It happened in less than a second.

Yu and Lin took a moment to celebrate between themselves, happy that another obstacle in their path had been erased. Yu Xiang was messing up his feline companion’s hairdo while Lin Fen was pretending to fight back against his long time friend’s weaving hand.

But something in the air changed, the atmosphere shifted. The sound of pebbles skipping across the ground reached the young reincarnator’s ears.

There shouldn’t be anyone else here. Realized the young cultivator as a sinking sensation bloomed in the pit of his stomach.

With a decisive movement, Yu Xiang lifted his hand from his friend’s scalp and grabbed him by the back of his robe before he threw him behind him with as much power as he could muster in that fraction of a second.

Lin Fen let out a sharp yelp of surprise as he flew towards the room’s opposite end, and from his place in the air, he got a perfect view of what happened next.

An enormous shadow was cast over Yu Xiang as a monstrous beast seemed to appear almost out of thin air right above him. Gleaming alabaster scales covered the slimy skin of the biggest snake either cultivator had ever seen, its bulk had grown thicker than that of an adult bull, its jaws opened wide enough to swallow both of them whole and its beady eyes locked on to the green eyed cultivator’s form with seething malice.

Furthermore, Yu Xiang got a far too close view of the spiritual beast’s two overgrown fangs as it snapped its mandibles on either side of his body, almost skewering him on its natural weapons if not for an instinctual contortion of his body.

Unfortunately for Yu that movement still left him inside the jaws’ radius, which meant that the young cultivator had to prevent the overgrown reptile from eating him whole with nothing but the strength of his upper body.

Yu Xiang cursed under his breath as his arms tensed and trembled, the monstrous force behind the snake’s bite enough to make his limbs ache in pain.

The young cultivator already knew, even before the beast’s aura crashed against his own a moment later, that this giant snake stood at a higher cultivation stage than his own.

The beast’s spiritual presence was erratic and hard to read, which was a good sign since that more than likely meant that its control over its spiritual energy was rather poor, but from what he could glean from it Yu Xiang was willing to bet that it was somewhere around the peak of the second stage of the Constitutional Realm or in the early reaches of the third stage.

Spiritual beasts were different from humans and beastfolk cultivators. While during the vast majority of the Natal Realm humans stood supreme in the food chain this status became far more contested once one entered the Constitutional Realm.

Most of the direct improvements gained with normal cultivation in this realm were harnessed by the body as it refined itself further and further to act as a vessel for the power one would accumulate as he kept climbing the Realms.

Obviously, a cultivator’s body would keep improving even after one ascended past this Realm, but the caliber of every consequent gain would be dictated by the quality of the body refinement that took place in the Constitutional Realm.

Now, this is where the difference between humans and spiritual beasts was found.

To be completely frank, the quality of the body refinement performed by a spiritual beast was vastly superior.

No matter if it was brute strength, sheer toughness, stamina, or resilience, a spiritual beast would more than likely surpass even a genius cultivator in some or all of these, and likely more, respects.

To this day, as far as the young reincarnator was aware at least, nobody yet knew why exactly this was the case.

Yu had read some scrolls on the topic in preparation for his own breakthrough, and most of the researchers had come to the conclusion that there was some inherent difference in the way humans and spiritual beasts cultivated that was to blame for this gap in the capacity for body refinement.

But in the end, all of this only meant one thing.

Yu Xiang was a goner if he didn’t find a way out of the snake’s jaws, and fast.

Fortunately, the green eyed cultivator was not alone in this fight.

A grapeshot of silvery alchemical flames impacted against the spiritual beast’s head, the supernatural conflagration stayed stuck to the monster’s scales and kept burning, which gave Yu Xiang the chance to make his escape.

With an effort of will, Yu gathered his spiritual energy and activated his sole offensive technique.

[Piercing Fulmination]

Instead of gathering the lightning chi into a construct, Yu Xiang let the electricity run loose, watching attentively as it arched across the soft uncovered flesh inside the snake’s mouth.

For a moment the beast’s crushing bite went slack, which was ample enough time for Yu Xiang to use his movement technique to shoot backward out of reach of its fangs.

The white snake was not idle as the young reincarnator made his escape. The beast contorted on itself, bringing its numbed jaws and scorched head away from further harm while sending its long tail forward in a whip like motion.

[Golden Grasp]

Yu activated his technique just in time to parry the beast’s attack, deviating the giant tail over his head and bleeding off most of the force from the hit, although the sharp sting that ran through most of his left arm and side proved just how strong the beast truly was.

Seeing that its attack had mostly failed the spiritual beast decided to create some more distance between itself and the two cultivators, a decision Yu Xiang took full advantage of by sending a volley of lightning darts in its direction.

The green eyed cultivator clicked his tongue in annoyance as he watched the constructs break armlessly against the alabaster scales, showing him that his preferred method of attack was useless in this situation.

As the two cultivators linked back up Lin Fen handed his injured companion a pill. Yu Xiang didn’t even look at it before popping it into his mouth, letting out a grunt of relief as the energy inside started soothing his bruised and battered flesh.

Yu opened and closed his left hand a few times then stretched his arm in different directions to test its condition. Once the pain was mostly gone he nodded at his personal alchemist in thanks, who was too busy studying their enemy to respond.

“It’s at least one stage higher than me. Maybe two.” Said Yu to his companion.

Lin Fen frowned at the news. “At least it doesn’t look like it has any venom. Its fangs were completely dry when it attacked you and they’re still clean now.”

Yu Xiang smiled sardonically at Lin’s words. “Thank the heavens for small miracles, eh?”

Lin Fen snorted derisively in response.

As the two cultivators conversed between themselves and observed the overgrown snake so did it study them back, its forked tongue slipping out of its mouth in a hiss as it tasted the air and the spiritual energy in the room.

A lightning construct came to life in Yu Xiang’s hands, this one not a small electric dart but a long thundering spear that crackled with wild energy. Yu’s eyes narrowed as he kept feeding energy into his technique until it reached then exceeded the normal limits of the skill.

Another version of the skill that he had come up with on his own, the lightning spear kept growing until it had reached the size of a jousting lance, having grown to the point where Yu Xiang needed to use both of his hands to handle it securely.

“Do you perhaps have a plan?” Asked the feline cultivator as he watched his friend charge up his technique to the limit.

Yu Xiang smirked. “Yeah, I do.” He said, then he sent a cheeky smile towards Lin. “But you’ll have to act as bait.”

The young alchemist’s feline ears drooped slightly as he sighed in annoyance. “Why do I always have to be the bait in your plans?” Despite his complaints, the young cultivator readied himself, summoning a crown of alchemical flames that floated above his head.

“Hey, it’s not my fault you always look so appetizing.” Yu fired back, his eyes glued to the slithering beasts who seemed content to wait for them to make the first move. “Alright, enough joking now. Its scales are too strong for my darts to do anything, but your fireballs were able to scorch it.”

Yu moistened his lips as he adjusted his grip on his crackling lance. “Fortunately its insides were a lot less tough, a bit of electricity was enough to freeze it. So I want you to get its attention off of me long enough for me to set up a shot at its mouth.”

The feline cultivator stepped forward, steeling himself for the battle.

“If we get this right I should be able to finish it off in one shot.” Reassured the young reincarnator.

Lin Fen simply nodded in acknowledgment without looking at him, tensing his muscles as he prepared to shoot forward.

The snake spiritual beast, sensing his opponents’ readying themselves uncurled itself in agitation, hissing violently and baring its fangs in a clear threatening show.

Lin Fen shot forward just as the snake’s warning ended, sending out a volley of fireballs to grab its attention.

The first part of their plan succeeded as the giant snake dodged most of the attacks sent its way, but the fire that did hit aggravated it enough to make it lash out against the feline cultivator.

Yu Xiang followed the two fighters, making sure to stay far enough not to grab the snake’s attention.

Lin Fen kept flinging fireballs at the spiritual beast, always keeping himself too far for the snake to retaliate with his own movement technique. The beast kept growing more and more aggravated as every movement it made to try and close the distance between them was stopped by a wall of fireballs.

The green eyed cultivator eyed the giant snake expectantly as its movements became erratic and it lost itself in a rage induced rampage. The perfect opportunity to finish it presented itself once the beast prepared to lunge forward towards the fleeing alchemist.

It coiled around itself, its entire body tensing for a jump, and its jaws opening fully.

Yu Xiang shot forward at his maximum speed, his lightning lance ready to deliver a killing blow. But the slithering beast was not angry enough to ignore him.

It turned around towards him, sending its tail forward once more. The whip like appendage was thrumming with power as a massive amount of spiritual energy was pushed into it, but Yu Xiang was not going to back down.

He changed his stance, shifted his hold over his lance into a reverse grip, and launched his technique forward in a chi powered throw.

The technique flew towards its target in a flash, barely clipping the spiritual beast’s tail, leaving behind a charred furrow, before it hit home right in the roof of the snake’s mouth.

But it didn’t stop there. It burned through the snake’s flesh and bones, incinerated its brain, then blew a hole through the back of its cranium before it hit one of the impenetrable walls at the end of its trajectory.

Both cultivators stopped immediately as the giant snake fell to the ground in a boneless heap.

“Well, I didn’t expect it to be that powerful…” Commented Yu lamely.

Lin Fen sent him an incredulous glare before he palmed his face in exasperation. The young reincarnator could do nothing but smile sheepishly.

After they'd calmed down it was but a matter of minutes to dismantle the beast's remains, taking everything that still held spiritual energy. Fortunately, Lin Fen always kept some pouches on him.

In the end, they made their way out of the puzzle hall carrying one of the snake's fangs, its beast core, and a patch of skin covered in pure white scales that Yu Xiang was considering giving to a crafter to turn into some light armor.

The phantom pain coming from his left side was a good reminder that a cultivator never had enough ways to keep himself from getting killed.

The duo was making their way up at a good pace until they noticed something. A breeze was blowing in from in front of them, which could only mean one thing.

They had finally reached the top of the mountain.

The two cultivators looked at each other briefly before they both shot forward at the same time.

They simply could not wait to finally exit these accursed tunnels.