I followed the battle between Jing Ma and the mysterious snake which had appeared from the depths of the cavern with rapt attention. I didn’t know when I’d get the chance to watch a battle between two Foundation Building cultivators again.

  Every single technique was realms of complexity and control above what I could do, even with my Fivefold Medicine Forge physique. Jing Ma’s temporary formation had been shattered with a single slap of the snake’s tail and now he was suffering from the backlash.

  In that moment of hesitation, the snake struck. It shot forward and unhinged its jaw, raising its tongue and plastering it against the roof of its mouth.

  A jet of yellow venom sprayed from two glands beneath its tongue, merging in the air to form a single stream. I strained my eyes, trying to glimpse the truth of the technique.

  Poison wasn’t my focus, but understanding poisons could give a doctor great insights into medicine. And this poison was the most complex I’d ever seen.

  My own poison qi technique was like a child’s concoction compared to the snake’s natural venom. Jing Ma tossed a pill in his mouth and stabilised his raging qi.

  He withdrew a stone tablet from his spatial ring and held it in front of him. “Lost Emperor’s Three Edicts, Declaration of Law!” he shouted.

  A bubble of silver energy rapidly expanded from the stone tablet and surrounded Jing Ma right as the jet of venom sprayed against him. The venom was deflected by the bubble, but the snake was unrelenting.

  It continued to spray venom until the shield started to melt. After three seconds the jet finally subsided, but the shield Jing Ma had summoned was no more.

  He still clutched the stone tablet in his hands. The jet of venom was only the snake’s opening strike.

  It struck the next instant, snapping its jaws down on Jing Ma.

  “Lost Emperor’s Three Edicts, Censor of Justice!”

  Another bubble of silver energy appeared around him, blocking the serpent’s fangs. The snake hissed and compressed its jaw, pressing down on the bubble.

  Despite the strength of the beast, the shield held. Jing Ma was sweating, his qi flowing erratically. Whatever that strange artifact was, using it took a lot out of him.

  He wasn’t idle inside his shield. He took out a thin whip and spat a drop of blood onto his palm. Then, he drew his bloody palm along the whip, causing it to start writhing and trembling as it thickened and crimson spines burst from its length.

  Each and every artifact the cultivator revealed was stranger than the last. He seemed to have an endless supply of tools with which to fight the beast, while the serpent relied only on itself.

  The bubble had held well, but with a sudden burst of energy it popped open and the snake’s fangs slammed shut. It lifted its head off the ground and licked its lips with a satisfied hiss.

  However, the next instant it wailed and flinched backwards as its jaws were blasted apart. Jing Ma emerged with two orbs of pure silver energy orbiting him. The front of the snake’s mouth was burnt and charred.

  I assumed there was a third orb which the man had used to force his way out. In his hand, he snapped the whip and then flicked his arm at the snake while it was nursing its wound.

  The spined whip slapped against the snake’s golden scales with a sharp crack. The crimson spines were deflected where they struck the middle of the large scales, but when they struck near a gap, they seemed to twist and almost dive into the beast’s flesh.

  A startled hiss sent dozens more of the spirit stones tumbling from the cavern walls and ceiling, clattering against the ground like worthless junk. I turned and saw that the others weren’t handling the brunt of the battle as well as Wang Ren and I.

  “Ren! We need to get them to safety,” I shouted out.

  He was still slumped on the ground, barely recovering from Jing Ma’s brutal strikes. The same was true for me, but I had the supernatural recovery of my physique to speed up the process.

  He groaned and planted his palms against the ground, shoving himself upright. He reached into his storage bag and pulled out a pill which he promptly tossed into his mouth.

  That had to be the third healing pill he’d consumed during this one battle. Hopefully the quality wasn’t too shoddy or the impurities would begin to build up in his body.

  After a few seconds, during which his eyes remained closed, he grunted once more and pulled himself to his feet. Then he walked over to Teng Sheng who was barely breathing.

  The boy was honestly braver than the pair of us. He’d attacked the bandits who were over an entire major realm above him in cultivation, while we’d hesitated before attacking Jing Ma who was about half a major realm above our level.

  After tossing Teng Sheng over his shoulder he lifted up Du Wen who was also unconscious. Yu Chun and little Cui were still awake, but blood was trickling from their orifices as the ripples of the two cultivator’s techniques blasted through the cavern.

  Suddenly Wang Ren slipped a little. At the same time the girls gasped and let out a sigh of relief. “Can you two help each other to the tunnel like this?” he asked.

  “I think so,” Xiao Cui replied with a nod.

  Yu Chun tentatively stood up and after a breath’s time she also nodded her agreement. They started to walk towards the exit of the cavern with Wang Ren following after.

  He was laden like a pack mule with the two unconscious men slung over his shoulders and hugged to his chest. “If it gets too dangerous, just escape. Don’t risk your life for a treasure, we already have everything we need,” Wang Ren said as he walked past me.

  I raised an eyebrow and looked back at the enlightened snake beast.

  “We can think about how to deal with the beast later,” he snorted. “Survival comes first.”

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “You’re right, as always, Senior Brother,” I chuckled.

  He threw me a dirty look at my use of the title. No matter how much it annoyed him I would never stop thinking of him as my Senior Brother Wang—the fact it was so easy to get a reaction totally didn’t egg me on.

  I didn’t fully relax until I heard their steps retreating deep into the exit tunnel. Wang Ren would have to make two trips up and down the cliff face to help them all get out, but I doubted this battle would end soon enough for either of the Foundation Building cultivators to follow after them.

  Another shockwave made the cave rumble and shake. It felt as if I was trapped underground during an earthquake.

  When I turned back to the battle I saw Jing Ma’s whip clutched in the snake’s jaws as it tugged on the brutal weapon. There were thin trickles of blood dripping through the gaps in its scales where the wandering cultivator had struck true.

  Jing Ma seemed to be standing firm against the pull of the snake beast, but I saw his arms trembling. He might have more advanced techniques and artifacts that could suppress the powerful beast, but when it came to physical strength most cultivators were far from a match for a beast of a similar realm.

  The snake could probably squish me like a bug. Even with our combined strengths, Wang Ren and I had barely been able to deal a single blow to the man.

  Actually, I had inflicted him with a few drops of toxic qi during that clash, but I wasn’t sure if it was having any effect.

  Either it would be too weak and instantly purged or the time it took to spread would be longer than the duration of this battle. Neither outcome helped me.

  Honestly the best outcome for the Grasping Life Sect would be for the snake and the scumbag to kill each other, but I knew that was unrealistic. If one survived but was knocking on death’s door, perhaps I could step in to end them.

  No.

  I couldn’t do that. Not only would it break my qi oath, but it wouldn’t sit right with my own morals. Then again, that depended on which of the two survived.

  I would hesitate to strike down the snake, but Jing Ma had almost killed my sect members. I couldn’t forgive that.

  Thinking about the outcome was pointless. While I’d been debating with myself, the snake had won its tug of war.

  Jing Ma’s back foot slipped the tiniest sliver forward. That was the first domino. The snake bit down the moment it saw weakness.

  With a sharp tug, the man was ripped from the ground and pulled towards the snake. There were bleeding wounds in its mouth where it had clamped down on the whip, but it didn’t seem to care about the pain.

  It unhinged its jaw to swallow Jing Ma whole once again. A mistake, perhaps, given that he still possessed two of the strange silver balls which orbited his body.

  As I predicted, when the man was close to being swallowed, one of the balls was launched as if by a slingshot and smashed into the snake's tongue, exploding in a flash of silver light.

  The snake screeched and flinched back. The smell of charred flesh wafted through the cavern. Jing Ma smashed against the stone floor of the cavern.

  He hurriedly stood up and rather than waiting for the snake to regain the momentum, rushed forward to attack his wounded foe. He drew another artifact from his seemingly endless treasury—a vial with three drops of glowing crimson fluid inside.

  Blood, most likely. He ripped the stopper out with his teeth, pouring two drops onto his whip and then drinking the third himself.

  His whip started to thrash and writhe the moment the blood was absorbed. The spines thickened and grew longer, waving gently as though alive.

  Jing Ma himself underwent a gruesome transformation. A series of sickening cracks and crunches sounded as his body morphed. Bones jutted out from skin, muscles swelled and his skin turned an unhealthy mauve colour.

  He was almost a full head taller and twice as muscular afterwards. Each of his steps left imprints in the stone as he raced at the still reeling snake.

  I had no idea what he’d ingrested. I tried to focus on the energy flows within his body and figure it out, but that was a dead end.

  His qi remained flowing steadily throughout the transformation, though I did notice his dantian shrink halfway through. Very strange.

  If that was permanent, then he’d sacrificed his foundation to win this fight. Was this beast truly so scary?

  It was hard for me to judge. Both of the combatants could kill me as easily as turning a hand. An ant wouldn’t notice whether it was squashed by a man or a mountain, after all.

  The snake spat out a glob of black blood. Jing Ma leapt from the ground and flew through the air towards it. He fired the third orb.

  At the same time his qi gathered in his chest. The snake’s midsection snapped straight to send its head flying out of the orb’s arc, but Jing Ma pounced the moment it did.

  His fists smashed into the beast’s chin. The orb crashed against its tail, bursting a chunk of flesh in a silver explosion.

  The snake’s head was blasted into the ceiling of the cavern, striking against the hundreds of jagged spirit stones. Jing Ma’s leap carried him along with the blow.

  Blood rained down in rivers as the snake was smashed against the sharp ceiling. Jing Ma then fell to the ground.

  His dantian shrunk a little more. He staggered and coughed blood. With a curse, he took out another vial which had a bright blue liquid and downed it in one gulp.

  The twisted transformation began to undo itself and soon he returned to his regular form. However, the change was shocking.

  His sleek hair had turned an ashy grey and there were even a few wrinkles on his face, where before his skin had a smooth, yet rugged surface that resembled a warrior’s visage.

  He slumped a little, stabilising his qi as it rippled against his control. His whip suddenly thrashed and he almost dropped it. Once he’d collected himself, Jing Ma planted a foot and with a yell cracked the whip at the snake as its head peeled away from the ceiling.

  It was a wild scene, one that would be forever seared into my memory. A lone cultivator drenched in blood, wielding a demonic-looking whip as he fought against a colossal snake beast with golden scales and crimson eyes.

  The whip bit into the snake’s flesh. The spines wriggled as they drank its blood. Even the scales which once stood firm against penetration cracked and were pierced.

  I sighed. The serpent’s fate was sealed. Jing Ma had emerged victorious.

  The battle had not been without sacrifice, but I had no doubt that even in his weakened state, the cultivator could slap aside Wang Ren and I with ease. I had to cling to the faint hope that he would simply escape and recover now that he’d claimed the natural treasure for himself.

  The snake slammed into the ground, its giant coiling body slumping still. Jing Ma’s whip was thrashing and writhing in the air, resembling a serpent itself.

  With a final yell he slapped it to the floor and then made a rapid seal with his hand. The spines deflated in an instant and the whip’s length grew still.

  I noticed a shining gem on the handle flash, but he returned the weapon to his storage ring before I could inspect it closely.

  After two short breaths and tossing a healing pill into his mouth, Jing Ma turned around. When he saw me standing and staring at him, he raised his eyebrows.

  “You’re still alive? Not bad for a Qi Gathering trash,” he remarked, taking slow strides towards me. “Unfortunately, I can’t let you live, knowing what you know.”

  I sighed as he drew near. I had hoped that I might be able to defeat the victor of the battle, if they were weakened enough.

  That had been naive.

  Crossing realms and striking the heavens was an exclusive benefit of being a protagonist. Unfortunately I didn’t have that privilege.

  He stood two paces away, staring into my eyes with a conflicted expression. I could tell he barely put me in his eyes even though I’d lived this long, but there was a trace of respect buried within.

  That wouldn’t stop him slaughtering me where I stood. “Any last words, Zhao Dan of the Grasping Life Sect?” he asked, taking a step and raising his hand over his head.

  Well… fuck. I raised my gaze to meet his and had to school my expression. Did I have any last words? Sure.

  “Look behind you,” I said with a smirk.