"Younger brothers and sisters, you'd best stay on your guard. The Plum Blossom Snakes may only be peak first-tier demonic beasts, but there are so many of them that they'll be troublesome to deal with. As your senior, I'd hate to see any of you lose your lives here through carelessness!" The young man who spoke was the only "expert" among them at the seventh level of Qi Refining.
He stood with his hands behind his back, undisguised arrogance written all over his face. It was no wonder he was so conceited. At just twenty-three, he had already reached the seventh level of the Qi Refining Stage. That proved not only that he was a cultivation prodigy with excellent aptitude, but, more importantly, that at the Academy he could bask in the admiring gazes of his younger schoolmates. The young man relished that honor.
Now, faced with thirteen peak first-tier demonic beasts—the Plum Blossom Snakes—he naturally put on the air of an expert, hoping to leave a deeper impression on his younger schoolmates.
"Senior, something seems strange to me. As far as I know, Plum Blossom Snakes are highly venomous and naturally bloodthirsty. They dislike living in groups, so why are there thirteen of them here at once?" A rather plain-looking woman furrowed her brows and asked the seventh-level man leading them, her voice tinged with doubt.
She looked young, around twenty. But her looks were truly ordinary, and her figure was nothing special: she had no curves to speak of. Without a doubt, her words drew no one's attention.
Instead, they were met with faint disdain and mockery.
"This is the Ten Thousand Snake Mountain Range. What's strange about seeing demonic snakes gathered in a group?" The seventh-level man smoothed the hair at his forehead and replied coolly. Yet anyone could hear the disdain in his voice.
"Senior Le Tian is right. Junior sister, you're worrying too much. With Senior Le Tian here, there's no need for us to be so timid and fret over every little thing. We just have to follow his lead. As long as we do as Senior Le Tian says, I'm sure we'll return with a bountiful haul!" A fourth-level Qi Refining man glanced at Le Tian, then turned to the others and spoke, his flattery so blatant that Le Tian was delighted to hear it.
Cultivators were human too. They were just as bound by worldly conventions as anyone else.
The young woman who had spoken saw that no one had taken her warning to heart. She sighed softly and said nothing more. Perhaps she, too, had accepted Le Tian's explanation.
In the cultivation world, whoever had the bigger fist was in the right. Le Tian was the strongest here, at the seventh level of the Qi Refining Stage, so everything he said was right in their eyes. Even if he was wrong, he was still right!
"Enough talk. Get your magical artifacts out and deal with them! If we take them down in one fell swoop, this trip won't have been in vain!" Seeing the thirteen Plum Blossom Snakes glare at them, poised to spring, Le Tian spoke with a grave expression.
When dealing with demonic beasts, it was best to strike first, before they threw everyone into disarray.
He slapped his Storage Bag. A jet-black chain, thick as a thumb, appeared in his hand. Le Tian chanted under his breath as the spiritual energy in his dantian poured furiously into the chain.
As the spiritual energy flowed into it, a black light spread across the chain, growing brighter and brighter. The chain itself expanded, growing thicker and thicker. The transformation was so strange that the others stared in astonishment. Still, two of them recognized the chain in Le Tian's hand, and their expressions shifted.
It was Le Tian's prized magical artifact, the mid-grade Black Iron Chain! Le Tian came from a cultivation family and had an astonishingly deep reserve of resources, so it was hardly surprising that he could produce a mid-grade artifact. But to everyone there, a mid-grade artifact was still immensely tempting.
They were either Rogue Cultivators or members of weak families, none of which could afford to equip them with mid-grade artifacts. Knowing how powerful such artifacts were, they couldn't help envying Le Tian when he brought his out.
Envy aside, no one slowed their hands. They had prepared their mid-grade artifacts long ago, but with their leader yet to give the order, none had dared act rashly. Now that Le Tian had spoken, they all poured spiritual energy into the artifacts in their hands.
In an instant, a kaleidoscope of light flashed from their hands, so bright that the sunlight streaming down from the sky seemed dim by comparison.
"Let me trap them first. Then kill the snakes one by one as quickly as you can!" Le Tian's expression turned stern as he gave the others his orders.
As soon as he finished speaking, Le Tian swung the chain toward the Plum Blossom Snakes. Empowered by spiritual energy, it had grown to about the same size as the snakes. But the Black Iron Chain was far longer than any snake's body.
The Black Iron Chain was like a vicious black python, hurtling toward the snakes with a rush of wind!
"Clatter, clatter!" The chain rattled. In the blink of an eye, it was above the thirteen Plum Blossom Snakes. Black light poured from it as it circled around them.
In an instant, the chain formed a seamless cage, trapping every one of the thirteen Plum Blossom Snakes inside! Black light flickered over the chain, eerie and strange.
The thirteen snakes trapped within began to move. Their small eyes gleamed with murderous light as they leaped up, their enormous bodies slamming into the chain again and again.
"Boom! Boom!" Dull impacts rang out one after another. Under the snakes' repeated blows, the chain cage loosened considerably, greatly startling Le Tian, its owner. Each time a snake struck, the Black Iron Chain emitted a thick cloud of black smoke that shielded its links. Without that black smoke, the cage formed by the chain would likely have already collapsed.
Thirteen peak first-tier Plum Blossom Snakes could easily break through a cage conjured by a mid-grade magical artifact. But though the Black Iron Chain was only mid-grade, it had been made solely to restrain enemies and had no other abilities. It was exceptionally effective at trapping foes, and, being forged from black iron, it was incredibly sturdy. Ordinary magical artifacts could hardly damage it.
The thirteen Plum Blossom Snakes would still need some time to destroy the Black Iron Chain!
"What are you standing around for? Move! My spiritual energy won't hold out much longer!" Seeing that the others still hadn't acted, Le Tian's expression darkened as he urged them on. Even with a mid-grade artifact, facing thirteen peak first-tier Plum Blossom Snakes alone was a difficult task for Le Tian, who was only at the seventh level of Qi Refining.
As the saying went, pride made a man put on a brave face, even when it cost him his life. Le Tian was in exactly that predicament now.
"Clang!" Just as the others were about to attack, a Bronze Bell, more than ten feet across, suddenly came hurtling through the air and hung above their heads. Before anyone could react, it rang out with a deafening crash, making several people below wince as their eardrums throbbed and their bodies swayed unsteadily.
Aside from the sixth- and seventh-level cultivators and Le Tian, who were largely unaffected, everyone else looked terrible. The man who had flattered Le Tian earlier was only at the fourth level. With no warning, the bell's sound sent his blood and qi churning through his body, and he had nearly vomited it up.
They weren't fools. Seeing this, they understood what had happened: another cultivator had spotted the thirteen Plum Blossom Snakes and wanted to snatch the spoils right out from under them.
In an instant, everyone's expression turned grim. Le Tian most of all. He had to keep channeling spiritual energy into the Black Iron Chain while watching the Bronze Bell above, his face full of wariness.
"Which fellow cultivator is there? Why hide like a coward?" Le Tian shouted sternly.
The answer was another peal from the bell, this one distinctly louder than the last. When it rang again, the lowest-ranked cultivator, the man at the fourth level, went pale.
Then a figure appeared, flitting toward them like a phantom. Though he seemed far away, he appeared within sight of Le Tian and the others after only a few breaths.
The figure showed himself for a moment, then vanished again. When he reappeared, he was behind a woman, two gleaming daggers in his hands!
"Junior sister, watch out!" As a seventh-level Qi Refining cultivator, Le Tian was faster than the others in both spiritual sense and reaction time. The moment the figure appeared behind the woman, Le Tian spotted the daggers in his hands. Anyone could tell the man meant trouble. Worse, the woman he had chosen was one of Le Tian's favorite junior sisters. She was beautiful, had an excellent figure, and spoke pleasingly; Le Tian was very fond of her. So when the man holding the twin daggers appeared behind her, Le Tian couldn't help warning her.
The woman heard him and was immediately startled. Trusting Le Tian, she acted without thinking. She raised a hand, and a yellow shield appeared, wrapping her slender figure completely in what looked like an eggshell.
At the same time, she slapped her Storage Bag. A golden light flashed out and floated above her head. As the light faded, it revealed a fist-sized Cyan Gourd!
The gourd spun above her head, then suddenly grew. In the blink of an eye, the Cyan Gourd had expanded to over ten feet across, spewing pale yellow flames that closed around the woman and shielded her completely!
It all happened in the time it took to draw a breath, each movement flowing into the next. The woman's reactions were clearly quick—but whether she could evade the twin daggers in the man's hands was another matter entirely!