The ghosts, piled up like a small mountain, exploded outward. Some scattered into soulflies, utterly annihilated, while others wailed in agony.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The force that had blasted them away was a white whirlwind.
Yin Luan held her arms outstretched horizontally as she spun rapidly on her feet. Her speed whipped up howling winds around her, strong enough to unsteady anyone standing nearby.
A faint white glow enveloped her body, as if this power shielded her from the ghosts’ attempts to possess her.
After spinning for a while, the Little Snake Demon gradually came to a stop. She straightened her arms, steadying her head as golden stars danced before her eyes and dizziness washed over her. She shouted, “If… if you’re so tough… pick on someone… your own size! Urp…”
She had only recently developed this move.
Unable to master the ultimate technique of Snake Devour, the Little Snake Demon had to find another way. Otherwise, fighting against the Evil Spirits would leave her sorely outmatched.
Unfortunately, this technique came with significant side effects. She couldn’t use it repeatedly, or she’d dizzy herself into oblivion first…
“Not bad,” the Elder said. “But you’re no match for me. Step aside. My target is the one in the valley.”
Seeing the Little Snake Demon block the first wave of attacks, the Evil Spirits Leader quickly changed its tune. Compared to Big Snake Snake, who was currently undergoing her tribulation, this little one’s appeal wasn’t quite as strong.
If it could devour her, great. If not, no big loss—better not to delay the main event.
“A mere ghost dares to act so arrogant?” Yin Luan shot back. “If you’ve got the guts, fight me one-on-one!”
“Hmph.” The Elder ignored her. With a wave of its hand, it summoned twenty or thirty Advanced Ghosts of varying sizes and forms. “Hold her back!”
With that, it skirted around Yin Luan and pressed on toward the interior of the valley.
Yin Luan tried to block its path, but a torrent of flying sand and stones came hurtling toward her from all sides, threatening to bury her alive.
The Little Snake Demon could only shield her head and watch helplessly as it departed.
Atop the peak, the Metal Pillars continued to flicker intermittently, shouldering some of the Thunder Tribulation’s fury. Beside them lay countless charred snake corpses.
Lacking the Heavenly Might resistance of Yin Luan, Ren Tan, and the others, these snakes died nearly every time a Formation node was swapped.
Most were ordinary snakes or ones with only faint Spiritual Intelligence—not true Snake Demons blessed with fortune and true sentience. Yet their deaths, so concentrated and gruesome, swiftly birthed an invisible yet palpable negative energy.
In the valley, the alluring beauty with a snake’s tail for legs bled profusely from wounds all over her body. She lifted her gaze to the skies above the valley.
“Resentful Energy piercing the heavens, is it?” She Mei murmured to herself. “To let so many lives perish pointlessly for the sake of my own tribulation… I truly am a sinner…”
Demons were living beings, and beasts were too. Lack of Spiritual Intelligence didn’t mean their lives held no value.
The negative energy born from death gradually took tangible form, draping Snake Valley in a layer of dark red mist that no amount of rain could wash away.
This environment greatly bolstered the Evil Spirits’ combat prowess.
Xiao Luo and Lily coordinated seamlessly, their Dragon Whisker Whips lashing out nonstop. Ghost after ghost turned to flames, extinguished by the downpour.
But such efforts seemed like a drop in the bucket.
“After taking damage, they recover so quickly,” Lily said. “They weren’t like this before.”
“Too many lives have died,” Xiao Luo replied grimly. “Evil Spirits thrive in places brimming with negative emotions—it’s their favorite feast.”
Ren Tan directed the Divine Dragon Phantom, attempting to dispel the dark red mist that clung like maggots to rotting bones. But the effect was minimal.
“In the end, we’re no Demon Subduing Division,” she sighed. “Different trades have their specialists. The Demon Subduing Division are the true experts at dealing with Evil Spirits.”
She hadn’t realized it before, but the Great Zhou Kingdom’s Demon Subduing Division treated these tenacious foes like common game birds and rabbits. Thinking back on it now filled her with genuine admiration.
The group grew more exhausted with every exchange, and Yin Luan fumed as the Advanced Ghosts hounded her relentlessly.
She didn’t mind the stones and sand they hurled her way, but they clearly had no intention of finishing her off—just stalling her.
With nothing able to get close, she couldn’t unleash her Snake Snake Tornado to wipe them out. She was caught in a bind.
“Don’t make me do this,” Yin Luan warned, her temper flaring. “I still have one ultimate move left!”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The mindless ghosts kept pelting her with rocks, ignoring her words entirely.
“Fine. You asked for it…”
Yin Luan cleared her throat.
Her hidden ultimate technique—for any crisis… just… sing!
“La la la la… Hey! Stop it, you guys! How can you interrupt me while I’m singing? That’s too much!”
The ultimate move had failed. It seemed singing wasn’t some omnipotent trick after all…
Now, Little Snake was truly out of options.
“I can’t keep dragging this out with them,” Yin Luan said, her face turning serious. “I have to use Snake Devour. You can do this—I know I can!”
She had practiced for so many days that every detail was etched into her mind. There was no reason she couldn’t make it work.
Yin Luan patted her belly, opened her little mouth, and drew in a deep breath.
Deeper.
Even deeper.
Hiss—
Suddenly, a head-sized vortex appeared right in front of her.
She had done it! Just as she knew she could!
Little Snake’s belly swelled up dramatically, making her look a full size larger—almost comical.
To wipe out the Ghost Souls before her, she needed to expand that vortex to ten times its current size.
Yin Luan kept at it, inhaling until her face flushed beet red.
Then…
“Burp!”
She couldn’t hold it in any longer. A massive belch escaped her, and her body deflated like a punctured balloon, shrinking right back to normal in an instant.
Damn it—all that sucking in for nothing, just to burp it all out!
The Little Snake Demon’s belch packed quite a punch. It sent rainwater laced with mud and sand surging forward like a raging flood.
But physical attacks like that were useless against Ghost Souls. The mud and sand simply passed straight through their translucent Light Orbs and kept going.
Then, as the “Burp” echoed out, the utterly unprepared Ghost Souls had their “bodies” twist and warp like dough being yanked and pulled every which way.
A few couldn’t withstand the “force” and shattered into fragments on the spot.
“Burp… Huh?”
The Little Snake Demon blinked at the chaos before her, scratching her head in confusion.
It worked? But airflow counts as a physical attack—why did it affect them?
“You… Mental Power…”
The Ghost Souls stammered out a few broken words, too garbled to make sense of—probably just some instinctual reaction.
Whatever the reason, it had worked. The Ghost Souls slowed to a crawl, a gap opening in their encirclement. Yin Luan seized the moment and bolted toward the Mountain Valley.
By the time she arrived, a colossal vortex hung in the air. The Evil Spirits Leader—who had taken the form of an Elder—had transformed into a Monster several zhang tall, its face a ghastly green mask of fangs and fury. It pressed forward step by grueling step against the pull of the vortex, closing in on the Snake Demon beautiful woman sprawled in a pool of her own blood.
Snake Devour had no effect on it!
Rumble—
A thunderbolt crashed down, shattering the vortex and dealing She Mei a grievous wound. She had lost all power to fight back.
Yin Luan strode forward and bellowed at the top of her lungs.
“Stop!”
