"An Immortal Realm Spiritual Beast? Is this your trump card?" a middle-aged man calmly walked in, surprised in his heart upon seeing the semi-illusory Fire Snake.
Fan Hua was even more surprised when he saw who had come; he hadn’t expected that it would be Mu Heng, the Mu Family’s third Elder who had once pleaded on his behalf, who had come to kill him.
It wasn’t strange that Mu Heng came to kill him, but what was inexplicable was why he would kill those Mu Family disciples as well – there was clearly something amiss.
"Elder Mu, I remember you once pleaded for me," Fan Hua said tentatively; he understood that Mu Heng’s power should belong to that of a Profound Immortal.
More importantly, Mu Heng had switched to practicing the Refining Spirit Sect’s techniques, a strength not to be underestimated.
"Seeing as you’re about to die, I can pass on a message for you," Mu Heng said, his expression unchanging, harboring no thought of explaining his reasons.
Qin Muye, squatting to one side, felt extremely frustrated. Wasn’t this the time to fill in the backstory? How could it just be skipped?
"There’s no need to pass on a message. I just want to ask Elder Mu one thing," Fan Hua said, his expression becoming solemn. "This isn’t the Mu Family’s order, is it? It’s just your branch acting on its own to kill me, isn’t it?"
"By doing this, you’ve killed your own family members to silence them. Your schemes aren’t small, are they?"
Fan Hua was certain that Mu Heng’s reason for killing him wasn’t simply because of family dishonor. It was related to the internal struggles of the Mu Family, and his death must have been essential to advance a certain plan.
"Yes, you’re right. Are these your last words?" Mu Heng nodded, ready to take action immediately.
But as he circulated his mana, revealing the aura of a Profound Immortal, the Fire Snake swimming in the magma raised its massive head, with numerous Chains clinking chaotically. This behavior naturally caught Mu Heng’s attention; he assumed Fan Hua had somehow managed to temporarily control the Fire Snake.
The Fire Snake’s vertical pupil stared intently at Mu Heng as if it could see right through him.
In contrast, Mu Heng scoffed, "A mere Scattered Immortal Realm Spiritual Beast dares to look down on me?"
As he spoke, he immediately took action. He wasn’t in a hurry to kill Fan Hua - he didn’t even regard a Scattered Immortal Realm Spiritual Beast, let alone a Spirit Master still in the Mortal Realm like Fan Hua.
Therefore, to prevent any unforeseen complications, he decided to kill Fan Hua’s relied-upon Fire Snake first.
Transforming into a terrifying streak of light, he headed straight for the Fire Snake, apparently intending to sever its head in one stroke, to demonstrate his power.
Then they saw the Fire Snake open its mouth and swallowed Mu Heng whole. Qin Muye and Fan Hua could even see Mu Heng struggling inside the Fire Snake, motionless after a few minutes.
Fan Hua swallowed hard, his expression one of shock.
"I haven’t even started to sow discord yet, and he just rushes straight into the snake’s belly." Fan Hua was somewhat unable to accept the situation; from the looks of it, it seemed there was no coming back for Mu Heng.
"Maybe... he thought the Fire Snake was our backer?" Qin Muye was equally shocked by how events had unfolded. He hadn’t expected the Dual Main Character Aura combined with unparalleled Luck Dao and continuous blessings of talent to lead to this scenario. He even suspected that Fan Hua’s Wisdom Sword might also possess abilities that increased fortune.
Otherwise, how could the lad be so lucky?
With these BUFFs stacked together, it was indeed possible for the assassin to bring about his own demise.
"Right, I want to ask, does your Wisdom Sword happen to increase luck or fortune?" Qin Muye, wanting to know, just asked directly.
Fan Hua, still not quite back to reality, nodded: "Yes."
"Wait, Daoist, your Spiritual Beast doesn’t also have that, does it?" Fan Hua, who had come to his senses, felt that just his Wisdom Sword’s Spiritual Beast Technique didn’t quite fit the bill, so he asked Qin Muye.
Talent Qin Muye nodded as well, "Right, so your Uncle Mu was simply unlucky."
Indeed, that guy suddenly encountered two Main Character Auras plus two Spiritual Beasts with enhanced good luck; if he still survived his attempt to kill the two of them, it would really be a wonder.
"..." Fan Hua was also somewhat dumbfounded. He hadn’t expected the Luck Dao of Spiritual Beast Technique to be so terrifying that even the Immortal Realm couldn’t withstand it. But then again, he thought carefully, it was actually due to adapting to the situation. If it weren’t for Qin Muye deducing that there was a way to survive here, and with a slight change making Mu Heng deal with the Fire Snake first, this outcome would never have been possible.
"Forget it, the crisis is over, we need to hurry up and get out of here before the Fire Snake swallows us whole," Fan Hua still abided by the principle of running away quickly. Adventuring was out of the question; he could only muddle along day by day.
"Since we’re here already, it wouldn’t be good for us just to go back . We need to grab some benefits before we leave," Qin Muye rolled his eyes, obviously at the point when they should be reaping the rewards, yet this guy was ready to leave empty-handed.
"What? Are you planning to dig up some rocks to take away?" Fan Hua looked around, wondering what good could be here, except for these stone structures and magma.
The so-called benefits were either rocks or magma. With their strength, if they went down to scoop up magma, they would either end up in the belly of the beast like Mu Heng, or be bathed in the magma to leave no bones behind, so that left only the rocks.
"I think, with our luck, we deserve something better, like some rare Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures," Qin Muye was truly in despair over this kid’s lack of vision.
"I get what you’re saying, but where are these Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures?" Fan Hua looked at the magma and Fire Snake. If Qin Muye had said they were in the first half of the Secret Realm, he might have accepted it, but in this latter half, surely the most precious thing would be the Fire Snake as a Spiritual Beast.
But the problem was, the Fire Snake was not something they could covet. Fan Hua was well aware of his own limits; a Mortal Realm individual trying to make a contract with a Immortal Realm Spiritual Beast, one that could even swallow a Profound Immortal in a single bite, anyone with even a bit of sense would know it’s better to keep a respectful distance from such a thing.
"How about this, you go and kill that Fire Snake, and we’ll split it—you take the upper half, I’ll take the lower half. How does that sound?" Qin Muye mused for a bit, feeling there seemed to be some logic, as there was only the Fire Snake left here.
"Hold on, our life-saving ’benevolent snake’ seems to have a problem. Have you noticed that its size seems smaller than when we first arrived here?" Fan Hua was about to counter with why Qin Muye wasn’t the one going when he glanced at the Fire Snake and discovered this horrifying scene.
"How can this be... huh, indeed, the Chains used to fit just right, and now they are a size too large," Qin Muye also noticed the change after a glimpse.
He hadn’t paid much attention to the Fire Snake; after all, it was only half Spiritual Beast, half Evil Beast, lacking much value.
Even if it were killed and skinned, it wouldn’t be of much use to Qin Muye, as it was essentially an entity similar to a fire spirit.
However, after swallowing Mu Heng, the Fire Snake seemed to have undergone a transformation, evolving towards a Spiritual Beast.
It was not just the shrinking of its size, even its Power was falling. The Spirit Realm does not allow wild Spiritual Beasts to possess the Power of the Immortal Realm.
"The Power of the Fire Snake seems to have changed," Fan Hua keenly sensed something.
Just now, the Power of the Fire Snake had completely fallen from Level 6 to Level 5, and it was still dropping.
This puzzled Qin Muye as well; logically speaking, Level 5, which was the Peak of Mortal Realm, should have been a normal standard, so the Power shouldn’t keep falling.
"It’s probably because of your Uncle Mu, after all, according to what your Uncle Mu said, this Fire Snake was just at the Scattered Immortal Realm, and your Uncle Mu was at the Mystical Immortal Realm."
"It’s one thing to defeat someone of a higher level, but to eat them, you definitely have to pay a price," Qin Muye nonchalantly gave a reason. Although this was an excuse, it actually was related to Mu Heng. If the Fire Snake hadn’t swallowed Mu Heng, it would have maintained its form, slowly being assimilated.
But having consumed the other party and absorbed Mu Heng’s Mana, the speed of assimilation naturally increased. Furthermore, Mu Heng’s Power was far superior to the Fire Snake’s, and although the Fire Snake defeated a higher-level being, the Levels were there, and couldn’t just be ignored.
Therefore, this led to the Fire Snake’s naturally long assimilation time being accelerated, and because Mu Heng’s Level was too high, the Fire Snake’s fall in Power continued to a greater extent. Normally, even if the assimilation completed, its Power would remain at the Peak of Mortal Realm, but with this impact, it was uncertain.
As to how far it would fall, Qin Muye was not sure, but it probably wouldn’t fall too drastically... hopefully.