But Wei Zhao was in no hurry. Only when the vortex was about to strike him did he flicker aside, once again slipping past it with perfect composure—so smoothly that Duanmu Yu could not even tell how he had mustered the force.

"True qi propulsion?" The primordial spirit gave a startled exclamation. By now it no longer needed to transmit its voice through divine sense; instead it spoke directly through that grotesque, hideous serpent head: "To be able to use true qi propulsion to move about so freely already—you are the quickest-witted human I have ever seen. But to think you can save your life with such a little trick, that is far too naive."

As it spoke, the mass of primordial spirit suddenly churned again, and then, one on either side of its bizarre serpent head, two more equally hideous serpent heads burst forth. The only difference was their color: the head in the center was black, while the two newly grown ones were crimson.

"A three-headed monster?" Wei Zhao was slightly taken aback. If the opponent's primordial spirit had remained a shapeless mass of mist from first to last, it would have been very hard for him to determine its race—just like that ghost creature, which year in and year out showed itself only as black mist. Had it not revealed itself, Wei Zhao would never have known it was in fact an Azure Dragon.

But now the opponent had condensed part of its primordial spirit into a body, and that changed everything. A primordial spirit body could only be shaped in the likeness of the true body, without the slightest alteration, or else it would become unstable. In other words, since the opponent could now condense three serpent heads, its true body must likewise have three serpent heads.

The opponent gave no answer. All three serpent heads opened their mouths at once, each spitting out a slender vortex, and the three spirals wove across one another as they closed in on Wei Zhao.

At the sight, Wei Zhao bared his teeth in a grimace. Thank goodness he had absorbed the divine-sense energy of the star-ink coal for a while; his condition had recovered somewhat. He was still far from his peak, but at least he had regained some capacity for movement—otherwise those three vortices would certainly have cost him his life.

Facing the interwoven encirclement of three vortices, Wei Zhao's movements seemed positively ghostly. His strides were tiny, yet he changed direction with astonishing speed, and always forced his course to shift in ways that should have been impossible, so abrupt that they seemed utterly jarring.

Dodging and weaving, Wei Zhao narrowly but successfully evaded all three vortices, and the sight left Duanmu Yu's heart pounding in her throat. She was more nervous at that moment than Wei Zhao himself. If she asked herself honestly—were she the one facing such an attack, she would already be dead beyond any doubt.

"Oh? You can dodge even that? Impressive!" The primordial spirit grew all the more astonished and suspicious.

"A trifle," Wei Zhao said with a faint smile. True qi propulsion was a technique most people avoided, because it consumed true qi so heavily, yet to him it was ordinary fare—he used it whenever the occasion arose, which was why he wielded it so adeptly. His fine control in every direction was quite polished; otherwise, that last move would have been a close call indeed.

"Interesting!" The primordial spirit was now thoroughly intrigued. The whereabouts of the divine consciousness grass root was set aside for the moment, and it went on with relish: "From the look of you, you seem to be taking it easy. I was only bored to death and meant to amuse myself with you, but now I've changed my mind—I'm going to have a proper game with you. Rest assured, it's rare to come across such an entertaining toy; I won't kill you off so quickly."

As it spoke, the primordial spirit churned once more, and two more pitch-black serpent heads sprouted on either side. In an instant it had become a five-headed serpent monster!

Oh, hell! Wei Zhao's face darkened at the sight. He immediately regretted his little display of bravado. There was a saying: when there's no need, don't show off—show off, and you'll get struck by lightning. The old proverb was not one bit wrong!

No more talk. The five serpent heads spat out a vortex in unison, and the only means Wei Zhao had at his disposal now was true qi propulsion; the Butterfly Microstep and the like were utterly useless here—this was underwater, not dry land.

On dry land, with Wei Zhao's madman speed, he could shake off any opponent in a matter of minutes—unless the opponent was a colossus-realm expert. Of course, that was a moot point: the top experts of the Primordial Alliance were only Nascent Soul old monsters, so where would a colossus-realm expert even come from?

But now he was underwater, and true qi propulsion alone simply could not build up speed; it could only be used for dodging and weaving.

The five vortices interwove until they felt almost densely packed, the gaps left between them now minuscule. Even Wei Zhao was hard-pressed this time, dodging in utter disarray—yet fortunately he managed to escape with his life in the end, barely scraping through the ordeal.

"You actually dodged it? You're quite the expert!" The primordial spirit looked at Wei Zhao as though it had discovered a new continent.

Five serpent heads, ten eyes—even with Wei Zhao's mental fortitude, being stared at like that made his scalp crawl. He could only brace himself and reply, "You flatter me."

"Don't mention it. Now try this." As it spoke, the primordial spirit grew two more crimson serpent heads—three black and four crimson, seven serpent heads in all!

Off to the side, Duanmu Yu was struck dumb with amazement. Seven serpent heads—just what kind of monster was this?

Wei Zhao was left speechless. One wouldn't do, so it brought out three; three wouldn't do, so it brought out five; and now it had conjured seven. Was there no end to this?

All seven serpent heads opened their mouths at once, and without another word each spat out a vortex. The seven vortices layered over one another until it was no longer a question of how large the gaps were—they had woven themselves into a veritable spider's web. Unless Wei Zhao could break through head-on, true qi propulsion alone would never let him escape unscathed, no matter how long he kept it up.

The seven vortices sheared through in an instant, and the place where Wei Zhao had been standing was suddenly empty—he had vanished completely.

Duanmu Yu's jaw dropped. Surely he hadn't been ground to dust by those vortices, not even a scrap left?

But the very next moment she spotted a mass of primordial spirit on the other side—only this one was far smaller than the seven-headed serpent monster, and it gave off a much clearer, gentler impression, one that felt strangely familiar to her. Duanmu Yu understood at once: wasn't this Wei Zhao's primordial spirit?

There was no help for it. Since he could not dodge no matter what, Wei Zhao had no choice but to resort to this last measure. The opponent's vortices looked terrifyingly powerful, but they had no effect whatsoever on a primordial spirit.

"You're a primordial spirit too?" The seven-headed serpent monster was clearly astonished. With every sentence it spoke, each of its serpent heads repeated the words in unison, and the sound was very much like the wailing of an infant—even Wei Zhao, now in primordial spirit form, found his head swelling unbearably, to say nothing of Duanmu Yu.

"You only just noticed? A bit slow on the uptake, aren't you? I'd like to ask you one thing—just what are you, exactly?" Wei Zhao countered. He had heard of the nine-headed serpent, but never a seven-headed one; and strictly speaking, the thing before him was no serpent at all—at most its heads merely resembled a serpent's somewhat. (To be continued.)