Hu Jia pressed both palms to her burning cheeks, feeling the heat radiating like smoldering coals. She dared not linger another moment in that suffocating hall of memories. Covering her face, she bolted from the palace like a startled fawn, vanishing in a blur of golden-red silk.
Xiao Jietian appeared at his chamber doorway just in time to catch the sight of her fleeing figure — head lowered, hands shielding her face, disappearing in an instant. He blinked, bewildered.
"What's gotten into Tiger Girl? Did she drown her brain in the bathwater?"
Shaking his head helplessly, his gaze fell to the bundle in his hand — the dress she had left behind, neatly folded yet unmistakably damp. And nestled within… undergarments and leggings, still carrying the faint warmth and fragrance of bathwater.
He sighed softly, at a complete loss for what to do with such an intimate "souvenir."
…
Back in her own palace — one of the many elegant abodes granted to Xiao Jietian's "reserves" within Eternal Heaven Palace — Hu Jia froze mid-step.
She had forgotten everything.
Her clothes, her undergarments… all left carelessly on the edge of his bathtub.
As one fated to eventually enter the "pot," she naturally enjoyed her own residence here. Han Xue had been allocated one as well, though she preferred to cling to Han Yue most days.
Hu Jia stood rooted, torn between mortification and indecision. When she had fled earlier, she had vaguely glimpsed Xiao Jietian's silhouette appearing at the doorway — which was precisely why she had accelerated her escape, desperate to avoid being seen in such a flustered state.
Returning now was utterly impossible.
With a wail of despair, she threw herself onto her bed and yanked the quilt over her head.
"If that rogue sees what's on those clothes…"
The more she imagined it, the hotter her face burned. She wished desperately for a crack in the earth to swallow her whole.
"I'm finished… I'm going to die of shame. He'll definitely laugh me to death later."
"Ahh~ I'm tired. Let everything just… end."
…
Three days later, within the sealed training chamber of Xiao Jietian's palace.
Medusa drew the final wisp of Nine-Colored Heaven-Devouring Python essence into her core. Nine-colored radiance flared to blinding intensity. At the center of her being — in the depths of her heart — a brand-new bloodline took shape: pure, pristine, wholly her own. (Not borrowed from the single drop of essence blood, but birthed from the fusion and her own awakening — a true rebirth of origin.)
The nine-colored light detonated outward.
A towering pillar of prismatic splendor erupted from the palace roof, piercing straight into the heavens. In an instant, the entire Eternal Heaven Palace was bathed in a dreamlike world of nine hues — vibrant, magnificent, otherworldly.
Xiao Jietian, who had been seated cross-legged atop the palace spire, flashed several hundred meters away the moment the beam shattered stone and tile.
He glanced back at the gaping hole in his roof, eye twitching.
"Fine. I'll remember this debt. Double repayment later."
The sudden nine-colored pillar startled countless eyes across Eternal Heaven World. Shock and bewilderment rippled through the population; few understood its meaning.
Xiao Jietian swiftly transmitted orders via messaging stones to Shui Ye, Hai Bodong, and others: maintain order, quell curiosity, allow no one near the palace.
The citizens of Eternal Heaven World all knew their Hall Master — and World Master — resided in Eternal Heaven Palace. No one dared approach to gawk. Instead, speculation spread like wildfire.
"I heard the Hall Master is a Grade 8 Alchemist. Perhaps he's refining a supreme pill. Elder once lectured that an eighth-grade elixir summons colored pill lightning upon success."
"Exactly! I attended that lecture too. Nine colors… could it be nine-colored pill lightning? Our Hall Master is unrivaled!!!"
To prevent illiteracy and ignorance among disciples — many of whom hailed from the resource-poor Northwest Continent — Xiao Jietian had mandated irregular but mandatory study sessions. Knowledge of spirit herbs, treasures, formations, and pill phenomena was compulsory. No one would miss recognizing a heaven-sent opportunity in the future.
Boundless Heaven Hall also maintained a rigorous cultivation curriculum — from body tempering to soul arts, alchemy to array mastery.
At that same moment, in distant Tianbei City, a woman in flowing green robes arrived at the former Han clan compound — now the central stronghold of Boundless Heaven Hall — flanked by two solemn elders.
She presented a token. The guards saluted deeply and escorted the trio inside without delay.
…
Back at Eternal Heaven Palace, the nine-colored pillar shattered into countless radiant motes that rained gently across the sky.
In their place appeared an awe-inspiring colossus.
An eight-hundred-zhang giant python — not yet at the thousand-zhang might of ancient legend, yet already terrifying beyond measure — coiled through the heavens.
Its entire body shimmered with nine resplendent colors: crimson flame, azure sky, violet thunder, emerald forest, golden sun, indigo void, silver moon, scarlet blood, and purest white — each scale the size of a grown man, gleaming like polished divine jade.
The serpent's massive form undulated slowly, every movement exuding an ancient, tyrannical vitality capable of crushing mountain ranges with casual ease.
It threw back its head and roared toward the firmament.
The sound was not mere noise — it was a proclamation of rebirth. Thousands of zhang of surrounding heaven-and-earth qi surged violently toward its gaping maw, devoured in endless torrents.
The moment the true form manifested, Bai Ya and Huo Ling — resting within their exclusive beast palaces in the Divine Hall — felt an overwhelming bloodline suppression. Both divine beasts prostrated themselves instantly, trembling.
Even farther away, across the Snake-People Tribe settlements, every serpent kin dropped to the ground in instinctive submission, scales quivering.
Within Eternal Heaven Palace, Hu Jia and Han Xue — who had been cultivating — rushed to Xiao Jietian's side. They stared upward in stunned silence at the nine-colored colossus that blotted out half the sky.
Han Xue's mouth fell open.
"What a huge… snake!"
She instinctively pressed herself against Xiao Jietian, wrapping arms and legs around him like a frightened child, though her eyes sparkled more with awe than fear.
"Is this… Sister Fei Yan's true form? She could swallow hundreds of me in one bite… Her aura is terrifying!"
Hu Jia, who had already heard of Medusa's planned evolution, stared wide-eyed.
"So this is a Nine-Colored Heaven-Devouring Python…"
Xiao Jietian glanced sidelong at her, lips curving playfully.
"What? Scared now? Weren't you boasting you'd follow her to cultivate?"
"You mean… this is really Sister Fei Yan?" Han Xue swallowed hard, incredulous. "She's so slender and graceful normally… how can her true form be this enormous?"
She tightened her hold on Xiao Jietian, hanging from him like an ornament.
Xiao Jietian looked helplessly at the girl clinging to him. Though she claimed fear, there was no trace of it in her eyes — only sly calculation.
At that moment, the Little Fairy Doctor and Han Yue — who had been handling external affairs for Boundless Heaven Hall — rushed back. Even Qing Lin, Ya Fei, and Yun Yun, roused from seclusion by the heaven-shaking commotion, flashed to his side.
Only Xiao Huiying remained undisturbed; the isolation array Xiao Jietian had prepared for her deep cultivation kept the disturbance sealed away as she continued pressing toward her breakthrough.
The group exchanged glances — first at Han Xue dangling from Xiao Jietian like a koala, then upward at the colossal nine-colored python roaring and devouring qi.
Qing Lin covered her mouth in astonishment.
"What realm has Sister Fei Yan reached now? Her true form is actually this massive?!"
Yun Yun and Ya Fei, unaware of the full details, cast questioning looks toward the others.
When Medusa had been a Dou Zun, her serpent form measured barely two hundred zhang — a far cry from this eight-hundred-zhang behemoth.
The Little Fairy Doctor smiled gently, eyes twinkling with knowing amusement.
"Why don't you count the colors on Fei Yan's body?"