Chapter 423: Devil Flower (I)

Yating’s staff was pointed forward, letting out a series of thread-like streams of light in the air, twining around that dark green ball of light sent flying by the Twelfth Holy Guard, binding it inside.

However, that dark green ball of light was not easy to capture, and narrowly struggled free of those intertwining golden threads.

For a thorough binding, Long Haochen put his hand on Yating’s back, reinforcing her with his own spiritual energy, to finally cage it.

The following process was simple. Unable to submerge into the swamps, the already seriously wounded gigantic snake that got that dark green ball of light stolen could only end up dropping dead from everyone’s attacks.

Cai’er didn’t move, only holding that massive Sickle of the God of Death in her hand, and even the others didn’t dare approach her, for fear that this thing could cut anything in two.

Cai’er was visibly at a loss, slowly raising her head to look at Long Haochen in the air. If Long Haochen carefully looked at her current expression, he would discover that in the depths of her eyes, some very cautiously buried things started to burst forth.

An image could perhaps be faked, but the truth couldn’t. If not for that shove from Long Haochen, the one bearing the attack of the gigantic snake would have been her. And when he shoved her, he didn’t have the slightest hesitation, looking full of resolve. Cai’er’s power of observation was also great, moreover now that she also awakened as a god’s chosen one. As such, she could clearly see that the instant Long Haochen shoved her and was pushed by the snake in the air, his first move was to give her a glance. His expression was very gentle, as if what he did was nothing out of ordinary. Seeing that she was out of harm’s way from the gigantic snake, his eyes revealed a relieved expression.

If not for her constitution as a god’s chosen one, Cai’er would basically not have seen all those things, but after having clearly seen these, some barriers inside of her began to melt, and she started to believe in what Long Haochen told her previously a bit more.

One could only admit that this gigantic snake was very hard to defeat. Only after being ganged on by the whole group for nearly a quarter of an hour did it die. On its body, there seemed to be no trace of a fatal wound, only, at the time it genuinely died, it appeared almost totally dismembered.

Long Haochen and Yating already landed back on the ground, giving a surprised look towards Cai’er. The fact that Cai’er intervened was already a good sign. Giving her a thumbs up, he advanced towards that gigantic snake.

“Does anyone recognize this magical beast?” Long Haochen asked his comrades.

Everyone was at a loss for words. That was the first time they encountered such a massive reptilian magical beast.

Wang Yuanyuan muttered irresolutely, “That should be a magical beast of the ninth rank, equivalent to one of our human powerhouses of the eighth step. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so hard to handle. Nonetheless, it looks like it doesn’t have a lot of different abilities. Except from controlling that ball of light, all it seems to have is a tough physique. Seeing it, it seems that its main attacking method consists on attacking with its body. It should have been delighted to see us here.”

Han Yu frowned, “Since we already encountered such difficulty, it’s no wonder that this place is called ‘Land of Death’. If it encountered a lone person, I’m afraid that this beast wouldn’t even feel the slightest appeasement of its hunger. I just don’t know what kind of magical beast that is.”

“It’s called a Forest Boa, and is one of the strongest snake type magical beast in the continent. The most powerful Forest Boa Kings are magical beasts of the tenth step, and are very resilient. They mostly exist in swamps and poisonous areas, and their attack power is very great. And they are expert at swallowing enemies. That dark green ball should be its cultivated internal pill serving as magical core”

The Twelfth Holy Guard spoke with a firm and vigorous voice, and his words resounded. However, he only gave a simple introduction before becoming silent.

Long Haochen looked at the internal pill in Yating’s hands, only to see a fist-sized dark green crystal. However, it seemed very soft in the surface, while a green glint was faintly discernible inside.

“Twelfth Holy Guard, what uses does this internal pill have?” Long Haochen asked.

The Twelfth Holy Guard replied respectfully, “Reporting to master, a Forest Boa internal pill can reinforce human physique, substantially increasing external spiritual energy. That’s a rarely seen good thing. With this internal pill, the marsh gas in here shouldn’t be able to affect us any further. Also, the Snake Gall from a Forest Boa has great utility, it can also be used to vastly increase one’s external spiritual energy. Its effects are most potent when combined with internal pills. This way, the double reinforcement grants great benefits to the body. ”

“I seem to have read such a recipe in an ancient book.” Lin Xin suddenly told, his eyes suddenly beaming with excitement, “Right, I just thought of it. That’s the Forest Boa Training Pill, making use of the internal pill along with the Snake Gall, plus nine petals of Dark Chrysanthemum, three Immortal Ice Fruits, and a dozen more drug ingredients.The Forest Boa Training Pill provides great utility by boosting one’s cultivation, removing impurities in the body, increasing lifespan and increasing external spiritual energy are the effects. Regarding these points, from the point of view of an alchemist, I deem the boost of the external spiritual energy as secondary compared to the other effects.”

Everyone present was quite intelligent, Lin Xin’s simple description immediately made them realize a lot of things.

To any vocation, through continuous cultivation, the body will be nurtured with spiritual energy, but everyone has different body condition. But spiritual energy can only nurture one’s body, not completely remodel it. With the increase of one’s cultivation, the toughness of his body will increase, but similarly, some impurities will also get piled up. Only after breaking through the ninth step of cultivation will the spiritual energy take the role of gradually removing these impurities. For this reason, lifespan of powerhouses of the ninth step far surpass ordinary people.

If this Forest Boa Training Pill can effectively remove the impurities in the body, and boost cultivation as a whole, then it will without a doubt develop the potential of the user by a wide extent. This can be seen as far more useful than a direct increase of the external spiritual energy.

Thus, when hearing Lin Xin’s words, everyone revealed a pleasantly surprised look.

Han Yu remarked, “Since this kind of pill is of such utility, how is it that we never heard of it before?”

Lin Xin shrugged his shoulders, “That’s because Forest Boas are a kind of magical beasts that have long since been extinct according to the records! Even the methods of making the Forest Boa Training Pill is something I only saw in a precious ancient book. There’s nothing strange about the fact you haven’t heard of it before.”

Long Haochen raised the question, “Do you still remember about the specific method to make this pill and the quantity produced?”

After pondering, Lin Xin replied, “Fundamentally speaking, an ordinary thick internal pill and a gall should permit to make eight to twelve Forest Boa Training Pills. To completely remove the impurities in the whole body, at least eight pills are needed to be taken. As for the methods to make this pill, they aren’t very difficult, the key point being to find the material. This time, our luck is quite good. Of course, if we can kill a Forest Boa King, it won’t be the same. The internal pill and gall from a Forest Boa King are such that only two are enough for one person to clean impurities of the whole body. And its internal pill and gall can make a far greater quantity of pills than ordinary Forest Boas. Going through the Forest Boa Training Pills enables to completely wash off one’s body of all impurities and to increase fundamental cultivation, which is desirable for anyone at the eighth step, making it a lot easier to pass the bottleneck of the ninth step than the norm.”

Chen Ying’er shot him a glance, “Aren’t you deluded has-drugs-bro? Forest Boa Kings are magical beasts of the tenth rank! That’s like a powerhouse of the ninth step from our side. Since an ordinary one was already so hard to handle, there’s nothing to say about a Forest Boa King. You should rather pray that we won’t encounter one.”

Lin Xin shrugged his shoulders, “I was just telling you what I know without much thought.”

Long Haochen instructed, “Lin Xin, you will be responsible for conserving it appropriately. Let’s keep going forward, and see whether we can run into more Forest Boas. However, everyone will have to be careful. These Forest Boas are existences of great power hidden in these swamp, and we will need to get in a range of three meters to detect their existence.”

Given the rewards obtained by Forest Boas, if they killed a sufficient amount, even if they couldn’t complete the mission of killing Devil Snakes, the trip will still be worthwhile. This was the so-called increase of the chances with the increase of the danger. Wasn’t this land of death a perfect example of this?

Long Haochen didn’t immediately bring his comrades to keep advancing, but stopped on a frozen land to get rest. This let Lin Xin the time to recover the snake gall spreading out soft fluctuations of spiritual energy in a sack, and to put the internal pill in a similar sack.

With the assistance of this internal pill, the surrounding poisonous marsh gas indeed drifted away, and didn’t surround them. This was the natural ability of Forest Boa, which was convenient for them. However, the effects of an internal pill were still limited, and the range of dispersion was around a diameter of thirty meters. This was still inferior to the ice mist’s ability dispersed by the Eleventh Holy Guard.

The reason why Long Haochen chose to rest was mainly for the Eleventh Holy Guard to recover spiritual energy. In their previous skirmish, it could be said that the Eleventh had a very important role. Without him, perhaps they wouldn’t have prevented the escape of this Forest Boa. And in these swamps, the utility of the Eleventh Holy Guard wasn’t only limited to that.

After resting for about half an hour, the trip resumed. With the dispersion of the poison by the internal pill, a great deal of the spiritual energy of the Eleventh Holy Guard was naturally economized. His only need became to congeal the ground. Han Yu also summoned his mount, Demonic Eye Leader, as this was a rarely seen magical beast of mental attribute, with a powerful perception. And furthermore, along with its evolution, it gained another new ability, which strengthened one’s perception. By casting it on Long Haochen, his originally great perception was doubled.

The deeper they dove into the swamps, the more their path became rugged. A few more Swamp Lizards appeared. These magical beast of the fourth or fifth rank were no threat for them, but their advancing speed decreased because the vegetation in the swamps was growing in number. Long Haochen’s Rippling Light kept thrusting without pause at this point.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep