The Eternal Sanctum

Teal light and scarlet flames intersected and merged into a single phenomenon just a meter away from her head, causing the young girl to wish that she had fainted from the impact. The mix of dull green and brilliant scarlet created a visual nightmare, almost as if she was in the midst of hallucinogenic throes.

If not for the shockwaves that rattled her ears and the blistering heat emanating from the scarlet light, An Fei would have a.s.sumed that she was experiencing an epileptic seizure.

Her thin body trembled and floundered with each flash of intermingling light that shot above her; the dying screams of wrath and pain escaping either of the creatures terrified the young girl to the core of her soul.

The pulses of teal and scarlet light fluctuated with each cry, reaping hundreds if not thousands of lives with a single blow.

Whenever An Fei closed her eyes, she envisioned the appearances of the two grievously injured creatures, their expressions mottled and clouded.

Anger, fear, jealousy, greed… she saw numerous fluctuations of their souls as the two creatures sacrificed their usually overflowing vitality and spiritual essence to condemn the other.

If she had managed to retain her head whilst glancing outward from her inadvertent man-made shelter, the young girl would have noticed that with each clash of light, both python and panther sacrificed a drop of blood.

A drop of blood that submerged a teal or scarlet radiance within, splattering across the disturbed forest ground and the ashes of vibrant life.

Bang!

A wave of fused teal and scarlet soared past An Fei"s head, dissipating with a ma.s.sive collision after scything through the forest for an indeterminate amount of distance. Nearly an instant later, a ma.s.sive clash of metal upon metal resounded throughout the forest, scattering the budding leaves from their respectful homes.

The disturbed forest suddenly entered a state of disorganized repose, the trees and leaves rustling in a turbid manner.

The dead sang their diminishing lamentations to those who remained behind, and the survivors of the h.e.l.l peeked their head from within their shelters to examine their surroundings.

A stifled silence reigned within the forest where the python and black panther had settled their grudges, the atmosphere taut as though another conflict was merely a few steps away.

However, the dark teal scythe and sea of brilliant flames had ceased to exist.

Gripping onto the edge of the cavity with her fingers, a young girl gingerly extricated herself from what should have been her gravestone, revealing a pair of scarlet irises that observed her surroundings with a trepid gaze. The young girl swiveled her head in all directions, her body releasing an exceedingly faint aura of vigilance and fear.

Exposing herself to the scene, An Fei couldn"t help but become completely disoriented.

The forest that she had roamed throughout had undergone a drastic slaughter during the battle of the python and panther.

Much of the vegetation loitering around in the ground had vanished, only to reveal a sea of charred ash and smoke. The trees had been uprooted from the concussive shockwaves that had ravaged the forest, before being sliced into numerous portions and incinerated to the extent that not even ash remained.

From a forest vibrant with countless fluctuations of vitality, the young girl stood in a graveyard worshipping death.

The smell of ash licked at her nose, begging to infiltrate the tantalizing specimen before them. The remnants of charred ash swayed with the gentle breeze, composing a silent eulogy towards those who had wrongfully lost their lives.

Thirteen and a half meters away from her, An Fei discovered two ash-covered corpses intertwined against the other.

When she dared approach with faltering steps, the young girl realized that the two corpses were that of the python and the black panther.

Be it an impenetrable armor of mottled scales or black fur, all that remained from the merciless chastising of fire were trails of ash. The python had been roasted alive in its scaly armor, whilst the panther had been charred into a wisp of ash.

The two creatures stood at a height numerous times that of An Fei, their girth more than enough for her to crawl inside without difficulty. They stood in a final, defiant stance, their bodies intertwined against the other in an embrace of death.

"This smell…" An Fei wrinkled her nose in disgust, extending her sleeve to rub away at the soot that had gathered at its surface.

"Why does it make my chest feel stuffy?"

The ultimate sacrifice of their cultivation had caused an astonishing temperature and pressure to scour the area, rendering life within the vicinity to nearly zero. Two sentinels guarded the entrance to the land of death, their gaze tinged with a glacial intent to battle.

Shaking her head, the young girl narrowed her eyes in surprise at the sight of a single unblemished scale on the right side of the python"s long, flexible body. An Fei pursed her lips in curiosity, and she reached out to touch it with her finger.

The scale was exceptionally smooth to the touch, the brilliant light gleaming from its surface revealing an indomitable radiance. As she continued to stroke its impossibly smooth contours, the young girl couldn"t help but praise the quality of the material with a gaze of astonishment.

If she were to display this scale, the public would be rendered into raving idiots craving for its beauty. Just by socketing it into an accessory, the scale could embellish the natural aesthetic effect countless times without end…

Just look at it!

A perfect combination and mixture of a brilliant scarlet, refined azure, a dull teal, and it released a periodic vibration that was comfortable to the touch…

A periodic vibration…

An Fei"s dreamy thoughts ground to a sudden halt, and the young girl"s lips couldn"t help but twitch madly. Taking her gaze from the beautiful scale stroked by her fingers, the young girl achingly craned her head upwards to gaze into two ma.s.sive orbs of gold.

The golden spheres flared with an enraged radiance, thin slits of black ink extending their presence without fear. Two golden spheres separated from the other by a black rod that stretched for two meters…

Not good!

"Ah!?"

An Fei screamed in fright, wrenching her hand away from the scaly surface as if it had caught on fire.

Hiss!

The young girl backed away as fast as she could, nearly tripping and falling into her cavity. The ash-covered python unwound itself from the black panther"s body, the pair of golden eyes fiercely gazing upon the young human girl"s appearance with incredible malice.

The snake tongue flickered around the air, scathing the just-calmed atmosphere with a severe lashing. Stretching to its maximum length, a python thirteen meters tall gazed down upon the young girl with a condescending glare, the pair of eyes filled with mocking, laughter, and… exhaustion.

To eliminate a black panther that was of equal strength and capability, the python had naturally expended the majority of its abilities. However, taking care of a mere human girl who couldn"t even lift a stone was an easy task.

A single strike of its tongue, and what used to be a delicious little human girl, was an unappetizing pool of flesh and blood.

"Why… isn"t it moving?"

An Fei muttered to herself, her mind rattled by the sudden resurrection of the python"s vitality. The young girl took advantage of the python"s inaction to retreat thirty meters away her body covered by a dense sheen of sweat.

Even then, a python towering thirteen meters in the air was still a considerably terrifying sight to behold.

Furthermore, she could detect a trace of sardonic disdain and mockery… flash within its eyes?

The young girl drove the absurd notion away from her mind, decisively condemning the precious stream of water behind the python to be out of her grasp. An Fei grit her teeth as she continued to maintain the staring match with the enormous python, before turning away to run.

Pak!

She had intended to run into the depths of the forest, but had collided with a relatively hard surface.

As An Fei rubbed her nose with her eyes tearing in pain, she found that she was leaning against a rock wall glistening with a myriad of lights, gold, scarlet, and azure radiances dazzling her eyes in an awestriking spectacle.

"When did that get… here?" the young girl murmured in a low voice, pressing her palm against the mysterious rock wall in confusion.

Unfortunately, she would receive an answer within the next moment, an answer she didn"t wish to dream of.

Hiss!

The "rock wall" caved in around An Fei, wrapping around her body in a snug embrace.

The flexible and smooth surface aptly coiled around the young girl"s body, immobilizing her limbs and lifting her from the ground.

Hiss…

An exhale of sardonic laughter rang from above An Fei"s head, prompting the young girl to crane her neck and look upwards. The single look was sufficient to terrify her soul and plunge it into the bottom of an ocean of ice.

There, the enormous head of a python leered at her, the mockery and sarcasm clearly evident in the pair of golden eyes that seemed to replicate the sun"s unforgiving brilliance.