Whoosh!
As if slurping noodles, the little branches, dead leaves, pebbles, and everything around it were all sucked into the green giant python's mouth along with streams of air. Its upright neck swelled several times over like a giant bellows. Then the muscles all over its body suddenly tightened, and an expression like someone desperately holding in shit and piss appeared on its snake face.
Pfft!
Its swollen neck abruptly shrank to nearly half its original size. Like blowing out a candle, it blasted out a gust of astral wind that actually forced the incoming fireball slightly off course.
"Why is my luck so damn bad?!"
Wei Suo had truly kicked an iron plate this time.
The Unicorn Thunder Viper was a Level 4 Demonic Beast. By inhaling violently and rapidly constricting the muscles in its neck to compress the air, it could spit out astral wind. At the same time, the horn on its head could release forked lightning, its attack power roughly equivalent to an ordinary lightning-type spell cast by a Fourth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm cultivator. Most crucially, if Wei Suo remembered correctly, this Unicorn Thunder Viper was also a Level 4 Middle Grade Demonic Beast.
Above Level 4, each difference in grade among demonic beasts meant their abilities rose by multiples. A Level 4 Low Grade Demonic Beast, for instance, could not yet spit out its demon core to attack an enemy, but Level 4 Middle Grade Demonic Beasts and above could already do so. The power of a demon core's bombardment was comparable to a powerful spell cast by a Fifth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm cultivator.
Man proposed, Heaven disposed. The reason cultivators so often fell these days was precisely because the world outside was never unchanging. No one had expected that Myriad Snake Valley now contained a Level 4 Middle Grade Unicorn Thunder Viper.
Crack! Crack!
The casting speed of this Level 4 Middle Grade Demonic Beast was equally unimaginable. Just as the fireball Wei Suo had sent out was blown off course, a pale yellow bolt of lightning, its tip splitting into three forks, shot from the Unicorn Thunder Viper's horn and lashed against the light shield around Wei Suo. It struck him so hard that he staggered forward, nearly falling flat on his face.
"What kind of bullshit is this? If you want to fight me, at least wait until I reach the Fifth Level of Sea of Consciousness Realm! You're a dignified Level 4 Middle Grade Demonic Beast, and you've even brought so many little brothers with you. Aren't you ashamed?" What made Wei Suo want to cry without tears was that he could tell at a glance that with one twist of its body, the Unicorn Thunder Viper could advance several yards like a small mountain. Even if Wei Suo used a Wind Evasion Talisman, he likely would not be faster than it and would still be caught.
Seeing that the Unicorn Thunder Viper had no shame whatsoever and was determined to treat him as an appetizer, Wei Suo had no choice but to grab a handful of Fireball Talismans.
With a boom, Wei Suo flung a fireball the size of a winnowing basket backward at the relentlessly pursuing Unicorn Thunder Viper. But the Unicorn Thunder Viper's reactions truly lived up to those of a Level 4 Demonic Beast. With another inhale and exhale, it blew the fireball slightly off course. It grazed past its body and exploded behind it.
"I'll shock you!"
But at that moment, Wei Suo abruptly stopped. A Golden Snake Thunder Shuttle, which he had practiced to great proficiency, struck the Unicorn Thunder Viper squarely in the neck. Its neck, which had just constricted, suddenly convulsed violently, as though it had choked hard while drinking water.
"Ice Talisman!"
Seeing that his Golden Snake Thunder Shuttle worked even on this lightning-type demonic beast, Wei Suo immediately activated an extremely frigid cloud of white mist from his hand, shrouding the Unicorn Thunder Viper's head.
Since he had found the Second-Order Ice Talisman extremely useful last time, Wei Suo had bought two to carry with him this time as well. But the Unicorn Thunder Viper was simply too enormous. When the icy white mist produced by the Second-Order Ice Talisman enveloped it, only a layer of solid ice formed over its head. It looked as though it had a ball of ice clenched in its mouth, making for a thoroughly comical sight.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Seeing that even the Second-Order Ice Talisman seemed unable to inflict much damage on the Unicorn Thunder Viper before him, Wei Suo's hairs stood on end. He desperately activated the Fireball Talismans in his hand. For a moment, even he did not know how many he had fired off in that instant. The barrage turned everything within four or five yards of the Unicorn Thunder Viper into a sea of flames.
"Fuck! A demon core!"
Under the bombardment of Fireball Talismans like a string of cannon fire, scorched smells rose from the Unicorn Thunder Viper's body. Yet even so, it had not been killed. Instead, it was thoroughly enraged. As a cloud of green qi surged forth, a pale yellow demon core the size of a pigeon egg suddenly shot from its deep throat and slammed into the golden light shield around Wei Suo.
With an explosive crack, the demon core appeared utterly unremarkable before it struck the golden light shield. Yet the instant it collided with it, over a hundred pale yellow lightning bolts as thick as thumbs burst forth violently.
Wei Suo only felt an irresistible force surge toward him. He had barely managed to let out a strange cry before the demon core's impact hurled his entire body backward. The golden light shield around him was actually shattered in a single blow.
After shattering the golden light shield, the demon core spun in the air and flew back into the mouth of the Unicorn Thunder Viper, which charged out of the blaze with an enraged hiss. It was clearly about to be spat out again.
Just as Wei Suo was certain to be unable to withstand the Unicorn Thunder Viper's next strike, another Wei Suo abruptly appeared not far from him, while the real Wei Suo, surrounded by the naturally activated spiritual light shield of the Spirit Heaven Jade Pendant, rolled across the ground.
The Unicorn Thunder Viper, whose entire body burned with unbearable pain, was stunned at once. It could not understand how another standing Wei Suo had suddenly appeared.
"Ice Talisman!"
Having escaped death by a hair's breadth, Wei Suo seized the moment of the Unicorn Thunder Viper's stunned hesitation and activated his final Second-Order Ice Talisman at the fastest speed of his life. A mass of solid ice immediately wrapped around the Unicorn Thunder Viper's head again.
Smack!
The demon core in the Unicorn Thunder Viper's mouth shot out at once, shattering all the solid ice around its head. But at the same time, with a boom, a fireball activated by Wei Suo smashed directly into the gaping, blood-filled maw of the Unicorn Thunder Viper.
The two eyes of this Level 4 Middle Grade Demonic Beast, each like a bronze bell, bulged out at once. It wore an expression as though it had swallowed a red-hot iron ball but could neither spit it out nor swallow it down.
"Why aren't you dead yet?!"
Wei Suo could not spare attention for anything else. He simply activated Fireball Talismans desperately, sending one fireball after another crashing down over the Unicorn Thunder Viper's head and face.
The Unicorn Thunder Viper seemed to want to forcefully spit its demon core at Wei Suo again, but the ceaseless Fireball Talismans battered it until it could barely catch its breath. Only flashes of lightning flickered chaotically from the horn on its head.
Bang!
Wei Suo had no idea how many fireballs he fired in a single breath. The Unicorn Thunder Viper's entire blood-filled maw and throat were completely scorched, and the upright half of its body finally crashed limply to the ground.
Wei Suo did not dare stop. He hurled another seven or eight Fireball Talismans at it in succession. Only after the fireballs struck and the Unicorn Thunder Viper's body, as thick as a water barrel, no longer twitched even once did Wei Suo, drenched in cold sweat, collapse onto the ground with limp hands and feet.
After taking several deep breaths and gulping down a bottle of Qi Replenishing Powder, Wei Suo finally came back to his senses.
The situation just now had been far too perilous. None of the protective talismans on Wei Suo's body seemed capable of blocking the Unicorn Thunder Viper's demon core bombardment. Had the Illusionary Light Talisman he refined not briefly left the not-too-intelligent Unicorn Thunder Viper standing there in a daze, he might already have been blasted into scraps by its demon core.
"I actually killed a Level 4 Middle Grade Demonic Beast by myself?"
Looking at the Unicorn Thunder Viper's corpse, several times larger than himself, Wei Suo still found it somewhat hard to believe.
The surroundings were now completely empty. Trails of green smoke still rose from several unextinguished flames. The spectacle of his rapid succession of Fireball Talismans had been too shocking. Several Iron Wire Snakes had been struck directly by the wildly flying fireballs and blasted dead on the ground, while all the Winged Scale Snakes had already been frightened away.
Wei Suo searched the area and found the corpses of six Iron Wire Snakes and three Winged Scale Snakes.
After collecting all six Iron Wire Snake corpses and three Winged Scale Snake corpses into his Treasure Pouch, Wei Suo walked over to the Unicorn Thunder Viper's corpse. Although this Level 4 Middle Grade Demonic Beast was thoroughly dead, the savage and ancient aura it still exuded made Wei Suo's heart prickle.
"What is this?"
There was still enough space in his Treasure Pouch, and Wei Suo was afraid another powerful demonic beast might arrive, so he had originally intended to immediately pack up the Unicorn Thunder Viper's corpse—the corpse that had nearly taken his life—and leave. But now that he had approached it, he saw a faint red glow leaking from a charred, split wound in the Unicorn Thunder Viper's abdomen. It clearly did not resemble its demon core.
Wei Suo hesitated slightly, but in the end, unable to suppress his curiosity, he fired several Azure Water Blades and widened the wound along the split.
The red light grew brighter. It seemed that some object was stuck inside its belly. Having handled many demonic beast corpses before, Wei Suo showed no disgust as he reached his hand in. With one tug, he pulled out the object emitting the red glow.
"This..."
What left Wei Suo utterly dumbfounded was that the object giving off a gentle red radiance was actually a thin-as-cicada-wing, crumpled-up piece of... female cultivator's underwear!
"Could this have been bought by some unlucky cultivator to give to his old sweetheart?"
That was the first thought that surfaced in Wei Suo's somewhat stunned mind. There were still remnants of a black leather pouch on the outside of the crumpled female cultivator's underwear. Clearly, the underwear had not yet been worn. It had been placed in some cultivator's leather pouch before being swallowed by this Unicorn Thunder Viper.
"Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover?!"
When Wei Suo unfolded the underwear, he could not help freezing in astonishment again.
The entire piece of female cultivator's underwear was as thin as cicada wings and was clearly fashioned in the belly-cover style popular among female cultivators. Yet on this sexy belly-cover was a Fire Phoenix pattern formed from scarlet-red talismanic markings.
Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover! This sexy female cultivator's underwear was actually a Fire Phoenix Belly-Cover that, once infused with True Essence, could summon a Fire Phoenix with defensive power at the second order to coil around the wearer's body, able to withstand ordinary spell attacks from a Circulation Realm First Level cultivator!
Before you continue