Chapter 5: Zhang Pa and the Black Bird

  The first thing to do after returning to the thatched cottage was to make a vest for himself, with many small pockets on it, and put the snake eggs into the pockets one by one. He planned to wear it close to his body, anyway, this thing wasn't afraid of pressure, even sleeping in it would be fine. The pearl tears were the snake mother's, Zhang Pa was going to sew the pearl tears onto the vest as well, no matter what, it counted as a mother-son reunion. Then he sewed soft armor on the outside, so after wearing it, except for looking bloated and unsightly, there was nothing wrong with it.

  After everything was busy, Zhang Pa was idle and started to fear again. He feared that the small snakes hatched would eat him up, so he had the idea of throwing away the snake eggs, but couldn't bear to do so.

  He was worried and lost, just as Zhen Tian Dao Ren and Zhen Zhuang Men arrived. Zhang Pa hurriedly dropped the soft armor in his hand and went out to greet them. Zhen Tian Dao Ren's complexion was not good, presumably due to saving Zhen Yi. He asked Zhang Pa: "Hong Wu, did you move that snake corpse?"

  "No."

  "Brother, shall we go in and take a look at that strange creature?" Zhen Ruo thought for a moment before saying, "No need to. The seal on the Beast Refining Cauldron is completely broken. It's better to remove the cauldron and re-establish the seal. As for the giant snake corpse, with our abilities, I estimate it can't be refined." He shook his head slightly as he spoke, then walked into the Cave of Ten Thousand Beasts alone. Before long, he came out again, holding a four-legged square cauldron in his hands.

  Zhen Ruozhang put the tripod on the ground and said to Zhen Tiandao, "Put it away for now. Wait until the elders come out of their retreat and let them set up another restriction. It's a good opportunity to ask if the snake skin can be refined."

  The tripod became smaller, and the snake's corpse in the tripod also became smaller. The True Heavenly Daoist took a look and saw that the snake's corpse was unscathed all over its body, and estimated that the inner elixir was still intact. With a wave of his large sleeve, he ordered the Palm Gate to retrieve the alchemy tripod.

  Zhenru Zhānmén turned around to look at Zhang Pà, and with a slight glance, he knew that his cultivation realm was still in the Qi Refining stage. He couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed, and casually said: "Practice well." Zhang Pà bowed and replied, "Yes." Zhenru Zhānmén didn't pay attention to him again, and flew away with Zhen Tian Dào Rén.

  At what cost did they subdue the great serpent? Only Zhen Yi, Zhen Ru and Zhen Tian knew. In the end, it was a case of "the victory is as bitter as defeat", with both sides suffering heavy losses.

  Zhang was afraid to see that the big snake had died, the beast-refining cauldron's seal was broken, but what he didn't see was that the Heaven-Net Umbrella was destroyed, the Soul-Seizing Bell and Flying Sword were also destroyed, and Zhen Yi Dao Ren's Golden Elixir exploded.

  At that time, in the cave, the big snake was tied up. Generally, when a demon beast is tied up, it knows to cherish its life and chooses to obey after being extracted from the spiritual pearl by the beast-refining cauldron. However, the big snake was different - as a species born from the chaos of heaven and earth, the king of all snakes, with a violent and unyielding temperament. Such a divine creature is extremely difficult to get pregnant, but once it does, it will lay over a hundred eggs. More than a hundred snake eggs are all caused by its essence blood, so during pregnancy, the female snake's magical powers greatly decrease, only one in ten remains. Although the big snake lays many eggs, they do not easily hatch, and only two or three out of a hundred can successfully hatch.

  Zhenyi and others accidentally caught a pregnant giant snake with greatly reduced magical powers. Although they found it strange that its magical powers were slightly lower, they only thought it was due to injury and didn't think of pregnancy. After a year of failed attempts to subdue it, they finally steeled themselves to refine it. They borrowed the treasure "Tianluo San" from Zhen Tiandao and obtained the "Dahuan Dan" from their fellow disciples, full of confidence as they came to refine the beast.

  After the fierce battle, the giant snake was trapped and refined into a Lingzhu by the seal. Unexpectedly, the giant snake refused to surrender and split its primordial spirit in two. One part of the primordial spirit used the Primordial Spirit Escape Technique, causing the exposed primordial spirit to perish together with the enemy. The majority of the primordial spirit hid in the womb, exhausting life force to hasten the maturation of the snake egg and separate from the body.

  When the Great Snake's true body burst out, Zhenyidao saw that something was amiss and hastily hid behind the Tianluo umbrella. He then condensed his golden elixir to form a protective armor for defense. However, the Great Snake's explosive power was too great, destroying both the Tianluo umbrella and the protective golden elixir, leaving him barely alive. As for what happened afterwards, Zhang would soon come to know everything.

  After this, Zhang was full of questions in his mind. He wondered how the fierce snake was caught back, what the snake actually was, how it could lay eggs after dying, how his master's injury was, how the spiritual light of the snake egg entered his body, how to hatch the snake egg, and whether he would still be alive after hatching the snake egg...

  Too many doubts, thinking is a headache, so I put down my doubts and focus on practicing. With a full body of spiritual energy not being cultivated, wouldn't that be a waste? What's laughable is that he only knows his body has a lot of spiritual energy, but doesn't know exactly how much. This time sitting in meditation, he sat for a whole month. When he opened his eyes again, his cultivation realm had reached the top of the Qi Refining stage.

  After scanning his body with his divine sense, Zhang Fei couldn't believe it. Not only had his meridians expanded greatly, but his internal energy had also become thick and solid. He couldn't help but laugh loudly towards the sky. He had actually jumped directly from the Refining Qi stage to the Top Stage, which was a bit too easy. Zhang Fei was overjoyed.

  With this effect, of course, thanks to the snake egg. Taking over the soft shell to check the snake egg, it is still white and pulsing, with no other changes.

  In the following days, he still guarded the Cave of Ten Thousand Beasts alone, either cultivating or playing with the little dog. He was also still timid and afraid of thunder, and even more uneasy about the hundred snakes.

  One month later, Hong Cheng and Hong Tu came to return the Swallow Letter. The two of them looked very excited. After putting the Lingzhu back in the divine shrine, they didn't forget to discuss it. Zhang Pa walked alongside and listened, getting a general idea in his daze.

  A few days ago, it was the five-year Qi Refining Conference of the Righteous Dao Cultivation Realm in Vietnam. All the top masters who had reached the peak of the Qi Refining stage came to participate. Most of these people were struggling to build their foundation and hoped to improve their cultivation by exchanging experiences, sparring, or trading techniques and treasures.

  This time, the Tianlei Daoist Temple actually sent out more than 300 people to participate in the conference. It is indeed the largest cultivation sect in Yueguo, with over 300 disciples who have reached the top of the Refining Qi stage.

  It is said that the conference had thousands of people participating, exchanging skills, exchanging magical treasures, and doing all sorts of things. There was also a private arena for dueling, where some sects' cultivation methods were quite unusual and needed to be practiced in actual combat.

  The conference lasted for seven days and was held at Jinshui Lake. It is said that Jinshui Lake has a rich spiritual energy, it is said that there are monsters in Jinshui Lake, it is said that immortals live in Jinshui Lake, but they are all just rumors, no one has ever seen them. However, the seven-day conference held once every five years was always held here.

  Hong Cheng was visibly pleased at the meeting, with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. He couldn't wait to practice with Hong Tu. However, Hong Tu ignored him, rambling on about the excellent elixirs of Ling Shan Men, the clever talismans of Wan Fa Zong, and then going off on a tangent about the exceptional craftsmanship of Bai Lian Gu's armor forging.

  Zhang's heart skipped a beat, thinking of the snow-white scaled snake, it was really memorable, unfortunately, it wasn't his own, otherwise he would have definitely taken it to refine into armor. However, he had snake eggs, and after hatching, there would be snake skin, but... but... after raising the snakes big, wouldn't he have to kill them? But... but... what if the snakes ate him first after they hatched? ... Cowards all like to think wildly.

  He thought to himself, "What's the point of having grand ambitions if I'm just going to end up dead from a snake bite?" Zhang was secretly scolding himself for thinking so much nonsense. Anyway, whether it was useful or not, he was genuinely worried about being bitten by a snake, so he decided not to wear the soft armor made from snake eggs and threw it back into the house, piling it together with those broken defensive gear.

  Since entering the top stage of Qi Refining Realm, Zhang felt that his body had endless energy, was full of vitality, and his senses became even more acute. On this day, while meditating, he faintly heard a beast roar coming from the dense forest below the mountain. Zhang's first reaction was fear, quickly hiding inside the house, closing the doors and windows tightly, then peeking outside through the window gap.

  It was just two ordinary beasts fighting in the woods, relying on their skills to deal with them easily, but he was still afraid. He looked out the window for half a day and didn't see any signs of wild animals, but the beast's roar gradually subsided, guessing that they had left, and only then did he put down his heart, drink a bowl of water to calm himself, and plan to rest for a while. But then he heard a snickering sound, a crisp voice entering his ears: "A grown man is still afraid of small animals?"

  "Who? Who's speaking?" Zhang's heart, which had just calmed down, began to beat violently again. He drew out his dagger and hid in the corner of the wall, looking around cautiously.

  "You're really courting death, cultivator. A top-tier master of the Refining Qi stage is actually using an ordinary dagger for self-defense? If this gets out, all the Taoist priests on Tianlei Mountain will have to kill themselves."

  "Come out, come out quickly, I've seen you!" Zhang shouted in a hoarse voice.

  "Ah, you've seen me, then take a good look." Along with the voice, a black bird appeared out of thin air, about an arm's length from head to tail, its entire body covered in shiny black feathers. Its small head was full of disdainful and scornful expressions. It didn't bother to expose Zhang Fei's lies, but instead tilted its head to look at him: "Now that you've seen me, are you moved?"