Wang Sheng had chosen the time for the martial arts competition to coincide with when the Lotus Medicine King was expected to mature.
Yue had only mentioned that it might mature today, but even Yue wasn’t particularly clear about the exact time.
The martial arts contest between Qingshan Village and the members of the three families lasted from morning until afternoon, with a lunch break in between.
They had planned to continue, but then the Lotus Medicine King underwent a change.
It gradually released a faint red mist, which quickly dissipated as if it was expelling something.
Wang Sheng knew what this was.
Yue had explained to him in detail the characteristics of the Bloodthirsty Medicine King.
The Bloodthirsty Medicine King absorbed too much flesh and blood, so it would produce a kind of contamination called Blood Poison, which, if not expelled, would affect the Medicine King itself; the appearance of the red mist was part of the process of expelling the Blood Poison.
Some people specifically collected this Blood Poison, and unless one was a Grandmaster Level Martial Artist, this Blood Poison would cling like a bone-attaching sore, impossible to shake off, greatly impacting cultivation and potentially causing death from violent blood poisoning.
Even Grandmaster Level Martial Artists would be somewhat affected—it was an extremely rare poison.
If someone unaware tried to harvest the Medicine King at this time, they would surely suffer.
However, this Blood Poison would quickly lose its potency upon contact with air, unless specially treated.
Once the mist had dissipated, it was the moment when the Medicine King matured.
Each Medicine King showed different signs of maturity, but those related to flowers generally bloomed and then withered.
The Lotus Medicine King also went through the process of blooming.
The moment it burst into bloom, it seemed to activate all its vitality, like a sprite in the forest under the shade of trees. Unfortunately, this beautiful sight lasted only for a brief moment before the lotus rapidly withered and turned to ash, leaving only a Lotus Seedpod.
It had matured!
At this moment, a shadow appeared.
Whoosh!
Almost instantly, the shadow snatched up the Lotus Medicine King.
The Lotus Medicine King was uprooted.
All those present nearly cried out in alarm; they had gathered here for the Lotus Medicine King, and not only was there an unexpected intruder, its speed was so fast that they couldn’t see its true form. Could they really lose the Medicine King like this?
But then—
The shadow suddenly froze mid-air, as if it had been instantly immobilized by something.
“What’s going on…”
Everyone was puzzled, unable to grasp what had just happened.
In just a brief moment, so much had occurred.
First, the mysterious shadow tried to steal the Lotus Medicine King, and then it was frozen in place, immobile, suspended in mid-air without any support.
But this also allowed everyone to finally see what the shadow was.
It was a small black snake, with a pure black body, about one meter long and roughly as thick as two fingers. Its mouth was wide open, much larger than its own body, apparently trying to swallow the Lotus Seedpod of the mature Lotus Medicine King, a characteristic of snakes.
“Demon Shadow Blood Snake, how could such a demon beast appear here!”
The speaker was Jiang Xiu Cheng, who clearly recognized the identity of the shadow, called the Demon Shadow Blood Snake, a type of demon beast.
Naturally, the Demon Shadow Blood Snake was immobilized by Wang Sheng’s Divine Thought.
He had not used Divine Thought to probe the surroundings since he arrived, and the Demon Shadow Blood Snake’s target was merely the Lotus Medicine King, not him, so he hadn’t sensed it at all.
Moreover, he hadn’t been continuously watching the Lotus Medicine King, so the surprisingly fast Demon Shadow Blood Snake had managed to reach the Lotus Medicine King successfully.
However, no matter how fast the Demon Shadow Blood Snake was, it was not faster than Wang Sheng.
Whether it was using the Plum Flower Step or Divine Thought, he could easily capture this demon beast known as the Demon Shadow Blood Snake.
He directly controlled his Divine Thought, bringing the Demon Shadow Blood Snake in front of him, and then firmly grasped its vital spot.
The Lotus Seedpod directly fell from the snake’s mouth, caught by Divine Thought.
Wang Sheng immediately “saw clearly” the Lotus Seedpod; its spirit substantially surpassed that of ordinary Spiritual Medicine, with one Lotus Seed’s effect probably comparable to six or seven Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pills.
This was just the basic function; generally, a Medicine King would also have special effects.
It was indeed worthy of the name of Medicine King.
Of course, what he was most concerned about now was not this point, but the information about the Demon Shadow Blood Snake.
He held the Demon Shadow Blood Snake in front of Jiang Xiu Cheng, who instinctively stepped back a few paces.
“Do you know the information about this so-called Demon Shadow Blood Snake?”
Everyone was still astonished by Wang Sheng’s seemingly immortal ability to retrieve objects through the air but was also drawn by this topic.
What exactly is the Demon Shadow Blood Snake?
Jiang Xiu Cheng seemed quite afraid of it.
“I know, I read about it in an ancient text. The Demon Shadow Blood Snake is not formed naturally but is bred by people. Initially an ordinary spirit beast called the Spirit Shadow Snake, it’s fed with heart blood of ninety-nine boys and ninety-nine girls, then with a secret technique, the natural talents of the Spirit Shadow Snake are maximized, eventually turning into the Demon Shadow Blood Snake—a very cruel method…”
This was why Jiang Xiu Cheng was shocked.
The appearance of the Demon Shadow Blood Snake signified countless lives were lost behind it, but that was not the main point.
If a demon beast eats people, it is a conflict between two species, and from their respective perspectives, there is no problem; they are natural enemies on sight.
But the Demon Shadow Blood Snake was artificially created, not a concept of an ordinary demon beast at all.
Wang Sheng, having listened, showed no expression, and said, “Does the owner sense when such a snake dies?”
“I’m not sure; the ancient text I read only briefly mentioned it. However, once the Demon Shadow Blood Snake matures, it continues consuming lives, can increase its speed up to that of a Grandmaster, and also possesses a powerful treasure-hunting ability. This is probably why the Demon Shadow Blood Snake appeared here.
By the way, that text also mentioned that if you encounter someone breeding such a demon beast, if you are capable, you must kill them, though I don’t know the reason, but it was specifically emphasized.”
Wang Sheng looked at the Demon Shadow Blood Snake in his hand, which, although trivial in front of him, he knew that no one else present could handle this Demon Shadow Blood Snake.
This Demon Shadow Blood Snake had indeed devoured countless lives.
With a slight squeeze of his hand, he shattered the Demon Shadow Blood Snake entirely, leaving not a trace behind.
He still didn’t know the strength of the Demon Shadow Blood Snake’s master, nor did he know if he would be tracked. For him, that was actually somewhat reckless.
Perhaps, but he did not regret it.
“Let’s continue the competition, it’s a minor issue!”
When everyone heard Jiang Xiu Cheng’s words, they had already roughly predicted just how strong that Demon Shadow Blood Snake must be. The speed they had witnessed earlier could only be matched by a Grandmaster. Yet, to Wang Sheng, it was just a trivial matter, mentioned so lightly as if nothing had happened.
Was this the composure of a strong individual?
Since Wang Sheng had said it was a minor issue, then it was indeed a minor issue, and the competition continued.
The remaining four participants were two from Qingshan Village, Liu Jian’an and Wang Lingwei, and two from the Three Great Families, Jiang Yuan and Zhao Xiao.
None of them were ordinary.
Especially that Jiang Yuan. According to Wang Sheng’s feelings, he was the strongest.
Even now, he was still concealing his skill.
The drawing of lots was quickly settled.
Unfortunately, both sides drew their own members for the match.
After an “intense” battle between Jiang Yuan and Zhao Xiao, Jiang Yuan narrowly won.
Wang Sheng meaningfully glanced at Jiang Yuan. The young man was quite good at hiding his abilities, showing seven parts and concealing three.
Jiang Yuan felt that gaze and subconsciously avoided it.
He felt like he couldn’t hide any secrets under Wang Sheng’s watchful eye.
The second match was between Liu Jian’an and Wang Lingwei.
The gap between the two was not big, and they fought to a deadlock. However, Wang Lingwei ultimately fell short and was sent flying by a punch from Liu Jian’an. Wang Sheng caught Wang Lingwei with his Divine Thought.
“Just a little bit more, next time I will definitely win!” Wang Lingwei, though defeated, openly accepted her loss, yet was not discouraged.
“Good!”
Liu Jian’an had always acted like an elder brother among the twelve participants, and he had a good temperament.
Because Liu Jian’an had just experienced a fight and expended a lot of energy, to ensure fairness, this time they had to rest longer, about an hour, before the final match of the competition began.
Among those present, apart from the children participating in the competition, the weakest was a Third Grade Martial Artist. Watching a group of First Grade Martial Artists fight wasn’t very interesting; everyone just silently watched the competition.
A quarter hour later, the result was in.
Jiang Yuan won, Liu Jian’an lost.
After losing the match, Liu Jian’an was somewhat silent. He felt that Jiang Yuan, his opponent in the match, hadn’t used his full strength. He directly approached Jiang Yuan.
“You’re very strong. If there’s a chance, I hope you can fight me with all your strength!”
Jiang Yuan was somewhat surprised that it had been noticed. That masked fighter was extremely powerful. It was one thing for him to be found out, but how did this man see it too?
Of course, he definitely wouldn’t admit it openly.
“Hahaha, what are you talking about? How could I not have used my full strength? I almost lost!”
Liu Jian’an didn’t say anything.
Did he know it in his heart? Because he had done similar things back in the village, he was very familiar with the feeling.
“I will seek you out if there’s a chance!”
Jiang Yuan saw that Liu Jian’an was implacable and felt somewhat helpless. How had it been so obvious?
But before he had too long to think about it, his family elders called him.
Jiang Yuan approached a group of adults.
Wang Sheng took out a lotus seed: “As agreed earlier, this is the final winner’s prize, a lotus seed.”
There were a total of nine seeds in the Lotus Seedpod.
He directly took out one and gave it to Jiang Yuan.
Whether Jiang Yuan would actually use this lotus seed was no longer his concern.
With this, the event was almost concluded.
The goal of this event was mostly achieved, but the village chief still felt it hadn’t been enough.
He talked a lot with people from the three families and learned a lot of experience.
This was the experience of families with true heritage, summarized over hundreds of years by generations.
It seemed simple after listening, but it was undeniable that this experience could definitely save Qingshan Village from taking detours in managing their Martial Artists for who knows how long.
For the village chief, it was a real treasure.
So the village chief wanted to practice it and then exchange ideas again.
However, he didn’t say anything, leaving it to Wang Sheng to decide.
Jiang Xiu Cheng and the others from the three families seemed to have the same idea, hence he said, “Shall we have more such exchanges in the future? Of course, just pure exchange and competition, we can provide the prize money!”
He seemed to be asking the village chief, but he was actually asking Wang Sheng.
Wang Sheng looked around; almost everyone had hopeful expressions, especially the younger children.
The younger the child, the quicker they made friends.
He thought for a moment and said, “Every mid-month, let’s gather here and exchange.”
After all, the area of the three counties was considered safe, and such exchange of competitions, just once, wouldn’t mean much.
He had also heard about the origins of the Three Great Families during today’s competition. They were not troublemakers, so occasional exchanges should be no problem.
Seeing his agreement, the children around ten years old couldn’t hide their smiles.
After briefly discussing, the two groups split up, waiting for the next meeting.
Meanwhile, in a cave in the mountains, a disheveled middle-aged man discovered that one of his “treasures” was missing.
“Who killed my treasure? I hope your flesh and blood can help me raise another one, otherwise, I’ll be very angry…”