Chapter 21: Black Feathered Python

By the edge of the pool, the Song family cultivators—aside from those responsible for setting up the formation—all suffered varying degrees of injury. At this moment, they had each chosen a spot along the water's edge to slowly recover using healing pills.

Song Qingming, the Great Elder Song Gubei, and the twelfth aunt Song Changyun were the only three uninjured. They were currently collecting the remaining monster materials near the pool.

In this battle, the Liu family had also lost a cultivator. An elderly cultivator was collecting the body of his clansman and was about to ask the clan leader how to handle it, only to find that after searching for a long time, he could not find any sign of his clan leader. A few insiders among the Liu family cultivators hurried to pull the old man aside.

Like the Song family, the Wu family had been quite lucky; no cultivators had died, and only one clansman was seriously injured while the others had only minor wounds. Taking on this mission had proven quite profitable. The clan leader, Wu Xiyun, was smiling as he urged his clansmen to hurry and collect the monster materials.

Du Shaokang, the leader of the Du family, was not as relaxed as Wu Xiyun. Although the deceased Du family cultivator had a low cultivation level, he was a close junior of the Du clan leader. It was unfortunate that he had fallen here due to a momentary lapse in caution. Although many clansmen had witnessed the event and could testify for him, the clan leader was known for being protective of his own. Du Shaokang knew that upon their return, he would inevitably face a severe reprimand. At the thought of this, his brow remained tightly furrowed.

The compensation provided by the Liu family for this mission was substantial, with each family receiving two hundred spirit stones. Combined with the Grade 1 monster materials distributed among the three families, each family also received an additional share of materials worth approximately one hundred and fifty spirit stones. Had no clansmen died, this single trip would have been equivalent to a year's worth of the family's income.

High rewards, however, meant high risks. Aside from young cultivators like Song Qingming who were venturing out for the first time, everyone else was long accustomed to such bloody battlefields.

Just as the group was about to finish collecting the remaining materials, several bubbles suddenly rose from the center of the pool. A pale-faced Liu Tianlong leaped out of the water, shouting toward the Liu family cultivators on the shore as he ran.

"Run! There's another Grade 2 monster below!"

The pool, which had been perfectly calm just a moment ago, suddenly erupted into a massive black vortex after Liu Tianlong jumped out. Several cultivators with lower cultivation levels near the edge were instantly sucked into the vortex.

Seeing that something was wrong, Song Gubei hurriedly grabbed the nearest person, Song Changyun, and leaped toward the shore.

As the crowd fled and looked back, the black vortex grew larger and larger in its suction before suddenly vanishing into the pool. Not long after, a massive black head slowly emerged from the center of the water, opening a pair of blood-red eyes to stare fixedly at the people on the shore.

"It's a Black-Feathered Python! Everyone, run!"

Upon seeing the massive head, Wu Xiyun immediately recognized the creature's origin. He quickly led his clansmen away in a desperate flight, without looking back.

This Black-Feathered Python came from the depths of the Floating Cloud Mountains. It was a mid-grade Grade 2 monster. Two years ago, it had arrived at this pool and occupied a cave dwelling that originally belonged to a Silver-Armored Crab, even consuming many of the crab's kin. Unable to defeat the python, the Silver-Armored Crab had been forced to endure the loss and move to a different dwelling within the pool.

The Liu family sent people to inspect this pool every six months, but they never dared to venture deep into the water, and thus had never noticed the changes at the bottom.

The Black-Feathered Python spent its days cultivating atop the underwater veins. It intended to consume the Water Spirit Fruits from the Water Spirit Fruit Tree to aid its breakthrough to the late stage of Foundation Establishment. Unexpectedly, the trio of Liu Tianlong had interfered and picked the fruits prematurely. Now, enraged, it had finally burst from the pool, baring its sharp fangs at the cultivators on the shore.

The cultivators on the shore were startled upon hearing the name of the Black-Feathered Python. Seeing that the monster was already at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, they lost the courage to fight. Led by the Wu family cultivators, they scattered like startled birds, fleeing in all directions.

The Black-Feathered Python let out an angry roar, lunging out of the pool. Wielding its massive body, it chased after the Liu family cultivators ahead.

***

Song Qingming felt as though he and the monster corpse beneath him were instantly sucked into the center of the vortex by a massive force, sinking to the bottom of the pool along with the current.

After a period of darkness and disorientation, Song Qingming felt as if he had fallen into a cave at the bottom of the pool. He took out a fist-sized night pearl from his storage bag. Relying on its faint light, he discovered he was sitting in an underwater cavern.

A night pearl was merely a mundane object. Although such a large one would be a priceless treasure in a mortal town, it was nothing more than a novelty in the hands of a cultivator. When Song Qingming had set up a stall at Grass Hut Mountain, he had traded a single low-grade spiritual talisman to an elderly Qi Refinement middle-stage cultivator for this item.

Using the faint light emitted by the night pearl, Song Qingming cast a Water-Repelling Incantation to separate the water from his body. As he attempted to stand, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen; it seemed several of his bones were broken. After checking the rest of his body, he found he was covered in various injuries. He hurriedly poured out and swallowed several blood-stanching pills.

Gazing at the pitch-black cave entrance ahead and the piles of monster bones beside him, Song Qingming couldn't help but feel a sense of dread. It seemed he had been swept into a monster's lair. Before being caught in the vortex, he had clearly heard Liu Tianlong's warning that there was a monster in the water. The cave ahead was likely that monster's dwelling.

He had to leave this place quickly to find a spot to heal and recover his spiritual power; otherwise, if the monster returned, he feared for his life.

After walking about a dozen yards toward the cave exit, Song Qingming soon emerged into the bottom of the pool. Fortunately, most of the monsters in this pool had been killed by the group earlier; otherwise, if even a mid-grade monster were in these waters, Song Qingming would have had no way to escape.

After carefully scouting the surroundings and seeing no immediate danger, Song Qingming left the cave and swam toward the surface. However, after swimming only a few yards, his eyes were drawn to several spiritual herbs growing on a nearby reef.

As he swam closer to inspect them, he realized they appeared to be several stalks of Grade 1 Profound Gloom Flowers, looking to be about fifty or sixty years old. These herbs could fetch at least seven or eight spirit stones in a market. Seeing no movement around him, he happily plucked the herbs and tucked them into his storage bag.

Just as he was about to leave, he noticed an exquisite small red pouch hanging on the other side of the reef.

"This looks like... a storage bag."

Song Qingming picked up the red pouch and examined it closely. It was indeed a cultivator's storage bag, but since most storage bags were equipped with restrictions, he could not open it yet. He didn't know who had dropped it, but he was certain it did not belong to the Song family, as all Song family cultivators—including himself—used uniform cyan-yellow storage bags.

"It must belong to some unlucky cultivator like me, dropped here when they were swept into the pool just now."

Looking at the style of the bag, it seemed to be of higher quality than the low-grade storage bag he used.

The storage bag Song Qingming used was the one he had received from the family's Treasury Pavilion upon breaking through to the middle stage of Qi Refinement. Such low-grade bags had limited space, only about three feet in diameter. The one in his hand, however, appeared to be a high-grade storage bag, with a space several times larger, spanning about six feet.

When he went up later, if anyone came asking, he would certainly have to hand it over. But if the owner had already died in this pool, he could naturally claim ignorance. This pool was full of perils and unknown monsters; it would be perfectly normal for a storage bag to be swallowed whole, and others might not even dare to come down to search for it. A storage bag like this could sell for at least a hundred spirit stones in a market; even if it were empty, it was worth the risk.

He had worked hard for two years selling talismans only to save up a little over a hundred spirit stones. The value of this single storage bag was equivalent to two years of his day-and-night talisman crafting.

After carefully checking his surroundings to ensure no one was near, Song Qingming quietly stowed the storage bag and swam rapidly toward the surface.

Jumping out of the pool, he saw a scene of utter chaos on the shore. There was not a single soul in sight, only a pile of monster materials they hadn't had time to collect, and two corpses of Liu family cultivators not far away.

Song Qingming was startled. They must have encountered an incredible monster. He no longer cared about the monster materials that were usually his treasures; he turned and fled in a panic.

(End of Chapter)