After taking on his true form, the profound serpent was thousands of feet long, and so tall, it seemed to scrape the heavens.
The snake was silvery green throughout, and his massive scales caught the light and shimmered.
Standing on the ground, only the snake’s lower half was visible. His upper half had gone entirely illusory, save for those flashing jade eyes. To those below, the sight was powerfully shocking to both the mind and the eyes.
“This is a separate dimension too,” muttered the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch as he looked around. Even in his true form, there was no end to the space in sight. He was thousands of feet tall, but he couldn’t even see the ends of the towering stone pillars.
Were this a real space, from his height, he should have been able to see the roof.
Whoever had made this hidden space was a true, nigh-omnipotent expert. Reality and artificial worlds overlapped, but that wasn’t all: when the trial-takers traveled between rooms, the countless miniature dimensions were incomparably stable.
Although the earlier rooms weren’t big, maintaining the stability of so many dimensions wasn’t easy. At least, the yao monarch had no memories of anyone accomplishing such a feat. It was even more impressive given that whoever created the mausoleum was no longer present, and that it remained functional after hundreds of millions of years of neglect. The space wasn’t just stable; heaven and earth were infused with the countless daos, and the space outside the palace was a spirit beast habitat. Rather than calling this a carved-out pocket dimension, it was more like a self-contained, self-sustaining miniature world.
The yao monarch dared say with certainty that, should the inhabitants of the Upper Three Realms take up residence here, they could live much as they had outside the mausoleum.
But the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch’s muttering only lasted a moment. At the end of the day, he was here in search of fortune. The person who’d created this place was indeed a super-expert, or he couldn’t possibly have left transcendent fortune behind.
Rather than reveling in this place’s splendor, what he needed to do now was crush the two insignificant insects at his feet.
No, there was just one he thought of as an insect: Cang Xiong. In truth, he wasn’t exactly wrong: at three meters tall, Cang Xiong generally looked enormous, but compared to the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch’s enormous true form, he was tiny, smaller than any one of the snake’s scales.
From the yao monarch’s perspective, while it would be an exaggeration to call Cang Xiong “as insignificant as a speck of dust”, it wasn’t that far off.
“A bit interesting.” Cang Xiong put his hands between his eyebrows and looked up.
Who would have thought the “little” snake he’d bullied all this time was actually so enormous? Cang Xiong was rather surprised, but that was all it was: a little surprise. His gaze was just as inquisitive and playful as before.
“You’ve finally grown up a little. You were like a little chicken earlier; beating you up was unsatisfying. Now you can finally fight back a little, right? Come on, big guy! Don’t disappoint me!”
Then, without waiting to see whether the yao monarch had heard him or not, Cang Xiong stomped the ground, hard.
He was obviously using far more force than before. His stomp didn’t just shatter the ground beneath his feet; it created a hole several dozen centimeters wide.
Snake-like cracks spread through the stone floor. They were dozens of meters long, and as the ground cracked, fragments of stone scattered.
A gust howled – it was Cang Xiong! When he propelled himself forward explosively, the friction with the air creating this wind.
The yao monarch glanced down with a flash of disdain. He wouldn’t take on his true form lightly, because returning to human form afterward would lower his cultivation, and by no small margin either.
But since Cang Xiong had pushed him to this, the way he saw it, his fate was sealed.
In his true form, not even the three Realm Emperors were a match for him.
While Cang Xiong, meanwhile, was nothing but a low-level yao. Sure, he might be strong, but even if he were stronger, he was like a clay chicken or dog; harmless and breakable. When he saw that despite the disparity, Cang Xiong dared attack him, the yao monarch could only sneer at his meat-headed, barbarian ignorance and foolish courage.
In human form, he’d taken quite a beating at Cang Xiong’s hands. It was time to collect a little interest.
He swung his serpentine tail, and as he did, a wave of energy swept forth. It swept up all the broken rocks, and even snapped some of the towering stone pillars.
According to the scales humans of the Modern Realm used to measure wind, the strongest recorded wind in history was only a “twelve.” But with one casual sweep of his tail, the yao monarch had stirred up at least a twenty.
But Cang Xiong faced the winds, unflinching. His sandbag-sized fists slapped into the snake’s tail.
This contest of raw power actually created air pressure, tearing a rift in the space between them. A massive blast followed, and an enormous shadow was sent playing back.
This time, it wasn’t the yao monarch. It was Cang Xiong.
In his true form, the profound serpent hadn’t even been pushed back. He towered, proud and unmoving.
Cang Xiong, meanwhile, slammed into a stone pillar, hard. The impact snapped it clean in two. Countless rock fragments fell down to the ground, burying him completely.
A long time passed, but there was no sign of life amidst the wreckage.
“He’s just a low-level yao with a bit of muscle. Even if he focused on training his strength, what of it?” The serpent spoke in human words, his tone utterly disdainfully.
Then, the sound of something shooting through the air rang out.
It was the yao monarch’s massive head; he’d lowered it until it was only half a meter from Qing Lan.
“Your brother-in-arms is dead. Aren’t you going to take a look?” As he spoke, his vile breath hit Qing Lan right in the face.
Even now, when Qing Lan looked at the yao monarch, his eyes carried a hint of lament. Although he said nothing, his gaze hurt the yao monarch right where it hurt the most. The snake’s gaze instantly turned incomparably vicious, and he flicked his tongue continuously.
“You’re pitying me, aren’t you? You are, aren’t you?”
The explosive winds were so powerful, Qing Lan couldn’t help but retreat several steps back. He only stopped when his back was to the pillar behind him.
When he spoke, his words were wistful. “If you stop now, it’s not too late. Don’t persist in going down the wrong path.”
“Persist in going down the wrong path? Are you talking about me?” The yao monarch’s bloody maw opened, as if he were about to devour Qing Lan. “What delusional nonsense are you on about? I’m in control here! Which of you can stop me? You’re telling me to stay my hand? You say I’m going down the wrong path…?
“Don’t you know there’s a heaven beyond the heavens? There’s always something stronger out there…”
“Someone stronger? A heaven beyond the heavens? Well, take them out and show me. That brother of yours is dead as can be. Someone stronger? Are you perhaps talking about yourself?” The yao monarch suddenly scooched several meters back. “Come on then! I’ll give you the chance to show me this ‘heaven beyond the heavens’!”
“Sigh….” Qing Lan let out a long breath and shook his head.
But the yao monarch only pushed even harder. “Come on!”
“You’ve really… changed.” Qing Lan’s gaze was still all sighs and lamentation. He knew that snakes were cold-blooded, but he’d seen no trace of the monster he was to become in the young snake he’d once known.
“I changed a long time ago. From the moment I, in accordance with my nature, devoured your wisp of soul, I became the Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch. I haven’t been that cute little pet snake you could play with as you pleased for a long time.” The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch roared, the surge of rancid air dispersing the gathered elemental essences a little.
The yao monarch’s serpentine eyes were fixed on the mournful-looking Qing Lan, but before he could do anything, something suddenly pushed the ruins of the destroyed pillar.
“That really frickin’ hurt!” Cang Xiong shook his neck and stretched his waist as he crawled out of the rubble. He shot the yao monarch a sideways glance, then walked up to Qing Lan’s side.
“Boss Qing Lan, I’ve given you plenty of face already, but I really don’t think that guy has any intention of mending his ways. If we leave him, we’ll only invite future disasters.” Then, Cang Xiong turned to the yao monarch and whistled. “Not bad! You’ve got some skills.”
“You sure are thick-skinned. Still alive after all that? Impressive, but you would have been better off just lying there. It’s entirely possible that devouring this sanctimonious hypocrite would have put me in such a good mood that I’d pass on swallowing up a brainless little yao like you,” said the snake.
“Heh, a little yao….” Cang Xiong grinned, then patted the dust off his body.
“Boss Qing Lan, I can see in your eyes that you can’t bear to hurt him. How about you let me clean up your mess for you? Not even the Buddha of the Western paradise could enlighten a guy like this. There’s no need to hold out hope for him.”
Qing Lan’s gaze was still hesitant; they’d lived together side by side for years. The snake had once been like his child.
“I know you couldn’t bring yourself to do it. Just now, I was just playing with him casually, but look at him! I’m practically his uncle, yet he sure was vicious. He might still feel a hint of gratitude to you, but it’s too paltry and insignificant. Looking at his eyes, you can tell he wants to kill us both.”
“What shameless arrogance!” roared the yao monarch.
“Hey, little guy…. Boss Qing Lan said there’s always something stronger out there. He wasn’t just trying to scare you, either. Shameless arrogance? To tell the truth, throughout the countless realms, it’d be hard to find even one person brazen enough to say that to me. The ignorant really know no fear, huh?” Cang Xiong laughed.
“Sticking a gold star on your own face? Are you trying to die with dignity?”
“My words are wasted on you.” Cang Xiong shrugged. “Boss Qing Lan, I’m still waiting. Just say the word. Do we spare the snake? Or not?”
“Nonsense! I’m about to devour you both. Pay your respects to your Emperor Star when you’re reunited in the River Styx!” With that, a blast of putrid air swept towards them. The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch’s massive jaws opened wide as he bit towards Qing Lan and Cang Xiong.
But although he didn’t realize it, throughout this process, neither Qing Lan nor Cang Xiong were really paying him any heed.
Cang Xiong was still looking at Qing Lan, waiting for him to….
“Do it!” Qing Lan finally made up his mind.
“Leave it up to me!” Cang Xiong grinned broadly. Then, suddenly, a massive projection appeared in the sky.
Cang Xiong’s hulking frame expanded explosively. He burst right through his clothes, scattering countless fragments of cloth. The Thousand-Faced Yao Monarch then watched as Cang Xiong grew larger and larger, until…
Boom!
A massive bear paw slammed viciously into the yao monarch’s serpentine body. The shadow of it was so massive, everything before the snake’s eyes was shrouded in darkness.
Then, he heard Cang Xiong’s cheery laughter. “This is your Uncle Cang Xiong’s final lesson to you: there’s a heaven beyond the heavens. There’s always someone stronger out there!”
