A single flap of his wings had the same effect as teleportation. He reached the snake’s head in an instant.

Red runes congregated on his arms and coalesced into strange patterns, exponentially increasing his strength.

And before the snake could react, his arm shot forward and punctured its eye:

Kyaaaak!

A screech was emitted from the snake’s mouth. If previously, it was simply toying with him, it was now genuinely angry.

With its mouth already gaping from its scream, a blast of murky green liquid sprayed from its throat and covered Damien, who was too close to dodge.

The liquid corroded his scales and tried to get through his defenses, but the runes on his body changed shape and caused his scales to become harder than diamonds.

Damien flapped his wings again. When he reappeared, he was inside the snake’s mouth. The poison that sprayed from it covered him like gel as he stood directly in its trajectory, and as it piled up, it was starting to corrode even his heightened defense.

But he didn’t care. He came for a single purpose only. He reached up and grabbed one of the two domineering fangs within the snake’s mouth.

Then, he ripped it out with all his strength. When it didn’t budge with physical strength alone, he distorted space around it and crushed the snake’s jaws to help him.

SKREEE!

The snake screamed in pain. Gaseous red mana mixed into the poison that covered Damien’s body.

BOOM!

The red mana mixed with the poison and exploded. As more red mana stuck to Damien’s body, a chain of explosions rang out.

But even with this, Damien didn’t let go of the tooth.

Roar!

A dragon roar left his mouth. His scales cracked under the pressure of the explosions and the poison made its way into his body. But he didn’t loosen his grip.

Space distorted to the point of collapse. The snake’s gums were being fused and bound in awkward patterns as this happened, and its grip on the tooth lessened.

And suddenly…

BOOM!

Another explosion rang out as more red mana influenced the poisonous liquid, but this time, Damien’s body was propelled out of the snake’s mouth by the shockwave.

Along with something else.

A large snake fang was in his grasp. Looking at his war trophy, he grinned.

“Damn snake! Try and chase me now!”

There was a reason he aimed for the snake’s fang. When it was dislodged, copious amounts of blood spilled into the snake’s mouth and flooded its throat, blocking the poisonous liquid from spewing.

Of course, his main reason is want just this. It was extremely faint, to the point where he only noticed it once he entered the snake’s mouth, but there were definitely spatial fluctuations leaking from the fang.

If this wasn’t a hint, he didn’t know what was. And besides gaining something that’d most likely help him reach the peak, he had also gained time while the snake coped with the injury he caused.

It had been 10 seconds since he transformed.

He merged with space and flapped his wings, doubling his speed. With two flaps, he had already passed the snake.

And he didn’t look back.

He continued along the path the snake was blocking until he could no longer sense it with his physical senses.

And once another 5 seconds had passed, he undid his transformation.

“AGH!”

Immediately, searing pain spread through his body. Although he only used it for half of the total time limit, his stamina was still plenty exhausted.

And as his scales and body runes faded, the poison that had leaked into his body began acting far more furiously than it had before.

His regeneration worked overtime to heal his internal injuries. His organs were a mess because of his recklessness.

While that was happening, he clenched his teeth and endured the pain, mobilizing his Void Essence to cleanse the poison in his body.

Previously, Void Essence couldn’t cleanse physical poisons. But that was when it was being used passively by the Void Physique.

Now, he had gotten much closer to his Void Physique. He could personally influence the actions of the Void Essence it gave him access to.

So, cleansing physical poisons also became possible to an extent.

‘Is it not chasing me?’

Damien concentrated his awareness on the direction he just fled from, but unexpectedly, he didn’t see the snake at all.

At first, he panicked thinking it followed him, but as he carefully sensed his surroundings, he realized that it wasn’t anywhere nearby at all.

‘Did it leave? Well, whatever. Doesn’t matter to me anyway.’

He inwardly smiled as he thought about the fang he stole from it. Besides it’s practical use, he is as also keeping it as a memento of his achievement.

The fight was short and could barely even be called a fight. He simply acted recklessly to buy himself a chance at escape.

And it didn’t even seem like the snake was fighting back at full power either.

But nonetheless, he had achieved victory over a foe far stronger than him, and he’d happily take pride in that.

His wounds slowly healed and the poison inside his body was also extracted with time. He took out a jade bottle and stored the poison in his subspace alongside the poison he had gotten from those Eclipsing Shadow Sect assassins a year ago.

And many hours later, he had returned to peak condition. Without hesitation, he took out the snake fang and injected his mana into it.

‘Back to work. I have no time to waste.’

***

Far away from where Damien was, a man emerged from the shadows. He had jet-black hair and red eyes, his face holding a devilish sense of handsomeness.

Suddenly, the man grinned. One of his canines was missing.

“I know you said that someone interesting had come, but I didn’t expect it to be so much of an understatement!”

He rubbed the space where his missing tooth used to be. A small trail of blood was still there.

“Tsk, tsk. To think he even stole a fang of mine. He could’ve activated the spatial formation by just pouring his mana into it. Tch, if that old fogey didn’t prohibit me from killing anyone, he’d be dead 10 times over by now.”

The man spoke sarcastically to himself, his smile never fading.

“Even if I went easy on him, that wasn’t the kind of power that someone at his level could overcome within a few seconds. That form of his…truly impressive! Oi, old bastard! Are you going to make me talk to myself like this forever?!”

The Primordial Undying Tree smirks. It says that you were already a crazy person to begin with, so this isn’t anything new.

“Tch. Damn old guy, only talking through transmissions like this. When are you going to come out of your hole?”

The Primordial Undying Tree sighs. It says that the time hasn’t come yet.

“And when the time comes? It’ll be too late by then.”

The Primordial Undying Tree says it can only place its hope in the younger generation.

“And if the younger generation can’t make it that far?”

…

“Haa…I get it, I get it. You have it tough, old friend.”

The black-haired man cracked his neck. Gaseous red mana coagulated in his mouth, soon forming into a tooth that replaced the one he was missing.

“In any case, my job ends here. As for what happens after, it’s none of my business.”

The man’s form changed. His human body disappeared, replaced by that of a massive black snake.

Within a clearing somewhere in the Primordial Undying Realm, that snake closed his eyes and entered a long slumber. One that he expected to last for another 10,000 years.