The Jiangxue Sword flew faster and faster, dragging most of Shen Leyan's body through the air, bobbing up and down. His toes occasionally scraped the ground. He had no idea how sturdy the sect-issued boots were, or whether they would wear through and leave his toes poking out.
The forest was thick with branches and leaves. The Jiangxue Sword deftly steered him left and right, but the branches jutting across their path refused to get out of the way.
Shen Leyan shielded his face with his other hand, feeling the branches lash the back of it like little whips, crack, crack, crack.
He tried circulating his Spiritual Power to blow aside the branches whipping toward him, which made things a little more bearable.
About fifteen minutes later, the Jiangxue Sword finally stopped in front of an ancient tree.
As the wind rushing past his ears died down, he heard a strange sound nearby. It resembled wheels rolling over grass, but was far louder.
Every so often, he also heard trees being severed and crashing down.
He gave the Jiangxue Sword a slight nod, and it promptly turned into a streak of light and shot away.
"Junior brother—"
Senior Brother Zheng's voice, amplified with Spiritual Power, reached him clearly.
Shen Leyan took a deep breath and shouted, "I'm safely hidden away—go all out, senior brothers—"
Boom—
Less than five meters from him, a large tree was sliced in two by a stray shock wave of Spiritual Power, sending muddy water splashing everywhere.
[◝₍ᴑ̑ДO͝₎◞]
Shen Leyan shouted, "That's a little too all-out—you can hold back a bit—"
Through the curtain of rain, he glimpsed a green snake, its body thicker than an ancient tree trunk, slithering from one distant tree to another. Its scarlet eyes gleamed brighter than rubies, cold and murderous with bloodlust.
Behind the snake, the Jiangxue Sword's cold white radiance followed close on its heels, cutting a wound deep enough to expose bone.
Stark white snake bones lay exposed to the air. The snake flicked its tongue in agony, letting out a series of spine-chilling hisses.
"Junior brother—run farther away! Don't let that demonic beast hurt you—"
The instant Shen Leyan saw the snake's silhouette, he turned and ran.
After he activated the Azure Shadow Profound Art, the young man's figure left only pale green phantoms in the air. Every three steps, an afterimage remained behind, making it difficult to tell the real from the false.
After running nearly a hundred meters, Shen Leyan noticed no movement behind him and finally glanced back. The snake was too busy fleeing to pay any attention to an insignificant ant at the Qi Refining stage like him. In the distance, the Jiangxue Sword was still chasing it down and slashing at it.
He breathed a sigh of relief. Only then did he have time to study the snake closely.
A snake demon that huge looked like a true Flood Dragon even from afar. Its cultivation must have reached the nascent soul stage, or even the Mahayana Stage.
Its scales rang like metal as they smashed through trees. Its slightly yellowed fangs resembled a pair of daggers, and any vegetation they touched instantly blackened and withered, as though they contained a deadly poison.
Rather at odds with those imposing fangs was the little red flower growing on the snake's head. It looked exactly like the little red flower stickers kindergarten teachers gave children as rewards.
That unassuming little flower proved unexpectedly resilient amid the wind, rain, and collisions. It trembled atop the snake's head, but never snapped off.
Rare heavenly treasures were supposedly guarded by demonic beasts with powerful cultivation. Could that little red flower be the jadeblood snakegrass they were looking for?
The Jiangxue Sword's radiance streamed like silk, descending like a blizzard. Frost coated every tree in its path, and its freezing sword aura sealed off all the snake's escape routes. More and more wounds appeared across the snake's body, until its green scales were almost entirely stained with blood.
The snake coiled several times around an ancient tree and raised its head high, its eyes fixed on the direction from which the Jiangxue Sword was pursuing it. Its tail suddenly curled around the little red flower atop its head and tore it off. It opened its enormous, bloody maw, apparently intending to swallow the flower.
Shen Leyan inwardly cursed.
[That snake wants to eat the jadeblood snakegrass!]
He remembered Senior Brother Zheng telling him that once jadeblood snakegrass fully matured, the edges of its petals would turn from bright red to jade green. That little red flower clearly had not finished growing.
That was probably why the snake had guarded the jadeblood snakegrass without eating it—the medicinal potency of an immature spiritual herb would be greatly diminished. Eating it early would be a terrible waste.
Senior Brother Zheng's mentally impaired younger brother was not a cultivator. Mortals only lived a few decades. If the snake ate this stalk of jadeblood snakegrass, they could not possibly wait another hundred years.
The Jiangxue Sword was still some distance from the snake. By the time it killed the creature, the jadeblood snakegrass would be gone!
Shen Leyan gritted his teeth, turned around, and raced toward the snake.
"Brother Snake! Brother Snake, you're making a terrible mistake!"
The snake paused, turning its icy eyes on him.
A demonic beast at this level of cultivation could surely understand human speech.
"Brother Snake, you're making a terrible mistake!"
Seeing the snake respond, Shen Leyan's racing heart slowed a little.
"You want this jadeblood snakegrass to improve your cultivation, don't you? But even if you eat it now, you won't be able to fully absorb its Spiritual Power in such a short time. It won't improve your cultivation much.
"Do you think you can defeat those two cultivators chasing you? They'll cut you open if that's what it takes to get the jadeblood snakegrass out.
"It's not worth losing your life over one stalk of jadeblood snakegrass! Your teeth look great, Brother Snake, and you're quick on your feet. You must be in your prime, with hundreds or thousands of years left to live. If you can't eat this jadeblood snakegrass, why not wait for the next one?"
The snake looked at the jadeblood snakegrass curled in its tail, then at the Jiangxue Sword's chilling gleam. A flicker of hesitation appeared in its eyes.
Shen Leyan spoke faster. "Why not hand the jadeblood snakegrass over to them and find somewhere to recover from your injuries... how does that sound?"
The snake shook its head and hissed several times, as though trying to speak to him.
Shen Leyan looked toward Zheng Ziheng, who was pursuing it behind the Jiangxue Sword.
"Senior Brother Zheng! Can you understand demonic beasts?"
Zheng Ziheng said, "...It says that when the last stalk of jadeblood snakegrass matured, and the one before that, and the one before that, powerful cultivators always came to fight it for the herb. Every time, they beat it black and blue, and it never won once. It thinks that even if it waits another few hundred years, it still won't get to eat any jadeblood snakegrass. So this time, it plans to taste the stuff before it dies."
Shen Leyan said, "..."
[Well... I don't know whether to call that acceptance or a refusal to let go. (⊙o⊙)]
Still, after spending ninety-nine years and three hundred and sixty-four days waiting each time, only for a few cultivators to suddenly appear on the very last day, beat it up, and steal its jadeblood snakegrass, it was hardly surprising that Brother Snake had been tormented into losing its mind.
"Brother Snake, how about this? We need this jadeblood snakegrass to save someone. He's a mortal and can't wait another hundred years.
"If you want to taste jadeblood snakegrass, Brother Snake, that's easy enough. Wait another hundred years, and when the next stalk matures, our Cloud Radiance Sect will send disciples to stand guard for you. We'll make sure you get to eat it. Would that work?"
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