Wrath

“Save me!”

Drip!

Like a single drop of water falling into a pool of stagnant water, it sent ripples outward.

The girl's despairing cry for help was incredibly weak. It was so weak that it gradually overlapped with a voice from Xia De's memories—the voice of a five-year-old child screaming in the freezing snow all those years ago.

Save me!

Save me!

“Save my mom and dad!”

His body transformed into a flash of lightning. By the time he snapped back to reality, he was already standing in front of the girl, leaving only a deep crater where he had been hiding just moments ago.

Xia De shielded her behind him. Blood mixed with chunks of flesh drenched his hair, trickling down his face and onto his body.

Normally, he would have found this incredibly troublesome and used magic to clean himself up immediately, but this time, he simply remained silent.

Without turning around, Xia De tilted his head slightly. Looking past the girl's tear-stained face, which was twisted in profound terror, he seemed to see that child crying for help in the snow.

With his back to the girl, gentle words flowed from his lips:

“I have heard your plea. Leave the rest to me!”

Turning his head back, he locked his gaze onto the giant serpent, which had just lost one of its heads. An overwhelming chill filled the air as he spoke, his voice laced with suppressed rage.

“It wasn't supposed to be my time to step in, but you just had to trigger some bad memories!”

“Are you ready to offer up your life?”

Hiss!

The Five-Headed Serpent hissed fiercely as it confronted the freezing aura before it. Its heart slowly sank, and a deep, profound terror flashed in its massive serpentine eyes.

It did not understand why its status as the predator had been completely reversed in an instant.

The aura radiating from the youth was like ten-thousand-year-old ice, striking a deep chill into its core. Then, an uncontrollable sense of dread began to well up.

This realization infuriated it. It refused to admit that as a Tier Six beast, the king of beasts in this region, it could actually feel fear!

Boom!

Before it could even react, its dozens-of-meters-long body was sent crashing heavily into the ground ten kilometers away.

Xia De's figure followed closely behind.

“What are you looking at, beast? How dare you get distracted while fighting me!”

Hiss!

The Five-Headed Serpent's raspy roar shook the heavens. It twisted its thick body, whipping it toward Xia De like a massive lash. The shockwave kicked up by its serpentine frame leveled everything in its path, sending trees flying in all directions.

This strike carried all of its strength. With its raw power, such a blow was enough to shatter a mountain!

Yet, the youth merely extended a single arm, and its massive body could not advance another inch.

“Is your strength really this pathetic? Where did all that momentum from earlier go?”

Although the giant serpent was shocked the moment it was blocked, it did not overthink. Its four remaining heads snapped toward Xia De in perfect coordination, opening their hideous maws to tear him to shreds with their razor-sharp, venomous fangs.

“Nothing but a futile effort!”

Facing the incoming snake heads, Xia De showed no fear. Pushing off the ground, he effortlessly dodged the snapping maws and quickly arrived at the junction where the heads met the body.

He grabbed one of the heads and suddenly exerted force with his arm.

Rip!

He tore the massive snake head off by brute force, throwing it aside along with a chunk of the body's flesh.

Hiss!

Hiss!

Hiss!

The agonizing pain sent the giant serpent rolling across the ground. Its thick body writhed in torment like a frayed hemp rope, twisting into bizarre shapes.

Then, the central head, which had been roaring in pain, suddenly whipped around toward Xia De and spat a glob of deep purple venom.

Xia De flickered away, dodging the serpent's sneak attack. The ground struck by the venom instantly turned black, sizzling as corrosive bubbles hissed and popped.

“Alright, this farce is over!”

Looking down at the thrashing serpent, Xia De delivered his final sentence. A faint light gleamed in his eyes as his body slowly drifted upward, eventually hovering directly above the beast.

Several massive magic circles lit up behind him, bursting with a blinding light.

Thunk!

Several massive black spikes erupted from the ground, piercing through the giant serpent's body. Crisscrossing through its flesh, they pinned it firmly to the spot, rendering it completely unable to move.

The giant serpent let out an agonizing roar. It could feel its vitality rapidly draining away as its body slowly began to shrivel up.

Xia De ignored its cries of agony, merely raising his hand and making a light lifting motion toward the serpent on the ground.

With a deafening boom, the patch of land where the giant serpent was pinned detached from the earth, floating up into the sky.

The dislodged earth kicked up a colossal wave of air, sweeping countless creatures up into the high heavens.

A raging storm formed a towering tornado that constantly tore at the giant serpent's flesh. Its hard skin was now as fragile as glass, shattering at the slightest touch and oozing boiling hot blood.

Xia De extended both hands and clapped his palms together.

As if controlled by a pair of invisible hands, the floating mass of earth was molded like a child's toy into a massive sphere. It sealed the giant serpent inside, leaving only a few bleeding, limply hanging heads and some heavily damaged parts of its body exposed.

Black flames manifested out of thin air around the sphere. The giant serpent's heads twitched slightly, attempting to make a sound, but failed. It no longer had the strength to even let out a whimper.

The searing black flames were excruciatingly painful, but what was even more unbearable was the burning sensation on its soul. The agony caused its consciousness to splinter, and the world before its eyes gradually grew blurry.

However, Xia De did not give it much time to think. Prolonging the torture would only make death a release for the beast. Only by dying at the peak of its agony would his wrath be appeased.

The tornado reemerged, fueling the fire. The roaring black flames seemed intent on burning the very sky to ashes. In just a brief moment, everything was devoured by the blazing fire, leaving absolutely nothing behind in the air.

Only after finishing this did Xia De let out a relieved breath. With a complex expression and a hint of helplessness in his heart, he slowly flew back down toward the elven girl.

Although things had developed a bit differently from his initial plan, since he had already intervened, he would just have to make the best of it.

Hopefully, the harvest would meet his expectations.

The moment he touched the ground, a figure suddenly lunged into his arms.

His nerves instantly tensed.

His defensive magic deployed instantly without any cast time, making his body incredibly tough, capable of ignoring both magical and physical attacks.

The girl wept in Xia De's arms. At first, she desperately tried to suppress her voice, letting out only soft, muffled sobs. But gradually, her crying turned into a full-blown wail of relief after surviving a near-death experience.

He did not push the weeping girl away, nor did he take the opportunity to comfort her. He simply let her vent her emotions in his arms.

She must have been terrified!

A trace of sadness flickered in his eyes as he once again recalled his younger self in the snow.

The girl carried a faint floral scent, but her crying was quite unsightly, with tears and snot soaking into Xia De's clothes.

Hey, hey, hey, I didn't bring many spare clothes! Although I can clean them with magic, just thinking about how there was snot here...

Xia De felt a headache coming on.

It seemed he would have to prepare a few more sets of clothes in the future.

After about ten minutes, the girl's crying gradually subsided. She remained quiet, keeping her head buried against Xia De's chest.

“Since you've stopped crying, you can let go of me now, right?”

“Do you have any idea how uncomfortable it is to have snot and tears all over your clothes?”