Serpent Ancestor

Compared to Zhao Nanqi, Xu Hei could almost be considered a good person.

”No! He’s a demon too, neither of them is any better!” Jiang Nine Phoenix gritted her teeth.

In fact, she hadn’t reached a dead end yet. Although she was sealed, with the powerful bloodline of the Jiang family, if she truly faced death, she would burn her Nirvana Blood with all her might.

She wasn’t entirely sure if she could break the seal, but at the moment of death, she would give it a try.

”Sister...”

Suddenly, a weak voice came from behind her.

Jiang Nine Phoenix turned to see one of the five women captured along the way, each possessing a unique single-attribute Spiritual Root, making them rare Five Elemental Furnaces.

”Sister, if you still have the strength to act, please... kill me later!” The girl with the Water Spiritual Root pleaded with her eyes.

Jiang Nine Phoenix didn’t agree but simply said, ”I’ll do my best.”

”Draw the Heavenly Fire, temper the Elemental Infant!”Zhao Nanqi chanted softly, and ten Elemental Infant cultivators were thrown into the furnace, incinerated, their Elemental Infants extracted and rapidly condensed into a more potent spiritual liquid.

A smile hung on his lips, and excitement gleamed in his eyes.

He had failed twice before, but this time, he was sixty percent confident of success.

Because he had captured a living divine beast bloodline.

Zhao Nanqi didn’t know Jiang Nine Phoenix’s origins and hadn’t asked, but he could see that this woman had dormant ancient phoenix blood within her. If he absorbed and refined it during the ritual, it could increase his chances of achieving Divine Transformation by at least thirty percent!

He had considered the possibility of Jiang Nine Phoenix having backing, but since she had been captured as a slave by Xu Hei, her backing couldn’t be that formidable.

As for offending Xu Hei? Once he broke through to Divine Transformation, would he care about that? He’d just kill him to eliminate future troubles, preventing him from seeking revenge after his own transformation.

”Boom!”

Suddenly, a violent tremor came from outside.

Zhao Nanqi wasn’t surprised, just smiled slightly, looked back at the figure outside the barrier, and said with a smile, ”Oh, isn’t this the new Junior Brother Xu? What brings you here?”

Hearing the commotion outside, everyone turned their heads in unison, looking at Xu Hei outside the barrier with surprise.

In this vast basin, over a thousand people were imprisoned, all high-quality seedlings, greatly beneficial if absorbed. Some among them wanted to call for help, but thinking of Zhao Nanqi’s cruel methods, they swallowed their cries.

”It’s him!”

Jiang Nine Phoenix hurriedly got up, exhaling a breath, and for some reason, seeing Xu Hei suddenly appear, her despair eased a bit.

Compared to being absorbed, doing farm work was better; at least Xu Hei wouldn’t bother her for a whole year.

”It’s the envoy!”

In the cage, the five female cultivators’ eyes lit up.

”What, you know him?” Jiang Nine Phoenix curiously looked over.

”Yes, he’s the envoy of Tian Nan City.”

The Wood Spiritual Root girl who had just spoken briefly recounted what had happened in Tian Nan City.

Jiang Nine Phoenix’s eyes widened in disbelief, thinking she had misheard.

But when all five nodded in agreement, Jiang Nine Phoenix was greatly astonished.

Xu Hei would release people? What a joke!

”Does Xu Hei have a split personality?”

Jiang Nine Phoenix carefully recalled and found it quite possible.

...

At this moment, Xu Hei put away the flying boat, took out the Star-Moon Sword without a word, and slashed at the barrier.

”Boom!”

The barrier rippled like water, undamaged.

As expected, the power of this defensive formation reached the fifth rank! Xu Hei had tried before, using all his strength to no avail, let alone others.

”Are you the thief who broke into my mountain gate?” Xu Hei stared at Zhao Nanqi.

”Oh, Junior Brother Xu, listen to yourself, how unpleasant! I’m not a thief; I’m saving you!” Zhao Nanqi said earnestly.

Xu Hei was momentarily stunned, the sword he had raised paused, and he stared at Zhao Nanqi. ”What did you say? Saving me?”

”Of course! That female slave harbors ill intentions, planting poisonous grass in your herb garden to harm you! Look at this!”

As he spoke, Zhao Nanqi took out a Phoenix Cry Grass, the very mutated variety cultivated by Jiang Nine Phoenix.

”This mutated Phoenix Cry Grass is extremely poisonous, not only toxic itself but also contaminating other spirit medicines, making all of them poisonous, silently killing people. It might seem fine for a year, but after ten or a hundred years of cultivation, your true essence could become chaotic, leading to inner demons and a silent death!” Zhao Nanqi laughed.

Xu Hei was momentarily dumbfounded.

He couldn’t find any reason to refute Zhao Nanqi’s words because his knowledge of plants was almost zero.

”You’re lying!”

Jiang Nine Phoenix suddenly jumped up, pointing at Zhao Nanqi and cursing, ”You’re spouting nonsense, how could the Phoenix Cry Grass be poisonous! It’s clearly a carefully cultivated improved variety!”

”Improved variety? Heh, what did you improve?” Zhao Nanqi stared at her, smiling.

”I, I...” Jiang Nine Phoenix was at a loss for words.

What did she improve? Of course, it was to reverse the flow of blood and Qi, attract spiritual energy, and break the seal, but how could she say that?

But poisonous, that was impossible!

Seeing Jiang Nine Phoenix speechless, Zhao Nanqi quickly added, ”Junior Brother Xu, there might be some misunderstanding between us. I just heard that you were new here and went to visit, only to see this demon woman causing harm. I couldn’t bear it, so I used the token of the previous Tian Nan City junior brother to enter and capture this demon woman for you, and even cleared the poisonous grass.”

”I really only wanted to save you. If I wanted to plunder, why wouldn’t I plunder your spirit insects? As far as I know, you have many spirit stones in the spirit insect cave dwelling.”

Zhao Nanqi continued to explain, also casually explaining why he could enter Xu Hei’s cave dwelling.

Everything seemed reasonable. If it was about plundering resources, weren’t the tens of millions of spirit stones in the spirit insect cave dwelling more worth robbing?

With just a few words, he turned a robber breaking into a cave into a caring junior brother, turning black into white.

Even Jiang Nine Phoenix was stunned by his eloquence.

She looked desperate, shaking her head repeatedly, trying to remind Xu Hei not to believe him, but she couldn’t find a reason to convince Xu Hei.

Xu Hei remained calm throughout, his thoughts unreadable.

There was one thing Zhao Nanqi might not know.

In the Insect Emperor’s cave dwelling, there were tens of thousands of Spirit-Eating Ants, and Bai Zhi wasn’t a powerless Insect Emperor. If Zhao Nanqi dared to enter, he might not die, but he’d certainly be in a mess.

Of course, Xu Hei kept these things well hidden, so it was normal for Zhao Nanqi to be unaware.

Additionally, the claim of poisonous grass was unsubstantiated, so Xu Hei couldn’t fully believe it. But Jiang Nine Phoenix indeed aroused his suspicion, and it was entirely possible that she harbored ill intentions, so Xu Hei had to be cautious.

”Are you done talking?” Xu Hei stared at Zhao Nanqi, speaking calmly.