Chapter 13: Three-Headed Serpent
Chapter 13: Three-Headed Serpent
The moment Lin Bai entered One-Inch Mountain, he grew alert.
One-Inch Mountain was gloomy and damp. Every tree had withered, moss grew over the rocks, and crows cawed annoyingly from the treetops.
At a glance, this was clearly no good place.
After walking a few steps farther in, the ground suddenly began to tremble faintly. Lin Bai looked up in surprise and saw a huge boulder being pushed down from the mountaintop, heading straight for him.
Behind the boulder, a strange serpent nearly a hundred meters long and bearing three heads came swooping down from the mountaintop with a baleful, murderous air, charging straight at him!
Clang!
The moment Lin Bai saw it, the Spirit Severing Sword flew from its sheath first. He slashed at the huge boulder rolling toward him and split it apart down the middle.
Hiss—
As the boulder split open, he saw the Three-Headed Serpent emerge from behind it, all three heads opening their jaws and lunging toward him to tear him apart.
"You beast, I was just looking for you. I never thought you'd come out to die on your own!" Lin Bai sneered. He nimbly dodged the Three-Headed Serpent's attack, retreated ten meters with the momentum, widened the distance between them, and readjusted his offensive stance.
The Three-Headed Serpent had occupied One-Inch Mountain for years. Every martial artist who came to One-Inch Mountain had been devoured alive by it without knowing what awaited them.
Relying on its profound cultivation at the Martial Dao Eighth Level, the Three-Headed Serpent had never encountered an opponent.
Moreover, One-Inch Mountain was simply too barren. Aside from this extremely formidable strange serpent, there were no rare spiritual medicines or ores. Ordinary martial artists were unwilling to come here and provoke it.
But Lin Bai was different. The Three-Headed Serpent's cultivation at the Martial Dao Eighth Level held tremendous temptation for him.
The higher a demon beast's grade, the more abundant the power of qi and blood within its body—and the more beneficial it was to the God-Demon Suppressing Prison Art!
The Three-Headed Serpent threw back its heads and hissed. The head on the left spat a mouthful of blazing flames straight at Lin Bai.
The head on the right spat out a mouthful of ice.
"Damn! It can breathe fire!"
Lin Bai hurriedly dodged. Relying on its ability to spit fire and ice, the Three-Headed Serpent chased him relentlessly around One-Inch Mountain as he fled east and hid west.
"Sure is troublesome!"
Lin Bai cursed. He stepped onto a rock and leaped upward.
The Three-Headed Serpent opened its mouth and spewed a wave of blazing flames at him. Lin Bai's gaze hardened. "Just dodging all the time won't work!"
"Fine, then let's risk it!"
"One Sword Bloodspray!"
With one sword strike, he shattered the flames. The sword light then shot forward at high speed and struck the Three-Headed Serpent in the neck.
The Three-Headed Serpent let out a shrill, agonized cry.
"Beast, die!"
Having landed his blow, Lin Bai charged forward, wanting to kill the Three-Headed Serpent before it could seal off his path with fire and ice.
But the instant Lin Bai drew near, the central head angrily opened its jaws wide. A corrosive beam of light shot out from within, struck the ground, and instantly corroded a large section of it into a deep pit.
"Good thing I dodged quickly. Otherwise, if that had hit me, wouldn't I have rotted away in an instant?" Lin Bai stared at the deep pit the corrosion had carved into the ground, still shaken.
Roar—roar—roar—
All three heads of the Three-Headed Serpent roared together.
"Looks like I'll have to go all out!"
"Thunder God Sword!"
Crack, crack, crack—
A divine thunderbolt suddenly tore through the sky and descended, striking Lin Bai's sword. Purple lightning immediately surfaced across the blade.
"Slash!"
Lin Bai shot forward, cleaved through the flames the Three-Headed Serpent spewed out, and brought his sword down, severing one of its heads.
With one head chopped off, the Three-Headed Serpent shrieked in agony, its cry incomparably mournful.
"Die!"
After severing one head, Lin Bai turned around and unleashed Cold-Blooded Strike. A sword light pierced straight through the central head and the head on the left.
A huge bloody hole was left in the heads.
The Three-Headed Serpent collapsed to the ground and stopped moving.
After killing the Three-Headed Serpent, Lin Bai was filled with delight. "I wonder if this strange serpent can help me break through to the Martial Dao Seventh Level."
Lin Bai sat down cross-legged and activated the Devouring Sword Soul, devouring the Three-Headed Serpent's vital essence and blood.
"It's loosened, but it's still not enough..."
Lin Bai felt his cultivation realm loosening, but he still failed to break through to the Martial Dao Seventh Level.
"Time to find the next demon beast!"
Lin Bai hoisted the Three-Headed Serpent's corpse onto his shoulders and headed back toward the Demon Slayer Alliance.
When he returned to the Demon Slayer Alliance,
the moment Lin Bai came back carrying the enormous Three-Headed Serpent, he immediately attracted the attention of the entire Demon Slayer Alliance.
"That's... the Three-Headed Serpent from One-Inch Mountain!"
"My goodness, that strange serpent is a demon beast at the Martial Dao Eighth Level. How could he possibly have killed it?"
"Wow, that's amazing! If only I could one day kill a demon beast at the Martial Dao Eighth Level by myself."
Martial artists all respected the strong.
Lin Bai had killed a Martial Dao Eighth Level Three-Headed Serpent while at the Martial Dao Sixth Level, and he instantly won the martial artists' recognition.
Qi Sheng stood coldly to the side and said with a sneer, "Hmph, what's so impressive about that? It's only a Martial Dao Eighth Level demon beast. I could kill one too!"
Lin Bai carried the demon beast to the contribution hall of the Demon Slayer Alliance, exchanged it for contribution points, and then headed to the Life and Death Cave.
Tie Haitang had been extremely troubled these past few days and had no mind to cultivate at all.
Because now, besides cultivation, there was also a man in Tie Haitang's heart who occupied her thoughts day and night.
The moment she heard that Lin Bai had returned, she immediately rushed out of her cave dwelling and headed straight for the Life and Death Cave.
As it happened, when Tie Haitang arrived at the Life and Death Cave, Lin Bai had just come out.
"Lin Bai, you're back. Did everything go smoothly at One-Inch Mountain?" Tie Haitang asked with a smile.
"It went smoothly. I've already killed the Three-Headed Serpent, and now I'm preparing to hunt the next demon beast." Lin Bai smiled.
"You're leaving again so soon? Aren't you going to rest?" Tie Haitang asked with some concern.
"Hehe, I want to rest too, but I'm already behind everyone else. If I rest again, I'm afraid I really won't be able to catch up." After saying this, Lin Bai quickly walked out of the Demon Slayer Alliance.
"Lin Bai, Lin Bai, Lin Bai..." Tie Haitang gazed at his back and called out several times. But Lin Bai walked on without the slightest hesitation, never looking back.
Tie Haitang could only walk back alone in dejection.
After the two of them had left, Tie Feng emerged from the shadows and shook his head. "Sigh, I'm afraid Haitang will have given her heart in vain. Lin Bai isn't interested in women. The path he wants to walk is the path of the strong."
"The Azure Spirit Mountain Range won't be his final destination."
Tie Feng had already seen it clearly. To the Azure Spirit Mountain Range, Lin Bai was merely a passing traveler. He would not stay.
Five days later!
Lin Bai returned to the Demon Slayer Alliance carrying a lion whose fur burned like blazing flames.
"Lin Bai, can you let me go with you?" Tie Haitang asked pleadingly.
"No, Haitang. This time I'm going to hunt a Martial Dao Ninth Level demon beast. I'm not even confident in myself, so don't go. It's too dangerous." Lin Bai grinned and walked out of the Demon Slayer Alliance.
"Oh." Tie Haitang answered softly, disappointed.
Four days later!
Lin Bai returned to the Demon Slayer Alliance carrying a Martial Dao Ninth Level demon beast, once again causing an uproar.
"Lin Bai, let me go with you this time. I've become much stronger already. Even against a Martial Dao Ninth Level demon beast, I have a way to fight!" Tie Haitang stood before Lin Bai in a set of exquisite leather armor, holding a long spear and speaking with a face full of fighting spirit.