Just like outside, the eight serpent pillars lit up simultaneously, forming a teleportation array, and the eight of them vanished from where they stood.
The moment they disappeared, Ye Qingyi slowly opened her eyes, the corners of her mouth lifting slightly. Su Mu’s face also showed not a trace of worry.
The next instant, the High Priest appeared beside the broken serpent pillar, his gaze solemn: “No, this power doesn’t come from the Mother Goddess—there’s something else… Hiss, no, that’s not right either. It seems to be the power of two deities.”
Just then, a colossal figure materialized before him—it was the eight-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi, now missing one head. The creature was seething with rage: “Two of them are not ordinary Chosen Ones. They carry within them the divine sense and power left by primordial gods, and they actually managed to wound me.”
“Greetings, Great God.” The High Priest’s tone was exceedingly reverent, tinged with self-reproach: “This subordinate was careless. Please punish me, Great God.”
“This is not your fault. If anyone is to blame, it’s that despicable serpent Tiangshe for being so cunning, and the Mother Goddess’s power being far too overbearing—it directly nullified my law-based power for an instant. Otherwise, I would never have lost this head.”
Upon hearing this, the High Priest panicked inwardly, thinking: Why didn’t you say that earlier? I just sent them in!
Yamata-no-Orochi saw through his concern and said, “But the core zone is a different matter. My origin power resides there. Even the Mother Goddess’s power won’t be able to escape my grasp.”
“At that time, you will become the most powerful deity in this world.”
Yamata-no-Orochi did not respond to his remark and vanished from the spot.
In a lush, verdant forest, Su Mu gradually felt solid ground beneath his feet. He looked around and saw no trace of any other human.
Good, no one to bother me. I’ll go gather herbs first.
If I happen to run into Qingyi, we can team up.
He recalled the information about the herbs: Serpent Spirit Grass—grows on cliffs, shaped like a serpent with multiple heads, with eight heads being the finest.
His goal was six-headed Serpent Spirit Grass—the higher the grade, the better.
However, this place was far from safe. He had barely taken a dozen steps when a giant serpent blocked his path.
The serpents here were quite different from those outside—not only much larger in size but also seemingly more intelligent.
Su Mu initially wanted to avoid them and not get entangled, but there were simply too many. Left with no choice, he wielded Taoyao and slashed through them with blade energy.
In just one short hour, hundreds of giant serpents had fallen to his hand.
This probably won’t provoke Yamata-no-Orochi, will it… Su Mu muttered to himself with a guilty conscience, then hurried toward the distant cliffs he could vaguely make out.
What he didn’t notice was that after these serpents were killed, faint wisps of black energy would drift into his body—silent and imperceptible.
Arriving at the base of the cliff, Su Mu looked up and saw Serpent Spirit Grass everywhere. Most of them had one, two, or three heads. Higher up, they became extremely scarce—four-headed and five-headed specimens could occasionally be spotted, but six-headed Serpent Spirit Grass was nowhere to be found.
Still, it wasn’t a complete loss. About a hundred meters up, Su Mu noticed something unusual—there seemed to be a strong fluctuation of spiritual energy, most likely some sort of heavenly treasure. It was just obscured by a five-headed Serpent Spirit Grass, making it hard to see clearly.
After a moment’s hesitation, Su Mu decided to go check it out—what if there was a six-headed one hiding there?
A hundred-meter climb was nothing to him; he reached the spot with ease. But the five-headed Serpent Spirit Grass proved somewhat troublesome. Though it was just a spiritual herb, it had already developed a certain level of intelligence. When it sensed something approaching, it would release a potent toxic mist that could temporarily blind the intruder.
Though Su Mu had come prepared, he still got caught off guard by it—a barb hooked and cut his hand. In annoyance, he uprooted the thing entirely and tossed it into his storage space.
With the five-headed grass removed, a hidden alcove was indeed revealed behind it.
Su Mu crouched low and slipped inside. After about ten meters, the space suddenly opened up—it was a treasure cave!
Spirit stones, magical artifacts, gemstones, gold… everything was here. Rows of luminous stones lined the cave walls, casting a bright glow throughout.
However, piled together with the heaps of treasure were also a considerable number of skeletal remains. Most of them were twisted into unnatural positions—they seemed to have died rather unpleasantly.
Su Mu didn’t rush to grab anything. Instead, he inspected them one by one. But the moment he approached one particular skeleton, it let out a faint click and moved.
“Ahem, Brother Skeleton, I mean no harm—don’t scare me now.” Su Mu instinctively stepped back.
But Brother Skeleton paid him no mind. With a clatter and rattle, it stood upright, draped in a white lab coat. The sight was rather eerie.
Even more unnerving was that the luminous stones chose that exact moment to malfunction—they began flickering on and off, like hallway lights about to burn out.
The other skeletons also took the chance to “come alive,” rising one after another and shuffling toward Su Mu, each moving in bizarre, jerky ways.
They weren’t fast, just a constant clanking and rattling of bones that was unsettling to hear.
Su Mu stood his ground. After observing for a while, he realized these skeletons were only scary in appearance—their strength was only around F-rank. So he threw a punch at the nearest one. But he used too much force, and bone fragments scattered everywhere.
The other skeletons stopped in their tracks, then immediately lay back down as if nothing had happened. Even the luminous stones stopped flickering.
Su Mu let out a scoff: “Please. I’m a staunch materialist—I scored 95 on my high school philosophy exam. You really think you can scare me?”
He walked over and gave each of those frightful skeletons a good scolding, but he didn’t destroy their remains. Not because he was afraid, but because he didn’t see the point—they were already dead; might as well let them keep their bodies intact.
He suddenly felt that someone as kind-hearted as himself was probably a rare breed these days.
However, just as he let his guard down and started browsing among the treasures, one skeleton suddenly sprang up and lunged at his ribs.
With a casual wave of his hand, the skeleton crumbled to ashes.
He glanced at the other skeletons again and said with a straight face: “You know what, I think I’ll do you all a favor and help you return to Mother Earth’s embrace sooner.”
Crack, crack, crack…
Only after every last skeleton was shattered did Su Mu finally feel satisfied—ahem, ahem—relieved. He smiled to himself and murmured: “That counts as a good deed, I suppose…”
At the same time, his gaze fell upon the most unassuming item among the treasure pile—a wooden puppet, barely a foot tall, exquisitely crafted.
Su Mu picked up the puppet and started slapping its face. At first, nothing unusual happened, and he probably looked a little unhinged.
But as he slapped harder, the puppet actually spoke: “Stop hitting me, stop hitting me! If you keep going, my head’s going to fall off!”
“Who are you, why do you exist in this form, and was that skeleton business your doing?” Su Mu fired off three questions right away.
The puppet looked pitiful and didn’t dare cry. It could only sniffle as it answered his questions: “I… my name is Anna. I’m my master Karim’s pu-pu-puppet. By sheer coincidence, I gained sentience, so he… he taught me many spells. What I used just now was necromancy…”
