Chapter 36 - 35: A Figure in Snake Valley, a Plot Emerges

Chapter 36: Chapter 35: A Figure in Snake Valley, a Plot Emerges

Amidst the endless mountains, five figures darted swiftly along a ridgeline.

Suddenly, one of the figures shot out a hand and snatched a venomous snake resembling a dry twig from a treetop. The viper tried to strike back, but the figure flung it away with a casual flick of the wrist.

"There are snakes everywhere ahead, many of them snake-type Demon Fiends. I’m afraid we’re approaching a Demon’s Nest."

The small, snow-white snake on Chen Sheying’s wrist trembled, seemingly relaying a message to him, and his expression instantly darkened.

"That’s hardly surprising! We’ve already encountered three snake-type Demon Fiends on our way here, not to mention countless vipers of all sizes. Since Snake Demon Li Tianyi has made his lair here, of course he’d have a few tricks up his sleeve."

Zhao Zhenshan said grimly.

Ling State was a land of mountains and great marshes, its peaks teeming with Poisonous Insects and wild beasts.

People there learned to live off the land, and as a result, Ling State gave rise to many Sects specializing in Insect Control and Beast Taming.

The major Sects in Yunlong County, for instance, were Insect Valley and the Hundred Beasts Sect.

Around Bishui City, there were also several other sects, such as the Golden Bee Sect, the Red Scorpion Sect, and Wuling Hall. The Spiritual Snake Sect, from which Chen Sheying and Li Wanqing hailed, was one of them.

Li Tianyi himself had once been a member of the Spiritual Snake Sect and excelled at Snake Control. After defecting, he joined the Blood Demon Sect, where he learned numerous bizarre techniques that made him notoriously difficult to deal with.

"To the summit!"

With a flash in her eyes, Li Wanqing shot toward the summit, and the others followed close behind.

「A few moments later.」

At the peak, the pale-cyan, slit pupils in Li Wanqing’s eyes contracted as she gazed into the distance. Within her vision, countless streams of qi swirled and rose.

As she looked toward Snake Valley, understanding dawned.

Her birth had been marked by a strange phenomenon: she was born with a pair of Spiritual Pupils, able to discern the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. Later, a Secret Technique from the Spiritual Snake Sect made her Spiritual Pupils even more profound.

"Li Tianyi is inside that valley. It’s teeming with Demon Fiends. There are dozens at the Qi and Blood Realm alone, and the number of lesser ones is incalculable."

’This is going to be a nasty fight.’

"Rest for a while. We move out in one hour."

Li Wanqing’s voice was filled with Evil Qi and a touch of madness. The smiling faces and voices of her parents and senior brother seemed to echo before her eyes, filling her heart with unbearable pain.

But she still forced herself to calm down.

After a forced march of hundreds of miles, she could endure, but the others might not.

If they attacked directly, their combat effectiveness would be severely compromised.

After speaking, her gaze swept over the others before finally landing on the weakest among them, Zhang Shun.

"It’s best you take the Dragon and Tiger Pill now."

She didn’t suggest that Zhang Shun should retreat.

This was the life of the Demon Suppression Bureau—great risk, but also great opportunity.

’Retreat just because it’s dangerous? How would they ever slay any Demon Fiends then!’

Zhang Shun’s expression changed. Gritting his teeth, he took the Dragon and Tiger Pill from his robes and swallowed it.

He sat down cross-legged and began to circulate his Qi Blood.

’He knew there was no such thing as a free lunch.’

Being granted a Dragon and Tiger Grand Pill just for guiding them... Even with ten years’ worth of Merit Points from slaying Demon Fiends, he could never afford such a treasure.

A single pill could save him years of bitter training.

’So that’s what it was. Payment for my life!’

"This whole area is crawling with poisonous snakes. I’m afraid many of them are Li Tianyi’s eyes and ears. I can keep them occupied for a time."

"But it won’t be long before he discovers us."

Chen Sheying looked toward Snake Valley, took out the Snake Scale Whistle that hung around his neck, and began to play. An ethereal sound traveled far, and a rustling immediately arose from the surroundings.

Dozens of poisonous snakes, large and small, slithered out and formed a cordon around them.

The others exchanged glances at the sight, but each of them sat down cross-legged, popped an Elixir into their mouth, and focused on recovering to their peak condition.

However, not far from where they sat...

A bulge silently pushed up from a patch of dead branches and fallen leaves. It was a bruised-black viper with blood-red eyes, its forked tongue flicking in and out, completely uncontrolled by Chen Sheying’s Snake Whistle.

The bruised-black viper quickly turned and slithered away, crossing peaks and gullies until it slipped into a fissure in the rock face of a cave.

The dark, winding fissure led deep into Snake Valley.

Snake Valley was deep and secluded.

After a thousand meters, the fissure opened up into a vast cavern.

It was a natural grotto. Its walls were pocked with holes of all sizes, from which colorful vipers slithered in and out. The floor was a roiling mass of countless more, making it seem as if the very ground were writhing.

Torches lined the grotto, illuminating a group of black-robed figures gathered within.

At its center stood a throne.

On the throne sat a remarkably tall figure. His face was ancient, his slack skin stretched taut over his skeletal frame.

His hair was withered and gray, with only a few strands of long, grayish-black hair remaining on his crown, draped carelessly over his neck and shoulders. His body was covered in tiny, black-scaled snakes.

His eyes, too, held a pair of slit pupils.

But unlike Li Wanqing’s pale-cyan ones, his were a bizarre, blood-red.

Had Li Wanqing and her group been present, they would have immediately recognized him as the Snake Demon, Li Tianyi.

The viper that had spied on Li Wanqing’s group slithered forward and prostrated itself at Snake Demon Li Tianyi’s feet. It then rose up, hissing.

"The Demon Suppression Bureau and the Spiritual Snake Sect?"

"Tsk, tsk. Even that little wench Li Wanqing managed to track me down."

"And that Zhao Zhenshan."

"They’re like leeches, sticking to me again. How annoying."

Snake Demon Li Tianyi took out a blood-red pill and tossed it into the viper’s mouth, his own tongue flicking like a serpent’s.

"Well done, my children. Go and scout some more!"

Immediately, dozens of red-eyed vipers slithered out of the cave entrance.

"Master She, it’s only a handful of people. The other sect disciples are launching attacks elsewhere, so they can’t spare any real forces to deal with us. We should just slaughter them!"

"Before they ruin your important plans, Master She."

The speaker was a giant of a man with a brutish, ferocious face. Most bizarrely, his lower half was not a pair of legs but the winding, ten-meter-long body of a snake!

The serpentine body was covered in fleshy growths, rotting and crawling with maggots.

Beside the giant stood another man and a woman, both of whom also had rotting serpentine lower bodies.

"Patience, patience..."

Snake Demon Li Tianyi glanced up, a mocking look on his face as he regarded the three. "I’m not in a rush. Why are you? That Li Wanqing is the disciple of a Demon Suppression General. Do you think she’ll be that easy to deal with?"

"Lure them into the Grand Array. I have my own plans for them."

"Yes, Master She!"

The three cupped their fists in unison.

"The Seven Heroes of the Zhang Family... you were all as close as brothers, weren’t you? A pity only the three of you survived the backlash from the Human Pill Technique. Tell me, don’t you hate me for it?"

The three’s faces went pale, and they immediately prostrated themselves on the ground.

"Master She granted us a heavenly opportunity! How could we possibly resent you?"

"Those other four were too weak. They couldn’t handle this immense power. How could they be worthy of standing with us?"

"We are grateful to you, Master She, for allowing us to join the Holy Sect..."

Seeing their cowardly, cringing forms, Li Tianyi flicked his tongue, the mockery in his eyes deepening. "Oh? What a pity..."

The Human Pill Technique could extract the essence of a human body to refine into a Human Pill; it could also steal the spiritual nature of a demon to create a Demon Pill.

How could such an Evil Technique be without its flaws?

As the saying goes, the Celestial Dao does not tolerate cannibalism. The backlash from the Human Pill Evil Technique was just as swift and fierce. Those who could not withstand it would perish completely, their life and Dao extinguished. But for those who survived, various strange mutations would occur.

The three before him were what remained of a group of Martial Arts Powerhouses whom Snake Demon Li Tianyi had captured. He had forced them to consume Blood Pills, which caused them to mutate.

The Seven Heroes of the Zhang Family had once been infamous Green Forest Bandits, all of them Martial Artists at the Qi and Blood Realm.

Unfortunately, only three survived.

"Enough. Go and do your work."

"Yes, Master She."

...

「Insect Nest Number Three, Scorpion Demon Mountain.」

A Red-bellied Eagle soared down, landing precisely beside Qin Yu. It held a small bamboo tube, which had been tied to its leg, in its beak and offered it to him.

Qin Yu opened the bamboo tube.

It was an intelligence report from the Golden Wind Tower. Qin Yu quickly scanned the contents, his brow furrowing as he muttered to himself.

’Li Wanqing, Chen Sheying, Zhao Zhenshan, and Lin Jianqing... Three of them have Qi and Blood like a Dragon? What a powerful team. And this altar on Scorpion Demon Mountain... is it related to the Five Poison Sect?’