What's wrong with a snake that just wants to cultivate and transform?

The tail that emerged bore no resemblance to Xu Nian’s. Each scale was as large as her coiled body, the sinister crimson scales bristling with sharp, backward-facing barbs. Judging by their dark purple tips, they were likely venomous. Xu Nian knew that a real hit from this would likely gut her.

She quickly retreated, but in the face of such a swift, forceful attack, escape seemed impossible. As the massive tail was about to strike, the lethal barbs nearly grazing her eyes, she felt her heart stop for a moment.

In that critical instant, a sword scabbard swiftly extended, hooking her body and whisking her away with incredible speed. The venomous hook narrowly missed her, averting a deadly blow.

Xu Nian understood then why Ji Yuebai’s water-repelling spell had failed. The spell, while splitting the water, couldn’t match the speed needed for quick evasion. It made one an easy target in an attack, especially against an opponent aiming for the air-filled barrier.

The demon beast missed its target, and the murky, dark waters expanded slightly. Then a twisted, horned serpent head emerged, opening its mouth to reveal sharp fangs, lunging again towards Ji Yuebai and Xu Nian.

“Damn, that snake is ugly,” Xu Nian thought to herself, feeling fortunate not to have been born in such a grotesque form. She tightly wrapped her tail around Ji Yuebai’s scabbard, daring not to move, fearing being caught in the fray.

Ji Yuebai, however, did not disappoint Xu Nian’s expectations. Brandishing her sword underwater, she engaged in a fierce battle with the ugly snake. Despite the serpent’s home-field advantage, Ji Yuebai steadily gained the upper hand, victory seemingly just a matter of time.

In a flash, Ji Yuebai found an opening and severed the serpent’s head with a swift, cold strike.

Dark blood gushed into the water, turning surrounding waters red. Xu Nian was about to say something when she noticed Ji Yuebai still staring at the deep water, not letting her guard down.

Suddenly, sharp cries echoed from the water, and the currents around them started to whirl, forming powerful, large vortexes.

Xu Nian was shocked. “What kind of creature continues to live even after being decapitated?” she wondered. She couldn’t recall any serpent species with such an extraordinary, bug-like ability.

However, her question was soon answered.

Two equally ugly snake heads emerged from the dark, murky water, attacking Ji Yuebai from both sides in a pincer move, while the barbed tail launched a sneak attack from behind, cutting off any escape route.

At that moment, Xu Nian saw the true horror they faced: an ugly three-headed snake. One of its heads had been severed, dark red blood gushing from the wound, tainting the water. The remaining heads, twisted in anger and pain, lunged towards Ji Yuebai and Xu Nian with gaping maws.

Now, Xu Nian and Ji Yuebai were in this together, tied by circumstance. Even if Xu Nian wanted to abandon Ji Yuebai and flee, there was no escape. If she managed to dodge the fierce attacks by chance, she’d still get caught in the dense whirlpools, becoming trapped prey within them.

As the bloodied maw approached, Xu Nian could almost count the grooves on the serpent’s fangs. The wide throat could easily swallow both her and Ji Yuebai whole. Closing her eyes, she silently prayed for Ji Yuebai to dispatch the hideous creature with her sword as she had done before.

She also secretly coiled her tail around Ji Yuebai’s waist, tightening her grip, fearing Ji Yuebai might find her a nuisance and let her go. But while she seemed reliable, her waist was too slender, giving Xu Nian no sense of security at all.

With Ji Yuebai’s rapid movements underwater, Xu Nian felt as if she were tumbling through a washing machine. The sudden inertia forced her to cling tightly to Ji Yuebai, biting onto her clothes to avoid being thrown off. The intense flow of water battered her body, enhancing the sensation of being caught in a relentless spin.

Not until that tearing, tumbling sensation paused did Xu Nian uneasily open her eyes, only to find a blade-like tail sweeping dangerously close to her face, making her gasp in fright.

Before she could even catch her breath, the two snakeheads turned around with an incredible speed that defied inertia, charging straight at her and Ji Yuebai.

At this moment, Ji Yuebai was suspended in the water, her clothes fluttering with the surge of her internal energy. Her slender fingers formed several sword seals at a speed Xu Nian couldn’t see. Her sword then transformed into a Seven-Star Sword Formation, attacking the two snakeheads with the force of thunder.

Xu Nian’s head spun watching it, thinking the move was incredibly cool and wanting to learn it too.

At such close quarters, the snake heads couldn’t dodge the dense barrage of sword strikes. The ugly serpent hissed in pain, then turned and fled towards the lake’s bottom.

At this point, Xu Nian felt a sudden lightness in her body and realized Ji Yuebai had lifted her sword again, intending to deliver the final blow to the fleeing three-headed serpent.

In the blood-red waters, her sword streaked like a rainbow, piercing straight through the enormous, ugly body of the three-headed serpent. The water was further darkened by the blood spewing from the wound.

Ji Yuebai’s expression remained indifferent, her swordplay causing currents that swept her dark hair behind her.

With a slight lift of her fingers, she swung her sword again. A fierce sword energy sliced through the water, bisecting the serpent’s body. The massive creature split in two, its sections plummeting towards the abyss, laden with resentment and defiance.

Only then did Xu Nian dare to relax, unwinding her tail from Ji Yuebai and slithering off her.

She patted her chest with her tail, still shaken. “Thanks to Ji Shishu, for your help just now. Without you, I would have been in serious trouble.” she sighed with relief.

Xu Nian waited, but hearing no response from the woman beside her, she couldn’t help but turn to look.

To her dismay, she saw Ji Yuebai, once a figure of commanding presence, now pale-faced and struggling to breathe, her lips parting to release bubbles.

Ji Yuebai attempted another water-repelling spell, but the protective space was much smaller than before, barely covering her upper body. The underwater battle had taken a toll on her, it seemed. Xu Nian recalled seeing a half-transparent, glowing bead fall from Ji Yuebai during the fight with the three-headed serpent. That bead was likely what had been supplying her with oxygen.

Seeing Ji Yuebai like this, Xu Nian swam under her, intending to support her, allowing her to use Xu Nian’s body to catch her breath, considering Xu Nian, as a demon beast, didn’t worry about breathing underwater.

Suddenly, a chilling force gripped Xu Nian’s tail, dragging her down with relentless strength. She twisted to see, her heart lurching in shock. The lifeless half of the three-headed serpent had ensnared her, its barbed scales hooked into her flesh, injecting paralyzing venom. Dragged down towards the abyss, the serpent’s residual hatred seemed intent on taking her down with it.

Poor Xu Nian, she was the unfortunate soul caught as she made her way downstream.

The venom rapidly coursed through Xu Nian’s body, continually flooding her system. Her resistance couldn’t keep up with the relentless onslaught of the poison. Now, only her head could move. She opened her eyes wide, straining to look in the direction of Ji Yuebai.

Ji Yuebai’s expression remained impassive, her white robe billowing in the current, detached like an exiled immortal.

Xu Nian’s heart turned cold as ice. It made sense, after all. She was just a demon snake, the kind that, upon appearance, everyone would clamor to kill, a creature that cultivators would annihilate without hesitation.

How could she expect a cultivator, whose duty was to slay demons, to save her? Not killing her was already an act of mercy.

Xu Nian foresaw her grim fate.

Though she could breathe underwater, the abyss was teeming with monsters. Paralyzed and defenseless, she would likely become a feast for them, a tragic end where she would watch herself being devoured.

As Xu Nian and the grotesque corpse sank deeper, the water turned from chilly to bone-chillingly cold. Dark weeds gradually obscured the faint light below, and the darkness teemed with beasts circling hungrily, wary of her presence. If even one sensed her vulnerability, they would swarm and tear her apart.

Xu Nian felt herself sinking into the depths of hell, helpless and alone.

In the silent depths of the lake, a flash of sword light pierced the darkness, scattering beams of faint light. The murky waters were suddenly dotted with glittering specks, like stars strewn across a dark sky.

It was still the same detached, unemotional face, the scattered specks of light accentuating her features as they fell upon her hair. Her white robe, unable to keep up with her swift descent, billowed upwards in the water, resembling the wings of a butterfly poised for flight. With a swift motion of her sword, she severed the remnants of the beast that had ensnared Xu Nian.

Xu Nian stared at her, dumbfounded.

Her hand, chilled by the lake’s waters, gripped Xu Nian’s tail firmly.

Tears of relief nearly spilled from Xu Nian’s eyes. She had thought herself doomed to a grim fate at the bottom of the lake, her skeleton picked clean. She had even contemplated how a skeletal snake could continue to cultivate.

As the grotesque remnant of the serpent slowly sank into the abyss, Xu Nian’s fear gradually dissipated.

With the poison barbs removed, Xu Nian’s natural resistance began to counteract the toxin, and she slowly regained control of her body.

Just as Xu Nian was about to express her gratitude, Ji Yuebai suddenly lost control of her body, falling backward like a puppet with its strings cut. Xu Nian gasped in shock, noticing Ji Yuebai’s tightly shut eyes and furrowed brow in pain.

It dawned on Xu Nian that Ji Yuebai, in her rush to save her, had not used the water-repelling spell and was now likely suffocating from lack of oxygen.

Xu Nian wanted to use her tail to wrap around Ji Yuebai and move towards the surface. But seeing Ji Yuebai’s current state, she feared they wouldn’t last much longer. Delaying any further could be fatal.

In this dire moment, a whirlwind of scenes from novels and dramas Xu Nian had seen over the years flashed through her mind, leaving her in turmoil. But with her savior on the brink of suffocation, she couldn’t hesitate.

Shaking her head vigorously to clear the jumble of thoughts, Xu Nian steeled herself in the final seconds. With her eyes shut and heart set, she pressed her lips against Ji Yuebai’s thin lips.