Ling Pengyun made a swift decision. Forming hand seals with both hands, he cast the Water Avoidance Technique, raising a thin blue curtain of light around himself.
The purpose of this light curtain was to keep out water. When cultivators ventured deep underwater, they could use spiritual power to propel the curtain and carry themselves through the water.
Ling Pengyun rushed through the lake's shallows and into the deep waters before diving beneath the surface. Using the aura of the Black Iron Flying Sword he had deliberately left within the Azure Scale Water Python's head, he pursued the Azure Scale Water Python, which had fled far away and vanished without a trace.
The Azure Scale Water Python was indeed skilled in water. After Ling Pengyun pursued it underwater for barely a dozen breaths, he lost the aura of the Black Iron Flying Sword.
This could only mean that the Black Iron Flying Sword was extremely far away from him.
Ling Pengyun immediately became vigilant. He took out a Water Shield Talisman and gripped it tightly, lest the distant Azure Scale Water Python shake free of the Black Iron Sword embedded in its head and return to launch a sneak attack on him.
Fortunately, that did not happen. Following the last place where the Black Iron Sword's aura had vanished, Ling Pengyun arrived at the lakebed in the central region of Azure Stone Lake, beside a deep, enormous hole several feet wide.
The huge hole was bottomless, yet Ling Pengyun could sense that it continuously poured water into Azure Stone Lake without ever stopping.
"This deep hole should be the Underground River that maintains the water level of Azure Stone Lake!"
"And the origins of that Azure Scale Water Python were indeed as I suspected. It must have entered Azure Stone Lake through this Underground River recently!" Ling Pengyun guessed.
"Most likely, that heavily wounded Demon Serpent escaped along this Underground River, where the aura of my Black Iron Sword last disappeared!"
After hesitating briefly, he followed the flow of the Underground River along the lakebed upstream.
Traveling against the current consumed a great deal of spiritual power.
After proceeding only one li along the enormous Underground River, Ling Pengyun had already used nearly a tenth of his spiritual power.
"I have seventy percent of my spiritual power left. If I travel another three li without catching up to the Azure Scale Water Python, I must turn back, lest I exhaust my spiritual power and be noticed by the Azure Scale Giant Python whose whereabouts are unknown, only to be ambushed by it in the dark!" Ling Pengyun thought to himself.
He traveled another half-li before the aura of the Black Iron Sword reappeared.
That meant the Azure Scale Water Python was nearby!
He concealed his aura and slowed his progress against the Underground River's current, quietly approaching the source of the Black Iron Sword's aura ahead.
Ten breaths later, Ling Pengyun had come within fifty zhang of the Black Iron Sword, yet he saw neither the sword nor the Azure Scale Water Python.
After searching for quite some time, Ling Pengyun finally realized that the Black Iron Flying Sword's aura was coming from inside a cliff wall within the Underground River.
He searched for a long while before finding, near the cliff wall from which the Black Iron Sword's aura emanated, a deep hole one foot wide.
"Blood?" From several zhang away from that foot-wide hole, Ling Pengyun could smell a rich, bloody scent.
There was no need to guess. Ling Pengyun understood that this passage leading to the Black Iron Sword was, nine times out of ten, the hiding place of that heavily wounded Demon Serpent.
"Hm? Spiritual qi?" As Ling Pengyun approached the entrance to the nest, he also detected a faint thread of spiritual qi drifting out from within.
"Could there be a spiritual treasure inside? Or perhaps a Spirit Vein?"
The instant this thought arose, Ling Pengyun's eyes lit up.
Back when he was young and still studying knowledge of the Cultivation World at the Lineage's Clan School, his elders had especially impressed upon him that demon beast nests often contained spiritual treasures.
They might contain spiritual items left behind after demon beasts had been eaten, spiritual plants, several pieces of Spirit Iron Ore found by demon beasts, cultivators' Storage Bags, and more.
As for his guess about a Spirit Vein, that came from the spiritual qi leaking from the nest entrance.
Whether that spiritual qi came from a spiritual treasure or a Spirit Vein, however, could only be known by entering.
Since he had already found traces of the Azure Scale Water Python, he did not hold back. He directly activated the Water Shield Talisman in his hand, conjuring a Water Shield that floated around him.
Then he formed hand seals with both hands and cast the Water Shield Technique, setting up another Water Shield around himself.
With two Water Shields protecting him, Ling Pengyun felt much more at ease.
Ling Pengyun obviously would not enter the Demon Serpent's nest through such a narrow entrance, where fighting would be difficult.
With a wave of his hand, he fired a Water Thorn into the nest entrance at the bottom of the Underground River.
A dull thud of stone being struck rang out.
Immediately afterward came the hiss of a snake.
Delight appeared on Ling Pengyun's face as he thought, It really is inside this foot-long cave!
At that very moment, he sensed the Black Iron Sword's aura moving, slowly drawing closer to him.
"It really is here."
He retreated several steps, widening the distance between himself and the nest entrance at the bottom of the Underground River. Forming hand seals with both hands, he gathered three water spikes and one water arrow floating beside him, waiting for the Azure Scale Water Python to burst from the cave.
Before long, the Azure Scale Giant Python, its body marked by three enormous wounds, angrily shot out from the nest entrance. Swaying its body, it charged furiously at Ling Pengyun.
Ling Pengyun sent the three inch-long water spikes and the three-inch water arrow he had already prepared crashing toward the charging Azure Scale Water Python.
After launching the attack, Ling Pengyun formed hand seals with both hands and recalled the Black Iron Sword embedded deep in the flesh of the Azure Scale Water Python's head.
He poured a spell seal containing a tenth of his spiritual power into it, causing the Black Iron Sword's spiritual radiance to flare. He launched it again, attacking the Azure Scale Water Python alongside the spells he had cast.
The Azure Scale Water Python was ultimately only a Qi Training Stage demon beast somewhat stronger than a wild beast, with little intelligence. Before rushing out of its nest, it had not cast a Water Shield in advance.
For a time, its massive body was like a target, struck one after another by Ling Pengyun's three water spikes, water arrow, and Black Iron Sword.
Bloody blossoms burst from its body, staining a large stretch of the surrounding water red.
Howling continuously in pain, it grew even more hateful toward Ling Pengyun. Ignoring its injuries, it gritted its teeth and continued charging at him, clearly intending to ram Ling Pengyun to death with its thick body.
But Ling Pengyun had long been prepared. With a wave of his hand, he moved the two Water Shields floating around him before his body. His hands formed seals again, and in an instant, he summoned a Water Thorn that pierced through the Demon Serpent's tough scales and struck into its flesh.
Ten breaths later, before the Azure Scale Water Python could break through the two Water Shields, it died beneath the bombardment of more than ten water spikes from Ling Pengyun. Its snake head was riddled with holes pierced through by water spikes.
In this battle, the Water Thorn Technique, which he had mastered to the perfected realm and could cast in an instant, had rendered immense service. It also further strengthened Ling Pengyun's resolve to comprehend spells.
He glanced at the Azure Scale Water Python that had sunk to the bottom of the Underground River, its body already mangled beyond recognition and with scarcely a single intact patch left, and silently lamented.
"With this Azure Scale Water Python's skin and scales damaged to such an extent, it seems my previous wish to commission a Weapon Refiner to forge a First Rank Middle Grade Water Attribute Daoist Robe from this Demon Serpent's skin and scales has come to nothing!"
With a soft sigh, Ling Pengyun turned his gaze toward the nest entrance not far from the Azure Scale Giant Python's corpse.
Before you continue