Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 166 Water Curtain Cave
The two looked at each other, and Mu Hong frowned slightly. "Explain yourself clearly. What do you mean by 'it seems like you've found a treasure'? What treasure is it? Where is it?"

Shao Jian took a sip of water and carefully considered his words. "Here's what happened. I was planning to go to the Hundred Thousand Mountains of the Muhe Grassland to hunt spiritual beasts and gather spiritual herbs. Passing by the western Tianshan Mountains, which is now Far East Town, I encountered a second-level green spirit snake among the cliffs of a high mountain. I chased it and wanted to capture it."

"The second-level Jade Spirit Snake hid in the waterfall. I chased after it and discovered a very wide cave inside the waterfall. Unexpectedly, the spiritual energy inside was much richer than outside. The further I chased it, the richer the spiritual energy became. Not long after, I saw another second-level Jade Spirit Snake appear."

"I figured I was no match for two of them, so I escaped from the cave."

After hearing this, Feng Yan and Mu Hong looked at each other again. According to Shao Jian, that place was indeed a bit strange. Normally, spiritual power was distributed relatively evenly between heaven and earth, unless there was a spiritual vein at the bottom of a mountain.

In a situation like this, the spiritual energy inside the cave is obviously much richer than that outside the cave. It may be that there is a spirit gathering formation in the cave that absorbs the spiritual power, or there is something else going on inside.

Feng Yan asked, "Fellow Daoist Shao, what do you mean by treasure? Did you see it yourself? Or is it just a guess?"

"I don't know exactly what it is, but based on my many years of experience hunting demonic beasts in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, I'm certain there must be some naturally occurring spiritual creature in that cave. Naturally occurring spiritual creatures tend to attract nearby demonic beasts; this is common knowledge in the Hundred Thousand Mountains. Plus, the spiritual energy inside that cave is much richer than outside, so there's a high probability there's some kind of spiritual medicine. Those two green spirit snakes are guarding this thing."

Mu Hong's eyes flickered. "Why did you come to see me? Do you want me to help you get rid of those two monsters?"

"I can't get into the depths of the cave by myself, so I want to find someone to go with me, and that's why I thought of you. Haven't you joined the Hunyuan Sect? Please report this news and ask your sect to organize personnel to go."

Shao Jian fell in love with Mu Hong at first sight and had loved her for many years, but unfortunately Mu Hong had always ignored him. This time he discovered that there was a different world inside the cave. He wanted to find companions to explore it together, but he couldn't find so many trustworthy people at the moment. After all, he didn't know if there were any other dangers in the cave.

So he came to find Mu Hong, originally just because of a strong desire to talk and share the good news with him, but since there was no suitable person, he thought of the Hunyuan Sect where he was.

He also had some knowledge about Hunyuan Sect from Mu Hong and Feng Yan, and knew that the sect offered generous rewards to disciples who made meritorious contributions.

If Mu Hong reports this news, he will definitely be rewarded by the sect. In this case, they will surely be grateful for his kindness.

Secondly, the Hunyuan Sect had enough manpower to accomplish this. He was looking for someone to go with him anyway, so wouldn't it make any difference who he chose? Perhaps it could even help him win the girl's heart.

When Mu Hong heard this, her eyes turned. She had not been in Hunyuan Sect for long and was not taken seriously in the sect. For example, she was not included in the selection of the shop owner this time.

If I can make a contribution this time, not to mention the reward, at least the position of shop owner will be secure next time, and it can also be used as a chance for promotion.

"Sister Yan'er, what do you think?"

"You will set out with Fellow Daoist Shao tomorrow, return to the mountain gate, and report this matter to the headmaster." Feng Yan said without hesitation.

.....................

In the main hall of Solitary Peak, Lin Zixiang walked in from outside. He glanced at Mu Hong and Shao Jian beside him, then bowed to Song Xian and said, "Master."

"Brother Zixiang is here. Please sit down!"

George Lam took the first seat on the left and said, "I don't know why you called me here."

"Wait a moment, let's talk about it when Senior Brother Wenyuan comes!" As soon as he finished speaking, Zhong Wenyuan strode in, saluted and sat down.

"These are two elders of our sect, Fellow Daoist Shao. Please repeat what you just said to them."

"Okay." Shao Jian then explained the whole story.

After hearing this, Lin Zixiang's eyes lit up: "You said that the spiritual energy in that cave is rich?"

"Yes, and the deeper you go, the denser the spiritual energy becomes."

"There might be something like a spirit gathering array inside." Lin Zixiang's eyes were full of excitement. Two months ago, his cultivation had broken through the ninth level of Qi Refining. Although there was only one low-level training room at the mountain gate, he never gave up on himself and had never slacked off in his efforts in the past three years.

Originally, he was not far from the ninth level of Qi Refining. After three years of hard practice, he finally broke through this realm.

But if the training room is not improved and this low-level training room is always used, it will take more than ten years to go from the ninth level of Qi Refining to the tenth level of Qi Refining.

If there were a high-level training room, with his qualifications, he would be able to break through in just three or four years.

Therefore, he was particularly eager to find a treasure land for cultivation. When he heard that the cave was full of spiritual energy, he was very excited.

"Master, Senior Brother Wenyuan, this is a godsend opportunity. We must act immediately. Otherwise, if we are discovered and occupied by others, it will be too late to regret."

Zhong Wenyuan frowned slightly. Compared to Lin Zixiang, he was much calmer. "Fellow Daoist Shao, you said there were two green spirit snakes in the cave, and one of them escaped from deep inside. How far did you travel in the cave?"

Shao Jian replied, "Not too far, maybe a few dozen feet! I'm not entirely sure. I didn't pay attention to that at the time. I was only thinking about killing the monster, so I kept chasing it. It wasn't until another demonic snake rushed out from the inner room that I turned back."

"That means there might be other demonic snakes hiding in the cave that haven't appeared yet, right?"

"It's possible."

"Since you realized there might be treasures in the cave, why did you tell Junior Sister Mu about it?"

Shao Jian's face flushed, and he whispered, "I can't deal with the monster in the cave alone, and I don't know if there are other monsters inside. So I need to find someone to explore with me. I can't do it without a group, so I thought of your sect. I heard from Mu Hong that your sect rewards and punishes clearly and treats people with sincerity, so I came to you."

Song Xian was originally a little confused. Why did he, a casual cultivator, come to his family? Generally speaking, casual cultivators would not act together with the sect forces because they were weak and if the sect forces started to cheat, they would have no way to stop them and might even lose their lives.

Every independent cultivator has his own circle, and treasure hunts and expeditions like this are organized by people in the circle themselves, and it is rare to find the power of a sect.

Seeing him like this, and Mu Hong beside him with her head down and a flickering look in her eyes, Song Xian guessed about 70% of the reason. To avoid embarrassment for the two of them, he took over the conversation and passed over the matter: "I have decided to lead the disciples of our sect to follow Fellow Daoist Shao to find out what's going on."

"Okay. Let's set off immediately! To avoid being overtaken by others." George Lam immediately agreed, looking impatient.

Zhong Wenyuan pondered and said, "The situation there is unknown. To be on the safe side, we need to bring more people."

Song Xian immediately summoned all the people in the sect. Apart from the dozen or so registered disciples, there were actually not many people in the sect. Among them, Cheng Qian, Qi Xiaobai, and Carissa were responsible for alchemy.

Shen Fan's cultivation level is too low and he is not suitable for this kind of risky combat mission.

The same is true for Mu Hong.

The three independent cultivators recruited by Zhong Wenyuan were all non-combatants, and he could not break his promise and take them away.

So in the end it was decided that only seven of us would go.

They are Song Xian, Zhong Wenyuan, Lin Zixiang, Lu Yuan, Xu Zhen, Wang Huan and Shao Jian.

Everyone took the magic tools and talismans from the treasury and left the mountain gate together.

.........

The morning light is dim and the sky is just visible.

In the remote mountains, on the towering peaks, a majestic waterfall cascades down, the sound of the water is cold and quite spectacular.

In the distance, several flying magic weapons came rushing over and landed beside a high mountain cliff.

"This is it. I was passing by here and happened to see a green spirit snake wandering nearby. I was excited to see the prey, so I stopped to chase it." Song Xian looked down and saw that the waterfall was hundreds of feet high. From the outside, there was no sign of a cave inside.

"Fellow Daoist Shao, where is the cave you mentioned?" Lin Zixiang was a little impatient.

"It's right under our feet, in the middle of the waterfall."

"Then let's go in! Fellow Daoist Shao, you lead the way."

Everyone rode on flying magic tools across the waterfall and into the cave.

The inside is quite spacious, about two or three meters wide and one meter high, but the light is very dim.

"Everyone, be careful. Senior Brother Lin, Senior Brother Zhong, you take the lead. Fellow Daoist Shao, you stay at the back." Song Xian instructed everyone.

Several people took out their magic weapons. Lin Zixiang had the highest cultivation level, and the sect's only top-grade magic weapon was also in his hand. It was a gold and blue spear called Ruyi Spear, which had forty-one levels of restrictions.

Zhong Wenyuan was holding a fiery red demon-subduing pestle with thirty-two layers of restrictions.

Song Xian was also holding a high-level magical weapon, which was the Xiaguang Sword that the disciples of Qingyuan Sect had given him before. He held a talisman lightly in his hand, ready to use it at any time.

The group walked slowly, and the sound of their footsteps echoed in the cave.

There was only one road inside, and it became wider and wider. After walking about a few dozen feet, the cave space was several times larger than the entrance.

The road is five or six zhang wide and two zhang high, and the terrain goes downhill from the entrance to here.

"The spiritual energy here is indeed much richer than outside." Lin Zixiang's eyes were shining.

At this moment, a rustling sound suddenly came.

Everyone paused almost at the same time.

"It's the Green Spirit Snake." Shao Jian said in a low voice with a serious expression.

Sasha's voice was getting closer and closer, and soon, three huge green snakes appeared in the distance.

Song Xian swept his spiritual sense over the three demon snakes and found that the spiritual energy around them varied in strength. The strongest one was at the sixth level of Qi Refining, and the weakest one was at the fourth level of Qi Refining.

The most intuitive manifestation is in their size. The demon snake with the strongest spiritual energy is about six feet in size, and the other two are slightly smaller, one is five feet in size and the other is four feet in size.

The three big snakes were basically moving forward in unison, coming from three directions.

The six-foot-tall snake in the middle occupied the main path, crawling and twisting its body quickly.
On the left, a five-foot-long snake is swimming beside the stone wall on the left side of the cave.

On the right side, there is a four-foot-long snake swimming beside the stone wall on the right side of the cave.

The three big snakes kept spitting out their tongues and making hissing sounds.

Low-level monsters are generally not very intelligent, especially snake monsters. Most of them act on instinct. The Green Spirit Snake is a monster with a strong sense of territory. When it sees a stranger breaking into its nest, it only wants to destroy it.

If it were a primate monster, such as a monkey or ape, a low-level monster with high intelligence, it would definitely hide when seeing so many cultivators. However, these three big snakes rushed straight towards them.

"Let's step back a little, lure these three evil snakes out, and then kill them all. We can't let them escape back." Song Xian looked solemn.

The last time Shao Jian broke into this cave, there were only two demon snakes, but this time he saw three at the same time, which means that there might be more demon snakes lurking inside that have not yet appeared.

If these three demon snakes were allowed to escape and join forces with other demon snakes to attack us, it would be difficult to deal with them, so we must deal with them here.

After hearing this, everyone immediately ran back, and the three big snakes chased them closely. Soon, the group had escaped to the entrance, and at this time, the three big snakes had also caught up with everyone.

The big snake in the middle, who was leading the group, raised its head, opened its bloody mouth, revealing its fangs, and a thin black line spurted out from its abdominal cavity like a water gun, shooting straight towards Lin Zixiang who was in the front.

Lin Zixiang was well prepared, holding a talisman in his hand, and spiritual energy poured into the inner room, condensing into a green shield around him. It was a first-grade medium-grade wood-attribute defensive talisman.

The venom shot onto the shield, making a hissing sound. Under the attack of the venom, the shield was visibly corroded and melted.

The Ruyi Spear in George Lam's hand shone brightly as he charged towards the big snake.

On the other side, Zhong Wenyuan also controlled the demon-subduing pestle to hit the green spirit snake on the left.

The giant snake also opened its mouth and spewed out a stream of black venom towards the phantom of the demon-subduing pestle. The two collided silently. The phantom of the demon-subduing pestle first shook, and then twisted and deformed.

With Zhong Wenyuan's cultivation level of the eighth level of Qi Refining, and the help of this top-grade magic weapon with thirty-two levels of restrictions, it is certainly no problem for him to deal with a demon snake with spiritual power equivalent to that of a fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator.

The reason why the power of the magic weapon's attack was not as strong as the venom sprayed by the demon snake was that he did not use much spiritual power in this attack. It was just a tentative attack.

Since he was not sure whether there were other evil snakes lurking deep in the cave, he wanted to retain as much spiritual power as possible.

At the moment when the demon-subduing pestle and the snake's venom collided, Song Xian also took action. He did not use any magic weapon to attack, but put his hands together, gathered the spiritual power of heaven and earth, and condensed it into a fireball between his palms.

His ideas are different from those of Zhong Wenyuan and Lin Zixiang.

It doesn't matter if the spiritual power in the body is consumed a little more, but the forbidden power stored in the magic weapon must be kept intact.

If the forbidden power stored in the magic weapon is used up, there will be no way to deal with the unknown dangers deep in the cave.

It takes a long time to regenerate the power of the magic weapon after it is exhausted, but the loss of spiritual energy in the body can be quickly restored by taking Qi-restoring pills.

So in this case, it is better to use techniques that consume more spiritual energy.

"My fellow disciples, don't conserve your spiritual energy. Be sure to eliminate these three demonic snakes. Try to preserve the power of the magical instruments and restrictions. After you have eliminated the demonic snakes, use the Qi-Recovery Pill to restore your spiritual energy before heading inside."

A huge fireball shot out from his palm and hit the big snake on the left.

With a loud bang, the fireball hit the snake demon hard, but did not cause much damage. The most powerful thing about the demon beast is its tough body. If a cultivator was hit by this fireball, he would definitely die.

But for the monster with thick skin and flesh, it was nothing. The snake just hissed in pain.

At the same time, a three-foot-long golden spear shot out from behind and pierced the demon snake. It was the great-level golden spear technique used by Shao Jian.

He himself has reached the fifth level of Qi Refining. Since he dares to go to the Ten Thousand Mountains alone to hunt monsters, his strength must be strong, which can be seen from his great success level of Golden Spear Technique.

The golden spear pierced the exact spot where Song Xian's fireball had hit the snake. Although the fireball did not cause any substantial damage to the snake, the previous attack had already damaged the skin and flesh on the snake's surface. The golden spear pierced through its skin and penetrated into the snake's flesh.

The demon snake seemed to howl and swung its tail. With a loud bang, the golden spear shook violently. Just as it was about to stab again, the demon snake swung its tail again, and the golden spear broke into pieces in an instant.

Although the demon snake was not very intelligent, after this fight it knew that it was no match for the intruder, so it turned around and fled.

(End of this chapter)