Only an idiot wouldn’t realize at this point that the giant wasn’t actually the leader of the Flares that had been issuing commands earlier. Sage laid low, staying still as if he was still gravely injured and trying to conserve energy. Thankfully, he had a powerful healing ability. While it was no longer at the level where he could regrow his limbs and organs; cuts, bruises, shattered bones, and other sorts of injuries would only take him time and energy to recover from. The punches from the giant had caused quite a bit of damage to his muscles and internal organs, one of them had even burst. That damage was not going to be easy to repair, but the horrible condition of his charred and blackened flesh and scales was merely superficial. From the outside, he looked like he’d just climb out of a giant fire pit or grill and was only minutes away from death.

The huge giant hoisted itself back onto its feet and started stomping towards Sage once again. The huge flame floating in the air followed along behind the giant and Sage realized it was no simple psychic attack. That isn’t just a fire!

He didn’t have any extra time to contemplate the matter as the enemy was barreling down on him. Sage was forced to stop devoting so much Qi and Spirit Power to battling the atmosphere and the transforming energy inside his body. He pushed everything he had into a counterattack. Dumping all of his Qi into the special pathways that powered his healing ability, his wounds healed at a visible rate, focused into repairing his meridians and muscles to their peak. All of his Spirit Power was necessary to pull a huge sphere of Qi out of his Dantian. Collecting many motes of energy out of that swirling nebula surrounding his Inner World, Sage brought them forth and sent them to his head.

The Blacksilver King had already been destroyed by that fire attack, so Sage’s body was bereft of the two layers of armor he’d used before. Instead he could only fall back upon the fighting technique that he had developed with Ruanfu’s help. The huge sphere of Qi had been sent to Sage’s head, flooding his meridians till they nearly burst from the overload. Then his head shook to the side and his neck followed suit. As he did, the mass of energy started traveling down his body. Like a rippling wave both his physical body and Qi traveled downwards, moving from his head down to his tail.

From the outside the huge cobra body waved its head to the side and its whole body did a smooth body ripple. In slow motion, it might even have seemed like it was doing a dance, but in actuality the ripple motion started slow, but by the time it reached halfway down the cobra’s body it was too fast for a normal human to even see. The wave of force traveling down the tail that had now been flung towards the approaching giant. The tip of the tail reached the speed of sound and there was a crack in the air, but that wasn’t the end of the attack. Even after hitting such extreme speed it continued to accelerate, the tip of the tail a whip cracking in the face of the giant. Qi shot into the air and reacted with the outside energy of the heavens and earth, causing a thunderous detonation and instantly reversing the giant’s advance.

As if shot from a cannon the giant was hurled backwards, smashing through a few of the Sacred Banyans on his way and skidding across the ground before falling into the perimeter trench like he’d been kicked into a ditch.

It wasn’t nice for Sage either, as the tip of his tail was blown clear off. It had become a full foot shorter and was now a bloody stump. He’d forced far too much energy into the technique that it had caused significant damage to himself. ‘Wave Combustion’. That was the name they’d given the technique. It was a combination of the three techniques he’d started training with long ago: Six Dreadful Inferno Finger, Eight Jointed Leg, and the Ghost Vortex Spear. The motion of energy inside the body was inspired by the Ghost Vortex Spear and Eight Jointed Leg, moving to one extremity and then all the way to another building up momentum along the way. The Ghost Vortex Spear was the internal energy inspiration while the Eight Jointed Leg was an influence to combine it with an external motion and sync them together. Lastly, the Six Dreadful Inferno Finger was a method to permanently detonate Qi to cause great destruction. Combining it with the other two moves, Sage found a way to throw it out of the body and get extra power from the external energy. It had a lengthy build-up, but depending on how much energy was used it was very formidable.

With light use, it was quite safe to use, but it could also be pushed to dangerous extremes. Causing not only physical damage, but lasting damage to one’s cultivation. Sage hadn’t pushed it to the point of damaging his cultivation, but he’d sacrificed the tip of his tail to deliver a blow past his normal limits. Yet, that was only the start of his problems. With all his Spirit Power devoted to controlling the technique and his Qi being used to attack, that transformative energy in his body was free to run wild.

To make things worse, he was in the middle of healing his wounds and with the mutation power running rampant it latched onto the damaged flesh and led the reconstruction in a different direction. The burnt scales started falling off his body in many places. Around his neck, long thick yellow hairs grew in great numbers, yet not enough to form fur. Instead of a majestic mane, it looked like the furry body of a bee around his collar. The formerly streamlined length of his serpent body shifted in proportion, suddenly narrowing just below his head and two thirds of the way down his body. Just like that the smooth snake form had a neck and ‘waist’ that made him look like a fat tailed legless gecko or lizard. Then a pair of stubby limbs popped out of what would be his newly formed shoulders. The stubby arms had no hands or paws on them, instead looking like featherless bird wings. An arm with just a little fleshy point. The rest of his scales sloughed right off and revealed moist segmented skin like that of an earthworm. Last, but not least, the sinister cobra head and hood were warped. The hood transformed into the fat throat and mouth of a huge toad and the head transformed into something an insect would have. With huge multi-faceted eyes and huge mandibles instead of a mouth.

With the rampant transformations, the Foresight technique was forcibly ended. The transformative power continued to charge through his body, yet that was only the beginning of his problems. As he dealt with the rapid changes, the giant flame soared towards him. While he may have sent the giant flying, the huge ball of flame was not slowed in the least. It just zipped to the side and dodged the giant’s body and continued towards him. Sage’s body was still recovering from the attack and he was trying to use his Spirit Power to rein in the mutation energy again. He threw all of his Qi into the world and reached out for the Law of Poison. Before his body was completely transformed he focused the Poison Law into his Poison Dantian and started unleashing virulent poisons towards the incoming flame.

First, a black glob. The Third Eye’s End, it did nothing against the flame that had no physical body or brain to be melted. It was just a test to see whether the fire was an illusion, but no luck.

Next, a spray of green liquid. The Greenrose Venom. There was a reaction, but it was only the flames instantly destroying the poisonous liquid.

After that, a spinning vortex of thick white vapor. The Paradise Nightmare that was used to give the Black White Army a headache. Despite the huge volume, it was helpless as well. The huge flame flared up to double its size and the sudden pressure change blasted away the thick vapor.

The flame was already upon him, and he didn’t have much time left. Despite no longer having fangs to release venom, Sage sunk the pointy tips of his mandibles into the oncoming flames and released the venom from his throat, trying to soak it into the open wounds he made. His final resort was the ‘Soul Peeler’, the upgraded form of the Twin Ringed Soul Serpent’s original venom. It attacked the Spiritual Sea, weakening Spirit Power. Since Spirit Power was used to shield the soul, it weakened the defenses of a soul and paved the way for the Twin Soul.

When the Soul Peeler splashed onto the flames there was finally a result. The flames sizzled and crackled, twisting into a misshapen and extremely ugly face. A face that let out an agonized scream that came from all directions at once. The same voice that had spoken with such conceit earlier. The leader!

Then before Sage could think any further, the giant flame disappeared.