Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: The Fierce Assault

"Roar!"

A sound like a dragon's roar echoed from afar. The dense forest outside Cold Creek Valley shook violently, and row upon row of massive trees collapsed with a thunderous crash; clearly, some colossal creature was tearing through the mountains and woods toward them. The ground trembled slightly, causing loose stones to jump and rattle against the defensive walls.

Ji Hao and the others stood atop the ramparts, staring in shock at the three totem battle flags.

"Those stinking snakes from the Black Water Mystic Snake Clan, how could they possibly show up here?" Ji Ku roared in fury. "According to the reports from Golden Crow Ridge, our clan has pushed the front line thousands of miles into their territory, forcing them into constant retreat. How could they possibly spare troops to attack Cold Creek Valley?"

"Grandpa, I've grown weary of Jiang Bo and Ji Shu." Ji Hao toyed with the token Man Man had shoved into his hand and said coldly, "Let's finish off Ji Shu and have my father reinstated as the War Chief of the Fire Crow Clan. Otherwise..."

Ji Xia dealt a heavy blow to the back of Ji Hao's head. "You brat, otherwise what? Ji Shu became the War Chief of the Fire Crow Clan according to the laws of the ancestral spirits! What are you blathering about? What does the enemy outside have to do with him?"

Ji Hao continued to fiddle with the token, speaking calmly, "Father, in your heart, do you truly believe it has nothing to do with him?"

Ji Xia fell silent, and Ji Ku said nothing, both staring at the three totem flags suspended above the forest. Their expressions turned incredibly grim. Especially when the token in Ji Hao’s hand, representing Man Man’s identity, occasionally emitted a faint red glow, causing their faces to twitch involuntarily.

The power within that token alone was enough to slay a Great Witch.

And the person that token represented—what a gargantuan existence she was. Never mind the Fire Crow Clan; even a hundred or a thousand Bi Fang Clans could not withstand a single dismissive word from her. Given Man Man's temper and her friendship with Ji Hao, if Ji Hao were to make a request, the Bi Fang Clan would be absolutely annihilated.

"Damn it!" Ji Ku suddenly let out a frustrated roar, though it was unclear whether he was cursing Ji Shu or the enemies in the forest.

*Crack, crack!* The sounds were incessant. Soon, a one-horned water turtle, its shell spanning some hundred feet across and covered in sharp, jagged spikes, smashed through several large trees and crawled out of the forest.

This water turtle possessed a formidable aura; its vitality surged powerfully. With every step of its four hooves, the earth shook. Massive amounts of water vapor gathered toward it, gradually condensing into a thick layer of ice armor upon its shell.

*Whoosh, whoosh!* Wind whistled from the forest as two more water turtles of the same size emerged. They stirred up a freezing gale, turning the standing water on the ground into thick ice, which spread in a pale blue sheet toward the walls of Cold Creek Valley.

On the ramparts, the fire jade marrow embedded in the walls glowed intensely, and a multitude of runes erupted with blinding flames. The freezing wind and ice unleashed by the three giant turtles slammed into the walls, creating a jarring, explosive clamor.

The powers of fire and ice clashed frantically upon the ramparts. Without a doubt, the ice held the advantage of the season; the rain falling from the sky froze instantly in the biting wind, turning into thumb-sized hailstones that pounded the walls densely, sending sparks flying and rapidly consuming the fire energy within the jade marrow.

"A battle of attrition? Have the mine slaves speed up the extraction!" Ji Xia stood with his arms crossed, laughing proudly. "Cold Creek Valley may lack many things, but we have all the fire jade marrow we could ever want. As for a battle of attrition, I don't believe their long-range expeditionary forces are better supplied than we are!"

Ji Ying acknowledged the order, a flare of fire erupting from his back as he vanished in a blur of afterimages, rushing toward the mine shafts deep in the valley.

Ji Hao couldn't help but chuckle. Ji Xia was right; if it were purely a test of endurance, with the support of the massive vein beneath Cold Creek Valley, these defensive walls would become a nightmare for any enemy.

After the three water turtles had spewed freezing air for nearly an hour, they retreated, panting.

Qing Ying, who had been standing silently at the side, let out a piercing whistle. The Qing Yi clan warriors behind him simultaneously drew their longbows. Poison-tipped arrows, like a sudden downpour, tore through the curtain of rain and whistled toward the three giant turtles.

The turtles retracted their limbs, heads, and tails into their ice-covered shells. The arrows struck them, scattering only shards of ice without causing the slightest injury.

*Hiss, hiss!* The sounds were constant. A vast expanse of trees in the forest swayed, and accompanied by the faint scraping of scales against the earth, two giant patterned water pythons slowly slithered out.

Even though Ji Hao had seen countless bizarre creatures in the Southern Wasteland and was no stranger to giant beasts, he couldn't help but gasp in shock at the sight of these two vicious monsters.

"What do they eat to grow like that? How much do they consume in a single meal?" Ji Hao’s hair stood on end, and goosebumps broke out across his skin. It wasn't fear, but an instinctive, visceral reaction to life forms that defied common sense.

These two patterned water pythons were covered in green and brown spots. A single head was as large as one of the three giant water turtles on the ground, and their bodies were incredibly long and thick. They had already slithered over a thousand feet out of the forest, yet there was still no end in sight to their trailing lengths.

The two giant pythons drifted lazily toward Cold Creek Valley and slowly raised their front halves. Suddenly, it was as if two pillars supporting the heavens had risen before the ramparts. Their bodies, over two thousand feet tall, swayed slightly before slamming down toward the walls with savage, unbridled force.

"The Water Python Clan has joined the fray, too." Ji Ku gave a dry, mirthless laugh. "Hao, you might have been right... The great pythons of the Water Python Clan are always this earth-shaking wherever they go. They are very far from our Fire Crow Clan; how could it be possible that no one noticed them on their long journey here?"

As the giant pythons crashed down, countless tree roots the thickness of water vats pierced through the ground, weaving into a vast net spanning several miles to meet the oncoming serpents.

The pythons' bodies slammed heavily into the roots. Dozens of roots shattered, and the net groaned with terrifying, explosive cracks, seemingly on the verge of giving way. The raw strength of the two giant pythons was horrifying to the extreme. They didn't seem skilled in any innate supernatural abilities or spells, but relying solely on their massive bulk and terrifying power, their combat prowess was already astonishing.

Inside Cold Creek Valley, two ten-thousand-year-old tree demons—who had been invited by the Old Tree Monster to help, seduced by Ji Hao’s fine wine, and bound by Qing Fu’s secret contract—roared in fury. Their eyes wide, ghostly fire flickering in their green sockets, the roots they thrust up from the ground grew instantly from the thickness of a water vat to nearly thirty feet in diameter.

The massive roots pierced viciously into the bodies of the two pythons. The roots writhed, madly draining the blood from the serpents.

The two pythons shrieked in agony, their massive bodies collapsing to the ground, thrashing and convulsing. Countless roots bound them tightly; wherever they rolled, more roots crazily extended to ensnare them.

From the forest, a massive wave of cold mist erupted once more. This time, twelve giant one-horned mystic snakes, each over a thousand feet long, slithered out.

Standing atop the head of each one-horned mystic snake was a powerful, inscrutable Great Witch of the Black Water Mystic Snake Clan.