Lu Chen’s heart seized with fear, but he knew that the more perilous the situation, the calmer he needed to be.
He decided to pull the black snake from the grip of his tiger’s mouth, his strength as a martial artist was sufficient for the task.
Enduring the tearing pain in the flesh of his tiger’s mouth, Lu Chen pinched the black snake’s vital spot with a sudden squeeze!
The snake, too, felt the pain and instinctively loosened its venomous fangs, allowing Lu Chen to fling it far away!
After that, he plucked the nine-leafed purple flower and swallowed it whole like a shot.
Where snakes linger, there will surely be antidotes.
Lu Chen could only gamble that the nine-leafed purple flower would also neutralize the snake venom!
As the medicine in his stomach slowly spread, warmth gradually developed in Lu Chen’s body. Without time to kill the venomous snake, fearing its return, he propped himself up and staggered back into the cave, finally allowing his tensed mind to relax.
The nine-leafed purple flower, true to its reputation as a spiritual medicine, continually nourished Lu Chen’s body, providing a comfortable, warm sensation.
However, the black snake’s venom also rushed to his brain through his bloodstream, causing him dizziness and blurred vision.
Eventually, his body gave in, and he collapsed to the ground, falling into unconsciousness!
...
"The third brother is dead."
In one of the Lu Family’s mountain peaks.
A few Supreme Elders sat together.
They were all martial artists of the Visceral Refinement Realm and were advanced in age.
Of course, they were also Lu Chen’s grandfather’s peers.
The reason they knew that Lu Changkong’s third uncle had died was because after reaching the Visceral Refinement Realm, the Lu Family had a mysterious cultivation technique that fused yuan power and blood essence into one, embedding it in special wooden tablets.
If the person died, that wooden tablet would shatter.
They had come to learn of the death of the third Supreme Elder this way.
"I did say not to come out of seclusion, but he insisted on going out—whom can he blame?" one of the elders, sporting a mustache, grumbled discontentedly.
"Before, I heard Changkong talking to him about the Polar Treasure Meeting. Could it be that he was killed by people from the Polar Treasure Meeting?"
"Big brother," the mustached elder said, "our Lu Family are merely sword cultivators and do not have the habit of accumulating treasures. To be blunt, people from the Polar Treasure Meeting wouldn’t cast a second glance at our Lu Family!"
"They might not care for the Lu Family, but perhaps they care for Li Qingyao? Though her origins are unclear, her extraordinary air might have been recognized by the Polar Treasure Meeting! Besides, the Meeting is spread across the whole empire; they could know something we don’t."
"Nevermind that, didn’t Li Qingyao go out to cultivate with Chang Ren long ago? People from the Polar Treasure Meeting are only after treasures. Even if they came to the Lu Family, without finding Li Qingyao, they would naturally leave."
"Indeed, let’s focus on breaking through to the Soul Refinement Realm... the third brother brought it upon himself! Who told him to violate the family’s ancestral teachings?"
The Supreme Elders, even toward a peer from the Visceral Refinement Realm, were indifferent, let alone concerning themselves with whether Lu Changkong was still alive!
As for the Lu Family?
Unless it was a matter of life or death, they simply would not bother.
...
"I can’t believe I’m not dead?"
Lu Chen suddenly came to, his body aching tremendously.
But with the pain came an inexplicable sense of relief.
"Could the intense pain be caused by the snake venom, while the other feeling is from the nine-leafed purple flower?"
He endured the intense pain to get up, unaware that he had accurately guessed what was happening to his body.
The black beast called the snake was actually a creature of great ferocity, known as the Black Jiao Snake.
Rumored to have the bloodline of the dragon clan, it possessed high intelligence from birth.
It knew that to speed up its cultivation, to grow strong enough to protect itself, it had to consume the right spiritual medicines.
The nine-leafed purple flower was one such medicine.
It had found the flower several days earlier and had been guarding underneath it, waiting for the flowering period to arrive.
But it never expected Lu Chen to interfere.
If it could consume the flower and fully assimilate its medicinal properties, it would grow many times larger and its venom would become much more potent.
It wouldn’t need to fear any creatures in Ten Thousand Demon Mountain, and could cultivate peacefully and safely.
But at that time, its body was only as thick as Lu Chen’s little finger. How could it be a match for Lu Chen?
In a moment of desperation, it had bitten Lu Chen and injected all its Original Venom into his body.
Without this Original Venom, strong as it was,
The Black Jiao Snake would never be able to produce venom on its own again.
If it weren’t for the nine-leafed purple flower, Lu Chen would have indeed been in danger of dying from the poison.
Now, the venom only caused him excruciating pain throughout his body, with each movement, even breathing, pulling at the pain.
Luckily, Lu Chen had a tenacious nature. The agony he had endured while tempering his body was no less than what he felt now, so he managed to bear it.
Further, the nine-leafed purple flower had enlarged his Qi Sea more than twice over, which made the discomfort somewhat negligible for Lu Chen.
"Once I’ve fully cultivated my Qi Sea, I can leave Ten Thousand Demon Mountain and head to Heavenly Book Academy!"
Lu Chen sat cross-legged and began practicing the Heaven-Breaking Spiritual Method!
At that moment, the Black Jiao Snake poked its head out from not too far away, continuously flicking its forked tongue, and slowly slithered toward Lu Chen!