Wasn't Serving the Young Master an Opportunity in Itself?

"That's a Man-Faced Sand Serpent! Why would a Demon Beast of that caliber appear in a secret realm of this level?"

"A Man-Faced Sand Serpent—and it has at least ten thousand years of cultivation!"

"Ten thousand?! We'd be hard-pressed to handle one with a thousand years of cultivation. How is facing one with ten thousand any different from marching to our deaths?"

"Run! We still have time to leave!"

"Right! Get out of the secret realm and notify the elders. This isn't something we can handle."

Everyone agreed.

They turned and fled toward the way they had come, some using movement techniques, others riding flying swords, each resorting to their own means.

Yet when they reached the Teleportation Gate's location, their faces filled with conflicting emotions: fear, bewilderment, confusion...

"Where's the exit? How did the exit disappear?"

"Why is this happening? Does Heaven want us dead?"

"This is bad! The Man-Faced Sand Serpent has caught up!"

Everyone looked back. The Man-Faced Sand Serpent's hundred-meter-long body should have been impossibly cumbersome, yet it was now as light as a swallow, undulating rapidly across the soft sand as though flying just above the ground!

"Since we can't escape, why don't we fight it to the death?"

"Fight it? With what? That measly cultivation of yours? This is a ten-thousand-year-old Demon Beast!"

"Buy time! I'm sure the elders have already noticed something wrong with the secret realm. They'll come save us soon!"

"All Azure Mystic Sect disciples, form the formation with me!"

The Azure Mystic Sect was renowned for its versatile, impregnable formations.

Rumor had it that an ancestor had created the Great Tortoise Shell Formation. Cultivated to its utmost, a formation assembled by ten Grandmasters could withstand even a martial saint!

How long it could hold depended entirely on how much spiritual energy they had.

"Illusory Spirit Sect, supply spiritual energy to the Azure Mystic Sect!"

"Heavenly Radiance Sect, everyone, get moving!"

"Disciples of the Ten Thousand Trees Sect, do as they say!"

At that moment, everyone abandoned their thoughts of infighting and seizing treasures. All they wanted was to buy time, to live one second longer, giving the elders outside the secret realm more time to break this deadly predicament.

Little did they know that they could rely only on themselves.

The disciples of the Tianyuan Holy Land joined in as well.

"Such powerful energy! Just what you'd expect from the Tianyuan Holy Land!"

"Not just powerful, but purer, too!"

"With this, we might really be able to stop that huge..."

Before the speaker could finish, the Man-Faced Sand Serpent swept up a fierce storm of sand and slammed headfirst into the formation wall patterned with golden tortoise shells.

A crisp shattering sound rang out.

The Great Tortoise Shell Formation broke into countless fragments, which then vanished like wisps of dust.

Every disciple was hurled a dozen meters away, some several dozen.

Some even landed headfirst, with half their bodies buried in the sand.

"It's no use! This thing is too strong. We're no match for it!"

"A monster! A monster!"

"No! Are we really going to die here?"

Cries of despair kept ringing in her ears.

Though she did not know whether she could defeat the Man-Faced Sand Serpent, Ye Qingcheng stepped forward anyway.

The face of her Spatial Ring lit up, and the Heavenly Abyss Sword appeared in her hand!

Could the young master have foreseen this calamity before it happened? Was that why he specifically gave me this Saint Rank divine weapon before I left?

Even with the Heavenly Abyss Sword, Ye Qingcheng could not be certain whether she was a match for the Man-Faced Sand Serpent.

She had never fought a ten-thousand-year-old Demon Beast before.

But without the Heavenly Abyss Sword, Ye Qingcheng was absolutely certain that she would be no match for the Man-Faced Sand Serpent! She would undoubtedly die!

"That's a Saint Rank divine weapon!" someone sharp-eyed recognized it.

"A Saint Rank divine weapon! She's actually carrying a Saint Rank divine weapon?!"

"Miss Ye is a sect's Saintess, after all. Isn't it normal for her to have a Saint Rank divine weapon?"

"Idiot! That's saint-tier! The entire Sky Sword Sect only has a handful of them. Even the sect master can't use them lightly. Why would they give her one for a mere secret realm trial?"

"If my guess is right, our Tianyuan Holy Land's young master may have bestowed it on her."

"The young master is far too generous! It seems the rumors might be true!"

"I'd heard that the Tianyuan Holy Land had deep reserves, but I never really understood what that meant. Now I finally do."

"Say no more. If I get out of this damned place alive, I'll cultivate hard and strive to join the Tianyuan Holy Land so I can serve the young master!"

Chen Mu would never have imagined that a small, casual gesture would inadvertently win him so many hearts.

Then everyone watched.

Ye Qingcheng strode through the air, wielding the saint-tier divine weapon, the Heavenly Abyss Sword. With vast spiritual energy that shook the entire secret realm around her, she charged straight toward the serpent's head.

Then she gripped the sword's hilt in both hands and raised it high. The surrounding spiritual energy surged madly toward the blade, gathering into a column of Sword Qi visible to the naked eye.

The Man-Faced Sand Serpent opened its cavernous, blood-red maw, revealing sharp, ghastly white venomous fangs as it tried to swallow Ye Qingcheng whole.

Rumble!

Ye Qingcheng brought both hands down.

One slash!

An ear-splitting roar reverberated through the air.

The lingering force surged like a tide, whipping up wind and sand that swept toward everyone else.

They hurriedly raised their hands to shield their faces.

When they lowered their hands again, they saw, to their horror, that Ye Qingcheng had slain the Man-Faced Sand Serpent with ten thousand years of cultivation in a single stroke, splitting it in half from head to tail.

Within its body, threads of blood formed a dense spiderweb before snapping apart.

"Heavens! She killed a ten-thousand-year-old Demon Beast in one strike! That's— that's far too powerful!"

"Rumor has it Saintess Ye is in the Martial Master Realm. A martial master shouldn't be capable of something like that, right?"

"That can only mean the divine weapon the Tianyuan Holy Land's young master bestowed on her is top-tier even among saint-rank weapons."

"Wasn't serving the young master an opportunity in itself?"

"..." Hearing those words, Ye Qingcheng did not deny them.

After all, even she had never imagined she could kill the Man-Faced Sand Serpent with a single stroke.

It was all thanks to the divine sword in her hands!

"Young master..."

Her affection for him soared once more.

Ye Qingcheng was utterly certain that without the Heavenly Abyss Sword, she would probably have died on the spot!

Having fought it herself, she understood all the more clearly how powerful a ten-thousand-year-old Man-Faced Sand Serpent was.

Her reverence for Chen Mu consequently continued to rise, unchecked.

Enveloping it in spiritual energy, she remotely extracted a Demon Core from the mangled flesh. It contained powerful spiritual energy and was worth at least a million Spirit Stones.

Ye Qingcheng put it into her Spatial Ring, intending to bring it back to Chen Mu to repay him for saving her life.

Was she reluctant to part with it?

Not in the slightest.

Ye Qingcheng had always believed that a kindness as small as a drop of water should be repaid with a gushing spring. Far from being reluctant, she felt this was nowhere near enough.

She had to obtain more cultivation resources!

Standing in midair, she surveyed her surroundings.

Ye Qingcheng had heard that whenever a Man-Faced Sand Serpent appeared, there was usually more than one.

Sure enough, the scent of blood from the dead serpent drew other Man-Faced Sand Serpents!

Like earthworms, they burrowed beneath the sand, raising spectacular ridges as tall as dunes.

They converged on Ye Qingcheng from every direction.

Viewed from above, they resembled a bizarre, twisted floral totem!