The massive body of the Blackwater Profound Serpent hovered in the sky above Lesser Peak, its cold serpentine eyes holding a trace of human-like confusion.
It could clearly sense that the source of the strange fruity fragrance that had caused its bloodline, dormant for five hundred years, to boil and every cell in its body to scream with desire was on this inconspicuous little peak below. But this peak gave it an extremely strange, even contradictory, feeling.
In its perception, the spiritual energy of the peak below was pitifully thin, practically a "barren land" within the spiritual veins of the Sky Profound Sect. The aura of the young man standing in the courtyard was so faint it was almost negligible, not much stronger than an ant it might have casually crushed on its way here.
However, it was this seemingly vulnerable place that, in some inexplicable way, gave it a warning sign that made even its Yao soul feel a slight sting. It was an intuition for unknown danger that originated from its beastly instincts. The hundreds of layers of arrays covering the entire peak, in particular, though their light seemed dim and they appeared on the verge of collapse, were interlinked in a way that conformed to the Heavenly Dao, faintly emitting an aura that made it feel extremely uncomfortable.
As a Yao King that had lived for nearly a thousand years, the Blackwater Profound Serpent was ferocious by nature, but it was also cautious. It circled Lesser Peak twice, its massive head slowly lowering, and tentatively opened its cavernous mouth, which was large enough to swallow a small mountain.
Hiss—
A visible stream of black gas spewed from its mouth. This was no ordinary gas; it was its life-bound poison miasma, cultivated over hundreds of years and capable of corroding all things! This miasma was incomparably yin and cold; it could even defile magical treasures. If an ordinary Golden Core cultivator were to be touched by even a trace of it, their physical body would immediately rot, and their primordial spirit would dissolve.
The black poison miasma, like a living thing, transformed into countless ferocious small snakes and slammed hard against the outermost layer of Lesser Peak's protective array.
Sizzle... Sizzle...
A tooth-grinding corrosion sound was heard. The originally bright array light screen, upon contact with the poison miasma, visibly dimmed at a rapid rate, its light flickering violently as if it would completely collapse at any moment.
Deep within the tunnel, Yue Qingqian, through a miniature observation array that Lin Fan had specifically left for her, saw this world-destroying scene outside, and her heart nearly stopped beating from fright. She clamped her small hands tightly over her mouth, not daring to make a sound. She knew that once these hundreds of seemingly powerful arrays were breached, she and her senior brother would be torn to shreds by that terrifying Yao King in an instant, without even a single complete remnant left behind.
However, in stark contrast to her extreme fear was the growing impatience on Lin Fan's face in the courtyard.
He watched as the arrays he had personally laid out, which had cost him a great deal of effort and materials, were being corroded. There was not a trace of fear on his face, only the kind of annoyance and anger one feels when their own garden is being vandalized by a neighbor's unruly child.
"So annoying! This is so annoying!" he grumbled under his breath, his voice filled with the resentment of having his peaceful life disturbed. "I was having a perfectly good day of cultivation, and you have to come and make trouble! Don't you know these arrays are expensive to maintain? Do you have any idea how much material and time it will waste to repair the array foundations you've damaged! The time I use for drinking tea and reading has been wasted by a long worm like you!"
He looked at the arrogant giant serpent in the sky, his expression like he was looking at a fly buzzing around him in the summer that he just couldn't get rid of.
He really didn't want to make a move.
In his life's creed, the option of "making a move" was ranked last among all solutions, even behind "self-detonation."
Because making a move meant there would be energy fluctuations. And energy fluctuations could be detected by those old geezers in the sect who had cultivated for hundreds of years, had nothing better to do, and spent their days sweeping their spiritual sense across the sect.
Once they discovered that he, the legendary "Qi Refining stage failure disciple," was actually a reclusive master who could casually crush a Yao King, would his days ever be peaceful again?
The answer was, absolutely not!
All sorts of inexplicable sect missions, boring elder meetings, idiotic challenges from the talented disciples of various peaks... just thinking about a future entangled in countless karmic ties made Lin Fan's scalp tingle and his whole body feel uncomfortable.
"I'll give you one last chance to scram on your own," Lin Fan silently issued a final ultimatum to the Blackwater Profound Serpent in the sky.
He glanced around the courtyard, his gaze falling on an ordinary stone in the corner that had been dug up during the renovation of the herb garden.
He walked over, bent down, and picked up the stone. It was still damp with soil and cool to the touch.
Then, with an extremely casual posture, as if he were just trying to throw a piece of trash far away, he threw the stone towards the sky-blotting Blackwater Profound Serpent.
The moment the ordinary stone left his hand, Lin Fan, using an inscrutable and subtle technique, silently and without any fanfare, infused it with a trace of... chaotic qi, so faint it was almost negligible, smaller than a speck of dust.
The stone did not fly fast, nor did it have the astonishing momentum to tear through the sky, nor did it contain any world-destroying energy. It just wobbled lazily, softly, flying out of the protective range of the array and towards the massive head of the Blackwater Profound Serpent.
The Blackwater Profound Serpent didn't even bother to dodge. In its view, this was the most ridiculous provocation a mortal could launch against a deity. A trace of cruel mockery flashed in its giant serpentine eyes, and it opened its huge mouth, preparing to swallow this laughable stone along with the turtle-shell-like array below.
However, the moment the stone came within three yards of its body, a sudden change occurred!
The imperceptible trace of chaotic qi on the stone, upon contact with the Blackwater Profound Serpent's massive Yao qi field, seemed to be stimulated in some way and suddenly, silently, bloomed.
It was not an explosion of energy, but a higher-level manifestation of the "Dao."
An aura originating from the beginning of primordial chaos, transcending all the myriad Daos of the heavens, representing the most fundamental source of life and death in the universe, instantly locked onto the Yao soul within the Blackwater Profound Serpent's massive body!
At that moment, time itself seemed to stand still.
The tens of thousands of scales on the Blackwater Profound Serpent's body, harder than refined steel, stood on end in an instant! An absolute fear, originating from the deepest part of its bloodline, from its ancient genetic memory, a fear that could not be described in words, instantly flooded its entire consciousness like a bursting dam!
It was the feeling of an ant looking up at the firmament, of a mortal glimpsing a god or demon! It was the most primitive, most humble level of life's absolute reverence and fear for its "Creator"!
All its movements froze. In its giant serpentine eyes, all the greed, violence, fanaticism, and mockery vanished in an instant, replaced by an extreme, incredulous, as-if-it-had-seen-a-ghost terror!
The stone ultimately just grazed past its nose, light and soft, without causing any substantial damage.
But the Blackwater Profound Serpent was as if all the bones and strength had been sucked out of its body. Its massive form trembled violently and uncontrollably in the air, and even the Yao power maintaining its flight began to dissipate.
It was scared.
From that ordinary stone, it had felt a power terrifying enough to completely erase it and its entire Blackwater Profound Serpent race from this world ten thousand times, a hundred million times over!
It had no doubt that if the stone's owner wished it, with just a single thought, it could be instantly annihilated in both body and soul, without leaving a single trace of its existence behind!
Just as it was about to have a mental breakdown from extreme fear, a calm voice, devoid of any emotion yet as majestic as a heavenly decree, seemed to cross the barrier of space and resounded directly in the deepest part of its soul.
"Scram!"
To the Blackwater Profound Serpent at this moment, this single word was no less than the sound of nature, a supreme pardon from a god.
As if granted amnesty, it no longer cared about the fruity fragrance that had driven it mad for hundreds of years. Its massive body twisted violently, and it practically scrambled, erupting with the fastest speed of its life, and fled frantically towards the forbidden back mountain without looking back. It plunged into the icy depths of the Dragon-Locking Pool, coiled itself into a ball, and dared not move an inch, as if the slightest movement would bring about a world-ending disaster.
The dark clouds in the sky quickly dispersed with the Yao King's escape.
Warm sunlight shone down again.
Lesser Peak returned to its former tranquility, as if nothing had ever happened.