Translator: Truth Editor : Dhael Ligerkeys The Great Serpent was a type of Spirit Beast that was a step away from transforming into a Wyrm. If it succeeded, it would be able to break free from the Heavens’ shackles and escape this prison permanently. Unfortunately, it was easier said than done. It had been stuck on this final step for decades. It wasn’t until it sensed the red substance in the dragon scale that it realized that its opportunity had finally arrived. That opportunity was right in front of it, but a Grand Defensive Ward was blocking its way. How could it not be infuriated by this? The scales covering its head were densely packed and incredibly tough. Every time it rammed against the Great Defensive Ward, it was like someone was hitting it with a gigantic battering ram. Zou Qi was currently standing on his flying Spirit Artifact and facing toward the Great Serpent. He called out, “There is no grudge between you and the Sky Pillar Sect, Great Serpent. Why have you come to attack us?” The creature might not be able to speak human language, but he reckoned it could understand at least some of it. Zou Qi knew that their Outpost was facing an unprecedented crisis, and to resolve it, he had to first understand why the Great Serpent was attacking them in the first place. The Great Serpent paused its movement and stared at the tiny human floating behind the Grand Defensive Ward. Then, it hissed as if responding to his question. Unfortunately, Zou Qi did not speak Serpent. He was unable to comprehend its words despite his best efforts… He tried asking for help from his fellow cultivators, “Is there anyone here who understands what it’s saying?” Of course, the answer was no. The Great Serpent ran out of patience then. It was because it sensed that the red substance was moving again. Without hesitation, it slammed its head against the Grand Defensive Ward once more. Zou Qi erupted in anger, “The Sky Pillar Sect did not make an enemy out of you, Great Serpent, but if you must destroy our home, then we will retaliate in kind! Leave now before it’s too late!” The threat was like pouring fuel on the fire that was the Great Serpent’s already towering fury. Stopping its movement and channeling its energy for a moment, the green in its eyes deepened until they looked almost black. The next moment, it opened its mouth and spat a mouthful of green fog against the ward. Although Zou Qi knew that the fog could not harm him until the Grand Defensive Ward was breached, he still backpedaled in shock and terror. Crackle crackle! The areas touched by the green fog started dimming rapidly. Clearly, it was incredibly corrosive. It might have breached the ward already if the cultivators of the Sky Pillar Sect didn’t do everything in their power to repair it. The Great Serpent spat out even more fog when it saw its new attack was effective. The entire ward started sizzling like someone had tossed a handful of salt into a pot of boiling oil. The Great Serpent was feeling a little faint after using its head as a battering ram for so long. Since the green fog was effective, it saw no reason not to wear down the ward with it. At a slope about 2.5 kilometers away, Lu Ye was enjoying the show as if he wasn’t the instigator behind everything. Now that the Great Serpent had revealed one of its trump cards, he was starting to get a better understanding of its strength. He now believed that the Serpent truly had the power to breach the Sky Pillar Sect’s Grand Defensive Ward on its own, though it was going to take some time still even with this new method. It was at this moment he heard someone calling out to him, “Brother Yi Ye!” It was the Hao brother and sister again. Lu Ye was the one who messaged them to join him. While communicating with the ghost cultivators, he found out that Silverlight Island had mobilized several hundred cultivators and were flying over to the Outpost right now. He was more than happy with this outcome, of course. In fact, he had predicted it might happen. When he first parted ways with the Hao brother and sister, he had implied that the Great Serpent was probably going to attack the Outpost. Lu Ye was confident that Hao Ren would send the word to his sect. Unless the Silverlight Island’s Legate was a complete idiot, they should realize that this turn of events represented a great opportunity. And he was right. His deductions weren’t completely accurate, however. For starters, Silverlight Island had mobilized long before they learned about the Great Serpent. It didn’t matter though. The point was that they all shared the common goal of screwing over the Sky Pillar Sect. “How long until they arrive?” Lu Ye asked. “Two to four hours,” Hao Ren answered. That was perfect. The Great Serpent was going to need some time to breach the Grand Defensive Ward anyway. If the ward was still up when the cultivators from Silverlight Island showed up, they would attack the Grand Defensive Ward together with the Great Serpent. One way or another, the ward was going down today! In fact, Sky Pillar Sect’s Grand Defensive Ward was already showing signs of breaking. The strength of a Grand Defensive Ward was directly tied to its energy reserves. The more Spiritual Power was saved up in the norm, the greater the protection it could provide when it was needed. Of course, there was only so much energy they could save up at a time. There was no such thing as an infinite storage that could hold an infinite amount of Spiritual Power. After the Crimson Blood Sect had gained its own Grand Defensive Ward, Lu Ye had spent some time researching it. That was why he knew a little about Grand Defensive Wards. The maximum reserve a Grand Defensive Ward could have was proportional to the total number of keystones that made up the ward. That was why Hua Ci had said that the strength of the ward was directly tied to the number of the keystones that it was made up of. There was no telling how many keystones had made up the Sky Pillar Sect’s Grand Defensive Ward, but he could tell that it was much stronger than the Crimson Blood Sect Outpost’s. This was the Inner Circle after all. They would not be able to withstand an enemy attack if their Grand Defensive Ward was weak. At the rate the Great Serpent was wearing down their Grand Defensive Ward though, their reserves weren’t going to hold out for much longer. The green fog spat out by the Great Serpent wasn’t just incredibly corrosive, it lingered for a long time before dissipating. Right now, it was slithering circles around the Grand Defensive Ward and spitting fog all over it. From the distance, the half globe was covered in massive patches of green. Every affected area was flashing erratically and sizzling like a frying pan. As a result, the Grand Defensive ward was going through its reserves like crazy. Had the Great Serpent stuck with its original tactic, and assuming that the Grand Defensive Ward could repair itself faster than the damage could stick, it could’ve hammered away for a century and still failed to make a breakthrough. After all, the ward was constantly replenishing its reserves as well. The green fog was a completely different story. Because it dealt massive, continuous damage to the Grand Defensive Ward, it was losing Spiritual Power much faster than it was replenishing it. It was like multiple floodgates had been opened on their reserves. “We’re not going to last much longer, Brother Zou.” Yu Hongbao rushed to Zou Qi’s side with a severe look on his face. “If we do not stop the Great Serpent soon, the Grand Defensive Ward is going to use up more and more energy. According to Zhang Hai, we’re going to run out of Spiritual Power in six or eight hours at best.” “Six to eight hours!?” Zou Qi’s eyes were bloodshot. Even now, he still had no idea what the fuck had triggered the Great Serpent to come all the way here and and attack them. Their Grand Defensive Ward was powerful enough to withstand the full might of the Silverlight Island for an entire day or two, but this goddamn snake was going to bring it down in just a couple of hours. It was infuriating to put it mildly. Zou Qi glared at the Great Serpent and said through gritted teeth, “We wait.” Against a gigantic monster like this, he could mobilize every man and woman in the Outpost to fight it, and it would be a one-sided slaughter. At the very least, they would incur an unacceptable amount of casualties. It wasn’t hopeless though. One thing he noticed was that each time the Great Serpent spat out a puff of green fog, its aura would weaken a little. This meant that it couldn’t produce the fog infinitely. In other words, they must wait until it had weakened itself to a manageable extent before fighting it. Any other option was suicide! Nothing happened for a while after that. The Great Serpent needed time to breach the Grand Defensive Ward, and the Sky Pillar Sect’s cultivators could do nothing but wait for it to weaken further. Two hours passed, and the Great Serpent’s aura had become much weaker than before. Unfortunately, they could not afford to wait any longer. Yu Hongbao came back and reported that they were almost scraping the bottom of the barrel. The Great Defensive Ward would last another two hours at most. Zou Qi knew that it was time to make his move. He had already mobilized everyone into formation a while ago, and now he raised his arm and yelled, “Open the ward! Prepare to engage the enemy!” At his command, an opening slowly appeared on the Grand Defensive Ward. At the same time, the cultivators rushed out to meet the Great Serpent. Body tempering cultivators wearing all sorts of defensive Spirit Artifacts stood at the forefront of the formation. The combat cultivators and ghost cultivators were further back, and the spell cultivators were at the rear of the formation. As for the medicine cultivators, they were standing by to treat their fellow cultivators at first notice. It was as if the entire sect had come alive in an instant. Spells and flying weapons were the first lights to cross the sky; colors of all sorts slamming into the Great Serpent’s body with great power and fury. Almost surprisingly, it was effective. Metallic sparks exploded all over its body as the Serpent visibly flinched away from the ferocious assault. The second wave of attacks began before the first wave had even ended. The Sky Pillar Sect had clearly hunted gigantic Spirit Beasts in the past because they knew not just how to encircle the target, but also maintain a constant stream of attack. Slowly but surely, the Great Serpent was actually being pushed back by the unrelenting assault. Zou Qi was clearly a competent Legate. Had he chosen to launch an attack when the Great Serpent was still at peak form, it would’ve been all too easy for it to crush them. But now, it had used up so much energy that even ants like them could hurt it. The Great Serpent hissed violently as it twisted its body around. The energy covering its body had thinned to the point where even a Seventh or Eighth-Order cultivator’s flying weapons and spells could scratch it. Individually, a scratch was just that, a scratch. But hundreds of them? It was the point where quantity became a quality of its own. The Great Serpent’s powerful scales were ripped off to reveal the tender flesh beneath. They began bleeding earnestly after just a couple more barrages. There were a few times the Great Serpent tried to open its mouth and hit its enemy with a puff of deadly, corrosive fog, but the spell cultivators were always able to throw a barrage of well-timed spells into its mouth. It had no choice but to keep its mouth shut. Not far away, Lu Ye was frowning deeply. The Great Serpent had turned out to be weaker than he expected, so much so that it seemed completely helpless before the might of the Sky Pillar Sect. At this rate, the Sky Pillar Sect was going to slay the beast and claim its body for themselves. ‘Please tell me that I haven’t worked all night to benefit the Sky Pillar Sect.’ It couldn’t be helped. Even Zou Qi, the man commanding the battle, was thinking the same thing. If he had known that the Great Serpent was this weak, he would’ve rushed out to engage it much sooner. They were all wrong. Snakes were naturally cold, ruthless creatures, much less one that had transformed into a powerful Serpent. They had all underestimated its cunning. When the Sky Pillar Sect’s cultivators had pushed back the Great Serpent about a hundred meters away from their Outpost, it suddenly dropped its head without warning and channeled lightning from its meaty horn. The next thing they knew, a bolt of blue lightning about a full arm wide struck the spell cultivator group at the back dead on. The spell cultivators at the center of the impact were turned into bloody mist instantly. Not only that, the lightning spread around and caused the large majority of the group to shake violently like they were experiencing a seizure. They had no choice but to cancel their spells mid cast. BOOM BOOM BOOM… It would’ve been manageable if that was the end of the surprise attack, but no, the Great Serpent continued to shoot more lightning bolts out of its horn. Twenty to thirty spell cultivators were dead in an instant, and the lucky survivors could hardly cast a spell while they were running for their lives. Zou Qi’s triumphant expression became frozen in an instant. His joy had been completely shattered by lightning bolts.