I'm done for

Anger surged around Chimei, and his snake tail swept up a great wave of water toward Lin Qingyang. Lin Qingyang swept his sword in front of himself, and a curtain of wind blocked the wave, sending spray flying.

"Now that you're here, you think you still have a choice? You're not leaving today either!" Chimei roared, then chuckled. "I've never eaten anyone with cultivation this high before. You'll be very nourishing."

Lin Qingyang looked at him as though he were an idiot. "Did you ever consider that you've never eaten anyone at my level because you can't beat them?"

"You're courting death!" Chimei roared, shooting a stream of slime from his mouth.

Lin Qingyang instantly vanished from where he stood. The slime struck a rock, corroding a hole into it, before Lin Qingyang's voice rang out behind Chimei.

"Why are even your attacks so disgusting?"

Chimei whipped his head around to see Lin Qingyang suspended in midair. His snake tail lashed toward him, stirring up a foul-smelling wind. But Lin Qingyang vanished again, then appeared on the other side.

"How is that possible? You can't use the Movement Technique here!" Chimei said in bewilderment.

The Movement Technique required abundant spiritual power, so naturally it could not be used somewhere filled with demonic qi.

"Because this isn't the Movement Technique. It's my personal skill, Heavenly Wind Shadowless."

As he spoke, Lin Qingyang vanished again. Before Chimei could react, he suddenly appeared behind him, leaving a bloody sword wound on the right side of Chimei's snake head.

Heavenly Wind Shadowless differed from the Movement Technique. The Movement Technique used spiritual power to teleport between two points, while Heavenly Wind Shadowless moved the body at such tremendous speed that its path became impossible to see, creating the effect of instantaneous movement.

Lin Qingyang had left the wound on Chimei's head as he passed him. Enraged, Chimei lunged at Lin Qingyang, sweeping his snake tail at the same time.

Man and snake fought at close quarters. Relying on nimble footwork, Lin Qingyang dodged attack after attack, while Chimei took several more hits and had to retreat farther into the pool, watching him with cold snake eyes.

"Very good. You've succeeded in angering me!" Chimei said.

Then he let out a furious, piercing hiss. The previously calm water began to ripple, and countless black snakes crawled out of the lake, swarming toward Lin Qingyang and Qi Mo like a black tide, a sight that made the scalp crawl.

"Ah!!! So many snakes!!!" the Windflower Sword in his hand screamed.

Lin Qingyang frowned and backed away. He glanced toward Qi Mo and felt slightly reassured when he saw the Seven-Star Shield repelling every black snake that rushed at him.

Turning back toward Chimei, he took a deep breath, a cold gleam flashing through his eyes. He then laid the Windflower Sword horizontally, floating it before his chest, and rapidly formed seals with both hands. The spiritual power around him surged. As he recited the incantation, the surrounding wind began to stir restlessly.

Lin Qingyang shouted, "Wind Dragon Technique, rise!"

A huge tornado rose around him. The whirling storm swept up the pool water and the snakes, swallowing them within. A faint dragon's roar sounded inside the storm. The tornado spun faster and faster, as though a wind dragon really were roaring within it.

The snakes scattered through the storm, and Chimei's expression changed sharply. He clearly had not anticipated this move. Pressing his advantage, Lin Qingyang drove the tornado straight toward Chimei. Chimei hissed again as his enormous body was swept up by the wind dragon and lifted into the air, spinning wildly within it until even his hisses became broken and intermittent.

Lin Qingyang stared at the wind dragon over the water, formed another seal, and sent it forward.

"Storm-Rain Wind Blade! Break!" Lin Qingyang shouted.

The center of the wind dragon instantly lit up, illuminating the entire valley floor as brightly as day. Then the wind dragon suddenly split apart, and the wind turned into countless flying blades, slicing through every one of the densely packed black snakes. Severed pieces pattered down amid a flying rain of blood. Lin Qingyang hurriedly waved a hand, setting a wind curtain overhead to shield himself.

"Whoa, you've mastered all of that already?" Lin Yao said.

"A top student's self-cultivation," Lin Qingyang said smugly.

Dizzy from being spun around by the wind dragon, Chimei was then struck by the wind blades. Countless cuts opened across his body, and he let out agonized hisses.

Seizing his chance, Lin Qingyang threw the Demon-Capturing Net at Chimei. The moment it touched demonic qi, the net flashed silver and swiftly wrapped around the snake's body as though it had a mind of its own. Chimei struggled wildly, but the runes on the Demon-Capturing Net glowed, binding him tightly.

Yet that was not the end. Bound by the Demon-Capturing Net, the giant python actually began to shrink, eventually becoming several times smaller, until he was the size of an ordinary python. Seeing this, Lin Qingyang drew in the Demon-Capturing Net. Chimei fell at his feet, net and all, glaring at Lin Qingyang hatefully with bloodred snake eyes.

Finally unable to hold on much longer, Lin Qingyang dropped to one knee, pressing his chest as he barely swallowed the salty, metallic taste rising in his throat.

"Brother, how are you?" Lin Yao circled him.

"I'm fine. I just used too much spiritual power at once."

His spiritual power had not recovered to begin with, and casting those techniques had aggravated his old injuries. Now his chest hurt fiercely, and he could not muster any spiritual power at all. Fortunately, Chimei had already been subdued.

After taking a moment to recover, Lin Qingyang forced himself to his feet and walked up to Chimei, sword in hand.

"Lin Qingyang, do you think killing me means no one will know what you've done?" Chimei cried.

"Well, if I kill you, no one will know," Lin Qingyang said.

Chimei froze, then shouted, "You bastard! You don't keep your word! You treacherous scum!"

"Stop yelling." Chimei's shouting was giving Lin Qingyang a headache. "I never said I was going to kill you. I'm just taking something from you."

"What?" Chimei asked warily.

"The antidote for Shi Ruobai," Lin Qingyang asked.

Chimei fell silent for a moment before asking, "You beat me up just for that?"

"Yes," Lin Qingyang said as though it were only natural.

Chimei suddenly shouted in fury, "Lin Qingyang, is something wrong with you? You were the one who wanted to poison him in the first place, and now you come here, beat me up, and demand the antidote! Are you fucking messing with me?"

As a three-hundred-year-old snake, he certainly knew the Human Clan was fickle, but this was far too fickle.

Lin Qingyang could not be bothered to respond. After cursing for a while, Chimei calmed down and said, "I can give you the antidote, as long as you kill him."

As he spoke, Chimei looked at Qi Mo behind Lin Qingyang. Lin Qingyang glanced back. Qi Mo was still unconscious, but his brows were slightly furrowed, and he looked close to waking.

"Why exactly do you want to kill him?" Lin Qingyang asked.

Chimei laughed brazenly. "That's none of your business. If you want the antidote, do as I say."

Lin Qingyang smiled. "You're in no position to bargain with me."

"I'm the only one who knows how to cure Shi Ruobai's poisoning!" Chimei said anxiously.

"It's just your blood!" Lin Qingyang said dismissively.

"How did you know?"

"I guessed!"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Chimei shouted in disbelief.

Ignoring him, Lin Qingyang gently channeled spiritual energy through his fingertips. Beads of blood flew from Chimei's wounds and slowly gathered together. He then took a bamboo tube from his sleeve and collected the blood inside.

"How did you guess?" Lin Yao asked curiously from beside him.

"What do hospitals usually use to treat snake venom?" Lin Qingyang asked.

"Antivenom," Lin Yao said, then understood. Because this world had been built according to her own will, details she had not written about would develop according to her understanding.

Although antivenom and snake blood were not actually the same thing, based on Lin Qingyang's understanding of Lin Yao, she most likely thought there was little difference between them. After collecting the snake blood, he carefully put away the bamboo tube.

"Lin Qingyang, aren't you afraid Shi Ruobai will identify you when he wakes up? Colluding with the Demon Clan and poisoning the sect leader-do you think the Nine Skies Sect will let you off?" Chimei sneered.

Lin Qingyang ignored him and turned to wake Qi Mo, only to meet those amber eyes, filled with shock and confusion. Lin Qingyang froze, suddenly panicking, and was just thinking of what to say.

"Lin Qingyang, it was you!"

Mo Yan's voice rang out behind him, and Lin Qingyang went rigid.

The Windflower Sword in his hand trembled and voiced Lin Qingyang's thoughts: "I'm done for!"