Zhang Tie had no time to feel the pain coursing through his body. In an instant, he twisted aside and darted sharply to the right with lightning speed. At that critical moment, the spot where he had just stood was engulfed by a foul-smelling green liquid.
The moment the liquid touched the ground, it gave off a sizzling corrosive hiss, instantly eating the earth into a pitted mess.
Zhang Tie had barely steadied himself when he fixed his lightning-sharp gaze on the massive green snake perched in the tree, its scarlet tongue flickering. With a wave of his hand, several blazing fireballs roared out like meteors toward the giant snake. At the same time, Zhang Tie silently gathered all the power of his blood and qi into his legs.
His figure flashed, and he leaped like a phantom, appearing behind the green snake in an instant. The snake reacted with equal agility, lashing its tail viciously and easily knocking away the incoming fireballs.
Then it whipped its head around and sprayed a stream of venom straight at Zhang Tie. Zhang Tie moved like a swallow, nimbly twisting aside and narrowly evading it.
At the same time, he focused all his attention on controlling his flying sword. Like a streak of lightning, it suddenly plunged down from above the green snake, aimed directly at one of its eyes.
The green snake turned its head again with astonishing speed, barely avoiding the vital strike. With a bang, the flying sword slammed into its hard green scales, sending a brilliant spark flying.
In that split second, while the green snake was dodging the attack on its eye, Zhang Tie had already flashed behind its head. Without hesitation, he gathered all the power of his blood and qi into the spirit artifact glove on his right hand, then brought it down with brutal force.
A deafening boom rang out. The green snake's head seemed to have suffered a crushing blow, and it crashed heavily from the tree to the ground. Zhang Tie did not hesitate in the slightest. He rushed forward and hammered the snake's head with punch after punch, a torrential barrage that struck more than ten times in one breath. At last, the green snake's skull could no longer endure it. With a bang, it burst apart like a watermelon, spraying blood and flesh everywhere.
Zhang Tie swiftly put away the green snake's corpse, then turned to control his flying sword and carefully harvest the incomparably precious spirit herb.
He gently wrapped the spirit herb in spiritual power and placed it into a jade box specially used for storing medicinal herbs.
Zhang Tie knew full well that this was no place to linger. He immediately turned and sped deeper inside. After several bounding leaps, his figure vanished like a ghost.
As Zhang Tie searched around without any clear direction, hoping to find the area recorded in the sect's secret realm manual, he kept replaying the thrilling battle in his mind. This green snake should have been at the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. Though its attacks had been extremely fierce, its intelligence had been truly low. That was why he had managed to take advantage of it and kill it in one go.
Just then, Zhang Tie's token suddenly displayed an unusual movement. He quickly took it out and checked it, only to discover that three red dots were rapidly moving toward his location from the direction ahead. One red dot was in front, while the other two followed closely behind, clearly giving chase.
If his guess was correct, it was a case of one person fleeing while two others pursued. The two people behind were desperately chasing the person in front, and in the process, they had accidentally discovered him.
Zhang Tie pondered for a moment before deciding to go and see what was happening. He might not have been completely certain of defeating them, but with his abilities and methods, escaping should not have been much of a problem.
As Zhang Tie drew closer, he soon saw clearly that the person approaching was none other than Jiang Yun from his own sect. Jiang Yun looked utterly bedraggled. His hair and clothes bore scorch marks everywhere, and a long wound ran across his right arm. No blood flowed from it, so he had clearly used a technique to stop the bleeding.
Jiang Yun spotted Zhang Tie at once and cried out anxiously, "Brother Zhang, save me!"
Zhang Tie quickly looked behind Jiang Yun and saw that the two pursuing him were young men dressed in pink robes. They looked almost identical, and were most likely twin brothers.
By then, Jiang Yun had reached Zhang Tie's side, though Zhang Tie kept more than ten meters away from him. With a grave expression, he asked, "Brother Jiang, what exactly is going on?"
Jiang Yun wore a bitter expression as he panted heavily and replied with difficulty, "They are Ling Tianxing and Ling Tianyue, the two brothers from the Joyful Union Sect. They are extremely skilled in poison techniques and are impossible to guard against. Brother Zhang, you must be extra careful."
Zhang Tie's face instantly darkened. He turned as if to hurry away in the opposite direction.
"Brother Zhang, don't leave! I've been poisoned. I really can't run much farther. I happened to discover an ancient cultivator's cave abode in the valley ahead. The cave abode's restrictions are still intact, so no one should have entered it yet. That's why they chased me all the way here!" Seeing that Zhang Tie wanted to leave, Jiang Yun called out in panic.
Hearing this, Zhang Tie stopped and turned to look at the two brothers standing dozens of meters away. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Senior brothers of the Joyful Union Sect, we are willing to hand over our tokens. Could you spare our lives?"
One of them said coldly, "Hand over your Storage Pouches as well, and we can spare you."
Zhang Tie hesitated before gritting his teeth. "Fine." With that, he swiftly threw his Storage Pouch to Jiang Yun and said, "Give them yours too. If I hadn't come to save you, I would have escaped alone long ago."
With an extremely complicated expression, Jiang Yun removed his Storage Pouch and threw it forcefully toward the two Joyful Union Sect disciples. One of them raised his hand and instantly condensed a giant hand of spiritual power, reaching for the two Storage Pouches.
At that moment, Zhang Tie suddenly moved. The power of his blood and qi surged into his legs like a flood, and his figure vanished in an instant. He crossed dozens of meters in the blink of an eye.
The other Joyful Union Sect disciple saw this and shouted in terror, "Watch out!" However, before his words had even faded, a thunderous bang rang out. The Storage Pouches still hanging in midair suddenly fell to the ground, while a headless corpse slowly collapsed, its hand still frozen in a grasping motion.
The other Joyful Union Sect disciple turned deathly pale. He no longer cared about anything else and immediately turned to flee desperately on qi. Zhang Tie nimbly picked up the two Storage Pouches and gave chase without hesitation after several leaps.
A quarter of an hour later, Zhang Tie slowly returned from afar with another Storage Pouch in hand. He walked over to the corpse of the Joyful Union Sect disciple and expressionlessly removed and stored its Storage Pouch.
He came to Jiang Yun's side, returned his Storage Pouch, and asked, "Brother Jiang, how are you feeling now? Can you still walk?"
Jiang Yun seemed not to have fully recovered from the shocking scene. He stood there as if stunned. Zhang Tie gave his shoulder another firm slap, and only then did Jiang Yun snap back to his senses. "Yes, I can walk. Thank you, Senior Brother Zhang, for saving my life." As he spoke, Jiang Yun hurriedly took back his Storage Pouch, quickly removed several pills, and swallowed them without hesitation.
An hour later, led by Jiang Yun, Zhang Tie and Jiang Yun finally arrived in a valley. Jiang Yun slowly walked to one corner of it. From the outside, there appeared to be nothing there but a patch of tangled weeds, scattered rocks, and several broken branches lying about haphazardly.
Jiang Yun walked straight in without hesitation, and his figure instantly disappeared. Zhang Tie followed immediately. The moment he stepped inside, it felt as though his body had passed through a thin curtain of water, entering another mysterious world. Zhang Tie looked up and saw Jiang Yun standing quietly before a stone gate more than two zhang tall.
"This cave abode may have existed for ten thousand years, perhaps even longer. After being worn down by time, who knows how many times weaker the protective formation here has become." Jiang Yun pointed at the stone gate and continued, "Before fleeing, I tried to break the formation here, but the results were negligible. In the end, I guessed that my method was wrong, so this time I need your cooperation, Brother Zhang."
"Just focus on breaking the formation with everything you have. If you need my help, just say the word," Zhang Tie said without hesitation.
Jiang Yun nodded solemnly and quickly took out five formation flags and a formation plate. He focused intently as he formed hand seals toward the five flags. The flags shot out at once, swiftly and precisely embedding themselves in five designated positions before the stone gate.
Jiang Yun then continued to form complex hand seals toward the formation plate. Before long, the plate began to glow faintly, and a five-pointed star pattern appeared on the stone gate.
"Senior Brother Zhang, now! Strike the center of the pattern with all your strength!" Jiang Yun shouted.
Zhang Tie did not hesitate any longer. He stepped forward, took a deep breath, and threw a powerful punch at the exact center of the pattern. Strangely, no earthshaking impact followed. Instead, fine cracks gradually spread outward from the pattern's center. Finally, a crisp bang sounded, and the entire pattern shattered like broken crystal.
Jiang Yun panted heavily as he put away the formation flags and plate. He then slowly walked to the stone gate, gathered all his spiritual power, and pushed against it. The stone gate slowly opened to both sides. Zhang Tie also hurried over, quickly set up a warning formation and an isolation formation before the gate, then followed Jiang Yun into the cave abode.
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