Chapter 15
Boom Boom Boom——
An immense snake tail beat on the ground, and the whole mountain suddenly shook.
Xu Ziqing’s feet were unsteady, and he staggered back. In a panic, he grabbed the thick branches that drilled out of the stone crevices of the mountain wall behind him, but he still felt shaky.
From a distance, there was a shrill bird’s cry from the sky. The strong wind was so intense that one could hardly keep their eyes open, and Xu Ziqing felt like his feet were going to rise and leave the ground. He hurriedly held on stronger and settled his body firmly before looking up.
He saw a giant python several zhang1 long rolling in the mountains, its scales like ink, its long body twisting and sweeping, knocking down countless boulders and snapping countless huge trees. There were a pair of huge eagles2 in the air with wings spanning out to be four or five zhang long. One was gold and the other was black, both with sharp beaks and hooked claws like steel.
The two eagles and one python were fighting together, the stir was earthshaking.
The huge python crawled on the ground, while the two eagles occupied the better geographical position. The two of them, one left and one right, spread their wings and rushed down. One grabbed the python with its claws, and the other struck at the python’s abdomen with its sharp beak. It didn’t take long before the python’s body was covered with blood, and it was in pain, letting out constant hisses.
Seeing that the two eagles had the upper hand, the python suddenly raised its tail and first twisted toward the golden eagle before seeming to fold in the middle to turn its head to bite the black eagle.
The golden eagle was flexible and was not bitten by the giant python, but the black eagle didn’t pay attention to the cunning of the python and had a handful of black feathers bitten off. Its cry became even more shrill and it flew into the air.
The python succeeded, but the golden eagle took the opportunity to peck through its abdomen and nearly disembowel it. It suddenly became furious, opened its mouth, and spewed out a cloud of black fog.
The black fog was presumably highly toxic. The golden eagle with its golden feathers was touched slightly by the black fog and instantly a spot was eroded away. The golden eagle was alarmed and immediately rose into the sky.
Nevertheless, the python and two eagles had formed a deadly animosity, and it naturally would not stop there. The python’s body suddenly shrank into a circle, shaking and trembling incessantly.
Xu Ziqing’s eyes suddenly opened wide, watching as the python abruptly grew a pair of wings on its back, actually rising steeply from the ground!
Both sides were in the sky this time, and as the giant python waved its tail in the air somewhat clumsily, the two eagles saw the opportunity to both attack at once. But the python turned and lashed out its tail, whipping the black eagle!
The black eagle let out a miserable cry and couldn’t help loosening one of its claws.
Xu Ziqing only then realized that something fell from its claw, and it fell extremely quickly. The golden eagle actually abandoned the python and flapped its wings to descend, as if trying to catch it. But the golden eagle’s speed was not as fast as the falling object in the end. Once it hit the ground, it made a ‘pa’ sound and shattered into pieces, leaving a pool of yellow and white.
It turned out to be an eagle egg, no wonder the golden eagle was so anxious.
Unfortunately, it failed to be rescued. The golden eagle was furious and quickly returned to join back up with the black eagle before grabbing and biting the python violently. The posture was desperate, and even if the python was fierce, it was also captured by the eagles imposing manner.
But the python refused to accept its fate. It urged its newly grown pair of wings and mercilessly entangled with the two eagles. It just saw the golden eagle suffer the pain of losing its offspring and that the two were being so dauntless in this way, so it suffered being grabbed by the iron claws and lunged toward the black eagle.
It turned out that there was another eagle egg in the claws of the black eagle, but it was also the only remaining fruit. The giant python was determined to use that as a flaw and find the right opportunity to kill the second eagle!
The huge python was truly extraordinary. It actually bit half the wing of the black eagle and swung out its tail to whip the right claw of the black eagle. The black eagle was in pain, its right claw loosening. The golden eagle’s cry became even more mournful, and made an even more determined effort to peck the snake’s eye blind!
In this way, the two eagles and python posed for mutual destruction, each fighting fiercely without the care for what means, just ruthlessly attacking the opponent. It was no more than blood and flesh flying in all directions, and numerous feathers falling one after the other…
Xu Ziqing was dazzled, and then he saw something falling from the sky. He remembered the pain of the two eagles just now and remembered his parents cherishing him in his previous life. He stepped forward a few steps and sent out some of his spiritual power to support the falling egg. Then he ran forward quickly, catching the eagle egg.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, Xu Ziqing put the egg in a cloth pocket in his arms and protected it carefully.
The aerial battle also reached a fierce point. The python was already bleeding profusely, and the two eagles were also seriously injured. After that, the two sides fought even more fiercely until finally, the golden eagle tore the python’s abdomen, but the python bit into its throat. The black eagle wanted to help the golden eagle, but the python suddenly strangled the black hawk with its long body.
The three fierce beasts fell to the ground at once, the golden eagle had already breathed its last breath, and the python was gradually getting weaker. Although the black eagle’s life was still there, it was entangled by the tail of a snake, exerting all of its strength to unceasingly beat the ground until finally there was no movement. The battle of the python and two eagles ended with a meeting of the same fate.
Xu Ziqing put his palm on the eagle egg against his chest, only to feel his qi and blood churning. How tragic this battle was, in just a few minutes, three beast lives were lost.
He gasped slightly before he realized that he had just been holding his breath.
There was a mess in all directions. The earth, rocks, plants, and trees were scattered by the three beasts, and many mountain walls were cracked. The perfectly good Qijun3 mountain peak was ruined.
Xu Ziqing looked at the scales of the giant python and remembering the ones he had just seen in the cave, his heart felt a bit of lingering fear.
The cave should’ve been the residence of the python, but for some reason, the python fought with the two eagles, and its life was taken. Otherwise, if the python had returned in the middle of the night, he would have been stuck in the cave and gone to the point of being buried in its belly.
The three beasts were all very ferocious, but he didn’t know if they had developed spiritual intelligence, how many years they had lived, or whether there was a demonic core in their bodies. However, this was of no concern to Xu Ziqing. He wiped his sweat, but he actually didn’t intend to leave.
Just in that moment, several figures suddenly appeared in the distance. Xu Ziqing was taken aback and quickly retreated into the cave. He covered the entrance with a rock, and carefully looked out from the inside.
He saw a young man in blue riding on his sword and landing in front of the bodies of the three beasts, his face lighting up. However, in an instant, several more figures descended, all flying with magical tools, like gourds, jade rulers, and ribbons. There were men and women, all in high spirits.
Xu Ziqing couldn’t see through everyone’s cultivation base, but at any rate, he knew that since they could fly with magic tools, their cultivation base had to be at least at the fifth layer of Qi refinement or more. If he stuck his head out, he was afraid he wouldn’t be enough for the people to cook with one spoon.
There was also someone from the Xu family there, but they were not familiar to Xu Ziqing. He hid in silence, knowing that these people were probably all here due to the battle between the three beasts.
The bodies of the three beasts were extremely large, and the eyes of the Qi Refinement experts were all bright when they saw the corpses.
Someone said, “This giant python has been cultivating for 300 years, and it has wings on its back. Could it be that it has ancient Yinglong blood?”
Among them, a girl in the yellow outfit spoke softly, with an indifferent expression, “This thing is a Black Scaled Xuan Snake with ancient snake blood, far from being comparable to that of a divine Yinglong. Its cultivation is indeed 300 years, and if it was another 200 years, it could’ve grown a horn and become a Xuan Jiao.”
Everyone couldn’t help but take a breath of cold air. The original mention of it having a Yinglong bloodline was originally just a joke, but to everyone’s surprise, what they thought was a mere demon snake actually had ancient blood! Although it was not Yinglong, this snake was also a fierce beast that could make floods. If one waited for the Black Scaled Xuan Snake to have a thousand-year cultivation and then arouse its bloodline, one could awaken the magical abilities hidden in the snake’s bloodline. By then, even a Golden Core5 expert would be afraid of it by three points!
When everyone looked at the python corpse again, their eyes became even more scorching.
Suddenly someone asked, “This Black Scaled Xuan Snake is extraordinary, what kind of variety are those eagles? To go so far as to perish together!”
The rest of the people also thought of it, and all wondered. Looking at the two eagles, one female, and one male, there was nothing special about them, but after thinking that their opponent was such a creature, they felt they were out of the ordinary as well.
The girl in the yellow outfit walked over, took a look, and said slowly, “The female eagle is just an ordinary black eagle that has cultivated for 500 years, but the male eagle is a different species. With golden feathers all over its body, it’s very likely that there is a trace of Dapeng blood in its bloodline. Unfortunately, the bloodline is extremely weak, almost close to nothing, and the golden eagle has only been cultivating for just more than 200 years so it couldn’t be an opponent to the Black Scaled Xuan Snake.”
If ordinary animals cultivated properly, a demonic core could be hidden in their bodies as early as a hundred years. Naturally, these three beasts also have demonic cores, the bodies of such demonic beasts are also full of treasures both inside and outside the corpses. They all found these beast carcasses together so no one could swallow them alone, but they all wanted a good few unearned gains.
Xu Ziqing counted a total of eight people present. Among them, there was only one person from the Tian family, the Xu family, and the Meng family, but there were three from the Luo family, and two from the Wei family. If it was divided by the number of people, the Luo family would naturally take the bulk of the share. But when it came to cultivation bases, these were all outstanding children of various families. Their cultivation bases were mostly between the fifth and sixth layers of Qi Refinement, but the one from the Meng family had reached the seventh layer. It was the girl in the yellow outfit who just introduced the origin of the three beasts to the others. Because of this, the distribution method would probably be somewhat different.
For a while, everyone couldn’t make up their minds, and they talked without giving up on each other, refusing to let others benefit.
On the verge of a fight, all of them suddenly felt cold, as if there was a chill assaulting them from all directions, making one shudder.
What powerful spiritual pressure!
This, this was a Foundation Establishment expert!
Under such powerful influence, no one dared to move. Then there was a stream of light from the sky that flew over quickly, landing in front of everyone. The figure was none other than a tall and upright man, his temperament prominent, with a forbidding chill all over his body.
The man turned his head and Xu Ziqing saw that he looked handsome and well-defined, with a hard coldness at the corners of his eyes and the tips of his brows, which made people dare not offend.
“I have seen Senior Xu!” When all the cultivators saw this person, they saluted in unison, extremely respectful.
Xu Ziqing also recognized him, he was unexpectedly Xu Zifeng!
Xu Zifeng wore a long sword, his whole body full of spiritual brightness. Just standing there, there was an aura that could not be ignored.
His eyes glanced at all the cultivators, but he did not speak, only raised his palm, and simply produced a treasure.
A cultivator recognized it, “A top-grade storage bag!”
Except for the joy on the face of the Xu family expert, the rest of them were extremely disappointed. How fiercely they fought here, but the face of Xu Zifeng, they weren’t worth anything. Everyone immediately regretted it. If they knew it would end up this way, they wouldn’t have argued before. They would’ve just taken off the part of the carcass as they pleased and left early.
Sure enough, Xu Zifeng didn’t talk to anyone. The storage bag was aloft in the air for a moment, and the three animal corpses were sucked in, leaving nothing left.
The other experts didn’t dare to have any opinions. The Xu family cultivator had already stood behind Xu Zifeng, but Xu Zifeng’s eyes narrowed, and he looked toward the snake cave hidden by the mountain rocks.
“Come out.” He said coldly.
Footnotes
1, zhang, a measurement of length, ten Chinese feet (3.3 m).
2, I used eagle but the character is ‘鹰’ which is actually like eagle; hawk; falcon. So a big bird.
3, The mountain was suddenly named?? Qijun is ‘奇骏’. Which is weird ig.
4, Golden Core, so basically the author only really wrote about and used Houtian & Xiantian in like a few beginning chapters, and then went to using other cultivation terms that weren’t explained. For those who are unfamiliar with cultivation ‘levels’, from weak to strong they are most commonly, Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation (Golden Core), Nascent Soul, and Immortal Ascension. Now these might not be all used, there may be more used, or there may simply be different terms used, but this is what it usually is. Naturally, if there are differences in this that are made by the author, it will be mentioned.
T/N, So, on jjwxc in most cases, authors will put the title in the ‘description’ spot, so I was naturally taking those as the title merely out of habit. They weren’t actually the titles, but since they still work I’m going to leave the old ones and simply switch it to the correct titles from here on.
Also, who in their right mind would bring two of their defenseless children into a battle of life and death? Stupid birds. But hey, I guess it’s now the reason our MC has a demonic eagle egg.