Chapter 129: Battle with the Azure Python (Part One)

Beneath the blood-red sun, the Green Python wreaked havoc in the lake. The water, once still, now churned with monstrous waves, mist swirling in the air as the sounds of splashing and guttural roars echoed incessantly.

The massive python reared its gargantuan body, staring coldly at the two people on the shore, its eerie, deep-blue tongue flicking in and out.

Just then, a figure arrived, striding across the waves. In his hand, he dragged a pitch-black blade as large as a door panel. He moved across the turbulent water as if walking on flat ground, his toes barely touching the crests before he leaped into the air. With a few bounds, he reached the rear of the python.

Without pause, he sprang upward, planting a foot on the creature’s colossal frame to propel himself vertically. He soared twenty meters into the sky, hovering directly above the python’s head.

"Wow! It’s Brother Xiao!" Liu Yiyi exclaimed, her beautiful eyes widening and her crimson lips parting in a gasp of excitement.

At the same moment, Liu Biru, Liu Qingqing, and the old woman all turned their gaze toward the rising figure. Xiao Cheng appeared blinding against the backlight. As he ascended, he eventually aligned with the blood-red sun behind him, the sunset’s glow rimming his silhouette with a solemn golden border.

Reaching the zenith of his leap, Xiao Cheng gripped the handle of the nearly three-meter-long blade with both hands and hoisted it high. The sight was surreal: in the sunset, the massive black blade imbued him with a sense of immense weight and power. It should have felt like a thunderous strike, yet it possessed a strange, ethereal grace—a contradiction of heaviness and lightness coexisting.

Xiao Cheng formed an arcane seal with his left hand and struck the blade. Instantly, the lightness vanished; his body plummeted, descending with the force of a falling mountain. The blade’s momentum was heavy and deliberate, carrying the power to cleave mountains and split peaks.

The python detected him, but everything happened too fast. Its massive bulk left no room to dodge. Compared to the serpent, Xiao Cheng in the air looked minuscule, yet the three-meter blade in his hands could not be ignored.

With both hands, Xiao Cheng brought the blade down squarely onto the python’s giant skull.

*Boom!*

A deafening crash erupted as the blade struck. Sparks flew, and a large patch of scales was shattered. The immense force transmitted through the impact drove the python’s head five or six meters deeper into the water, a spray of blood erupting from its crown. Given the python’s size, no ordinary weapon could have caused such damage.

*Krr-krr-krr—*

The python let out a series of agonizing hisses, even more wretched than the sounds it had made when the old woman had wounded it earlier.

Using the recoil, Xiao Cheng vaulted a meter or two into the air, only to descend again, raising the massive blade once more for another heavy blow.

*Boom!*

*Krr—*

The python’s body sank once more, its cry echoing in pain.

***

As his momentum waned, Xiao Cheng landed directly atop the python’s massive head.

The serpent was furious. Not only had it been heavily wounded twice, but now this puny creature dared to stand upon its head. It lashed its tail out of the water, sending a cascade of spray flying with a thunderous *whoosh*.

The python was an exceptionally agile beast; to it, every part of its body was a weapon. It whipped its tail toward Xiao Cheng. Knowing he could not withstand such a blow head-on, Xiao Cheng held his blade horizontally to block.

*Boom!*

With a thunderous crash, the tail struck the blade. The sheer force sent Xiao Cheng flying like a cannonball. He was knocked back over a hundred meters before he could stabilize himself.

The python’s enraged strike had been devastatingly powerful. Now, Xiao Cheng found himself in the middle of the lake, moving at high speed with nowhere to gain leverage. If he fell into the water, he would be at the mercy of the python—the lake was its domain.

As he glided just above the surface, he formed another arcane seal with his left hand, struck the blade, and hurled the three-meter-long, one-and-a-half-meter-wide weapon into the water. Given its weight, it should have sunk instantly.

But something strange happened: as the blade hit the water, it created a massive splash, yet when the water settled, the black blade drifted gently upon the surface. It looked as if it had transformed into a prop made of foam.

Xiao Cheng landed, his feet planted firmly on the floating blade. Carried by the lingering force of the python’s blow and having nowhere to dissipate it, he and the blade shot rapidly into the distance.

As a massive wave rolled toward him, Xiao Cheng rode the blade, leaping up like a surfer carving through the crest of a breaker. He landed and finally came to a halt.

He was no longer the novice cultivator he had been, lacking lethality at the Foundation Establishment stage. After his breakthroughs in the forest, he had reached the seventh level of the Condensation stage. In his previous life, he had reached the peak of the Innate realm, possessing mastery over true energy. Once he entered the Condensation stage, there were no bottlenecks for him. With his "Spirit-Plundering" technique and a body reshaped into a spirit vessel, his advancement was unstoppable.

He had even deliberately suppressed his progress to build a foundation before attempting to break into the Innate realm; otherwise, he might have reached the peak of Condensation in one go.

Xiao Cheng smiled, looking at the black blade beneath his feet. It was a makeshift weapon he had prepared specifically for the python after his breakthrough. It was actually a massive slab of bluestone he had cut with his Azure Edge Sword, clamped between two sturdy sandalwood planks to create a heavy, dull-edged blade. He had carved simple lines into it to briefly anchor his true energy. Once completed, the stone blade weighed around two hundred kilograms.

As for why it could shift between being heavy enough to crush the python and light enough to float like a boat—he possessed the Earth-Escape technique. Since stone belonged to the Earth element, he could repeatedly cast the "Mount Tai Press" and "Light Feather" spells upon the blade to achieve this effect. With his current cultivation, he could make the blade three times heavier or lighter, and by stacking these spells twice, he could achieve a nine-fold increase or decrease in weight.

The blow that had wounded the python had been delivered with a blade weighing 1.8 tons, while now, it weighed barely twenty kilograms, allowing it to float. His ability to skim across the water was a clever application of these techniques; he had to keep tapping the surface to maintain momentum, or he would eventually sink.

To push his skills to their absolute limit—that was Xiao Cheng’s "Way." The grandmaster who invented these spells likely never imagined someone would use these two simple techniques in such an eccentric, masterful fashion.

The three people on the shore watched with mouths agape, even the old woman looking stunned. Xiao Cheng’s series of movements had been so fast, so fluid, that by the time they reacted, the python’s head was already bleeding profusely, staining the lake red.

Liu Yiyi clenched her fists, her face flushed with excitement as she watched Xiao Cheng drifting on the lake.

*Krr—*

The python, now beyond furious, twisted its massive body and dove into the lake. It abandoned the four people on the shore and surged toward the figure floating on the water.

"Brother Xiao, watch out!" Liu Yiyi screamed, but her voice was instantly swallowed by the roar of the waves.

The python charged, a massive wave rising to cover the sky. Xiao Cheng narrowed his eyes. Being in the middle of the lake with nowhere to gain leverage was his greatest disadvantage.

A massive wave crashed down. When it subsided, the python had vanished, and so had Xiao Cheng. The water continued to churn, and only the black blade remained, bobbing aimlessly in the swells.

Liu Yiyi stared blankly at the turbulent water, covering her mouth with a gasp before letting out a desperate, piercing cry.

"Brother Xiao! Brother... Xiao!"