Chapter 140: Array of Ten Thousand Serpents

The massive circular pattern high above grew increasingly brilliant, its purplish glow slowly eclipsing the silver moonlight. Before long, the entire sky over Lu Zhe’s head was enveloped by this violet radiance, casting a strange, ethereal purple hue even over the dark clouds nearby, rendering the scene deeply eerie.

Lu Zhe looked up, gazing at the expanding, luminous circular pattern. Through it, the silver moon itself seemed stained with purple, exuding a bizarre and otherworldly color.

As he watched, the ever-brightening pattern suddenly came to a halt. Though not blindingly dazzling, the purple light was intensely magnificent. Viewed from below, the gigantic pattern rotated slowly, carrying an air of profound mystery and weirdness.

"What on earth is this?" Lu Zhe muttered, furrowing his brow as he stared at the gigantic circular pattern overhead, utterly baffled.

Just as Lu Zhe was at a loss, the massive serpent emblem right in the center of the pattern suddenly began to writhe. Moments later, as if imbued with life, the snake-like figure slowly poked its head out from the pattern!

"Uh, what... what is going on here?" Lu Zhe stammered, his jaw dropping as he watched the serpent's head emerge.

The colossal snake head radiated the exact same purple glow as the pattern, its inverted triangular pupils fixed directly on Lu Zhe. It blinked occasionally, its forked tongue hissing in and out of its mouth, looking both bizarre and terrifying.

Following the emergence of this primary serpent head, the entire circular pattern began to writhe in various spots. Soon after, one snake head after another poked out. Ranging in size and length, they all shared the same unearthly purple radiance, hissing as they gazed down at Elder Ye and Lu Zhe standing below.

"The Myriad Serpent Formation... Heh. I never expected to encounter this array again after such a long time. I truly wonder whether this is good fortune or misfortune," Elder Ye murmured to himself, watching the serpents emerging one after another overhead.

Just as Elder Ye was speaking to himself, the largest serpent head in the center suddenly opened its blood-fed maw and let out a roar toward Lu Zhe and Elder Ye. Immediately afterward, the tens of thousands of smaller snake heads surrounding it plummeted like a torrential downpour, jaws wide open as they lunged straight for Lu Zhe and Elder Ye!

Countless serpent heads plunged downward like a heavy storm, creating a spectacle of unimaginable grandeur.

Myriad serpents descending like a rainstorm.

Gazing at the dense mass of plunging snake heads overhead, Lu Zhe’s mouth hung wide open. He neither dodged nor counterattacked; he simply stared unblinkingly at the rapidly approaching serpents, apparently paralyzed by fear at the sheer scale of the spectacle.

Hovering slightly above and to Lu Zhe's left, Elder Ye frowned slightly as he watched the incoming myriad of serpent heads. He glanced sideways at Lu Zhe, only to find the young man staring blankly in a daze. Being a person of extraordinary stature, Elder Ye grasped the situation instantly. Sighing, he channeled his spiritual energy to carry his voice directly into Lu Zhe's ears.

"Why aren't you wrapping yourself in the flame of the miraculous medicine yet? Do you intend to be swallowed alive by these serpents?"

Staring blankly at the rapidly closing serpents, Lu Zhe was frozen in panic and indecision. Suddenly, Elder Ye’s voice echoed in his ear, snapping him back to reality. Looking at the sea of descending serpents, Lu Zhe took a deep breath, and a blood-red flame surged from the palm of his hand.

He glanced at the flickering flame in his palm, his brow furrowing. This flame was far weaker than the one before; after all, he had consumed a considerable amount of spiritual energy during the previous battle. On top of that, he had to continuously divert a portion of his spiritual energy to sustain the Dark-Winged flight mechanism on his back, which naturally diminished the flame's power even further. Right now, he had no confidence in his ability to completely shroud himself in the miraculous medicine's fire, nor was he certain that such a weakened flame could neutralize those formidable-looking purple serpents. For a moment, Lu Zhe fell into deep hesitation.

Elder Ye turned back to look at Lu Zhe, only to find him frozen in place, staring fixedly at the blood-red flame in his palm. Growing suspicious, Elder Ye once again enveloped his voice in spiritual energy and transmitted it to Lu Zhe's ears.

"What on earth are you doing? It is already a matter of life and death, yet you hesitate! What are you thinking?"

Hearing the reprimand in Elder Ye's tone, Lu Zhe arched his brows and snapped out of his contemplation. Taking a deep breath and thinking to himself, *'I'll treat a dead horse as a living veterinarian!'*—meaning he had no choice left—he hesitated no longer. Waving his right hand forward, the cluster of blood-red flame instantly expanded in size and breadth, forming a wall of fire in front of him.

Elder Ye looked with mild satisfaction at the fire wall materializing before Lu Zhe. With a flick of his sleeve, a dazzling emerald-green beam suddenly darted out, forming a luminous light barrier in front of him just like Lu Zhe's fire wall, shielding his body.

The moment both of them finished erecting their defenses, the sky-filling serpents finally crashed down upon them. Baring their fangs, the purple-glowing snake heads lunged ferociously toward Lu Zhe and Elder Ye, only to be blocked by Lu Zhe's wall of fire and Elder Ye's barrier of light. Undeterred, they showed no signs of discouragement or retreat, instead slamming into the barriers with even greater force.

Under such dense and violent impacts, Lu Zhe quickly began to show signs of physical exhaustion. After all, his cultivation level was not particularly high; although aided by the miraculous medicine, it was hardly a permanent solution and could only hold them off temporarily. Sustaining it for long was out of the question. Even so, Lu Zhe gritted his teeth and pressed on bitterly.

Noticing Lu Zhe's exhaustion, Elder Ye frowned, thinking that if this continued, Lu Zhe would likely lose his life within the Myriad Serpent Formation. Pondering this for a moment, Elder Ye extended his left hand from his sleeve, formed his fingers into a sword-pointing gesture, and traced a few invisible strokes in the air before him. The moment he finished, the light barrier three feet in front of him suddenly flared with an intense green brilliance. This emerald radiance easily outshone the purple glow of the descending serpents, and any purple snake head caught in this green light struggled for a brief moment before vanishing entirely into thin air—evidently, the purple serpents dreaded the green light released by Elder Ye.

Although the green light expelled a portion of the purple serpents, it was merely a drop in the bucket against their sheer numbers. Indifferent to the loss of those few serpents, the snake-folk controlling the formation were far from foolish. Realizing that Elder Ye's barrier could eradicate their serpents, they abruptly ceased attacking Elder Ye and concentrated every single serpent head onto Lu Zhe instead!

Unable to withstand this ferocious onslaught, Lu Zhe’s fire wall shattered into pieces shortly after he gritted his teeth to maintain it. Overwhelmed by physical fatigue and excessive expenditure of spiritual energy, Lu Zhe lost his balance and began plummeting downward!

"Ha! One down," a snake-folk operator outside the formation laughed aloud upon seeing Lu Zhe fall.

Seeing Lu Zhe plummeting, Elder Ye furrowed his brow, his figure flickering as he flew toward the boy. However, just as Elder Ye's hand was about to catch the falling youth, a purple serpent suddenly coiled around Lu Zhe’s ankle, jerking him violently back upward.

"Hmm?" Seeing Lu Zhe snatched away by the serpent, Elder Ye paused mid-air and looked up at him.

At that moment, Lu Zhe was drenched in sweat. Although desert nights were bitterly cold, his head was soaked, and he was panting heavily like an overworked ox, clearly driven to utter exhaustion.

Elder Ye watched Lu Zhe for a moment and reached out to touch him, but before his hand could make contact, several long serpents abruptly darted out from nowhere. Twisting and turning, they tightly bound Lu Zhe’s body, their wide-open jaws hovering inches from him as they eyed him menacingly.

Seeing this scene, Elder Ye furrowed his brow once again. Turning his gaze toward the snake-folk operators outside the array, he demanded, "What do you want?"

Upon hearing Elder Ye, the snake-folk outside burst into uproarious laughter. Then, a burly, thick-waisted snake-folk formed hand seals and sneered at Elder Ye, "What do we want? What do you *think* we want?"

With a swift change in the man's hand seals, the purple serpent wrapped around Lu Zhe suddenly coiled tightly around his neck and squeezed. Lu Zhe’s face instantly flushed crimson, and his breathing turned ragged and strained.

"Heh, what do we want? Naturally, a life for a life and blood for blood! You slaughtered so many of our snake-folk kin, and we must avenge them. Executing one of your disciples to console their departed souls is hardly asking too much, wouldn't you say?" the snake-folk said coldly, his voice dripping with venomous hatred.

Watching Lu Zhe, who was now red-faced and gasping for breath, Elder Ye remained as calm as stagnant water. Unfazed by the declaration, Elder Ye replied with an icy composure, "I advise you not to push me too far, or your fate will be far more wretched than what you experienced just now."

Though Elder Ye’s tone was entirely ordinary, the words carried a chilling, blood-curdling aura that made one's bones turn to ice.

"Your disciple is in my hands. You'd better not make any rash moves, or we will have your disciple die a wretched death first!" Startled by Elder Ye's intangible yet overwhelming imposing aura, the snake-folk retorted with slightly faltering confidence. With another twist of his hand seals, Lu Zhe’s face turned even redder, resembling someone flushed with heavy alcohol.

Elder Ye remained silent, standing before Lu Zhe and gazing fixedly at him. After a brief moment of profound quiet—while the bewildered snake-folk wondered what he was planning—the silent Elder Ye suddenly swept his right hand across the air in front of him.

The motion was swift as lightning. To the onlookers, it seemed merely like a blur of a hand shadow, and by the time they recovered their wits, his hand had already retracted!

Hastily turning their eyes back toward Lu Zhe, everyone dropped their jaws in utter shock. The purple serpents wrapped around Lu Zhe had vanished without a trace. Deprived of their restraint, Lu Zhe immediately began plunging downward once more, only to be caught mid-fall by Elder Ye's lightning-fast reflexes.

Gazing down at the coughing youth in his arms, a fleeting trace of a smile flickered in Elder Ye's eyes—immediately followed by a monstrous, crushing wave of murderous intent...