Black Wind Cave's Gloom

The next morning, Chen Yuan left Lin Hai County alone, heading north. He took a familiar mountain path with practiced ease, and in less than an hour, he reached the outskirts of Black Wind Ravine.

Unlike the chill of Cold Dragon Pond, the entrance to Black Wind Ravine felt desolate and treacherous.

The cliffs on either side were sheer as if carved by knives and axes, jagged rocks piled high. Inside, the light was dim, and the wind howled through narrow crevices with a mournful wail, like ghosts crying and wolves baying—the name "Black Wind Ravine" fit all too well.

According to the mission description, the unusual sounds and tremors came from deep within the ravine.

Chen Yuan didn't hesitate. He took a deep breath, then leaped, scaling the rock face like an agile ape as he slid downward into the ravine.

The deeper he went, the darker it became. A faint, musty smell of decay began to fill the air.

Beneath his feet, solid ground gave way to piled leaves and loose gravel.

The silence around him was oppressive—only his own footsteps and the occasional, barely audible wind from far below broke it.

He slowed his pace, sharpening his spiritual perception to its limit. His ears twitched, catching every anomalous sound, while his eyes swept the surroundings with keen focus.

After descending for about the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, several caves of varying sizes appeared ahead, pitch-black and leading to unknown depths—likely the labyrinthine forks the duty disciple had mentioned.

Chen Yuan stopped, listened intently, and circulated his blood energy to sense the faint vibrations in the ground.

Moments later, his gaze locked onto the leftmost cave, about man-height, deep and ancient.

From that direction, he caught an extremely faint, muffled "thump... thump..."

It sounded like something massive striking the rock deep within, and the ground beneath him trembled in near-imperceptible sync.

"This is it," Chen Yuan concluded.

He took out the Miasma Clearing Pill Sun Yun had given him, placed one under his tongue, and a cool sensation spread, protecting his mouth, nose, and throat.

Then he drew the Cold Ripple Blade and cautiously stepped into the dark cave.

The cave was narrow at first, barely wide enough for one person, but as he went deeper, the space gradually opened up.

The walls were slick with moss, the air damp and foul, and the musty decay now carried a faint hint of blood.

The "thump... thump..." grew clearer, and the ground trembled more noticeably.

After advancing another hundred feet or so, he rounded a bend and found himself in a vast underground stone chamber!

Countless stalactites hung from the ceiling, and stalagmites jutted up from the ground, forming a bizarre stone forest.

At the center of the chamber lay a bottomless underground pool, its water black as ink. The dull thumping and ground tremors came from deep within that pool.

Chen Yuan held his breath, hiding behind a massive stalagmite, and stared intently at the water.

Then—

Boom!

A roar ten times louder than before exploded from the depths of the pool. The entire chamber shook violently, and stalactites rained down, crashing into the water and ground with a clatter!

At the same time, a powerful, brutal, and greedy demonic aura surged up from the pool!

Splash!

Water sprayed everywhere as a massive black figure burst halfway out of the pool.

It was a giant serpent.

Its body was covered in dark, iron-like scales, their edges gleaming with a cold metallic sheen. It was as thick as a barrel, and the half that emerged was already twenty or thirty feet long!

Its triangular head bore a pair of vertical pupils gleaming with bloodthirsty malice, fixed on a spot high on the chamber ceiling.

Chen Yuan followed its gaze. On a recessed ledge near the top of the chamber grew a peculiar plant.

The plant was Dark Gold in color, about a foot tall, with three thick leaves shaped like small shields. At its tip hung a fruit the size of a dragon's eye, Crystal Clear, with golden liquid swirling inside.

The fruit emitted a strange, refreshing fragrance. A single whiff invigorated the mind and stirred the blood.

"Golden Scale Fruit?!" Chen Yuan's heart jolted.

He recognized it as a spiritual fruit recorded in his master's notes, renowned for tempering the body and enhancing blood energy—especially effective for martial artists in the Skin Refining and Tendon Changing Realms. It was rare and priceless in the outside world.

The giant serpent had clearly been drawn by the fruit's fragrance as it ripened. The earlier commotion was it slamming into the rock layers below the pool, trying to collapse the wall and devour the fruit.

Now, the Golden Scale Fruit shimmered with light, its fragrance growing richer—fully ripe.

The serpent's eyes blazed with greed. It let out a hoarse hiss, then shot its entire body out of the pool, scaling the near-vertical wall with surprising agility, racing toward the fruit.

Its heavy body scraped against the rock, sending debris raining down—a terrifying sight!

The serpent's strength was at the early second rank, equivalent to a Tendon Changing Realm martial artist. It likely wanted to devour the fruit to solidify its realm, or even advance further.

But even at early second rank, it was beyond Chen Yuan's ability to face head-on.

The serpent's gaping maw was about to swallow the precious Golden Scale Fruit.

In that split second, Chen Yuan's mind raced. A direct fight meant certain death, but retreating and letting the fruit be taken was unbearable.

At the critical moment, he suddenly thought of the "Mist Manipulation" ability!

No time to weigh success or failure—Chen Yuan made his decision instantly.

He channeled the ability with full force, targeting not the serpent itself or the entire chamber, but a tiny area around the serpent's head—specifically, its nostrils and eyes.

He pushed the compression of the mist to its limit, concentrating its density to the extreme! At the same time, he infused that trace of "Cold Silence" blade intent he had comprehended into it!

"Condense!"

Silently and soundlessly, a ball of ghastly white, bone-chilling mist—no larger than a washbasin, yet so thick it seemed impossible to disperse, radiating a piercing cold—materialized like a phantom right before the Giant Serpent's head, precisely enveloping its mouth, nostrils, and eyes.

This sudden turn of events was too abrupt and bizarre.

The Giant Serpent, on the verge of swallowing the spirit fruit it had dreamed of, had its sight and smell instantly stripped away!

Before its eyes was nothing but a cold, blinding white; it could see nothing. The alluring, exotic fragrance vanished in an instant, replaced by a chill that threatened to freeze even its scales.

"Hiss?!!"

The Giant Serpent let out a furious and startled hiss, its charging motion abruptly spiraling out of control.

Its head instinctively jerked backward, trying to shake off the eerie cold mist. Its massive body immediately lost balance on the steep rock wall, twisting and writhing awkwardly, scraping off large chunks of stone and nearly tumbling straight down.

Now!

Chen Yuan had been waiting for this moment. The instant he unleashed the cold mist, he had already driven his blood and qi to their peak. The power of the Mysterious Vortex Skin Grinding Method exploded forth, and his legs kicked off the ground with all his might.

The gravel on the ground burst apart. He shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow, pushing his speed to the absolute limit he could achieve, turning into a blurry black shadow that streaked straight toward the platform on the ceiling.

His target was only that Golden Scale Fruit!

Though the Giant Serpent was disoriented by the cold mist and had lost its balance, its beastly instincts still sensed a tiny creature rapidly approaching its treasure!

It flew into a mad rage. Relying on its perception of airflow and vibrations, its thick tail lashed out with terrifying force, like a massive steel whip, sweeping directly toward the direction Chen Yuan was charging.

The force of that sweep could shatter stone and crack rock. If it hit him, Chen Yuan would be crippled or dead at best.

The gust of wind struck his face, and the breath of death descended in an instant!

Chen Yuan's pupils contracted sharply, his heart nearly leaping into his throat.

But his momentum was already set; he was midair, with no foothold to change direction.

At this critical moment of life and death, all his potential was unleashed. His spirit focused to an extreme, time seemed to slow down. He hurled the Cold Ripple Blade in his hand with all his strength diagonally downward into the rock wall.

The Cold Ripple Blade sank deep into the stone.

At the same time, he precisely and lightly tapped the hilt with the tip of his toe.

Borrowing that minuscule force, his body twisted in midair, executing an incredibly perilous, tiny change in direction.

The lethal serpent tail swept past, barely grazing his back. The wind pressure from its violent power scraped painfully against his spine!

And that single tap and pivot sent him exactly onto the platform.

Without a moment's pause, Chen Yuan moved like lightning. He carefully plucked the fully ripe, fragrant Golden Scale Fruit, along with a small clump of soil, and instantly stashed it into the Scarab Fish Secret Pouch.

Got it!

The entire process unfolded in the blink of an eye—from using his divine ability to interfere, to the risky charge, dodging a fatal blow by a hair's breadth, and finally plucking the spirit fruit—all in just two or three breaths!

"Hiss roar!!!"

The moment the spirit fruit's aura vanished, the Giant Serpent went completely berserk!

It shook its head violently, using its formidable demonic power to finally dispel the cold mist from its head. Its vertical pupils locked instantly onto the tiny human thief on the platform, and an endless surge of rage and murderous intent poured out like a tangible force!

Chen Yuan felt a terrifying pressure envelop his entire body, nearly paralyzing him.

Without hesitation, he yanked the Cold Ripple Blade from the rock wall, took one look at the bottomless, dark pool below, and leaped straight down.

Plop!

The icy, bone-piercing water swallowed him instantly.

He pushed his blood and qi to the limit to ward off the cold, while frantically diving deeper, not daring to look back.

Above the water's surface came the Giant Serpent's earth-shaking roars and the sound of it madly slamming against the rock walls. The entire cavern trembled, but it seemed wary of the deep, cold pool and did not immediately pursue him.

Chen Yuan paid it no mind, diving desperately until the air in his lungs was nearly spent. Surrounded by absolute darkness and cold, the frantic commotion above gradually faded and disappeared. Only then did he dare to slow down slightly, groping along the pool's walls for a possible exit.

He didn't know how long passed. Just as he was about to freeze and suffocate, he finally felt a narrow crevice underwater, with a faint current flowing through it.

He forced himself into it, struggling forward for who knows how far, until a glimmer of faint light appeared ahead...

When he finally crawled ashore on a dark riverbank, he was utterly exhausted, soaked through, shivering from the cold, and his blood and qi were nearly depleted.

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