THE MARTIAL KING, VOLUME 8 - Season 19 Episode 23

Zen’s spirit was a tumult of conflicting emotion, but his face merely betrayed confusion. He hesitated.

After everything, he did not have the heart to kill this woman…

The ground shook beneath him. His breath caught as he saw the massive body of the Formless Sky Python rushing towards him. As he turned to run, bursts of wind began to form underneath his feet, propelling him forward.

Behind him trailed the Princess Royal. She had a sly smile on her face as she flew through the air.

Her strength was that powerful, but she had cultivated her own cultivation method diligently. She easily matched his speed, and even began to overtake him. He raced forward, and she followed steadily in his wake.

The martial artists of the Spirit Transformation Realm had formed a procession behind her and kept pace.

The beast seemed less than a hundred miles away from them. Suddenly, in one swift motion, it wound up like a coil and sprang into the air with an agility that belied its size. Zen thought that it must have crossed at least ten miles with that leap alone. Such was the beast’s immensity and power. Though the party continued to flee, they all looked back when they heard a low and terrible rumbling. As the earth groaned, they saw the great animal rear one of its heads up and then smashed it down from the height of tens of thousands of feet. Their breath caught in their throats. Then, without warning, the winds parted and the monstrous head raced down towards them, its numerous eyes gleaming.

The air trembled with a sound like thunder, as the first head of the Formless Sky Python, vast as a mountain, fell from the sky.

Zen’s face froze in shock and the Princess Royal began to panic. The warriors of the Spirit Transformation Realm turned white with fear.

“Run! It’s coming down!”

“Burn the blood essence!”

“No, it’s too late! We can’t escape this!” Faster than they could believe, the giant head came rushing down.

Its massive shadow created a canopy of darkness over the land. If they wanted to survive, they all knew they had to run out from under that shadow as fast as they could.

Zen suddenly heard the Princess Royal draw a deep breath. He turned and saw her heave in and out as the oil-paper umbrella in her hands began to spin, emitting a faint glow. By now, it was pulling her forward as she sprinted. She flew with blistering speed, overtaking Zen in a heartbeat.

His fear returned, however, when he once again saw the beast’s head.

“Only four thousand feet above us now,” he breathed. He looked back at the horizon and surmised that there must be at least another twenty miles until they were all out of the shadow, and safe from being crushed by the Formless Sky Python’s head.

“Twenty miles is nothing at this speed,” he said to himself. The wind howled and the sky seemed to crack like a whip. As Zen glanced up towards the noise, he suddenly realized that he was wrong.

The great beast’s head was rushing down even faster than before! It was now closing in on him! Even at his speed, he wouldn’t be fast enough to escape.

He despaired, and wondered if he was fated to meet his end here in the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land. He had never thought that he would be swallowed up by an enormous beast right after he landed in this world.

He felt helpless, but he also wouldn’t accept it. He couldn’t believe that this would be the end.

Before his journey into the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land, he had prepared thoroughly.

He had even thought to use the fairy palace as his refuge!

He would have used the token of the mountain to drill into the fairy palace if he encountered great trouble or danger, and inside he would be safe.

The head of the Celestial Position race, however, had told him that he could not flee the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land in this way!

In other universes or in the divine land, Zen could have easily entered the fairy palace through the space node created by the token of mountain whenever he wished.

Be that as it might, it was apparently one of the cardinal rules of the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land that no one was to use any unnatural methods, like portals or space treasures, to leave there.

Zen, confused by this law, asked for an explanation. The head of the Celestial Position race had thus told him that while building a space node and hiding inside of it was an extremely rare feat in the universe, it was commonly practiced in the divine land.

Great heroes and talents from various universes and divine land could enter the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land in this way. Divine as it was, there were still rules that had to be followed here.

If everyone from the divine land were to bring a space treasure to enter the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land and use it whenever they encountered any danger, the significance of the existence of the Divine Refinement Forbidden Land would disappear…

The crack of thunder brought him out of his reverie.

Zen’s strength was at its limit, and he was running faster than he ever had before, but the Formless Sky Python’s head was falling ever closer.

He kept his eyes focused on the edge of the shadow, calculating the distance left…

“Only six or seven more miles,” he said.

‘I probably would’ve escaped by now if I haven’t turned to slash at the Princess Royal earlier, ‘ he thought to himself.

The Formless Sky Python’s mouth stretched open, and the sight within chilled Zen to his core. It reminded him of a hollow tube of bamboo, with sickly spikes spiraling from its lips all the way to the depths of its stomach. It was a staircase to hell. Nothing less.

At such a close distance, Zen could smell the deathly aura that emanated from the beast’s belly. It smelled of rage, blood, and death. He wanted to vomit even as he ran.