Chapter 20

During the new book period, I need everyone's collections and recommendations~~~

-----

Jining observed the distant red snake, muttering softly, "Its entire body is blood red, with bright silver scales on its belly, and it has red vertical pupils... Eh, it even has two claws?"

"Swish, swish, swish~~~" The red snake slowly swam, its massive head looking down at Jining. Its innate pride made it completely disregard this human youth. According to its experience, such youths in the tribes were very fragile. Even in the Ji family's stronghold, such youths were not much stronger.

But Jining let out a low hum!

The breath in his chest burst out through his nose, forming two visible streams of air. His body faintly turned red, and a powerful aura naturally spread out. This immediately startled the distant red snake, which sensed a terrifying aura from the human youth that was no less than its own.

"Recently, I haven't been proficient enough with the 'Dripping Water Sutra,' so I'll use you to practice my sword skills." Jining darted over a distance of several dozen meters, the sharp sword in his hand transforming into a misty sword light that stabbed at the red snake.

The two large claws on the red snake's chest and abdomen bent and reached out to grab Jining.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!" The sword light flickered hundreds of times, each time stabbing the red snake. The red snake only dodged the three stabs aimed at its vital points, enduring the rest, which only left a few white spots on its scales. This made the red snake somewhat look down on the human youth.

"Whoo—"

A strange wailing sound echoed, the sound of Jining's sharp sword slicing through the air. In an instant, it cut across the red snake's chest, creating a huge wound nearly half a zhang long. Scales shattered, muscles tore, and deep red blood spurted out.

"Roar!" The red snake was immediately startled. How did this youth suddenly become so powerful?

...

Jining was no longer the inexperienced novice who had fought the Howling Moon Wolf. Long-term battles with beasts had made him very experienced. At this moment, he was only using fifty percent of his strength, but because both the 'Wind Shadow Step' and the 'Dripping Water Sutra' were used more skillfully, he was not at a disadvantage.

At one moment, Jining used the 'Fine Rain' technique suitable for group attacks, which was naturally useless against the red snake.

At another moment, he used the 'Silk Rain' technique, which was the move that left the huge wound on the red snake.

At another moment, he used the sharp 'Dripping Water' technique.

At another moment, he defended against the frenzied red snake, using the 'Continuous Stream' technique.

The 'Dripping Water Sutra' has nine techniques.

They are: Fine Rain, Heavy Rain, Water Curtain, Continuous Stream, Impenetrable, Silk Rain, Flowing Water, Heartless Water, and Dripping Water!

There are both offensive and defensive techniques.

Even the offensive techniques contain defensive elements. The profundity of the 'Dripping Water Sutra' made Jining marvel and become engrossed. After all, he had not even reached the 'small success' stage, while his father, Ji Yichuan, had long reached the 'great success' stage and was still studying the 'Dripping Water Sutra' because the deeper one delved into it, the more boundless its meaning became.

"The Continuous Stream technique should be used with such ease and spontaneity." Under the pressure of a divine beast, Jining occasionally gained insights into his sword skills.

But the red snake was enraged!

How could it not see that this human youth was using it to practice his sword skills? It had many wounds, but none were fatal. The youth, however, had only minor injuries and recovered instantly. The youth's terrifying abilities made it tremble with fear, and it realized that it might die at the hands of this human youth.

But even if it were to die, its innate pride would not allow it to be toyed with.

"Roar~~~" The red snake suddenly raised its head and let out a deafening roar, filled with sorrow, unwillingness, and the intent of death, the most frenzied roar it could muster.

******

The roar shook the heavens.

In the sky above the inner city of the Ji family, there were many clouds, and one of them contained a black-winged snake.

"Roar~~"

The roar was very faint by the time it reached the high sky, but the black-winged snake, being a powerful beast, had extremely sensitive hearing. Moreover, this was the roar of its most familiar child.

"It's Chimag! My child!" The black-winged snake immediately recognized it. It had been surveying the inner city and searching, and from a distance of several li, its vision could naturally see every building. However, due to the morning fog and the dense iron chains on the cage, it could not see what was inside.

But at that moment—

As soon as it heard the sound, it immediately confirmed that the sound came from inside the cage!

"That's it!" The black-winged snake immediately dived down, the cloud still surrounding it to conceal its approach.

...

Inside the cage.

Jining heard the red snake's sorrowful and frenzied roar and understood its mindset. He immediately summoned another sharp sword in his left hand: "Since you seek death, then die!"

Peng!

Jining instantly transformed into a gust of wind, closing in on the red snake.

The sword light flickered!

The 'Thunderfire Sword Manual' techniques: Lightning and Fire!

The 'Dripping Water Sutra' techniques: Heartless Water and Dripping Water!

Peng!

The red snake's large head, with its red vertical pupils, became dull. A deep hole completely penetrated its head. Its massive body then fell and crashed onto the muddy ground inside the cage, causing the earth to tremble. Blood gushed out, forming a small stream on the ground.

"Hmm." Jining looked at the large red snake's corpse, examining the wounds.

He studied the effects of his various killing techniques.

"The Thunderfire technique is indeed very powerful, creating such a large hole in the snake's chest and nearly splitting it in two," Jining nodded, observing. "The Heartless Water and Lightning techniques are both fast, but the Heartless Water is more elusive, while the Lightning is more violent."

"The Dripping Water technique has excellent penetration, easily piercing through the snake's skull," Jining nodded.

Above the cage, a massive creature shrouded in clouds was diving down. Compared to its child, Chimag, it was like a small loach! The black-winged snake's red vertical pupils could already see through the iron chain net. When it saw the pitiful, blood-red snake's corpse lying on the muddy ground, an invisible rage instantly filled its mind.

"My child!"

The black-winged snake went completely mad, "Human, pay with your life for my child!"

Boom!

The intense air currents caused by its high-speed dive made Jining look up.

"What!" Jining saw a huge snake head in the misty fog several hundred meters above, with large bone wings faintly visible, diving down. The range covered by its bone wings was even larger than the entire cage.

The endless killing intent in the snake's red vertical pupils made Jining's heart race, and he realized—

The creature diving down was going to kill him!

"Bad, run!"

Jining turned to flee!

But when he tried to escape, he found that the narrow passage he had entered through was closed. Generally, during cage battles, the passage was closed to prevent escape before the battle. Jining would only order it to be opened after victory. But he had just killed the red snake and had not yet given the order.

Moreover, he prohibited others from watching his cage battles. Usually, only his parents could watch.

After all, his true strength was always kept secret, such as his ability to use dual swords and his ability to kill a fully mature divine beast with an ordinary sharp sword... These were all secrets. The outside world believed that Jining relied on divine weapons to kill divine beasts.

"Swish!" "Swish!" Jining immediately threw away the two swords in his hands and summoned two new ones—Beiming Swords!

"Break!"

Jining unleashed all his strength, slashing at the thick, dense iron chains above, while urgently calling out, "Father!"

The sound quickly spread, but the speed of sound was slower than the black-winged snake's dive.

"Clang, clang, clang!!!" Jining's Beiming Swords fiercely slashed at the iron chain net. Ji Yichuan had once said, "With your strength... if you use the 'Chiming Nine Heavens Diagram' and go all out, you should be able to cut the iron chains, but with so many chains forming a net... you might need ten breaths to cut enough chains to escape."

Now, with the Beiming Swords, they were indeed very sharp. Clang, clang, clang~~~ one chain after another was cut, but the chains were too dense. It would take one breath to cut a space large enough for a person to pass through.

One breath?

At the speed of the creature diving down, it would take less than a second to reach him!

"It's too late." Jining immediately understood this as he slashed at the chains.

The massive scaly bone wings of the creature above instantly cut through the air and struck the iron chain net. The iron chains, which were tough and hard to destroy for Jining, were incredibly fragile to this thousand-year-old beast. With a series of snapping sounds, countless chains broke and flew around. The scaly bone wings then swept directly at Jining.

"Pay with your life for my child!" The red vertical pupils of the diving black-winged snake stared at Jining like a madman.

"Dodge."

Jining held the two swords in both hands, dodging while using the same technique—Continuous Stream. The sword light was like water, meeting the sweeping scaly bone wings.

Layer upon layer of sword light resisted, the two swords working together to create a continuous stream of light, like layers of silk wrapping and restraining the opponent.

Strength overcomes skill!

"Boom!" The massive bone wings directly crushed the two Beiming Swords, the powerful impact causing Jining's wrists to snap with a crack. The sharp edge of the bone wing then struck Jining, who was desperately dodging, slicing through his Golden Dawn Robe.

Puff!

Blood spurted out, and Jining's left hand, holding a Beiming Sword, was flung away. Jining himself crashed into the black iron wall, creating a human-shaped dent. Blood spurted from his mouth.

"Whoosh!" The black-winged snake raised its wings again, preparing to strike.

"Right now!"

Jining, with his broken arm, gritted his teeth and darted out of the cage like a large grasshopper. Using the 'Wind Shadow Step' to its utmost, he moved like a wisp of smoke, trying to escape.

"Die!"

A gust of wind came from behind.

Jining turned to see a massive black, twisted shadow sweeping towards him, the black-winged snake's tail. The speed of the tail strike was even faster and more powerful than the scaly bone wings. The air exploded as it passed, and the sturdy rocks of the Dragon Castle shattered with a series of booms...

The massive black shadow of the snake's tail enveloped Jining, and his speed was not enough to avoid the strike.

"Finished!"

{Piaotian Literature}