The veiled maiden led the way, and when she heard the sound of a magical artifact's bell and the roar of a demonic beast ten zhang behind her, she immediately knew it was her junior disciples fighting the monster. She stopped at once, turning back just in time to see Ye Qin momentarily stunning a strangely shaped, red-scaled winged demon snake with his Soul-Capturing Bell.

However, that Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake possessed an incredible resistance to stunning effects. It thrashed on the ground for a moment before leaping back up, glaring fiercely at Ye Qin, and lunging at him again.

Ye Qin threw the Soul-Capturing Bell with one hand to intercept the winged serpent's attack, while controlling his Profound Yin Sword with the other, slicing toward the snake with incredible speed. This third-tier Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake was covered in dense, fine scales; spiritual artifacts could barely scratch it, and even magical artifacts might not inflict a fatal wound. Only its head was unprotected by scales, making it the most vulnerable point. A full-force strike to its head with a magical artifact would be a devastating blow.

Ye Qin pinpointed its weakness and directed the Profound Yin Flying Sword to cleave toward its head.

Yet, the third-tier Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake, bearing dual wings on its back, moved with terrifying swiftness. It was far from easy to spear with a flying sword. It flapped its wings, soaring and darting, evading the Profound Yin Sword, and then slammed ferociously toward Ye Qin, only to be fully blocked by the Soul-Capturing Bell.

The Profound Yin Sword attacked several times, failing to strike the head, but instead hacking into the scales, shattering several plates and tearing open gashes several cun deep. Scarlet blood spurted out.

The Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake instantly felt the pain. Injuries that were neither light nor heavy only enraged it further. It raised its head, hissing wildly, its sharp claws dancing in front of it, attempting to knock aside the Soul-Capturing Bell and tear Ye Qin to shreds.

Ye Qin let out a cold laugh. This beast didn't know its place. Did it think that because it could fly fast, I would be helpless against it?

He flicked his finger, sending a beam of white light striking the green bell. With a deep, dull dong!, a rolling blast of sound impacted the Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake.

Even with the greatest ability, the winged serpent could not evade such a wide-ranging wave attack. Its head felt as if it had been struck by a muffled thunderclap. In that instant, it became completely dazed. Its previously agile body stiffened, losing all control, and it tumbled headfirst from mid-air.

Ye Qin certainly wouldn't show it mercy. He pointed a finger. A ray of dazzling blue light shot instantly toward the snake's head.

Pfft—!

The Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake's head was pierced by the sharp blue sword light, erupting in a spray of multicolored brain matter—green, white, and red. The headless corpse of the serpent crashed to the ground with a boom, never to move again.

Ye Qin smiled faintly, recalling his Profound Yin Sword and Soul-Capturing Bell. He was not surprised by the outcome. He was growing increasingly adept at manipulating his magical artifacts; the synergy between the Soul-Capturing Bell and the flying sword was endlessly versatile.

The Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake's greatest advantage was its agility. Once briefly stunned by the Soul-Capturing Bell, a strike from the flying sword sealed its doom. If it had regained consciousness before that, targeting its head would have been far more difficult.

The veiled maiden, who had been preparing to offer aid, retracted her Ice Sword upon witnessing the scene.

She was somewhat surprised. Eliminating a third-tier demonic beast in such a short time was no easy feat. She mused to herself that even if she had intervened, she might not have managed it so cleanly. Yet, after a moment's thought, she relaxed; after all, even that purple-robed cultivator from the Ancient Artifact Sect had perished at the hands of this fellow disciple, so dispatching a third-tier beast was hardly an insurmountable challenge.

The veiled maiden stood on a slope of reddish quicksand soil, surveying the surrounding environment. A few li ahead lay a flat expanse of red sandstone territory, dotted everywhere with low red shrubs and red gravel.

"There is a cave over there; it's likely the nest of this Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake! I don't know if these beasts live in groups, so we should leave this area quickly. The scent of blood here will soon attract other ferocious demonic beasts."

Her gaze settled on a pile of red gravel behind the slope as she spoke. There was a cave entrance half a zhang wide, with a small heap of newly excavated gravel near the opening, presumably the Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake's lair.

"Let's go!"

Ye Qin nodded. They couldn't linger near a beast's den.

Half an hour later, they had ventured deeper into the red sandstone territory, but the path forward grew increasingly difficult.

This place held not just one Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake nest, but so many that they were almost densely packed—a shocking number. Each nest housed anywhere from one or two snakes to as many as five or six.

Fortunately, these Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snakes maintained their own territories and did not operate in groups. Otherwise, if a sky-obscuring swarm attacked, they would have nowhere to flee.

But to reach the Red Magma River, passing through the territories of these nests was unavoidable, making progress arduous at every step.

The veiled maiden was scouting ahead when her expression suddenly changed as she passed a depression. Her Ice Soul Sword flew out to guard her front. Ahead, within the territory of a large Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snake nest, four or five adult winged serpents were bustling in and out of their cave, busy digging at the gravel. One of the serpents turned its head sharply and fixed its gaze upon the veiled maiden.

"Careful, five winged serpents!"

The veiled maiden quickly retreated, signaling to Ye Qin, who was following more than ten zhang behind her. Five winged serpents—even at her full strength, she couldn't hold them off. They had to retreat rapidly right now, fighting while pulling back until they were behind Ye Qin.

Ye Qin did not move to flee. Instead, he summoned the Soul-Capturing Bell and poured his spiritual power into it with all his might. Only when the veiled maiden had rushed behind him and the five winged serpents had taken to the air in pursuit did he unleash a thunderous blast from the Soul-Capturing Bell—an invisible wave slammed toward the five snakes.

As the five pursuing Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snakes were swept by the wave, they tumbled down like falling dumplings.

The veiled maiden immediately halted her movement, flipped her hand, and five small Ice Soul Swords shot out like five sharp beams of icy coldness—

—striking the five falling Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snakes mid-air.

Crack-pop-pop, five brilliant bursts of blood erupted in the air.

This stretch of red sandstone territory now held five more headless corpses of demonic beasts.

The two collected their artifacts and continued to proceed stealthily toward the Red Magma River.

A day later, several small teams from various sects had gradually appeared in the third level of the cave network.

When a five-person team of Qi Refining cultivators from a minor sect arrived at this patch of red sandstone territory, the scout leading the way happened to see the gruesome sight of the five dead third-tier Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snakes and gasped in shock. "Senior Brothers, come quickly and look, there are five dead demonic beasts here!"

The four cultivators following cautiously within dozens of zhang immediately rushed forward, landing beside the corpses of the Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snakes. After closely examining the cause of death, they exchanged horrified glances.

"Pierced through the brain from the weakest point—the eye—a one-hit kill! How was this achieved?"

"Besides the wound on the head, there are no other injuries."

"To inflict such a fatal injury, one must have used a flying sword artifact, and with uncanny precision. Our sect doesn't have such an expert. Senior Brother, I suggest we change our route and try to avoid encountering that group ahead. Otherwise, if the five of us joined forces, our fate wouldn't be much better than these five beasts."

The cultivator who had been scouting spoke fearfully to the leading captain.

The others beside him nodded in agreement.

The captain, equally wary, nodded and consented. "They seem to be heading forward; let's go left."

They had encountered Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snakes before and were familiar with their prowess—their speed in flight made hitting their heads extremely difficult. Yet, someone had managed to kill these snakes instantly with a single blow, leaving no other marks. This reality shocked and terrified them to the extreme.

Although she had single-handedly eliminated five adult Red-Scaled Winged Demon Snakes, the worried look on the veiled maiden's face had not lessened. Centuries ago, an ancestor of the Azure Pill Sect had entered this cavern and left some information stating that supreme-grade fire-element ores existed on the third level of the Myriad Wither Ridge Caves, but this predecessor had not mentioned the local demonic beast situation. She had underestimated the strength of the local beasts before coming here.

After hesitating for a long time, she finally made up her mind and looked back at the silent Ye Qin. Her first impression of this fellow disciple was that he was extremely ordinary and unremarkable. However, over the past few days, she realized that this junior brother possessed formidable strength, learned to wield artifacts incredibly fast, secretly imitated her methods of artifact manipulation, was unusually low-key, and possessed immense patience.

She did not wish for this fellow disciple, who had saved her life once, to accompany her on an extremely dangerous venture.

The veiled maiden looked at Ye Qin with bright eyes, her young voice questioning, "It's about ten li further to that magma river, and we might encounter even more dangerous, high-level demonic beasts—it will be very perilous. Will you come with me, or will you stay here? If you decide not to go, you can wait for me here. I will leave the Myriad Wither Ridge Caves together with you after I return from the magma river in a few days."

Ye Qin was somewhat surprised; they had come this far, why ask him now?

He paused, then asked, "What exactly is at the magma river?"

The veiled maiden saw no reason to conceal the truth and stated openly, "There is a supreme-grade fire-element crystal ore there, the finest material for forging fire-element magical artifacts. These supreme-grade fire-element crystals are only found near the magma rivers deep underground. Even cultivators at the late Foundation Establishment stage would still wield incredibly potent fire artifacts forged using these crystals. My purpose for coming to Myriad Wither Ridge was actually to find this subterranean fire crystal ore to forge a set of fire-element flying swords."

Ye Qin fell silent for a moment.

His primary goal in coming to Myriad Wither Ridge was to mine spirit stones to cultivate spirit herbs and refine Foundation Establishment Pills. He now possessed enough spirit stones to grow the required herbs for more than ten batches of Foundation Establishment Pills, giving him a high probability of success in reaching the Foundation Establishment stage. He could leave the Myriad Wither Ridge Caves immediately and return to the surface to enter secluded cultivation at Azure Pill Mountain.

However, the journey back to the surface from the third level was very long, requiring him to traverse the second and first levels—at least twenty days. Along this route, encountering cultivators from various sects was inevitable, likely requiring bloody combat to exit the Myriad Wither Ridge Caves. Therefore, returning to the surface might actually be less safe than staying put on the third level for a while longer.

Furthermore, since he was already on the third level, he shouldn't leave empty-handed. He wanted to see the conditions deep underground and perhaps find something of high value. Since entering the cavern, he had found quite a lot along the way—rare, unknown fire-element precious grasses and strange woods. He had plucked the fruits from them and stored them in his spatial bag. Just along this path, he had collected seeds from dozens of species of fire-element spirit herbs and exotic woods, which might prove useful later.

As for materials for forging supreme-grade fire-element flying swords, those were extremely difficult to find on the surface. Bringing back some top-tier fire-element ore was only natural.

Having come this far, there was no reason to give up halfway.

Ye Qin shook his head and smiled faintly. "Since there are fire-element crystal ores, we might as well go take a look together. Perhaps we can collect some to use for forging fire-element artifacts in the future."

The veiled maiden pondered for a moment but did not insist. "Very well. If we encounter any high-level demonic beasts we cannot handle, you leave first. I have my own means of self-preservation within these subterranean caves; you don't need to worry about me."

The two continued their advance with increased caution.

Today's second chapter update is complete. First release

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