Yu Nian opened the jade slip and quickly found the location of the spiritual plant according to the path. However, she couldn't see Qi Rongsheng and Xue Yier anywhere.
The environment here was different from when they first entered the secret realm. The lush green forest had disappeared, and rolling mountains towered in all directions.
On top of the southern peak grew a delicate and beautiful red flower, looking like a carved handicraft, exuding rich spiritual energy. The emerald - green mountains meandered and coiled, looking like a scenic painting from afar.
Yu Nian used the jade slip to call Qi Rongsheng. After a long silence, only two faint sounds of fighting and low coughs came through.
Yu Nian glanced at the residual blood on the ground and knew that a fierce battle had just taken place. There must be a divine beast guarding around a spiritual plant like this. Only by defeating the divine beast could the picker obtain the spiritual plant.
She swiped the bulletin board and found that the names of many contestants had turned gray, indicating that they had been eliminated.
Yu Nian tossed three coins high into the air. She stared at the divination result for a moment, then walked towards a huge rock without hesitation.
After walking a few dozen meters, Yu Nian squinted her eyes and finally saw Qi Rongsheng and Xue Yier in the distance, constantly fighting with a two - headed jiao in mid - air.
The air was filled with violent heat waves. Sharp and fine flying sand and gravel were flying towards them. One slight mistake would leave bloody scratches on the skin.
The bucket - thick snake body was writhing wildly. The black scales were like precious stones, reflecting a cold light under the scorching sun. The huge snake heads kept making chilling hissing sounds.
Talisman papers were flying everywhere in the air. Xue Yier dodged the thick jiao's tail with difficulty. After taking a deep breath, he threw the last high - level magical tool at the two - headed jiao.
However, the two - headed jiao seemed unharmed. It arched its body, took an attacking stance, and charged at the two of them again.
Xue Yier dodged in a hurry, but a bloody scratch appeared on his cheek. He couldn't help cursing, "Damn program team! Where on earth did they dig out this monster? They're deliberately trying to exhaust us!"
Many contestants from other groups had been hit by this jiao demon and eliminated, forced to leave the illusion. Only he and Qi Rongsheng were left.
Qi Rongsheng was also at the end of his strength. He forcefully swallowed the fishy sweetness surging in his throat and whispered, "We can't keep dragging on. This two - headed jiao is not an ordinary monster. It seems to be a branch of the ancient divine beast Zhu Jiuyin. We can't defeat it. I'll try to distract it later. You take the opportunity to leave. Only in this way can we minimize the losses of our group."
Xue Yier snorted and turned to glare at Qi Rongsheng. "Stop being so wordy. I came here with you to pick the spiritual plant. If we're going to be eliminated, we'll be eliminated together. What are we afraid of? We still have Yu Nian in our group!"
Qi Rongsheng didn't expect Xue Yier to react like this. He was stunned in disbelief for a moment, then suddenly turned his head and cursed under his breath.
"… Idiot."
At the same time, the two - headed jiao seemed to have lost its patience. Its yellow vertical pupils suddenly turned red. It swayed and stood upright, then suddenly shrank into a ball like a bent bow.
Qi Rongsheng's heart skipped a beat. He knew this was the standard action of snakes when they were about to hunt!
The next second, the huge snake head charged forward with a murderous aura, then suddenly opened its abyss - like mouth.
Qi Rongsheng and Xue Yier were exhausted and had no strength to dodge. They both closed their eyes subconsciously.
It seemed that the two of them were doomed to end up in the jiao demon's stomach and leave the competition regretfully...
However, the expected pain didn't come. The two of them opened their eyes tremblingly and saw that the jiao demon had its eyes wide open and was knocked back several meters by a powerful wave of force. There was a large charred mark on its snake head.
Qi Rongsheng and Xue Yier were stunned. Not far away, Yu Nian was casually tossing a ball of talisman fire and walking forward step by step.
While they were overjoyed, they hurriedly shouted, "Don't come over! This is not an ordinary jiao demon. It's a descendant of Zhu Jiuyin!"
Yu Nian raised her eyebrows slightly. Zhu Jiuyin was a kind of venomous snake in ancient times. People in the era of Emperor Shun often used this kind of thing to refine oil for making candles. It had been almost extinct thousands of years ago. The program team really had the ability to find this monster.
At the same time, the two - headed jiao noticed Yu Nian. It instantly became extremely angry. Its cold red vertical pupils stared at Yu Nian venomously. Its body swayed violently and it coiled and charged towards Yu Nian.
The blinking speed of humans is about 200 milliseconds. In the same amount of time, a snake can complete 4 attacks. If one was caught in the snake's body, they would surely break a few ribs and suffocate to death.
Seeing that Yu Nian was in danger, Liu Mo instantly transformed into his original form and rushed in front of Yu Nian. A snake and a jiao instantly got into a fierce fight. The two huge tails constantly whipped the mountainside, instantly knocking down countless gravels.
Both Liu Mo and the jiao demon were pitch - black and similar in size. For a moment, it was hard to tell who was who.
However, this was after all the territory guarded by the two - headed jiao. Liu Mo was faintly at a disadvantage.
Yu Nian frowned and recalled Liu Mo by whispering an incantation.
The jiao demon was extremely cunning. It took the opportunity to bend down and bite Yu Nian. Its huge snake body coiled around her. For a moment, her white clothes fluttered, and then everyone could no longer see Yu Nian.
Xue Yier and Qi Rongsheng's pupils shrank suddenly. They rushed forward desperately to try to rescue Yu Nian from the snake's body. The judges outside the secret realm also had different expressions.
Some were regretful, while others were gloating.
Zhuge Fangyuan was extremely happy. He thought Yu Nian was so powerful, but wasn't she still dead in the jiao demon's stomach?
However, why didn't the system announce Yu Nian's elimination message?
The next second, Xue Yier and Qi Rongsheng smelled a strong smell of grease in the air. They saw that the jiao demon's body instantly froze in place, and thick white smoke came out from its seven - inch point.
After a "hissing" sound, a talisman paper carrying a fierce flame exploded in the jiao demon's abdominal cavity. A dazzling white light burst out from its body, and everyone had to cover their eyes.
The jiao demon let out a shrill roar and wriggled painfully for a while.
Finally, with a soft "plop" sound, the jiao demon fell to the ground lifeless.
A mechanical voice sounded, announcing the final victory.
[Yu Nian killed the jiao demon and successfully picked the spiritual plant.]
Xue Jinyan looked up in a daze. "This..."
Not far away, Yu Nian walked out of the depths of the fire, looking calm.
Even though the remains of the jiao demon were flying everywhere behind her, Yu Nian didn't even look back.
"Let's go."
Xue Yier and Qi Rongsheng stared at Yu Nian in disbelief, looking her up and down. They were shocked to find that she was unharmed.
"How... How did you do it?"
Yu Nian patted the dust on her sleeves and said calmly, "The body of this kind of snake has a very high oil content and is extremely flammable. The ancients often hunted it to make candles."
Just as her voice fell, the red spiritual plant that was unreachable above the cliff floated down gently and then obediently lay in Yu Nian's hand.