After beheading the second Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake, he finally looked toward the wood vine protecting his right foot.
The bitten spot on the wood vine wrapped around his right foot rapidly turned black and withered. Dripping venom continued to spread along the vine, corroding the other vines.
Ling Pengyun made a swift decision. With a helpless swing of his Black Iron Sword, he directly severed the portions of Thorn Wood Vine contaminated by the Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake's venom, hoping to preserve the remaining Thorn Vine.
This Thorn Wood Vine was his Natal Spirit Plant. If it were poisoned to death by that venom, then he, its Master, would surely suffer grievous injuries as well.
This method indeed worked, but Ling Pengyun had severed quite a bit of Thorn Wood Vine in order to stop the venom from spreading, causing it to suffer no small injury.
For the next half year, this Thorn Vine will likely be unable to help me fight. Trying to mobilize the Yi Wood Power within it to improve the Spirit Rice will have to be put on hold for half a year as well!
Still, it was fortunate that this Wood Armor protected me. Otherwise, if that Early-Stage Qi Training Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake had bitten me, I'm afraid my right foot would have been beyond saving!
Ling Pengyun was filled with lingering fear as he sighed inwardly.
First Rank High Grade Antidote Pills capable of neutralizing Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake venom were simply too precious. Even the Ling Clan's General Affairs Hall possessed only a few.
To avoid any more Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes lurking within this dense forest, Ling Pengyun did not dare dispel the Water Shields formed by the two Water Shield Talismans, nor did he remove the Wood Vine Armor on his body.
His gaze fell upon the corpses of the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes on the ground, and a startling gleam immediately flashed through his eyes.
With this harvest, the injuries to my Natal Spirit Plant and the three Water Shield Talismans I spent can't be considered a loss!
Water Shield Talismans were First Rank Middle Grade Defensive Spirit Talismans, sold on the market for five Spirit Stones each. In this battle, he had used up three Water Shield Talismans, equivalent to throwing away fifteen Spirit Stones outright. Though all three talismans had been gifted by the Lineage, Ling Pengyun still felt a pang of heartache.
But compared to the corpses of those two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes, the cost of the Water Shield Talismans was insignificant.
After storing both snake corpses in his Storage Bag, Ling Pengyun remained vigilant, keeping his divine sense spread through the surrounding area as he slowly stepped away.
Only after leaving the dense forest by half a li did Ling Pengyun stop his mad dash. He turned around and, seeing that no other Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes had followed him, let out a long breath, his face still full of lingering fear.
"When I passed through this forest on the way here, there was no danger. Who would have thought I'd run into this mess on the way back?" Ling Pengyun grumbled.
That dense forest lay along the shortest route back to An Yang County and was a place he had to pass through. He had also crossed it when traveling to Peaceful An County, where the Cloud Mist Wen Clan was located, but he had encountered no mishaps then.
With the danger gone, he withdrew his divine sense. The two Water Shields floating around him, the Black Iron Shield, and the Wood Vine Armor were all put away as well.
Maintaining these four defensive measures also consumed Ling Pengyun's spiritual power. In the wilderness, having no spiritual power was the greatest danger of all.
Once the Wood Vine Armor was gone, his body was exposed to the outside world. The Linen Daoist Robe he had worn earlier had long been stretched into rags by the Thorn Vine.
Ling Pengyun hurriedly summoned a Ling Clan member's Daoist robe from his Storage Bag and changed into it.
Racing at full speed, Ling Pengyun finally returned to Azure Stone Mountain in the middle of the night.
The journey of a thousand li, combined with that battle, had drained seven or eight tenths of Ling Pengyun's spiritual power.
As soon as he returned to Azure Stone Mountain, he took out a Spirit Peach he had purchased at Cloud Mist Market, swallowed it, and circulated his cultivation technique to refine the flesh and restore his spiritual power.
Only when his Dantian was filled to the brim with spiritual power did he open his eyes.
"The spiritual power contained in this Spirit Peach is indeed gentler than the medicinal power of a Yellow Sprout Pill of the same rank, and it contains no impurities at all. With only a slight refinement, it can be sent into the Dantian and transformed into my own spiritual power! It is far superior to taking Yellow Sprout Pills, whose medicinal power must first be refined into spiritual qi before being condensed into spiritual power. It is much more convenient!"
"If I replaced all my Yellow Sprout Pills with these Spirit Peaches in the future, my cultivation speed could likely increase by more than thirty percent."
"Still, as good as these Spirit Peaches are, they're simply too expensive!"
Ling Pengyun said helplessly.
"No wonder wealth ranks first among the four most crucial things for cultivators: wealth, companions, Dao Techniques, and land!"
With a helpless sigh, Ling Pengyun cast the matter aside. Spirit Stones were difficult to earn; rather than overthinking it, he might as well cherish what was before him.
Having pills to aid his cultivation every day was already quite good. If he still coveted something better while being unable to obtain it himself, would that not be like aiming too high? It would surely affect his Dao heart!
Ling Pengyun took the spoils from the day's battle out of his Storage Bag, and the corpses of the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes landed on the ground.
He carefully extracted the venom from the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes, placing it into two separate empty medicine bottles. He then affixed a label to each one, marking them "Qi Training Middle Stage Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake Venom" and "Early-Stage Qi Training Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake Venom."
Looking at the two bottles of venom in his hands, Ling Pengyun's eyes were full of delight as he muttered to himself.
"If Eighth Grandfather can use the venom from these two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes to refine two Exploding Poison Pearls for me, they will be two great killing weapons. If I choose the right moment to unleash them, perhaps even a Qi Training Late Stage cultivator could be ambushed to death by me!"
The "Eighth Grandfather" Ling Pengyun spoke of was named Ling Yun'an. He was the Ling Clan's only Weapon Refiner and a First Rank Middle Grade one.
Of the two types of magical artifacts Ling Yun'an was best at refining, one was the Exploding Poison Pearl, while the other was called the Azure Bamboo Sword.
The Exploding Poison Pearl was a pearl-shaped magical artifact. Once it struck an enemy, it could explode and release venom, making it an exceptionally sinister artifact.
Yet in this Cultivation World, so long as it could increase one's strength and allow one to survive battle, let alone sinister magical artifacts, many cultivators would even use demonic-path artifacts.
After rejoicing for a while, Ling Pengyun finally returned the two medicine bottles containing venom to his Storage Bag.
Then, his gaze fell upon the corpses of the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes.
"Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes do not excel in physique, and the spiritual qi contained in their flesh is pitifully scarce, not even thirty percent of that found in demon beasts of the same rank that specialize in physique!"
"The flesh of that Qi Training Middle Stage Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake can be kept. Eating some of it can serve as a source of spiritual qi and add a trace of spiritual power!"
"As for the flesh of this Early-Stage Qi Training Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake, it is useless to me now. Its spiritual qi is exceedingly thin, and I've grown tired of snake soup and roasted snake meat these days. I'll reward this Early-Stage Qi Training one to the Yellow-Feathered Sparrow guarding the Spirit Fields! Perhaps this snake meat can even raise that sparrow's cultivation somewhat!"
Because Azure Stone Mountain had once been the nest of a snake horde, although the snakes within Azure Stone Mountain had long since been exterminated, many small snakes of the Acquired Realm and Innate Realm still remained around the mountain.
Recently, the Lingxiao Guard of Azure Stone Village had often captured Innate Realm snake demons and offered them to Ling Pengyun for food.
Now, if Ling Pengyun so much as yawned, he feared it would smell of snake meat.
Having made up his mind, Ling Pengyun began collecting the other parts of the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes that contained spiritual qi: their gallbladders, blood, and skins.
Snake gallbladders could serve as the main ingredient in Antidote Pills, snake blood could be used to refine Talisman Ink, and snake skins could be used to make Daoist robes or Talisman Paper.
After gathering the spiritual materials from the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes and placing them into his Storage Bag, Ling Pengyun carried the flesh of the Early-Stage Qi Training Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake up to the mountaintop.
Thanks to Gui Youbai for the reward. Many thanks.
Before you continue