Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Sublimation of a Single Punch Please support, bookmark, and recommend.

Unlike the others, Wang Fan, upon seeing the true form of the seven-colored venomous serpent king in the darkness, revealed not a trace of fear. Instead, his eyes blazed with fighting spirit—he longed for battle with this poisonous serpent.

Although his superior spiritual perception warned him that the seven-colored serpent king might be a transcendent creature of the second rank, surpassing the first, Wang Fan did not falter. He was, after all, a practitioner of the Imperial Method, and his cultivation in the first stage—the Sea of Bitterness—had reached its peak. His soul was complete, his body perfected. Wang Fan believed that, as he was now, he possessed the power to contend with a second-rank seven-colored serpent king.

Within the Sea of Bitterness in Wang Fan’s body, endless waves of vital energy surged and roared, like volcanic magma awakening, wildly flooding into his limbs and bones, tempering his body further. Then, Wang Fan employed the Earth Fiend Assassination Technique, strengthening the nails on his hands.

In the blink of an eye, Wang Fan shot forth like a bull charging at a crimson cape, leaving behind twin footprints more than twenty centimeters deep in the earth.

He dashed toward the serpent king. The venomous creature flicked its tongue and quickly locked onto Wang Fan’s position as he approached. Its icy eyes regarded Wang Fan as one would a dead man. With a swift coil, its massive body spiraled upward, and, in the instant Wang Fan drew near, it sprung forth with the force of a compressed spring—its speed astonishing, as if it were hunting its chosen prey. Its gaping maw revealed razor-sharp fangs, exuding a murderous aura.

Had it been an ordinary person, even a tiger or a lion, they would have met instant death from such a sudden strike. But Wang Fan was different. His dynamic vision rivaled that of an eagle; to him, the serpent king’s explosive movement seemed slowed by several times.

With such perception, Wang Fan could rely on his perfected body to react. He swerved in a sharp Z-shaped turn, narrowly evading the serpent king’s lethal blow. As he turned, he brought his arm down—tempered by vital energy and the Earth Fiend Assassination Technique—like a colossal axe cleaving down with terrifying force.

The air itself exploded; the shockwave burst forth, driving toward the serpent’s neck.

Yet, in that very instant, the serpent king’s head twisted in midair, turning like the snake in a classic video game, executing a U-shaped maneuver. Its gaping jaws remained wide, venom poised to be unleashed.

Its aim was now at Wang Fan’s back. The hiss behind him and the chilling threat prickling his spine made Wang Fan give up his attack without hesitation. His deadly hand, poised to strike, fell short of the serpent king. Instead, Wang Fan sidestepped twice, and a gigantic serpent head swept past where he had just stood.

Had Wang Fan not dodged, he might have inflicted grave injury on the serpent king with the Earth Fiend Assassination Technique, but he himself would have suffered a grievous wound in return.

A battle of mutual destruction! To exchange wounds with a venomous serpent—Wang Fan was no fool and would never act so recklessly. In combat, Wang Fan remained calm, his composure unshakable.

After retreating, Wang Fan channeled his energy to his legs and delivered a savage kick to the serpent king’s body. With a pained reaction, the serpent king twisted its tail—thick as three buckets combined—and lashed it at Wang Fan with tremendous force.

As the tail coiled and whipped through the air, it was as if a strongman had swung a massive hammer, the air crackling with the sheer might of the blow.

At last, Wang Fan’s expression shifted—not in fear, but with a cold, mocking smile.

What I fear is your venom, not your tail!

This thought flashed through his mind. An instant later, Wang Fan struck with a heavy punch, meeting the serpent’s tail head-on.

In that punch, Wang Fan unleashed the full power of the Sea of Bitterness. All his strength was focused into a single, transcendent blow, as if a meteor crashed down from the heavens, tearing through the air with a roaring backdraft.

The serpent’s tail, twisted into a hammer-like mass, collided with Wang Fan’s fist. At the moment of impact, the green grass beneath them splintered and cracked, the earth itself forming small craters.

Both Wang Fan and the seven-colored serpent king felt the immense power in each other’s bodies. For the first time, doubt flickered in the serpent king’s eyes—it had never imagined a human could possess such strength. The serpent king had expected its supernatural tail strike to reduce this human to pulp.

The clash lasted less than a second, but in that brief instant, the serpent king’s coiled tail was blasted away by Wang Fan’s sublime punch, sending its seven-meter-long body hurtling through the air. It crashed into a towering tree five or six meters away, a tree that had stood for centuries and nearly snapped in two from the impact.

A few drops of venom, originally meant for Wang Fan’s bloodstream, were coughed from the serpent’s jaws. The pitch-black poison spattered a nearby tree, and in seconds, the once-lush tree underwent a bizarre transformation: its vibrant leaves withered, black spots spread across its trunk, and it became a diseased, dying thing.

Wang Fan’s expression changed. His vigilance heightened—he now understood just how lethal the serpent king’s venom was. For a few drops to wither a centuries-old tree in moments meant that the same poison could cause horrific illness or instant death in a human.

Behind Wang Fan, the watching cultivators were stunned—not by the serpent king’s venom, but by Wang Fan himself. Wang Fan alone could contend with the serpent king!

They had all sensed that the serpent king’s power and vitality were far above their own, yet this terrifying creature had been driven back by Wang Fan alone. The implications were clear.