Several miles away east of the green fog swamp sect a green creature was flashing around the swamp at abnormal speed almost as if running away from something. Only a green blur could be seen due to its fast movement. The green creature that seemed to be heading in a straight line suddenly deviated from its path and swiftly turned to its left. Seconds later a loud thud was heard followed by a brief animal grunt that was silenced soon after almost like it had been muzzled shut.

The green blur turned out to be a green snake whose scales were glistening like green rubies. The snake was madly devouring a willow-horned deer. The muzzled grunt seemed to have come from the deer as there was a clean strike to its neck from where the green snake was madly devouring its blood. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝑙．𝑐𝘰𝘮

The willow-horned deer was the size of a fully grown cow except it had well-defined muscles that seemed compact and not excessive. Its antlers were white with yellow willow leaves. The green snake was tiny in comparison being at most 10 meters in length and less than a meter in girth. That snake however was at the moment tearing through the dear like it was made of cotton. Within minutes there was no trace of the deer even the little blood that had slipped onto the ground had been swallowed clean by the snake.

The moment the green snake finished eating the deer it closed its eyes in meditation. A deep pained frown appeared on its face with beads of perspiration filling it. There was a deep wound in one of its eyes that had been sliced apart. The wound extended from its eye down its head to its lower body. It covered a range of 3 meters from its eye to its body. There was a chill to the wound. A white misty haze was produced from the deep cut with the highest concentration being where its eye was.

Most of Its scales turned into a darker shade of green with only the head being brighter. It seemed like energy was being drawn from the rest of the body and was being concentrated on the head where the injuries were the heaviest. Steam was produced around its wounds almost as if the white mist was being boiled at high temperatures. The frown it had on grew deeper with even a small pained grunt escaping from its mouth. It was currently under an enormous and painful struggle as it tried to heal its wounds. It kept trying to eliminate the mist within its wounds but every time it thought it was close to success in dissipating the mist, it would be reborn soon after. The back-and-forth struggle between the green snake and the mist went on for almost an hour before the green snake opened its remaining eye with despair, worry, and fear written all over its face.

The wound still remained as it had been an hour before, not a single inch of it had been healed or even closed up. The mist produced above it was still as thick as before permeating deeply from within and around the wound.

“Figures even a beast at the 1st stage of core formation realm isn’t able to provide me with enough energy to heal the wound. Not even the tiniest bit of the mist has let up. What a fearsome ability. From the look of things, it’s going to take me at least a year to heal from these wounds and that is only if I fully dedicate myself to healing and not do anything else even cultivating. But who knows if I can even heal completely without leaving hidden injuries that will hinder my cultivation speed going forward? What a blunder. That human was a ferocious beast in human skin. I can’t believe he trounced all of us so easily within a few minutes. If I were even a step too late in making a decisive retreat I would have ended up like the rest.

Bolin, I’m sorry old friend, I thought it was an opportunity for us who knew we were delivering ourselves on a platter for that human. I even detected insatiable greed coming from him. Hehehe some false king I am,” The green snake silently thought as it made a self-deprecating laugh. It flinched a little from the pain from its wounds.

The green snake was the green flash viper who was one of the spirit beasts that surrounded Feng Xin. He is also one of the three false kings of the eighth zone. At the ambush, he was the sole survivor however he did not leave unscathed from it. Feng Xin’s qi was constantly corroding his flesh and penetrating his organs and given enough time it would penetrate his meridians. The green flash viper had tried to use the energy from the 1st stage core formation willow horned deer to try and purge the foreign qi but it was all for naught. The qi was as strong as ever slowly eating away at him. It took all he had just to keep the injury at bay and safeguard his internal organs. It would be an uphill battle just to heal from these injuries as it would require at least a few high-grade sky-rank herbs or the consumption of a dozen beasts at the middle stages of core formation realm and long-term secluded meditation.

“With this level of injuries I’ll need to go deep into hiding and recuperate, I won’t have the energy to do anything else. The real trouble is the spirit beasts under me. They pretend to revere me but who knows what they might think once they see me in my current state. An injured false king is a very tempting price for them, they may even team up to increase their odds and devour me soon after. Settling at the barren leaves abode should be my best option. With the horrible conditions of that place, no one would think to look for me there and the poison array that Bolin helped me set up there should offer better protection. Luckily it’s not that far from here.” The green flash viper looked around to try and gauge how far it would have to travel to the barren leaves abode.

It was amid its calculations that its body suddenly tensed like an arrow already knocked up ready to strike its target. A vigilant expression washed over it with its pupil constricting as it stared to its northwest side. The side was normal just a few seconds ago. It was filled with large trees lush with leaves and hanging vines. Though sunlight was obscured by the green fog some still penetrated giving the area an ambient glow. However, at this moment there was a dark circular spot less than 2 miles away. What started as the size of a fist had grown to the size of a window then a door within a couple of minutes. Everywhere the darkness touched would be devoured by it in its wake as the darkness grew in size and length the closer it drew to the green flash viper.

“Zekekeke my old friend Li Lun you look a little bit frosty there. You need to take care of yourself well or you may get an infection with your wound all exposed like that zekekeke. I wonder who was strong enough to strike and heavily injure the fastest false king of the eighth zone, the green flash viper,” a cold raspy voice sounded from within the blanketing darkness.

The green flash viper rotated its head all around it as it contemplated making a run for it on the opposite side of the incoming darkness. That though was soon rejected once it detected the numerous presence of spirit beasts at different stages of core formation realm encircling it at different spots in all directions. It could take care of them however that would require time which would create an opening for the owner of the cold raspy voice to strike him.

Li Lun the green flash viper gave up on the escape and soon focused all his attention on facing off against the intruder that was the source of the darkness on his northwest side.

“Zekekeke Li Lun looks like you wanted to leave. That’s rather cold-hearted of you, seeing how I came all this way just to see you. Let’s sit down and chat about who gave you that wound. As your friend, I may even help you get rid of that foe and even heal you of that wound. I may not be great at healing techniques like that obstinate babirusa but I’m rather proficient at swallowing stuff. I could swallow that corroding misty qi for you,” The owner of the cold raspy voice said with some teasing in his tone.

“Stop with the nonsense Liao Ying. What do you want?” Li Lun said with coldness in his voice as its eyes narrowed.

“Nothing much, I just want to catch up with a fellow false king who I haven’t seen in a while zekekeke.” The owner of the voice was finally visible. It was a 100-meter length caiman with scales that were darker than black obsidian or the night of the sky. There was a faint cluster of small sparkly white dots on some of its scales that looked like stars. On its left side from its jaw down to its stomach there was a massive sword-shaped scar.

With every step the caiman made light, and the living components present from the ground, grass, shrub, trees, and vines were all devoured by the darkness produced by its body. It soon came to a stop when it was 100 meters from the green flash viper. This caiman was one of the false kings, the black cosmos caiman Liao Ying. Two false kings stood face to face chatting like old friends but the tremendous pressure produced by each of them clashing against each other said a different story.

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