The words hung in the air, and every head tilted upward. Floating above them was the ghostly image of an ancient beast skin, its markings glowing faintly in the gloom. It was their map, their only guide through this labyrinth. In moments, the path was clear.
"The left tunnel," the hulking Giant Scorpion at the front of the pack grunted, its voice like grinding rocks. Without waiting for a reply, it scuttled into the yawning darkness.
The other demonic beasts fell in line. Luo Zhen, in his powerful serpent form, brought up the rear. He paused, his tongue flicking out to taste the air. Then, almost imperceptibly, he left behind a faint trail of sweat and scent—a unique signature only he could follow. Treasure map or not, he wouldn't be trapped in this maze.
They pressed on, navigating a series of branching tunnels. At every fork, Luo Zhen renewed his secret trail. After a winding, thirty-minute journey, the passage finally ended.
They emerged into a breathtaking sight. The tunnel opened into a cavernous plaza sprawling over ten thousand square meters, its sheer scale vast and echoing. At its center rose a high stone platform. Floating above it was a single drop of blood, the size of a man's fist. It was a brilliant, impossible crimson, and it pulsed like a living heart. With every thrum, it released waves of staggering spiritual energy that stirred the stagnant air into a gentle breeze.
"The Essence Blood Inheritance!" the Giant Scorpion roared, its voice trembling with avarice.
In that same instant, the Emerald Mountain Turtle beside Luo Zhen exploded into action. It became a blur of green, a living cannonball rocketing toward the platform. No one would ever believe a turtle could move with such blinding speed.
"Damn you, turtle!" the Giant Scorpion bellowed in a rage. "You think you can steal this from me?!" Its tail whipped forward, loosing a venomous red dart that streaked through the air.
The fragile alliance was shattered. The cavern erupted into a free-for-all. The Bald Eagle shrieked, launching itself toward the prize while spitting a searing blade of white light to intercept the turtle. Meanwhile, the Demonic Boar Brothers unleashed a gruesome special attack; their enormous tusks detached from their jaws, becoming twin streaks of black light that scythed through the air—not at the turtle, but at the Giant Scorpion.
The cavern rang with the screech of metal on chitin, the explosion of demonic energy, and the furious curses of beasts locked in battle.
Luo Zhen stayed clear of the fray. This was a sideshow. His eyes, however, were glued to the system map that only he could see. A cold dread washed over him. Two blinking red icons, signifying extreme danger, were closing in on their position. One was deep beneath the plaza floor. The other was coming up fast from the tunnels behind them.
Damn it, he thought. I knew this was a trap.
Ignoring the battle, he snatched the treasure map—a tough, leathery hide—in his jaws and swallowed it whole. He turned and bolted back into the passage he'd just left. He moved with desperate speed, but as he neared the halfway point, he saw it on his map: the incoming threat was about to intercept him.
Thinking fast, he veered into a dark, narrow side passage, suppressed his aura, and held his breath, praying the creature would pass him by.
A piercing shriek of displaced air tore through the main tunnel. The sound grew louder, then abruptly stopped right outside his hiding spot.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound of footsteps. Luo Zhen's muscles coiled, every nerve ending on fire. A white figure stepped into the opening, appearing directly in front of him.
I'm seen.
The thought was pure ice in his veins. He instinctively prepared to flee, but it was too late. An immense pressure, a crushing wave of demonic aura, slammed down on him, pinning him to the stone floor. He couldn't move a muscle.
This power... Luo Zhen's mind reeled. To be immobilized by aura alone... this creature is beyond the Yao Yuan Realm.
He strained to lift his head, his eyes focusing on the figure. It was... a baboon. A white-furred baboon, shockingly small, no bigger than a human. Next to Luo Zhen's ten-meter-long, thick-as-a-millstone body, it looked like a child's toy. Yet the power rolling off it in waves was suffocating.
As his gaze locked on, the system delivered the terrifying details:
Name: White-Furred Baboon
Race: Monkey
Strength: Mid-stage Yao Ling Realm
Skills: Unknown (Realm too low to view)
Affiliation: Great Commander of the Bright Moon Mountain Range
Luo Zhen's world tilted. This was him. The legendary Great Commander, the tyrant of the mountain range. And he was standing right in front of him.
It's over, he thought, panic rising. This commander is known for his brutality. Then a question cut through the fear. Wait, how did he get in here? He doesn't have a treasure map to ward off the Land of Decay's energy. How is he untouched?
Before he could process it, the Baboon Commander smiled, a chillingly human expression. He clasped his hands behind his back. "You're an interesting one, black snake," he said, his voice smooth and condescending. "You didn't join the rest of those fools scrambling for the inheritance."
He took a step closer. "But your presence here reveals your ambition. And ambition is a weed. It must be plucked."
The baboon's smile vanished. His claws extended, and demonic energy crackled around them, forming shimmering, half-foot-long blades of pure force. He lunged.
Trapped and overwhelmed, Luo Zhen felt a surge of pure defiance. He wasn't going down without a fight. Channeling the latent power of his Teng Snake bloodline, he fought against the oppressive aura, managing to rally a sliver of his demonic power.
Just as the commander's claws were about to tear into his flesh, Luo Zhen's jaws snapped open. He unleashed a colossal, searing fireball.
BOOM!
At point-blank range, the explosion engulfed the White-Furred Baboon. He let out a startled shriek, the shock of the attack momentarily disrupting his focus.
The crushing pressure vanished.
Luo Zhen didn't hesitate. He bolted. In seconds, he was a thousand meters away, the baboon's aura no longer able to touch him. He pushed his speed to its absolute limit.
Behind him, the Baboon Commander finally beat out the flames, his pristine white fur now a charred, smoking mess. He was largely unharmed, but his dignity was in ashes.
"Insolence!" he snarled, his voice trembling with fury. "Tricked by a mere Yao Yuan whelp!" He was about to give chase when a deep, resonant roar echoed from the heart of the mountain.
ROAR!
The commander froze. He glanced in the direction Luo Zhen had fled, then back toward the roar. After a moment of tense hesitation, he made his choice. He abandoned the chase, transforming into a white blur as he sped toward the central plaza.
"I'll let you run for now, you little worm," the Baboon Commander seethed as he raced through the tunnel. "But once this inheritance is mine, I'll peel your skin from your flesh."
He burst into the plaza and stopped short. The scene was one of utter carnage. A hundred-meter serpent of nightmares dominated the chamber, its dead, vacant eyes fixed on nothing. In its massive jaws, it was crushing the life out of the Bald Eagle and the Emerald Mountain Turtle. Across the plaza, the Giant Scorpion lay in a broken heap, its tail torn off, gasping for its last breaths.
The sight of the Baboon Commander sent a ripple of shock through the dying beasts.
"Great Commander!" the scorpion cried out, a flicker of hope in its voice. "Save me! Please, save me!" From the serpent's mouth came the muffled, desperate pleas of the other two. They recognized their ruler, their last and only chance.
The commander ignored their cries. His sharp eyes scanned the wreckage. "Where are the Demonic Boar Brothers?" he asked, his voice cold.
"Eaten!" the scorpion gasped. "The serpent ate them! Please, Commander, save us! We will serve you for the rest of our lives!"
"Save you?" The baboon let out a short, contemptuous laugh. "You were never companions. You were bait. My bait, to be precise, for this big fellow right here. And you want me to save you? Truly pathetic."
"Bait?" The scorpion's hope died, replaced by dawning horror. "You... you were using us?"
"Of course," the baboon said, rolling his eyes as if explaining something to a child. "Did you really think your little treasure hunt was a secret? I let you gather the map fragments. I wanted you here."
"But the map... how did you get past the decay without it? And how did you know about this snake?"
"Fine," the commander sighed, blocking the only exit. "A dying beast deserves the truth, I suppose. The decaying energy outside has been fading for over a year. My own power is more than enough to walk right in. As for how I knew..." He smirked. "That little cave you found, the one with the white fur scattered about? My handiwork. I've explored this place for years. I found the right path long ago and even fought this serpent. I couldn't beat it then." He gestured to the carnage. "But I realized it was a creature of pure instinct. So I devised a more elegant solution. You. I calculated that the five of you would be just enough to fill its stomach, after which it would fall into a deep slumber, leaving the inheritance for me."
He spread his hands wide. "It was a brilliant plan, you have to admit. I played you all like fiddles."
"You monster!" the scorpion hissed, rage giving it a final burst of strength. "Don't be so sure of yourself! This thing is a monster. After it's done with us, it will come for you!"
The baboon threw his head back and roared with laughter.
"What's so funny?" the scorpion demanded.
"I'm laughing because you're blind fools!" the commander snapped, his amusement vanishing. He pointed a claw at the behemoth. "Have you not realized this creature is already dead? It's a Corpse Serpent—an automaton animated from the remains of the Spirit Seed. It has no mind, no soul. Only two instincts: attack and feed."
The scorpion stared, truly seeing the creature for the first time. The immense demonic pressure was there, but it was hollow. The snake's movements were puppet-like, its eyes utterly devoid of life.
"It... It's a corpse?"
"A powerful one," the commander conceded. "Strong enough that fighting it directly would have cost me dearly. But once it's full, it sleeps. And then, the prize is mine." He preened. "A stroke of genius, if I do say so myself."
At that moment, the Corpse Serpent gave a final, sickening crunch and swallowed the remains of the eagle and the turtle. Its vacant, hungry gaze then settled on the wounded scorpion.
The scorpion panicked, trying to drag its broken body away. But the baboon merely flicked a wrist. A blade of energy shot across the plaza, severing the scorpion's remaining legs.
"Commander, you—!" the scorpion choked out, but it was too late.
The Corpse Serpent descended. The Baboon Commander watched, a connoisseur of suffering, as the last piece of his plan was slowly, painfully consumed.
Finally, it was done. But something was wrong. The serpent didn't coil up to sleep. Instead, its head swiveled, and its hungry, lifeless eyes fixed squarely on the Baboon Commander.
The commander's smug expression faltered. "What's happening? It's still hungry." Then, realization hit him like a physical blow. "That black snake. The fifth course. It wasn't part of the meal."
"Damn it all!" he raged internally. "If I had known, I never would have let that fireball-flinging worm escape!"
There was no choice now. If he wanted the inheritance, he would have to fight.
Moments later, the cavern was filled with the sound of a desperate, howling battle as the Baboon Commander clashed with the undying Corpse Serpent.
Meanwhile, at the edge of the Decaying Mountain, Luo Zhen waited. He was a patient predator, his system map giving him a god's-eye view of the battle raging in the mountain's heart.
"The commander is a mid-stage Yao Ling Realm master," he mused. "What in the world could be fighting him to a standstill?"
He had a simple strategy: if an opportunity presented itself, he would strike. If the risk was too great, he would disappear into the sky. With his wings, not even the Great Commander could catch him.
He waited for over an hour.
Then, he saw it. The angry red markers on his system map, pulsing with lethal energy, suddenly flickered and faded to a neutral white. The threat was neutralized.
"A double knockout," Luo Zhen concluded. "They must have bled each other dry. Their strength is gone."
He trusted the system. It was time to make his move.
Slipping back into the mountain under the map's protection, he retraced his steps to the central plaza. The sight that greeted him was staggering. The Corpse Serpent lay coiled and motionless, a dead mountain of flesh. Not far away, the Baboon Commander was a broken, bleeding heap on the stone floor.
"You!" the commander rasped, sensing Luo Zhen's presence. He struggled to push himself up, his body trembling with rage and pain.
"Still breathing?" Luo Zhen said, circling him with a detached curiosity. To think that a creature so small could survive a battle with that behemoth was truly astonishing.
"You want me dead so badly?!" the baboon coughed, spitting a glob of blood mixed with organ fragments. "This is your fault! If you hadn't run, you cowardly snake, it would have been full! I would have had the inheritance!"
"Blaming me for your own failure? Pathetic," Luo Zhen scoffed, no longer wasting his time. He slithered past the broken commander and approached the high platform.
There it was, the prize. The pulsating, vibrant drop of blood, humming with unimaginable power.
"You dare?!" the Baboon Commander screamed from the floor. "That's mine! Don't you dare touch it!"
Luo Zhen turned his head, and for the first time, he let the baboon see his triumphant, mocking smile. Then, he opened his jaws and swallowed the Essence Blood Inheritance whole.
A wave of pure, limitless energy washed through him. Behind him, the Baboon Commander's screams of impotent fury echoed through the silent, cavernous plaza.
"AHHHH! YOU ATE IT! I'LL KILL YOU! THAT WAS MINE! MINE!!"