17: Chapter 17 The Green Snake's Praise

Inside the cave, Xu Qing continued to excavate downwards, expanding the space.

After tidying up the cave, he took out the Flood Dragon's Horn and happily hung it up.

He wanted to leave it hanging there until the end of time.

And so, he let it hang for a whole day.

"Hey, hey, hey, Xu Qing, you can't go on like this."

"You need to go hunting and get stronger. There's a bunch of perverts in this world lusting after your body."

The Green Snake shook his head and decided to let it hang for one more day.

Three days later.

Xu Qing emerged from the cave, feeling all his fatigue swept away.

He caught a few Frogs around the lake to satisfy his cravings.

He had wanted to taste the Frogs here for a long time, but these past few days he had been hanging on the Flood Dragon's Horn, too lazy to move.

The Flood Dragon's Horn was truly a menace to snakes; it actually held him back and wouldn't let him go hunting.

How terrifying. He must use it cautiously in the future.

Xu Qing flew into the sky and began to explore the surrounding map and the distribution of Yao Beasts, patrolling along the way.

[Ding! Proficiency has met the requirements.]

[Flight Lv1 upgraded to Flight Lv2.]

"What is that up ahead..."

Xu Qing stopped and floated in mid-air.

A white figure was flying toward him; it was... a human Cultivator.

Xu Qing shuddered in fear. Someone who could fly might be someone he couldn't defeat.

Looking closer, he paused. There were horns on the head and a tail behind the buttocks—it didn't seem human after all!

Xu Qing shuddered even more.

He was at Foundation Establishment and didn't have the ability to Transformation yet; wouldn't that make this a Yao Dan Realm Yao General?

He hadn't encountered any other Foundation Establishment Yao Beasts yet.

The Yao Dan Realm and such were still too far off for him.

Xu Qing hurriedly flew back to his cave, crawled to the deepest part, curled into a ball, activated Concealment, tucked his head into his tail, and remained motionless.

"Little Green, I finally found you. You actually ran this far."

Xu Qing's pupils dilated and shook violently; that Great Yao was standing right in front of him.

"Aaaah, I'm going to be eaten!"

Xu Qing was so scared his tail stood on end as he desperately tried to swim out of the cave.

However, his tail was stepped on. His entire body stretched tight like a rubber band before snapping back.

A small hand grabbed his Seven-inch mark and lifted him off the ground.

His whole body felt weak, and he couldn't cast a single Demonic Technique.

This familiar feeling...

It was Madam Bai!

Xu Qing widened his big eyes and carefully studied the face of the figure before him for three seconds.

Big tail, silver hair, small white horns.

It really was Madam Bai!

Because of his face blindness—and because this person had neither a scent nor Demonic Qi, and couldn't even be detected by Divine Sense—he hadn't recognized her.

"Evolved into a Resurrection Green Snake?"

"This is truly..."

"A walking Spirit Medicine."

With a squint of her eyes, Madam Bai identified that Xu Qing was no longer a Green Water Snake, but a Resurrection Green Snake.

"I'm about to leave the Monster Beast Mountain Range as well. I looked for you to trade for some of your blood."

"After all, Green Water Snakes aren't that easy to find."

"But I didn't expect you to have evolved into a Resurrection Green Snake."

"In that case, the things I originally prepared won't be enough for the trade."

Madam Bai was indeed as gentle as ever.

If it were him, he would have definitely just taken it by force.

People like her deserved to be this powerful.

"I'll use... hmm..."

She furrowed her small brow slightly, seemingly thinking about what would be better to trade.

"I'll trade you for a scale."

The tail behind her flicked to her front. She hugged the big tail with both hands and plucked a bloody scale from it.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

Xu Qing also readily plucked a scale, controlling his blood to flow from the wound.

The two of them happily finished exchanging Materials.

"Before you Transformation, it's best to hide from humans."

"If humans discover there's a juvenile Resurrection Green Snake here, you'll be boiled into snake soup."

After Madam Bai finished her warning, she vanished.

Xu Qing also breathed a sigh of relief.

He almost thought he was going to meet his end here today.

He had to get stronger!

If it weren't for Madam Bai today, his snake life would have been over.

Right, he felt like he had forgotten something.

Xu Qing coiled in place and thought for a few seconds.

"I forgot to lick!"

Xu Qing was now filled with immense regret.

The Dao Cultivation that was within reach had just flown away; it hurt so much he wanted to cry.

But at least he still had a scale.

Xu Qing looked at the white scale, the size of a fingertip, floating in the air.

A trace of blood still clung to the scale.

Xu Qing thought for a moment and, adhering to the principle of not wasting anything, licked the blood off the scale clean.

[Ding! Devoured White Flood Dragon Blood.]

[Dao Cultivation +5, Evolution Points +20.]

[Probability of Golden Core Breakthrough increased from 50% to 60%.]

[Learned Skill: Lightning Strike Lv1.]

[Unlocked new evolution path: Sky-Roaming Thunder Snake.]

[Sky-Roaming Thunder Snake]: A Spirit Snake, an extremely rare spirit snake with a violent temperament. Descendant of the Thunder Flood Dragon, found in rainy thunderclouds, masters thunder arts. Flesh can temper the body, scales, bones, and skin can be used to refine Magical Artifacts; difficult to tame as a Spirit Beast.

"As expected, a new evolution path unlocked."

Xu Qing didn't expect to squeeze any more evolution paths out of the White Flood Dragon.

He estimated it would be hard for the two of them to meet again in the short term.

"Hey, Little Green."

Xu Qing shuddered in fright.

A white shadow appeared before him—it was indeed Madam Bai.

"Hiss, hiss, hiss~"

Xu Qing stepped forward without hesitation and gave her a lick.

[Devoured White Flood Dragon Spiritual Qi.]

[Dao Cultivation +0.1, Dao Cultivation +0.1...]

Ah, his thoughts were now clear!

This time it didn't give evolution points, but it didn't matter; he wouldn't turn his nose up at Dao Cultivation.

"Taking a few more of your scales."

Several scales were plucked off without any pain.

Then the white shadow vanished, leaving Xu Qing's tongue licking at empty air.

"Unlocked new evolution path: Simp Snake."

Xu Qing wanted to go out and continue hunting, but he obediently crawled back into the cave.

Nothing else, his body was still shaking quite badly.

That night, Xu Qing rarely didn't Cultivate but instead took a nap.

Every time he was about to fall asleep, he would wake up with a start, feeling a chill at his Seven-inch mark.

He headed out again.

This time he had learned his lesson; he didn't fly high at all, slowly flying at a low altitude.

Only a fool would fly high; serious Green Snakes fly low.

"Hmm, human Cultivators?"

Xu Qing seriously used Insight from a distance to determine their Dao Cultivation.

They were all fellows with a few decades of Dao Cultivation.

It seemed his luck wasn't always this bad.

"Ahem, it's not easy to run into humans."

"Let's see what they're trying to do."

Xu Qing hid in the shallow waters of the wetlands, activated Concealment, and crept closer.

As he got closer, the words from their mouths became clearer.

"Jie jie, that chick from the Immortal Ascension Pavilion yesterday was really something."

"Jie jie, too bad the fee was so expensive."

"Jie jie, they charge high for a reason; that truly was the taste of ascending to immortality."

"Jie jie..."

These men couldn't put together a single piece of nutritious information.

Speaking of which, that 'jie jie' laughter... who would actually laugh like that?

"Jie jie, you guys went out to play and didn't bring me."

"Jie jie, definitely next time."

Xu Qing followed them all the way, and only after a long period of 'jie jie' sounds did he finally hear some useful information.

These people were Disciples of a human Cultivator Sect, the Heavenly Poison Sect.

They had come to the wetlands to collect poisonous herbs and the poison cores of some Yao Beasts for a certain Elder Han of the Sect to refine a strange poison to Breakthrough his Realm.

Additionally, they were searching for traces of a certain venomous snake.

The Three-Colored Venomous Snake.

This snake was extremely toxic—one touch meant death—and it was incredibly rare.

But for Poison Cultivators, it was a walking Spirit Medicine, Artifact Refining material, and a top-tier spirit pet.

Supposedly, someone had found traces of this snake in the wetlands, so the Heavenly Poison Sect dispatched Disciples to search for it.

Xu Qing also successfully learned the name of this vast wetland plain.

The Swamp of Death.