A Premature Clash

Long before entering the story world, Gao Xu had devised a meticulous plan. One crucial point was how to break away from the main group inside Hidden Dragon Cave and act alone.

Knowing Tang Mei'er's entire scheme, Gao Xu understood that before she revealed her true intentions, she would never allow any newcomer to come to harm. Every person lost would reduce her plan's chances of success by at least five percent!

Moreover, she would not be the only one keeping a close watch on the newcomers. The three story characters were not blind either. If Gao Xu showed any sign of slipping away midway, and they mistook him for the Snake Demon's spy, his fate would be miserable.

As for Lin Tiannan, who was hidden in the shadows, Gao Xu was not worried. He knew perfectly well that, given Lin Tiannan's strength, the space would never permit him to interfere in a battle of this level. That so-called grand demon-slaying plan earlier had merely been a smokescreen.

Therefore, the best opportunity would only come during their first encounter with an elite enemy, when the three story characters became overconfident and were injured, while Tang Mei'er unconsciously shifted her attention to the battle!

Fortunately, the Five-Poison Giant Snake from his previous life had appeared forcefully this time as well, allowing Gao Xu to seize that fleeting opportunity firmly!

The successful execution of the first two steps did not make Gao Xu complacent. Ninety miles was only halfway through a hundred-mile journey. Besides, the next few steps were the most critical. If he did not want to pay in blood and humiliation again, then he had to work even harder after the brutal lesson he had been forced to endure last time!

The route Gao Xu chose was a considerable detour compared to the one Tang Mei'er and the others took, but it had one advantage: elite enemies appeared less frequently along the way.

With Gao Xu's current strength, he could not handle even the Five-Poison Giant Snake from earlier, let alone a Nine-Headed Snake capable of breathing Samadhi True Fire. In such narrow terrain, poisoning was difficult to avoid. Without antidotes and recovery potions, no matter how skilled one was, one would likely perish from the continuous loss of health.

The reason Gao Xu could determine a route through these crisscrossing, winding tunnels was because of a map of Hidden Dragon Cave.

Tang Mei'er probably could not have imagined even in her dreams that Gao Xu, like her, had memorized the map of Hidden Dragon Cave inside out.

The so-called map of Hidden Dragon Cave actually belonged to Lin Family Fort. As the saying went, the people who understood you best were surely your enemies. Lin Tiannan had entered the cave several times to eliminate demons, only to be driven mad by its natural terrain. After returning, he naturally had someone draw a map of its internal structure.

As long as one raised Lin Family Fort's reputation or Lin Tiannan's favorability enough, such a highly targeted map was not difficult to obtain. With Tang Mei'er's plans for this mission, how could she possibly have failed to prepare one?

However, the reason Gao Xu still remembered that map now was because Tang Mei'er's lesson back then had been too profound. Without realizing it, he had also etched Hidden Dragon Cave's maze map into his mind as a special warning, never daring to forget it.

Although the threat of elite enemies had been reduced to a minimum, swarms of Green Snakes and Crimson Snakes were not easy to deal with either. The highly corrosive venom they sprayed was particularly troublesome. With Gao Xu alone, facing three Crimson Snakes at once was theoretically his limit.

But the presence of realgar powder, Flying Daggers, and the basic skill Basic Throwing Weaponry changed—perhaps even overturned—the balance of strength between both sides.

Realgar, also known as cock's-comb stone, had terrifying, even fatal effects on snakes, just as roosters naturally suppressed them. Combined with lime and sulfur, it became even more potent.

Packet after packet of powder was thrown by Gao Xu using throwing-weapon techniques, gaining the bonuses of his basic skill. The miserable hisses constantly rising from the snake swarm showed just how effective those cheap items were.

The Flying Daggers were specifically used to counter the Crimson Snakes' venom-spitting skill. The moment a snake straightened its body and prepared to spit, a Flying Dagger coated in realgar would shoot into its mouth with lightning speed, severing its tongue!

Gao Xu's main weapon was a longsword. Although it was only a white-grade piece of equipment with 2–4 attack power, the basic skill "Sword Familiarity" greatly increased his attack power. The Insight skill made the venom's backlash burn the snakes' mouths full of holes, becoming another powerful tool for quickly harvesting kills.

Insight was a rather interesting passive skill. Whenever its effect triggered in battle, faint light would appear at the weak points of an enemy's moves, guiding the attack toward the proper target. With his combat experience, and against opponents as low-level as Crimson Snakes, he had naturally never missed.

Gao Xu had not expected to comprehend a skill from the little maid Dongmei. Therefore, by the time he had exceeded the requirements for both main quests one and two and approached the gate guarded by the Snake Demon, he was more than half an hour ahead of schedule.

The main group would need at least another hour to reach this place.

After finding a relatively concealed crevice, scattering a little realgar to repel snakes, and hiding inside, Gao Xu rubbed his chin and fell into thought.

Since the plan could not keep up with the changes, it would be a terrible waste not to make use of this extra time.

Furthermore, although Gao Xu had killed all the enemies by himself and earned quite a generous amount of points, he was still nearly seventy points short of the three hundred required for Main Quest Three.

Just as Gao Xu made up his mind to farm his points close to three hundred first, so he could hold the trump card of completing the main quest and returning to the space at any moment, something unexpected happened!

The sounds of fierce fighting drifted over from afar!

Following the sound, Gao Xu hurried over and discovered that Lin Tiannan was actually fighting someone. Or perhaps calling the opponent a person was inappropriate, because its upper body belonged to a rugged-looking man, with a mass of black hair hanging down his back like tangled knots. A sinister demonic aura flickered in his sharply slanted eyes, but below his muscular chest was a gigantic snake tail.

The owner of such a form was obviously the master of Hidden Dragon Cave—the Snake Demon!

The Snake Demon wielded a massive scythe, and his strength was boundless. With a casual sweep, blade aura crisscrossed through the air, causing the nearby passageways to tremble slightly as dust drifted down from the cave ceiling.

However, no matter how powerful the Snake Demon was, he could not threaten Lin Tiannan. With a slight shift of his feet, the Southern Martial Alliance Leader had already produced several afterimages. His body spun rapidly, his sword following his movements. Thrusts, stabs, chops, slashes, lifts, blocks, cuts, and grinds—every type of sword move poured down upon the Snake Demon without pause, quickly leaving several wounds across his body.

Yet Lin Tiannan, who clearly held the upper hand, was not pleased. The thick-skinned Snake Demon did not care about such superficial wounds at all. The real threat was the alluring beautiful woman the Snake Demon was protecting behind him.

The beautiful woman was petite and delicate, with skin like creamy jade, a face like white jade, bright eyes, white teeth, and willow-leaf brows. Her weapon was an exquisite jade hairpin tucked into her hair. At that moment, pink mist continuously sprayed from its tip, filling the space around Lin Tiannan and forcing him to use his innate true energy to protect himself. He did not dare to use his fierce sword-aura techniques, lest she seize the opportunity.

The Snake Demon's giant scythe danced wildly while the Fox Demon's jade hairpin exhaled mist. Their cooperation was flawless, their minds in perfect sync, and they had actually brought the battle to a stalemate.

In truth, Lin Tiannan had not used his full strength, because he was not confident of killing his enemies instantly. If he merely severely wounded them, the two demons would surely flee again as they had last time, using the terrain to hide. Thus, he intended to rely on his deep and enduring internal cultivation to drag out the battle until the main group arrived, then eliminate the demons in one stroke!

"Oh my, Lord Lin must still be thinking about that bunch of useless subordinates of yours... No need to wait. They've already entered the bellies of the Nine-Headed Snake's darling little babies~" The Fox Demon suddenly giggled, her tone filled with indescribable mockery.

Lin Tiannan's expression changed, and his heart turned cold. There had originally been no flaw in this plan, yet for some unknown reason, the Snake Demon and Fox Demon had found him the moment he began lurking in hiding, sparking this fierce battle. Thinking it over now, perhaps every poisonous snake in Hidden Dragon Cave served as the two demons' eyes and ears, allowing them to discover his whereabouts immediately. If so, the situation was truly serious. Xu Lang and the others might be facing tremendous danger right now!

"Hehe, Lord Lin, take care! We won't see you off!" Watching Lin Tiannan turn and leave, the Fox Demon quietly let out a breath of relief. Good thing that clever girl Mei'er secretly informed us after discovering people from Lin Family Fort had arrived. Otherwise, we really might have suffered this time!

"That old bastard's sword aura is fucking sharp. It hurts like hell!" The Snake Demon licked his wounds, fire blazing in his eyes. "Once we finish off that bunch of useless subordinates of his, let's see if he still dares to harass us again and again!"

The Fox Demon also revealed a vicious gleam, nodding murderously. "This time, Lin Tiannan will definitely think we have our kin inside the cave serving as spies. Panic has already taken root in him. Xiao Qi and Xiao Jiu have gone to entangle him now, and they must not let him reunite with his subordinates. Later, you should pretend to be losing and lure all his subordinates inside. We'll catch them all in one net. After that, he'll never dare to invade again!"

The demon couple entered the cave to treat their wounds while discussing their plan face-to-face. They never expected that a figure had silently followed behind them, crossing the heavily guarded gateway as well...