22 Assessment One
Fanhong Mountain is full of dead trees and the snow is several feet deep. At the bottom of the mountain, you can still see a few birds perched on the bare branches. The higher you climb, the more desolate it becomes. It is dead silent with only the rustling sound of falling snow.
The selection competition is just around the corner.
Hua Lang needs to complete the assessment and return to Qinglai within five days to catch up, so she can only choose the nearest Fanhong Mountain as the trial point.
“Click.”
Hua Lang stepped on a branch buried in the snow, and the sound of breaking wood was harsh.
She looked around and saw that it was getting dark. Fanhong Mountain was terrifyingly large. If she didn't hurry up and find the snake demon, it would probably be too late.
The old snow and the new snow piled up, and every step was like sinking into a swamp. Hua Lang held on to the charred tree trunk beside him and struggled to pull his leg out from the broken dead branch.
"Immortal, you have grabbed my eyeball." In the wilderness, a faint voice sounded almost next to Hua Lang's ear.
Hua Lang was startled!
As soon as he withdrew his hand, he saw the rugged bark under his palm wriggling and twisting, gradually turning into facial features. The two raised scars turned into eyebrows, forming an "eight" shape, which looked quite pitiful.
"...Monster?" Hua Lang immediately gathered his spiritual energy vigilantly.
"No, no, no!" the withered tree explained softly, "Immortal, please don't kill me. Although I'm a demon, I was lucky enough to gain spiritual intelligence. I haven't even trained a leg yet. In the past fifty years, I've never left this place, let alone killed anyone."
Hua Lang breathed a sigh of relief, thinking it had appeared at just the right time. He asked, "You said you've been here for fifty years. There's a snake demon on this mountain. Have you seen it?"
Upon hearing this, the tree demon shook its branch, feeling quite pleased with itself. "Of course, I know everything about this mountain. Over the years, demons have come and gone on the mountain, but only this snake demon has lived the longest. You've come here for it, right? It usually stays in the hot springs on the mountaintop. If you climb a few miles in the direction my branch is pointing, you'll see the hot springs."
Hua Lang narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction it pointed. There was no end in sight, and he didn't know how long it would take to climb. "Thank you very much. I hope you can repair your legs soon."
After saying that, Hua Lang hurried to the top of the mountain.
The further we went, the thinner the snow became, the temperature rose noticeably, and we could even faintly smell the scent of sulfur.
Hua Lang walked around the puddles of water bubbling all over the ground, with sweat on his forehead, when he finally saw a natural hot spring pool several feet wide in front of him.
The pool was filled with mist, and it was all white. A few huge rocks could be vaguely seen protruding from the water, but nothing else could be seen clearly.
Hua Lang lowered his head and looked at the bottom of the pool again.
The bottom of the pool was filled with black pebbles, each one large and dense, stretching forward and seemingly extending to the other end of the pool.
After inspecting the pond and finding nothing, Hua Lang cleared his throat and shouted, "Is there a demon?!"
Only the gurgling, seething sound answered her.
Hua Lang was unwilling to give up. She squinted her eyes and looked into the mist, trying to find the end of the pool.
Looking into the distance, you can vaguely see the dark ground in the distance.
It was closer than she thought. Maybe she could reach the other side and take a look before sunset.
Hua Lang turned around and tried to use the force to cross the water, but his toes accidentally kicked a stone into the water.
"Bang!"
Ripples appeared on the water surface. Hua Lang looked back, but didn't notice anything unusual, so he continued walking forward.
But after a few steps, she felt something was wrong.
When Hua Lang turned back again——
I saw a pool of black pebbles, which seemed to be wriggling extremely slowly.
Up and down, the thin layer of dust on the stone was washed away by the hot spring water, revealing a shiny and smooth black surface... That was not stone, it was clearly a huge snake scale!
The body of this snake demon actually filled up the entire hot spring!
“Gurgle gurgle gurgle——”
As the snake moved, the real gray-white bottom of the pool was revealed, and bubbles emerged one after another, setting off waves of heat.
Steam surged upwards, the mist was stirred, and the "ground" that Hua Lang had seen earlier was completely exposed.
It was an upright, extremely huge snake head!
The snake's head was covered with dense black scales slightly smaller than the snake's body, extending all the way to the tip of the nose. As a stream of white steam spurted out of the giant snake's nose, it completely opened its eyes.
The blood-red vertical pupils instantly locked onto Hua Lang!
Under the beastly gaze of the giant snake, Hua Lang felt his hair stand on end.
The long-sought snake demon appeared.
The snake head opened its bloody mouth and uttered in human language, "Another one seeking death?"
Hua Lang held his ground without showing any fear. "You have committed thousands of murders in the human world, and now you are king of the mountains. Today, I am here for..."
Before Hua Lang finished his opening remarks.
The water surface exploded layer by layer, and a thick snake tail as tall as a person brushed the ground, stirring up layers of flying rocks and sweeping towards her impatiently -
Hua Lang almost choked on his mouthful of dust, and flew several feet away before he was not hurt by the huge snake's tail.
How come this snake doesn't even have the patience to listen to her finish her lines!
Before she could continue to criticize, the snake's tail failed to hit her and instead came down at her again.
The force was so great that the only sound in Hua Lang's ears was the whistling wind!
Hua Lang adjusted her state, tapped the ground with her toes and went forward. Tian Shu stabbed at the snake's tail with a force of a thousand pounds, and forcibly resisted the downward force of the snake's tail. Tian Shu spun in her palm, and with the remaining force, stabbed into the gaps between the snake's scales, forcibly peeling off several scales!
The snake demon felt pain and turned around, slamming its tail heavily on the ground. The air waves it stirred up instantly drained all the water in the puddle.
Hua Lang was determined to end the battle quickly. She held the flute and silently practiced her mental skills. The sound of the flute was like a bridge connecting her and Tian Shu. Her mind was clear and it was as if her voice and hers were one. The spiritual energy flowed like a river into the sea, rushing along the flute and finally all integrated into the moves.
The obviously strengthened sound blade carried the force to break through the air, condensing into pieces of white light that pierced through the chaos!
The giant snake did not sit idly by. A faint green light appeared all over its body, and its scales instantly became like a copper wall, forming a solid barrier for it.
The sound blade was as sharp as a sword, cutting through the stretched scales and leaving a glaring white mark.
The giant snake raised its head high, then opened its upper and lower jaws. Its huge mouth was as deep and terrifying as a bloody hole.
The mist condensed into tiny black ice spikes in its mouth, each as small as an embroidery needle. As the snake demon exhaled its foul breath...
The poisonous ice spikes suddenly pierced out, and when they broke through the water mist, the water mist emitted a slight sizzling sound!
Hua Lang used her spiritual energy to resist, but there were too many needles and they were too dense. Although her spiritual energy was leaking out like water, it was only a momentary gap, and an ice spike broke through the barrier and brushed past Hua Lang's hair!
The ice spikes penetrated into the scorched earth behind, which was flooded with water. The poison spread and a burst of green smoke instantly rose from the ground.
Upon seeing this, Hua Lang removed the barrier and injected spiritual energy into the pool before the poison needle could hit him!
A huge heat wave surged up, and the thick water wall swallowed up the fine needles in the air. In the process of using softness to overcome hardness, the ice edges turned into dots of black ink, and with an unwilling "sizzling" sound and accompanied by disappearing green smoke, they merged into the water wall.
As soon as the waves calmed down, a crescent-shaped sound blade followed.
The snake demon tried to swing its hard tail to resist, but it didn't expect that the sound blade would split into two in the air, brush past the snake's tail, and pierce its vital points and head fiercely!
The snake demon felt pain, curled up its body, and twisted and rolled in the pool.
Soon, large patches of blood appeared in the pool.
Hua Lang was about to pursue the victory, but before he could act, he saw the giant python as big as a hill disappear out of thin air.
The bloody white mist obscured our vision, and we had no idea how it escaped.
Hua Lang was startled and lightly tapped the water surface, breaking through the mist and chasing after him.
Soon, she tiptoed, stood on a piece of broken stone, and stopped.
In the middle of the pool, which was stained with blood, a naked "person" whose gender was difficult to distinguish was lying on the rocks, gasping for breath.
Its elbows and waist, which were immersed in the pool water, were covered with dense black scales, and two strange little bumps were vaguely visible in the wet hair on its head.
Hua Lang's hands clenched and unclenched. She looked at the snake demon in front of her that looked quite like an ordinary person, and she couldn't bring herself to take action.
When she hesitated, there seemed to be a voice in her heart urging her: Kill it quickly, it's just a monster, didn't you come here to kill it?
But the knowledge she had acquired over the past twenty years was hindering her from taking action against a “kindred spirit”.
The snake demon turned its head and saw Hua Lang standing not far away. A hint of anger and unwillingness clearly flashed across its face.
It coughed up a mouthful of blood and said, "Since I am no match for you, if you want to take my demon pill, then go ahead!"
Then he looked up at the sky with hatred and said, "It's a pity that I practice in this pool every day and have never harmed anyone. If it weren't for my practice, I would have killed all of you cultivators long ago!"
Hua Lang frowned upon hearing this, quite puzzled by its words. "Just because you say you've never hurt anyone, you can just casually take the lives of over 300 people in Fengya Village?"
"Oh, I grew up in Heshui, and after I developed a human form, I came to Fanhong Mountain. I've never been to Fengya Village!"
Heshui?
Hua Lang vaguely remembered this place. The book recorded that Heshui was a deep pool and was home to many dragons.
She thought of something and looked back at the top of the snake demon's head, the bulge hidden under the messy hair -
They really were two tiny, black horns!
Hua Lang was shocked and asked, "You are not a snake demon?"
The dragon, as if insulted, replied angrily, "Of course I'm not! I'm neither a snake nor a demon. I'm a spirit dragon!"
Hua Lang was a little bit unbelievable. What was going on? Why was Mo Jinghong's information wrong?
"You've really never killed anyone?!"
The spirit dragon was impatient, "Since I am a spirit, if I kill someone, it will only lead me to the path of evil. Why should I seek suffering for myself?"
"What is a spirit?" Hua Lang was puzzled. It repeatedly emphasized that it was a "spirit", but what exactly was a "spirit"?
The spirit dragon glared at her, wiped the blood from the corner of its mouth, and sneered, "Good spirits, evil demons, just because we look different from humans, you treat us spirits as demons. I actually wish I could be a demon so I can devour all of you arrogant humans!"
Good spirits and evil demons?
Hua Lang frowned and continued to ask questions, but the more she knew, the more frightened she became.
Details hidden in the original novel emerged, and Hua Lang finally realized a problem.
The Sky Fox clan is probably spirits, not demons!
The original novel begins after the Sky Fox clan was exterminated. At that time, the boundaries between spirits and monsters in the world of immortal cultivation were deliberately confused, and the details of the spirits in the book were erased. Yan Rong concealed his identity as a monster because he had not yet achieved immortality, but Xie Hanjing had been able to cultivate immortality since he was a child, without any demonic aura on his body, which matched the words of this spirit monster.
This means that there are doubts about Xie Hanjing's murder of Li Yuanxiu.
But if it wasn't him, who would kill Li Yuanxiu, who had not interacted with others for many years?
After finally solving a mystery, more questions arise.
Hua Lang put away Tian Shu and said, "I'm sorry... Are you okay with your injury? I have some elixirs here."
The dragon also learned the whole story from Hua Lang. He snorted and twisted his body, leaving Hua Lang with a bare back.
"I don't want your stinky human medicine."
But when Hua Lang took out the medicine, his nose twitched slightly, and he still had his back to Hua Lang, but he stretched out his hand honestly.
As soon as Hua Lang put the medicine box in his hand, he couldn't wait to withdraw his hand, shrugged his shoulders, and started to rummage through the box carefully.
Hua Lang said, "I have to leave first. I'm so sorry about what happened today. If you need any medicine, come to Qinglai and ask the gatekeeper disciple to tell you that I'm 'Hua Lang'." After that, she added worriedly,
"When you come to Qinglai, remember to hide your horns and scales."
Banjiao took out the pills and said, "These are all good things. Humans are really too extravagant."
Without even turning his head, he said neatly, "Got it, I won't send you off!"
Hua Lang turned around, stepping on the pool water with heavy steps.
She looked at the sky filled with sunset glow, but she couldn't help feeling lost and confused.
Even if we rush to another trial point as quickly as possible, it will definitely be too late. What will happen if we miss the inner door selection?
When she first entered the book, the system seemed to have told her that when the main storyline completely failed, the world would face a collapse of rules, and she would be completely assimilated into the collapsed world.
The concept of this speech was extremely vague. Hua Lang wanted to ask more questions, but the system seemed to be very secretive about this topic and no longer answered her.
“Click——”
An extremely dull sound was heard from behind, and at the same time, the entire bottom of the pool began to shake violently.
Hua Lang staggered due to the sudden earthquake. She stood firm in the pool and turned around in shock.
A piece of tree root broke out from the bottom of the pool and suddenly pierced through the spirit dragon that was leaning on the stone!
The naked body of the spirit dragon was pushed into the air, and a blood-red branch pierced out of his belly.
On the twisted and dry branches, there were strips of meat that looked like rags hanging!
The spirit dragon, which had just been racking its brains and battling wits and courage with the human medicine box, was still twitching, but its fingers had already loosened powerlessly.
The brown pill slipped out of the box that was finally opened and fell into the pool, making a barely audible sound of it falling into the water.
Hua Lang raised her head, and a large drop of hot blood rolled down from the spirit dragon's body and hit her face directly. Such a slight force almost made her stagger...
Everything happened just like the autumn wind blowing up fallen leaves, suddenly and slowly.
Before Hua Lang could understand, the incident had already happened and seemed to have finally ended.
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