Dense hissing sounds echoed through the dark cavern, accompanied by the incessant rustling of cold-blooded creatures slithering across the ground.
Jiang Xuezhi fell into their midst and instantly became prey. A thick python swiftly coiled around her. Compared to the python’s overly “plump” body, her figure seemed far too slender. Yet, there was no trace of panic on her face, nor any sign of suffocation.
“What are you going to do next?” Po Jun couldn’t help but ask her inwardly, “You just jumped down like that. What are you planning?”
Jiang Xuezhi’s spirit remained steady, but her body was indeed struggling to keep up.
She could feel the restored spiritual energy, thanks to the man who had saved her earlier. The physical suffocation did not affect her inner voice.
“This isn’t something I should be considering,” she told Pojun silently.
Pojun was baffled. “What do you mean?”
Jiang Xuezhi half-closed her eyes and calmly replied, “This is something you should be considering.”
Pojun was utterly dumbfounded, unable to comprehend the mindset behind Jiang Xuezhi’s words. Its mental voice twisted with frustration, “Me?? Excuse me??”
Jiang Xuezhi spoke unhurriedly, “The legacy you bestowed upon me, I haven’t been able to use. My cultivation has been completely drained. As things stand, the divine artifact offers me no help, yet I bear the risk of carrying it. This is not an equal exchange. From now on, I hope you can demonstrate your value. A secret realm like this should be nothing to a heavenly-tier divine artifact. If you can deliver all the treasures here to me, then we can cooperate happily.”
“And if I can’t?”
Pojun was already grinding its teeth. As an artifact spirit, a manifestation of cold, battle-hardened will, its anger carried immense pressure.
Anyone with sense would know not to push further, to do so would risk breaking the agreement entirely, leaving no room for dignity.
Yet Jiang Xuezhi continued.
She said with utter calm, “If you can’t, then I have no need for a burden that only gives orders. Divine artifacts choose their masters, and masters can also choose their divine artifacts. It’s a two-way selection. You may seek another worthy master. I have no objections.”
“Understood.”
So Jiang Xuezhi still intended to play the oriole, but the mantis was it!
Po Jun erupted in fury, immediately flying out of her embrace and putting distance between them.
“I truly don’t understand how someone on the verge of death can speak to me in such a manner! Even if you need my help, shouldn’t you be begging?”
The divine artifact declared haughtily, “You can afford to be arrogant with others, but you should at least learn to bow your head to me.”
“The master in our relationship has never been you, it’s me.”
Po Jun left a searing wave of anger in her mind. “You’ve mistaken your position, Jiang Xuezhi.”
Jiang Xuezhi opened her eyes within the serpent’s coils.
She couldn’t breathe, her face pale, but her gaze remained steady.
She quietly observed the hovering divine artifact for a moment before speaking, “Then you may leave.”
As soon as the words left her lips, she did the opposite of what was expected. Instead of trying to escape the nest of snakes, she burrowed deeper into the heart of the serpent den.
Pojun, a spear itself, was stunned.
It froze in place, uncertain whether to stay or go, its attention fixed unwaveringly on her.
Watching this scene alongside it was the man who had just saved Jiang Xuezhi’s life.
He easily recognized Pojun’s identity and had gained some understanding of Jiang Xuezhi’s origins.
Having barely survived, she found herself in peril once again, and on top of that, she had a falling out with her magical artifact. Now, she had voluntarily thrown herself into a snake den. This female cultivator named Jiang Xuezhi truly kept catching him off guard at every turn.
Having cultivated to this day, there were only a handful in the cultivation world older than him. This feeling of unpredictability was something he hadn’t experienced in centuries.
Would she die? This was a question both he and Pojun shared.
And they soon had their answer.
No.
Jiang Xuezhi had a plan and a purpose for everything she did.
She had chosen the King Snake’s lair as her first course of action because she had a foolproof strategy.
The ones who should be afraid were not her, but the King Snakes in the cave.
The Sin City Secret Realm had been hidden for many years, its level reaching the Heavenly Tier. The demonic beasts within had cultivated to the Nascent Soul or even the Soul Transformation stage, and the King Snakes were among them.
They devoured any cultivator who approached, and their skin, blood, and scales were excellent materials for refining artifacts and elixirs.
Cultivators needed to gather in groups and fight for days to hunt down a single King Snake.
Yet Jiang Xuezhi, a mere Qi Refining cultivator, had jumped right in. Just before she was about to be crushed to the point of shattered bones, she did something truly terrifying.
She burrowed into the heart of the snake nest and bit down on the vital spot of one of the snakes.
The snake scales were tough, tightly protecting the King Snake’s weak point. How could a mere human cultivator bite through them?
Not only did the King Snake dismiss her actions as nothing more than an itch, but even Pojun, watching from the sidelines, thought she was seeking death in desperation.
Only the unidentified young man quickly grasped what she was about to do, a flicker of astonishment crossing his face.
The taste of rust filled the entire snake nest. Jiang Xuezhi’s seemingly fragile teeth had actually managed to bite through the King Snake’s vital spot.
No one could figure out how she did it, but she had succeeded.
And she didn’t stop at just biting through. She tore at the King Snake’s scales, causing the massive serpent to roar and struggle in agony.
All the King Snakes coiled toward her, their enormous jaws ready to devour her. Relying on her comparatively small size, she slipped into the gaps beneath the scales, drenched in blood, a moment of crisis, yet also a turning point.
King Snake blood was a powerful tonic, but also a potent poison. It required a specific method to successfully absorb it.
Jiang Xuezhi, afflicted with a hundred poisons, experienced a miraculous effect the moment the toxins suppressing her spiritual roots and bloodline came into contact with the snake blood.
Covered in blood, her black hair soaked crimson, she opened her eyes amidst the torrents of blood, her gaze icy cold.
“What are you staring at?” she glared at Pojun. “Get lost!”
Pojun fell silent.
After a moment of silence, he vanished.
Jiang Xuezhi did not close her eyes.
She roughly estimated the direction in which Pojun had disappeared, uncertain of the other person’s hiding spot.
That individual’s cultivation was exceptionally high.
She didn’t push herself, if she couldn’t find him, she wouldn’t bother. She sank back into the snake nest.
As she merged with the snake blood, the King Snakes ceased their attacks.
It was as if they regarded her as one of their own. She lay on the massive serpent’s body, being passed along in turns to the innermost core.
That was where the Snake King resided.
The sound of giant snakes hissing filled the air. Jiang Xuezhi felt a chill in the snake nest, as if a blizzard had swept through the secret realm.
The temperature around her plummeted below zero, forcing her to open her eyes and assess the situation.
Through the haze of her vision, she glimpsed a figure standing with a sword amidst the swirling snowstorm. The gale whipped his wide sleeves and long hair, while snowflakes spiraled around him in a massive vortex. He stood alone within it, his sword intent stirring the heavens and the earth, yet not a single snowflake touched him.
The scene was breathtakingly beautiful, so exquisite it was suffocating, filled with a destructive, oppressive force.
But in the blink of an eye, it all vanished, the snowstorm disappeared, and the person standing there was gone.
It was someone she knew.
In this book, the people she had encountered so far were limited, and among them, there was only one she recognized and didn’t dislike.
It was the person who had saved her.
He was powerful, she had known that from the start.
Those who could make her feel a sense of danger were few and far between, and he was one of them, standing out even among them.
Having just witnessed his sword intent, she surmised he had likely intended to resolve the trouble here, but in the end, he did nothing and simply left.
Jiang Xuezhi had little difficulty deducing his identity.
Though he wasn’t wearing the uniform that would mark him as a member of a specific sect, given the time, location, and his level of cultivation, he could only be from the First Immortal Manor.
As for exactly who he was within the First Immortal Manor, she had no idea.
In any case, his decision not to intervene was a wise one.
The people of the First Immortal Manor truly lived up to their reputation as the highest authority, completely unlike the foolish arrogance of the Xuantian Sect.
She didn’t need anyone to save her. Pojun could leave, and so could he.
She wasn’t seeking death, nor was she at the end of her rope. This was precisely the broad, open path she had carved out for herself.
Jiang Xuezhi shifted her gaze to the Snake King’s position. Lifted by other snakes, she met its eyes at the same level.
Her own pupils had contracted into vertical slits, like those of a wild beast, momentarily blurring the Snake King’s perception.
In that very moment, unarmed and relying only on her bare hands and the slight recovery of her spiritual power, she caused the Snake King to resonate with her spirit, manipulating it to control the swarm of snakes.
Offer your power.
She transmitted this message, and a sky full of crimson light surged toward her.
Soaked in the snake pit, Jiang Xuezhi felt a sharp pain in her temples, a signal of overexertion, but she did not stop.
She had to rebuild the spiritual roots and meridians of this body as quickly as possible. If she missed this opportunity, there would be no better one.
Even the little spiritual power she had just recovered was insufficient, but she had to endure.
Snake venom clashed with the hundreds of other toxins inside her body, while various snake poisons continuously invaded her bloodstream. Jiang Xuezhi was in pain, but she could bear it.
Feeling her decaying spiritual roots regain vitality, she forced herself to push beyond her limits, accelerating the snakes’ sacrificial offerings.
To an outside observer, such actions almost resembled the use of demonic cultivation techniques.
A shadowy figure swiftly passed by the area, pausing briefly at the sight before moving on.
To avoid detection by the Immortal Manor, he lingered only for a moment before departing.
The location of the City of Sin was near the demonic realm of the Lower Three Continents, so it was not unusual for denizens of the demonic realm to seize the chance to enter.
However, to escape unscathed, one had to leave before being discovered by the First Immortal Manor.
The person from the First Immortal Manor today was anything but ordinary. His aura was domineering, his pressure overwhelming, far surpassing those who had come before. It was likely that a supreme expert from within had arrived, forcing even him to hasten his steps.
Yet, the female cultivator in black within the snake pit was deeply unsettling. The “demonic technique” she employed was entirely unfamiliar, something he had never seen before. How could there be a technique in the demonic realm that he didn’t recognize? He had to get to the bottom of this.
Just as the crimson light gathered to its peak, it abruptly dissipated, the Snake King had regained its senses and begun to resist, and Jiang Xuezhi’s spiritual power had finally reached its limit.
The once densely packed snake nest had now become sparse, and the Snake King was on the verge of death after being drained of its energy.
Unfortunately, even after all this, Jiang XueZhi’s spiritual roots were only barely restored by one-third.
Xie WuWang had been too ruthless with this substitute, and the control he exerted could not be completely shaken off in such a short time.
Jiang XueZhi felt somewhat disappointed, her expression turning grim.
She had fallen amidst the shed snake skins. Drawing on her knowledge of the original book, she formed a simple cleansing spell to rid herself of the blood and filth.
The Snake King slowly crawled toward her. Rising from the snake skins, she brushed aside the debris blocking her path and faced the enraged, red-eyed Snake King.
Her body was now clean, and though her expression remained unpleasant, her complexion had improved significantly compared to before.
Realizing how she had managed this, the Snake King angrily flicked its tongue, bared its fangs, and opened its massive maw, large enough to swallow ten Jiang XueZhis.
With a wave of her hand, Pojun smoothly returned to her grasp. Tilting her head slightly, the divine weapon reluctantly spat out a pouch.
It was unclear when it had returned or how long it had been watching, but in the end, it had come back.
“Everything is here. The area is too vast to search completely in such a short time, but all I could find is in this pouch.”
It said this without mentioning their previous conflict.
Jiang XueZhi gave it an out by asking, “Among the spirit beasts and demonic creatures you encountered, which was the strongest?”
Pojun thought for a moment and settled on the Snake King before them. “This one.”
Jiang XueZhi spoke slowly, “Has your master treated you well?”
She had chosen the most powerful one herself and left the rest to it, truly, she had been quite considerate.
Pojun felt something was off, but it couldn’t pinpoint the issue.
“…Not bad?” it replied ambiguously, hearing a soft chuckle in response.
Jiang XueZhi seemed to laugh, yet also seemed not to.
They now faced the realm’s strongest combatant, the Snake King. Even though it had been partially drained of its power, it still maintained a peak Golden Core state.
Jiang XueZhi’s own cultivation level was what it was, and though Pojun was a divine weapon, its earlier search had consumed a considerable amount of spiritual energy. Having just emerged into the world, it needed time to adjust. Weapons, after all, required a master’s control to unleash their full potential. When acting alone, it could simply retrieve treasures and leave, with little need for combat. But now, things were different.
Strictly speaking, this was their first true battle side by side.
At that moment, the spiritual energy of the secret realm suddenly sealed off. The pair looked up and saw the barrier of the First Immortal Manor.
Jiang XueZhi thought it must be the cultivation world’s equivalent of a “seal.”
On the “seal,” several characters written in spiritual energy shimmered with a silvery, snow-like glow.
[Secret realm emptied. Area sealed.]
What?
The secret realm had already been emptied?
Xie Wuwang, who had been waiting outside after taking pills, ready to show off his little disciple, nearly coughed up blood in fury.