Shadow Serpent

"If we keep flying this way, we'll have to pass through the Beast Range. It divides the continent in half and is home to most of the continent's most powerful beasts, excluding those from the Frozen Abyss."

"Hmm," he replied, not paying much attention.

He had seen countless beasts since he began wandering the Frozen Abyss, and he felt no fear of them. In fact, he liked them and found them interesting.

"Hey, I know you're strong, but you can't act like you're the most powerful person in the world. There are many dangerous and unknown things in this world. If you continue like this, you'll die soon," Li Yuemei said, irritated by how carefree he was.

'Tsk, why am I caring about this bastard?' She thought as she kept quiet and closed her eyes.

They flew for days until they reached a dense forest that, looking further ahead, led to endless, towering mountains.

A massive range of tall mountains, in some places, loud roars were occasionally heard, while giant beasts flew around on other mountains.

"We arrived faster than I thought—only two weeks. Now we have to cross the range; it's extremely large, and it will take a long time to pass. However, it will be faster than going around it like everyone else does," Li Yuemei said.

"Hmm." He just nodded and began flying towards the mountains.

Then he flew over the mountains, releasing his cold aura, and because of that, the beasts dared not approach. After reaching a high mountain, Li Yuemei said,

"Look there, there's a cave. Let's stop there for a while."

"Huh? Why?" He said that, thinking there was no reason to stop.

"What 'huh'? Don't you want to learn to read? When do you want that to happen? Let's start now."

'Hehe, if I stay here for a while under the excuse of teaching him, I'll be able to cultivate and break through to the Lord's realm. The Qi from the Beast Range will be very helpful.'

'Besides, if other beasts come to bother us, I'll have more blood for cultivation.'

Li Yuemei thought happily in her mind.

He saw the strange smile on her face and realized she had other reasons, but he didn't care. If she taught him to read, that would be fine.

"All right, we'll stay here for a while until you teach me to read, and I also want to know more about this world. You'll tell me everything important," he said, wanting to learn more about everything and thinking it would be easier to destroy the Dream Tower if he knew the world properly.

"Hmm, okay."

He then flew with her in his arms to the cave that Li Yuemei had pointed out.

Once they arrived, he put Li Yuemei on the ground, and they realized the cave was much larger than they thought.

The cave was completely dark, and it seemed empty, but as they went deeper into the cave,

A feeling of being watched began, and Li Yuemei felt it and approached him while touching his arm.

"Hey, there's something strange in this cave," she said, trying to find something in the darkness but unable to see anything.

Then she looked at his face and saw him looking up.

She did the same, and her face instantly filled with horror.

On the ceiling of the enormous, all-black cave, two red eyes were wide open, watching them with immense killing intent.

She then realized why the cave was so dark. All the walls she thought were the cave's walls were, in fact…

"It's a Shadow Serpent," Li Yuemei said with her voice trembling slightly.

As soon as she finished speaking, the enormous snake attacked with immense speed.

He noticed the attack, and then a thick ice wall appeared in front of them.

The huge snake struck its teeth against the ice, breaking half of it, while its fangs began to freeze. Still, a dark aura emerged from its fangs, rapidly thawing them.

It then lunged to attack again.

Li Yuemei was surprised and soon realized.

"It's a Shadow Serpent of the Emperor realm; be careful," she said, running behind him.

He then released his icy aura, and the whole cave began to freeze, but an immense dark Qi energy emerged from the snake's body, preventing the aura from freezing its body.

The young man looked surprised by this; he thought anything would be frozen with just that, but this serpent was still fine.

Then an even colder aura came out of his body.

And thousands of extremely pure ice arrows quickly formed, using the surrounding ice Qi, and then quickly flew towards the snake's entire body.

The snake's dark protection was constantly being destroyed until its defense couldn't hold up anymore, and the ice arrows pierced its body completely, leaving it full of holes.

The snake's body fell to the ground without any signs of life.

Then the two were silent for a while.

Li Yuemei came to his side and said, "I don't know how your power works, but I feel like the fight was more difficult than it should have been. That beast from the King realm died without doing anything just because it didn't react in time to being frozen, but against this Emperor realm serpent…"

"It seems like you don't know how to use your ability and the limits of your strength," Li Yuemei said after observing the fight.

"It seems like you know nothing besides creating and controlling ice."

"What do you know about cultivation?" Li Yuemei asked him.

"Only the names of the realms and the basics my mother taught my sister," he answered honestly.

"So how are you so strong? You never cultivated? You never thought about how to use your strength or where it comes from?" She asked in shock.

"No, I just know that I can control ice as far back as I remember."

Li Yuemei looked at him in silence while thinking.

"Hey, can you tell me how you were trapped in the frozen abyss? And how did you live before that? I want to know more about you, so I can understand what exactly is happening to you," Li Yuemei asked, not knowing if he would reveal his origin to a practically stranger.

But contrary to what she thought after finishing her question, he simply responded,

"Okay."