Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Mirror Lake Snake Demon
The Black Bat Winged Beasts, a group of fourth-rank Demon Beasts, stood no chance against Ye Chen and his four teammates, and within moments, they were all slain by the five!
Afterward, the five continued to advance into Silent Ridge, beginning to hunt other Demon Beasts in the Mountain Region.
Three days later.
The team, having accumulated a great deal of combat experience, successfully killed a peak fifth-rank Demon Beast, the "Green-striped Leopard Demon," and directly entered the core area of Silent Ridge.
Fourteen days later, the five of them even managed to collectively slay a sixth-rank Demon Beast, the "Fire-haired Demon Ape"!
It was on that day, through the combination of battle experience and daily intense training, that Ye Chen made a breakthrough to the fifth layer of the True Qi Realm!
At the same time, of the thirty-three Meridian Wheels within Ye Chen's body, he had cultivated up to the twenty-fourth, drawing ever closer to the complete cultivation of the first layer of the Primordial Star Scripture, the "Meridian Refining Art."
The breakthrough in cultivation significantly enhanced Ye Chen's strength. In the team of five, aside from Lin Jing, whose power was comparable to the sixth layer of the True Qi Realm, he had far surpassed the other three.
After Ye Chen's increase in strength, the team's speed at hunting Demon Beasts accelerated even more. Eventually, they even consecutively hunted two more sixth-rank Demon Beasts.
In Silent Ridge Mountain Region, there was hardly any existence they feared anymore, and the five ventured deeper and deeper into the region of Silent Ridge.
A month later, Ye Chen and his team had reaped substantial rewards, and most of the team members began contemplating returning to the Sect.
By chance, they discovered a massive Snake Demon, about fifteen to sixteen meters long, in a lake named "Mirror Lake" deep within Silent Ridge.
If it had been an ordinary sixth-rank Snake Demon, it wouldn't have been that surprising, but when they saw the silver patterns on this particular Snake Demon's body, even the well-informed Lin Jing couldn't help but burst into ecstatic joy.
This Snake Demon turned out to be the "Silver-patterned Snake Demon," specially marked in the Qingyun Sect's mysterious tome, the Compendium of Ten Thousand Beasts!
The Silver-patterned Snake Demon, according to the Compendium of Ten Thousand Beasts, is eight meters long from birth, reaching the strength of a fourth-rank Demon Beast, and as it grows, it can easily increase its power. When reaching maturity, the Silver-patterned Snake Demon can grow over thirty meters in length and even transform its silver patterns into golden ones, evolving into the tenth-rank "Golden-patterned Snake Demon"!
The reason it can easily increase its strength is said to be the "innate snake gall" within its body.
The Beast Core of ordinary Demon Beasts is generally used for medicinal purposes, with many downsides to consuming it directly. In contrast, the "innate snake gall" of this Silver-patterned Snake Demon is the exact opposite; it can not only be directly ingested, but the one who consumes it can also significantly accelerate their True Qi Cultivation speed.
Even if they couldn't naturally grow to become a tenth-rank Demon Beast like the Silver-patterned Snake Demon, helping cultivators within the True Qi Realm to smoothly cultivate to the eighth or ninth layer of True Qi was extremely easy.
Such a rare treasure was, of course, immensely valuable. An "innate snake gall" from a Silver-patterned Snake Demon could fetch as high as one hundred thousand taels of patterned silver, and it was priceless.
The appearance of each "innate snake gall" would spark a frenzy among many low-level cultivators in the True Qi Realm. Yet the Silver-patterned Snake Demon was extremely rare. Even within Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain, it's said that only six or seven have been found over the span of several hundred years.
Now, Ye Chen and his team had encountered a "Silver-patterned Snake Demon" that hadn't yet reached maturity, how could they not be ecstatic?
Upon seeing that the Silver-patterned Snake Demon was about fifteen to sixteen meters in length, which according to the records, was approximately at the sixth-rank Demon Beast stage, capable of battling, Lin Jing directly employed the Luring Snake Method recorded in the Compendium of Ten Thousand Beasts to lure the Snake Demon out of Mirror Lake onto the shore.
Then, an inevitable great battle ensued.
As a result, the strength of the Snake Demon was somewhat surprising to the strongest members of the team, Lin Jing and Ye Chen. This Snake Demon was indeed far more formidable than the sixth-rank Demon Beasts they had previously hunted. Lin Jing estimated that it had reached the peak strength only found in sixth-rank Demon Beasts.
After a long and fierce battle, not only did they fail to capture it, but Fang Shan and Zhou Mo from the team were successively injured. They were forced to cease their attack and quickly flee.
Fortunately, the Snake Demon did not pursue them but instead returned to Mirror Lake, which provided some relief to the team.
Seeing the invaluable "Silver-patterned Snake Demon" right before them, they couldn't just give up due to their failure to hunt it. Therefore, they started training in the woods not far from Mirror Lake, preparing to increase their strength before battling the Snake Demon once again.
In the subsequent days, the team members exchanged cultivation insights, and all had some gains. The key to truly hunting the Mirror Lake Snake Demon fell upon Lin Jing and Ye Chen, the strongest of the team.
Both Lin Jing and Ye Chen specialized in swordsmanship. Lin Jing had brought three sets of Yellow Class medium-rank Martial Skills to Great Accomplishment and one set of Yellow Class high-rank Martial Skills to Minor Accomplishment, whereas Ye Chen had cultivated the most powerful of the Yellow Class medium-rank Martial Skills, the Torrential Rain Sword Skills, to Great Accomplishment.
Sect rules forbade the external transmission of Sect's Martial Skills, but Ye Chen's deep understanding of the swordsmanship realms allowed him to share some of his insights with Lin Jing. In return, Lin Jing also taught him her own set of Yellow Class medium-rank Martial Skills, the "Cross Rapid-Kill Sword Skills."
Then, the five began another round of enhancing their abilities, preparing for another attempt to hunt the Silver-patterned Snake Demon!
...
This was the thirty-third day since Ye Chen and his team entered the Silent Ridge Mountain Region of Ten Thousand Beasts Mountain.
At that moment, on a large rock, Hong Man, Zhou Mo, and Fang Shan were sitting cross-legged. Beside them were several bulging parcels stained with blood.
These parcels contained the hides, muscles, and bones of the Demon Beasts that the team had hunted since they had entered the mountains.
Looking at the bulging parcels, the three who were resting during their intense cultivation and power-building phase, all smiled.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone