97: Chapter 97 Slaying

The water column splashed up over a dozen zhang high; the spray was frozen into ice beads by the cold air mid-air, clattering against the cliff face before rolling back into the pool.

After the spray settled, the snake carcass floated half-submerged on the pool surface. Its black, glossy scales gradually dimmed in the sunlight, fading from pitch black to dark gray, then from dark gray to grayish-white.

That pair of emerald vertical pupils solidified completely, like two lusterless stone beads half-immersed in the water.

Jiang Yan leaped down from the cliff and landed beside the snake carcass.

As his boot soles stepped onto the snake body, the scales had already lost their original hardness and luster, feeling like stepping on a layer of dry, cracked tree bark.

He extended his palm and pressed it onto the snake body, activating the Bloodthirsty Demon Scripture.

The essence blood of the Black Water Mysterious Snake surged into the Meridians of his palm like a breached floodgate.

The essence blood of a Peak First-Order Yao Beast was scorching hot and thick, bringing a near-scalding stinging sensation as it surged in.

It was not ordinary warmth, but heat—like holding a piece of red-hot iron.

The inner walls of his Meridians twitched violently under the scouring of the essence blood. The skin of his entire right arm instantly flushed a deep red, veins bulged beneath the skin, and one could clearly see the dark red blood flow surging and accelerating.

The water-attribute Yao power contained within the essence blood was extremely domineering, rampaging through the Meridians like a trapped snake struggling madly in a narrow passage; every collision sent needle-like stabs of pain through the inner walls of his Meridians.

The pitch-black vortex of the Bloodthirsty Demon Scripture peeled away and devoured the essence blood layer by layer.

The vortex in his Dantian spun faster and faster, so fast that a ring of extremely faint, dark purple lightning-like patterns appeared at the edge of the vortex—this was a sign that his Spiritual Qi was about to undergo a qualitative change.

The color of the vortex gradually began to take on a faint purple glow, like a nebula faintly visible in the deepest part of the night sky; the purple light shifted uncertainly in the darkness, sometimes gathering, sometimes dispersing.

After the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the last trace of essence blood was refined.

The Dantian vortex was half a circle larger than before, spinning steadily and powerfully.

The layer of dark purple halo within the pitch-black color became more distinct, no longer faint, shifting spots of light, but stably attached to the edge of the vortex, like an extremely thin purple ring of light.

His total Spiritual Qi had increased by at least thirty percent—he was only one final barrier away from the eighth level of Qi Refining. Under the scouring of his Spiritual Qi, that barrier had thinned significantly, like a layer of water-soaked kraft paper, and one or two more impacts would be enough to tear it apart completely.

He spread out his Divine Sense.

Within ten and a half zhang, the shape of every pebble at the bottom of the cold pool was clearly discernible, the textures of the Yao Beast skeletons half-buried in the silt were distinct, and he could even perceive an extremely subtle underground stream seeping out from a rock crevice deep at the bottom of the pool; the rustling sound of the water scouring the fine sand at the edge of the crevice rang in his ears as if it were right beside him.

He withdrew his hand.

After the essence blood was sucked dry, the snake carcass withered rapidly.

The scales lost their luster, fading further from grayish-white to ghostly white, then peeled off the snake body piece by piece, landing on the water surface like dry leaves.

The flesh turned into grayish-white powder and fell off with a rustling sound, scattered into the cold pool by the mountain wind, spreading a thin layer of grayish-white foam on the water surface.

The massive snake body collapsed layer by layer—shrinking from ten zhang long to seven zhang, then from seven zhang to five zhang, until finally only a few snake bones remained, retaining their original shape and floating half-submerged on the water surface.

Jiang Yan crouched down to inspect the snake bones.

The skeleton of the Black Water Mysterious Snake was dark black, with its surface densely covered in natural water-attribute Spiritual patterns.

The Spiritual patterns extended along the bone surface in a wavy shape, spreading from the joints to both sides; the lines were smooth and natural, like ripples stirred by the wind on the water surface, solidified onto the bone.

Most of the snake bones lost all Spiritual Qi after the essence blood was sucked dry; their surfaces were covered in cracks, and they would shatter into pieces with a light touch, the cross-sections rough and dry, without a trace of Spiritual Qi remaining.

But three pieces were different.

One piece of spinal bone, two pieces of rib bone.

The Spiritual patterns on the surface of these three snake bones were still faintly glowing—not the kind of light from artificially injected Spiritual Qi, but a very slow, very steady, pulsating shimmer, as if the breath of some living creature still remained deep within the marrow cavity of the bones.

They felt slightly cool to the touch, heavier than gold or iron of the same volume, and as he weighed them in his palm, he could feel a faint resonant vibration between the Spiritual patterns on the bone surface and the water-attribute Spiritual Qi.

He stored the three snake bones into his Storage Pouch. The Spiritual bones of a Peak First-Order snake Yao Beast were excellent Materials for refining water-attribute Magical Artifacts.

Especially that piece of spinal bone; its bone density far exceeded that of the ribs, and the integrity of its Spiritual patterns was also the highest. Taken out alone, it would be worth at least a hundred Spirit Stones.

After dealing with the snake bones, he leaped into the cold pool.

The pool water was bone-chillingly cold.

The water-attribute Spiritual Qi was so dense it almost condensed into substance. The deeper he dove, the heavier the cold became; the water temperature shifted from ice-cold to bone-chilling, and from bone-chilling to numbing—his fingertips lost sensation first, then his forearms, and finally his entire arm became as sluggish as if it were soaked in ice water.

The pool water was ink-green, and light disappeared completely before it could penetrate three zhang; everything around was pitch black, with only the occasional bubble floating up from the pool bottom making a faint gurgling sound in the darkness.

He injected Spiritual Qi into his eyes, and his vision gradually became clear in the darkness.

The bottom of the pool was covered with black silt and gravel. The silt was extremely fine and soft; stepping on it would cause his entire foot to sink in, and when he pulled his boot sole out, it would stir up a cloud of turbid mud. The mud cloud slowly diffused in the water like blooming ink-colored flowers.

Half-buried in the silt were the skeletons of various Yao Beasts—several Iron-Backed Gray Wolf skeletons lay crookedly in the mud, their ribs bitten through from the middle by something, the fractures jagged and uneven.

A rock bear skull was half-buried in the silt, its eye sockets stuffed with black mud, and there was a basin-sized puncture wound on the top of its skull with smooth edges, having been pierced through in one go by venomous fangs.

There was also half a ribcage of an unknown large Yao Beast, the ribs as thick as a human waist, covered in dark green water moss. The water moss swayed gently in the water, like a corpse's burial shroud still fluttering in the wind.

These were all the remains of prey that the Black Water Mysterious Snake had hunted over the past hundred years.

After being swallowed, their flesh was digested completely, and their skeletons sank to the bottom of the pool, slowly rotting in the cold, chilly water.

He searched along the bottom of the pool for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

The cold pool was deeper than he had anticipated, at least thirty-plus zhang from the surface to the bottom, and the area of the pool bottom was much larger than it appeared when looking down from the cliff top.

The entire pool bottom was funnel-shaped, deepest in the center and gradually rising toward the edges. At the deepest point, near the base of the cliff wall, he found a hidden cave entrance.

The cave entrance was irregularly circular, about one zhang in diameter, and was mostly obscured by a massive rock.

The surface of the massive rock was covered with a thick layer of dark green water moss, and the tentacles of the moss drifted slowly in the water.

If one did not look closely, this massive rock appeared to be one with the cliff wall, and one would never be able to tell that there was a separate world behind it.