The center of the Mist Forest was a graveyard of trees. Here, the fog was so thick it felt like wet cotton against the skin, and the silence was absolute. Even the crickets dared not chirp in the domain of the Mist King.
Mo Tian stood on a moss-covered boulder. His appearance had changed. The Face-Changing Bone Art had sharpened his jawline and slightly altered the spacing of his eyes. To the world, he was now "Han Fei," a generic, slightly handsome youth with a common face.
Below him, in a hollowed-out crater, slept the beast.
It was a Thunder-Scale Python, a Mutated Rank 1 Spirit Beast. It was fifty feet long, its scales shimmering with suppressed electric arcs. Its breathing sounded like grinding gravel.
[Target: Mist King (Thunder-Scale Python)] Rank: Mutated Rank 1 (Peak) Combat Power: Equivalent to Qi Condensation Stage 9 State: Dormant (Digesting) Weakness: Seven inches below the head (The Reverse Scale).
"Stage 9," Mo Tian calculated. "Five stages above me. In a direct contest of strength, one strike from its tail would liquefy my organs."
He pulled a small glass vial from his robe. It contained a bubbling green liquid—a mixture of the toxic sludge he had consumed earlier, refined inside his own body and regurgitated.
Disgusting, he admitted. But effective.
He uncorked the vial and used his Qi to levitate the droplet. With a flick of his finger, he sent it drifting silently through the air, landing directly on the python's snout.
Hiss.
The acid burned. The python's eyes snapped open—vertical slits of glowing purple. It roared, a sound that shook the leaves off the trees, and thrashed, smashing boulders into dust.
It smelled the intruder immediately.
Mo Tian didn't run. He stood his ground on the boulder, the High-Grade Spirit Sword (stolen from Zhao Feng) in his hand.
"Come," he whispered.
The python lunged, a bolt of lightning wrapped in flesh.
Mo Tian leaped. Not away, but up.
The boulder he had been standing on exploded into shrapnel. Mo Tian twisted in the air, gravity seeming to lose its hold on him as he utilized the lightness of the Corpse-Refining Art. He landed on the python's back.
The beast thrashed wildly, sending arcs of lightning coursing through its scales to fry the parasite.
[Damage Detected. Electrical Burns.] [pain_suppression.exe: Active]
Mo Tian's skin charred, smoke rising from his robes. He didn't scream. He didn't even grimace. He drove the spirit sword down, aiming not for the weak point, but for the spine.
Clang!
Sparks flew. The scales were harder than iron. The sword chipped.
"Tough," Mo Tian noted calmly as he was bucked off, slamming into a tree trunk. His ribs cracked.
The python turned, coiling for a strike that would finish the gnat. Its maw opened, gathering a ball of lightning.
Suddenly, a beam of pure white sword-light tore through the fog from the east.
Slash!
The lightning ball in the python's mouth destabilized. The beast shrieked in confusion, turning its head.
A figure descended from the canopy, floating like a feather. White robes, a veil, and a sword that shone like moonlight.
Yan Luo. The Saintess.
She had arrived.
Mo Tian lay at the base of the tree, clutching his chest, feigning terror. But inside his mind, the gears were turning at light speed.
She is early. The Elder's lockdown must have pushed her to investigate the 'demonic' signal personally. I cannot defeat the snake and her. I must pivot.
"Junior Brother, stay back," Yan Luo's voice was like a clear spring, though tinged with icy authority. "This beast is beyond you."
She raised her sword. "Bind."
Ribbons of white light erupted from her sleeves, wrapping around the massive python. The beast roared, struggling against the Foundation Establishment level restriction.
She is strong, Mo Tian observed. Her control of Qi is flawless. But she lacks killing intent. She is trying to subdue it, not kill it.
"Vile beast," Yan Luo chanted, her fingers forming a seal. "Submit to the Azure Cloud Sect!"
The python, realizing it was trapped, went berserk. Its eyes turned blood red. It ignited its own life force—a Berserk State.
The lightning exploded outward, shattering Yan Luo's ribbons of light. The backlash sent her hovering form stumbling backward in the air.
"What?" Yan Luo's eyes widened. "It burned its blood essence?"
The python didn't attack her. It turned back to the easier prey. Mo Tian.
It lunged at the "injured" disciple on the ground, maw wide open to swallow him whole.
"Move!" Yan Luo screamed, dashing forward, but she was too far away.
Mo Tian looked at the gaping maw. This was the moment.
He could use the Soul-Binding Chain. He could use his Death Qi. But if he did, Yan Luo would identify him as a heretic and kill him instantly.
So, he chose the third option.
Mo Tian grabbed the broken shard of the boulder next to him. With a roar that sounded like desperate panic, he threw himself into the snake's open mouth.
"No!" Yan Luo watched in horror as the disciple was swallowed.
The snake snapped its jaws shut. It paused, gloating.
Then, it froze.
Inside the belly of the beast, darkness enveloped Mo Tian. The stomach acid hissed against his skin.
"Perfect," Mo Tian smiled in the dark.
He wasn't trapped. He was inside the defense.
He raised the stolen Spirit Sword. He didn't need to pierce iron scales here. He only needed to pierce soft meat.
"Devour."
He stabbed the sword upward, piercing the heart from the inside. Simultaneously, he placed both hands on the stomach walls and activated the system at maximum output.
The python's triumph turned to agony. It convulsed, thrashing on the forest floor, crushing trees. Yan Luo halted, confused. Why was it screaming?
The beast shriveled visible. Its massive bulk began to deflate like a punctured waterskin.
Inside, Mo Tian was drinking a river of Mutated Lightning Qi and Blood Essence.
[Critical Overflow!] [Absorbing Mutated Bloodline...] [WARNING: Host Body reaching limit.]
"Break the limit," Mo Tian snarled, his eyes bleeding.
BOOM.
The python's back exploded. Mo Tian burst out from the carcass, covered in gore and slime, gasping for air. He looked like a man who had crawled out of hell.
The python lay dead, a hollow skin.
Yan Luo landed softly nearby. She stared at the grisly scene. She stared at the disciple—covered in acid burns and blood, holding a sword that was half-melted.
"You..." Yan Luo stepped forward, her beautiful eyes wide with shock. "You survived?"
Mo Tian dropped to his knees, panting heavily. He looked up, his face a mask of trauma and adrenaline. He let his hands shake visibly.
"I... I panicked, Senior Sister," Mo Tian stammered, coughing up blood (which was actually excess blood he needed to expel anyway). "I just... I started stabbing inside. Is... is it dead?"
Yan Luo scanned him. She saw no demonic aura. She saw only a brave, lucky, and severely injured Outer Disciple. Her wariness melted into pity.
"It is dead," she said softly. She walked over, a faint scent of lotus flowers surrounding her. She extended a hand, glowing with healing light. "Do not move. The stomach acid is potent."
As her warm, healing Qi flowed into his shoulder, Mo Tian lowered his head to hide the cold calculation in his eyes.
[System Analysis: Yan Luo] [Status: Guard Down.] [Trust Level: Neutral -> Sympathetic.]
"Thank you, Fairy," Mo Tian whispered, allowing a tear to mix with the blood on his cheek. "I thought I would never see the sun again."
Yan Luo sighed. "You were foolish to engage a Beast King. But you were brave. What is your name, Junior Brother?"
"Han Fei," Mo Tian lied without a heartbeat of hesitation.
"Han Fei," she repeated. "You have slain the Mist King. This achievement guarantees you a spot in the Inner Sect."
She looked at the deflated corpse of the snake. A frown creased her brow. "Though... the manner of its death is strange. It looks... drained."
Mo Tian's heart held steady. "I... I had a Fire Talisman. I set it off inside. Maybe that burned it up?"
It was a flimsy lie. But people believe what they want to believe. They want to believe in luck, not monsters.
Yan Luo nodded slowly. "Perhaps."
She stood up. "The exam is ending. The Elders are locking down the forest due to... a disturbance. Come with me. I will escort you out."
Mo Tian struggled to his feet, using the sword as a crutch. "Yes, Senior Sister."
He followed her, limping.
Behind her back, he smirked. He had not only secured a massive amount of Essence (pushing him to the brink of Stage 5), but he had also walked right into the protection of the strongest person in the Sect.
The best place to hide a drop of poison, Mo Tian thought, is inside the antidote.