The Snake Cave was eerily quiet. A single, panicked snake demon had managed to drag itself back to the matriarch after the catastrophic encounter with the National Master.
"What?! Xiao Bai is trapped in the demon trap? And a pig demon appeared and fought with that stinky Taoist priest?" The Snake Mother's initial surprise quickly dissolved into cold, strategic calculation. Her magnificent face was a mask of concentration.
She wasn't worried about Xiao Bai's safety. The life of a subordinate was a negligible concern. Her mind was fixed entirely on the valuable jade hairpin magic weapon and the sheer concentration of life-force currently residing in the great white python.
"That pig demon was able to fight the stinky Taoist priest on equal footing, which means its strength must be quite considerable. Even if it was killed, it would have surely consumed a large amount of the stinky Taoist priest's magical power," the Snake Mother mused, a cruel smile spreading across her lips.
She and the Imperial Master shared a sinister destiny: both practiced the Taiyin True Skill, and both knew the ultimate goal was to devour the other to achieve final ascendancy. "The pig demon's intervention has weakened the Imperial Master. Now is a divine opportunity to ambush and devour him! I can seize his centuries of accrued essence and magic power!"
But ambushes required power, and the Snake Mother felt she was hovering just beneath the threshold of true supremacy. She needed a boost, a massive influx of raw cultivation energy to break through the limiting barrier of the Nascent Soul Realm and enter the revered God Transformation Realm in one single, glorious leap. By then, the entire world, and indeed the heavens, would be her oyster.
Resources. She needed resources, and they were all gathered right beneath her.
The Snake Mother looked down at the mass of loyal, bowing snake demons filling the cavern floor. Her smile turned wide, chilling, and utterly predatory.
"However, before I can confront a weakened, but still formidable, rival, I must ensure my own foundation is absolute!"
She extended her elegant, manicured hand, and the cavern air thickened with a sudden, devastating gravity.
"Sharing and sharing, little ones," she purred, her voice a seductive, lethal caress. "All streams must return to their source!"
A colossal, terrifying golden magical snake, condensed from the raw power of the Taiyin True Skill, erupted from the Snake Mother's body. It was a massive, spiritual predator, and it coiled itself menacingly around the heads of the thousands of snake monsters.
The next moment, a boundless, soul-crushing force of devouring energy surged out.
The screams began immediately—a chorus of agonizing spiritual anguish that ripped through the cavern walls.
"Ahhhh, Master, what are you doing?!"
"Master, no, stop this madness!"
"Please, Master, I'm loyal! Stop now!"
Countless snake demons roared in terror, their accumulated magical power—decades, centuries of painstaking cultivation—was violently and instantly ripped from their bodies. Their eyes, wide with confusion and terminal fear, reflected the cold, gold glow of the monstrous serpent draining their lives.
"For the true, glorious rise of the snake clan, you should all willingly contribute your strength, my children! Haha! HAHAHA!"
The Snake Mother's laughter turned manic, echoing off the collapsing cave walls. She felt the magic power of thousands of beings—a vast, rushing ocean of vital essence—surging into her core. She was filling a void that had yearned for completion, expanding her spiritual capacity to a breaking point. She was on the cusp of divinity!
Snap!Snap!Crack!
The sounds of spiritual cores shattering and physical forms reverting filled the cavern. Stripped of their Golden Core cultivation, the snake monsters instantly regressed to their original, defenseless, tiny serpentine forms. They fell like rain, hundreds of small, powerless snakes collapsing onto the cavern floor, leaving the Snake Mother standing alone in a clearing of death.
It was into this scene of ultimate betrayal that Xiao Bai and Xiao Qing arrived.
"Master!"
The sisters had entered the cave, and the sight of their fellow demons reduced to spiritual corpses by their own matriarch was a shock far beyond Zhu Hao's earlier warnings. Their eyes were filled with horror, and the last shred of their filial loyalty evaporated into ash.
The Snake Mother slowly turned, her energy now vibrating with terrifying instability. She looked at Xiao Bai—no longer a beautiful woman, but a magnificent, colossal white python radiating power near the Nascent Soul peak—and her eyes filled with cold, seething resentment.
"The jade hairpin magic weapon," the Snake Mother hissed, her voice dripping venom, "was intended to devour the National Master's magic power for me! Instead, you turned into a giant python and devoured it yourself! You are truly a worthy disciple of my teachings—a thief!"
"Master, no!" Xiao Bai cried out, her giant form recoiling slightly. She desperately tried to explain the chaos of the battle, the need to defend herself against the disciple's ambush, and the accidental nature of the consumption.
"Silence! I will tolerate no more nonsense! Once I swallow you, everything will finally be mine!" The excitement in the Snake Mother's eyes was unmistakable. Xiao Bai was worth the essence of a hundred common snake demons, perhaps more! She was the final piece of the puzzle.
Boom!
The Snake Mother's spiritual power erupted, manifesting her ultimate form: a massive, grotesque two-headed red python. The heads were ferocious and terrifying, and the great red snake lunged toward Xiao Bai to swallow her whole.
"Old witch! Lord Pig is here! Prepare to die in spectacular humiliation!"
Zhu Hao leaped from Xiao Bai's head. The Wind and Thunder Sky Wings spread out, casting blinding gold and blue light across the cavern. The sound of a rising storm filled the cavern as he shot toward the Snake Mother.
Roar!
The Snake Mother shrieked, her twin heads opening their bloody mouths to bite at the infuriating golden speck.
Ding ding ding ding!
The Wind and Thunder Sky Wings were blades of supreme speed and elemental force. They struck the Snake Mother's red scales, sending up a shower of sparks and a sharp sound like a thousand knives clashing.
The Snake Mother was filled with blind rage. Zhu Hao was too fast! She couldn't track him, let alone bite him, and could only passively endure the furious, relentless assault of the tiny, winged pig. Frustrated, she turned her serpentine attention to the larger, slower target: Xiao Bai.
Xiao Bai was ready. She roared and lunged, meeting the Snake Mother's charge with her own massive white body.
Boom!
The collision between the two enormous pythons was catastrophic. The physical shockwave alone was enough to destabilize the already compromised cavern roof.
In an instant, the entire Snake Cave collapsed. The mountain above groaned, split, and detonated, burying everyone beneath a terrifying avalanche of stone and debris.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
From the ruins, a grotesque, enraged two-headed red python burst forth, shaking its tails and ascending into the sky.
A second later, a magnificent white python followed, and standing proudly on its head was a defiant, golden, eight-winged divine pig, now crackling with the undeniable power of wind and thunder.
The Snake Mother ascended, seeking space to fight, but before she could organize her attack, the wind stopped, the thunder quieted, and Zhu Hao acted.
"Big and Small Ruyi!"
The sound was a deep, resonant bell that shook the atmosphere. Zhu Hao flew into the air, and his body swelled—not a static, clumsy growth, but a controlled, effortless expansion. One hundred feet. Two hundred feet. Three hundred feet. He did not stop until he was a colossal, golden Pig Bear God standing one hundred meters high, his shadow eclipsing the sun.
All his attributes simultaneously increased by a precise one thousand times. His aura, now emanating from a body the size of a celestial peak, swept across the world, manifesting as the overwhelming, absolute power of an ancient demon king.
"So big?" The Snake Mother's two ferocious heads stared up, transfixed by terror. Her cultivation told her the truth: size was indeed proportional to strength. This was not a pig; this was a mountain with wings!
"Are you scared, little snake? Lord Pig can make it as big as he wants, hehe!" Zhu Hao's voice, now the roar of a thousand cannons, boomed across the landscape.
His Wind and Thunder Sky Wings also expanded to the size of storm clouds, hundreds of feet wide, covering the sky and blocking out the sunlight. The sheer, concentrated power of wind and thunder permeating every feather made the Snake Mother tremble and lose control of her flight.
"Hateful!" Fear outweighed fury, and the Snake Mother instantly turned to flee.
"Want to run? Have you asked Lord Pig for permission?"
Zhu Hao's voice was like the sound of the world ending. A massive, golden bear claw descended from the sky like a comet and effortlessly snatched the Snake Mother's thick, red tail.
Ssssss!
The Snake Mother shrieked, turning her twin heads back to bite the enormous, gilded hand that held her captive.
"Immortal Golden Body!"
Zhu Hao's colossal body shimmered with an aura of absolute, unyielding immortality. His golden hairs stood up like unbendable steel needles.
Bump!
The Snake Mother's two heads struck Zhu Hao's stomach with all their force. It felt to her like biting an ancient sacred mountain—indestructible and utterly immovable. The ten-foot-long venomous fangs in both her mouths snapped instantly, shattering into pieces.
"It feels… numb. Perhaps a little itchy!" Zhu Hao boomed, grinning maniacally. With his attributes amplified a thousandfold, and his defense increased another thousandfold by the Immortal Golden Body, he was invincible. He had allowed the bite purely for quality control.
"Little snake! Come and bite Lord Pig again! I dare you!"
Having completed his defense test, Zhu Hao shifted from defensive power to offensive humiliation. He roared with laughter, grabbed the Snake Mother's tail tight, and began to swing her.
Boom!
He whirled her around his massive body in a 360-degree arc, creating a terrifying, hundred-meter-long serpentine meteor hammer.
"Now, observe Lord Pig's invincible Hot Wheels technique!"
Sssssi! The Snake Mother roared in terror and pain, trying desperately to turn her massive body back, but under Zhu Hao's thousandfold amplified strength, her 100-meter body was stretched taut and straight. She was nothing more than a screaming, two-headed whip.
"Master Pig, please spare my life! I know I was wrong! I beg you to be magnanimous and spare me for Xiao Bai's sake…" The Snake Mother, now a terrified predator reduced to a plaything, pleaded desperately.
"You still have the nerve to mention Xiao Bai?"
The mercy evaporated instantly. Zhu Hao ceased the spinning. He knew that any further delay would risk Xiao Bai, in her lingering sadness, pleading for the life of the monster who raised her. He would give her no chance to mourn.
He raised his other colossal hand, gripped both of the Snake Mother's heads with ruthless finality, and pulled.
Swish!
The Snake Mother was cleanly torn into two massive halves. Her Nascent Soul, a tiny, shimmering red figure, shot out and tried to flee the terrifying colossus.
Swish-CRACKLE!
The sound of wind and thunder rang one last time. Behind Zhu Hao, a single, giant wing, charged with pure celestial thunder, sliced through the air and passed directly through the fleeing Nascent Soul.
"AAHHH!" The Snake Mother's final, thunderous shriek echoed through the void before the Nascent Soul was incinerated and instantly reduced to dust.
"Kill a Snake Demon (Peak Nascent Soul), Energy +500 (2177.1053 remaining), Experience +500 (1861.2021 remaining)"
Zhu Hao shrunk instantly back to his normal size—a tiny, glorious, golden pig. He flew back to Xiao Bai's head and gently nudged her.
"Xiao Bai, it's okay now. She's gone forever."
Far, far away, in the serene, sacred space of Luojia Mountain in the South China Sea, all was stillness and light.
On a shimmering, thousand-petaled lotus platform, a woman sat in perpetual meditation. Her white robes were flawless, her features delicate beyond mortal description, and her beauty utterly profound. She radiated solemn dignity, neither sad nor happy, a true immortal untouched by the mundane world. Her aura was holy, yet her autumn-water eyes were filled with infinite compassion for all existence.
Her gaze, which held the depth of the cosmos, was fixed not on her meditation, but across boundless distance.
"What a strange beast. I fear it possesses the genuine bloodline of an ancient mythical beast," the woman murmured, her voice like the chime of distant bells. Time and space folded within her pupils as she watched the figure of the victorious golden pig. Zhu Hao's massive, triumphant moment of power was reflected perfectly in her deep, moving eyes, causing the slightest ripple in her eternal calm.
Her lips curved into a compassionate, yet determined, smile.
"This Luojia Mountain of mine is in desperate need of a great guardian deity for its gate. It seems this small, powerful creature and I have a destiny that must be fulfilled."
The next moment, the radiant lotus platform cut silently through space.
The woman, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, vanished, moving with divine speed toward the tiny, arrogant piglet who had just slain a demon ruler and accumulated enough resources to challenge the heavens.
The Pig God's true challenge had begun.