Serpent Ancestor

Xu Hei’s three-phase fusion dissipated, and the effects of various enhancement pills vanished, leaving him in excruciating pain, dizzy, and extremely weak.

Being able to walk in the danger zone was already his limit.

Fortunately, he had cultivated the White Emperor Sutra, which made him more resilient. Otherwise, with his previous physical body, he would have fainted immediately.

”This trip was quite fruitful; I took down Night Sky and acquired a mysterious wooden box.”

”But now is not the time to inspect it. This place is too close to the Immortal Burial Valley. I need to heal quickly and move as soon as I regain some strength to avoid being discovered.”

Xu Hei made up his mind.

He found a narrow burrow, crawled inside, set up a shielding formation, took some pills, and began to heal.

…………

The upheaval in the Immortal Burial Valley quickly spread.

Within a day, a large force from the Wood Spirit Clan arrived to investigate, with two of the three Grand Elders mobilized.—The Thorn King of the Thorn Clan and the Old Greenwood Demon of the Green Vine Clan.

After a brief investigation, they learned what had transpired inside.

Qing Xuan had plotted to seize the clan leader’s seal by ambushing Qing Shuang. Unexpectedly, a change occurred, causing spatial rifts to spread, and all participants vanished.

Old Greenwood Demon was furious about this. However, the Thorn King claimed ignorance, saying it was the younger generation acting on their own, unrelated to him.

After three days of searching, they found Wang Dashan at the edge of a spatial rift.

He was one of the top experts of the Stone Spirit Clan, with an incredibly sturdy physical body, managing to survive in the spatial rift, which was quite impressive.

However, Wang Dashan was near death and was forcibly awakened by Old Greenwood Demon’s magic.

From him, they learned the detailed events.

”Alien outsiders?”

The Thorn King’s eyes flashed, and he immediately ordered, ”Search for them! Don’t let any of those three alien outsiders escape!”

Old Greenwood Demon also issued a bounty.

Anyone providing information on the outsiders would receive a reward of five hundred spirit sand, and capturing one alive would earn three thousand spirit sand!

The amount was unprecedented! No Divine Power stage cultivator on Dark Star could resist such temptation.

The portraits of the three were circulated throughout Dark Star.

Although everyone knew that the real culprit behind all this was Qing Xuan, no one dared to speak against him because he was backed by the Thorn King.

Perhaps Qing Xuan’s actions were even under the Thorn King’s orders.

So, they could only vent their anger on the three alien outsiders, as they had escaped unscathed. By all accounts, they should be captured.

In the following days.

The Thorn King used a secret technique to sense Qing Xuan’s location, forcibly tearing space to rescue Qing Xuan from the depths of the Immortal Burial Valley.

Old Greenwood Demon also wanted to use a similar method to rescue Qing Shuang, but she seemed to have hidden her aura, making it impossible to detect her.

…………

Unknowingly, a month passed.

A hundred miles underground outside the Immortal Burial Valley.

Xu Hei sat cross-legged in a small cave dwelling, calming his mind and slowly performing breathing exercises.

The area was filled with formation flags to conceal his aura, and Bai Zhi’s spider web completely covered the place, making it airtight.

Under such conditions, unless someone observed closely, it was impossible to discover him.

Originally, Xu Hei planned to move quickly once his injuries stabilized.

But he helplessly found that within a thousand-mile radius, there were Wood Spirit Clan spies everywhere.

A flower, a blade of grass, a patch of moss, some dead tree roots... things that shouldn’t exist were everywhere outside.

It was clear these were planted by the Wood Spirit Clan nearby.

Xu Hei dared not act rashly, so he stayed in the cave dwelling, digging it deeper and continuing to heal.

”I can’t go out until I’m back to full strength,” Xu Hei said helplessly.

He took a Purifying Lotus Pill and a Revitalizing Heavenly Heart Pill, focusing on refining them.

The healing medicine from the Green Emperor was running low, so he had to use it sparingly. Under safe conditions, he preferred to take more time.

And so, a year passed.

Xu Hei opened his eyes, exhaling a hot stream of air that burned a large pit into the stone wall in front of him.

His eyes gleamed with sharp light, shooting two beams that pierced through the stone wall, creating a large hole.

”Finally recovered,” Xu Hei thought to himself.

Only now did he return to his previous perfect state.

The insect swarm in the Spirit Beast Ring had also regained vitality, and the Black Needle Ants had their stingers again.

After recovering, Xu Hei unexpectedly found that his previously stagnant cultivation showed signs of loosening.

This meant he might be able to attempt a breakthrough to the late-stage Divine Transformation?

He still had one last Divine Fusion Pill!

Xu Hei didn’t act rashly. He thought for a moment, spread his divine sense, and found that there were still Wood Spirit Clan spies outside, with those flowers and plants still present, like maggots clinging to bones.

”Forget it, let’s check the previous gains first.”

Xu Hei sighed, first examining the crystal cores of the Stone Spirit Clan.

From the crystal cores, Xu Hei found fifteen hundred spirit sand, a considerable amount, presumably Qing Xuan’s payment to them.

He tossed all the spirit sand into the Spirit Beast Ring for Bai Zhi to continue production.

Then, Xu Hei took out a pitch-black bead.

This was dropped after Night Sky’s death.

”Old Tree, do you know how to open this thing?” Xu Hei asked.

There was no response from Old Tree.

Xu Hei was taken aback, recalling Old Tree’s previous instructions.

”I’m going to sleep. Don’t wake me unless it’s a matter of life and death. With my divine sense, I can only act once or twice before it dissipates.”

These were Old Tree’s instructions before falling unconscious.

Xu Hei fell silent.

He placed the bead into the Demon God Cauldron, slowly refining it. After half a day, the bead showed signs of cracking.

The restriction on its surface had long since dissipated.

Xu Hei took out the bead, and his divine sense probed inside, discovering a spacious space, several times larger than his storage rings!

Seeing the dazzling array of treasures inside, Xu Hei was stunned.

”There are... so many!” Xu Hei gasped.

He never expected that Night Sky’s storage artifact contained over a hundred types of magical treasures and more than a thousand rare and precious materials.

There was nothing Xu Hei couldn’t imagine, nothing he couldn’t see.

Besides magical treasures, spirit medicine, and treasure materials, there were also various Stone Spirit Clan corpses, over thirty in total, all at the Divine Power stage.

There were also five Wood Spirit Clan corpses.

Presumably, all killed by Night Sky over the years.

And those magical treasure materials were likely all spoils of war, stolen goods.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Night Sky’s collection was far more than all of Xu Hei’s wealth combined!

Xu Hei admitted that since his Divine Transformation, he had killed many cultivators and amassed a lot of spoils, but compared to Night Sky, he was completely outmatched.