Consort Dan dodged left and leaped right, darting in every direction, yet no matter how fast she moved, she still could not break free of the encirclement formed by the three enormous pythons.
These three colossal serpents radiated an aura of primordial antiquity. Using their mighty dharma bodies, they had deployed an impenetrable Coiled Serpent Formation.
"Hmph, little girl, face your fate!" Zhao Mang grinned with satisfaction, everything proceeding exactly as he'd planned. A skilled hunter always derived the greatest pleasure from watching his prey struggle before him.
It was a feeling of unparalleled psychological gratification.
This was precisely Zhao Mang's mood at that moment—watching a stunningly beautiful female cultivator reduced to a wretched state before his overwhelming power.
Consort Dan repeatedly channeled the divine light blades of the peacock plumes. However, her cultivation was ultimately limited, and the power she could unleash was correspondingly meager.
Though her peacock plume blades struck faster than lightning, hitting their mark again and again in rapid succession, the three giant pythons possessed thick hides and rough flesh. When they assumed their dharma bodies, they were further protected by a formidable layer of hardened exterior skin. As a result, although Consort Dan's blade light could carve deep gashes into their bodies, it failed to inflict any truly crippling damage.
The wounds were not deep enough. Blood sprayed in every direction, yet these injuries posed no mortal threat whatsoever to the three pythons.
Consort Dan's heart sank with quiet alarm. A true disciple of a first-rate sect was proving to be genuinely troublesome.
Though she had received many protective treasures from the Peacock Emperor, her shallow cultivation and lack of real combat experience meant she could not draw upon all of them at once.
Therefore, once the peacock plume blades encountered resistance, Consort Dan's situation immediately turned dire.
Worst of all, the three pythons, their bloodlust now fully aroused, grew increasingly savage as they thrashed and twisted through the void, their menacing pressure intensifying with every passing moment.
Consort Dan relied on the spatial techniques opened by the peacock plume blades to barely hold her ground. But the three pythons were clearly employing a strategy of systematic encroachment—carving away her domain bit by bit and steadily compressing the space in which she could maneuver.
If this continued, even if the pythons never managed to constrict her directly, she would simply be worn to exhaustion.
Zhao Mang watched Consort Dan scramble desperately under his assault, barely keeping herself together, and his spirits soared. The sight of such a beautiful female cultivator being toyed with in the palm of his hand fed his most primal vanity to the fullest.
"Senior Brother, you are magnificent—she's about to collapse!" Lu Yi chimed in from the side, once again flattering without restraint.
Consort Dan's trump cards were not limited to these few peacock plumes. The others, however, were mostly reserved for emergency use, and deploying them would inflict a certain degree of harm upon her own body.
Though besieged by the three pythons, she still possessed powerful Void Escape Talismans in her possession. If she forced her way out, the pythons' pressure—formidable as it was—might not necessarily be enough to hold her.
After all, when the Peacock Emperor had given her the Void Escape Talismans, he had told her plainly that so long as she did not encounter a powerful Emperor-realm expert, no one would be able to restrict the talismans' power.
In other words, the talismans were of an exceedingly high grade. Zhao Mang, though formidable, clearly did not even qualify as a Monarch-realm powerhouse, let alone an Emperor.
If Consort Dan wished to leave, she could simply leave.
But Consort Dan was still worried about the mortal women waiting below.
Beads of perspiration lined her smooth forehead. The three pythons churned through the void like titanic dragons wrestling in a vast ocean, generating terrifying waves of oppressive force that shook her until she could barely keep herself under control.
"I can't keep hesitating." Consort Dan recognized the vast gulf between her combat strength and Zhao Mang's, and understood that the time had come to make a ruthless choice.
Not running meant staying behind to die with those mortal women — and she might not even get a clean death. This Zhao Mang would surely be the same as that Qin Shisan; before killing her, who knew what kind of unspeakable torments she would be subjected to.
Consort Dan was not afraid of death, but the moment she imagined what would happen if she fell into their hands, she dared not think any further.
"Heavenly River Palace..." Consort Dan seared the name into her memory. "As long as the green hills remain, there's no fear of running out of firewood. This Heavenly River Palace — this lady will remember it."
At this thought, she reached out and seized a void escape talisman in her hand, ready to activate it.
Once Consort Dan activated her escape talisman, she could vanish without a trace in an instant.
Consort Dan formed a hand seal to channel her energy into the talisman. At that very moment, a bolt of lightning-like radiance tore through the void and arrived in the blink of an eye.
Consort Dan's hand jerked back as though she had been electrocuted, and the escape talisman dropped straight from her grasp.
This sudden turn of events left Consort Dan utterly shocked. She had no idea where the attack had come from — it had knocked the escape talisman out of her hand in one swift motion.
"Zhao Mang, you are a grave disappointment to your master. A single female cultivator at the mid-stage of the Saint Realm, and you can't handle her?" The voice was sinister, rolling in from somewhere deep within the void.
The voice sounded like grinding metal, extremely grating to the ear, making anyone who heard it feel deeply unsettled.
But the moment Zhao Mang and Lu Yi heard that voice, they jolted with alarm and blurted out: "Master!"
The clouds in the sky were violently torn apart, and cascading streams of divine radiance and precious light descended from above. Within one beam of sacred light, a bald-headed elder in a rough hemp robe descended from the clouds, waving a cattail fan in one hand and barefoot.
This was none other than Elder Qiu of the Heavenly River Palace — while his standing within the palace was not at the very peak, he wielded considerable influence.