Chapter 19: The Mysterious Monster That Suddenly Attacked

"Did you see clearly who any of them were?"

Qiu Buping asked the Disciple who had come to report, acting with caution.

"According to the investigation, the cultivation of two of them is difficult to perceive; nine times out of ten they are experts from the Qingyun Sect, and the rest are some cultivators at the Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment realms."

The Disciple reported truthfully to Qiu Buping.

"Difficult to perceive? Could it be those few from the Qingyun Sect whose cultivation has reached the Nascent Soul or Deity Transformation stages? Wait for me to report this matter to the Sect Master first."

Hearing this, Qiu Buping felt secretly terrified in his heart. He had not expected the Qingyun Sect to make such a big move, actually sending such important figures. But upon second thought, he felt extremely furious: "These righteous paths are bullying people too much! They killed our people and still dare to come and cause trouble for us with such fanfare. We must have the Sect Master stand up for us!"

Qiu Buping took a talisman from his bosom, wrote and drew on it in the air to record everything that had happened, and then pinched it in his hand until it spontaneously ignited and burned to ashes.

After a good while, a voice came into Qiu Buping's mind. He closed his eyes to receive it, then opened them, took a step forward, and said to the others: "Let's go, we will go and meet them first!"

Su Zhangqing, who had already reached the swamp in the hinterland of Jiuyin Mountain, was completely unaware of all this, and even less aware that the two blunders he had caused had led two factions to engage in a major conflict at Jiuyin Mountain.

Inside the swamp, miasma was pervasive and the land was desolate; no light could be seen at all, and one could only see three or four meters around.

Su Zhangqing moved forward on his Flying Sword through the swamp, using Qi to set up a barrier around himself, which allowed him to avoid being affected by the miasma and also expanded his range of vision significantly.

With this ability, Su Zhangqing looked around at the surrounding environment, searching for the traces of the Huanglan Narcissus according to the portrait described in the book.

"Where is it? Why can't I find any trace of it?"

Su Zhangqing searched left and right, but he could not even see a shadow of the Huanglan Narcissus.

Thinking back to the description in the book that this item was extremely rare and could not be met without predestined affinity, Su Zhangqing did not feel discouraged, only feeling that his luck today was insufficient.

Since he couldn't find it today, he would continue looking tomorrow; he should be able to find one in three days, right?

"Boom!"

Su Zhangqing, who was searching earnestly, was flipped over by a massive force in the next second. Fortunately, he had maintained his caution throughout, which kept him from falling into the swamp, and he managed to stabilize his footing after flipping three or four times in the air.

However, he was still left somewhat dazed by the sudden, violent impact.

"What the hell!"

Su Zhangqing looked dazedly at the place where he had just been, faintly seeing a long figure dive back into the swamp and disappear from sight.

"You want to run after hitting someone?"

Anger suddenly surged in Su Zhangqing's heart. This invisible monster actually wanted to dive back into the water after hitting him; it must be waiting to ambush him again, and he could not let it have its way.

However, Su Zhangqing did not rashly pursue it, but instead used his Flying Sword to fly into the air to create distance, and then slashed a Gale Sword Technique toward the place where it had submerged.

Fierce sword Qi surged, rolling away all the surrounding miasma, striking swiftly.

But when the Gale Sword Qi landed in the water, it only blasted the swamp water several meters high, and no sign of anything could be seen.

Su Zhangqing clenched his fists; he had been a step slow in his move and had been dodged by this monster first. Now it was difficult to track its figure in this swamp.

Just as Su Zhangqing was feeling annoyed, an unusual movement came from beneath him again.

"Still want to come?"

Su Zhangqing said to himself. However, this time, having prepared himself, Su Zhangqing did not let it have its way again. He quickly activated his movement technique, leaped away to dodge this attack, and countered with a sword strike.

"Hiss!"

Following a hiss, that huge, long figure was struck by the Gale Sword Qi, twisted crazily, fell from the air into the swamp water, and hid its figure once again.

Through these two or three seconds, Su Zhangqing had already seen its appearance clearly.

It was actually a long snake about eight or nine meters long, with a huge head, its body covered in ink-colored scales reflecting five colors, and a horn growing on its forehead. Even more peculiar was that it had a pair of ink-black wings growing on its back.

A Flood Dragon Snake?

And it was a Flood Dragon Snake that had grown a horn and feathers?

Su Zhangqing did not know what such a peculiar creature was; it seemed there was no record of it even within the Qingyun Sect, and the stories had not mentioned the existence of such a creature.

"Whatever you are, daring to obstruct my search for the Huanglan Narcissus is a major taboo!"

Su Zhangqing could no longer be bothered to investigate what kind of monster this was; he only wanted to resolve it as soon as possible to prevent it from obstructing his search for the Huanglan Narcissus again.

It was evident that as soon as this monster hid in the water, it disappeared; he figured this monster had lived here for a long time and was very familiar with this swampy land.

Su Zhangqing took out array flags from his bosom, placed the array base in four directions of the swamp, and used the Four Directions Trapping Earth Array again. Immediately, a Qi barrier unfolded; once it was trapped inside the array, he would see where else it could run.

Sure enough, just as the Four Directions Trapping Earth Array was set, a heavy, muffled sound was heard from the north, and a large splash of water erupted; it was clearly the sound of the Flood Dragon Snake hitting the barrier.

"Found you!"

Su Zhangqing immediately slashed a sword toward the direction from which the sound came.

The long snake surfaced again, its huge eyes looking at Su Zhangqing with great anger, and it suddenly spat a huge energy ball from its big mouth, which collided fiercely with the Gale Sword Qi.

"Boom!"

The two attacks collided and exploded in the air, and both forces were destroyed simultaneously. The massive shockwave caused the entire swamp to ripple, and Su Zhangqing narrowed his eyes and immediately stood his ground, yet he was still pushed back two steps by the powerful shockwave.

"This monster is not like that Black Tiger Beast; it cannot be underestimated!"

Su Zhangqing felt the threat brought by this Flood Dragon Snake and decided to muster all his focus to deal with it.

"Ten Thousand Nothingness Heavenly Thunder Array!"

"Wild Wind Sword Dao!"

"Desolate Fall Violent Body Fist!"

Just like when dealing with the Black Tiger Beast earlier, Su Zhangqing used all his skills, unleashing all his various divine abilities, which poured toward the Flood Dragon Snake like sprinkling water.

In an instant, thunder rolled, sword Qi surged, and fist shadows appeared in abundance. Various strange techniques manifested again, shaking the swamp land so that the Qi rippled violently, the miasma was instantly blasted away, and various lights and shadows scattered and vented.

If the long-dead Black Tiger Beast were here, it would surely be scared out of its wits, heart turning to ash, and shout: "You're doing this again!"

Yet, even with all these divine abilities unleashed, Su Zhangqing's eyes became even more solemn.

Although the encounter was the same as with the Black Tiger Beast, the outcome for this Flood Dragon Snake monster was completely different. He saw the Flood Dragon Snake either spitting energy balls to blast away the sword Qi, or flapping its feathered wings to dodge the fist shadows, and even the rolling heavenly thunder seemed to be guided, all landing on the horn on its forehead.

They were actually all neutralized one by one! (End of chapter)