"Hoo--"
A foul-smelling slime fell, and a gust of wind was heard. Then the slime on the ground immediately burst into a fierce fire, and thick smoke filled the entire underground cave in an instant.
"YiHeng, YiHeng, where are you? Are you okay?" Xie Yilin's voice came from the other side with anxiety amidst the smoke and flames.
"I'm fine. You guys retreat to a safe place and hide. This time I really only need three minutes!"
Standing at the edge of the sea of fire, I clenched my sword tightly in my hand as my energy overflowed outwards. I locked onto the position of that blood sausage fly before roaring loudly and leaping into mid-air with my red horns pointed forward to slash it down with one swift motion.
"The mercy sword shows no mercy! Die now! Let me show you what it means to cut something in half!"
With a loud shout, chaotic energy surged out like a torrent from Hui Gen Ling Zhi (Wisdom Root Spirit Branch), all condensed onto Mercy Sword which instantly grew dozens of times larger than before; its bright light shining fiercely like that of an enormous mountain-cutting sword. With one strike even extremely cold ice would not be able to withstand its power let alone just thin layers of blood protection.
"Sss...puff..." As soon as Mercy Sword struck down upon it, ferocious black gas rose up like mushroom clouds while easily slicing through its protective layer made up by congealed blood.
Following closely behind Mercy Sword was Gan Jiang Treasure Sword whose blade suddenly flashed brightly causing splatters of blood everywhere until finally when everything cleared away there lay two pieces left over from chopping off this python-like creature which had been as thick as water buckets moments ago but now writhing around on both sides separately looking very miserable indeed.
"I told you, the mercy sword shows no mercy. I'm sorry!"
With one strike that severed its body in two, I immediately charged forward and with another flash of my sword cut off its head.
"Puff..." A soft sound was heard as the snake's head wrapped in blood fell to the ground. The blood slowly dissipated revealing white scales and a pink crown inside along with a mouth that had been chopped off. Finally, this snake lay dead on the ground twitching continuously while only its writhing torso remained.
"Chih," Gan Jiang Treasure Sword was inserted into the ground picking up the snake's head which I then lifted up proudly looking towards Chiqing Shuai (Late General) and his men wanting to show them what I had accomplished.
As a result, upon closer inspection, they were all standing at the edge of the fire with serious expressions on their faces. Especially Xie Yilin, who was pale and coughing continuously as if having difficulty breathing.
"Hey, are you guys okay? I've killed that ghost thing already. It didn't even take three minutes," I walked up to them while holding the snake head and asked.
"YiHeng, according to the current situation, we need to evacuate outside of the cave first," seeing my actions, Chi Qingshuai frowned and said to me.
"Why do we need to leave? Is there a problem?" I curiously asked.
"This cave is too narrow. Now that a big fire has started again, it seems like it won't be extinguished anytime soon. If we continue staying here for too long, we might suffocate and die," Chi Qingshuai explained.
Upon hearing this explanation, I suddenly understood the severity of our situation and said to them: "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get out quickly! Don't worry; I'm still carrying the snake head. The old meat has been taken care of."
"My Eight Treasures haven't been retrieved yet. You guys go ahead; we'll catch up soon!" Upon hearing this statement from Jietou (the nickname given by YiHeng), he hurriedly ran over to where the snake corpse was lying down and collected his magical tools into his backpack before following us towards outside of the cave together.
Just as we rushed out of underground caves into an air-raid shelter passage behind us came a sudden rumbling sound followed by fierce flames spewing forth from behind.
Seeing this scene made us feel fortunate about our previous decision-making skills in such dire circumstances because if we had stayed inside that cave at this moment then who knows what would have happened?
It goes without saying that the big fire was caused by the snake corpse being ignited.
This really surprised me. I didn't expect the snake's body to be so flammable. If I had known earlier, I would have used fire to deal with it.
Speaking of using fire as an attack method, there is also the slime attack method used by the snake. Both of these methods are excellent defensive strategies against enemies. Can I learn from them and apply some insights into improving my own fighting techniques?
Thinking about this in my mind while walking outside, I couldn't help but ponder for a long time before realizing that both of these methods were difficult to implement practically since fire attacks require fuel and slime attacks require large amounts of slime which are not easy to carry around unless you're part of a large-scale army unit.
"YiHeng, why are you still carrying the snake head?" Xie Yilin walked up to me as we were walking and asked with a hint of fear in her voice.
"Oh, I was lost in thought and forgot. Sorry about that," I chuckled awkwardly, placing the snake head on the ground. Then, while picking off the blood layer on its surface, I said to them: "Wait a moment, let me cut off some of this immortal flesh."
"Be careful. The snake's gallbladder is likely located under the immortal flesh," Cheng Qingshuai leaned over and warned me when he saw what I was doing.
"Gallbladder?" Hearing this made my heart skip a beat as I quickly opened Tianmen and released my Qi to investigate my surroundings.
I wanted to see if there were any evil spirits following us. After all, previously it was an evil spirit attached to the gallbladder that caused trouble with the ghost dog. Now that this snake also has a gallbladder, wouldn't it become an evil spirit too?
Thinking like this in my mind, I increased my speed and quickly cut off a piece of immortal flesh from its head before handing it over to Jietou. Then using my foot to hold down its head firmly in place while cutting through it with my sword until its brain split into two halves revealing its cerebral fluid.
"Master, where is the gallbladder? What does it look like?" After opening up the skull of the snakehead ,I couldn't help but ask Cheng Qingshuai.
"It should be hidden inside their cerebral fluid; feel around for something hard about finger-sized - that's your target! Dig it out carefully because even simple consumption can instantly improve one's cultivation level due to being condensed by spiritual energy alone! Not to mention making secret medicine out of it which would have longer-lasting effects." Cheng Qingshuai looked at me and said.
"Master, you are truly a master of Taoism. You seem to be very good at alchemy. I wonder if you have any Dali pills for sale?" As I spoke, I laughed and reached out to dig into the snake's cerebral fluid in search of its gallbladder.
However, what surprised me was that just then, I suddenly felt a cold breeze blowing from my side. When I turned my head to look, I saw a black figure staring at me with purple-red eyes standing there quietly."