Pang Bo did not dare to consume the Jade Serpent Orchid now. He feared it would rupture his Bitter Sea — his constitution was nothing like Ye Fan’s terrifying physique, and he simply could not withstand the overwhelming surge of Life Essence flooding through him. He had no choice but to turn back and find another way.
“Did that dull, rumbling sound from deep within the ruins ring out a few more times just now?” Ye Fan asked.
Pang Bo nodded and said, “Over these past two hours or so, it has sounded at intervals — each time more subdued than the last. The whole expanse of ruins has grown even more deathly still. Even those ferocious birds and beasts that had receded like a tide to the outer edges have stopped their low growling. Though honestly, that’s a blessing — otherwise I’d truly be terrified of that old serpent giving chase.”
“That dull, rumbling sound strikes fear into every living creature. I wonder whether that Jade-Horned Serpent has retreated as well.”
“That old serpent has already cultivated a spirit — it must be absolutely furious. Let’s hope it has left. Otherwise, when we push deeper into the ruins in a moment, we may very well run into it.”
“What is that smell?” Ye Fan’s expression shifted with suspicion. “Why is there a faint, fishy stench…”
Pang Bo drew in a sharp breath — and instantly drained of color. “It smells like the old serpent!”
At that very moment, Ye Fan’s expression changed drastically. He seized Pang Bo by the arm and whispered urgently, “Run — now!”
Just a few hundred meters ahead, a massive, hideous serpent’s head crept up over the edge of the cliff. Its entire body was densely covered in palm-sized, five-colored iridescent scales that gleamed with a cold, icy light. A pair of serpentine eyes, red as hanging lanterns, radiated two beams of bloody light. A forked tongue, two to three meters long, hissed and writhed — and wherever it grazed the vegetation on the cliff face, it dissolved into yellow liquid on the spot.
“The old serpent gave chase!”
Pang Bo’s complexion changed on the spot as well. He had never imagined this serpent demon would actually follow them all the way here. The one stroke of fortune was that it had not yet spotted them. Above the cliff, towering ancient trees stretched skyward. The two of them swiftly retreated to the back face of the cliff wall, grabbed hold of hanging vines, and leapt downward.
A single moment’s hesitation could have cost them their lives. The old serpent had surely long since gone into a frenzy — if it caught their trail, the grim fate awaiting them was all too easy to imagine.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo moved with extraordinary speed — practically like a pair of gibbons — bounding and leaping, swinging swiftly down the cliff face along the vines until their feet touched the ground. Then they fled without once looking back.
“With that old serpent holding a grudge against us, we’re truly in danger.” Even as they sprinted desperately, both of them glanced back over their shoulders. There on the sheer cliff face stood a massive, resplendent serpent, rearing upright, its eyes shooting twin beams of bloody light. The jade horn atop its head blazed brilliantly in the sunlight, radiating streams of divine radiance in a ceaseless flow.
“Boom — boom — boom!”
Thunderous crashes reverberated from the cliff face as enormous boulders tumbled down in succession. Many trees were flattened by the old serpent as it descended the cliff wall, pursuing them at a swift pace.
“Terrible — it’s spotted us!”
“Let’s flee back the way we came! Let Elder Wu Qingfeng deal with this serpent demon.”
“No good — the old serpent is too fast, and those ferocious birds and beasts are blocking the way out. It will definitely catch up to us before we make it halfway. There’s no other option now. We have to charge deeper into the ruins. That dull, rumbling sound seems capable of deterring the old serpent — it’s wary of whatever lies within, and likely won’t dare venture too deep.”
Having settled on a plan, the two of them transformed into streaks of flowing light and surged toward the heart of the ruins. But the Jade-Horned Serpent had already cultivated a spirit and was supernaturally swift — fast as a gust of wind and a bolt of lightning, it could ride the very wind itself. As it passed, every blade of grass and every tree bowed flat to the sides, clearing a serpent’s road before it.
“Boom — boom — boom!”
Boulders rolled and tumbled. The old serpent was more ferocious than any road-crushing machine — the earth shook and mountains trembled in its wake, grass snapped and trees broke. Nothing could impede it. The hissing of its tongue grew closer and closer, and wave after wave of its reeking, fetid odor came crashing toward them.
Ye Fan was entirely unaffected, but Pang Bo felt his head swimming and his mind growing heavy. “This old serpent’s venom is far too powerful! We’re still several hundred meters away and the poison mist has already drifted over. I can feel my body starting to give out.”
“Quick — eat a petal of the Jade Serpent Orchid!” Ye Fan, too, was deeply anxious. The old serpent’s speed was astonishing — it was drawing nearer and nearer, about to overtake them. If something happened to Pang Bo, there would be no room for regret.
Pang Bo did not dare swallow the entire Jade Serpent Orchid whole. He tried to tear off a single petal from the top bloom — the one that resembled a flake of mutton-fat jade — but even that felt unsteady. Afraid the medicinal potency would be too fierce and rupture his Bitter Sea, he instead pinched off a small portion of the flower’s stamens and placed it in his mouth, dissolving it under his tongue.
“How do you feel?” Ye Fan was terrified something might go wrong with Pang Bo.
“The effect is miraculous!” Pang Bo let out a long breath of relief. No sooner had he ingested it than the nausea vanished — his head was no longer swimming or heavy. He felt his mind brighten and his spirit refresh, and within moments the venom’s assault had been halted.
“Truly worthy of being a divine herb — capable of neutralizing any poison under the heavens.” Ye Fan finally relaxed.
“Crack — crack — crack!”
Behind them, the old serpent closed the distance yet again, shearing apart every ancient tree that blocked its path with brute force. The momentum was terrifying. Every low shrub and bush parted of its own accord, laying open a serpent’s road. The old serpent’s eyes blazed blood-red. With a great “puff,” it spewed a massive cloud of poison mist — still over a hundred meters away, yet it swept forward with horrifying speed. The sound of hissing and sizzling erupted all around them as the trees near Ye Fan and Pang Bo rapidly dissolved, reduced to yellow liquid — a sight beyond horrifying.
Had the two of them not consumed the Jade Serpent Orchid, one could easily imagine their fate. By now, they would likely be nothing more than pools of liquefied remains on the ground.
“This serpent’s venom is absolutely vicious!”
“At this rate, we won’t escape death. The old serpent is about to catch up.”
An ordinary person would have been overtaken long ago — its speed was simply too great. The Jade-Horned Serpent, having cultivated a spirit, traveled with the wind; it could truly be called swift as the gale and swift as lightning. Ye Fan and Pang Bo, having consumed the sacred fruit in the Primordial Forbidden Land, had not only gained the strength of a horned dragon and a great elephant, but their speed had also vastly increased. Had it been anyone else, they would have been caught long since.
“Hold on. I believe that dull, rumbling sound is about to ring out again — and when it does, the old serpent will surely be gripped with dread. That will be our chance to escape.”
The ground shuddered. Boulders tumbled. The old serpent had nearly overtaken them — it was now only seventy or eighty meters behind. Ye Fan and Pang Bo finally lost their composure and veered sharply in a desperate dodge, hurling themselves to the side.
“Swish!”
The old serpent shot past in a single lunge — but it was far less clumsy than expected. Its massive tail swept sideways like a colossal iron whip cleaving through the air, instantly shearing down a whole swath of trees. Leaves scattered in all directions, and a reeking, fetid stench assailed the nostrils.
Though Ye Fan and Pang Bo were not struck by the enormous serpent tail — dozens of meters in length — they were hit by the splintering trees that crashed into their bodies. The massive trunks struck like stone, and the impact launched them flying. Had their constitutions not been extraordinary and their divine strength immense — enough to withstand that tremendous force — they would surely have had bones shattered and tendons torn. Even so, both of them felt their blood and qi surge and churn, and they staggered forward dozens of paces before steadying themselves.
Suddenly, an overwhelming sense of mortal danger rose in both their hearts. At that very instant, a bone-splitting screech tore through the air — the jade horn atop the old serpent’s head erupted in a brilliant, dazzling radiance, shooting forth like a great sword dozens of meters long, slashing directly toward the two of them.
“Move!”
Ye Fan and Pang Bo’s expressions changed completely. They threw every last ounce of strength into surging forward, leaving two afterimages where they had stood.
“Slash!”
That beam of divine radiance — over twenty meters in length — directly shattered countless ancient trees and carved a terrifying great fissure into the earth. Even the massive boulders that lay in its path were sliced cleanly in two, the cut surfaces perfectly smooth, as though they had been sliced through like tofu.
“That spirit-cultivated serpent demon is absolutely terrifying!”
A chill ran through both Ye Fan and Pang Bo. There truly were no free meals in this world — if you wanted something, it was impossible to obtain without paying a price. Had it not been for the extraordinary upheaval within the depths of the ruins, they would have had not the slightest chance of picking the Jade Serpent Orchid. And even so, they were now being hunted with nowhere to go — neither heaven above nor earth below could offer them refuge.
“We can hold out for, at most, a quarter of an hour more!”
“Boom!”
The instant these words left their mouths, a dull, muffled sound suddenly rang out from the depths of the ruins. Ye Fan and Pang Bo shuddered as though struck by thunder — their bodies convulsed violently, their hearts seized with a sharp pang of pain. The enormous serpent suffered far worse: it tumbled and rolled directly across the ground, its massive serpentine body writhing in violent convulsions that crushed a great swath of the surrounding trees to splinters.
“Run — now!”
Steadying their nerves, Ye Fan and Pang Bo shot away like arrows released from a bow, not daring to linger for even a single moment.
The dull, muffled sound fell silent, and the entire expanse of ruins grew even more suffocating than before. Ye Fan and Pang Bo had no path of retreat — the old serpent had cut off their way back. They could only press onward. Before long, the two arrived at the base of a towering boulder over a hundred meters high, scaled it along the hanging vines, and looked back from the summit.
“Damn — the old serpent is still coming after us…”
In the distance, the trees were swaying and shifting. The Jade-Horned Serpent’s speed had slackened somewhat, but it was still following the trail the two of them had left, closing in steadily.
“This can’t go on — at this rate, it might just drive us all the way into the deepest part of the ruins.” Both Ye Fan and Pang Bo had a terrible feeling about this.
“A creature that has cultivated a spirit is truly not something to provoke lightly!”
“Wait — there are figures moving up ahead.” Ye Fan’s expression shifted to one of surprise as several silhouettes moved swiftly through the mountainous terrain ahead.
Pang Bo peered into the distance. “That’s… Li Lin, Li Yun, Han Feiyu — and the others!”
“It seems those people had the same idea as us — all of them wanting to seize this rare opportunity to venture into the depths of the ruins and gather whatever they could.”
In that instant, Ye Fan and Pang Bo exchanged a glance — and both broke into wide, gleaming grins. They scrambled down the boulder and shot forward like a gale.
Li Lin, Li Yun, Han Feiyu, and the others had the ancient structures deep in the ruins as their destination. They knew this territory far better than Ye Fan and Pang Bo did. They understood that such extreme abnormality today could not be attributed to beast kings fighting among themselves — it was far more likely that something had occurred within the ancient building complex at the very heart of the ruins. If they could successfully reach that place, perhaps an unimaginable stroke of great fortune awaited them — for these ruins had survived since the Primordial Age.
“Someone is approaching from this direction, and they have the same idea as us.” Li Yun’s eyes flashed with killing intent. “We’ll intercept them shortly. They may well have already found some divine herb.”
“It’s Pang Bo — and that waste called Ye Fan!” Li Lin’s killing aura was palpable. She watched the two rapidly approaching figures and said coldly, “They dare approach us — they’re courting death!”
Han Feiyu’s face was filled with pure hatred, his eyes shooting twin beams of ferocious, venomous light.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo moved quickly — in just a few moments, they had closed the gap to a short distance.
“Li Lin! Brother Li Yun! What a surprise to run into you here — what a stroke of fate!” Ye Fan and Pang Bo wore expressions of mingled shock and delight, their faces radiating warmth and emotion, as though reuniting with long-lost family. They came rushing over with unrestrained enthusiasm and warmth.
“One day apart feels like three autumns — two days apart is six whole years. We’ve finally met again!” Ye Fan and Pang Bo strode forward in great strides, looking for all the world as though they wanted to throw their arms around the group to express their overwhelming joy.
This made Li Lin, Li Yun, and the others deeply uncomfortable. A wave of goosebumps rose across their skin, and every one of them involuntarily shuddered.
Li Lin’s expression turned immediately to disgust. She swept a glance over Pang Bo, then looked at Ye Fan with cold contempt, and said, “Don’t try to get chummy with us — nothing you do will make the slightest difference or change a thing.” She stood atop a boulder, looking down on Pang Bo and Ye Fan, her eyes gleaming with vicious menace. Her voice turned glacial as she said, “You two have a great deal of nerve — aren’t you afraid of dying in this forest? The depths of the ruins are not a place that worthless trash can wander into freely!”
Li Yun’s expression was equally cold and frigid. He fixed Ye Fan and Pang Bo with a sneering gaze, calculating in his mind whether to strike immediately. His only hesitation was the fear that Elder Wu Qingfeng might have left a tracking mark on Pang Bo — something that would allow him to investigate exactly what had happened here.
Though the two of them were being insulted in this manner, with killing intent laid bare and undisguised, Ye Fan and Pang Bo seemed utterly unperturbed — as though nothing had happened at all. They pushed their way into the group with the ease of old acquaintances. And, going even further, the two of them together clasped Han Feiyu’s hands and said again and again, “Han Feiyu… you truly are a good person!”
“You two — did you pick some divine herb? Why does your body carry such a rich and fragrant aroma?” Li Lin’s killing intent was written plainly across her face, and the beauty mark at the corner of her mouth trembled slightly. But in an instant her expression shifted — “Wait, something is off. Why is there a reeking, fishy stench drifting over?”
“Boom — boom — boom!”
At that very moment, all of them felt the earth begin to tremble, and they looked back over their shoulders.
“That’s… a serpent demon!”
“The old serpent has cultivated a spirit — it’s the Jade-Horned Serpent!”
Every person present drained of color. Before them, a great old serpent bearing a single horn upon its head rode the wind, flattening every blade of grass and every tree in its path as it surged toward them with devastating speed. The thick, reeking stench hit like a wave and turned one’s stomach.
“Damn it — it’s because of you two…”
In a single flash of understanding, Li Lin, Li Yun, Han Feiyu, and the rest grasped everything. They would have loved nothing more than to grind Ye Fan and Pang Bo to dust and scatter the ashes — but this was no time for fury. Every last one of them spun around and ran, scrambling in utter disarray.
“Han Feiyu, you truly are such a good person…” Even as they fled for their lives, Ye Fan and Pang Bo called back to Han Feiyu and the others behind them.