Chapter 113: Chapter 111: I’m the Most Trustworthy

"Heaven and Earth, vast and desolate! Turn illusion into form!"

In the split second before the fetid wind and gaping maw could bite down.

The terror and rigidity on Zhu Ping’s face suddenly vanished.

Replaced by a strange, triumphant smile that spoke of a successful scheme.

He muttered a low command, and the Spell he had long held ready in his sleeve was instantly completed.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Four explosions erupted almost simultaneously.

Four small, dim, and inconspicuous flags, originally hidden around the stream, suddenly burst from the water and hovered in mid-air.

The banners fluttered without a wind, instantly weaving countless strands of iridescent white light—each as fine as a hair yet incredibly tough—into a vast and intricate spiderweb formation.

It enveloped the python that had launched the sneak attack, along with several other giant pythons that shot out of the water, trapping them all at the heart of the Array!

TCHSSS—!

The strands of light were incredibly sharp, instantly cutting into the tough scales and flesh of the giant pythons.

No matter how frantically they twisted, roared, and struggled.

Their massive bodies only became more tightly entangled, unable to break free in the slightest, their struggles futilely churning the blood-stained stream.

"You motherfuckers finally fell for it!" Zhu Ping laughed heartily, unhurriedly putting away the Blood Floating Luo he had used as bait.

"I went to great lengths to get you brainless beasts to walk right into my trap. My acting was pretty convincing, wasn’t it?

Hmph, a beast is a beast. Did you really think your grandpa from the Holy Sect was blind to such a low-level trap?"

Having captured the giant pythons, Zhu Ping showed no mercy and immediately activated the Array with his full power.

VMMMM!

The Array Flags flared with brilliant light!

The countless iridescent white strands binding them suddenly erupted with terrifying cutting power, rapidly tightening.

SQUELCH! SQUELCH! SQUELCH!

A series of sickening slicing sounds filled the air, accompanied by the short, shrill hisses of the dying pythons.

In an instant, the ferocious pythons—some ten meters, others dozens of meters long—were brutally diced into countless chunks of flesh and blood by the slender threads of light.

The pieces scattered with a splash, dying the entire stream a glaring crimson.

The thick stench of blood immediately filled the air.

"Hm?"

Just as he was about to turn and leave after dicing the pythons, Zhu Ping let out a soft sound of surprise.

His gaze was drawn to something on a large, severed python head nearby.

Inside the cleanly severed, grotesque head,

a Demon Beast’s transverse bone, which should have been hard and pale, was now only the size of a palm.

Its entire body had taken on a bizarre, translucent blood-red color. It was exceptionally soft and even trembled slightly, like a quivering piece of bloody gelatin.

’The transverse bone has softened to this degree... No wonder these Demon Snakes, which should have been muddle-headed, possessed the intelligence to set an ambush.’ Zhu Ping took a few steps closer, observing it carefully. A thoughtful look appeared in his eyes. He suddenly connected it to the Blood Floating Luo he had used as bait, and a guess surfaced in his mind:

’Hm? Could it be...

that the true miraculous effect of the Blood Floating Luo is to help demon creatures achieve Refinement of the transverse bone behind their brain, awakening their intelligence?’

If that were true, the value of this item would be far greater than simply completing the test!

And as Zhu Ping ambushed and killed the Demon Pythons, similar scenes were playing out in different corners of Fuluo Province.

After the brutal selection on Da Wu Mountain and the bloody battles in the Peach Garden, the original thousand or so Outer Mansion Disciples had been whittled down to less than one-tenth their number, with fewer than two hundred remaining.

But these two hundred survivors were all true elites who had crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Their Magical Combat experience, the ruthlessness of their character, and their keen perception of danger were far beyond what they had been when they first entered the Outer Mansion.

It could even be said that they were the strongest and most difficult batch of Outer Mansion Disciples the Holy Sect had seen in nearly a century.

And at this moment, the Champion Scholar of this strongest, most difficult group of Outer Mansion Disciples had already reached the depths of Fuluo Province.

Before him was a vast, boundless swamp, filled with a foul, rotting stench.

The surface of the swamp was murky and turbid, bubbling sluggishly. An unsettling and oppressive silence hung in the dead air.

"Just as I thought. How could a Spirit Grass that helps demon creatures awaken their intelligence possibly grow so casually, popping up here and there for anyone to see?" Qi Yun said, a cold sneer on his lips as he sat cross-legged atop a skeleton.

His powerful Divine Sense had already swept through the swamp below like quicksilver, revealing everything with perfect clarity.

Beneath the murky, gloomy swamp water lay countless enormous burrows, making the entire swamp floor resemble a massive honeycomb.

Within each burrow lurked a terrifying, massive python whose scales shimmered with a faint, eerie light.

Their cold gazes were fixed on the surface, like Hunters waiting for their prey to step into a trap.

The moment he set foot within the swamp’s bounds, they would launch a thunderous siege.

"You outsiders! This is our home!"

Just then, a python—the largest of them all, with a slight bulge on its head—burst through the surface of the water. It raised the upper half of its body, its cold and sinister eyes looking down on Qi Yun. Its scarlet tongue flicked rapidly as it spoke in a slurred but hate-filled human voice:

"We have already sent some of the Spirit Grass out of the swamp for you to gather. What more do you want?"

"Sent them out? Do you think I’m as stupid as you are?" Qi Yun sneered. Held aloft by the skeleton, his figure was as steady as a mountain. The other ghastly white bones circling him made him look like a Ghost King descended upon the mortal world.

"You were merely using the Spirit Grass as bait to lure us deeper so you could ambush and trap us.

Don’t try to stall for time with me. Hand over one hundred Blood Floating Luos.

And I might give you a chance to turn over a new leaf and be reborn as snakes."

Its scheme exposed by Qi Yun’s words, the lead python’s eyes instantly grew even colder, its killing intent almost solidifying:

"So what if it was? Since you’ve seen through it, you’ll die here today!

Family, attack!"

HSSS—!

Before its voice had even faded, the swamp seemed to boil over!

The giant pythons lying in wait in the countless burrows swarmed out as if they had received a command.

A dense, writhing mass of enormous serpentine shadows blotted out the view, their gaping maws rushing forward on a wave of fetid wind.

The terrifying scene was enough to shatter the Heart and Spirit of anyone afraid of snakes, causing them to die on the spot.

"Hmph, I offered you a chance, and you spat in my face!" Qi Yun’s expression turned cold, a frigid glint flaring in his eyes.

"A bunch of mud-eels gain a sliver of intelligence and think they’re True Dragons?"

With a wave of his great sleeve, he rapidly formed a hand seal, unleashing the Corpse Explosion technique he had long prepared.

The ten White Bone Skeletons circling him instantly let out a jarring, cackling laugh. The Corpse Poisoning Yin Fire around them flared wildly, and they transformed into ten ghastly green meteors, hurtling toward the densest part of the python swarm with resolute, self-destructive intent!

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

A series of deafening explosions rang out one after another.

Dark green mushroom clouds of poisonous fire billowed into the sky.

Terrifyingly high temperatures and shockwaves, mixed with highly corrosive corpse poison, raged outwards, evaporating more than half of the water in the swamp.

These Demon Snakes, who had only just awakened their intelligence and whose strength was barely equivalent to a Qi Refining Second or Third Layer Cultivator, were as fragile as paper under the power of the Corpse Explosion, a technique designed purely for slaughter.

In an instant, they were blown to smithereens. They couldn’t even let out a scream before being reduced to piles of charred, twisted ash!

With just a single volley, the pythons’ assault was brutally halted, and they suffered devastating losses!

"Wait! Stop! We’re willing to hand over the Spirit Grass!!" Never expecting Qi Yun’s methods to be so cruel and terrifying, the remaining Demon Snakes—especially their leader—were scared out of their wits and hurriedly hissed for mercy.

They hastily dove into the depths of the swamp and quickly retrieved a large quantity of Blood Floating Luo.

One after another, exquisitely vibrant, blood-colored, otherworldly flowers were piled up on a clear patch of swamp ground in front of Qi Yun.

There were more than four hundred of them in total, far exceeding the one hundred he had demanded.

"Please... Please honor your promise and spare us," the lead python said, its voice trembling, all of its previous arrogance gone.

Qi Yun flicked his sleeve, and an invisible force swept up the four hundred-plus Blood Floating Luos, gathering them all into his possession.

He put on a solemn expression, nodded, and said in a very sincere tone:

"Rest assured. I, Qi Yun, have always been a man of my word."

The Demon Snakes had just breathed a sigh of relief—

「The next moment.」

Thirty White Bone Skeletons once again let out their cackling death-rattle, like a reaper’s tolling bell, and charged down at the python swarm with an even more ferocious surge of Corpse Poisoning Yin Fire!

"You tricked us! Didn’t you say you were a man of your word?!" the lead python roared in despair and fury, its scales standing on end from sheer terror.

Hearing this, Qi Yun put on an innocent expression and spread his hands.

"I didn’t lie to you.

I said I’d give you a chance to ’be reborn as snakes.’

How can you be reborn as snakes if you don’t die first?"

As his voice fell, a more violent and dense series of explosions completely engulfed the entire swamp.

...