Demon Shadow Blood Snake—people breed it, so how could a breeder not have means to track it down?
Someone had destroyed his treasure.
Naturally, he had to seek revenge.
In the cave, the disheveled man pulled out another snake; this one was completely red, like fresh blood, and its mere sight sent shivers down the spine.
It was smaller than the Demon Shadow Blood Snake, appearing to have just hatched not long ago.
The disheveled man set down the little red snake and muttered, “Go, find the person who killed my treasure and then come back to tell me. I want to see who dares to offend me, the Snake Demon…”
The Snake Demon spoke chillingly.
He had just entered Shuzhou when such an incident occurred—someone had carelessly killed his treasure.
It must be a Grandmaster from Shuzhou who had never heard of his infamous name, the Snake Demon.
If that was the case, he would make an example by killing the chicken to scare the monkey, announcing to Shuzhou that the Snake Demon had arrived.
“Only a Grandmaster could have killed my treasure. Very bold, but I want you to see that there are differences even among Grandmasters!”
The Snake Demon was confident, as he was one of the strongest even among the Grandmasters.
He was consistently ranked at the top in various underground lists.
Everywhere he went, he would announce his arrival in this manner, sometimes by massacring a village or a town, sometimes by offering boys and beautiful girls to threaten the area, and this time, he aimed to declare it with Grandmaster’s blood!
“Hiss—”
Amid the Snake Demon’s chilling laughter, the little red snake vanished into the jungle to seek his adversary while several black snakes returned.
Their bodies were bulging. Once they entered the cave, they immediately regurgitated, instantly spitting out a Spiritual Medicine.
Seeing these Spiritual Medicines, a smile appeared on the Snake Demon’s face.
“My good treasures, this is your reward, specially preserved by me. You’ll surely like it…”
Upon closer inspection, in the Snake Demon’s hand was a blood-red human heart.
…
After returning to Qingshan Village with his men, Wang Sheng went back to his room.
The Bloodthirsty Medicine King differed from the regular Medicine Kings. Normal Medicine Kings also needed various ingredients to become proper Elixir Pills that could fulfill their effects.
But the Bloodthirsty Medicine King was different; it was best eaten directly.
Without hesitation, Wang Sheng picked up a lotus seed and swallowed it.
The most noticeable effect was similar to the Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill’s ability to replenish Qi-Blood, beneficial for cultivation, an effect Wang Sheng’s Divine Thought had already sensed, so it was not particularly surprising.
Then there was a less obvious effect.
Wang Sheng was also experiencing this effect, in fact, he experienced it every day.
It was the effect after performing Ba Duan Jin’s Breakthrough three times, which could increase the blood’s strength.
This effect was nothing significant for Wang Sheng, whose Blood Qi Smoke already dominated Grandmasters; if not for the existence of Divine Thought, this effect would be barely noticeable.
But for a Martial Artist who had not enhanced their blood strength, this was Divine Medicine.
A Martial Artist’s essential power came from Qi-Blood Power, which was born from blood, and the blood’s density would increase with the Martial Artist’s physical constitution.
This was one of the reasons why higher-level Martial Artists were stronger.
The physical enhancement was passively improved, while the lotus seeds from the Lotus Medicine King could actively enhance blood strength.
Being able to strengthen one’s origin to make it more powerful was definitely what every Martial Artist desired, as consuming it meant being stronger than peers at the same level.
“Too bad, it’s of no use to me now.”
Wang Sheng’s own blood strength was terrifyingly strong, and he could suppress Grandmasters with his Blood Qi Smoke alone, making these lotus seeds somewhat redundant.
However—
Wang Sheng looked towards Da Bai and Yun Xiao.
A bird and a tiger were eagerly watching him.
“Is one seed enough for each of you?”
Nine lotus seeds, one given away as a reward, another eaten, one more kept for planting attempts.
That left six.
If they could be planted successfully, everyone would be jubilant; after all, the effects of these seeds were far superior to the Ten-Complete Great Replenishing Pill. Whether to keep them or not didn’t matter much.
If they couldn’t be grown, having a few more would be better. Having so few was useless to him, so he didn’t plan to keep them.
“Roar~”
“Chirp chirp~”
Dabai and Yun Xiao nodded.
They didn’t care how many, just having some was good enough.
They weren’t really after these for cultivation; such a small quantity would only go so far. What they really wanted was a chance for a breakthrough.
The lotus seeds were the best opportunity for that.
“Alright, I’ll give you two each!”
That left four seeds, which he would give directly to the village chief when the time came; he was sure the village chief would have a good plan for them.
He hoped they could be successfully cultivated.
Only mass cultivation would be somewhat useful to him.
Meanwhile, the village chief was inside the schoolhouse.
All the students looked dejected, having suffered more than a typical defeat.
Excluding Liu Jian’an, Wang Lingwei, and Zhou Tian, who performed slightly better, the others were quite poor, and even those who did well didn’t win the championship.
They expected a scolding from the village chief; despite being young, they were aware of the resources spent on them by the village.
But the village chief wasn’t even considering that.
“Look up, even though we lost, it wasn’t a total disaster; it was pretty good actually!”
Initially, the village chief felt it was a disaster too, but after a brief chat with members of the Three Great Families, he realized the children from Qingshan Village hadn’t lost too badly.
Besides being young, the village’s training system simply couldn’t match that of the great families; hence, despite ample resources, the martial artists they trained were not very strong.
“You are all young, just train well, and you can reclaim victory next time. Your conditions are not worse than theirs, in fact, they might be better. However, some rules in the school will need to change, and I will bring out the detailed rules later.”
The village chief had learned a lot and was planning to put it into practice.
If there were any issues, he could inquire about how to make changes during the next meeting.
The next day, the village chief introduced some new rules.
These rules added a competitive aspect within the school, where, aside from the basic resources, winning competitions could earn additional resources.
With the students already being Martial Artists, they could now join the village hunters on hunting expeditions in the mountains to accumulate battle experience.
A variety of rules fundamentally changed the atmosphere in the school.
As Wang Sheng described, it became much more intense, everyone striving vigorously.
Meanwhile, if this competitive approach continued, while the first generation might cope, future students might inevitably be weeded out by such competition.
But as long as it was healthy competition, being weeded out might not be a bad thing.
The village developed vibrantly.
After some time, Wang Sheng realized that while he could grow Medicine Kings, it was no different than cultivating Spiritual Medicine.
Although Medicine King was also a Spiritual Medicine, there were significant differences, so he concluded it was a failure.
However, Wang Sheng had anticipated this and was not particularly disappointed as the most important aspect of the Bloodthirsty Medicine King was its bloodthirstiness; even if he could grow Medicine Kings, he might need to handle that issue himself eventually.
Otherwise, it might attract a bevy of wild beasts to the vicinity of the village.
Although not afraid, dealing with it would be quite troublesome.
Nevertheless, what he never expected was that even unripe, the Bloodthirsty Medicine King would still attract a demon beast, a blood-red serpentine creature…