Returning to Snake Island

Although Li Qiankun was battered beyond recognition by the backlash of his own attack, the Snake Beauty was also sent flying, her clothes stained red with blood. Tang Xueyan, the Snake Fairy, hurried over to support her mother, asking with deep concern, "Mother! Mother, are you alright?"

"We must leave quickly. Those three elders are gone now, but who knows what other dangers await us? Wait... has the Immortal Heaven Sword Artifact been found?" the Snake Beauty asked.

Xie Wuji said, "Is this the sword?"

The Snake Beauty was overjoyed. "Yes, yes, yes, that's the sword! Wait... why is there an extra sword base attached to it?"

"Hahaha..." A weak laugh echoed from afar. Looking over, the group saw it was Li Qiankun.

Surveying his surroundings, Li Qiankun grinned. "You never expected this, did you? Even if you obtained the Immortal Heaven Sword Artifact, so what? Back in the time of the founding patriarch, to prevent the monsters of the Immortal Heaven Sword Sect from rising again, he sealed this sword away. Aside from the successive sect masters, no one can unlock this sword base, because the sword base itself is the seal! Hahaha!"

"Damn you!" The Snake Beauty reached out, and the white snake coiled around her wrist instantly constricted around Li Qiankun's neck, lifting him high into the air.

To prevent any potential pursuers from catching up, the group decided to head back home. At that moment, Xie Wuji thought of something and asked, "Ximeng, when you left the Danxia Sect, did you swipe anything else?"

"Heh heh heh heh." Ximeng beamed with pride. "You're asking the right person! I took practically everything I could carry from the Alchemy Hall, including this personal volume of alchemy essentials written by Ding Desheng himself!"

"Ding Desheng?" Xie Wuji was overjoyed. "Give me that book."

"Here." Ximeng tossed the book to Xie Wuji. Xie Wuji then threw the book into a hidden corner nearby, and the entire group prepared to depart, journeying back toward Snake Island.

Meanwhile, after learning about the incident at the Dragon-Imprisoning Pavilion, Li Qianjun rushed frantically to the ruins. Seeing his three elder brothers dead and corpses scattered all around, he roared in fury, "Who?! Who has dared to desecrate my Supreme Immortal Sect?!"

Tears streamed down Li Qianjun's face. Those were his three biological brothers, yet they had died right here. He searched the ruins for a while, but as expected, there was no trace of the Immortal Heaven Sword Artifact to be found.

"Father, this book was found nearby." Li Wuyong handed over the alchemy essentials. Upon inspecting it, his expression changed drastically. "It turns out to be by Ding Desheng of the Danxia Sect! It seems my guess was correct!"

"What?"

"Child, do you remember what your father told you? The foundation of our Supreme Immortal Sect was inherited a thousand years ago from the Immortal Heaven Sword Sect. Many members back then refused to submit to the abilities and power of our founding ancestor, so they secretly formed an underground faction. This Immortal Heaven Sword Artifact is their sect-protecting treasure. Therefore, father deduces that this Ding Desheng must be a descendant of the Immortal Heaven Sword Sect! Issue an order immediately: put out a nationwide warrant for Ding Desheng, and bring me his body whether he is dead or alive!"

"Yes!"

Somewhere in the State of Li, a tattered beggar pulled out a few copper coins and bought a bowl of plain white noodles. Suddenly, he sneezed. "Achoo! It must be those brats from the Danxia Sect cursing me again. Damn it all! Although I obtained the demonic spirit, I have nowhere to go and am forced to disguise myself as a beggar just to evade the government soldiers. How ironic!"

With that, Ding Desheng slurped down the noodles in a matter of seconds.

As he was paying his bill, several government soldiers suddenly approached, holding portraits and comparing them to Ding Desheng. Ding Desheng quickly lowered his head. Although he could easily handle these soldiers, doing so would expose his whereabouts.

Moreover, this place was within the territory of the State of Li—in other words, the territory of the Supreme Immortal Sect. The people of the Supreme Immortal Sect were not to be trifled with, and he did not want to invite unnecessary trouble.

"Damn it, I originally planned to take a shortcut to the Myriad Demon Palace, but I never expected to run into trouble here!" Ding Desheng finished drinking the noodle soup to the last drop and turned on his heel to leave.

His erratic movements quickly caught the attention of others. Glancing at the portrait in his hand, a soldier shouted, "Hey, old man in front, stop right there!"

Ding Desheng jerked his head around, took a deep breath, and blew it straight toward the group.

Given Ding Desheng's formidable cultivation, this breath blew out like a violent gale rushing toward the guards.

"Ugh, what a foul wind! Why is the smell so pungent?"

"Did someone fart? It smells so bad it makes me want to die!"

"Blech..."

One soldier immediately began to vomit. This annoyed Ding Desheng. Standing on a rooftop, he blew into his palm and frowned. "It doesn't smell at all. Are these fellows deliberately humiliating me?"

With a wave of his hand, a gust of palm wind swept out, instantly knocking the guards unconscious.

As for Xie Wuji and the people from Snake Island, they had arrived at a pier in the State of Li.

The State of Chu is also a peninsula nation, with half of its territory consisting of islands, making boats a much more common mode of transportation than carriages.

The Snake Beauty was not in good condition. After being helped onto the vessel, she closed her eyes to rest.

"Let me change your dressing again," Song Zhong said, stepping forward.

Although Song Zhong was an elderly man, he was quite skilled in medicine. Combined with Xie Wuji's anti-inflammatory medicine and his own specialized wound-healing ointment, he was able to effectively treat the Snake Beauty's injuries.

However, Song Zhong was a man after all, and despite treating her as a physician, the Snake Beauty's expression remained somewhat peculiar.

Yet she offered no resistance, instead gazing at him with a strange look in her eyes.

Once upon a time, another skilled male physician had treated her in much the same way—that was, of course, Tang Xueyan's father.

Naturally, this was one of the memories the Snake Beauty preferred not to recall.

"Thank you. With Senior Brother Song Zhong's remarkable medical skills, I imagine your wife and children must be very happy," the Snake Beauty remarked.

Song Zhong's brow furrowed tightly. He sighed and said, "I have neither wife nor children, nor do I intend to find any. In my youth, I made a vow that until I revived the Undying Longevity Sect, I would never marry or father children."

"So..." the Snake Beauty said with a wry smile.

Song Zhong slapped his own face. "This is the stupidest decision I've ever made in my life. Xiaolan from the village was originally supposed to be my wife, but because of this vow, I ended up watching with my own eyes as she became a grandmother..."

The others were left utterly speechless.

Meanwhile, Xie Wuji packed up all their valuables and boarded a ship, only to realize that this vessel was unlike any ordinary boat.

"This is a 'Drifting Vessel,' a very common means of transport in our State of Chu," the Snake Fairy explained.

Xie Wuji said, "This—this is basically a floating jellyfish! How can anyone navigate in this?"

"Because it's very fast, and it can also submerge underwater." With that, the Snake Fairy waved her hands, and an almost transparent curtain enveloped everyone. From the outside, it looked precisely like a giant bubble encasing them all.

Then, the jellyfish vessel sank beneath the water's surface, and Xie Wuji beheld the breathtaking underwater scenery.

Unlike the waters of the modern world, which were polluted beyond recognition to the point where the bottom could never be seen, here Xie Wuji and the others stood inside the jellyfish bubble and could easily see everything around them.

Xie Wuji spotted coral reefs in the distance, alongside schools of swimming fish.

Especially the shoals of fish with silvery-white scales that reflected the sunlight, casting a dazzling and colorful glow all around.

It was worth noting that many of the aquatic creatures here were quite familiar to Xie Wuji, seemingly no different from those in the modern world.

There were stingrays, sardines, clownfish, octopuses, and more.

Xie Wuji even caught sight of a horseshoe crab, but this one was vastly larger than any he had ever known; its dorsal carapace was comparable in size to a house. It swam slowly through the water before eventually crawling along the seabed.

Such a spectacle drew continuous praise from Xie Wuji and left Song Xiaoyu lost in a trance of awe.

"They always say the scenery of Snake Island is peerless under heaven. Seeing it now, it truly lives up to its reputation. If the underwater scenery alone is this magnificent, the island itself goes without saying," Song Xiao sighed in admiration.