Chapter Thirty-Eight: Terror in the Skies

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Terror in the Sky

"Ice Serpent—!" Wu Hong roared, his voice piercing the clouds, shaking the earth beneath him. The people around, bewildered, turned pale with fear. Yet what truly petrified them, except for Li Yunda, was the monstrous being that appeared before their eyes after Wu Hong’s thunderous shout.

A massive serpent, its entire body shimmering with silver light, soared above their heads. The beast was terrifying beyond compare, stretching dozens of yards long, blotting out the sun and casting a brief night over the group. Even more astonishing, the giant serpent had a pair of wings, leaving everyone dumbstruck.

With a thunderous boom, Wu Hong bent low, then leapt upward with explosive force. The rocks beneath his feet shattered and cracked, spreading fissures in all directions as his figure shot up like an arrow and landed steadily atop the serpent’s head.

"After them!" Wu Hong shouted anxiously. The one who had just abducted Wu Songran was the Elder of Yin Mountain, brother to the Yellow-Browed Elder who had perished wretchedly at the hands of Dongfang Bubai.

The Ice Serpent, possessed of uncanny intelligence, responded immediately to Wu Hong’s command. Its wings beat powerfully, stirring up fierce gusts as it soared in pursuit of the Elder of Yin Mountain.

"Well now! Truly a youth of rare talent! To have tamed such a ferocious creature—indeed, he must be destined to encounter the Buddha!"

With these words from Abbot Xuanbei, the rotund Li Yunda stumbled and fell to the ground in shock.

"Congratulations, Layman Li, on your sudden enlightenment! Do you wish to join our Buddhist order?"

"To hell with your order!" Li Yunda could take no more and leapt up, cursing the old monk in a fit of rage.

Meanwhile, Wu Hong, standing atop the Ice Serpent’s head, was growing increasingly anxious. Though the giant eagle did not seem particularly formidable, its speed in flight was not to be underestimated. Fortunately, the Ice Serpent was a creature of extraordinary talent, outpacing its quarry by a slim margin. The gap between them steadily closed.

"Help! Somebody help me!" Wu Songran screamed, her voice slicing through the heavens and reaching Wu Hong’s ears.

"Ran, don’t be afraid! Your brother is coming to save you!" Wu Hong’s internal energy was formidable; his shout rolled like thunder, reaching both Wu Songran and the Elder of Yin Mountain.

"Oho! Your little lover is quite devoted, chasing after you like this," the Elder of Yin Mountain sneered, his voice eerie and his words rising and falling with unnatural cadence.

Yet even as he mocked, the Elder of Yin Mountain was gripped by fear, urging the giant eagle beneath him onward. The serpent’s presence was simply too terrifying.

"Bah! Who needs his help?" Wu Songran spat, but the truth was that only Wu Hong, astride the serpent’s head, had any hope of rescuing her.

"Tsk tsk… Since you’re quarreling with your little lover, this old man will have to entertain you himself soon, little girl."

Wu Songran flushed with humiliation and rage at the Elder’s leering taunts, but there was nothing she could do. Her lovely face paled, and she cursed her own ill fortune—why did danger find her time and again, always with Wu Hong involved?

"Master, ahead lies another mountain. If I cross, a strange force will instantly tear me apart," the Ice Serpent’s voice whispered in Wu Hong’s ear, startling him greatly.

"How far is it? Master, do you see that tall mountain ahead? If I cross it, I’ll be killed by an invisible force?"

Wu Hong quickly looked ahead and saw a towering peak shrouded in mist and purple energy, radiating an aura of unknown power. He realized the Ice Serpent spoke the truth. The Elder of Yin Mountain’s eagle was drawing ever closer to the mountain.

"Ice Serpent, is that eagle a native of this land?"

The Ice Serpent answered with certainty: the eagle was not of this place, and the barrier only affected local creatures.

This confirmed Wu Hong’s suspicions. He suddenly drew his hammer and shouted, "Ha!"

With all his might, Wu Hong hurled the hammer. Like a meteor, it streaked across the sky, closing the distance to the giant eagle in the blink of an eye.

The Elder of Yin Mountain, glancing back, blanched in terror. He drew a massive blade and swung it, unleashing a ten-meter arc of blade energy toward the oncoming hammer.

But he forgot: while true energy slashes are formidable against martial cultivators, being both tangible and intangible, Wu Hong’s hammer was, after all, a solid weapon of iron and steel, and such energies had no effect on it.

Indeed, with a hiss, the ten-meter arc was split cleanly in two by the flying hammer.

A thunderous explosion followed. The Elder of Yin Mountain and Wu Songran felt themselves lurching in midair as a cloud of blood mist blossomed around them.

The hammer had struck the giant eagle, blasting a gaping hole through its body from front to back. The eagle plummeted earthward at breakneck speed.

Screams tore through the sky—one shrill and piercing from the Elder of Yin Mountain, the other, though sharp, was melodious as heaven’s music compared to his.

Wu Songran, falling through the air, looked down in terror—ten thousand meters below, certain death awaited. A crystal tear traced her beautiful cheek as she closed her eyes.

Just as she did, with the wind howling past her ears, a pair of strong, steady arms caught her.

Wu Songran did not open her eyes at once, believing this to be a final illusion—how could solid arms appear in midair? She recalled tales of people seeing their deepest desires before death, and in her terror, she imagined the arms of the man from her dreams.

Though she had never loved anyone, in this moment of mortal peril, the fantasy of strong arms filled her with an unexpected happiness.

Suddenly, a familiar voice shattered her reverie.

"Ran, what are you thinking? We’re still in midair!"

Wu Songran’s eyes snapped open to see Wu Hong—the man she had wanted to flay alive, both day and night.

"Let me go, you scoundrel!" she shrieked, louder and fiercer than before, cursing him with all her might.

Flailing in panic, Wu Songran’s body surged with adrenaline, breaking free of the pressure points Wu Hong had sealed. He had no choice but to release her.

Both continued to plummet, but the air’s resistance briefly gave them the illusion of flight.

Freed from Wu Hong’s embrace, Wu Songran’s upright body caught less air and she fell even faster.

"Ran, try to lie flat—don’t stay upright or you’ll fall even faster!"

When Wu Hong’s hammer struck down the eagle, he had leaped from the Ice Serpent’s head, the force of his jump and the wind carrying him over a thousand meters in an instant. The Ice Serpent, stunned by the recoil, steadied itself and dared not pursue further, for they had crossed above the mountain’s barrier—no beast would dare pass, lest it be instantly destroyed by the mysterious force, as others before had been.

Wu Songran, sensing herself plummeting, felt an overwhelming will to survive—she would not let Wu Hong outlive her. Obeying his advice, she flattened herself, and her descent slowed.

The two of them drifted and swayed through the sky like swallows, their postures graceful—a final moment of beauty before certain death.

"Ran, I know you hate me because you believe I killed your father," Wu Hong called solemnly as they fell, his expression grave, "but before I die, I must repeat that I am not the murderer. I have been searching for your father’s killer all along."

Wu Songran, seeing the earnest look on his face, was momentarily stunned. This young master who once lorded it over the Prince Wu’s estate—she had never truly looked at him, calling him brother only out of obligation, and deep down, she had always despised him.

But now, the righteousness radiating from Wu Hong gave her a different impression. People say a man’s words are kindest before death, Wu Songran thought. Could it be… Wu Hong really isn’t the one who killed my father? Then who is the true murderer?