Roots spread over the stone island. Gnarly, twisting things, colored a bright green which stood in contrast with the dark waters below. The roots wrapped around the island surface and dove into the water, from which they absorbed energy. Massive bulges came from the parts steeped in the ocean, then traveled the length of the root backward until they reached the thing in its center.

And what a thing it was. A massive vine, all green and no flowers. Its slender body wrapped tightly around itself, climbing three hundred feet into the sky, made of multiple smaller vines coiling and uncoiling around each other as if strangling something at the very center.

Intense life energy radiated from the vine. Jack had sensed it from a dozen stone islands away—whatever this was, it had to be extremely precious!

“What do you think, bro?” Brock asked. “Worth it?”

“Always,” Jack replied. “The vine itself doesn’t seem sentient. The problem is that guy.”

A huge snake was wrapped around the base of the vine. Its massive scaly body rose and fell with each breath, the snake obviously asleep. They couldn’t see its head, but its body was a hundred feet in width, the same gray color as the stone beneath. If it wasn’t coiled around the green vine, it might as well have been invisible. Even now, Jack could see it with his perception, but he couldn’t detect any energy coming from it.

An ambush predator. A terrifying one. Unlike the tentacle creature they fought before, this snake had solidly stepped into the middle A-Grade.

“This monster is strong enough to rule its own galaxy,” Starhair said. “Yet, here it is, guarding a plant.”

“This place is blown out of proportion,” Jack agreed, slowly standing. “I have no idea why, but I hope to find out. For now, let’s kill this thing.”

“How about you kill it and I watch?” Starhair asked.

“That’s what I meant. Let’s go, Brock!”

The two of them shot out. Water rippled under them. Jack’s body flashed with green and purple, activating the Life Drop Transformation even as the power of the Fist coursed through his body.

Brock glowed, a massive golden brorilla manifesting around him like a monkey buddha. Chanting flowed from its mouth. The words were unintelligible, but as they spread through the air, the sound turned into more brorillas, which gained sentience and rushed to surround the snake.

Its eyes snapped open. Vertical irises split a red gaze as the snake opened its massive mouth to hiss at them. However, at such a small distance, getting caught off-guard was nasty. Jack’s Supernova smashed into the snake’s midsection, bending its entire body—however, its flexibility absorbed the impact. As its mouth snapped open, all air in its body escaping due to Jack’s strike, a host of brorillas flew into it. They started kicking and punching at the snake’s gums, a particular trio wrestling its forked tongue. They were more annoyances than threats—Brock didn’t yet possess the power to harm a middle A-Grade opponent. His brorillas dealt the same damage as a mosquito to a human.

The snake honed its glare on Brock. He wobbled—the massive brorilla phantom around him shuddered, almost dissipating before solidifying its form. An instant of surprise passed through the snake’s gaze before it lunged, fangs open wide to swallow. It snapped them at Brock—and came up short. It couldn’t reach.

Jack was standing on the snake’s body, pinning it to the ground under his immense weight. After fully activating Neuron Star Body, even he didn’t know how much he weighed, but it had to be at least several thousand tons. Given the Dark Canal’s extreme Dao density, which amplified gravity, he was like a mountain range. The snake needed a moment to shake him off—a moment it wouldn’t have.

Jack wasn’t just standing. He’d been charging up a massive strike. A transparent bubble of space spread around his fist, compressing in pulses. The sound spread through the air, an ominous “pong, pong, pong.” As the snake turned back to look, it found the bubble reduced to the size of Jack’s fist, which had long collapsed under the pressure of space. Dark foam was slowly emerging—a power which gave even the snake pause.

Its enormous body whipped up. When it was actually trying, even Jack’s immense weight mattered little. He flew off, but not before completing his strike. “Black Hole!” he screamed, jamming the newborn black hole into the snake’s slithering body. A hissing, melting sound followed.

The strike had burrowed deep, sucking in the snake’s scales, flesh, and blood. Jack glimpsed at a pulsing red interior, every inch of flesh moving independently to avoid the black hole. Green blood shot out. Some of it flew towards Jack, who punched it away. The rest landed on the stone beneath them, corroding it instantly and reaching the ocean below, where endless steam arose.

Brock was lucky the snake’s bite hadn’t landed.

As Jack was retreating at top speed, the black hole reached its limit and exploded. Dark foam escaped in all directions. The snake hissed in pain, the sound almost human, as an entire section of its body disappeared. It was split in two. Even the stone island below them vanished for a mile radius, including part of the vine’s roots.

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Jack grinned at the destruction. This was a hastily made black hole, not one he’d fully charged—yet it had grievously injured a middle A-Grade opponent.

Of course, this mindless snake might possess the powers of a middle A-Grade, but that didn’t make it equivalent to a cultivator of that level. A proper cultivator would possess a vast wealth of battle experience, wisdom, tactics, and strategy. They would optimize their powers to the limit of possibility. For example, they’d never ignore Jack and let him charge up such a powerful strike.

Just as he gloated over the snake’s idiocy, however, Jack realized he’d made a mistake himself: the battle was not over. Intense energy erupted from both halves of the snake. They were both alive. The head part extended to once again lash at Brock, fangs poised to bite down on him. Meanwhile, the snake’s bottom half flew at Jack—green blood shot from its open wound like a geyser, melting anything it touched.

This time, the snake’s head succeeded in reaching Brock. He had little time to react. Sharp fangs wrapped around the golden brorilla, thankfully not wide enough to swallow it. They still pierced into the golden glow. Green liquid poured out, corroding the gold. Brock roared, veins bulging out on his forehead. “Bros, lend me your power!” he shouted.

The many smaller brorillas he’d conjured before turned into rays of golden light which shot into the massive brorilla phantom. Its brightness intensified, yet there was nothing Brock could do to escape. He was grappled, and the snake’s sharp gaze somehow magically rooted him in place. All he could do was defend, and hope the acid never reached him.

He gritted his teeth and held on.

As the snake’s back half fell onto Jack, green blood sprouting from the open wound, he realized they were both in danger.

“Supernova!” he shouted, smashing out a punch. The strike pushed away the acid and burrowed into the beast’s open body, causing massive damage but not slowing it down. It didn’t care. It knew it was already dead—all it wanted now was to take them with it.

Jack’s goal hadn’t been to push the beast away. Facing the charging open wound, all he needed was to repel the acid. He utilized the few instants he earned to warp space, spending a massive amount of energy to teleport out of the way. He reappeared behind it.

The snake’s tail was also enormous, over a hundred feet in width. It wasn’t something a human could grab onto, but Jack was no ordinary human. Arms of the Dao appeared around it. Jack grabbed the space before him, the purple arms mimicking the option. He could feel the massive strength between his hands, the snake struggling to escape. However, he was also strong. His twelve thousand Strength was not for show.

Veins bulged. His muscles went taut, and tendons threatened to rip. Jack ignored all those to grasp firmly onto the snake’s tail and spin his body around, pulling it forcefully through the air. The open wound on the other side spilled acid everywhere. The island was riddled with holes. Half the roots had melted.

“Hah!” Jack shouted. He endured the tension and focused all his power on flinging the snake, sending it flying towards its front half, which had almost penetrated Brock’s defenses. The two halves of the snake reunited in unexpected fashion, wrapping around each other and attacking itself in blind panic. The momentum threw the snake’s head off Brock, letting him escape.

A supernova erupted where the two halves met. A massive explosion followed. An entire half of the stone island collapsed into the water, unable to endure the impact, while the snake’s two halves squirmed and hissed, their energy depleted. They flopped on what remained of the ground, then lay lifeless. The back half sank into the dark waters.

“Thanks,” Brock said, panting on the stone. The massive phantom around him had dissipated—defending against the acid for a few instants had sucked his energy dry.

“No problem,” Jack replied, wiping the sweat off his brow. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

Starhair flew their way from the distance. “Well done!” he shouted. “You guys were awesome!”

“Thanks.” Jack gave a tired smile. “Let’s check our spoils.”

Warily, he approached the vine. He half-expected it to come alive and swing its roots at him, but nothing happened. Instead, as he walked closer, he noticed that the battle just now, while brief, had dealt a lot of damage to the environment. Half the vine’s roots had melted or been destroyed, and so had part of its main body. Green juices flowed freely onto the stone. Through a hole in the vine, a heart formed of twisted roots could be seen in its middle, beating frantically in its attempt to save the plant.

Jack sighed. Why do I feel bad about a vine? he asked himself as he reached into the plant and removed the heart. Despite the vine’s size, the heart was only the size of Jack’s torso—he inspected it, sensing the rich life energy it contained, then put it away.

“Not bad,” he muttered.

By his estimations, this heart contained about as much power as a middle A-Grade core. Speaking of which…

He turned back towards the snake, only to find that Brock had already fished out its core—a dark green thing reeking of death and poison. Jack smiled. “Well done, Brock! The core is useless to all three us, but the heart could be useful. You can have it. It wouldn’t matter much to me anywa—”

The ocean ahead of them exploded before he could finish his words. A giant shark shot out of the water, making a tight curve in the air and falling towards their island mouth-first. It was easily large enough to swallow what remained of the stone island. It was also a late A-Grade monster. The snake’s tail from before hung out the side of its mouth, the powerful acid not even tickling the shark’s interior.

Jack entered battle mode instantly. This was too powerful a creature, and it was approaching too fast. It would eat them up. He had to take the others and—

The darkness above their heads parted. A massive shape swooped down, grabbing the shark in its even larger jaws and crunching. The late A-Grade creature released a pained roar—a torrent of energy, whose attunement Jack couldn’t identify, pushed through the shark’s body and tore it apart. The now-dead shark turned into silver motes of light which disappeared into the larger creature’s mouth.

As the creature landed on their stone island, tipping it over by its sheer weight, Jack was frozen. This was an Archon-level existence. An Overlord.

It was a silver dragon.