secret formation altar.

The red light began filling every part of the altar formation’s runes, until it formed a perfect circle with ancient characters and runes blazing bright red.

Slowly but surely, the formation altar opened like a Taoist symbol, and a magic portal glowing red with lightning appeared behind it.

What is that portal? Why is there lightning in it?

Qingyu swam over to Ye Xuan and wrapped its tail around his hand. It pulled him toward the mysterious portal and carried him through.

In an instant, Ye Xuan appeared in a mysterious underground place, falling from the sky because the portal opened in the ceiling.

He landed on a floor of neatly laid stone and winced as he hit it.

"Ugh..."

"Wait... where is this?" Ye Xuan asked.

He lifted his head and looked ahead. Qingyu released its tail from Ye Xuan and slithered forward, climbing a flight of steps.

Ye Xuan got to his feet and saw that the place resembled a sect hall, with huge pillars holding up the roof, each carved with snake ornaments.

What shocked him far more was that there were people in the place, half-human, half-snake, with serpent tails for lower bodies, human upper bodies, pointed ears, and flat red pupils.

"A human...?!"

"How could a human get here?!"

"This is an insult! We must kill him to keep this place pure!"

Ye Xuan stood and raised his sword, ready to fight them. The half-snake people summoned red qi swords and pointed them at him.

Just as the fight was about to break out, a loud voice startled them all. Ye Xuan flinched as a powerful cultivation pressure slammed into his body.

He dropped to his knees and coughed up blood. He had never felt cultivation pressure that strong, had never even imagined it.

"Wait!"

A man appeared as a manifestation of red qi. The spiritual qi began forming his body completely, from his feet up to his head.

He wore a long crimson robe adorned with primitive serpent patterns and held a bone staff topped with a snake skull, red light blazing from its eye sockets.

"Greetings, Clan Chief!"

Clan Chief? So he’s the leader of the Blazing Flame Serpent Clan?

The man finished materializing, and unlike the others, his legs were not a snake’s tail. His hair was long and black, his eyes red, and his pupils flat like a snake’s.

He stretched out his hand, and Qingyu leaped onto his palm. That made the man narrow his eyes sharply.

"You’re different from the pythons I usually see. It seems you were the one who accessed the clan’s spiritual formation at the waterfall."

The man saw the beast contract seal on Qingyu’s forehead, clear proof that it had become a spiritual beast contracted to a human.

His gaze moved ahead and landed on the similar tattoo pattern on the back of Ye Xuan’s hand.

"You...?"

"You formed a soul contract with her?!" he snapped.

The man stretched out his hand and sent his qi serpent manifestation toward Ye Xuan. Ye Xuan clearly panicked.

The red serpent shot at Ye Xuan and clamped around his body so tightly that he could barely breathe or struggle.

"I... didn’t do anything to it..."

"Do you realize what you’ve done?" the man asked.

"I... don’t know!"

It hurts. This qi serpent... it feels like it’s breaking every bone and poisoning my meridians.

As Ye Xuan faced death, Qingyu turned and fired a crimson beam of light from the rune in front of its forehead. The red beam shot through the body of the qi serpent coiled around Ye Xuan.

Everyone looked shocked, including the clan chief. The man glanced over at Qingyu.

Ye Xuan stood up and coughed up blood again. The internal injuries from the qi serpent’s grip were enough to leave him weak.

Cultivating could restore him, but he couldn’t do it in a life-threatening situation like this.

He looked ahead and saw Qingyu release a red laser at the man’s forehead, and the other snake people were stunned. But the man raised a hand to stop them.

Both Qingyu and the man closed their eyes. Ye Xuan and the snake people had no idea what Qingyu was doing to the clan chief.

"Impossible...!"

Before long, the man opened his eyes and looked at Qingyu. Ye Xuan and the others fell silent, curious about the man’s shocked reaction.

"Senior Sister... Qingyu?!"