The Qingyun Mountains.
Ye Wushuang had just finished cultivating and was preparing to head toward another opportunity belonging to Lin Langtian.
The Qingyun Mountains were vast beyond measure.
At first, Ye Wushuang had assumed that the two opportunity sites would be very close to each other. Who could have known that a short distance in a straight line did not mean a short journey?
He had no idea how many peaks she had climbed or how many ridges she had crossed.
It was not until a day later that Ye Wushuang finally arrived at a pavilion halfway up a mountain.
Strangely enough, despite the Qingyun Mountains being an extremely dangerous place rarely visited by humans, someone had built a pavilion here. She had no idea who had constructed it.
Perhaps it had been built for people to rest and admire the scenery.
Ye Wushuang could not figure it out either. Maybe the pavilion had some connection to the opportunity involving the stone stele?
Her most urgent task was to find that stele.
Ye Wushuang searched while pondering the matter, but she found nothing no matter how hard she looked.
So she passed through the pavilion and headed straight for the mountaintop. At last, in a secluded corner of the summit, she spotted a weathered stone stele.
Ancient characters were engraved across its surface. They appeared to be archaic inscriptions, but Ye Wushuang could not understand them at all.
At the foot of the stele stood a large stone incense burner that looked as though it had not been used in ages.
A thick layer of ash had accumulated inside. Having gained experience from snatching the previous opportunity, Ye Wushuang sifted through the ashes several times. Finally, at the bottom of the burner, she discovered a jade box that had been buried beneath them.
Perhaps only the protagonist’s mysterious, almost supernatural intuition could have led someone to discover this pill.
When she opened the jade box, a snow-white pill the size of a dragon’s eye came into view. Extremely dense spiritual energy of Heaven and Earth surrounded it.
If an alchemist had been present, they would certainly have recognized it as a high-grade Yellow-Tier pill.
Judging from its patterns, the pill had most likely been refined by a grandmaster. It actually bore three pill marks.
Throughout the cultivation world, pills were divided into four tiers: Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow.
Although Yellow-Tier pills were considered low-grade, ordinary low-level cultivators normally had no access to pills that had reached a formal tier.
In Qinghe City, even Yellow-Tier pills were exceedingly rare on the market, let alone high-grade Yellow-Tier pills.
Even the Swordmaster Manor, one of the four great clans, might not have many high-grade pills in reserve.
Ding! An opportunity belonging to the Child of Fortune, Lin Langtian, has been intercepted. A hundredfold return has been triggered. Congratulations, host, you have obtained one hundred high-grade Yellow-Tier Origin Condensation Pills.
The system’s pleasant voice rang out at that moment.
It seemed that the system’s rewards came in two forms: quality multiplication and quantity multiplication. The type awarded to her was random.
Still, even though this was only a hundredfold return, Ye Wushuang was already quite satisfied.
After all, these one hundred high-grade Yellow-Tier Origin Condensation Pills would be enough to help her cultivate to a much higher realm.
If the pill’s tier were too high and the gap between it and Ye Wushuang’s cultivation was too great, it would instead place a burden on her body and cause pill toxicity, which would be detrimental to her future growth.
Just as Ye Wushuang was preparing to take the pill, a sudden uneasiness flashed through her heart.
She immediately became alert and calmly observed her surroundings, but she found nothing unusual.
“Could it have just been my imagination?” Ye Wushuang murmured.
Apart from the stone stele, there was only a dense thicket of bushes nearby. On the distant cliffs grew several lone guest-welcoming pines. Nothing seemed out of place.
“Looks like I was overthinking it.”
Ye Wushuang muttered inwardly.
The moment she finished speaking and prepared to swallow the pill, rustling sounds suddenly came from one of the guest-welcoming pines behind her.
A huge snake tail then swept toward Ye Wushuang with a thunderous whoosh.
Ye Wushuang’s expression changed. She shifted her footing and narrowly avoided the deadly strike.
Boom!
A deafening crash rang out. The place where she had been standing was smashed into a massive crater, and several cracks even appeared across the stone stele. Dust billowed through the air.
Only after Ye Wushuang got a clear look at the thing that had attacked her did she realize that it was a giant python five zhang long.
“So this is a demonic beast.”
Ye Wushuang stared at the imposing python with a solemn expression, secretly relieved that she had been on guard. Otherwise, she might have lost her life here.
Judging by the aura radiating from the python, its cultivation had clearly reached the peak of the Qi Condensation Realm, and it was on the verge of breaking through to the True Essence Realm.
Ye Wushuang secretly cursed the system for being unreliable. Lin Langtian’s life script had never mentioned this giant python.
Could it be that this python posed so little difficulty for Lin Langtian that it was not even worth mentioning?
The giant python was extremely cunning. It had waited until the exact moment Ye Wushuang was about to take the pill before launching its sneak attack.
With that thought, Ye Wushuang circulated the Taiyin Profound Qi Breathing Art at full power, mobilizing the spiritual energy throughout her body. Without the slightest hesitation, she thrust out her sword.
The pure spiritual energy of the Taiyin Profound Qi wrapped tightly around the sword in her hand, condensing into a pale-green blade aura that shot straight toward the python’s head.
Sss!
The giant python twisted aside.
It looked bulky and cumbersome, yet its movements were as fast as lightning.
Before Ye Wushuang’s sword aura could even reach it, its massive body had already vanished from sight.
Hiss, hiss, hiss!
The giant python seemed to realize that Ye Wushuang was not easy to deal with. It opened its mouth and spat several clouds of green mist toward her.
Ye Wushuang dodged once more. In the next instant, the trees enveloped by the green mist were instantly corroded beyond recognition.
Its first attack had missed, and the giant python was unwilling to give up. It charged at Ye Wushuang once again.
After cultivating the Taiyin Profound Qi Breathing Art, Ye Wushuang’s spiritual perception had become extraordinarily sharp.
She merely shifted her body slightly, pushed off with her foot, and avoided the python’s attack once again.
At the same time, Ye Wushuang gathered all the Taiyin spiritual energy in her body and channeled it into the sword in her hand.
The moment the giant python closed in, the sword transformed into a streak of green light and slashed toward the serpent’s head.
Sword-Controlling Art!
Sensing the threat of death, the demonic serpent let out an enraged roar. It then spat out another cloud of green poisonous mist, attempting to block the streak of light.
Ye Wushuang sneered. “You think that will stop me?”
She immediately increased her spiritual energy output, pouring half of the spiritual energy in her body into her sword.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The green streak of light in the air suddenly flared brilliantly. In an instant, it pierced through the demonic serpent’s poisonous mist and plunged straight into the giant python’s vital point seven inches below its head.
Hiss!
The giant python let out a shriek of unbearable pain. Moments later, its enormous body crashed to the ground.
“Finally, it’s dead.”
Ye Wushuang let out a long breath.
This battle had also made her aware of her shortcomings. Although she now possessed a cultivation technique, she was still lacking in martial skills.
If she had not fully employed the Sword-Controlling Art and the Taiyin Profound Qi Breathing Art at the critical moment—and if the giant serpent had not underestimated her—Ye Wushuang might not have been able to defeat it so quickly.
As for the giant serpent’s blood, hide, bones, and other materials, she could not be bothered to collect them. After all, her system space already contained one hundred high-grade Origin Condensation Pills. She did not know how many demonic serpents like this she could buy with them.
Ye Wushuang soon left the area as well. The battle had taken place here, and the smell of the giant serpent’s blood could easily attract other people or powerful demonic beasts.
Sure enough, not long after she departed, several demon-hunting teams arrived at the scene.
Looking at the demon serpent lying on the ground, the group couldn’t help but gasp in shock.
“It’s actually a Five-Step Black Profound Python! I wonder which senior expert killed it. Not only did they slay it with a single strike, they didn’t even bother collecting the valuable materials from its body.”
The others nodded in agreement.
After all, this demon beast was incredibly difficult to deal with because of its potent venom. Even experts in the True Essence Realm would not dare provoke it.
The materials from its body were worth a considerable sum—at least several hundred low-grade spirit stones. Yet, to their surprise, they had simply been abandoned here, leaving the group with an unexpected windfall.
The group exchanged smiles before quickly setting about dismantling the giant python’s corpse.
