Snow Dragon Ridge (Part 2)

Suddenly, a faint sound came from behind him. Had his hearing not been exceptionally keen, he would never have detected it. He feigned ignorance, yet quietly glanced back, immediately spotting a green snake coiled in the grass some eighty feet away, its eyes gleaming with a cold, eerie light as they remained fixed upon him.

Although Yan Chihuo had only caught a glimpse, he instantly realized this snake was a demon, its cultivation already at the Body Tempering Early Stage. While the snake demon was weak, it possessed the advantage of the terrain here, making it quite capable of ambushing a cultivator at the Body Tempering Middle Stage.

Yan Chihuo twisted his body and executed the Earth Shrinking Step, appearing before the snake demon in an instant. The snake demon had been calculating how to launch its ambush, never expecting Yan Chihuo to close the distance so suddenly.

The snake demon opened its maw and spat out a stream of venom. Yan Chihuo opened his hand, and a thin layer of five-colored soft sand blocked his front—it was the Five Poison Cloud Smoke Cover. The venom landed on the Five Poison Cloud Smoke Cover, soaked into it, and vanished without a trace.

When Yan Chihuo had executed the Earth Shrinking Step, killing the snake demon would have been as easy as turning over his hand. He had refrained from striking immediately only to test whether the Five Poison Cloud Smoke Cover could absorb the snake's venom.

Seeing that its venom was ineffective, the snake demon realized the intruder was not to be trifled with and turned to flee. Yan Chihuo swung his long sword, and a burst of Sword Qi shot out, shredding the surrounding grass and trees to pieces. The snake demon lunged sideways, but just as it dodged the Sword Qi, a flash of light appeared; Yan Chihuo's sword was already upon it.

Unable to dodge in time, it could only open its mouth to spit another stream of venom, which was again blocked by the Five Poison Cloud Smoke Cover. A massive snake head was severed and sent flying over ten feet away, a fountain of blood spraying out as the long body fell to the ground, writhing. This snake demon was fiercer than the one Yan Chihuo had encountered before entering the sect, but it no longer posed the slightest threat to him.

He extracted the snake demon's poison sac and quickly departed. However, the venom of this Body Tempering Early Stage snake was too weak to have any significant effect on suppressing the poison of the Demon Immortal Fruit within his body; Yan Chihuo still needed to find that mutated Red-Scaled Poison Python.

Half a day passed, and Yan Chihuo had ventured over two hundred miles deep into Snow Dragon Ridge, yet he still had not seen the Red-Scaled Poison Python. As he rounded a mountain hollow, he saw three people—one man and two women—lying on the ground before him.

Yan Chihuo could not help but gasp. The three were covered in festering sores oozing yellow fluid, their facial features unrecognizable, with several shattered fragments of Talisman Artifacts lying nearby.

He scanned his surroundings first, and finding nothing unusual, he stepped forward. After observing for only a moment, he saw the flesh on their bodies rapidly dissolve into thick liquid, revealing white bones; a moment later, even the bones were completely dissolved.

What terrifyingly potent poison! Yan Chihuo's expression was extremely grave. Judging by the speed of the decay, the demon or cultivator that had attacked these three could not have gone far.

He became even more vigilant, glancing at the ground once more before picking up a fragment near his feet that seemed neither stone nor wood. The fragment was palm-sized and over three inches thick; one look was enough to tell it had been damaged by a violent impact.

Yan Chihuo studied it for a moment and recognized it as a remnant of Wood Cloud Stone. He was also familiar with the Forbidden Cloud Pattern on this Talisman Artifact; it was the Stone Armor Art.

He thought to himself, This Wood Cloud Stone is both lightweight and sturdy. Judging by this fragment, the person who refined this Talisman Artifact was of no low standard, making it a rare defensive artifact. To have been shattered by the opponent, one can imagine just how powerful the enemy's attack was.

He looked at the edges of the fragment; they were jagged and uneven, clearly not caused by a sharp blade. He estimated it had been shattered by a heavy weapon like a hammer or mace, or perhaps a single strike from a demon's physical body.

Seeing this, his heart stirred, and he mused, If it was a physical strike from a demon, it is eight or nine parts likely to be that Red-Scaled Poison Python. It is just a pity I arrived too late to see if there were any storage rings on these three corpses.

Although demons had awakened their intelligence, those at the Body Tempering Stage did not yet know how to remove storage rings. Therefore, if these three had been killed by a demon, there would likely have been storage rings left behind. But since he had arrived late, even if there had been rings, they would have been dissolved by the potent poison.

He lifted his leg to leave, but his eyes caught sight of a green plant over two feet tall in the grass, bearing several red flowers with heart-shaped leaves.

His spirits lifted instantly; this was a Jade Ginseng, and he had not expected to stumble upon one here. Although his goal for this trip was not Jade Ginseng, he still had to return and hand in three of them.

He walked over and used his long sword to carefully dig up the Jade Ginseng. The ginseng was pale yellow and appeared almost transparent, truly resembling a piece of fine jade.

There were three types of this Jade Ginseng. The first was the White Jade Ginseng, usually around fifty years old and of the lowest value, generally worth about seven or eight Jade Crystals; this was the type required by the Merit Pavilion.

Next was the Yellow Jade Ginseng, which could reach a hundred years in age and was worth significantly more; one could not obtain it for less than a hundred Jade Crystals. The last type was the Red Jade Ginseng, at least two hundred years old, with a minimum value of three to four hundred Jade Crystals. If it could reach a thousand years, one could not hope to obtain it without two or three thousand Jade Crystals.

Yan Chihuo had originally intended to use this ginseng for his mission, but upon seeing it was a Yellow Jade Ginseng, he naturally could not hand it over. He took a jade box from his robes, placed the Yellow Jade Ginseng inside, stored it in his storage ring, and continued on his way.

Along the way, he saw several more corpses, though they were different from the previous three; their bodies bore traces of being bitten by wild beasts, clearly having been injured by beasts or demon beasts. These people were also cultivators, but they possessed no storage rings, and it was unclear whether they had been taken by others or if they had been injured by demons.

Yan Chihuo was convinced these people had died at the hands of cultivators, for there was not a single item related to cultivation on their bodies, only a few shattered fragments of Talisman Artifacts.

Night fell. Yan Chihuo caught a wild rabbit for dinner, then leaned against a large tree to rest, soon falling into a deep sleep. His hearing was astonishing; if there were any unusual movements, he would certainly be awakened. This was one of the benefits he had gained after the abnormality in his senses.

In the dead of night, it was pitch black. A faint rustling sound came from the grass. A green lizard was creeping toward Yan Chihuo; the rustling was the sound of its limbs rubbing against the weeds. When it was thirty feet away from Yan Chihuo, he suddenly opened his eyes, his body flickered, and he appeared beside the lizard, his long sword slashing down fiercely.

The lizard opened its mouth and spat out a whirlwind to meet the attack; the wind contained a faint, sharp edge, while the creature itself shifted to the side.

This was a wind-attribute demon! The whirlwind it spat was called the Whirlwind Art, a low-level wind-attribute spell used to attack enemies. Wind-attribute demons also possessed a defensive spell called the Wind Sensing Art, which not only provided defense but could also detect enemies, sense auras, and understand the opponent's attacks to dodge in advance, with an effective range of ten feet.