As the first light broke, Jiyang City, silent through the night, began to stir from its slumber. Nie Xiuge yawned his way up the twenty-meter-high city wall, feeling sluggish.

Reaching the Ninth Grade of the Tongling realm before he turned twenty was considered quite an achievement within the Nie family.

However, the very day he broke through to the Ninth Grade of Tongling, he was punished for intentionally injuring a clansman by being assigned to guard the city gate, which included the unenviable task of ringing the bell at dawn every morning.

He had been performing this duty for nearly twenty-nine days now.

“Damn it, once I finish this last day, I can finally go back to the Ice Flame Cave to cultivate,” Nie Xiuge muttered dejectedly. Habitually, he leaned over the battlement, let out a long breath, and then, as usual, let his eyes casually drift toward the area outside the city.

“Huh? What is that?”

Noticing something moving on the ground, Nie Xiuge rubbed his sleep-heavy eyes in suspicion, then looked again.

In the next moment, his eyes widened into perfect circles.

“Snakes!”

The ground outside the city was carpeted with snakes!

Nie Xiuge’s heart gave a violent lurch, his face instantly draining of color, and he swallowed hard. The shock in his chest was almost beyond description. In all his years, he had never seen so many snakes at once—a thousand? Or perhaps ten thousand?

“Hsssss!”

Suddenly, the mass of snakes, having reached the base of the wall, seemed to receive a new command. They stopped simultaneously, then raised their heads in unison, mouths agape, emitting sharp hisses. Nie Xiuge shivered violently, instantly jolting awake. Staring at the densely packed serpentine shadows on the ground, his skin erupted in goosebumps.

Immediately following, the serpent horde parted, moving like a rolling wave.

This bizarre movement startled Nie Xiuge. He quickly looked toward the end of the wave, only to see two bright, blood-red lanterns emerge from the hazy distant forest and speed toward the city wall. A few seconds later, Nie Xiuge realized with horror that the lanterns were, in fact, a pair of snake eyes.

The serpent was tens of meters long, its body as thick as a water vat, its blood-red pupils set in a massive, triangular head. It slithered through the ranks of the smaller snakes as if it were a general inspecting his troops. Even from hundreds of meters away, one could feel the savage coldness emanating from those eyes.

“Thump!”

Nie Xiuge’s scalp tingled, his legs went weak, and he collapsed onto the ground. He felt utterly cold, his heartbeat seemed to halt, and he nearly suffocated.

“Nie Xiuge, what the heck are you doing up there with all that hissing and sputtering? Ring the bell, quick!” A raspy voice suddenly shattered the silence. Nie Xiuge’s spirit jolted, and he snapped back to reality. His face pale, he scrambled down the wall, shouting hoarsely, “Uncle Teng! Snakes… such huge snakes…”

“…”

What transpired on the east wall of Jiyang City was happening, almost simultaneously, on the other three walls.

Inside Jiyang City, at a small apothecary shop near the Four Seas Tower, Nie Shen Gong, who had been deeply immersed in cultivation, suddenly felt a sharp pang in his heart. His brow twitched slightly, and his eyes snapped open, letting out a cry of alarm: “That’s the aura of the Snake Spirit Clan… Four Tianling experts today, four Dongling masters…”

What were they planning?

A black shadow flashed, and Nie Shen Gong instantly appeared a thousand meters in the sky. Looking around, he saw serpentine shadows everywhere in Jiyang City—some as large as buckets, others as thick as a child’s arm, and still others as thin as chopsticks… Mixed among the common snakes were a large number of vicious serpents identifiable as Spirit Beasts.

Especially outside the four main city walls—East, West, South, and North—was a giant snake tens of meters long. Each of these beasts was a Dongling Master whose spirit was intertwined with the Snake Spirit Clan. Beside each giant serpent stood a figure, like a general commanding his legions, receiving the homage of the tens of thousands of snakes surrounding them.

Seeing the serpent horde completely encircling Jiyang City, commanded by four Tianling experts and four Dongling masters of the Snake Spirit Clan, even Nie Shen Gong’s expression changed to one of shock, cold sweat beading on his forehead. With the Snake Spirit Clan presenting such a formation, did they intend to annihilate Jiyang City?

“Dong! Dong! Dong! Ding…”

The frantic sound of alarm bells erupted from the watchtowers on all four city walls.

In Jiyang City, both ordinary people and Spirit Masters emerged from their homes in confusion. In hundreds of years, such a crisis had never befallen Jiyang City. The urgent ringing of the bell was deafening, echoing throughout the city, instilling pervasive dread in every heart. It felt as if the end of days was nigh.

“Whoosh!—”

After a brief moment of confusion, figures departed from the Nie family’s Hidden Blade Courtyard, dispersing toward the four city walls. Clan Leader Nie Qingsong, the rarely seen Second Elder, the Third Elder, Nie Xingyun, Nie Xingqiu, Nie Longshan, Nie Xindong… Every elder stationed in Jiyang City was mobilized.

However, when they reached the city walls, they were all dumbfounded.

While the Nie family was counted among the Five Great Clans in the Great Success Empire, their strength could not compare in the slightest to a major power on the Tianling Continent like the Snake Spirit Clan.

The sheer number of Tianling Masters alone was telling.

The Nie family had only one Tianling Master, Nie Shen Gong. Yet, a force like the Snake Spirit Clan possessed at least ten Tianling experts, and even more Dongling Masters. Although few had broken through to the Spirit God realm in the last thousand years, the number of Tianling Masters was far greater than it had been millennia ago.

Everyone assumed Nie Shen Gong had long since reached the Tianling realm, but Nie Qingsong and the others knew that Nie Shen Gong had only achieved the Tianling realm within the last year or two. If the Snake Spirit Clan only sent one Tianling expert, Nie Shen Gong would struggle to handle them; facing four at once was unthinkable.

This formation was enough to wipe out Jiyang City countless times over.

Although the Snake Spirit Clan had not yet attacked, if they truly launched their assault, only the Great Elder, Nie Shen Gong, might manage an escape; the rest would have absolutely no power to resist.

“Is this the end ordained by Heaven for the Nie family?”

In an instant, the hearts of Nie Qingsong and the others sank to the very bottom.

“Hiss hiss…”

The roar of ten thousand snakes converged into a sharp, piercing shriek echoing above Jiyang City. The chilling coldness embedded in those notes made everyone in the city feel as if their bones were freezing. No one dared utter another sound; fear and oppressive tension spread rapidly throughout the city.

High above, Nie Shen Gong finally regained his composure after his initial shock.

These four Tianling experts and four Dongling masters of the Snake Spirit Clan commanded the myriad snakes to halt outside the city, neither attacking nor retreating. They seemed hesitant, perhaps waiting for someone… This left Nie Shen Gong somewhat puzzled, yet a rumor he had heard a century ago flashed through his mind.

For ten thousand years, wars between Spirit Masters had never involved common civilians—this was an unwritten, customary law among the major powers. It was said that this law existed because of an edict from the Upper Realm, which was the ‘Supreme Spirit Realm’ where Spirit Gods gathered.

The fact that the Snake Spirit Clan hadn’t attacked immediately—was it out of consideration for this rule?