Chapter 29: Whip Snake

“What a thick and long… huge snake!”

Ye Rong hid behind an old pine tree. Not far from him, a large snake was slithering. This was his Trial Mission target, the Whip Snake.

Its tail was especially thick, like an iron barrel. The consequences of being hit by it were imaginable.

Ye Rong controlled the Taixuan Ice Soul Sword, striking from a distance. It drew a perfect arc and slashed the Whip Snake’s head. Before Level 50, a player only had one Weapon Slot and could only equip one Flying Sword. Using Sword Flight meant they could not attack, and attacking meant they could not use Sword Flight.

Therefore, the scene of elegantly standing in the air, waving a Flying Sword to bully monsters was impossible for now.

A wound as thick as a forearm appeared, with blood gushing out. But to the Whip Snake, this injury seemed insignificant. Instead, it enraged the creature. It flicked its tongue, glided close to the ground, and flattened the low shrubs as it charged straight at Ye Rong.

“Whoa, so fierce!”

Ye Rong used the Black Dog Nail. He planned to slowly wear down the Whip Snake’s Health Points first. However, this monster had abundant Health Points, so the damage seemed like a drop in the bucket, very minimal.

Ye Rong dodged and retreated but did not neglect controlling his Flying Sword. The Taixuan Ice Soul Sword never strayed far from the Whip Snake’s vital spot. Cold light gleamed, and blood splattered everywhere.

Dodging and avoiding the monster’s attacks was very distracting for ordinary players. It could easily cause their Flying Sword attacks to halt, leaving the sword hovering motionless in the air. Such things only happened to newbies. For Ye Rong, the Flying Sword was his most relied-upon method. Achieving this was nothing special. With a sword in hand, he could fully utilize its power, even reaching one hundred and twenty percent!

Without learning a Sword Art Form, he couldn’t rely on fixed System Sword Moves for attacks. Relying purely on his own feeling and sight, missing three out of ten strikes was already a very good result.

But in Ye Rong’s hands, out of every hundred strikes, at most five missed. The Flying Sword seemed to be guided by an invisible thread from his fingertips, moving as he wished.

In Shushan Sword Heroes, Ye Rong was one of the earliest players to propose the Free Control Style and promoted it widely. This led to all elite players later abandoning the rigid System Sword Moves and switching to the Free Control Style.

This change made Flying Swords more unpredictable and agile, offering more variations in combat. Masters of the Free Control Style could often easily defeat players of the same level within just two or three rounds.

Ye Rong was an outstanding practitioner of this style. The Taixuan Ice Soul Sword emitted a chilling cold light, each strike aimed at the Whip Snake’s vital spots. One strike even triggered the Flying Sword’s special attack effect. The entire Whip Snake was covered in a layer of frosty ice, standing still for three seconds, allowing Ye Rong to deliver a fierce series of blows causing nearly one thousand points of cumulative damage.

“This freezing effect isn’t just slowing the opponent; it completely immobilizes them, preventing any movement!”

Ye Rong was overjoyed. The System description of the Taixuan Ice Soul Sword was vague, not providing clear data. Only through personal practice could one understand it.

“One freezing effect every twenty-seven strikes, a trigger probability between three to four percent. Only by using this sword for a while can I get more accurate data.” Ye Rong calculated mentally and thought to himself.

Boom!

Apart from charging, biting, and whipping, this Whip Snake had no other attack methods. After all, it was only a Level 20 monster. Besides having a strong body and abundant Health Points, it didn’t even know a single spell, making it quite useless among its peers.

This fierce charge was swift as lightning. Ye Rong dodged swiftly. The pine tree as thick as a bucket in front of him was broken in half by the impact. The snake’s head slammed hard into Ye Rong’s chest, sending him flying like a kite with a cut string.

It took a long while before Ye Rong managed to get up from the ground, coughing incessantly. That collision nearly sent him straight to rebirth.

“Such strong attack power!”

Ye Rong felt a lingering fear. His 260 points of Qi and Blood were reduced to just over thirty by that hit. If the Whip Snake could manage one more whip strike, he would be dead for sure. However, the Whip Snake was already slumped in its own pool of blood. A cold-gleaming Flying Sword was stuck in its vital spot, pinning it firmly to the ground.

Pulling out the Taixuan Ice Soul Sword and retrieving the Black Dog Nail, Ye Rong picked up a green snake gall from the ground and let out a long breath.

“That was close. My Qi Value is already depleted. If it had lasted any longer, I would have been the one to fall first.”

The Black Dog Nail, which required continuous consumption of Qi Value, was a major drain on True Qi. Controlling a Flying Sword was the same; the decrease in True Qi was like water rushing through an opened floodgate.

Controlling a Flying Sword remotely wasn’t like randomly swinging a Peach Wood Sword before. It consumed Qi Value based on the Flying Sword’s rank, flight speed, and attack frequency. That’s why, during mid-level player PK, Qi Value was often more important than Qi and Blood.

After Ye Rong delivered his final sword strike just now, his body was completely drained. He didn’t even have enough Qi Value to launch one more sword strike.

Whip Snake gall, cool in nature, sweet and bitter in taste, could be used for medicine and alchemy.

So poor! A proper Level 20 monster, after such a life-and-death struggle, only left him with a snake gall.

Fortunately, the Whip Snake provided abundant Experience Points. Plus, Ye Rong, at Level 15, killing it meant surpassing five levels to kill a monster, granting an experience bonus reward.

His Level 15 Experience Bar directly increased by 7%. That meant killing over ten Whip Snakes would allow him to level up.

Ye Rong found a clean spot, sat down, and began meditating to recover his Qi and Blood Energy. Without sufficient recovery pills, he could only use this most primitive method to slowly recover. It was inefficient, but there was no other way.

After meditating for a long time, Ye Rong got up to search for the next Whip Snake. With his previous experience, things went much smoother. He embarked on a path of slaughter, stirring up a storm of bloodshed in the small area below the Golden Whip Cliff.

…

“Taoist Priest, I have completed the Trial Mission. Please verify.”

On the platform of the thousand-step stone staircase, a man stood before Chen Taizhen, handing in the mission. He held a three-foot-long round piece of wood in his hands.

Chen Taizhen’s eyes glowed with a blue light as he scanned it and nodded. “Indeed, you have slain enough demons. This cypress heart is also a thousand years old.”

“From now on, you are a Registered Disciple of our Qingcheng sect. From this day forward, do not forget to slay demons and monsters, considering the welfare of Cangsheng as your responsibility…”

During Chen Taizhen’s lengthy and meaningless lecture, he pointed a finger, and a layer of blue light descended upon the man. After the light faded, he wore a green robe with a green peak emblem embroidered near his left chest.

System Notification: You have learned the Qingcheng Sword Art, currently at the first level; You now have the privilege to purchase pills from the Qingcheng Alchemy Hall; You can set your respawn point on the Thousand Layer Platform…

Listening to the series of System Notification sounds, the man revealed a smile. It was none other than Ethereal Green Robe!