Yan Chihuo felt as if the giant snake were about to squeeze him in two. He hurriedly activated the Spirit Jade Vajra Art to resist. Just then, he caught a whiff of something rank. Looking up, he saw the enormous snake head only a few feet away. It seemed the snake intended to swallow him whole.
At that moment, Yan Chihuo could think of nothing else. He pushed the Spirit Jade Vajra Art to its limits, and his body slid several more feet. Twisting sideways, he drove the White Jade Short Sword in his hand into the giant snake's vital point, seven inches behind its head.
Normally, if Yan Chihuo hadn't been trapped by the snake's tail, the giant snake would have guarded that vital spot so carefully that he never would have gotten the chance. And Yan Chihuo had put all his strength into that strike. Gao Kun had been protected by a Talisman Artifact and still couldn't withstand Yan Chihuo's punch. Now Yan Chihuo had a sword in hand—how could the giant snake stop him?
That strike carried tremendous force, and the sword sank all the way into the giant snake's vital point. The snake let out a roar and released him with its tail, then spat out another cloud of poisonous mist.
Yan Chihuo reacted quickly. The instant the giant snake let go, he leaped forward and clung tightly to its body, avoiding the poisonous mist. At the same time, he pulled another White Jade Short Sword from his robes and stabbed it into the giant snake's other eye. With a pop, the sword sank all the way in.
The giant snake lunged forward again. Yan Chihuo felt hollow inside, his muscles spasming all over. He knew the Spirit Jade Vajra Art had drained his inner strength, and he could no longer hold on. He tumbled off the snake's body.
The giant snake's lunge carried it dozens of yards through the air before it crashed into a distant mountain peak. A thunderous boom rang out. The impact smashed its skull, and it fell to the ground. It wasn't dead yet; it writhed on the ground, its enormous tail lashing back and forth, sending sand and stones flying and snapping trees. After a long while, the giant snake finally stopped moving. It was clearly dead.
Yan Chihuo lay on the ground. The wound beneath his ribs had split open again, and he had several more cuts from the stones that had flown at him. His whole body was smeared with blood and dust, leaving him in a sorry state.
He looked over at Qu Wuxing and the other two. Qu Wuxing had been badly injured by the boulder and lay unconscious, unable to move. Yun Zaitian had been thrown to the ground, his life uncertain. Tong Huaibing's face was dark with poison, and he was deeply poisoned.
He drew a deep breath and tremblingly pulled the Gold Trauma Medicine from his robes, applying it to the wound beneath his ribs. Then he lay back down and silently circulated the Spirit Jade Vajra Art to recover his true qi. It took more than two hours before he began to feel better, but he had recovered only about seventy percent of his true qi. The Spirit Jade Vajra Art had advanced the previous night, so it would naturally take him longer to recover.
He got to his feet and first checked on Tong Huaibing. Finding him still alive, he took several detoxifying pills from his robes and placed them in Tong Huaibing's mouth. Then he went to Qu Wuxing and sent a stream of true qi into him. Qu Wuxing received the energy, and after about half a cup of tea, he slowly woke. Yan Chihuo withdrew his true qi and said, "Heal yourself."
He then went over to Yun Zaitian and found both his arm bones and more than a dozen ribs broken. Sighing, he slowly set the bones for him, then applied Gold Trauma Medicine.
After finishing all this, he checked on Tong Huaibing again. He had shown no improvement, but he hadn't gotten any worse either. Yan Chihuo sighed inwardly. This Demon Snake's venom is truly formidable.
He sent another stream of true qi into Tong Huaibing, then withdrew it with a sigh. Tong Huaibing's body had already been contaminated by the deadly poison. Even if Yan Chihuo saved him, he would be left crippled.
Seeing that none of the three could move, Yan Chihuo looked around and spotted the cave. After pondering for a moment, he went inside alone. The cave was spacious, and aside from a rank stench, there was nothing else inside. Since the three wouldn't be able to walk today, it would make a good place to rest.
He was about to leave when he noticed seven or eight unfamiliar medicinal plants growing in one corner of the cave. His thoughts stirred. Wherever poisonous snakes lurk, there must be an antidote within seven steps. This is the natural law by which all things in the world counterbalance one another. Could these plants be the antidote to the snake's poison?
He went closer. The plants smelled awful, but he couldn't afford to be picky. He dug them all up and left the cave. First, he fed one plant to Tong Huaibing. Tong Huaibing chewed it a few times and swallowed it. After a moment, he groaned and curled his limbs inward, clearly in great pain.
Yan Chihuo was pleased rather than alarmed. He knew Tong Huaibing's life was out of danger. If the plant had no effect, Tong Huaibing certainly wouldn't be feeling pain. He carried Qu Wuxing and the other two into the cave, then brought over the horses and tethered them to nearby trees.
After all that work, he felt hungry, but he had no rations. He glanced at the giant snake and thought, Snake meat doesn't taste bad. Then he walked over. The White Jade Short Sword lodged in the snake's eye had shattered when it struck the mountain peak, but the sword embedded in its vital point was still intact.
He went up and pulled out the sword, then used all his strength to cut open the giant snake where it had been wounded. He had thought the giant snake had become a monster and that its hide might be too tough to cut. But now that it was dead, its body wasn't difficult to handle.
He cut off several large chunks of snake meat, then noticed some strange markings on a palm-sized scale on the giant snake's neck. The patterns bore some resemblance to those on Gao Kun's Wooden Sword and the Jade Box.
His thoughts stirred. He cut off the scale and examined it, then took Gao Kun's Wooden Sword from his back. Sure enough, the patterns on the sword and the giant snake's scale came from the same source, though they were completely different.
He took out the Jade Box and glanced at it. The patterns on it were different from those on the scale as well. He tried slicing the snake meat with the sword, then couldn't help shaking his head. Aside from being hard, the sword was useless; when he had just cut the meat, it seemed even worse than a kitchen cleaver. Still, it was a cultivator's weapon, so he wasn't willing to give it up. He slung it over his back again.
The patterns on the Wooden Sword and the Jade Box were more complex than those on the scale. The patterns on the sword seemed to form a complete set, while the scale displayed several different, incomplete patterns in rows.
He thought, This snake demon's belongings must be extraordinary too. I'd better keep them. He spotted the giant snake's two fangs, which looked incredibly sharp, and took them as well.
After that, he simply slit open the snake's belly and removed its gallbladder and a Snake Sac. Snake gallbladders had always been used in medicine, and the gallbladder of a snake demon would only be more effective. He was also fairly certain the Snake Sac was the snake's venom sac. The venom was so potent that it would be a waste to throw it away.
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