Black Snake

The unusual sensation immediately alerted Sang Ying. Before the cool tail could slip completely from her grasp, Sang Ying swiftly grabbed the strange object and flung it violently out of her Storage Bag.

The small, black figure landed with a soft "thud," and before Sang Ying and Gu Shu could even see what it looked like, it nimbly slipped under a chair in the corner.

This action quickly caught the attention of Sang Ying and the others. The fact that it could find a hiding place so quickly meant that this thing was clearly intelligent, and therefore it was no ordinary creature.

Realizing this, Sang Ying gave the creature no chance to escape. She immediately made a hand seal and lifted the chair, and a ring of ice spikes seemed to grow from the ground, completely surrounding the black creature.

"Go and see what it is that dares to crawl into your Storage Bag!" Gu Shu urged repeatedly.

Urged on by Gu Shu, Sang Ying bent down to look at the little black creature trapped in the ice spikes.

It was a beautiful black snake, its tiny scales glossy as if they had been carefully polished.

The black snake was clearly quite frightened and its emotions were very unstable. As soon as Sang Ying tried to approach it, it opened its mouth wide, revealing its small, sharp fangs, displaying its ferocity and terror to Sang Ying.

But Sang Ying also noticed its subtle action of using its body to cover the wound on its tail.

"It's a snake that's all bark and no bite," Sang Ying sighed.

"I guess it was attracted by Duan Yuan playing the flute earlier, but I don't know why it got into my Storage Bag." Sang Ying pondered for a moment before explaining to Gu Shu.

Gu Shu asked, "So what do you plan to do with it? Are you going to throw it out?"

This black snake has already developed sentience and will probably transform into a demon soon. If Sang Ying were to kill it for no reason, it would be going too far and would also diminish her own Merit.

Perhaps it was because the black snake resembled Jiang Zhuoxue from before, but its fierce appearance made Sang Ying find it somewhat amusing. "Let me apply some medicine to it, then I'll let it out."

Sang Ying had no intention of keeping it, but she softened and decided to help the little snake heal its wounds.

"I remember you mentioned that Duan Yuan cultivates the Five Poisons. The poisons that cultivators like him use have to fight and kill each other within their clans from a young age. This little thing is probably injured so badly because of that."

Gu Shu casually remarked, "Be careful when you apply the medicine to it. These kinds of poisonous creatures are very dangerous. You don't want to end up getting hurt instead of doing a good deed."

Sang Ying chuckled at Gu Shu's words. She wasn't a child; how could she possibly fail on a small snake?

Although the little snake had many injuries, they were still within the range of healing. Sang Ying had no patience to coax it, so she simply used force to restrain it, quickly sprinkled medicine on it, fed it a elixir, and then threw it out of the house.

The little black snake, who thought it was doomed, didn't even have time to struggle before it was dealt with and driven out of the house.

It lingered for a moment at the back entrance of the inn, its slender tongue tracing the wound before realizing that the female cultivator had applied medicine to it.

The black snake, which had suffered considerable torment at Duan Yuan's hands before, was stunned. It had originally thought that Human Race in this world were hypocritical and wicked, but it turned out they weren't.

With these strange feelings, it glanced at the window of Sang Ying's house from afar. After not seeing the person it wanted to see, it quietly slipped into the bushes nearby, preparing to leave this city belonging to Human Race.

This time, it will definitely be twice as careful and will certainly not be captured by those hypocritical Human Race again!

The little black snake made this promise to itself, and then quickly concealed itself in the grass.

Meanwhile, after arranging her room, Sang Ying went to find Sang Ying Jiang Zhuoxue, whose room was next to hers. Setting up formations on both sides provided double protection.

Jiang Zhuoxue didn't understand these things; she just watched Sang Ying busy herself. Her movements were very efficient, perhaps a characteristic of sword cultivators. Even a long and complicated task like setting up an array became quick and orderly in her hands.

Every move they made was quite pleasing to the eye.

"Aren't you a sword cultivator?" Jiang Zhuoxue asked, looking at him.

Sang Ying didn't brush him off. "My parents once said that learning a skill you're interested in isn't a bad thing. Little did they know that this skill might save your life in a critical moment."

If her parents were still alive, Sang Ying might have been happy to be a cultivator who focused solely on swordsmanship. But after losing her parents, she knew clearly that being a swordsman alone was not enough, at least not for her.

"Alright." Sang Ying stood up and clapped her hands. "I've taken care of things in your room. We'll stay here for a few days, and once we've found out what's going on outside, I'll take you away from this Hidden Nether Realm."

Since she was already here, Sang Ying naturally wanted to seek an opportunity to break through her limitations. If she were to return to the Limitless Sect, it would be easier for her Nascent Soul cultivation to escape than her Golden Core cultivation.

After a self-deprecating remark, Sang Ying quickly left Jiang Zhuoxue's room.

Only the boy and the vine that relied on him remained in the room. He felt that the room was much safer and more comfortable than before thanks to the multiple arrays, and unconsciously reached out to touch the tender leaves of the vine.

"She seems to be too nice to me. Does that Jiang Zhuoxue really make her care so much?" The young man suppressed the inexplicable bitterness rising in his heart, and his tone quickly hardened again. "It doesn't matter, I don't care about her anyway. I wish she cared more about this 'Jiang Zhuoxue'."

The boy's defiant voice echoed inside the room, but apart from a vine clone that knew nothing, no one responded to him.

The next day, as soon as it was light, Sang Ying woke up from her cultivation. The mottled Spiritual Qi here was really difficult to absorb. Even after a whole night of effort with the purification array, she could only replenish one-third of the Spiritual Qi Sang Ying had previously lost.

Fortunately, she now has plenty of Spirit Stone and Spirit Crystal; otherwise, after the battle with Duan Yuan, there probably wouldn't have been a trace of Spiritual Qi left in the Qi Vortex.

Jiang Zhuoxue is young and seriously injured, so Sang Ying naturally doesn't need to eat, but Jiang Zhuoxue still needs to get energy from food.

The food in the Hidden Nether Realm consists of strangely colored, pasty substances. While skilled and capable high-level cultivators might enjoy delicacies from other small worlds, the inn doesn't offer such rare food.

Sang Ying went downstairs early and glanced at the menu provided by the inn, then gave up the idea of bringing food for Jiang Zhuoxue. That guy was very picky about the color, aroma, and taste of food, and she figured he wouldn't eat it even if she brought it.

Just as she was about to go upstairs and casually feed Jiang Zhuoxue a few spirit-replenishing pills, things suddenly became lively downstairs.

"Shopkeeper, waiter?! Where are they? What are you selling? Is this stuff even edible?"

A rough shout echoed throughout the first floor, and the man who spoke slammed his hand on the table in front of him, making a loud thud.

Sang Ying didn't want to get involved, but Gu Shu really wanted to see the excitement, so he begged her to stay.

However, neither of them expected that this commotion would drag them into new trouble.