Chapter 55: Driving Away Snakes to Dig Up Wild Chicken Vines

Qin Anyu returned with two storage rings filled with water, while Qin Youqin and the others had already gathered six storage rings of firewood.

"Eldest brother, how should we proceed now?"

"Leave three sides surrounded and one side open to give them a way out. Throw in a portion of the firewood first, followed by burning dry wood. Kill any that dare charge at us. Be careful when throwing the firewood; do not throw it near the pheasant vines."

The four of them immediately sprang into action, surrounding the giant pit and tossing in firewood.

After all, these snakes had not reached a high realm yet, nor did they possess a strong sense of territory. Seeing the firewood rain down, the Body Nourishing and Qi Refining snakes could only lash their tails in frustration, while the Mortal grade ones simply fled in panic.

The firewood from the six storage rings was far from enough to cover three-quarters of the pit's perimeter, so they went to gather more.

When they returned to the edge of the pit, they saw two Qi Refining grade snakes crawling out onto the ground, eyeing them with fierce, serpentine gazes.

Qin Anyu took out the bow and arrows he had captured from the Qi Refining opponents, nocked an arrow, and fired.

One arrow struck squarely at a snake's snout, while the other hit the lower jaw of the second snake. Both creatures began to thrash and smash about wildly.

Qin Youqin rushed forward with a sword in hand and hacked fiercely at one of them.

Her first strike landed on the snake's snout, cracking its skull; her second strike hit its teeth, shattering the teeth and... snapping her sword in two.

This sudden turn of events momentarily stunned her, but she quickly reacted, retreating rapidly and falling back to the side of the others, narrowly dodging the tail whipped toward her by the snake.

She turned to look at Qin Anyu and said sheepishly, "Eldest Young Master, did I use my strength incorrectly, which caused the sword to break?"

He chuckled and said, "That was merely a mortal's weapon. You are now at the mid-stage of Qi Refining, so naturally it is no longer suitable. Besides, you all advanced in cultivation too quickly, leaving no time to find proper weapons."

With that, he tossed over a broadsword. "This is meant for the mid-stage Qi Refining realm. Make do with it for now."

Qin Wushuang fawned, "Brother, can you give me a bow? I think your posture when shooting arrows is very handsome, and you can even injure opponents with it."

Qin Anyu tossed him a storage ring. "Use these first."

Inside the ring were a bow and over forty arrows captured at Huai Mountain. Now that he had bow and arrows fit for the Qi Refining realm, he handed these older ones over to him.

After catching the broadsword, Qin Youqin immediately charged back out. Seeing this, Qin Lingxue followed suit, and each of them engaged a snake in combat.

Qin Anyu watched the battle for a moment before resuming his task of throwing firewood, while Qin Wushuang studied the bow in his hands, continuously practicing drawing it.

Soon, the two women slew their respective opponents, and Qin Anyu finished tossing in all the firewood.

Qin Youqin called out loudly, "Eldest Young Master, I won't take part in the fire-starting. Snakes are most delicious when skinned right after they die."

This lass—so fierce in battle, yet showing no modesty when it came to food.

With the two Qi Refining snakes slain, the remaining serpents in the pit became even more helpless. After the blazing firewood was thrown in, some escaped through the open gap, while others burrowed into the opening beneath the precipice.

They continued to gather wood, focusing their throws toward that particular cave entrance. However, seeing almost no snakes emerging from it, they assumed the cave was very deep and kept collecting and throwing firewood.

Until at last, when Qin Anyu returned with another load of firewood, he noticed pale blue smoke billowing from the cave midway up the precipice, its entrance blocked tightly by a mass of snake heads. Only then did he realize that this cave connected to the pit below through an internal passage.

Once this was discovered, things became much simpler.

Qin Anyu produced his bow and arrows, joining Qin Wushuang in shooting at the snakes whose heads protruded from the upper cave. Meanwhile, Qin Lingxue and Qin Youqin chopped down large quantities of timber and hurled them into the pit's cave entrance to fuel a raging fire, then dug out the pheasant vines, leaving behind only two thirty-year-old specimens.

Thick smoke surged upward through the internal通道. The snakes above, wounded by the two brothers' arrows, dared not venture outward, causing the serpents at the cave mouth to crowd together ever more tightly.

It was impossible to tell what the internal passage was like, but not a single snake managed to escape from that opening.

Qin Youqin grew somewhat bored, so she joined Qin Lingxue in processing the snake meat.

After confirming that the mid-stage Qi Refining snake was dead, Qin Anyu decided to harvest the early mortal-grade pheasant vine.

He did not climb up via the small ledges on the right, as a large section of the rock face there was covered in slick, foul-smelling snake blood.

Instead, he climbed up from the left side.

Having gained experience scaling the Cliff of Death and with his cultivation realm improved, he climbed swiftly.

Upon reaching the vicinity of the pheasant vine, he confirmed without a doubt that it truly was a pheasant vine.

When he saw its roots cracking the solid rock, realization struck him instantly. "The rocks here are bizarre. A pheasant vine would not grow in a place like this unless there is something exceptionally rich in energy hidden within the stone."

The Qin Clan of the Immortal Realm cultivated certain pheasant vines, but those were nurtured using degenerated primordial soil. Ordinary soil could hardly sustain them, and no matter how poor the environment was or how strong the vine's adaptability became, it should not be growing on a bare rock face, let alone reach the early mortal grade.

Though filled with various doubts, he proceeded to unearth the vine first, knowing that only by tracing the path of its roots could he resolve his confusion.

Facing the cyan rock precipice, he did not use his sword, relying instead on his fists and palms to clear the way.

Having reached the Qi Refining realm, his physical body was capable of shattering stone, not to mention the constant physical conditioning he had undergone.

Under a barrage of punches and palm strikes, the fractured stones were smashed to pieces, revealing golden roots to his eyes. By now, the "canopy" had curled into a tight clump, and the flowers were drawn inward, displaying a state of stress.

Gradually, he discovered that this cliff was far from ordinary.

The fissures he had shattered earlier were not necessarily forced open by the pheasant vine's roots alone, as all of them were growing inward.

"This pheasant vine has mutated and is nearing the level of the mid-mortal grade."

After exposing all the major roots, he muttered to himself and turned his attention to the rock cave.

Indeed, he had excavated nearly four feet deep, exposing entire sections of the pheasant vine's roots. At the junction between the stem and roots, a distinct reddish-yellow ring was clearly visible, while another was beginning to form, though still somewhat hazy.

The classification of medicinal herbs' grades was based on such rings. The color of the rings was a combination of the root and stem; for instance, a pheasant vine with yellow roots and red stems yielded a reddish-gold ring, making them relatively easy to distinguish.

The original roots of this pheasant vine had only a single taproot growing straight inward, while the rest grew along the fissures. Yet after growing three feet deep, they all turned inward like a human hand grasping for an object.

Clearly, there was something inside that the vine needed.

After digging another three feet deeper, the rock grew "soft," and he sensed a relatively dense surge of spiritual Qi, along with traces of iron, titanium, copper, gold, silver, and other minerals. Smaller rootlets also began to appear.

"Ah, yes. It must be so."

Precisely because of the relatively abundant spiritual Qi and mineral resources, this pheasant vine had managed to grow to such a realm in this barren plane, and this was also why so many Qi Refining snakes could thrive here.

Forging ahead by another foot, the roots could no longer support the weight of the pheasant vine's main body, and the canopy cluster showed signs of sagging.

That would never do. Not a single rootlet could be lost.

He hurriedly crawled out of the cave to call for them to bring logs to prop it up. Instead, they told him to come down first to eat the snake meat and soup, which were already cooked, and continue afterward.

That was out of the question; the slightest gust of wind could snap the rootlets.

At his insistence, all of them climbed up, bringing the small tree, the snake meat, and the soup.

While the three of them used the small tree to prop up the pheasant vine, Qin Anyu carried several large rocks to the cave entrance, gazed at the lifeless heads of the four massive snakes, and declared, "To prevent you from being pushed out by other snakes and eating the pheasant vine, this Immortal Emperor has decided to plug you up with a few extra stoppers."

He shoved aside the snake heads, wedged rocks firmly between them, and hammered them tight. This way, the snakes inside could neither push their way out nor be dragged back in; even if they tried, it would generate a loud commotion that the group would easily hear.

Having finished this task, he returned to the roots of the pheasant vine and joined them in enjoying the feast.