At this very moment, Li Lin, Li Yun, Han Feiyu, and the others were furious enough to want to skin Ye Fan and Pang Bo alive. To them, the two's smiles looked despicable, shameless and in dire need of a beating. Of course, that was just their perception. In truth, Ye Fan and Pang Bo felt they were smiling radiantly, with every pore on their bodies relaxed and open, feeling incredibly refreshed and comfortable.
"Pang Bo, you're asking for death! I won't let you off!" Li Lin cursed, her beautiful face ice-cold and radiating a terrifying aura.
Li Yun was also enraged. They were being chased by a snake demon out of nowhere, completely unjustified. He shouted, "Pang Bo, you're pushing us too far! Even if you are an Immortal Seed, this is now a life-or-death vendetta. And that good-for-nothing, I'll personally slaughter you!"
"Puff!"
A multicolored poisonous mist erupted like a colorful shroud covering the group. Li Lin and Li Yun didn't dare speak further, rushing forward in fear of being engulfed by the snake venom.
"Ah…" A scream rang out as one person failed to evade in time. They were instantly reduced to a pool of bloody sludge, their bones charred black and nearly turned to powder from the corrosive venom.
Everyone was struck with terror. The snake demon was too horrifying, just one breath of its toxic mist was enough to reduce a cultivator to bones and sludge. What enraged Li Lin, Li Yun, and the others even more was that Pang Bo was running faster than a rabbit, leaping and bounding far ahead, treating them as nothing more than meat shields.
As for Ye Fan, the so-called good-for-nothing, he ran even faster, leading the group by a wide margin. This made Han Feiyu and the others feel like going mad. Even the "waste" had outrun them! As outstanding disciples, their pride was in tatters, furious and blaming themselves.
"Zing!"
The old serpent drew closer. The jade horn on its head burst forth with dazzling divine light, tearing through the sky like lightning. With a loud "Puff!", it cleaved one person in half, blood spraying onto nearby companions and plunging them into despair.
"Ah!" a female cultivator screamed in horror. The brutal, bloody scene made them feel utterly insignificant. Against the might of the snake demon, their newly begun cultivation journey was laughably fragile.
"Rumble rumble…"
The ground trembled. The jade-horned snake's red eyes blazed as it charged through the forest, rapidly closing in. Under such fear, someone couldn't hold back and cursed, "Damn it, how is that waste running so fast? He's nearly out of sight!"
"That damn waste! Faster than us?" Everyone gnashed their teeth in resentment. In their eyes, Ye Fan was trash, yet he seemed to float above the grass with unbelievable speed.
"Those two bastards! When I get the chance, I'll cut them into a thousand pieces!" Li Lin's exquisite face was frosted over with rage and fear, but she had no choice but to keep running.
Though their cultivation was impressive, they were no match for the snake demon. Li Lin and Li Yun were gifted, having only joined the Desolate Spirit Grotto-Heaven three years ago. Their cultivation had advanced rapidly but they had not yet reached the stage of producing "Divine Rainbows" and thus couldn't fly, only run on foot.
Their cultivation was far above Ye Fan and Pang Bo, but physically they were far weaker. After eating sacred fruits, Ye Fan and Pang Bo had undergone a transformation, shedding their former selves. Their bodies were now unmatched, even compared to elite cultivators, which allowed them to leave the others far behind.
Naturally, Li Lin, Li Yun, and the others realized the jade-horned snake was after Ye Fan and Pang Bo, it must have been their theft of spiritual herbs near the snake's lair that provoked it. They tried to change course and shake the two off. Yet, maddeningly, Ye Fan and Pang Bo clung to them like leeches, their speed unmatched, darting back ahead with a few swift movements.
Everyone felt like they were about to explode with rage. Even Li Lin cast aside her image as a refined lady and started swearing: "Damn you! Pang Bo and that damn waste, I, Li Lin, won't forget this!"
Chased by a deadly monster, cursed repeatedly, even a saint would be angered. Ye Fan cursed back: "Screw you! Li Lin, I won't forget you either. But don't flatter yourself, your chest is flatter than a washboard…"
Pang Bo fanned the flames, yelling, "Washboard Li, instead of wasting breath cursing us, maybe save your energy for the snake behind you!"
"I'm going to explode!" Li Lin trembled with fury, but couldn't afford to lose focus and had to keep running with all her might.
Behind her, Li Yun roared, "You two bastards are heartless! I curse you both to die miserably!"
"Screw you! Who's heartless? You've been plotting to get rid of us all along. Now it's your turn to taste fear!"
Li Lin, Li Yun, and Han Feiyu were speechless with fury. Running into these two was like the worst stroke of bad luck in eight lifetimes. Their lives now hung by a thread.
Besides those three, the rest were clearly exhausted. Some were nearly crying, shouting toward the front: "Hey, junior brothers…"
"We're not your junior brothers!" Ye Fan and Pang Bo were displeased with the title.
"Sorry, big brothers, okay? Especially you, waste-big-brother! You're so fast… there's no need to stick with us. Please, just run far, far away!"
Ye Fan had been fleeing for so long, his life constantly on the line. Gone was his usual gentleness. Hearing that, he snapped, "Fuck your grandma! Who are you calling a waste?"
Pang Bo also shouted, "Weren't you guys planning to kill us earlier? Now you get to taste fear for yourselves!" With that, he sprinted even faster, leaping and charging ahead like a rocket.
"Thud!"
One of Li Lin's group, running last, collapsed, poisoned and out of strength. The jade-horned snake crushed him instantly, his body turning into a bloody paste beneath its massive form.
"Hiss hiss…"
The serpent's forked tongue flicked. Another disciple was caught by an invisible force and pulled backward, into the snake's gaping maw.
"Ah!" He only had time to scream once before being swallowed. Blood spurted from the serpent's white fangs, and the man was digested before he even hit its stomach. The horrific sight made everyone feel icy dread from head to toe.
The distance between them shrank. The jade-horned snake no longer sprayed venom or fired beams from its horn. Instead, it simply opened its mouth and used terrifying suction to draw its victims in.
"Puff!"
Blood splattered, another person devoured alive, blood streaming from between the snake's teeth. In the blink of an eye, four or five were dead. Only Li Lin, Li Yun, and Han Feiyu remained besides Ye Fan and Pang Bo.
"Pang Bo, you damn waste, just wait! My great-uncle will make you wish you were never born!" Han Feiyu screamed in both fear and rage. He was now at the rear, about to be the next victim.
The old snake locked onto him, its tongue dripping venom that sizzled the ground. Its blood-red eyes fixated on Han Feiyu.
"No!" Han Feiyu screamed in terror as an unseen force lifted him off the ground, pulling him toward the snake's mouth.
At that moment, Han Feiyu summoned his Greenwood Seal, a heavy, powerful artifact that radiated green light and fog. He smashed it downward.
"Boom!"
It struck the snake's head hard, making it shake, but didn't injure it. The snake's horn shot out divine light, blasting the Greenwood Seal away. It crashed into rocks, pulverizing them into powder.
The Greenwood Seal wasn't destroyed, it was a high-grade artifact refined by Han Feiyu's great-uncle and inscribed with many runes and powerful forces. Han Feiyu's cultivation was too low to use its full power.
"Uncle! Save me!" Suspended in mid-air, Han Feiyu shouted desperately. The jade pendant on his chest flashed, forming a barrier that halted his motion and shielded him from the snake.
He remembered now, his great-uncle had told him never to part with that pendant. It was clearly a life-saving treasure.
Suddenly, from a distant cliff, a beam of green light shot up. A figure riding a divine rainbow streaked over and arrived in an instant. The snake seemed to sense danger and rapidly retreated.
Li Lin and Li Yun's faces lit up. Han Feiyu screamed joyfully, "Uncle, save me!"
The green light reached them. A hunched, disheveled old man appeared, grabbing Han Feiyu and landing on the ground. Li Lin and Li Yun quickly bowed.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo, standing in the distance, froze. They wanted to run but stopped when they noticed the elder glance at them. A person who could ride a divine rainbow was no one they could escape from.
The old man was short, hunched, and bony, barely 1.5 meters tall. With long white hair covering his face, only his hands were visible, shriveled and black like a bird's claws.
"Elder Han, thank goodness you came, or we'd be dead…" Li Lin and Li Yun bowed deeply, then glared hatefully at Ye Fan and Pang Bo. "You two are finished now!"
Han Feiyu gritted his teeth and whispered angrily to the old man, clearly plotting against Ye Fan and Pang Bo. His gaze toward them was cold and vicious.
But Elder Han ignored the trio. Instead, he nodded at the jade-horned snake and said in a raspy, near-death voice: "Not bad, very good. That jade horn will make excellent medicine…"
The snake sensed danger and tried to flee, tongue flicking constantly.
The ghostly old man floated forward like a phantom. The snake spat venom to block him, but green light enveloped Elder Han, keeping all poison at bay.
"Zing!"
The horn shone brightly, unleashing several beams of divine light toward the elder.
"Clang clang clang!"
Elder Han deflected them all with a green wooden ruler, scattering the beams into the forest.
Realizing the danger, the serpent tried to escape. But Elder Han released twelve green beams, twelve greenwood swords grew huge and stabbed into the ground, forming a prison around the snake.
"Drop your horn now, or I'll skin you alive!" he said coldly.
The serpent's eyes flared with fury. Its horn glowed, preparing a final attack.
But Elder Han didn't give it the chance. The twelve swords emitted eerie green light, their carved runes crawling like insects. Then they slashed inward.
"Puff puff puff…"
Blood gushed out. The twelve greenwood swords chopped the snake into dozens of pieces. Blood flowed like a river, reeking of stench and poison.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo gasped. Han Feiyu's great-uncle was terrifying, he had slain a serpent demon with ease.
The snake's body was incredibly tough, able to crush trees and grind boulders to dust. Yet it was shredded in seconds. The cloaked, hunched Elder Han was like a nightmare come alive.