The cobra had already stopped moving, but that didn’t stop the giant tortoise. It closed the distance and lowered its massive head down like the boom of a crane. Its giant beak tore into the snake’s burned flesh. Like a bird with a worm, it was effortless for the massive monster to snip the rope-like creature into smaller chunks. It rooted around among the remains for a few moments and then let out an angry bugling noise again. It stomped its foot down upon the burned up corpse and then turned its attention to its surroundings.

The rampage it had gone on during that short conflict had utterly devastated the land around it for many miles. Quite a few of Sage’s enemies had been killed in that ferocious confrontation, but many more of them had merely fled. They were happy to watch the giant cobra get destroyed, but from the looks of things the giant tortoise was not satisfied. In a continuation of the events from earlier, the tortoise began to unleash hell once again. Flames spewed from its mouth, molten boulders were launched from its back and burning smoke rushed out in every direction.

The flames from its mouth were so hot they melted stone, sweeping back and forth in front of it, the heat dug channels into the flat plains. The burning smoke it released in every direction dried up the short grass and then ignited it. After just a few minutes the vegetation for miles around had been burned away to leave only a charred wasteland behind. Luckily, they had already left the forest or it would likely have started a blaze of unimaginable size. Earlier, it had only been attacking occasionally, and it was in something of a wet season, so the fires it started burned out on their own after a short while. It also helped that it had been mostly releasing huge molten boulders, their impact with the ground created a powerful shockwave that blasted away the surrounding vegetation.

Now, it was a veritable fountain of flame, spewing heat in every direction and clearing the land for a dozen miles in every direction. Only after it had completely restructured the ground and land did it finally stop on its rampage. Then it stopped and started pushing around rock and dirt on the ground with its huge legs, like it was digging itself a den.

Dozens of miles away, a trio of Nascent Souls were having a meeting. They stood side by side, looking into the distance at the rampaging mountain sized monster. There was a serious woman with Yincha on her chest, a swordsman with a piercing gaze, and a man dressed in black from head to toe, with a mask over his face. They had also taken a moment to glance over at two other women standing nearby, one of them quite well muscled and holding a white staff, while the other seemed quite old for a cultivator, with visible wrinkles on her face and a bone staff in her hand.

“That monster was never part of the agreement, Hei Bai. Tell me why I shouldn’t just cut my losses and finish you off?”

The Swordsman spoke quite bluntly, his right hand moving across his waist to the sword hanging on his left hip. The old woman’s eyes smouldered with fury, but she bowed her head to the man, “Forgive me, I had no idea that fool would somehow stumble upon the Living Disaster. Nobody has seen it for 80 years, and the records from that time never said where it ran off to.”

She paused then to lift her head again and smile at the man, “Before you kill me, you should know that Lang Sheng isn’t dead yet. He’s far too hard to kill for a dumb tortoise to finish him off. Just look at it rampaging like that. It knows that Lang Sheng isn’t dead, why else would it be so mad?”

“As for us, we’re even better off. We know he’s still alive,” Hei Bai spoke again, with measured slowness to build some suspense, “Isn’t that right, Whitestaff?”

The woman to her side nodded, though she looked at Hei Bai with distaste, “The vile woman is correct. Lang Sheng is also a Nascent Soul. While his body may be destroyed, I can still feel his soul nearby.”

The masked man held up his hand, “We’re also Nascent Souls, no need to elaborate. Don’t waste any more time, where is he? We need to deal with him before he can recover his strength. A Nascent Soul can only survive for a short time out in the open without a body. He’ll have to shelter in a cave or another dark yin heavy area. He’ll be much easier to box in and eliminate that way.”

Hei Bai spoke up again, this time with vicious fervor, “You cannot destroy him! I am going to torture him for a hundred years, and make him into a Vengeful Spirit. He’s already forced me to expend two Vengeful Spirits, so he’s going to replace them!”

The three Nascent Soul’s glared at her and the old woman suddenly realized who she was speaking to. Her vicious glee made her forget her decorum. She shrank backwards and lowered her head, “Forgive me. He killed me, and…”

The serious looking woman stepped forward and patted the top of Hei Bai’s head like she was a child, despite the woman looking like she was in her thirties versus the necromancer looking like she was in her sixties.

“Alright, settle down. We understand your difficulties. The Artful Life Alliance agreed to participate in this mission, and we aren’t going to give up with only a small sliver of the spoils. It looks like the Living Disaster is digging in. With luck, it will take a break and we can send someone in to sift through the remains of that cobra. We don’t know what the tortoise was looking for, so there’s still a decent chance of valuables being left behind.”

Then she looked over at the masked man, who nodded his head, “I’ll send someone when the time comes. Don’t worry about it.”

“Just so long as you know we’ll be watching. Don’t try to keep it all to yourself.”

The Swordsman interrupted again, showing none of the deference that Hei Bai did. The two of them were at the same Rank, and he had the backing of the Yincha woman on his side. Even so, he was careful not to be arrogant, the Fu Clan was no pushover. Even if they had him outnumbered, the fact remained that the Fu Clan was a First Rate Power while the Artful Life Alliance was only Second Rate. They were two of the strongest members of the Artful Life Alliance, and only one Nascent Soul from their alliance wasn’t here. They were also leaders of individual groups that were part of the alliance. On the other hand, the Fu Clansman in front of them was the weakest of the Nascent Souls in the Fu Clan, dispatched to handle the ‘minor’ errand of finishing off the Lang Clan. The Fu Clan was far less interested in treasure and far more interested in weakening their longtime rival, the Chong Clan.

Even so, he didn’t wish to commit too many resources to this. Just like at Lionheart Town, he was happy to hold the perimeter and keep his people as much out of danger as was possible. He was already quite upset at how many of them had died to the Living Disaster, and wanted to finish the job as quickly as possible now to prevent more losses. Seeing how fervent the others were, he figured that this Lang Sheng really must have quite a few treasures. He eventually gave in, “Fine. You’ll get the boy’s soul, but only if you can capture it. Know this: we will be ready and waiting. If he slips through your fingers again, he’s dead. Got it?”

Hei Bai bowed her head, “Yes, Sir.”

Her eyes were faced towards the ground and a fire burned in them, a ghostly red skull appeared on one of them for an instant before fading away again.