High above the mountain peak, Su Rushi, clad in her phoenix crown and wedding dress, floated amidst the clouds and mist, her heart leaping with surprise. She was flying! It was as if she had escaped gravity entirely, suspended weightlessly between heaven and earth.
The feeling was simply indescribable.
"Xiaoleng, I’m flying! I’m really flying!" Su Rushi’s cheeks were flushed, and she radiated an aura of youthful vitality.
An exquisite little snake poked its head out of her sleeve and spoke in a cheerful, human voice, "Feels good, right? How’s that for a thrill?"
"It’s a thrill! A total thrill! This is so much fun!"
The young woman wasn’t the least bit afraid. Instead, her beautiful eyes shone as she spread her arms wide, reveling in the carefree joy of being high in the sky.
She had once fantasized about what it would be like to fly. Now, the sensation felt so surreal, just like a dream.
Knowing since childhood that she wouldn’t live long, she only wanted to live each of her few remaining days more brilliantly than the last. But even the lightest butterfly, after being kissed by a downpour, can no longer fly.
Some fates are sealed, leaving no room for choice.
Su Rushi floated with a light grace, her skin fairer than snow, her face radiant. Her smile was breathtakingly beautiful. This sky she had always looked up at—only now was she truly a part of it.
Land-bound creatures have an innate yearning to fly, but they lack wings. Yet here she was, truly flying through the air, and she was ecstatic.
"Xiaoleng, you’re amazing!"
"Happy birthday."
Su Rushi froze, then asked in a daze, "How did you know today is my birthday?"
"Because I’m the most amazing snake in the world. I know all and see all," the exquisite little snake said smugly, flicking its tongue.
She didn’t even argue. Instead, she nodded emphatically, her smile like a blooming flower. "My Xiaoleng is the best. And I want to fly even higher."
Su Rushi wanted to be the brightest star in the sky, if only for this single moment.
With a mere thought from Tu Xiao’an, she, breathtakingly beautiful in her phoenix crown and wedding dress, rose higher and higher, the vast, magnificent landscape unfolding below her at a single glance.
The boundless sky stretched out before them. Distant mountains were shrouded in mist, and a cool, gentle breeze blew.
"Ah...!"
Suddenly, Su Rushi shouted toward the open sky, as if to pour out all her strength and vent all the grievances of her recent days.
After her shout, her cheeks flushed with a touch of shyness. She looked at the exquisite little snake with her beautiful eyes. "Xiaoleng, thank you. I love this birthday present."
She was like a little bird breaking free from its cage, regaining its freedom. Even if she were to fall from the sky right now, she felt she could die with no regrets.
You cannot imagine how stifled and frustrated a girl living on borrowed time can be.
"Shi’Er, your Brother Bai has come to marry you."
The sound jolted the jubilant Su Rushi back to reality. She wasn’t truly free. From the foot of the mountain, the White Demon King, dressed as a groom, flew into the air. With his impressive bearing and handsome, jade-like features, one could never imagine he was a Demon King whose true form was a hedgehog.
Watching the White Demon King fly up toward her, Su Rushi’s good mood was instantly hollowed out, as if she had plummeted from heaven into Hell.
She didn’t want to marry him. She truly only saw him as a big brother, someone she didn’t worship or adore.
In the span of a single breath, the White Demon King was about to reach his bride. He flashed a sunny, handsome smile, like the big brother next door. But then, his expression changed. His brows furrowed as he saw an exquisite little snake coiled around Su Rushi’s arm.
The exquisite little snake shot the White Demon King a cunning, almost human-like look, then opened its mouth.
"Get lost!"
The moment the word was spoken, the exquisite little snake flipped over. A colossal snake tail, dozens of yards long, materialized in the sky above the White Demon King and slammed down toward him, blotting out the sky.
It happened so fast that the White Demon King could only block with his arms. The force that slammed into him was immeasurable. His body was violently driven downward. He had just flown up, and before he could even touch a single finger of his bride, let alone receive her, he was smashed back down to the foot of the mountain.
BOOM...!
As the White Demon King hit the ground, the immense force was unleashed into the earth, sending countless cracks racing outward for miles.
The demons in the wedding procession were all dumbstruck, staring like wooden chickens. They had just watched the White Demon King get swatted out of the sky by a heaven-shaking snake tail that appeared from nowhere, leaving him in a pathetic state.
’What in the world is going on? Someone dares to disrupt the Deep Mountain Demon King’s wedding? Do they have a death wish?’
All the demons looked up. A refined young man had appeared in front of the bride in her red phoenix crown and wedding dress. In an instant, an incredibly terrifying and oppressive aura, one unique to the Snake Race, swept down and enveloped them all.
Down below, the group of Great Demons trembled. The surrounding flowers, grass, and trees seemed to freeze under the arrival of this absolutely terrifying pressure, as if time itself had been stopped in this moment.
After a long moment, someone finally cried out in terror, "That’s the new Snake King of the Snake Race!"
That sentence was like a bombshell dropped on the wedding procession, leaving many of them reeling and utterly bewildered.
He had come. The new Snake King of the Snake Race had actually dared to show up. And he’d done so in such a domineering fashion, catching the White Demon King completely off guard with a single tail strike—a massive show of force that made him lose all face.
Now, the Snake King stood between heaven and earth, shielding the bride. He was like a guardian angel descended from the heavens, daring anyone to lay a single finger on her.
"White Demon King, as promised, I, the Snake King, have come to steal your bride."