Chapter Fifty-Three: Spirit Snake

  Soon, Ye Chen climbed to the position of the stone cave, with one hand on the edge of the cave and slightly exerting force, he flipped his body up. At the entrance of the cave, there was a protruding stone wall with a flat surface, about two meters square. Ye Chen stood on it and looked into the cave. Due to the shelter of the waterfall, the light in the cave was somewhat dim, and his eyes could only see a few meters away.

  The hole was very deep, and it couldn't be seen at a glance. It didn't seem to be man-made, but rather naturally formed. Suddenly, his eyebrows furrowed slightly, and all the muscles in his body tensed up, tightly gripping the two arrow shafts, with vigilant eyes staring into the stone cave.

  In the dimly lit cave, it was hard to see what was hidden inside, but Ye Chen's keen sense of smell picked up an unusual scent with a hint of fishiness.

  Squeaky

  A sound came from the depths of the cave, followed by a surge of fierce and cold air. A green shadow shot out of the cave with a swift whooshing sound, its speed astonishing Leaf Chen, who had already been on high alert. He dodged to the side just in time, as a green light flashed before his eyes.

  "Hiss!"

  That green light emitted a hissing sound, and just as it was about to emerge from the waterfall, it suddenly turned back, and a steel whip-like tail swept over fiercely.

  "Hum!!"

  This tail directly shook the airflow into nothingness, with boundless power, causing Ye Chen's face to change color. He retreated several steps, entering the stone cave, and suddenly ducked down, his hand holding the black meteorite arrow flashing a cold light as it heavily stabbed towards that sweeping tail.

  Clang!

  The black meteoric iron arrow was stuck on it, and a golden iron humming sound suddenly rang out. A strong force came, and Ye Chen retreated several steps in a row.

  "Boom... Whoosh..."

  That tail was incredibly powerful, and without sweeping Ye Chen, it heavily struck the stone wall. The entire person and stone wall shook slightly, and where it hit, stones flew everywhere, revealing a huge deep mark.

  It wasn't until now that Ye Chen finally saw clearly what had suddenly attacked him. It was a creature with a triangular head, cold eyes, and a one-meter-long body covered in small, blue-green scales that reflected a cold light. On its central body, two palm-sized golden wings fluttered, allowing it to hover in mid-air as it ferociously stared at Ye Chen.

  Golden Winged Serpent!

  When Ye Chen recognized the snake, he was greatly shocked. The Golden Winged Snake was actually equivalent to a first-order cultivator in the Primordial Secret Realm's first turbulent period. It was a first-class spiritual beast that not only possessed some wisdom but also had an extremely agile body. Its venom was even more terrifying, and anyone who came into contact with it would die instantly!

  Ye Chen never thought that this place would actually hide a spiritual beast, it was really too unbelievable. After all, this is in the mortal world's mountains and forests, even if the spiritual energy here is thicker, it is difficult to give birth to such a powerful spiritual snake.

  "Hiss..."

  The golden-winged snake spat out blood-red letters, making a hissing sound. The venomous snake drool dripped to the ground, emitting a sizzling sound as it released streams of green smoke, corroding a large area of the ground. It was truly terrifying.

  Ye Chen's hand tightly grasped the meteorite arrow, and sweat began to seep from his palm. Facing a first-class spirit snake made him extremely nervous, and at this moment, he was in a stone cave, where escape was impossible.

  The Golden Winged Snake did not attack again, but instead glared at Ye Chen with a fierce gaze. Its eyes were cold and menacing, causing Ye Chen to feel a chill run down his spine. He slowly backed away, step by step, retreating deeper into the stone cave, his eyes fixed tightly on the Golden Winged Snake. His mind was tense and alert, not daring to relax for even a moment, as he quickly thought of ways to escape. Otherwise, today would surely end in tragedy, with him becoming the snake's prey.

  Time passed second by second, for Ye Chen it was like a whole day had passed. In just a few short breaths of time, he even felt the fatigue of his spirit, this was the consequence of intense mental concentration. As he retreated deeper and deeper, the light also grew darker and darker, Ye Chen suddenly stopped in his tracks.

  Can't retreat anymore, the light is too dark and it's even more dangerous for Ye Chen. If he enters complete darkness, the Golden Winged Snake, a spiritual beast that can see objects in the dark and sense human temperature, will take his life in an instant.

  Ye Chen took a step back, and the golden-winged serpent followed him forward by about one meter, maintaining a distance of around three meters. Ye Chen stopped moving, his hands gripping the black iron arrow even tighter. Suddenly, Ye Chen's gaze fell on the abdomen of the golden-winged serpent.

  "Could it be..."

  Ye Chen's heart skipped a beat as he suddenly thought of a possibility. Since the golden-winged cyan attack failed, it had not launched another attack, but instead slowly forced him deeper into the stone cave. It was clear that this spirit snake possessed a certain level of intelligence and wanted to push Ye Chen into the darkness before using its own advantages to kill him with one blow.

  What made Ye Chen puzzled was that the Golden Winged Snake was a first-class spiritual beast, whose strength far surpassed his own, and it didn't need to do so at all. It could have killed him directly, but it failed in its initial sneak attack, and later on, it didn't even launch an attack, which made everything seem suspicious.

  When his gaze fell on the belly of the Golden Winged Serpent, the bulging belly suddenly made Ye Chen think of a possibility. Combined with what he had read about the Golden Winged Serpent in the Spiritual Beast book, Ye Chen was almost certain that this spiritual snake was about to give birth, its strength greatly reduced, and it had fallen from the Spiritual Beast realm, at most only equivalent to the strength of a human 9th stage cultivator.

  The golden-winged snake does not lay eggs, but instead gives birth to small snakes directly. When Ye Chen first saw its introduction in a book, he was still unbelievable, and now he has encountered a golden-winged snake that is about to give birth.

  "Hey, since you've met me and your strength has greatly decreased, then today I will behead you!" Ye Chen's eyes suddenly lit up, in the dimly lit stone cave, it was like two bright spots flashing, at this time he had no tension in his heart, but instead had a kind of excitement.

  Because the book records that, wherever there is a golden-winged green snake, there must be spiritual medicine. The grade of spiritual medicine is roughly the same as that of the guardian spirit beast. In other words, in the depths of this stone cave, there is a first-class lower-grade spiritual medicine, which is a treasure that can quickly increase Ye Chen's strength, extremely precious.

  The golden-winged serpent saw Ye Chen no longer retreating into the depths of the stone cave, and in its cold, snake-like eyes, a hint of humanized irritability and anxiety flashed by, and its body began to tremble slightly. Ye Chen had been focusing all his attention on it, and suddenly discovered its abnormal reaction.

  The body of the Golden Winged Serpent shook more and more violently, its mouth letting out a sharp hiss as it suddenly transformed into a green light that shot over, without any warning, directly attacking Ye Chen's throat.

  "Can't hold it in anymore, are you going into labor? Take advantage of your weakness and take your life!"

  Almost at the same time as the golden-winged snake's attack, Ye Chen moved, and in this moment, almost all of his potential was unleashed, his speed reaching an unprecedented limit. He rolled forward on the spot, suddenly punching out with one hand, gathering all his strength to blast the air apart.

  Bang!

  One punch hit the body of the Golden Winged Serpent, under the enormous force, its one-meter-long body crashed into the stone wall with a loud bang, sending debris flying everywhere, until its entire body was deeply embedded in the stone wall.

  As a first-class spirit beast, the Golden Winged Serpent's physical body was extremely powerful, and its scales were even more unyielding. Ye Chen's punch hadn't caused it any actual harm, but had instead sent it crashing into the stone wall, which was enough!

  A black arrow feathered with a whooshing sound pierced the air, almost at the same time as the Golden Winged Snake was trapped in the stone wall, and shot out. The sharp arrowhead gleamed with a hint of cold light, condensing Ye Chen's strength to pierce its seven-inch mark.

  "Clang!"

  "Pffft!"

  A flash of blood light, the iron arrow broke through its scales and nailed the golden winged snake to the stone wall. It let out a series of shrill cries, its slender body struggling, fiercely pounding against the stone wall, shaking the entire cave as if it were about to collapse, rumbling loudly. Large pieces of rock turned into dust and fell down.

  "Pffft!"

  Another arrow pierced his head, and the crimson snake blood dripped down, in the last scream, the Golden Winged Snake finally stopped moving, completely losing its life.

  With a loud thud, Ye Chen landed on the ground with a thump, panting heavily, his clothes completely soaked. Just now, it seemed like only two moves, but he had concentrated all his energy and spirit into them. After killing the Golden Winged Blue Snake, he felt as if he had fainted, feeling extremely exhausted.

  "What a close call, if I hadn't just happened to meet a Golden Winged Serpent that was about to give birth, today would have ended with me being buried in its mouth..." Ye Chen muttered to himself while panting, "But I'm lucky, not only did I manage to kill it, but there must be a first-grade lower-tier spirit medicine in this cave. With this added to the other first-grade spirit medicine, breaking through to the 9th stage within half a year is possible!"

  Ye Chen's voice was somewhat complicated. The ninth rank was a special realm for him, because after reaching the peak of the ninth rank, he would have to go find the method to break open the seal on his dantian.

  After resting for about a quarter of an hour, Ye Chen's spirit had recovered somewhat. He stood up, pulled out the two arrows from the Golden Winged Snake's body, picked it up and walked to the entrance of the cave, throwing it far away, several hundred meters, directly into the forest. Then he walked back into the cave, gradually going deeper.

  After a while, Ye Chen arrived at the deepest part of the stone cave. The space here was much larger, about ten meters in diameter. In the center, there was a pool of water with a single stem of emerald green spiritual flower blooming, resembling a lotus.

  "Could that be a first-rate spiritual medicine?" Ye Chen's gaze swept around, and apart from the flower-like object in the center of the pool that resembled a green lotus, there was nothing else. He walked over slowly, but didn't catch a whiff of any spiritual medicine fragrance, and couldn't help but feel some doubt.

  "Could it be that I was wrong, and there's no spiritual medicine here?" Ye Chen rubbed his nose tip, feeling quite disappointed. He walked to the front of the flower, and smelled a very faint, almost imperceptible fragrance. If he hadn't been careful, he wouldn't have noticed it at all.

  "This should be the elixir." Ye Chen lightly brushed his fingertip, and the petal's surface cracked open, releasing a drop of emerald green liquid. Instantly, the entire cave was filled with fragrance, and a smile floated onto Ye Chen's face.

  This is a spiritual herb, a first-class low-grade spiritual herb. Ye Chen ultimately did not disappoint and picked it up, putting it in his storage bag. He then found a place to sit down and decided to cultivate for a period of time, using the spiritual herb to make several major breakthroughs. At that time, those people who wanted to deal with him at Lin City would encounter their most terrifying nightmare in history!