Everyone proceeded to carry out their assigned tasks–Liu Dong and his group went off to hunt the Bright Wool Sheep while Ling Han took out a variety of medicinal ingredients, preparing to concoct a particular drug.
It was only an Alchemy Emperor like Ling Han who could handle medicinal ingredients well enough to be able to concoct a drug targeted specifically against a particular creature. The drug he was concocting now could be considered harmless to any other living creature, but for the Red Scaled Dragon Snake alone… it was deadly.
In many situations, alchemists were also poison masters. For example, the Little Poison Lord, Yu Zheng. However, his ability was far, far beneath Ling Han's.
Although the Bright Wool Sheep was not a powerful demonic beast, its flesh was extremely delicious. It was not only the favorite prey of many other demonic beasts, it was also considered a delicacy for human beings. As a result, their population in the area dwindled–it was not an easy matter to actually find one.
After a whole three days had passed, Liu Dong and his group finally returned. Chen Peng Ju was carrying a creature that looked like a mountain goat on his back. It had a gorgeous woolen coat that looked like the finest brocade.
They had finally captured a Bright Wool Sheep.
Ling Han fed the drug he had concocted to the Bright Wool Sheep before making a gash on one of its legs. He then threw it into the lair of the Red Scaled Dragon Snake.
…The great snake's sense of smell was quite powerful. The smell of blood would definitely cause it to wake up from its deep slumber, and since the Bright Wool Sheep was its favorite food, it wouldn't be able to hold back from coming out to enjoy another big meal even if it was already full.
Why did they have to use a living prey? That's because each Red Scaled Dragon Snake was very cautious by nature. Unless the prey was something it had killed itself, it would definitely not eat it.
After Ling Han came out of the cavern, he retreated with others some distance away; they hid behind a boulder nearby so that the great snake wouldn't discover their presence once it came out of the cavern.
Not long after, they felt the ground tremble beneath them, as if some colossal beast was going berserk nearby.
It was the Red Scaled Dragon Snake.
"Peng!"
A gigantic red-colored snake weaved out of the cavern's entrance as if it was an arrow shot from a bow. Its diameter was bigger than that of a bucket, and it was also extremely long. Whatever they could see of its body was already pushing close to a hundred metres yet there was still no sign of the end of its tail.
There were two fine membranes protruding from the great snake's neck. Currently, the two membranes were trembling, producing a weird "wu wu wu" sound.
Finally, the entire body of the great snake was out. Its total length was about two hundred metres and its whole body was covered with crimson scales. Each scale was about the size of a bowl's lid. It seemed to have gone mad and was continuously ramming into obstructions in all directions. Its long tail was like a whip, shattering many of the surrounding boulders in the course of its rampage.
"How come that thing's not dead from the poison yet?" Liu Dong and his group gasped in shock. They were completely unable to comprehend it.
"Duh! That's a demonic beast in the ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier! Moreover, it has inherited a shred of the dragon's bloodline, and has been acclaimed as a ruler among demonic beasts of the Tier! How could it die so easily!" Ling Han said, shaking his head. If it was that simple to kill it, he would not have needed to wait until he had reached the peak period of the first layer of Element Gathering Tier to come here.
"Oh no, it's noticed us!"
That great snake had a very strong sense of smell, so even if Ling Han and the others had concealed themselves in a spot downwind of it, the snake had still discovered their presence. It immediately weaved its gigantic body and charged towards them.
"Si si!" The great serpent's tongue flickered, and the two membranes at the sides of its neck trembled, producing a weird sound. A rotting stench wafted over.
"Yu Tong, let's join forces, we need to detain it!" Ling Han did not feel fear at all. He simply drew his sword and threw himself forward.
Liu Yu Tong did not respond. She simply followed Ling Han closely, and for the first time, drew her weapon of choice.
She was also a sword user.
The two of them worked together with their swords brandished in a dance, aimed at the Red Scaled Dragon Snake.
Theoretically speaking, Liu Yu Tong had also achieved the ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier, so she should not be at a disadvantage in terms of power when facing this great snake. However, the Red Scaled Dragon Snake possessed a thread of the dragon's bloodline, so whether in terms of brute power or defense, it was still stronger than any other being at the ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier. Even Liu Yu Tong was not qualified to battle it head on.
It was a ruler of this cultivation tier, and only other rulers of the tier possessed the ability to battle it one on one!
Ling Han possessed the Five Element Origin Nuclei and his power similarly exceeded those of the same cultivation level, so he did have a right to the name 'ruler'. The problem was that his current cultivation level was still too low!
Even if the two of them were working together, they were still forced to jump and dodge in all directions, proving the great power this serpent possessed.
"Be patient, it's already poisoned, so it can't hold on for much longer. But we definitely can't allow it to flee," Ling Han said.
"En!" Liu Yu Tong nodded.
Ling Han used all his abilities, and every wave of his sword would form four flashes of Sword Qi. "Pu, pu, pu, pu," four wounds appeared on the body of the Red Scaled Dragon Snake. On the other hand, his actual sword itself didn't even manage to penetrate the scales of the great snake.
This was the power of Sword Qi, and this was also why it was something that every self-respecting swordsman would revere greatly. And when they saw the four flashes of Sword Qi Ling Han had just displayed, Liu Dong and his group were completely stunned, their mouths agape; they were absolutely speechless.
However, the great snake's counterattack was also extremely swift and fierce. Its tail whipped and the shattered rocks shot out at a terrifying force, causing bloody spots to continuously appear on Ling Han's body.
Ling Han didn't even make a single sound of pain at this. On the contrary, he started to stimulate Lone Wolf's Blood within his body.
"Weng," the Five Elements Origin Nuclei within his Dantian began rotating at a greater speed, causing his power to increase. At the same time, the circulation of the Indestructible Heaven Scroll allowed his wounds to begin recovering at an extremely rapid rate.
The circulation of these two different techniques, along with the fierce battle he was now in, caused the Origin Power within Ling Han's body to be consumed at a very fast rate.
For any other person to battle at his full strength, he might be able to last for about half an hour, but for Ling Han, ten minutes was already his limit.
But, he had already long anticipated this situation and so prepared a large number of medium level Return Origin Pills for himself. Should he start feeling that his Origin Power was flowing out, he'd take one of the pills; there shouldn't be any problem for him to continue battling for about twenty minutes with his current supply of pills.
They had to detain the great snake by all means…
…for he had concocted the drug to especially "aim" at the Red Scaled Dragon Snake. The serpent had a Yin nature, so he had prepared a large store of medicinal ingredients that possessed a Yang nature or were of fire alignment, causing Yin and Yang within the snake's body to conflict, damaging the life force of the Red Scaled Dragon Snake. But it was also very easy to cure this poison. As long as it dived into a river, using the water to extinguish the flames raging within its body, it'd be able to completely recover after three or four days by simply resting.
Under the influence of its instincts, the Red Scaled Dragon Snake would definitely go off in search of water, so they needed to stop it here by all means. If it wasn't for this, Ling Han would have had the whole group hide somewhere further away and wait for the Red Scaled Dragon Snake to die before returning to collect their rewards.
After the battle had persisted for a while, the great snake's initial rage passed and it became restless instead. It felt as if an inferno was raging within its body, causing it to feel the pressure of death closing in. It no longer attacked fiercely but its head turned around instead, intending to flee.
"Where do you think you're going!" Ling Han quickly waved his sword in a slash. He had entered Seven Wind Mountains firstly for the Earth Dragon Grass, and secondly, for the inner core of this great serpent so that he'd be able to concoct the Transcending Origin Pill. If he wanted to advance his cultivation level in a short period of time, he needed to depend on the external support of this medicinal pill.
"Pa," the great serpent gave a wave of its tail, creating a terrifying shockwave. Although its tail had not directly hit Ling Han, the shockwave produced caused Ling Han to fly backwards.
The ninth layer of Element Gathering Tier was indeed powerful!
Ling Han felt rueful. The higher the cultivation level, the more difficult it was to skip cultivation levels when challenging someone. Element Gathering Tier was still fine, but once he reached Gushing Spring Tier, even the difference of one layer would be an immeasurable gulf. If he, with a cultivation level of the first layer of Gushing Spring Tier, battled against an opponent in the ninth layer of Gushing Spring Tier, he'd be instantly obliterated in one move. There was no way he'd be able to prolong the battle for even slightly longer.
Liu Yu Tong produced a light whistle as her long sword freely waved like rain, and a high level Yellow Grade sword arts unfolded. Her attack was like rain, and effectively parried the Red Scaled Dragon Snake's blow.