Serpent Ancestor

A snake and a dog quickly left the inn and Linjiang City, arriving at a secluded spot by the river. Within a ten-mile radius, there wasn't a trace of human presence.

Afterward, they happily divided their spoils, strictly adhering to their fifty-fifty plan.

Hei Huang took out a large amount of pills and demonic beast meat, all beneficial for Xu Hei's cultivation. Their value was over a hundred spirit stones, enough to sustain Xu Hei for half a year.

He also promised never to hold back again.

Xu Hei didn't believe a word of it. This old dog suddenly became so powerful; who knows how many good things he's hiding?

However, Xu Hei still took out the three treasures from Zhao Yiduo.

A broken copper bell, a set of silver soft armor, and a pile of metal materials for making puppets.

"These are the items Zhao Yiduo dropped. I burned his storage bag, and only these were left," Xu Hei said.

Hei Huang picked up the copper bell. It had three scratches on it, almost cutting it in half, clearly caused by those scales.

The silver soft armor was Zhao Yiduo's personal inner armor.

"An inferior-grade spiritual treasure! What a good find!" Hei Huang exclaimed in surprise as he picked up the armor.

A spiritual treasure is a magical treasure used by Foundation Establishment cultivators. An inferior-grade spiritual treasure means this armor can defend against early Foundation Establishment attacks.

However, Zhao Yiduo's insufficient cultivation meant the armor couldn't cover his entire body, and Xu Hei's relentless attacks burned it to ashes.

Xu Hei thought for a moment and asked, "Can you modify it so I can wear it?"

Hei Huang glanced at Xu Hei and laughed, "When you reach Great Perfection in the Spirit Communion Stage, you might barely be able to use it. For now, forget it."

As he spoke, he put the armor on himself. The silver inner armor flashed and fit him perfectly.

"Damn it..."

Xu Hei almost couldn't resist the urge to bite him.

Hei Huang quickly took out a large pile of puppet mechanism beasts and said, "I'll give you all these puppets. Is that enough?"

Xu Hei glanced at them. The mechanism beasts included lizards, toads, and birds, all used by Yu Qiang. As for their effectiveness, he would have to find out for himself.

"I'll also use this black gold stone to make you an ultimate puppet and strengthen all your puppets as compensation. Is that enough?" Hei Huang pointed at the pile of metal materials.

Xu Hei gritted his teeth and reluctantly nodded in agreement.

Hei Huang also took out the collected treasures. After some haggling, Xu Hei decided to convert everything into spirit stones, receiving forty-six in total.

The division of spoils was successfully completed.

In fact, Xu Hei had kept one thing to himself: a black jade stone the size of a fingernail.

Xu Hei felt this was probably the most valuable item on Zhao Yiduo and wanted to study it himself.

"This old dog is so cunning, he must be hiding something. Damn it, I need to learn from him and not be too honest," Xu Hei thought to himself.

On their way back, with Zhao Yiduo's sail, they didn't need a boat. They could make a bamboo raft to return.

The trip to Linjiang City had yielded enough resources to sustain their cultivation for more than half a year, enough for Xu Hei to break through to the late Spirit Communion Stage.

...

At this moment, far beyond the Qin Kingdom, in the distant center of the continent.

A middle-aged man, looking ordinary and like a mortal, sat in front of a grass hut. His appearance was strikingly similar to Zhao Yiduo, though slightly older.

Suddenly, his eyes flickered with a strange light.

"My external incarnation, out training, has fallen again."

The middle-aged man lowered his head, calculated with his fingers, and scenes flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern.

These scenes were what his incarnation had seen before its death.

Losing an incarnation was nothing new, but he always summarized the lessons from each death to be more cautious next time and avoid the same mistakes.

"Didn't even see the killer's face. How peculiar."

The middle-aged man frowned. In his view, his incarnation's actions had no flaws, yet it still died.

Moreover, after its death, the opponent's attacks continued until the lingering divine sense completely dissipated.

Being a cautious person himself, he created numerous incarnations to train and summarize the lessons from each death.

Today, he found someone even more cautious than himself, and he couldn't help but admire this hidden killer.

He felt a sense of camaraderie.

Suddenly, the middle-aged man's eyes narrowed as he saw three strange black-gold scales in the scenes.

These scales had pierced through the seemingly indestructible defenses of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

"What is this?"

The middle-aged man's pupils suddenly contracted.

...

A day later.

Hei Huang found a suitable place for long-term cultivation in the forest on the northern bank of Yanluo River.

It was an abandoned spirit mine, depleted five hundred years ago and untouched for centuries.

"I've checked. This is the place with the densest spiritual qi within a fifty-mile radius. We'll cultivate here for now."

Hei Huang dug a hole with his paws, creating a small cave dwelling.

Xu Hei entered the cave dwelling and spread out his divine sense. Deep underground, he vaguely found some remnants from the past—almost disintegrated mine carts, near-fossilized human skeletons, and some mining tools.

Although the spirit stones had been mined out, the spiritual qi here was still denser than elsewhere.

Xu Hei took out a large vat, filled it with clear water, and sprinkled in some red medicinal powder.

Moments later, the water in the vat turned red, with faint signs of boiling.

"Shaoyang Powder, a top-grade pill for tempering the physical body and refining bones. It's an extremely rare body-tempering spirit medicine, worth twenty spirit stones for just a little bit."

Xu Hei took a deep breath and leaped into the vat.

His skin immediately turned crimson, and his muscles ached intensely. The pain was far stronger than being hundreds of meters underground.

For better effect, Xu Hei used ten times the amount a human would use.

"The first body tempering is the most effective. Don't pass out," Hei Huang said with a smile.

Xu Hei certainly wouldn't pass out. His willpower was a hundred times stronger than the average person's!

Before long, a layer of old snake skin shed from Xu Hei's body, turning to ash in the medicinal water. He hadn't shed his skin during his last breakthrough, so this made up for it.

Xu Hei could clearly feel his physical strength increasing, matching his cultivation level and continuing to grow.

Bones grew, meridians toughened, muscles expelled impurities, and every inch of flesh rapidly strengthened.

This body tempering lasted a full week.

A week later.

The water in the vat had evaporated, leaving only a pile of black sludge, the impurities expelled from Xu Hei's body.

His body had changed, growing to about three meters long.

Despite the increased length, Xu Hei felt he could shrink at will.

"Shrink!"

With a thought, his bones crackled, and his body shrank by a third, returning to its original two meters.

"Keep going!"

Xu Hei continued to shrink, reducing his length to one meter, his limit.

He exhaled and returned to three meters.

He crawled around the cave dwelling, moving swiftly, the sound of wind breaking constantly, stirring up dust.

"Controlling my physical body at will, my strength and speed have increased more than threefold!" Xu Hei thought, stopping his body.

His cultivation level hadn't changed, still at the peak of the sixth layer of the Spirit Communion Stage, but his strength was incomparable to before.

The black-gold scales on his tail had grown to thirty, gradually spreading to his torso, no longer confined to his tail.

Xu Hei speculated that when his physical body reached Great Perfection in the Spirit Communion Stage, the scales might cover his entire body.

How would his strength change then?

At the very least, anyone wanting to harm him would have to break through his scales first.

Xu Hei took out a piece of demonic beast meat and swallowed it. Looking around, he spread his divine sense but didn't find the old dog.

His eyes flashed as he took out the black jade stone and examined it closely.

The jade's deep color seemed to swallow light, casting a dim aura around it. This was Zhao Yiduo's relic, and Xu Hei instinctively felt it was a valuable treasure.

Xu Hei extended his divine sense into it, and even his divine sense was absorbed.

"What is this..."

Xu Hei was startled, stepping back a few meters, staring at the jade with some hesitation.

After a moment, he gathered his courage and continued to probe with his divine sense.

As his divine sense delved deeper, the jade seemed like a bottomless pit, infinitely extending, which amazed Xu Hei.

Finally, after his divine sense reached a hundred meters, he encountered a barrier.

He couldn't go any further; Xu Hei's divine sense was only a hundred meters long.

Xu Hei tried a different direction and found he could go up or down, not just forward.

"Could it be..."

Xu Hei gasped, a bold guess forming in his mind, "Is this a massive storage space, a hundred meters in length, width, and height?"