26: Chapter Twenty-Six: Xu Xian

The monster's attributes are decent enough; the only thing to watch out for is the poison.

The usual routine: apply poison before fighting the monster...

His figure faded, entering Stealth. By the time he emerged from his invisible state, his dagger had already sliced across the midsection of a Qinglin Snake.

"- 1206!" (Critical Hit)

A massive damage number soared into the air, and the Qinglin Snake let out a shrill hiss as its HP dropped significantly.

Before the Qinglin Snake could retaliate, Ten-Step Kill triggered instantly.

"- 1211"

"- 1102 (Critical Hit)"

"- 1088 (Critical Hit)"

...

The three-second paralysis duration was enough for him to land five consecutive attacks.

The initial attack interval of 0.9 seconds was reduced to 0.8 seconds. This was the effect brought about by his Agility attribute.

The Qinglin Snake suddenly lunged, snapping down with a speed too fast to dodge!

However, he hadn't even considered dodging; this was the perfect chance to test his current durability.

"Sss!"

Pain shot through his shoulder; he had been hit.

"- 213"

"Beep!"

Combat Notification: The Qinglin Snake has attacked you. You have taken poison damage, losing 50 HP per second for 8 seconds!

...

The attack wasn't fatal, but this potent poison was quite troublesome!

He gulped down a health potion while pulling back to create distance. After a brief warm-up, what followed was a simple slaughter.

Just a few seconds later, the Qinglin Snake let out one final shriek and crashed to the ground.

[Ding! You have killed the Qinglin Snake, gained EXP + 350]

After the Qinglin Snake fell, he immediately unleashed Hand of God. The next moment,

"Ding~!"

System Notification: You searched and obtained item [Snake Gallbladder (Quality 68)]!

[Snake Gallbladder (Quality 68)]: Material required for Level 3 Alchemy.

Looking at the extra Snake Gallbladder in his inventory, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

Level 3 Alchemy material; this stuff was a rare commodity.

Generally speaking, materials required for support professions are either dropped by mobs or gathered.

However, the drop rate from mobs is very low, only about 1%, but his [Hand of God] simply ignored this outrageous probability.

Others might not get one even after farming a hundred, but he could just loot one after killing a single mob. This was the overbearing nature of the skill.

He continued walking forward. Looking out, a full seven or eight Qinglin Snakes were coiled there.

They were all uniformly Level 18; any one of them taken out could wipe out an average player party.

"Perfect, let me try pulling a whole group at once to see how the efficiency is."

Lin Feng loved these melee-type monsters the most. With his talent in hand, the more monsters there were, the faster he could kill them—these were all moving EXP...

Although the Qinglin Snakes' attack power was formidable, it was useless if they couldn't hit him.

In just a few minutes, all eight Qinglin Snakes had fallen.

He casually unleashed the skill Hand of God on the piles of corpses.

"Ding~!"

"Ding~!"

"Ding~!"

[Snake Gallbladder (Quality 62)]

[Snake Gallbladder (Quality 68)]

[Snake Gallbladder (Quality 70)]

The success rate for looting corpses wasn't high this time, but he had plenty of time to farm slowly.

Lin Feng picked up the dropped gold coins and was just about to continue deeper when his gaze suddenly froze.

On a high slope not far away, a young man was lying there at some point, covered in blood from head to toe, his clothes tattered, his breathing weak, looking like he could expire at any moment.

He walked over, and a line of text floated above the young man's head—

[Apothecary Owner Xu Xiu]

Level: ???

Description: A somewhat famous apothecary owner in Luofeng City, well-versed in pharmacology.

"Ah... young adventurer, save... save me," Xu Xiu groaned, begging for his help.

Lin Feng walked up and asked in a deep voice, "Handsome, what happened to you?"

"Sigh, it's a long story!" Xu Xiu let out a long sigh and lamented, "I was originally a peerless expert. I heard that the Nine-Turn Soul-Returning Herb was hidden in this Venomous Snake Valley, so in a moment of greed, I broke in. Who would have known... I hadn't gone far when I was ambushed by the Snake Mother. I didn't even have a chance to display my skills and almost lost my life here!"

Lin Feng smiled slightly, "Handsome, don't worry. I was sent by the heavens to save you..."

"Brother," "Don't you dare lie to me," Xu Xiu said, tears welling up in his eyes. "If you help me escape, I will teach you a unique skill: 'Alchemy'."

...

In an instant, Lin Feng was ecstatic.

This was a top-tier profession for gold farming! Furthermore, it was self-sufficient, completely eliminating the expense of buying potions.

Additionally, every player can only practice one secondary profession in their lifetime. Being able to accept this quest made him a total winner in life.

Lin Feng was ecstatic inside, but his face remained calm. He just nodded faintly, "Alchemy? It's okay. I happen to be lacking a trade to get rich. Tell me, how can I help you?"

Xu Xiu was overjoyed, "Young man, I see you have an extraordinary bearing; you are a genius at alchemy. As long as you can help me leave Venomous Snake Valley alive and retrieve the Nine-Turn Soul-Returning Herb for me, I will immediately pass on my exclusive alchemy techniques to you! I guarantee you will never have to worry about wealth for the rest of your life."

"Ding~!"

System Notification: Do you accept the quest [Slay the Snake Mother]? (Quest Rank: B)

Quest Content: Help Xu Xiu escape from Venomous Snake Valley. During this time, please kill 300 Qinglin Snakes and slay the Snake Mother. Retrieve the quest item and hand it over to Xu Xiu, and you will receive a very generous reward.

...

A B-rank decapitation quest—didn't this perfectly overlap with his route for grinding levels and farming materials?

It was like being handed a pillow while trying to sleep—a quest delivered while farming mobs! There was no reason not to accept.

"Fine, I accept the quest. You just wait here and don't run around."

He stood up and, under Xu Xiu's adoring gaze, turned and jumped off the high slope. His figure faded, and he immediately entered Stealth, charging into the area where the snakes were most concentrated.

Xu Xiu sat on the high slope, watching him with his jaw dropped. "A big shot, this is a big shot! I must cling to him..."

While slaughtering, Lin Feng glanced at his quest log. 300 Qinglin Snakes were just a matter of a few more laps for him. It was completely without difficulty.

Wandering alone in the canyon, he had grown accustomed to grinding levels solo over the past two days. No conflicts of interest, no need to coordinate with anyone, and no need to accommodate anyone—this was quite nice.

Before long, under his solo operation, the group of monsters he had pulled were all left with only a sliver of HP.

He then began to pick them off one by one. As a result, in less than two minutes, all dozen or so Qinglin Snakes had fallen, dropping gold coins all over the ground.

He continued pushing forward. Three hours later, finally, the Qinglin Snakes in the canyon had been mostly wiped out.

However, not a single piece of profession-specific gear had dropped. One could imagine how hard it was to get decent gear at the current stage.

But two pieces of white-tier gear had dropped, which could sell for a few thousand at most. Over 100 alchemy materials had dropped; after completing the quest, it would be a good choice for alchemy.

"Bang!"

As another Qinglin Snake fell, the quest target of 300 was also completed...

He checked his character status; there wasn't much EXP left until Level 15. Taking down that final BOSS would be enough.

He continued deeper. Before long, there was no road ahead. Under the dense grass, a super-sized snake covered in black fur was staring fixedly at him, and beside it was a herb emitting a faint, eerie glow.

Clearly, this was the final quest target.