Chapter 21: Friend of the Demon Beast

After Su Zhangqing followed the flood dragon snake for several hundred meters, the snake stopped beside a waterfall, opened its mouth to spit a spirit energy blast at the waterfall, and diverted the water flow in another direction.

The next second, Su Zhangqing's eyes lit up.

Located beneath the waterfall, a white narcissus orchid was growing, appearing so beautiful and moving in this swamp; it was precisely the Huanglan Narcissus that Su Zhangqing had come to find.

Su Zhangqing steered his Flying Sword, flew to the side of the orchid, plucked it with one hand, and carefully stored it in his treasure bag.

It was effortless! He had thought he would have to search for a long time, but he hadn't expected to find it in two or three minutes under the guidance of this flood dragon snake.

"With this, we are even. However, I, Su Zhangqing, have accepted you as a friend. If there is a chance, I will come here again to visit you!"

With his business here finished, Su Zhangqing thought of leaving as soon as possible to return to his sect. He smiled happily, waved his hand, and said goodbye to the flood dragon snake: "Big flood dragon snake, I'm leaving!"

"Hiss, hiss, hiss!"

But just as Su Zhangqing had stepped onto his Flying Sword and prepared to leave, he heard the flood dragon snake behind him calling out to him.

"Are you saying you want to leave with me?"

Su Zhangqing turned around and asked the flood dragon snake with a look of surprise.

The flood dragon snake did not speak, but nodded with great anticipation.

"But with your massive body, if you leave with me, not to mention scaring others, I have nowhere to put you."

After thinking for a long time, Su Zhangqing said to the flood dragon snake.

Meeting today showed that he and this flood dragon snake were surely fated; he had used an Array to help the snake shed its skin and undergo Tribulation Transcendence, and the snake had led him to find the Huanglan Narcissus needed to break through his realm—was this not another level of mutual achievement?

Furthermore, judging from the fight just now, this flood dragon snake was by no means an ordinary creature; its strength was evenly matched with his own Against-Heaven Comprehension, which was rare even among human cultivators.

Of course, there were many cultivators in this world who took spirit beasts as companions, just like the protagonist in the stories, Zhang Xiaofan, who had a spirit beast friend named Xiaohui, a three-eyed spirit monkey, which eventually grew to unimaginable strength and was a vital combat aid by Zhang Xiaofan's side.

Thinking of this, Su Zhangqing also had the idea of taking the flood dragon snake with him, but the problem before him was how to hide its nearly ten-meter-long massive body.

"Do you know any transformation techniques or shrinking techniques? If you can change your size and shrink, I can take you back to the sect, and we can cultivate together in the Qingyun Sect."

Su Zhangqing asked the flood dragon snake curiously.

The flood dragon snake nodded excitedly, and then a burst of white light flashed around it. When the white light dissipated, the flood dragon snake's massive body was gone, having transformed into a small, thin snake less than half an arm's length long.

"This is good!"

Seeing this scene, Su Zhangqing felt relieved. He walked over and picked up the flood dragon snake, which coiled up his arm and settled obediently on his left arm.

Looking closely, Su Zhangqing liked this little flood dragon snake even more; its ink-colored scales were iridescent under the light, and that pair of white feathers was quite peculiar, with lightning faintly appearing on the horns on its head, giving it a somewhat miraculous and cute quality.

Su Zhangqing stroked its snake head; the cool touch was very comfortable, and the little flood dragon snake closed its ink-colored strange eyes, appearing to enjoy Su Zhangqing's petting very much.

"Alright, we are good friends who met today, and from now on we will cultivate the Dao together!"

"Hiss, hiss! (Good friends! Cultivate the Dao together!)"

The Flying Sword rose, and one person and one snake embarked on the return journey. After flying for a long time in Jiuyin Mountain, Su Zhangqing, who was intent on returning to the sect as quickly as possible, heard a noisy sound coming from the mountain; it sounded like two groups of people were in a standoff.

"Could it be that the people of the Demonic Cult have clashed with others again?"

Su Zhangqing thought that besides the people from the Demonic Cult, he hadn't seen any other forces in the mountain, and he was very curious about what had happened, so he decided to go and investigate, asking the little flood dragon snake: "Shall we go watch the excitement?"

"Hiss, hiss!"

The little flood dragon snake nodded, agreeing with Su Zhangqing's idea.

"Then let's go!"

Su Zhangqing turned the direction of the Flying Sword and flew toward the source of the noisy sound.

The first thing that came into view was a group of Demonic Cult Disciples; they were not building an Array in a cave at this time, but instead were gathered together, seemingly trapping another group of people in the center.

Besides Qiu Buping, another strange old man had appeared among the Demonic Cult members; he had white hair and a white beard, wore a dark green robe, and a layer of poisonous gas was faintly swirling around his figure.

His cultivation was even harder for Su Zhangqing to detect; clearly, compared to Qiu Buping, he had reached another level, and in all likelihood, he was at the Transformation God Realm like Master Shuiyue and the others.

"Even such a great power has come out? Could it be that this group of Demonic Cult members has encountered some strong enemy?"

Su Zhangqing frowned and observed from a distance while concealing his presence. If it were just Qiu Buping, it would be fine, as he could hide carefully and be hard to detect, but against such a Transformation God Realm expert, Su Zhangqing dared not gamble, nor could he; even if his Heaven Concealing Method were powerful, he would only be instantly detected by a Transformation God expert.

Not to mention, he did not know the identity of this old man, nor did he know who the people confronting the Demonic Cult were, so acting rashly might lead to unforeseen changes.

Just as Su Zhangqing was curiously hiding in the distance and observing carefully, he heard the old man in the dark green robe say with a gloomy face to the people below who were surrounded by the Demonic Cult members: "Tian Buyi, Shuiyue, our Holy Sect has never provoked your Qingyun Sect recently, yet you brought people here to provoke our Holy Sect—what is the meaning of this?"

"Lao Dugui, what do you mean by us coming here to provoke you? Jiuyin Mountain is only a few dozen kilometers away from our Qingyun Sect; by common logic, it is the territory of our Qingyun Sect. You brought so many Disciples here to run wild on our turf, and now you are trying to shift the blame?"

At this time, standing on the ground below, surrounded by Demonic Cult Disciples, the Qingyun Sect group's Tian Buyi replied to him indignantly.

Tian Buyi? Shuiyue? Qingyun Sect?

Hearing these two names, Su Zhangqing felt a shock in his heart.

How could it be Uncle-Master Tian and Master? How could they have come to this Jiuyin Mountain?

And they were locked in a standoff with these Demonic Cult people, even reaching the level of Transformation God Realm experts confronting each other; looking at the anger in their words, it seemed like a fight was about to break out.

In an instant, all sorts of questions arose in Su Zhangqing's mind; even though he was quick-witted, he could not understand it at all. However, knowing they were people from the Qingyun Sect, Su Zhangqing could not stand by and watch no matter what.

Helplessly, his cultivation was too low, so he could only hide in the distance and wait to see what would happen.

"Oh? This seat has never heard that this Jiuyin Mountain is the territory of your Qingyun Sect. Could it be that you righteous gentlemen who pride yourselves on being righteous also like to plunder everywhere?"

"Less nonsense! Lao Dugui, you stole our Spirit Treasure on our territory; return it to us immediately, otherwise our Qingyun Sect will not let this matter rest today!"

(End of chapter)