Walking on Winged Serpent Lake

Three Blackjaguars galloped across the wilderness.

“Young master.” Qiuye couldn’t hold back any longer. “That child of Jiang He bears a deep hatred for you. If you let him grow up, he might bring you harm in the future.”

Ji Ning glanced at the distant Mo Wu.

Qiuye hurriedly continued: “It’s not that Mo Wu told me—I know you’re unhappy, but after thinking it over, I had to speak.”

Ji Ning sighed. “The one I hate is Jiang He. I have no grudge against his child. When I take revenge, why should I bring disaster upon his son?”

“But when tribes go to war, they usually root out any potential threat…” Qiuye wanted to argue.

“I understand.” Ji Ning nodded. “For the survival of a tribe, any means are justifiable. But can a single childish youth affect my Ji Clan? My Ji Clan rules this land; we have executed countless people, and there are untold numbers who secretly hate us. What the Ji Clan relies on to rule is not avoiding offense, but our own strength!”

Qiuye seemed to be lost in thought.

“Even if you never offend anyone, if you are weak, others will still destroy you.” Ji Ning said calmly. “But if you are strong, those enemies may grit their teeth in private yet still act respectfully on the surface. After a hundred years, even their descendants will truly submit to my Ji Clan in their hearts.”

“And for a cultivator, cultivation is about the heart.” Ji Ning continued. “The heart unites with Heaven! Unity of Man and Heaven. The heart comprehends the Dao, and grasps the True Meaning of the Dao.”

Ji Ning understood deeply: a cultivator must follow his true heart. The clearer and more transparent his heart, the faster his progress in cultivation.

“To act against my true heart—first it brings me suffering, and second it will cause my cultivation to stagnate or even regress.” Ji Ning shook his head. “I, Ji Ning, when I decide to kill someone, I will only kill that one person. I will not harm his wife or children. This is my true heart!”

In his past life, tormented by illness, Ji Ning had always been lonely. A lonely person who spends time alone learns to think. The more he thinks, the more he either becomes a madman or sees through his own heart and becomes wise. Ji Ning had seen through his own heart, allowing him to become open-minded and calm. In his present life, without seeing through his own heart, how could he have had the willpower to train bitterly every single day?

Qiuye and Mo Wu exchanged glances.

True heart?

They didn’t understand.

“Enough.” Seeing their expressions, Ji Ning shook his head. “Don’t think about it. We’re going to Winged Serpent Lake.”

“Young master, aren’t we going to the Blacktooth tribe? You said earlier… you wanted to take care of Chuncao’s younger brother?” Qiuye asked.

“No rush.” Ji Ning shook his head. “I’ll go to Winged Serpent Lake first, kill that great demon Winged Serpent, and then go to the Blacktooth tribe. The root of all this calamity is the Winged Serpent. Two of Chuncao’s younger brothers died at its hands. I’ll use the death of the Winged Serpent to comfort Chuncao’s spirit, and then bring her remaining brother to the Western Prefecture city.”

“Let’s go.”

Ji Ning lightly tapped the Blackjaguar’s belly, and the beast immediately sped up and galloped forward.

Qiuye and Mo Wu followed, heading toward Winged Serpent Lake.

…

They traveled by day and rested at night. Even with the Blackjaguar’s speed across mountains and wilds, it took them over three days to reach the vicinity of Winged Serpent Lake.

“Greetings, young master!”

Ten Black Armored Guards knelt on one knee in unison.

Ji Ning, seated on his Blackjaguar, glanced at them and nodded, then gave his orders: “Mo Wu, Qiuye, wait for me at this outpost for now. Winged Serpent Lake is just a few tens of li ahead. I cannot take you any further. I will approach the lake alone.”

“Yes.” Mo Wu and Qiuye both complied respectfully.

Ji Ning dismounted from the Blackjaguar, then shot forward like a massive bird, leaping into the distance. After just two flashes of his figure, he had vanished from the sight of the ten Black Armored Guards, Mo Wu, and Qiuye. The Black Armored Guards, seeing Ji Ning’s movement technique for the first time, stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

Winged Serpent Lake was now a forbidden zone.

The Ji Clan had stationed dozens of scattered squads, each composed of ten Black Armored Guards, around different directions of the lake to monitor the great demon Winged Serpent from close range.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~” Winged Serpent Lake stretched a hundred li in circumference, so vast that one could not see its end with the naked eye. Even without wind, waves three feet high rose upon such a massive body of water.

Ji Ning stood on the shore, gazing into the distance. He said softly: “This lake is truly unfathomable. Even with my ability to control water, once I enter the depths… my speed would be far inferior to that of the great demon Winged Serpent.”

The deeper one went, the greater the water pressure, and the harder it became to control the water.

A human’s combat power underwater would not even reach ten percent of its original strength, while a water creature could exceed it.

“Although I am strong now, compared to a Xiantian-circular great demon… I am probably only a hair stronger at best.” Ji Ning mused. This was after having cultivated the Windwing Evasion and comprehended the True Meaning of the Dao. After all, the power of the Crimsonbright Diagram of the Nine Heavens at the fourth stage was roughly equivalent to a Fiendgod Body Refiner at the late Xiantian level.

Compared to the Winged Serpent, he was still slightly lacking in raw strength and the like.

Swish!

Ji Ning took a single step and shot a full li forward, walking on the surface of the water as if he were treading on solid ground.

“Winged Serpent!” Ji Ning suddenly shouted with all his might.

“Winged Serpent!” “Winged Serpent!” “Winged Serpent!”… The sound rolled like thunder, spreading swiftly through the air and penetrating the lake water, traveling deep into the lake bed.

Moments later—

Deep in the lake bed, in a winding, secluded nest, the great demon Winged Serpent lay curled up, sleeping, its enormous scaly bone-wings wrapped protectively around its body.

“Winged Serpent!” A voice, transmitted through the water, reached the nest.

The sleeping great demon Winged Serpent suddenly opened its crimson-red eyes.

“What’s going on?” the great demon Winged Serpent let out a low growl. “Go investigate immediately.”

“Yes.”

From outside came the panicked cries of some lesser water demons. Although most humans could not understand the language of these lesser demons, the lesser demons could understand each other.

…

Hidden among the weeds on the shore of Winged Serpent Lake were two Black Armored Guards.

“The Winged Serpent?”

“Someone is provoking the Winged Serpent.” The two Black Armored Guards exchanged a look of shock, then stared into the distance. However, they were several tens of li away from Ji Ning and could not see him at all.

“I’ll keep watch here. You go report it.”

More than a dozen Black Armored Guards were stationed along the shores of Winged Serpent Lake, keeping constant vigilance. Among them, three who were nearest to Ji Ning had already spotted his figure. All these Black Armored Guards had been specially transferred from the Western Prefecture city, so they naturally recognized Ji Ning’s identity.

“It’s Young Master Ji Ning.”

“Young Master Ji Ning is provoking the Winged Serpent? But he’s truly impressive—walking on the water just like on solid ground. Just like Lord Ji Yichuan did before!”

“Don’t talk about it. Go report this immediately.”

…

The Black Armored Guards were stunned and quickly began spreading the news back to their respective squads. However, it was easy to imagine that by the time their messages reached the Western Prefecture city, at least a day would have passed.

Ji Ning continued to walk calmly across the vast lake’s surface.

Splash, splash~

The head of a large green prawn and the head of a massive black fish broke the surface, staring into the distance.

“A human youth?” The two lesser demons exchanged a glance.

Splash!

They silently dove back into the deep water and swiftly swam toward the great demon Winged Serpent’s underwater nest.

“Great king! Great king! There’s a human youth on the water’s surface.” The prawn lesser demon and the fish lesser demon both let out low growls.

“A human youth?” The Winged Serpent spread its scaly bone-wings, two crimson-red eyes fixed on the two lesser demons, who shivered and nodded repeatedly.

“But this human youth walks on the water just like that Ji Yichuan did before—his feet don’t sink at all,” the prawn lesser demon quickly said. The fish lesser demon also nodded: “Right, right.”

“Walking on water without sinking?”

The great demon Winged Serpent transformed into black mist on the spot, then condensed back into a black-robed man.

The black-robed man stood there, his narrow eyes full of suspicion. By nature, serpents were suspicious, and having been hunted and ambushed several times by Xiantian-level experts of the Ji Clan, he had long become a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring. Now a human youth who could walk on water appeared to provoke him—how could he not be suspicious?

“Have you ever seen him before?” The black-robed man looked at the two lesser demons.

“No, no. We remember every Xiantian-level expert who has come to Winged Serpent Lake clearly. This human youth is definitely not any of the Xiantian experts we’ve seen before,” the prawn lesser demon quickly said. The fish lesser demon also nodded.

The black-robed man nodded: “I’ll go take a look.”

Swish!

He quietly slipped out of the underwater nest’s passageway. Although moving through water in human form was far slower than in his true form, his true form was so huge that emerging on the surface would cause a significant disturbance and certainly be noticed.

“Who is it?” The black-robed man quickly and stealthily brought his head above the surface, glancing around.

With one look, he spotted a youth dressed in animal hides about a dozen li away. The youth had a delicate, handsome appearance and was walking casually across the water. Around this human youth, the area was completely empty—there were no other human experts.

“It’s him!”

The black-robed man’s narrow eyes instantly erupted with terrifying killing intent.

Murder!

Hatred!

All of it surged into his heart in an instant, causing even the surrounding water surface to tremble.

Ji Ning, sensing something, turned his head and immediately spotted him. Although the great demon Winged Serpent was in human form at this moment, Ji Ning was certain at a glance that this was the great demon Winged Serpent.

“Great demon Winged Serpent!” Ji Ning shouted furiously.

The black-robed man shot Ji Ning a cold, venomous glance, then slowly sank back into the deep water.

“Winged Serpent.” Ji Ning, however, quickly strode across the water, arriving at the spot directly above the submerged demon. He looked down and shouted: “Didn’t you want to kill me? Didn’t you hate me to the bone? Come on, come on… I’m right here, waiting for you to kill me.”

Deep beneath the water.

The black-robed man’s narrow eyes burned with the flames of rage. He truly thirsted to charge up and devour Ji Ning’s flesh and blood right now.

“That crimson serpent—I killed it with my own hands.”

“Haha, I slaughtered it with a single sword strike. So fragile.” The voice from above kept drifting down, needling the great demon Winged Serpent’s inner fury.

The black-robed man’s body trembled slightly as he forcibly suppressed the murderous intent in his heart: “Can’t rush. Can’t rush. Rushing will fall right into the Ji Clan’s trap. The previous agreement between Poison Crane Ridge and the Ji Clan only confined me to Winged Serpent Lake for a hundred years. At most, it prohibits the highest-level Zifu-stage beings on either side from making a move. It didn’t say those Xiantian experts can’t strike at me.”

Humans and great demons fought fiercely against each other.

But there was a taboo boundary: the true leaders of both sides would not make a move to bully the weaker. The Zifu-stage old demon would not act to kill… and the Ji Clan’s Zifu-stage cultivators would not come out to kill either.

After all, Zifu-stage experts were the foundation.

Once Zifu-stage experts began to fight each other, if one fell, it would shake the very roots of the tribe. Neither human nor demon wanted to shake each other’s foundations.

“That Ji Ning’s surroundings are completely empty—no one is there.” The black-robed man’s eyes flickered with a fierce light. “But how could he come to die? His father Ji Yichuan and some other Xiantian experts are probably nearby, hidden by some concealment formation. If I rush out, I’ll likely be surrounded and attacked in an instant.”