The First Immortal of Destiny

Chapter 489: Chapter 489: Soaring Serpent Disaster (3)_1

”The exit of the Dungeon is blocked by the Soaring Serpent?” A trace of confusion appeared on Shen Mo’s face.

He was aware that the Mountain River Valley lay deep within the Linjiang Mountain Range. However, according to his judgment, the general location of the Mountain River Valley should be in the middle of the Soaring Serpent’s coiled body, not covered by its gigantic form!

Seeing the puzzled expression on Shen Mo’s face, Patriarch Zhou didn’t explain much but pointed to the shadowy part under the Soaring Serpent’s belly. Its body was so huge that when sunlight fell upon it, a profound and expansive shadow was naturally cast. In the deepest part, it was like night, without a trace of light.

Following the direction Patriarch Zhou indicated, Shen Mo probed with his sense and found some faintly visible dark shadows shuttling about under a particular shadow.

Having learned a lesson from the Four-eyed Giant, he had not previously used his sense to carefully probe the fluctuations of the Soaring Serpent’s soul. Additionally, with the shadow covering such a large area, it would have been difficult to discover what lay within without Patriarch Zhou’s indication.

After a moment, Shen Mo identified the true forms of the dark shadows. They were snakes of various sizes with double wings on their backs, resembling countless smaller versions of the Soaring Serpent. These creatures hid in the deep shadows cast by the Soaring Serpent, constantly moving within the gaps of its Scale Armor. They ripped off pieces of dead skin and rotten scales, swallowing them whole.

”What is this?” Shen Mo was somewhat puzzled.

Then he noticed that at the edge of the shadow, about a hundred miles from the Soaring Serpent’s body, a bird, oblivious to the dangerous aura, flapped its wings and flew over. In the next instant, an astonishing change occurred to this bird. Its entire body, as if soaked by an inexplicable power, instantly turned into a mass of indescribable rotten flesh. Its feathers fell off, its body elongated, and its original wings melted away as a new pair of fleshy wings grew from its back. In the blink of an eye, it transformed into a Flying Serpent, issued a joyful hiss, dived into the shadow, and joined the flock of snakes cleaning up dead skin and rotten scales.

It wasn’t just birds; rodents, rabbits, foxes, badgers, and even small insects like bees, butterflies, caterpillars, and earthworms—as long as they crossed this invisible boundary—would immediately ”metamorphose,” turning into Flying Serpents of different sizes!

Immediately, Shen Mo singled out a Flying Serpent that had just transformed from a caterpillar, activated the Skill ”Insight into All Beings,” and after sacrificing a Lower Grade Spirit Stone, he received relevant information.

[Variation: Double-winged Flying Snake]

[Realm: Class I peak]

[Brief Description: These creatures are born when other beings are corrupted by the Soaring Serpent’s power. They parasitize the crevices of the Soaring Serpent’s Scale Armor, feasting on its dead skin and rotten scales. The richer their Essence and Qi before transformation, the stronger their power afterward. This strength remains constant throughout their lives and cannot be improved through means such as cultivation. They are inherently greedy and violent, often engaging in bloody battles over the Soaring Serpent’s necrotic skin and scales.]

[Weakness: Fear of sunlight. They often live in the shadows of Scale Armor gaps and other places. If exposed to sunlight, they will fall into a weakened state.]

Seeing the feedback in the information panel, Shen Mo finally understood why the disciples of the Riverside Sect were trapped in the Mountain River Realm and couldn’t get out.

Probably, as soon as they appeared in the Mountain River Valley, they would be instantly corrupted by the power of the Soaring Serpent, becoming these sorts of monsters that feed on its dead skin and rotten scales. Such a fate is even more tragic than death itself!

”The life level of this Soaring Serpent Bizarre Dragon is too high, and the radiation of its Essence and Qi is extremely strong!” Patriarch Zhou sighed deeply. ”As soon as any creature approaches it, both its body and soul will be corrupted and twisted, becoming a parasite-like existence, destined to clean its dead skin for the rest of its life.”

Shen Mo nodded. Not shying away from this Golden Core Realm patriarch, he took out the Soul Refining Flag, waved it, and summoned a Class II peak minor Heavenly Demon Soul General and a middle-stage Class III mutated Demon Soul General. His possession of the Soul Refining Flag was probably no secret among the upper echelons of the Riverside Sect. However, because Shen Mo was generally cautious and did not easily reveal the changes in strength of the Demon Soul Generals within the flag, no one was currently aware of its miraculous nature. The two Demon Soul Generals he had just summoned were ones Shen Mo rarely used, so even if Patriarch Zhou saw them, it wouldn’t be an issue.

”Go!” Shen Mo pointed, and the two Demon Soul Generals, wrapped in murky Demonic Qi, pounced toward the distant Soaring Serpent.

He naturally wasn’t trying to use the Demon Soul Generals to attack this Bizarre Dragon, but rather to test if creatures that lacked a physical body and existed only as Soul Generals could avoid being corrupted by the Soaring Serpent’s power.

After a short while, the two Demon Soul Generals, one after the other, approached within a hundred miles of the Soaring Serpent, crossing that invisible, forbidden line.

PUFF!

PUFF!

In the blink of an eye, the bodies of the Demon Soul Generals crumbled and disintegrated, turning into two masses of pulp enveloped in blood-red light, ghostly aura, and Demonic Qi. Then, bones and flesh rapidly grew from these masses of pulp. Wriggling, they quickly transformed into one large and one small Double-winged Flying Snake, which then hissed and flew into the deeper shadows.

Meanwhile, on the Soul Refining Flag, two soul marks completely dimmed and vanished.

Seeing this, Shen Mo couldn’t help but sigh.

Even Demon Soul Generals ultimately couldn’t escape corruption by the Soaring Serpent’s power. Although he hadn’t captured other types of creatures to test, he could roughly guess that any living being in this world that approached the Soaring Serpent would become a parasitic Flying Serpent on its body! In fact, he couldn’t even use a Secret Technique to have his soul leave his Dao Body and enter the Mountain River Valley to communicate between the inside and outside. An intact Daoist body and mind, after transforming into a Double-winged Flying Snake, would be stronger; a soul alone would also grow Flesh and Blood, but having lost the Flesh and Blood and True Yuan of its original Dao Body, its strength would likely be somewhat weaker!

In Shen Mo’s opinion, the radiating power of the Soaring Serpent’s Essence and Qi was somewhat similar to the Demon-corruption of Heavenly Demons. However, Demon-corruption is a Skill of the Heavenly Demons; once used to transform a creature into a mutated Heavenly Demon, they lose this innate ability. Furthermore, its limitations are significant. Other creatures, including Human Cultivators, have ways to resist the power of Demon-corruption. But the radiation of the Soaring Serpent’s Essence and Qi is even more terrifying and bizarre. Aside from staying far away from it, there’s almost no way to counter it.

The Mountain River Valley was coiled in the center of its body, like a natural chasm isolating the inside from the outside. Moreover, at this moment, both Sound Transmission Talismans and Teleportation Arrays were completely useless, making it impossible for them, the outsiders, to contact the disciples within the Mountain River Realm!

If the Mountain River Dungeon were a cave paradise untouched by the mortal world, Patriarch Yuan, with his abilities, could forcefully break through the spatial barrier and open another spatial passage from elsewhere. However, this Dungeon had long since fallen into the mortal world. It was like an insect egg tightly adhered to a leaf; the membrane between it and the Outer Realm was similar to the realm barrier between this world and the Heavenly Demon Realm. Even Golden Core Realm patriarchs were incapable of breaking it!

”Patriarch, can we only wait here now and hope that the Soaring Serpent wakes up and leaves on its own?” Shen Mo turned and asked Patriarch Zhou.

Zhou Zhiwei’s face also showed helplessness. He gazed at the Soaring Serpent’s vast and majestic body and said, ”Perhaps... that’s all we can do!”