The mutated Silver-Striped Snake Demon suddenly opened its eyes, and from its emerald green eyes, two beams shot out, as tangible as real light, tearing through the air as they struck.
"How did this Silver-Striped Snake Demon suddenly grow so much stronger?!"
"Its aura, my God, this must be the presence of a seventh-order Demon Beast! It's clearly injured, so how did its strength surge again?"
The strange transformation of the Silver-Striped Snake Demon caused Zhou Mo, Hong Man, and Fang Shan to be utterly shocked; they had never heard of such a change happening to a Silver-Striped Snake Demon before.
A sixth-order pinnacle Demon Beast already made them hard pressed to resist; advancing to the seventh order, it could easily kill them with little effort!
"Ye Chen, what should we do?" Lin Jing, who was pulled back by Ye Chen to dodge, looked at the bizarrely transforming Silver-Striped Snake Demon with shock filling her beautiful eyes, completely unexpecting such a sudden upheaval.
"This Silver-Striped Snake Demon seems to contain a special power within its body, distinct from its original strength," Ye Chen said solemnly, watching the Silver-Striped Snake Demon still adapting to its newly transformed body.
After cultivating the "Meridian Refining Art" from the Primordial Star Scripture, his perception of the surrounding environment had greatly increased. Although the mutation of the Silver-Striped Snake Demon shocked him, he still detected something special about the creature.
Whether it was the sword-like, yet not a sword pattern between its eyes or the energy it expelled, it all gave him the impression of a power unique to Sword Cultivators.
This Snake Demon living in Mirror Lake actually exuded a sense of power akin to that of human Sword Cultivators, which was indeed very strange.
"Another kind of power?"
Lin Jing looked at the powerfully surging Silver-Striped Snake Demon but could not sense the other special power Ye Chen mentioned. All she felt was that the current Silver-Striped Snake Demon was somewhat frightening and intimidating.
While the two were briefly conversing, the Silver-Striped Snake Demon seemed to have adapted to its suddenly augmented body. Its pair of emerald green giant eyes directly targeted Ye Chen and Lin Jing, who had wounded it.
Then, the Silver-Striped Snake Demon, with its massive tail, sprung fiercely, propelling its entire body like an arrow toward Ye Chen and Lin Jing.
"Dodge its sharp edge first!"
The instant the Silver-Striped Snake Demon lunged, Ye Chen called out calmly to Lin Jing, and they moved in a flash, swiftly dodging the explosive lash of the Silver-Striped Snake Demon.
The Silver-Striped Snake Demon, having increased in strength dramatically, was not willing to let go of the two who had injured it. It let out a loud roar, and its twenty-meter-long massive body, surprisingly agile, pursued Ye Chen and Lin Jing who were evading.
During the pursuit, the Silver-Striped Snake Demon's gaping mouth suddenly opened wide, and a flurry of sword-blade-like True Qi Storms swept out.
Ye Chen pushed the Yellow Class mid-tier movement technique "Startling Goose Steps" to its limit, narrowly avoiding the sky-full of sword blades. Lin Jing also performed a set of "Shocking Cloud Body Skills" to dodge, preventing the sword-blade-like True Qi Storms from harming them. Instead, the storm hit a thick tree in the distance, severing it cleanly in two.
Trees collapsed, kicking up dust and debris. Along with the surging violent True Qi, the surrounding area was plunged into chaos.
After half a day of chasing and Ye Chen and Lin Jing's agile dodging of every attack, the Silver-Striped Snake Demon's ghostly fire-like eyes suddenly turned back and focused on Zhou Mo and the others, who were scared stiff.
Just as Ye Chen's warning reached their ears, the three of them saw the gargantuan body charging at them, hastily mobilized their movement technique to dodge but were still viciously struck and sent flying by the Silver-Striped Snake Demon.
Spurting blood, the three of them were sent crashing into, and breaking, several large trees. Had it not been for Ye Chen's warning, which allowed them to hurriedly defend themselves with True Qi, the impact could have killed them on the spot!
Even so, all three were seriously injured by the collision, coughing up blood and quickly weakening.
After just one strike had inflicted serious injuries on the three, the Silver-Striped Snake Demon leaped again, preparing to strike once more to finish them off completely!
Zhou Mo and the others, sensing the movements of the Silver-Striped Snake Demon, had their eyes shrink in terror and felt a chill running down their spines, a sense of impending death enveloping their entire being.
It was at that moment they saw a figure streak across the void, landing in front of them, directly in front of the Silver-Striped Snake Demon.
It was Ye Chen who had rushed over at this critical moment!
Lin Jing, witnessing this scene, had her eyes almost reddening in urgency. She knew Ye Chen wanted to save Zhou Mo and the others, but how could he, with merely the fifth layer of True Qi, stand up against the now immensely powerful Silver-Striped Snake Demon?
She stomped her foot and with a movement of her body, she too flew to Ye Chen's side.
Even as the hand holding the snow-white soft sword trembled, she still chose not to flee but instead decided to face the terrifying silver-striped Snake Demon alongside Ye Chen.
Seeing Lin Jing's actions, warmth filled Ye Chen's heart, but soon his gaze fixed firmly on the silver-striped Snake Demon, "Sister Lin Jing, take care of them; leave this Snake Demon to me!"
The fine steel sword in Ye Chen's hand was drawn, pointing at the silver-striped Snake Demon.
"No, if we are to fight, let's fight together! I can't let you take the risk alone!" Lin Jing said in panic. Earlier, the two of them had barely managed to suppress the peak True Qi sixth level Snake Demon. Now that the Snake Demon's power had drastically increased, how could Ye Chen possibly stand against it alone?
"The power this Snake Demon now possesses is not its true strength. This force has subtly also given me some enhancement."
Ye Chen's incredibly calm voice momentarily stunned Lin Jing, whose mind was in total disarray.
It would take too long to explain everything. In reality, from the moment Ye Chen confronted the Snake Demon to Lin Jing flying over, it was only a blink of an eye. Suddenly confronted by Ye Chen and Lin Jing, who had been evading all this while, the silver-striped Snake Demon also paused in astonishment.
Then, the anger from the previous injuries inflicted by the two rekindled in the eyes of the silver-striped Snake Demon, which roared in madness and, ignoring Zhou Mo and the rest, shot straight towards Ye Chen.
"First take care of them!"
With a swirl of True Qi in his hand, Ye Chen pushed Lin Jing several meters back, then with the fine steel sword in hand, he directly met the oncoming silver-striped Snake Demon.
Lin Jing's voice was tinged with a hint of sobbing as she watched Ye Chen charging towards the silver-striped Snake Demon, her mind turning blank in an instant.
Ye Chen, soaring into the sky, was engulfed by surging True Qi, seemingly wrapped in a green-hued Qi. His eyes shone brighter than ever before as he unleashed his strongest Torrential Rain Sword Skills towards the silver-striped Snake Demon!
The silver-striped Snake Demon, with a particular venom for Ye Chen, thrashed and bit wildly, seeking only to brutally kill the tiny human before it!
The sky erupted with True Qi, and the ground tore apart.
In the midst of the fierce battle, Lin Jing, whose mind had been a blank slate, watched as Ye Chen, facing off against the drastically empowered silver-striped Snake Demon, didn't fall behind at all.
"The power of the sword!"
"It's truly the power of the sword!"
"This silver-striped Snake Demon's sudden increase in strength is because it has a force of the sword within!"
In the midst of the intense battle, Ye Chen fought with increasing brightness in his eyes.
All thirty of the Qi Meridians, Eight Extraordinary Meridians, and the thirty-three Meridian Wheels within him that had been cultivated were now all open, sensing the strange forces permeating the sky.
In that instant, it was as if heaven and earth came to a halt, and all sounds completely vanished.
Above and below the heavens, there was only that peculiar force, the strange power of the sword.
When that power resonated in a mysterious harmony with Ye Chen's breathing, his hair flew without any wind behind him, and his eyes suddenly erupted with a compelling Divine Light.
He raised his sword and swung down!
This single stroke was like a deluge of heavy rain plummeting from the sky, carrying with it the power to obliterate everything, and cleaved a Qi edge over twenty meters long straight at the silver-striped Snake Demon that seemed to have frozen in mid-air.
In absolute silence, the large body of the silver-striped Snake Demon was split in two, cleanly severed.
After a moment, it was as though the world began to move once again.
Amongst the spraying blood, the two halves of the serpent's body thunderously crashed onto the ground.
The silver-striped Snake Demon, which had surged in power to that of a seventh rank Demon Beast, was now dead at the hands of Ye Chen, slain by his single sword strike!
The resounding crash brought Lin Jing back to reality from her blank mind, and Zhou Mo and the others, severely injured, looked on with utter astonishment in their eyes.
And Ye Chen, who flew down from the sky, exhaled a breath that was sharp as an arrow.
His eyes shone like stars, and in his mind, it felt as if a seed was slowly taking form.
"Sword Intents, it's as if I have touched the threshold of Sword Intent."
"What exactly is inside this Snake Demon that it allowed my Sword Dao Realm to improve so greatly in an instant?!"
Unable to contain his curiosity, Ye Chen walked towards the corpse of the silver-striped Snake Demon.