Hunting the Gallbladder

At night.

Inside a hidden cave, a dim yellow light flickered.

Yuan Ming sat cross-legged in the cave. In a hollowed-out pebble before him, lamp oil made from boa constrictor fat burned, emitting a faint, sweet-smelling smoke.

He held a small, green-covered book in his hands, engrossed in its contents.

"No wonder Zhao Tong wanted the Human-faced Ghost Spider's mask. This Thousand Mechanism Mask is truly useful, capable of changing into a thousand faces. Only cultivators at the Core Formation Stage or above can see through it," Yuan Ming mused aloud.

In recent days, his understanding of cultivation had gradually become clearer. He knew that after the Qi Refining Stage came the Foundation Establishment Stage, followed by the Core Formation Stage, and then the god-like Nascent Soul Stage.

However, apart from the Qi Refining Stage, he only knew the names of the subsequent realms and had no idea what distinguished them.

A moment later, he closed the Illustrated Guide to Common Fierce Beasts and silently recalled the information about the fierce beasts within, committing it to memory.

"I've been stuck at the bottleneck of the second layer of Qi Refining for a long time without any progress. I wonder if this will be useful," Yuan Ming said to himself, putting away the book and holding a palm-sized piece of Flesh Lingzhi.

The Compendium of Herbs stated that Flesh Lingzhi over ten years old could mend bones and remove rotten flesh.

Flesh Lingzhi over a hundred years old could revive the dead, strengthen Blood Essence, and aid cultivation. When combined with herbs like Poria cocos, Crimson Yellow Essence, and Fiveleaf Gynostemma, and refined into a Lingzhi Pill, its effects would double.

Judging by its shape and size, the piece he held was already a hundred years old. Unfortunately, Yuan Ming couldn't find anyone to help him refine it into a pill; doing so would likely bring him disaster.

After all, an innocent man is guilty if he possesses a treasure.

"I'll just have to eat it raw. It's better than nothing," Yuan Ming sighed.

With that, he sat cross-legged, adjusted his breathing, and began to silently circulate the second layer of the Nine Yuan Art. He mobilized the Mana in his Dantian and guided it through his meridians.

When his Blood Essence was stimulated, Yuan Ming slowly opened his eyes, picked up the Flesh Lingzhi, and took a bite.

The fleshy texture it felt like in his hand turned into a fibrous, woody consistency when he bit into it. A bitter taste spread through his mouth, causing him to widen his eyes involuntarily.

"This is awful," Yuan Ming thought to himself, but he didn't spit it out. Instead, he endured the discomfort and chewed.

Before long, Yuan Ming had swallowed the entire piece of Flesh Lingzhi.

He then continued to attempt to circulate the third layer of the Nine Yuan Art, carefully sensing the changes within himself.

To his disappointment, as soon as he began circulating the third layer of the Nine Yuan Art, the feeling of stagnation and difficulty returned. His Mana flow was blocked as if hitting a high wall, unable to break through.

"It didn't work?" Yuan Ming sighed inwardly.

As expected, even rare spiritual herbs required specific refinement to unlock their full potential.

But just then, Yuan Ming frowned and placed his hands on his lower abdomen.

Immediately, a stream of heat rose from his Dantian, as if a warm stove had been lit in his abdomen.

As Yuan Ming watched in surprise, the heat from his lower abdomen suddenly intensified dramatically, transforming from a warm sensation to something almost burning.

He felt as if the stove in his abdomen had sprung a leak, with all the flames spilling out, scorching his insides.

Yuan Ming began to panic and quickly unbuttoned his clothes, exposing his chest and abdomen.

However, this did not alleviate the heat. The skin on his lower abdomen turned red and began to spread towards his chest and groin.

Yuan Ming quickly removed all his clothes and sat naked on the ground, feeling only a slight relief.

But this relief was short-lived. He was soon engulfed by the heat again, his entire body turning red, making him look like a boiled shrimp.

Yuan Ming even blew out the small oil lamp before him, yet he still felt dry-mouthed and restless, his heart pounding in his chest like a drum.

At the same time, he felt the Mana in his Dantian becoming restless, surging uncontrollably into his meridians, causing a needle-like pain throughout his body.

This had never happened during his previous cultivation sessions, and Yuan Ming began to panic.

However, he quickly forced himself to calm down and began to circulate the Nine Yuan Art, attempting to sort out and guide the Mana back to his Dantian.

Upon trying, he discovered that his Mana had not gone out of control; it was still obeying his commands, but its circulation speed had increased, and its momentum had become stronger.

At this realization, Yuan Ming felt a sudden flash of enlightenment.

He quickly recited the incantation for the third layer of the Nine Yuan Art in his mind, guiding the Mana's flow through his meridians according to the cultivation method, and attempted to break through to the third layer of Qi Refining again.

In just a moment, Yuan Ming's eyes snapped open, shining brightly.

The bottleneck that he couldn't break through before was now overcome with ease.

Instantly, the Mana in his Dantian surged, its circulation speed increased, and the time required to complete a full cycle was halved, greatly improving his cultivation efficiency.

Yuan Ming circulated the technique with abandon, repeating the cycle over and over. Sweat poured down his body, and a faint white mist rose from the top of his head.

As he cultivated, the burning sensation within him gradually subsided, the redness of his skin faded, and the flow of Mana stabilized. The Mana stored in his Dantian, however, had increased significantly.

After several hours, Yuan Ming slowly opened his eyes, a smile appearing on his face.

Fueled by the medicinal properties of the hundred-year-old Flesh Lingzhi, he had finally broken through again, advancing to the third layer of Qi Refining.

After the joy of his breakthrough, Yuan Ming did not stop cultivating. He continued to sit cross-legged, doing his best to stabilize his realm.

Half a month later.

Beside a jungle stream, a figure darted rapidly through the trees. He wore a White Ape Beast Hide and carried an Ancient Bronze Sword in his hand. It was Yuan Ming.

At this moment, he was not using the Furring Technique. Running in his human form, his speed was surprisingly not slow at all.

Trees in the dense forest behind him kept falling, the sounds of collision rising one after another.

Within the rolling smoke and dust, a grey-green boa constrictor, sevenzhang long and as thick as a water bucket, rapidly twisted its body, crashing through the forest as it chased Yuan Ming.

Its eyes were amber yellow, and it possessed a gaping maw, revealing two pairs of sharp, giant teeth above and below. A scarlet tongue, six feet long, flicked out from its mouth.

Yuan Ming, while sprinting, glanced back. Seeing the boa constrictor closing in, he suddenly accelerated, then leaped into the air, covering seven to eight zhang in a single bound.

Seeing this, the boa constrictor's head shot forward, and its body also lunged straight up, chasing after Yuan Ming.

Mid-air, Yuan Ming grabbed a hanging vine from a nearby old tree and yanked it down hard. A trap made of vines on either side of him immediately contracted rapidly.

The boa constrictor's body was halfway into the rapidly shrinking rope loop. Before it could fully escape, it was tightly bound by the constricting vines, half of its body suspended in the air.

It struggled fiercely, its thrashing causing the vines and even the thick branches above to shake violently, threatening to snap.

But at this moment, Yuan Ming, who had already circled back, leaped high into the air. Gripping the Azure Fish Sword with both hands, he swung it down fiercely towards the boa constrictor's head.

Just as the boa constrictor was about to be killed in one blow, its six-foot-long tongue suddenly coiled, binding Yuan Ming instead.

The thick branches of the old tree, unable to bear the boa constrictor's weight, collapsed with a crash.

With a flick of its tongue, the boa constrictor dragged Yuan Ming into its mouth.

Before Yuan Ming could react, his vision went black. The upper half of his body had already been swallowed by the boa constrictor, entering a wet, sticky cavity.

The boa constrictor's upper and lower jaws closed, the immense pressure attempting to crush Yuan Ming's bones.

Yuan Ming immediately felt his chest and ribs being subjected to immense force, making it difficult to breathe. Coupled with the foul stench rising from within the boa constrictor's belly, he felt on the verge of suffocating.

Just as the boa constrictor's mouth muscles were writhing, slowly pushing Yuan Ming into its belly, a green light suddenly illuminated its lower abdomen. A sword tip, gleaming with a cyan luster, abruptly pierced the boa constrictor's skin, emerging from within.

Then, as the boa constrictor's mouth muscles continued to writhe, Yuan Ming's body slowly sank deeper into the snake's belly. The Azure Fish Sword followed, slicing open the boa constrictor's abdomen and creating a massive gash.

Covered in slime, Yuan Ming emerged from the wound in the boa constrictor's belly, holding the Azure Fish Sword in one hand and a fleshy sac, the color of dark ink and as large as a melon, in the other.

It was the boa constrictor's gallbladder, the most valuable part of it besides its blood, and something Zhao Tong had specifically asked Yuan Ming to retrieve.

Yuan Ming had already killed three boa constrictors before. However, each time he cut them open after killing them, he found their gallbladders had shattered, the dark green bile having severely corroded their abdominal cavities.

At first, he thought he had accidentally broken them during the fight. Only later did he realize that boa constrictors, when near death, would shatter their own gallbladders to prevent hunters from taking them.

Helpless, he chose to be swallowed by the boa constrictor to retrieve the gallbladder from the inside.

The boa constrictor, with its gallbladder removed, did not die immediately. Its body rolled and writhed, its long tail sweeping left and right in a final, futile struggle.

After collecting the beast's blood in a storage sac, Yuan Ming carried his sword to the riverbank, intending to wash off the filth.

As he reached the water's edge and before he could bend down, he noticed something strange about his reflection in the water. Just as he was about to examine it closely, his heart suddenly jolted.

His reflection in the water had contorted, transforming into a terrifying snake's face.