57 Big Crab

When the fog hit his body, Darkscale felt immediately its corrosive power against the thin layer of silver energy that covered his body.

'So weak'

The corrosion power was way weaker than what he thought it would be. Probably he would be completely fine even without using his cultivation base to protect himself. However, the snake kept the silver layer up, not wanting to give more information about himself to the couple that was guiding him and Star Leaf deep inside the lake.

He looked at the violet snake and Winter Leaf, and noticed that they both were examining the silver light around his body.

"That's actually Ghost Energy." stated with surprise Devassa.

Darkscale didn't have any reaction outside his body, but he immediately thought about what Spike told him about energy levels. Maybe it was better if he stopped using Ghost Energy when he wasn't sure that he would be able to win a battle. He still had his Blood Energy, even if the quantity was way less than the Ghost.

"The Heavenly Battleground Technique may allow you to use Ghost Energy, but in the end, forming a cultivation base with the technique is only possible if you have some level of affinity with it... that's quite interesting. There are few bloodlines that have a Supreme Affinity..." continued the snake, with grey light shining in her eyes.

Winter Leaf gave cold hrmph and the vermilion energy around her body expanded slightly. She did try to consume other types of Battleground Energy, but the only one that she could digest was Blood Energy. Even if it was considered a Major Element, it was quite far from the powerful Ghost Energy.

Star Leaf's eyes widened for a moment when she heard the words of the violet serpent, as her nimble mind connected the dots in the speech that the cultivator just gave. A prideful smile appeared on her face. Her silver energy seemed to be a bigger deal than what she thought.

"I wouldn't be so happy about that if I were in you." said Devassa, immediately breaking the green haired youth's confidence. Her eyes shined with grey energy, looking with a vacant gaze at the space between the human and the black snake. "The probability that both of you have a Supreme Affinity is less than zero." she revealed, as her eyes returned to their violet color.

"How do you know?" asked Darkscale, without showing any curiosity at all. He seemed bored, asking only because there was nothing better to do. In reality, the snake was quite interested in the matter.

"The dual-link between you two is a high ranked dual cultivation method that is allowing you both to use the affinity of the other." explained Derassa.

The smile on Star Leaf's lips dimmed. For a moment she was surprised by the fact that the beast shrouded in grey did know of the blue link, but then she remembered something and gave a long look to Winter Leaf. The black haired girl was there when it happened.

There was no doubt that Darkscale was able to use the silver energy even before they were linked by the Blue Sage. This meant that she probably was using his affinity! Her expression worsened when she realized that if she could only use that element because of the link, she would lose her ability to absorb ghost energy if the link between her and the serpent was broken. Although they were doing fine now, what would happen if Darkscale decided to go separate ways after they entered the Heavenly Reptile Sect?

'She's trying to sow discord. Don't fall for her tricks.' reminded her the calm voice of the black reptile echoing in her head.

"What is your affinity?" he then asked trying to change the subject of conversation, looking at those violet eyes that were just a few shades from being completely identical to his.

"Why should I tell you?" answered Devassa with an amused expression. "Just because we are helping each other now does not mean that we will become friends." she revealed, not trying at all to hide her real thoughts. "The exact contrary is more probable" she continued. " We will probably fight against each other soon" she revealed, not beating around the bush.

"I would be a fool giving you information about myself"

The black reptile was quite surprised by the honesty that Devassa kept showing. In the beginning, he thought that it was refreshing. She reminded him of himself a year ago, incapable of planning ahead.

However now he felt that there was a difference between the old him and the violet cultivator. She wasn't honest because of her lack of experience. She was honest for the sake of being honest. It seemed like it was something important for her.

This was quite a difference.

"You seem very confident that you can beat me" said calmly Darkscale, silver energy sparking from his mouth.

"I'm not" admitted Devassa. "But lying is the commandment of the weak" she continued, as her energy poured into the boat, making it go faster.

The violet serpent looked at Darkscale, immediately noticing the amused expression that flashed for a moment in his eyes. He hid it fast, but not fast enough.

"I would expect nothing less from someone who has chosen to walk the Path of Greed." there was no contempt in her voice, but she also made Darkscale feel very weird. It was almost as she was preaching to him.

The serpent had already seen something like that on the sacred holidays of the tribe, coming from the Forest Will's Priests.

'Master Darkscale don't listen to this ignoramus, the Devil Path is the greatest Path!" Exclaimed a strangely tense Carelia in the black reptile head.

"Hmm?" The violet serpent seemed to notice something, her eyes moving towards the simple ring on Star Leaf's hand. She only glanced at it for a second, but Darkscale was paying attention to every move of the creature and didn't miss it.

'She's able to sense Carelia's secret messages? That's quite s good perception..." thought the black snake. Although he could do the same, it was only because she knew of the existence of the MAID and had experimented for months, after he gave the ring to Star Leaf.

"Foolish?" Ignoring Carelia, like he always did, he looked at the serpent sitting at the other end of the boat and tried to understand why she thought that his Devil Path was worthless. He did know little about the other Path of Cultivation, but from what he gathered it was way better than the Immortal Path.

"Robbing isn't the right way to acquire strength. The Devil Path is a tragedy filled with greedy and foolish cultivators that think that they can handle what billions of souls couldn't" said Daressa, moving her gaze outside of the boat.

Se looked at the calm yellow waters lost in her own thoughts for a while, then suddenly her gaze changed. The grey energy mantle that surrounded her trembled lightly and it began to expand.

Darkscale's eyes narrowed, he could feel the hidden killing intent on the aura of the violet serpent. He also began to summon more energy. The gloomy Ghost armor that he wore doubled in volume, as silver light swirled around him whispering in thousand voices.

His expression didn't change, but internally he was stunned: he didn't get what the other serpent was doing. His experience told him that she was clearly readying herself to fight, but his rational part told him that it wasn't possible that she brought him all over there only to fight.

A tense silence formed inside the boat, with even the Leaf girls understanding that something was going to happen soon and beginning to summon their respective cultivation bases.

"In the end, they are all consumed by the Devil." declared Daressa breaking the tense silence after a while and pointing with her tail towards a direction in the waters. "Becoming something like that"

'?' Darkscale launched a whisp of energy towards the direction she was showing, still keeping his guard up from the beast cultivator shrouded in grey.

His energy probe fell into the poisonous waters, voyaging towards the bottom of the lake for few dozen meters, and immediately finding something. 'Oh' His eyes lit up with understanding, while his energy probe dispersed itself.

His eyes moved to a certain location, waiting. After a couple of seconds, a roar thundered in the air, as a giant crab-like creature emerged from the Yellow Lake and pounced on the little boat.

It a large black body with six long blue legs, and three sets of devious looking jaws and countless little black eyes. A foul odor came out from its maws, an odor of death and rotting corpses that made the creature even more terrifying.

Both Star Leaf and Winter Leaf moved back in shock while the two serpents simply watched the creature approach in cold blood. The violet snake seemed to be lost in her thought, while the black one looked directly towards the creature without revealing the minimum emotion.

"D?!" Screamed Star Leaf, rotating her cultivation base and looking towards the silent serpent next to her. She was terrorized. Although now she had a level of strength that far surpassed common mortals, she had never been trained to fight nor did she knew how to manage a situation like this.

When it was just a couple of meters from their boat, the two snakes darted from their position moving with insane velocity. They both stroke the creature with precision and great violence.

The crab was covered with a thick exoskeleton, normally capable of even blocking the attacks of even the strongest hunting party from the local villages. However, that ultimate defense that he trusted so much to protect itself when hunting, couldn't do anything to save the creature from the might of the two serpent cultivators.

The crab wailed in fury as its big body was severed in three big chunks. Green blood exploded everywhere, flowing down and mixing with the toxic waters changing their color to a light green.

The corpse began immediately to sink deep into the Yellow Lake. In just a couple minutes, it was gone completely. The only thing that remained visible was a small blue boat surrounded by yellow fog.

Daressa's voice echoed slowly amongst the mist while the ship started moving towards north again. "Lobha, a mindless incarnation of greed."