Chapter Fifty-Six: A Bear, a Dragon, a Little Golden Man, and a Bug

He did not pry open the serpent’s jaws; instead, he was swallowed whole by its mystical powers. Yet, as so often happens in this world, the unexpected occurred.

At the moment when the green palm’s jaws closed naturally around the severed immortal bone from the King of Fighters, that fragment of leg suddenly expanded to over a hundred meters, shattering several of the green serpent’s fangs. Snake blood poured forth like a waterfall, engulfing the little worm and the King of Fighters, leaving only the enlarged leg bone wedged in the serpent’s throat.

“Ugh!” The Green Palm Immortal let out a cry of pain, struggling to vomit but unable to, desperate to transform back into human form but thwarted. The serpent’s head thrashed wildly, crushing dozens of fire poison scorpions—a scene as chaotic as earthworms writhing in the sand.

The remaining fire poison scorpions, sensing danger like creatures with spiritual awareness, burrowed deep into the sand, leaving no trace. This respite allowed Old Bear Three and Dragon One—one trembling, the other coughing blood—to finally catch their breath.

“If alive, we must see him; if dead, we must recover his corpse. Elder, you brought us to the Immortal Realm, risking death at every turn. We must give you a proper burial!” the little worm shouted. But when he emerged, he was dumbfounded—the King of Fighters was stuck in the serpent’s mouth.

If the Green Palm chose to flee, even with Dragon One wielding the Shocking Blade, they could not catch up. And if the King of Fighters could not escape...

“You take Yue Seven and go ahead. Don’t worry about me!” The King of Fighters’ voice echoed from the bloody lake within the serpent’s throat. The others were deeply moved, but Old Bear Three roared in fury, attempting to leap up and tear at the serpent, only to be struck skyward by the serpent’s tail, landing heavily moments later.

A bear of the Concentrated Spirit Stage, had it not been for the demon pill consumed from the Golden Bridge that protected him and unleashed its medicinal properties, that blow would have ended his life. Even so, his waist bones were shattered, leaving him slumped on the ground, unable to rise.

His roar was not just from the pain of his injuries, but from the unbearable itching caused by Yue Seven jumping about inside his ear.

Regaining his composure, the Green Palm Immortal adjusted to the stabbing pain in his mouth, twisted his head, and burrowed into the sand, vanishing into the vast desert.

He went in search of allies and vengeance. The King of Fighters, no matter how he struggled, found the enlarged immortal leg bone beyond his control.

It was over.

Watching the snake venom inch ever closer, seeping into his golden body, the King of Fighters closed his eyes, on the verge of despair, when a dry voice broke the silence.

“Try a bit of snake gall—it’s quite flavorful!”

With trembling hands, the King of Fighters accepted a fresh snake gall handed to him by a humanoid creature resembling a black rice dumpling and swallowed it. Instantly, the green venomous spots faded from his face and body.

“Elder, your appearance, your skin, your form!” the King of Fighters exclaimed. The other merely replied indifferently, “Just an empty shell. If I want to regrow it, I’ll need to restore with spiritual elixirs.”

As he spoke, Wuyun answered the King of Fighters’ next unspoken question, “When I was swallowed, the Ten Heavens and Nine Earths formation map in my palm reassembled itself. After all, it’s a treasure of the Immortal Realm, like muscle—made the serpent chew a bit more. And once inside the belly, well, you know, Elder, I was a little hungry…”

The King of Fighters was speechless. This was no ordinary serpent; its belly was fraught with danger—countless formations and defense mechanisms. Yet Wuyun spoke of it as if it were nothing.

“A treasure indeed!” The formation map floated in Wuyun’s hand as he sighed, “But ruthless it is. Previously, the Tiger-Faced Immortal and Luo Ren Immortal Emperor, even their souls were ground down and absorbed. This little green serpent is finished!”

The King of Fighters grew anxious, for as Wuyun emerged, the serpent’s body shriveled. Though it seemed to flee swiftly, in truth only its head remained, dragging a limp skin behind.

Yet this head was the Green Palm’s life source. Even if its body was destroyed, it could regrow at any moment.

“You’ll all die! My elder sister, boundless in power, rules this entire Night Wilderness Desert—she’ll render you into oil and light her lamps with you!” the green serpent howled, realizing something was wrong with its body. The immortal leg bone wedged in its throat clouded its judgment.

Especially as the pain in its throat overlapped with the agony in its belly, it could no longer tell where the trouble lay. Worse still, the immortal bone seemed to be draining his life force.

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“Do you know what bone this is?” Wuyun asked the King of Fighters, who shook his head. He only knew it was the bone of an Immortal King.

Wuyun sighed, “Whose bone it was doesn’t matter. What matters is that this bone was forged from countless souls, a technique for tempering the body. That you could graft it to your leg means it has accepted you. Close your eyes—I’ll consecrate it for you. Feel its power!”

Wuyun recited a series of incantations, channeling immortal energy through the formation map, transforming it into intricate patterns. The immortal bone absorbed the energy, glowing faintly and struggling against the King of Fighters’ body.

At the junction, flesh and blood fused. Once the immortal leg bone accepted its fate, the King of Fighters closed his eyes, and a torrent of inherited knowledge surged into him.

After half a stick of incense’s time, the King of Fighters opened his eyes, now bearing a symbol for “five” within them. With this symbol, he seemed to perceive everything clearly, and his joy was boundless: “Bone of the Soul Tribe’s Immortal King! Though called a bone, it is actually a weapon refined into a skull and integrated into the body. Compared to the divine skill you taught, Elder, this is a shortcut for rapid advancement!”

Elated, the King of Fighters let out a long cry and, controlling the asymmetrical immortal bone, in a single second pried open the Green Palm Immortal’s serpent mouth. In two seconds, the six toes on the immortal leg bone snapped open like spring-loaded blades, extending and piercing through the serpent’s entire mouth!

“Ugh! You’ll pay for this!” the green serpent wailed. At the core of its head, a glowing orb two meters in diameter floated upward, shooting into the sky and accelerating instantly.

The Green Palm Immortal’s soul fled, but as it entered the air, the world shifted, and in the next moment, it appeared in another space.

The battered Ten Heavens and Nine Earths formation map, now only able to use Half Heaven and One Earth, was more than sufficient to deal with a soul.

“You’ll pay for this! My sister will avenge me, I swear… Please, great lord, spare me—don’t kill me—ah!” After the Green Palm Immortal was reduced to nutrients, Wuyun snorted, “Wickedness! This Night Wilderness Desert has been eaten hollow—there’s not a single faction left!”

Wuyun sent out a signal, and before long, Dragon One arrived with the injured Old Bear Three and the others. After recounting what had transpired, Old Bear Three, full of reluctance, threw Yue Seven onto the sand and grumbled, “This bear won’t carry him anymore! This one is more trouble than fighting enemies. If he dies, I’ll be blamed for it!”

After some gentle persuasion, Yue Seven climbed back onto his shoulder, nestling against the bear fur in carefree contentment.

Wuyun shared some of the green serpent’s memories, sighing, “This Dragon Extinction Star is vast beyond measure, with no distinction between day and night, orbited by two stars. Here, spiritual energy is most depleted, and this region is called the Night Wilderness Desert.”

If one were to say the Dragon Extinction Star was large, its size surpassed even the two stars it orbited.

As for the Night Wilderness Desert, it was under the jurisdiction of the Green Snake among the Ten-Tailed Fox Immortal Kings, subordinate to the Azure Wave Emperor Serpent.

The Green Palm Immortal’s elder sister, upon reaching the Profound Immortal stage, became a domain lord.

The Green Snake governed over more than two thousand regions like the Night Wilderness Desert.

Dragon One, listening intently, remarked, “It’s as if we’ve arrived on an Emperor Star—an Immortal Emperor or Demon Emperor’s planet!”

If this were truly an Emperor Star, it was only natural for the Green Palm Immortal to call Dragon One an old mudfish at will.

“Let’s run—trouble’s coming!” Wuyun called out. In the distance, dark clouds swept rapidly across the sky. Even Dragon One, with his keen eyes, noticed nothing amiss.

But Wuyun was the ancestor of clouds—he could not be doubted. As they discussed where to flee, the ground beneath the little worm loosened. He reverted to his true form and said, “Follow me!”

The vast Night Wilderness Desert concealed a world beneath its sands.

If the surface was but one layer, the underground held thousands upon thousands more. Immortals like the Green Palm could sense at least a hundred layers.

As a massive passage opened before them, they saw myriad rodents, insects, scorpions, and beasts scurrying back and forth.

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In the Immortal Realm, few beasts lack intelligence; only scorpions and certain insects find it difficult to molt and transform.

The group’s arrival startled the denizens of this passage. Before any alarm could be raised, Dragon One waved his hand, producing a gray-patterned pouch, and swept all visible creatures into it.

“Little worm, you’re leading us the wrong way!” Old Bear Three was about to seize the opportunity to complain when, from a thousand meters above, a divine sense swept down: “Who killed my beloved younger brother? He cultivated here, forging his blazing sun body—who hunted him in secret?”

“Even if heaven and earth are disturbed, even if we seek the Fox Immortal King’s judgment, the culprit must pay with their life!”

As the group held their breath, the divine sense swept over them, the majesty of a Profound Immortal unfathomable. Even Dragon One transformed into a black mudfish, striving to appear as weak as possible.

Sure enough, after scanning them, the divine sense did not linger, moving on to probe deeper underground, rousing one colossal being after another from slumber or cultivation for questioning.

The entire Night Wilderness Desert was thrown into chaos—who had slain the master’s younger brother, leaving only an empty shell?

The Green Palm had been so powerful, dominating the surface and absorbing the essence of the twin stars. What sort of being could have killed him?

Yet, when the Green Palm’s sister, Green Leaf, extracted memory images from the brains of several scorpion spirits, the previously overlooked scene of Wuyun and the others underground was revealed.

“What a treasure, how marvelous! A Concentrated Spirit Stage immortal body capable of killing my brother across realms!” The suspicion that arose in her heart was soon surpassed by greed, eclipsing her desire for vengeance. She instructed her subordinates and siblings, “Those four monsters haven’t gone far. Whoever finds and captures them will be rewarded with a Mystical Opportunity Pill!”

“A pill that increases the chance of breaking through to Profound Immortal—the Mystical Opportunity Pill.” A strangely-shaped beast confirmed this and quickly vanished.

Immediately, thousands of underground layers of the Night Wilderness Desert boiled with activity. The transformed, the untransformed, the wild and the tamed—all sorts of creatures began their search.

After all, even if the pill didn’t guarantee advancement to Profound Immortal, consuming one would boost cultivation by a small but significant margin. It was a prized treasure for early-stage, small achievement, and mid-stage immortals.

Even other domain lords, upon hearing of it, came quietly to investigate who might be worthy of the Fox Immortal King’s reward.

“Charge! Search! One bear, one dragon, one little gold man, one worm!”

In a natural tunnel, even the strange beasts were present, leading four little beasts in a frantic search, shouting at every location, confronting powerful spirits with the domain lord’s authority.

“Rebellion! Rebellion! Even these scrawny beasts dare defy me!” A late-stage immortal insect beast raged, but under the domain lord’s orders, who dared kill the special underlings at such a time?

“Brother, if not for you holding me back, I’d have swallowed them all! You know, I haven’t had a feast in ages!”

“Big brother, I—I didn’t hold you back!”

“Ah, you were behind me, your body so big you blocked my way.”

The insect beast led the way, its two-meter-tall form followed by a crawling orange-yellow iron-skinned lizard over a meter long.

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