Langyu County outskirts.
The woods were cut off by a river. The wind was calm and the water still, with the occasional birdcall.
Lu Bei stood in the open ground by the river. Perhaps Lin Yu had infected him with the fishing bug, because his first thought upon seeing the river was that it had to contain some big fish. He wouldn't be skunked.
Not far behind him, Snake Aunt stood beside a tree. Her eyes had transformed into demonic snake pupils, and the light reflected off her body in a distorted manner, creating visual invisibility. As for her senses, her breathing was steady and her heartbeat had slowed to the minimum. She was like a venomous snake in hibernation, reining in her aura until it was nearly impossible to detect.
Bound by her own bloodline, Snake Aunt had found the path of the Demon Cultivator extremely difficult. During her trip to the Demon Cultivator's cave abode, she had obtained the Bloodline Source, refined it for half a month, and fused it into herself. Her very nature had been Transformed, and her strength had soared to a level utterly incomparable to before.
This was only the beginning. All the conditions for building up strength before making a spectacular breakthrough had been met. For some time to come, her strength would continue to advance by leaps and bounds.
To use an inappropriate analogy, Snake Aunt's previous state had been like that of a player with a very high Main Profession level who had never allocated any experience to cultivation techniques. She had poor damage output and paper-thin defense; aside from her level, she had nothing going for her—a textbook useless teammate.
That was also why Snake Aunt was so confident. She had bitterly cultivated for a month and greatly increased her strength. Lu Bei, on the other hand, might have exceptional talent, but there was no way he could have improved that much.
After rounding off the numbers, this match was in the bag!
Filled with powerful confidence, Snake Aunt decided to strike first. Holding a short dagger in reverse grip, she silently approached Lu Bei from behind. Her snake pupils swept over the artery at his neck as she slowly brought the blade toward it.
"There's killing intent!"
Lu Bei shouted in a low voice. He shifted both feet apart, pivoted on his front foot, and spun his body to drive his rear foot into a kick.
Divine Dragon Swings Tail!
The forceful wind howled. The kick was massive and heavy, and under its violent whipping, the air gave off a sharp cracking sound.
Snake Aunt was slightly startled. She ducked beneath the kick, and seeing grass clippings fly high into the air while a gale roared overhead, she couldn't help clicking her tongue inwardly.
This scene was exactly like what had happened in the Demon Cultivator's cave abode. Lu Bei, half-dead, had gone berserk and slaughtered his way through the fight, while she had been unable to defeat him and had fled wounded.
Brute force!
Snake Aunt thought that it was no big deal. Based on her experience and her post-battle analysis and study of Lu Bei, she had concluded that he couldn't maintain such powerful output for long.
She only needed to avoid his sharp edge for now. Once Lu Bei weakened and ran out of strength, victory would be hers.
"Snake Aunt, your killing intent is too heavy!"
Lu Bei crossed his arms and slammed them down at the open ground ahead.
Boom!
Power exploded. The ground beneath his feet rippled outward like water, and great swathes of earth mixed with grass clippings surged into the sky.
Snake Aunt felt an astonishing force sweep over her. She retreated several steps in succession, only stopping beneath the shadow of a tree.
She dispelled her aura-concealing technique and said gravely, "You can see through my technique?"
"I can't see through it, but the killing intent pointed the way. Finding you wasn't difficult."
"I had no killing intent."
"Then it must've been resentment!"
Lu Bei said helplessly, "Snake Aunt, what happened in the past is in the past. You're a mature woman. You should know that our relationship can't return to what it was. Let it go. Stop reminiscing. Everyone needs to look forward."
What he said wasn't wrong—but did he have to put it that way?
Snake Aunt snorted coldly. "That's right. It was killing intent."
"Then there you have it."
Lu Bei clenched his fists and strode toward Snake Aunt. Once the skill Blood Rage activated and the capture judgment succeeded, he accelerated in a burst, sending a heavy punch straight at her face.
A gale howled around him. He shot forward like an arrow loosed from its bow, torrents of air wrapping around his fist. In the blink of an eye, he had charged beneath the tree.
That familiar feeling of timidity swept over Snake Aunt. She couldn't tell whether Lu Bei had cast some technique on her or whether being beaten senseless twice had planted a shadow in her heart. Her mouth refused to submit, but her heart had already yielded.
Seeing that she couldn't meet the fist head-on, she flipped aside again. However, to her surprise, Lu Bei followed like her shadow. With a single long stride, he reached her side, his tightly clenched fist raised high as it smashed toward her face.
So fast!
No, so slow!
Snake Aunt was horrified. By her calculations, Lu Bei shouldn't have been able to hold out for long. At this point, he should have run out of steam, leaving her free to squeeze and knead him as she pleased.
At the critical moment, she spat out poisoned needles, sealing off the area where his fist was descending. Then the lower half of her body transformed into a snake tail, which whipped violently toward Lu Bei's flank.
Wind tore through afterimages, and the storm it stirred made Lu Bei's clothes snap loudly.
"Nicely done!"
Lu Bei's eyes lit up. As he had expected, Snake Aunt's strength had increased after her bloodline advanced, and her underestimation of him had given him the chance to engage her in close-quarters combat.
Since that was the case, he wouldn't be modest.
He raised his arm to block the heavy strike of her tail. His feet plowed through the ground as he slid three steps back. When the force in the tail began to fade, he planted both feet heavily, shaking up grass and mud to stabilize his balance. Then he countered with a grab, his fingers digging between the fine scales as he seized the long tail and wrapped both arms around it.
"Heh heh."
Lu Bei bared his teeth in a malicious grin. Snake Aunt's expression changed dramatically. The next second, tremendous force traveled up from her long tail, making every bone in her body tremble faintly as her vision spun wildly.
Lu Bei spun in place more than ten times, whipping Snake Aunt into afterimages before finally hurling her at a massive tree.
He missed, as expected.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Snake Aunt flew out like a Cannonball. After hitting the ground, she bounced several times, rising and falling before finally carving a deep furrow through the mud and barely coming to a stop.
This bastard was truly hateful!
Snake Aunt's serpentine body trembled. Before she could recover from the aching numbness in her muscles and bones, the golden-scaled little snake transformed into a golden bracelet and slowly slithered along her wrist, waiting only for its mistress's command.
Hiss hiss hiss—
It wasn't the sound of a flickering tongue. A sharp sound tore through the air. Snake Aunt saw only a flash of black light before a Black Gold Straight Saber appeared beside her cheek.
A line of blood trickled down. It carried the same taste as in her memories.
Bitterness, helplessness...
And defiance.
This loss was far too unjust!
[You defeated Snake Aunt and gained 40000 experience]
"Forty thousand..."
Lu Bei walked up to Snake Aunt, put the saber away in his Qiankun Bag, and then smiled as he extended a hand toward her.
He took back what he had said earlier. This was a good woman. When it came to contributing experience, no one was more enthusiastic than her.
Snake Aunt ignored Lu Bei's outstretched hand. She withdrew from her Demon Transformation state and staggered to her feet, steadying herself against the tree. "What happened to you these past few days? When we were at the Demon Cultivator's cave abode last time, did you obtain something?"
"I didn't obtain anything. It's just that my senior apprentice-brother, who was all the way over in Yue Province, came to visit two days ago. Seeing that my cultivation was poor, he tutored me for two days." Lu Bei answered honestly.
Snake Aunt was quite envious when she heard that, but she didn't say so. She raised a hand and wiped across the blood on her cheek. Under Lu Bei's astonished gaze, she peeled off a layer of skin from her face.
Her face underneath was the same as before, except that once the human skin was removed, the wounds on her face vanished without a trace.
The ability brought by her advanced bloodline meant that, unless she suffered a serious injury such as losing an arm or a leg, she could achieve rapid healing through Snake Shedding.
That was only now. Once her cultivation advanced further, even if she suffered the calamity of a severed limb, Snake Shedding after reconnecting it would restore it to perfect condition.
To exaggerate a little, once her spiritual soul reached a certain level, even a severed head could be reattached.
"How incredible!"
Lu Bei clicked his tongue in amazement. Whenever he didn't understand something, he asked. "Snake Aunt, are you not wearing pants beneath your skirt? Why is it that every time you grow a tail, I never hear the sound of your clothes ripping?"
Snake Aunt: "..."
"No way. I wouldn't dare go out in broad daylight without wearing pants, especially with the sun shining so brightly and the sky so cle—"
"Shut up! I was wearing pants... Whether I wear them or not is none of your damn business."
Unable to bear it any longer, Snake Aunt turned and walked toward Langyu County. "Meet me at Dasheng Pass in twelve days."
"Aren't we going together?"
"I don't want to!"
"All right, then. Sorry for the trouble, Snake Aunt. Please help me prepare the equipment needed for the tomb. Thanks in advance."
Lu Bei waved goodbye to Snake Aunt's departing figure. The moment he lowered his head, his cheeky grin vanished, and he began calculating. "Twelve days... I'll set out tonight. That should be enough time to earn some experience in the Alchemy Room..."
"And my older cousin. I need to tell him to lend me the Unlosable Chainmail for a while longer."
Before you continue