Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
The appearance of fiend snakes meant the appearance of the Umbra Cactus flower.
Wherever the Blackwater Snakes were, one would be able to find the Umbra Cactus flower. All the fiends knew this.
Thus, they all became excited when they saw the snakes leaping out of the water.
Nobody had expected the Umbra Cactus flower to be here, in this first large lake created by the source of the Blackwater River. They were all in a joyful mood, and a fiend general immediately rushed at the water. He was only hoping to find the flower, not provoke the snakes, but as he flew above the snakes, all of them angrily hissed, their mouths opening to reveal their sharp fangs. These snakes that were only as thick as a thumb and no longer than an arm's length jumped into the air, shooting at the fiend general like black arrows.
The fiend general thrust down a palm, and while it seemed like an ordinary attack, it gathered together all of his Transformation-level power into a powerful blast that was like a giant boulder. But those fiend snakes passed through that palm blast like it wasn't there, lunging at the fiend general and taking huge bites from his body.
Hundreds of fiend snakes rushed at the general, instantly engulfing him until he was completely covered in wriggling snakes that madly bit away at his body.
The fiend general struggled to break free at first, but after a while, he stopped moving. After another while, all of the fiend snakes dispersed, leaving only a white skeleton in the air that fell into the river.
Everyone's hearts shivered.
A fiend king muttered, "Blackwater Snakes are extremely territorial, and anyone who dares to intrude upon their territory will come under their assault. It seems that we can't hope to get the Umbra Cactus flower unless we kill these fiend snakes."
"Did the humans also get the flower by killing all the snakes?" a fiend king asked.
"Who knows? This is our first time here. Unlike the humans, we haven't experienced any of this."
"It's not easy to kill all these fiend snakes, and I feel like there's something more threatening in these waters."
"I think the same. Sun Shuming has disappeared, so he must be hiding around here and waiting for the right time to make his move. Since he's giving us the opportunity to kill the snakes and take the flower, it means that the danger has to be more than meets the eye. There's no telling what acting recklessly might cause." There were also smart ones among the fiend kings, and they quickly realized what Sun Shuming was trying to do.
But just because they realized didn't mean they had a solution.
Fiends weren't humans. Even with their minds opened, they were still largely driven by their natures. Many fiends were naturally temperamental and impulsive. This had nothing to do with how smart they were. It was simply their nature.
Even humans, famed for their intelligence, had "bold heroes" who headed into situations they knew were traps, let alone fiends, who were heavily influenced by their natures.
That dumb bear was the first to bellow, "Who cares about all that!? Since the Blackwater Snakes have appeared, the Umbra Cactus must be near! The one who is able shall be the one to take it, while those who can't should get out of the way! And anyone who tries to steal from us will be slain without mercy!"
He roared and extended a giant bear paw skyward. It grew larger and larger, growing to the size of a small mountain as it prepared to crash down onto the lake. As a Transformation great fiend, he held little regard for such a small lake, and he thought nothing for the consequences of unleashing such terrifying might.
Fortunately, the other fiend kings had brains and immediately shouted, "No!"
They intervened to stop the bear paw.
The bear fiend king angrily roared, "What are you stopping me for!?"
"Idiot, this paw of yours would obliterate the Umbra Cactus flower along with the lake!" the rhino cursed.
The bear fiend froze, and then he realized that this was true. And then he also realized that the rhino had called him an idiot, to which he roared, "Blasted cow, eat my fist!"
The bear paw came swinging around, turning into a divine fist.
"You think I'm afraid of you?" The rhino snorted and rammed his head at the fist, and the two started to fight.
In the end, several fiend kings intervened to split up these two impulsive fellows. Still, the two fiend kings glared at each other, refusing to back down.
The Ghostface King finally said, "Stop arguing. We all have to be careful so that those humans don't get the chance to swipe the flower."
This Greenscale Ghost Serpent had some prestige among the fiends, and when he spoke, all the fiends agreed.
At this moment, a burst of light came from the center of the river.
The fiends looked over and saw numerous black lotuses appearing at the river bottom.
These black lotuses were as large as water basins, and they appeared in great numbers, instantly covering more than half of the river. Countless snakes slithered beneath the leaves of the lotuses, seeming very docile and not at all like vicious maneaters.
And in the center of all of these black lotuses, a white flower was rising. That rainbow glow was coming from this white flower.
"Isn't this the Umbra Cactus Flower? But why is it white?" a fiend king hesitantly asked, unable to tell if this was the legendary Umbra Cactus Flower that could bring back the dead.
None of the fiends had seen the flower of the Umbra Cactus before, so they shared looks of confusion, not knowing what to do.
It was still the bear, always the fiend of action, who nonchalantly said, "Whether it is or not, we should just get it first!"
He reached out to take the flower.
Fortunately, the Small Peach Queen stopped him in time. Glaring at the bear fiend with her enchanting eyes, she said, "Immortal herbs are never easy to get. Not even considering the fiends guarding it, there's even an art to picking the plant. You don't know the way to pick it and are also clumsy, so I'm worried that you'll damage the divine plant."
"Then what do we do?" The bear fiend was getting impatient.
The Small Peach Queen took out a silk bag. "I have here a Rinsing Red Silk Pocket, which can hold all spiritual objects in the world and preserve their spiritual energy. Let me pick the flower."
She prepared to do so.
Before she could, another fiend king said, "What if you take the flower and just leave on your own?"
The other fiend kings also began to grumble.
The fiend kings were no united front, and while they had been able to work together against the ghosts, now that there was a treasure in play, their greed was magnified, and strife began to appear among them. There was no way they would allow the Small Peach Queen to take the Umbra Cactus Flower. They thought that the Small Peach Queen was just making up an excuse to the bear fiend. The bear might have been fooled, but the other fiend kings were not.
As a result, the fiends started fighting with each other before they even got their hands on the treasure.
As they quarreled, a fiend king lost their patience and furtively made a move on the flower. A light flashed out of the crowd of fiends, a golden shuttle shooting toward the Umbra Cactus Flower.
The other fiends were in an uproar over this, but just when the golden shuttle was about to cut down the white flower, a black line shot out of the water and rammed into the golden shuttle, sending it back where it had come from.
The fiends gasped as an enormous being began to rise from the water. This was clearly another Blackwater Snake, but one of immense size, its head as large as a three-floor building.
As it rose higher and higher, countless smaller snakes gathered around it, letting out cheerful hisses. Blackwater Snakes frolicked in the water, but that enormous snake in the middle was motionless, coldly staring at the fiends.
The fiends took in a deep breath, one of the fiend kings saying, "As expected, a great fiend is always protecting a treasure. This long bug won't be easy to deal with!"
The Ghostface King's face darkened at this description of the snake as a "long bug".
"How strong can it be? Stronger than us?" a fiend king scoffed. "If it has any sense, it will leave, and since we're both fiends, we'll spare its life. And if it's smart, surrendering isn't a bad choice either. If it tries to guard it anyway, then only death awaits it."
His words sounded very magnanimous, but the Blackwater Snakes were from the Nether Domain, and they were fundamentally different from other fiends, more like fiend ghosts, ghosts that arose when fiends died. To consider them fiends would be trying to call a swan a goose and would get one laughed out of the building.
The appearance of this giant snake did serve to end the arguments among the fiend kings. One fiend king said, "What are we waiting for? Let's take care of this Blackwater Snake and then take the Umbra Cactus Flower!"
He waved a hand, and a rainbow beam shot toward the snake.
The giant Blackwater Snake angrily hissed and spat out a black cloud. As the black cloud made contact with the rainbow light, it devoured the light and then moved to engulf the fiends.
"Be careful!" the wildcat fiend king shouted. "This is the doom energy of the Nether Court. Don't let it get close to you, or else your flesh will rot away and you'll become a ghost."
As the Nether Court doom energy descended upon the fiends, the fiends struck back, lights of various colors exploding in the air.
But the Nether energy continued to charge forward, swallowing up all the spell arts that touched it. In a flash, the spell arts were all gone, and only that wicked black energy remained, even larger than before. It even seemed to be burping, as if it had just had a meal.
The fiend kings were stunned. What sort of trick was this?
The wildcat fiend king shouted, "Oh no! This is extreme Yin doom energy!"
While the majority of the Great Stellar Chiliocosm used spiritual energy as the foundation for cultivation, there were a few domains that were an exception, the Nether Domain being one of them. There was no spiritual energy in this domain, only doom energy. The living could not cultivate it, only the dead, so the Nether Domain had always been forbidden to the living.
Doom energy and spiritual energy were two extremes. If spiritual energy was life, then doom energy was death.
And what the Blackwater Snake had spat out was the purest extreme Yin doom energy of the Nether Court. It was comparable to True Astral spiritual energy, packed with power. And in the cultivation world, the most direct manifestation of True Astral spiritual energy was the domain Astral Winds.
In other words, the Blackwater Snake had spat out the domain Astral Winds of the Nether Domain, so it was no wonder it was so powerful. In front of extreme Yin doom energy, the opposing natures meant that all spiritual energy spell arts that came in contact with it would be broken down, devoured, and even converted.
The fiends hadn't expected the snake to be this powerful, and they were momentarily dumbstruck.
The Ghostface King shouted at the wildcat fiend, "Save the useless talk and tell us how to deal with it!"
The wildcat fiend shouted, "Attack the snake!"
True.
The eyes of the fiends glowed. While the Nether Court doom energy was powerful, could the snake's body be as powerful?
Ten-some fiend kings attacked the snake in unison.
The power of all of these fiend kings put together was something that even a Violet Palace Titan might not be able to resist, and it was clear that the Blackwater Snake couldn't spit out a second cloud of doom energy. But as the fiends attacked, it suddenly opened its mouth and let out a loud hiss, upon which countless small snakes shot toward the fiends like thousands of arrows.
An epic battle had begun.
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