Serpent Ancestor

In an instant, Xu Hei’s mind felt as if it had been submerged in an icy spring, achieving unprecedented clarity. Many previously complex problems suddenly found their breakthroughs at this moment.

Xu Hei entered a unique state of mind, his thoughts accelerated thousands of times, delving into the minutiae, seeing through countless changes, and touching upon the essence.

At this moment, all secrets before him were no longer secrets.

”So that’s how it is, Ever-changing Fish and Dragon, Dragon Shatter Roar, Summon Wind, Dragon Tail Swing, Sky-Tearing Claw...”

Xu Hei recalled the spells he had practiced before, unraveling many complexities and difficulties, gaining new insights into each move and technique.

His Divine Sense spread out, and he instantly comprehended the structure and formation of the prison, even seeing through the guards outside completely.

Everything in Xu Hei’s mind was no longer a secret.

Most notably, his Ever-changing Fish and Dragon had directly reached the eighth realm.

Ever-changing Fish and Dragon had nine realms in total.

The eighth realm allowed for preliminary shape-shifting.

The ninth realm allowed for infinite transformations, mastering the art of change.

Xu Hei had already acquired the ability to change his form initially.

…………

Though it seemed slow in narration, time passed swiftly.

An hour seemed to pass in an instant. Xu Hei opened his eyes, exiting the state of enlightenment, but he was still immersed in the state, savoring the gains from before.

”Enlightenment Tea truly lives up to its name. In just this brief moment, it felt as if I had experienced ten years of enlightenment,” Xu Hei marveled.

His gains were immense, not only grasping the complexities of Summon Wind but also enhancing all his previous spells to varying degrees.

The most notable was Ever-changing Fish and Dragon, which he had advanced to the eighth realm, acquiring preliminary transformation abilities.

”Ever-changing Fish and Dragon!”

With a thought, Xu Hei’s body entered a blurred state, his bones and muscles emitting a trembling sound, vibrating at a peculiar frequency.

As the vibration continued, his form began to change. His massive body contracted, standing tall, with four protrusions forming at his abdomen, transforming into arms and legs.

Moments later.

Xu Hei transformed into a half-human, half-snake demonic beast.

At this moment, he had a human head and limbs, resembling a human, but his tail remained, covered in pitch-black dragon scales, with a bald head and a single horn.

His appearance had a somewhat sinister feel.

”Preliminary shape-shifting is still too forced,” Xu Hei thought to himself.

In his current form, neither human nor snake, he could easily be mistaken for a monster.

However, he seemed to recall seeing a snake-like creature in the Classic of Mountains and Seas that resembled his current form.

With a thought, Xu Hei reverted to his snake form.

Although an hour of enlightenment had passed, he still needed to seize the time to digest and summarize, not wasting the precious Enlightenment Tea.

Besides the progress in spells, he could also continue to open the third dragon vein, further advancing his cultivation, reaping substantial benefits.

Xu Hei took out a bottle of cultivation pills and swallowed them, refining them with all his might.

…………

And so, Xu Hei was detained for a full half-month.

After half a month, Xu Hei had fully digested his enlightenment. He had completely opened the second dragon vein and halfway through the third.

His cultivation had improved by about thirty percent compared to before.

In fact, as early as when he returned from his mission, both his dragon veins and cultivation had progressed, but lacked the time for tempering. Xu Hei only needed to retreat for a while to achieve great gains.

It’s just that the retreat location had changed to the prison.

During this period, apart from the room full of ink, there was no disturbance from outside. This was good, as no one interrupted him.

Xu Hei was not in a hurry, adding another twenty thousand Spirit Stones into the formation, continuing his retreat.

It wasn’t until twenty days later that the prison door slowly opened. Xu Hei exhaled, unhurriedly packing up the formation.

A one-eyed octopus crawled in, glancing at the perfectly fine Xu Hei, a look of surprise flashing in its eyes, but it quickly concealed it, saying indifferently, ”The two victims have been brought in, follow me!”

It extended its tentacles, binding Xu Hei, and led him to the Enforcement Hall.

Inside the Enforcement Hall, there were a total of five figures.

Lei Guang, along with his colleague Lei Fei, both eel-like.

The two so-called victims, Mu Hou from the Immortal Pavilion, and an unknown manager from the Sea Commerce Guild, were clearly sent by Li Yuan’an.

There was also a starfish responsible for recording.

Xu Hei glanced at the lineup and knew the outcome.

The Enforcement Hall was filled with enemies inside and out, was there even a need for a trial? They might as well directly announce the verdict.

”In my opinion, there’s no need for a trial, just tell me the result,” Xu Hei said.

”How dare you! Speaking such insolence in the Enforcement Hall, showing contempt for the court, first give him thirty lashes!” Lei Guang shouted angrily.

The octopus obeyed, its tentacles immediately hardening into sturdy rods, crashing down on Xu Hei’s back.

”Boom!!”

A dull sound echoed, Xu Hei felt no pain at all. By now, his strength had far surpassed those of the same realm, it was like scratching an itch.

However, he still put on a show of pain, his face contorted, his body crashing to the ground.

”Boom boom boom...”

One rod after another fell with a thud, Xu Hei cooperatively acted, letting out sounds of agony.

However, Lei Guang’s face was as dark as water, seeing through Xu Hei’s pretense at a glance, he roared, ”Are you even trying? This snake is pretending, can’t you tell?”

The one-eyed octopus’s face changed instantly, hurriedly increasing the force, crashing down like a mountain, smashing Xu Hei’s back.

Xu Hei spat out a mouthful of blood.

The thirty lashes were quickly finished, and seeing Xu Hei injured, Lei Guang’s expression slightly eased.

In reality, it was Xu Hei who had injured himself.

This was the situation Xu Hei had anticipated long ago, even if he kept silent, they would find an excuse to deal with him.

Next, it was just going through the motions.

Manager A presented the stolen goods Xu Hei had sold, such as the Sea Demon Flute and Sword-Swallowing Gourd.

Xu Hei remained silent.

Mu Hou used a jade slip to show the destruction of the Cave Dwelling, with Xu Hei’s purchased Cave Dwelling at the center, three nearby Cave Dwellings were completely destroyed, the surrounding area heavily polluted with oil, depicting Xu Hei as heinous.

Xu Hei still remained silent.

”Xu Hei, do you plead guilty?” Lei Guang asked coldly.

Xu Hei didn’t even bother to acknowledge him.

Finally, Lei Guang announced the verdict, deducting twelve thousand contribution points from Xu Hei, imprisoning him in the dungeon for half a year, with charges including but not limited to murder, theft, contempt of court, destruction of property, and so on, listing a whole bunch.

If the contribution points were insufficient, they would directly become negative.

Hearing such a verdict, a cold smile appeared on Xu Hei’s lips.

”What, you dare to laugh? Contempt of court, do you want an additional charge?” Lei Guang said coldly.

Xu Hei replied, ”If you want to accuse someone, there’s always a way. I don’t acknowledge any of these charges, but I won’t deny the contempt of court.”

”If something like you can be called a court.”

Xu Hei’s words echoed in the Enforcement Hall, causing everyone to freeze. Especially the last sentence, which made Lei Guang pause, his eyes turning red, his chest igniting with raging fury.