**Chapter 12: The Flying Cloud Demon Snake**
Mo Qianqian stood frozen, her body stiff with fear. "The Flying Cloud Demon Snake!" she whispered, not daring to move. She never would have imagined that such a terrifying beast could be hiding in the waterfall pool just a hundred miles from the Yanxia Sect.
A beast that breaks through the ninth level of Qi Refinement and reaches the Nascent Soul stage, thereby gaining intelligence and understanding innate magical abilities, transitions from instinctual to conscious cultivation, earning the title of "demon beast." Demon beasts are classified into ordinary, elite, and king-grade. Just as in the realm of cultivators, elite and king-grade demon beasts are far superior to ordinary ones.
An elite demon beast, upon entering its nascent stage, can easily defeat a regular beast at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. A king-grade demon beast, on the other hand, can crush elite beasts of the same stage with ease. The Flying Cloud Demon Snake was one such king-grade beast, an exceptionally rare entity. At the Nascent Soul stage, it could rival a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and upon reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, it would become a king among demon cultivators, a dire threat to the cultivation world.
This Flying Cloud Demon Snake hadn't reached the Foundation Establishment stage yet, so it was still a demon beast. Nevertheless, its attack power was comparable to that of a late Foundation Establishment cultivator. This meant that even the top disciple of Bright Moon Peak, Wang Tong, would struggle against it.
Mo Qianqian had just reached the seventh level of the Nascent Soul stage, and Leaf was only at the ninth level of Qi Refinement. Facing a demon snake with the attack power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, by all accounts, they should have no chance of survival.
However, demon beasts have their weaknesses. They lack the augmentation of magical artifacts, and despite their intelligence, their wisdom is still limited, relying heavily on instinct.
As Leaf's eyes darted around, quickly assessing the situation, Mo Qianqian suddenly sprang into action. With a quick hand gesture, she summoned her Ice Sword from her storage pouch. It shot out as a beam of cold light, heading straight for the Flying Cloud Demon Snake.
"Stupid girl," Leaf muttered, his eyes twitching. In a flash, he became a blur, racing toward her.
The snake's cold eyes turned vicious as it spewed a blast of demonic energy. The icy beam from Mo Qianqian's sword shattered into fragments, and the remaining energy hurtled toward her.
Mo Qianqian's lack of battle experience showed as she fumbled for a talisman in her storage pouch, but it was too late. Leaf, moving like lightning, grabbed her waist and leaped at an odd angle, dodging the attack.
With a thunderous crash, the spot where Mo Qianqian had been standing was obliterated, leaving a gaping crater in the ground.
Leaf tossed Mo Qianqian aside and darted towards the Flying Cloud Demon Snake. Mo Qianqian, drenched in cold sweat, slowly came to her senses. She had narrowly escaped death; her seventh level of Nascent Soul wouldn't have lasted another round against the demon snake.
By now, Leaf was "fighting" the Flying Cloud Demon Snake. It was more of a game of cat and mouse, with Leaf using his masterful dodging techniques to continuously provoke the snake, drawing out its ferocious attacks. Any other cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refinement would have been pulverized by now. But Leaf managed to find and exploit the tiniest gaps in the snake's assaults, leaving Mo Qianqian gaping in awe from a distance.
"Hey, you little idiot! Are you just going to stand there, or will you call for help?" Leaf yelled. He appeared relaxed, but the danger he was in was real. With his limited strength, even his many techniques couldn't unleash their full potential.
Mo Qianqian snapped out of her daze and quickly retrieved a cylindrical object from her storage pouch. A brilliant flare shot into the sky, but an odd force snuffed it out almost immediately.
"The Flying Cloud Demon Snake's innate domain suppression technique!" Mo Qianqian exclaimed. As a disciple of a prestigious sect, she had read about this in a bestiary. The Flying Cloud Demon Snake had three innate techniques: flight, mind control, and the rarest of all, domain suppression.
"Damn it!" Leaf cursed internally. The idea of running was out; he was skilled at breaking through barriers, but he needed time for that, and the demon snake wouldn't give him any.
The snake's scales were as tough as armor. Breaking through its defenses was nearly impossible—unless...
An idea struck Leaf, and he communicated it to Mo Qianqian telepathically. "Attack its eyes with your sword and withstand its counterattack."
Mo Qianqian nodded, though Leaf couldn't see her. She formed a hand seal, and her fallen Ice Sword sprang back to life, shooting toward the snake's left eye as a streak of cold light.
The Flying Cloud Demon Snake, with its limited intelligence, saw Mo Qianqian's attack as the greater threat compared to Leaf's antics. It ignored Leaf and opened its jaws wide, spewing demonic energy towards Mo Qianqian.
This was Leaf's chance. He moved like lightning, aiming straight for the snake's open mouth.
Sensing danger, the snake's vicious eyes flickered. It tried to attack again, but having just unleashed its demonic breath, it was too slow. The best it could do was snap its jaws shut.
Leaf felt searing pain as the snake's toxic fangs tore a chunk of flesh from his right calf, but he was already inside the snake's body.
"Leaf..." Mo Qianqian murmured, barely conscious. She had used two protective talismans to fend off the snake's demonic breath and now stood dazed. She saw Leaf get "swallowed" by the snake, her mind blanking out.
Inside the snake's foul-smelling, pitch-black stomach, powerful demonic energy mixed with digestive fluids that could dissolve even solid rock in an instant.
Leaf's body glowed faintly with complex patterns of protective spells swirling around him, shielding him from harm. He sat with eyes closed, chanting rapidly, hands forming intricate seals.
In his dantian, nine drops of spiritual liquid began to merge, while the spiritual energy in his ninety-nine meridians surged violently.
Just as the Flying Cloud Demon Snake prepared to attack Mo Qianqian again, it felt an unbearable pain from within. Its massive body writhed and twisted in the pool, spewing demonic breath wildly in all directions.
For over half an hour, the area around the pool was devastated. Amidst the rubble, Mo Qianqian lay unconscious, struck by the snake's random attacks. The snake had disappeared into the pool, and the water was now stained red with its blood.
As the waterfall continued to flow, the blood diluted and eventually vanished.
Deep beneath the pool, thousands of meters down, lay a vast network of underground springs, rich with spiritual energy. The concentration of spiritual energy here far surpassed that of the Yanxia Sect's spiritual springs used for nurturing medicinal herbs. For some reason, these springs hadn't surfaced, otherwise, the Yanxia Sect would have discovered them long ago.