It Was Setting Bait!

"Ah, I see. I was too presumptuous. Since it's dangerous, then forget it. It's getting late—would there be somewhere in the village where I could stay for the night? I'll leave first thing tomorrow morning for the next village."

"Yes, of course!"

The village chief sighed in relief and hurriedly arranged for Lin Xia to rest in a side room of the ancestral hall. He also had someone bring over a simple meal and some water.

The night gradually deepened.

Inside the ancestral hall's side room, Lin Xia sat cross-legged on the crude bed, but he did not enter deep meditation.

Amid the stench of rotten flesh poison that had filled the ancestral hall during the Skyhorn Snake martial soul awakenings that day, there had been an extremely faint trace of something... purer, more condensed, carrying a decayed scent with an almost metallic texture.

This was definitely not the aura of an ordinary Skyhorn Snake!

It was like a drop of ink falling into water. Though diluted, it could not escape Lin Xia's discerning palate!

After all, Lin Xia himself possessed Life Poison. No one understood the taste of poison better than he did!

The village chief's evasiveness, the villagers' complicated gazes, that deeply hidden vigilance... they definitely knew something!

And they were likely hiding something good, too afraid to show it to anyone.

Lin Xia opened his eyes, and a sharp glint flashed through his green-and-purple heterochromatic pupils in the darkness.

Give up? That was not his style!

He had endured Yue Hongsheng's desperate pursuit. How could such a minor obstacle stop him?

He gently patted the Bulbasaur lying beside him.

"Bulba?"

Bulbasaur raised its head, its red eyes shining brightly in the darkness.

A cold curve formed at the corner of Lin Xia's mouth.

"Have you rested enough? Looks like... we'll have to do some 'asking around' ourselves."

The night was as dark as ink. Like a shadow blending into the darkness, Lin Xia silently left the ancestral hall's side room with Bulbasaur. Using the shadows cast by the houses as cover, he made his way precisely toward the direction the village chief had gone to great lengths to avoid mentioning—the depths of the miasma forest behind the village.

That rotting, iron-bloody smell, as if guiding him, drifted over in faint strands from that direction.

The dense forest was filled with brambles and crawling poisonous insects.

Lin Xia transformed Poison Vine Bone Wings into supple vines and gently swept aside the poisonous creepers and foul-smelling strange plants blocking the way.

Bulbasaur also extended its Vine Whip, vigilantly probing the poisonous energy fluctuations in the surroundings.

The deeper they went, the stronger the alluring scent of that pure rotten flesh poison became, mingling with the thicker miasma.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the terrain ahead suddenly became treacherous.

A naturally formed rock cave, surrounded by enormous boulders, appeared before Lin Xia.

The entrance was covered in slick moss and dark-purple mushrooms. The cave mouth was deep and gloomy, giving off a nauseating stench along with that pure rotten flesh poison—the source was here!

Suddenly!

"Hiss—!"

A low hiss, filled with savagery and endless pain, exploded from deep within the cave!

The sound wave surged out with a thick, bloody wind, making the vegetation at the entrance sway violently!

Immediately afterward, a massive dark-green snake shadow shot out of the cave like lightning!

It was several times larger than the Skyhorn Snake martial souls of the village children. When coiled up, its body nearly occupied more than half the open space before the cave!

Most terrifying of all, its ferocious snake head bore a pair of dark-red vertical pupils like congealed blood, gleaming with an ominous light. Near the seven-inch point on the rear half of its body, a palm-sized patch of scales was an unnatural dark green, badly rotted and oozing sticky pus that reeked intensely of decay!

This horrific rotten flesh wound seemed to be the source of its frenzy!

An Earth Crystal Snake!

And judging from its aura, it was probably close to three hundred years old!

Its blood-red vertical pupils instantly locked onto the two living creatures that had trespassed into its nest—Lin Xia in his black robe and the strangely scented Bulbasaur at his feet!

Lin Xia's pupils contracted sharply. Every muscle in his body tensed as he shouted in a low voice:

"Bulbasaur!"

"Bulba—!"

Bulbasaur had been prepared. Its fighting spirit ignited instantly!

The seed bulb on its back suddenly erupted with brilliant green light, and two dark-green Vine Whips shot from behind it like venom-coated spirit snakes, as fast as lightning!

At the tips of the whips, a deep yellow glow flickered faintly, enough to make one's heart tremble—

First Soul Skill: Life Poison!

The heavily wounded Earth Crystal Snake reacted a beat too slowly.

The Vine Whips did not strike its hard crystal scales. Instead, they accurately and viciously slipped around its defenses and lashed at the exposed, mangled wound beneath its neck!

Strike! Inject!

Squelch!

The tough tips of the Vine Whips pierced directly into the torn flesh. Energy thick with Life Poison was forcibly injected without restraint, like venom released from opened floodgates!

"Hiss—Roar!"

The Earth Crystal Snake let out a miserable scream under the devastating blow. Its massive body twisted wildly and sprang upward, its barbed tail sweeping violently toward Bulbasaur's position while wrapped in earthen-yellow crystal energy!

However, the instant Bulbasaur landed the strike, its Vine Whips had already retracted at high speed.

"Bulba!"

The little green figure flexed all four limbs with extraordinary agility and leaped backward to widen the distance.

Faced with the surging attack that seemed capable of destroying everything, it had no intention of taking it head-on. Using the surrounding rocks as cover, its small body burst forth with astonishing nimbleness as it continuously darted and dodged.

The crystal tail smashed crater after crater into the ground, sending shattered stones flying!

Earthen-yellow crystal spikes scattered like raindrops!

Bulbasaur kept its distance, its red eyes calmly observing its crazed opponent.

The Life Poison's trait—turning life into poison—had already activated, ravaging the Earth Crystal Snake's body like maggots gnawing at bone!

It used the opponent's own immense life force as fuel, cycling through conversion and catalysis.

The poison followed its blood and Soul Power, frantically corroding its internal organs and nervous system!

The Earth Crystal Snake's attacks grew increasingly frenzied, but they gradually lost their accuracy.

Its movements began to slow, and the violence in its vertical pupils was replaced by an indescribable pain and fear.

The earthen-yellow crystalline luster across its body dimmed at a visible rate. Its aura, once boiling with rage, now deflated like a punctured balloon, rapidly weakening and decaying...

Lin Xia stood quietly behind a nearby rock. There was not a trace of emotion in his green-and-purple heterochromatic eyes as he calmly calculated the time.

Bulbasaur remained sufficiently alert, but it no longer had to make frequent, wide leaps to evade.

It knew very well that its opponent was already at the end of its rope.

After dodging for only about a minute.

Bang!

After another fierce tail strike missed, the Earth Crystal Snake's massive body suddenly lost its balance and crashed heavily to the ground.

It struggled to raise its head, trying to prop itself up, but the last trace of strength supporting its body receded like the tide.

The light in its vertical pupils completely scattered, leaving behind only hollow, deathly stillness.

"Pfft..."

A thread of dark-purple bloody foam seeped from the corner of its mouth.

Then it convulsed violently a few times before going completely limp.

A thick aura of death and decay spread from its body, replacing all signs of life.

That massive body covered in crystal scales now held only coldness and weight.

Its life force had completely vanished.

Only after confirming that it posed no further threat did Lin Xia approach the corpse.

Bulbasaur trotted over as well, extending a Vine Whip to cautiously poke the Earth Crystal Snake's cold scales.

"Bulba..."

"Well done, Bulbasaur."

Lin Xia crouched down. While remaining alert for soul beasts that might be drawn by the smell of blood, he carefully inspected the wound beneath the Earth Crystal Snake's neck.

The wound had now turned a strange dark purplish-green.

"Using the wound to inject poison, retreating after one strike—precise and efficient. Bulbasaur, your control over Life Poison is becoming more and more skillful."

Hearing the praise, a hint of smug pride appeared on Bulbasaur's simple frog-like face.

But after praising it, Lin Xia stared at the Earth Crystal Snake's wound and noticed something wrong.

In an instant, Lin Xia's back went rigid, and his fingertips turned icy cold.

He lowered himself in a flash and yanked Bulbasaur, which was about to absorb the poison inside the Earth Crystal Snake, behind him.

Poison Vine Bone Wings reacted at once. Dozens of bluish-purple vines raised themselves like venomous snakes on alert, tightly protecting man and beast at their center.

"Don't move!"

Lin Xia's voice was extremely low, like a cold wind scraping over dead leaves.

"The fang holes on the snake corpse are fresh... serrated marks, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom—it's a Skyhorn Snake's bite mark! It was setting bait!"