After death, Kende's body immediately expanded, restoring its colossal serpent form spanning tens of thousands of meters.
A wisp of ethereal true spirit suddenly emerged, as if ready to answer the call of the Astral Plane and become an eternal floating island.
"Leaving so soon?"
Leilin sneered as terrifying power sealed off the surroundings. Dark crimson chains lashed out and bound the other's true spirit, funneling it into the black crystal orb in Leilin's hand.
"The soul of a fifth-level powerhouse — the primary ingredient for a fifth-level beast spirit!" Leilin murmured, tucking the crystal orb away. Immediately, torrents of blood cascaded from the serpent's body, coalescing into glistening blood-red crystals that settled into Leilin's palm.
"The raw materials for the Dream Mark are collected as well!"
Leilin approached the colossal corpse of the Devil White Phosphorus Snake. With most of its blood drawn off, the carcass looked somewhat shrunken, yet it remained as massive as a mountain.
"Store!" A flash of spatial distortion, and the enormous serpent corpse vanished. This was the body of a fifth-level great serpent — even without its blood, it held tremendous value.
"Now then — you lot are next!"
Leilin swept his gaze across the crowd. The White Devil nobles — who had watched Leilin effortlessly slaughter their clan leader and now found themselves poisoned by the Drunken Serpent Flower — were utterly despondent.
"Your bloodline power is far too impure — what a disappointment!"
Leilin's hands flashed repeatedly, conjuring blood-red blades of light that beheaded the great white phosphorus snakes collapsed on the ground one after another, harvesting their materials. Only Belinda and a handful of the other hybrids were left.
Leilin then set up a massive grey sacrificial witch circle to collect the remaining materials he had no use for.
"Chirp chirp!"
An ethereal shadow of a great grey bird materialized, and waves of grey flame engulfed and absorbed the offerings.
"You've done well! Not only did you slay an avatar of the Mother of Ten Thousand Snakes, but you've also offered a great number of her bloodline descendants as sacrifice. I am most pleased!"
A massive torrent of Chaos Power descended. Had Leilin so desired, he could have elevated his Sacrificer rank to the fifth level at any moment — but Leilin had no intention of doing so.
After all, beyond the fourth level, one had to constantly receive the Supreme's mark branded upon one's body — something Leilin found utterly unacceptable.
Therefore, he chose to gather all of the Chaos Power and compress it into crystals for storage.
After that, Leilin charged into their mansion and stripped it of every treasure and document before finally leaving with satisfaction.
……
"It's over? So that powerhouse was actually a believer of the Filthy Bird! His Sacrificer rank must have been fifth level or above…"
Long after Leilin had departed, Belinda finally struggled to her feet and gazed upon the ruined expanse of the White River Valley.
Only a handful of half-breeds remained alive, and thanks to her earlier traps and the Intoxicating Serpent Blossoms, they had been reduced to having not a shred of combat strength — utterly helpless and at the mercy of whoever pleased.
When they saw Belinda's gaze sweep toward them, these people immediately displayed looks of desperate pleading.
"Heh… the family!"
Belinda shook her head. Though her revenge was complete, she somehow felt that something was missing.
In low spirits, she rose and walked away. Just then, at the entrance to the valley, she spotted two people who gave her quite a surprise.
"What are you two doing here? This is reckless!"
"Sister!" Sophia cried out, throwing herself into Belinda's arms.
"Nick and I were so worried about you! Sister… wu wu wu…" Sophia's eyes reddened on the spot, and Belinda, even as she comforted Sophia, shot a fierce glare toward Leilin.
"Heh heh…" Watching the two sisters embrace, Leilin simply chuckled and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
He had long since retracted his shadow puppets without anyone noticing. With his strength, concealing his actions from a bunch of fourth- and fifth-level powerhouses was child's play — let alone pulling a few tricks in front of a young girl.
"So? Has everything been taken care of?"
"Everything's handled!" Belinda cast one final glance back at the now-devastated White River Valley, then patted Sophia on the head. "Let's go. We never need to come back here again."
"Mm! Okay!" Sophia agreed, her face lit up with excitement — it was clear that her memories of this place had been anything but pleasant.
……
Across the undulating grasslands, enormous serpent trails could be seen from time to time, along with massive shed skins and scales scattered here and there.