Chapter 1 The Black-Robed High Priest

At the edge of the forest, the black-robed high priest lurked, observing.

Looking at Zhang Ji, who was being engulfed by lightning in the distance, he smiled sinisterly. His body trembled, and the little cuties in his eye sockets rustled and fell out. He hurriedly picked them up and stuffed them back in one by one.

"Don't be naughty! It wasn't easy raising you. Don't run around. When this guy gets struck to death by lightning, Daddy will take you out for a feast."

The black-robed high priest licked his lips, his face full of anticipation.

He cultivated abdominal breathing, also known as corpse breathing, specifically using corpses to breed maggots for cultivation.

These maggots were the result of his decades of cultivation, and now they could enter the flesh of living beings without being noticed, devouring them and controlling them into becoming walking corpses.

Extremely terrifying and bizarre.

Therefore, each maggot was the apple of his eye, his little cutie.

And he fancied himself as the godfather of these little cuties, caring for them in every possible way, eating, sleeping, and bathing with them every day.

"Rumble..."

The thunder in the void grew even more immense.

Bolts of silver lightning as thick as buckets fell with flailing claws, striking Zhang Ji. His snake scales sparked with electricity, and arcs of lightning shot out in all directions. The surrounding thousand meters became scorched earth, and flames ignited in the weeds.

It was an incredibly terrifying scene.

Thunder rumbled, and lightning raged like the sea, striking a three-headed, hundred-meter-long giant python.

Not only did it not die, but it roared while bathing in the lightning. Its three hideous and ferocious heads roared towards the sky, its voice shaking the void for thousands of miles, suppressing the sound of thunder.

Such a shocking scene was unimaginable.

In Xichuan Town, the survivors had long noticed the anomaly in the western wilderness.

Some of the bolder ones came to peek, but couldn't help but be stunned.

"Heavens, it's that King Cobra being struck by lightning!"

"Hahaha, retribution has come! It ate so many people and committed so much evil. It deserved this long ago."

"God, let the lightning strike even harder! Strike this King Cobra to death! My daughter and wife were both swallowed by it. I want revenge!"

"Although I hate this King Cobra, I want to ask everyone, if the King Cobra dies, and another enemy invades in the future, and we can't leave Xichuan Town, what will we do?"

The people discussed.

Some prayed for the lightning to be even bigger and more powerful, striking the King Cobra to death, while others hesitated, hoping it could safely survive this tribulation.

"Everyone, has anyone considered why this ferocious King Cobra is being struck by lightning? I feel like it's undergoing a tribulation!"

A six-tailed Danghu chicken stood on a half-collapsed wall, gesticulating.

Everyone was shocked.

The thought was terrifying! It made a lot of sense.

Because this King Cobra was too big. Who knew how many times it had evolved, or to what level it had evolved? Its body length was probably more than a hundred meters, and its three heads were hideous and terrifying. There had never been such a snake before.

Or rather, it had already broken away from the characteristics of a snake and become a kind of alien beast that had never appeared before.

Everyone had already witnessed its power and were terrified by it. The foreign tigers and giant wolves were no match for it. It was not impossible to say that it was undergoing a tribulation.

The six-tailed Danghu chicken saw everyone's contemplation and seemed to receive great encouragement. It continued to gesture.

"I've read a lot of novels. In novels, those fierce birds and beasts that are about to become immortals and ascend will encounter lightning tribulations before ascending. If they pass, they will ascend to become immortals, and if they don't, they will be reduced to ashes."

"The scene before our eyes is too similar!"

"Of course, this ferocious King Cobra is destined not to become an immortal. It has killed too many. If it ascends, it will ascend to the Demon Realm."

The six-tailed Danghu chicken was obviously a veteran bookworm with a big imagination. At this moment, its eyes were filled with excitement, yearning, and worship as it looked at the giant python undergoing its tribulation in the distant wilderness.

"Brother Chicken, what's your name?" A bristly boar suddenly approached. "To be honest, I usually like to read novels too, and I often give rewards."

"I remember one time I wanted to give a reward of 10 yuan, but I accidentally pressed an extra zero and gave a reward of 100 yuan. The little author was so excited that he called me Daddy and even said he would crossdress for me, hahaha."

The bristly boar grinned, laughing like a pig.

The six-tailed Danghu chicken's eyes revealed a sympathetic smile. This brother boar was a kindred spirit! He usually not only gave rewards but also voted!

"Let's get acquainted. I'm called Cao Xinyin."

It stood on one leg like a golden rooster, extending a chicken claw.

The bristly boar hurriedly extended its pig hoof and shook it.

"I'm called Han Dayou. Nice to meet you!"

The bristly boar was very excited, its eyes shining brightly.

"Brother Cao, what you said just now makes so much sense."

"Now that we've all become beastly mutants, tribulation and ascension to immortality were unimaginable in the past, but now it's not impossible! Maybe we are all immortal beasts and divine birds chosen by immortals. As long as we can continue to evolve, we can undergo tribulation and become immortals."

"Yes, the times are different now. Anything is possible!"

"Before the disaster in Xichuan Town, no one would have thought that we could turn into animals, and each of us would be dozens of meters tall..."

They discussed, and interested people joined in, making the discussion even more heated.

"Whether there are immortals or not, and whether we can undergo tribulation and become immortals, we'll know by looking at this King Cobra!" Cao Xinyin, the chicken, gestured, providing everyone with an important reference direction.

Everyone nodded, looking at the King Cobra in the distant wilderness.

"Rumble, crack~"

Lightning and thunder rumbled, the momentum growing even more immense, as if the sky had a hole in it. Endless lightning poured down, and terrifying electric芒s illuminated the four directions, briefly splitting the eerie mist.

In the sky, a rare glimpse of clarity was revealed.

At this time, it was the middle of the night.

Everyone excitedly looked up at the void. Although they had not been trapped in the world of Xichuan Town for long, they felt as if many years had passed. Everyone looked excitedly at that corner of the void.

But this one glance stunned them.

Because in that corner of the void, the night was as black as ink, and a moon was suspended, but it was a purple moon, emitting a dazzling purple moonlight.

Not the moon outside the Earth, this purple moon was bigger and brighter.

And at this time.

"Whoosh~"

A giant bird flew past under the purple moon, its wings like clouds hanging from the sky, unimaginable, blocking the entire moonlight. Its body was too big, and its scarlet, sharp eyes were like two blood moons, incomparably terrifying.

It glanced at Xichuan Town, saw the beastly mutants, and also saw the King Cobra bathing in the lightning tribulation.

Greed flashed in its eyes. It swooped down, stirring up a raging hurricane, and pounced towards Xichuan Town.

"Ooo~"

Above Xichuan Town, the eerie mist suddenly gathered, sealing off the void.

"Boom~"

The giant bird crashed into the eerie mist, unable to enter. It let out a piercing, angry cry that made everyone's eardrums ache. After flapping for a while, it left helplessly.

In the sky, the eerie mist spread again, completely sealing and obscuring the void.

This scene was like a movie illusion.

However, everyone believed that it was not an illusion. They all saw the scene just now, including the bright purple moon, the giant divine bird, and the eerie mist blocking it.

"What exactly is going on?! Is the outside world still the same as before?"

"I have a bad feeling that something happened outside that we don't know about."

"Or rather, are we still on Earth? Maybe we're on another strange ancient star. The world outside may not be the world we knew before..."

Everyone discussed, their expressions panicked and desperate.

They yearned for rescue, and some people had been desperately searching for a way out, not giving up.

They believed that one day the eerie mist would dissipate, and they would leave this place, but at this moment, they suddenly realized that the truth might not be what they imagined.

The truth might be even more cruel.

And the eerie mist was not trying to harm them, but to protect them. They all saw the scene of the giant bird attacking just now.

In the lightning.

Zhang Ji, who was undergoing the tribulation, also saw it, but he had no time to think about it, because the lightning in the void was even more terrifying. The silver lightning turned into golden electric current.

"Sizzle~"

Golden lightning, which no one had ever seen before, manifested for the first time in the void of Xichuan Town. It was only as thick as chopsticks, but the moment it appeared, heaven and earth were silent, and the air seemed to have solidified.

Xichuan Town was enveloped in an aura of destruction, and everyone's heads felt a sense of oppression and suffocation.

It was as if the end of the world had arrived, and the entire Xichuan Town was about to be destroyed.

"Roar—"

Zhang Ji roared, his three heads raised high, most of the scales on his body had fallen off, his flesh was bloody, and parts of his snake body were still burning with thunder-fire.

Such a tragic scene was unbearable to look at.

But Zhang Ji was delighted in his heart, and his scarlet vertical pupils shone brightly.

Because on those parts of the snake's body that were struck by lightning, the chain-like shackles of flesh and blood were being destroyed, breaking one after another, and new flesh was growing silently. An ancient, mysterious, and noble aura slowly emanated from the depths of his body.

At the edge of the forest.

The lurking black-robed high priest sensed this aura, his face twisted, filled with shock and disbelief.

"The aura of an ancient evil god!"

"How is this possible? How is this possible? How could there be such an ominous creature here? Wasn't it extinct long ago? Moreover, it can break the shackles!"

"This is the heavenly restraint of the abandoned ancient star, the shackles of flesh and blood. How can it break them? Why?!"

"I must send this message back and tell the elders of the Holy殿 to come and suppress this evil snake. Otherwise, if it becomes strong enough in the future, it can go deep into the sinkhole and come to our Great Wilderness. That would be a great disaster!"

The black-robed high priest trembled as he took out a little cutie from his eye socket, grabbed it, and whispered:

"Baby, my little cutie, go back to the Great Wilderness, go to the Holy殿, and tell the elders that an unknown variable has appeared here, and our hunting expedition to the east has failed."

"An ancient evil god is undergoing Nirvana here, born to be an emperor seed. I cannot divine its past, I cannot see its future, I can only see an endless sea of blood. Tell the elders to come and suppress this fiend as soon as possible!..."

"Little cutie, go quickly, go quickly!"

He picked up the little cutie, kissed it, and loosened his fingers. The little cutie burrowed into the ground and headed towards the sinkhole...

"Boom~"

In the sky, the golden lightning finally struck down, and the void seemed to have cracked a golden gap.

An aura of terror and destruction surged.

"Roar—"

Zhang Ji roared, raising his head, his snake mouth wide open. In everyone's stunned gaze, he swallowed the golden lightning in one gulp.