After spewing out the black smoke, the snake finally emerged fully from the cave.
It was indeed over a hundred meters long, and half its body could stand upright like a king cobra.
It emitted an oppressive aura, giving Zhen a dangerous, uneasy feeling.
Zhen kept flying backward to maintain distance from the snake.
He then stopped atop a tree branch, shifting his sword to his right hand — the one in the form of a dragon's hand.
If he slashed using that hand, the force behind the attack would be much stronger due to the immense strength it possessed.
Combined with 38 Sword Slash, Zhen wondered if the snake could withstand his strike.
Regardless of the snake's level, when thinking about his own attack, Zhen felt that the beast wouldn't be able to endure it. Its level seemed meaningless in front of his slash.
As the snake lunged at him again, he leapt forward, raising his sword high before swinging it down through the air toward the snake.
Rumble!
The space suddenly trembled and rumbled.
At the same time, Qi from Zhen's body was sucked uncontrollably into the sword.
Crack!
The sword began to crack, as if unable to bear the incoming power.
Before Zhen could complete the slash, the sword shattered into countless tiny pieces.
However, the 38 Sword Slashes had already materialized.
They weren't perfect — each slash was only a partial manifestation.
Zhen realized his Qi wasn't enough to unleash a perfect set of 38 slashes.
Even so, the power of each slash seemed far stronger than when he could only release five.
They were coated in Dragon Qi, faintly emitting terrifying roaring sounds.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
They shot toward the snake from various angles.
Simultaneously, they slashed the snake across different parts of its body.
Xiu! Xiu! Xiu!
Zhen watched as each slash completely cut through the snake's body upon contact.
Though they vanished immediately afterward, not a single one failed. One even cleaved the snake's head clean in two.
His instincts about the technique had been spot on. It surpassed even his expectations.
DING!
(You have killed a Level 11 Beast. You have earned 100 System Points!)
[System Points: 102]
He quickly received the notification, confirming that the snake was truly dead.
"Hmph, what's that?" Zhen suddenly spotted something the size of a fist emerging from the snake's head.
It resembled a diamond — spherical in shape, yet far clearer, radiating an incredibly dense, pure aura.
Zhen knew it was valuable. He swiftly retrieved it, triggering another notification from the System.
DING!
(You have obtained a Spirit Core from a Level 11 Beast containing 5,000 units of Spiritual Energy, equivalent to 5,000 Spirit Coins... You can exchange it for Spirit Coins in the cultivation shop!)
(You will only find Spirit Cores inside beasts Level 11 and above. The higher the beast's level, the more Spiritual Energy its Core contains!)
"Wow!"
Zhen couldn't help but marvel at it.
From just one corpse, he had acquired something equivalent to 5,000 Spirit Coins.
Didn't that also mean it was worth 500 System Points, even if it couldn't be directly converted?
Regardless, this gave him the ability to make money quickly.
However, things might not be that simple.
At that moment, he felt extremely fatigued after unleashing the single attack that killed the snake.
He walked over to a tree, then sat down against its trunk, breathing in slowly and deeply.
He was a little tempted to absorb the Spiritual Energy from the Spirit Core, but it felt like a waste.
Doing so would reduce the energy content and thus its value.
Even just by holding it, he could already calculate the amount of Spiritual Energy inside, so it would be impossible to exchange it for 5,000 Spirit Coins after absorbing part of it.
Rather than waste the Spirit Core's energy, Zhen chose to recover himself slowly.
If one wasn't in battle, no one would restore themselves using Spiritual Energy.
That would be throwing money away.
After about twenty minutes, Zhen finally felt well enough to stand again.
"Where else can I find a Level 11 Beast?" he wondered.
Finding one didn't seem easy, but he only wanted to hunt Level 11 beasts because the thrill was far greater.
Besides that, he could earn more System Points.
"Mm..." He looked up in surprise.
Suddenly, he saw many bird-like creatures the size of cars flying high above the forest.
Using his sword, it would be impossible to fly that high even if he had mastered the Flying Sword Technique to 100%.
As Zhen observed more carefully, he noticed something.
Standing atop each of the birds were two or three people, all wearing red robes.
Each carried a weapon on their back, looking as though they were heading into battle.
Zhen could faintly sense killing intent from them.
'Right, isn't the Sacred Cloud Sect over there? But these clearly aren't disciples of that sect. They must be from another sect,' Zhen thought.
He suspected they might be planning to attack the Sacred Cloud Sect.
Why else would a sect bring so many people to another sect?
Of course, there was nothing he could do about it except wait for news.
He decided not to go too far, fearing he might get caught up in it.
After thinking it over, he flew back to Spring City.
He was curious about the news.
When he arrived, he found the city in quite a commotion as people looked up at the sky.
It was because a massive red snake with wings on its back was flying over the city.
Compared to the snake Zhen had killed, this one was fifteen times bigger.
Even more terrifyingly, its body radiated red flames that caused the surrounding clouds to churn and boil.
Three hunched old men stood atop the snake's head, radiating a suffocating aura.
One would instinctively fear them just by looking, even though they were old men.
"They're from the Hundred Flames Sect!"
Zhen heard people talking about their origin.
"Are they going to attack the Sacred Cloud Sect?"
"Maybe. I heard the son of the Sacred Cloud Sect's Master severely injured the son of the Hundred Flames Sect's Master during a friendly duel between Young Lords!"
"All because of that?"
"Hey, you don't understand. Members of the Hundred Flames Sect have terrible tempers. They're arrogant and vengeful!"
"Hmph, do they think the Sacred Cloud Sect is easy to bully? That sect has stood strong for ages. The founder's descendants have never shamed their ancestors — they always achieve outstanding feats."
"True, but have you forgotten? The Hundred Flames Sect is just a branch of the Thousand Flames Sect."
"..."