20 - Snake

Xu Xin suddenly had an idea. What if he used his aquamarine blood to strengthen the use of his techniques?

However, after thinking about it for a while, he realized that the quantity of the aquamarine blood wasn't high enough, and it would have to take up much more of his blood if he wanted to use it in this way.

As such, he could only put this off for later on. He then started to cultivate, because although he had created some techniques, the most effective way to learn them would be to use them in an actual fight.

Messing with them now would be nothing but a waste of time.

As such, he sat there and started to cultivate, absorbing the Qi from heaven and earth, specks of golden Qi floating into his body.

There were slightly less specks of golden Qi compared to Xiao Wei, but this was because Xiao Wei was at a higher stage than him, which allowed him to absorb more Qi at a faster speed, hence why Xia Yue had a constant stream of Qi flowing into her.

At his peak, he was capable of forming a stream of Qi more than three times bigger than Xia Yue's, and it was also twice as dense.

Of course, this was also attributed to the fact that his dantian was so big, requiring more Qi and also required it to be denser, meaning that he cultivated at a faster speed but not six times faster like it would seem he would.

Now, his dantian had been re-forged, and just like before, it was bigger, meaning that he required more Qi in order to strengthen his inner energy since it was denser and had a higher quantity.

But despite having a larger amount of inner energy available to him, Xu Xin felt that it sometimes wasn't enough, because he happened to be fond of techniques that used the entire body at the same time.

This was because he liked every attack that he used to have the absolute maximum possible power behind it.

He could only do this by using his entire body and shifting his weight using every muscle in his body to put all his power into a single hit.

To do this, however, he used techniques that could make his body more powerful, but it was taxing to use techniques that used the whole body as it used a lot of inner energy, meaning that he ended up lasting about the same amount of time in a fight as others.

One such example was the technique which he had just created.

It literally used inner energy in every part of his body, especially in the joints, and used it in very specific ways, which was exhausting to maintain, not to mention switching between the ice and water elements constantly on top of that.

It was such an exhausting technique that it was hard to do just sitting still, let alone in a fight, so he needed to familiarize himself with it in order to have any chance to use it in the future.

Of course, as he adjusted to it, it would not only be many times easier to do, it would also take less energy and be more efficient and powerful at the same time.

As he cultivated, he felt time pass by slowly, and during this time, he, like the others, also kept some of his focus on what was happening in the carriage.

After all, his mortal enemy was sitting right in front of him, and a single slip-up could cause death.

Luckily, a couple hours passed and nothing happened during this time.

Suddenly, the carriage stopped, and they all got out of it, seeing that a fire had been set up, with some meat being cooked over the top of it. It was time to eat.

Xu Xin expressionlessly took a seat as the smell of delicious food permeated the air.

Being a prince, Xiao Wei had food that was prepared for the journey, and it would be cooked by the royal guards. It also had spices and additional things for flavor.

It was simple food, but it was quite good on a bland and boring journey.

But at that moment, out of the blue, Xu Xin's demeanor then suddenly shifted back to the noble and elegant manner as his watery inner energy spread through his body, his eyes suddenly shifting up and into the woods in front of him.

He then suddenly stood up as his eyes were locked onto a very specific portion of the woods in front of him, and he ran over there as fast as he could.

Even as he ran, he seemed to be elegant as every motion in his body was smooth and perfect, like a well-oiled machine.

"Where are you going?" Xia Yue couldn't help but call out. Her disciple also noticed what was happening and looked over with curiosity.

She normally wouldn't care if he left, but his sudden shift in demeanor had raised her interest.

After all, if there was simply something that he wanted to do, he could remain in his normal icy and cold state, but he had chosen to use his watery inner energy state, which made him elegant and peaceful in terms of personality.

But unexpectedly, Xu Xin completely ignored her as he continued to run into the forest, and by now, he had already gotten there.

He then disappeared into the trees, and after a moment of thinking, Xia Yue let him go.

After all, she didn't want to further annoy him by watching over him like he was a baby. She knew that he was not the type to let others know anything about him if it wasn't necessary.

Little did she know that he didn't even care that she asked, he was just too distracted to answer her.

This was because he had just seen something extremely rare and dangerous, and he wanted to find it, and even a second of delay could prevent him from finding it, which could result in utter disaster for everyone there, even the spirit realms.

As he went into the forest, he stopped moving and calmed down entirely as he listened to every single sound that the forest made. Nothing could escape from his senses, and he quickly heard a shuffling nearby.

He instantly chased after the sound, his keen eyes scanning over everything present.

Soon, he stopped again, and he listened once more, only to hear a slithering sound nearby. Instantly, he chased after the sound again.

Then, suddenly, just as he was about to stop again, a snake launched itself at him, striking instantly and without warning.

It was a beautiful sapphire blue color, and it seemed to stand out from the forest, but it was extremely small, so it blended in quite well.

Luckily, his instincts were far too strong for him to succumb to an ambush, and he grabbed towards the snake with his hand, firmly grasping around its throat as it writhed and struggled to get out of his grip.

Instantly, Xu Xin started to pour all of the inner energy from his body into the snake, and the watery inner energy managed to only barely enter into the snake's body as it struggled furiously.

Xu Xin had to grab it with his other hand as well and grip the snake as hard as he possibly could just to barely stop it from escaping, and if this continued for only a second longer, the snake would be free, but luckily, Xu Xin was prepared.

As soon as a suitable amount of his watery inner energy had gone into the snake's body, he instantly converted all his inner energy to the icy inner energy.

The snake suddenly became covered in a layer of aquamarine frost, but it still struggled furiously, though it was obviously hindered by the inner energy.

Xu Xin then poured even more of his icy inner energy into his hands, seeming as if he was trying to seal the snake in ice, but it still furiously struggled. It was clear that it was completely impossible for Xu Xin to actually seal it in ice, let alone to kill it.

But he had never planned to, as he was already running back to the campsite as fast as he could while barely managing to restrain the snake from escaping.

Xu Xin had already expended nearly half of his inner energy just to restrain the snake from escaping for a couple seconds, showing just how strong this snake was.

As he got back to the campsite, he instantly yelled out, "Help me kill this thing!!!" His voice was filled with urgency as he ran towards Xia Yue while holding the snake.

She instantly stood up and ran over to him, being much faster than he was. But seeing what he was holding, she suddenly understood why he had ignored her earlier.

This snake that he was holding, though not strong in terms of cultivation, only comparable to someone at about the fifth or sixth stage of the martial arts path, was extremely deadly, and a single bite from it could even kill her with no chance of survival.

Though it wasn't that strong in cultivation, it was still much much stronger than Xu Xin was, and he was already almost out of inner energy as the snake still struggled and tried to bite him.

Luckily, he had grabbed it right at the base of the head, giving it no way to bite him.

Without hesitation, Xia Yue charged over to him and waved her hand, sending out a silver 'slash' of inner breath, which instantly cut off the snake's head, killing it.

Seeing the head fall to the ground, he backed away from it, as the head could still bite after being cut off, as with all snakes. (This is a real thing. If you ever cut off a snake head, stay away from it)

The body in his hands still writhed, but it was much weaker than before, and he felt that it was slowly stopping, succumbing to his icy inner energy as its body became slowly encased in aquamarine frost and eventually ice.

Just as the snake's body was fully sealed in ice, he ran out of inner energy and also strength in his arms, and he fell to his butt, exhausted.

As he let go of the snake, he felt immense pain coming from his hands, because not only had he used far too much of his icy inner energy in his hands, freezing them, but the surface of the snake's body was also covered in a poison, though not nearly as bad as the poison from being bit.

He looked at his hands, and found that all his fingers were blue, while there were purplish lines spreading from his hand and up his arm.

He instantly used the little inner energy remaining in other parts of his body to send all his watery inner energy to block the poison from spreading, and it mostly stopped, but it was still slowly spreading up his arms, and it brought immense pain to him.

Instantly, he started to absorb qi from heaven and earth to recover some of his inner energy, but he found that he was in a stalemate with the poison as it ate away at his inner energy as fast as he could form it.

He could feel his hands getting weaker and weaker as time went on.

He started to realize that he was able to stabilize it right now, but eventually, the poison would spread through his hands enough that it would start to overwhelm his inner energy.

Under the danger of the poison, his mind suddenly calmed as the aquamarine blood in his body instinctually gathered into drops and started to move towards his arms.

One drop went to each arm, and sensing this, Xu Xin suddenly realized that this blood had previously gotten rid of the core crippling poison, so maybe it could get rid of this poison too.

As the aquamarine blood arrived in his arms, he instantly felt that the poison was being suppressed and destroyed by the aquamarine blood, but it was also taking a lot of his energy to do so.

He even realized that the aquamarine blood was running out of energy and started to absorb his own blood to make up for that energy spent.

This would be extremely dangerous if it continued for too long, and Xu Xin didn't know if he would be able to purge this poison from his body even with the help of the aquamarine blood.

It was at this time that Xia Yue finally reacted, because everything, though it took long to explain, happened in less than two seconds.

She yelled out to the royal guards and Xiao Wei, who hadn't even realized what was happening, "Get in the carriage now!!!"

Without hesitation, the royal guards listened and swept up Xiao Wei as they went into the carriage, while Xia Yue grabbed Xu Xin and her disciple and dragged them in as well. At the same time, she told the carriage driver to have it go as fast as it possibly could.

After making sure that everyone was inside the carriage, she stepped out of it while it was moving, heading back to where the campsite was.

She put out the fire while tossing the meat into the woods nearby, before she took out a special pair of gloves and putting the body and head of the snake into a special rubbery bag.

Then, she quickly ran to catch up with the carriage, and after a couple minutes, she managed to do so.

Then, going inside, she saw that the poison had spread throughout Xu Xin's hands, and he was barely managing to stop it from spreading to the rest of his body.

Pain covered his face as he struggled for his life. If he couldn't stop the poison, he would die.