Seeing that the Black Toad could enhance its cultivation by absorbing deadly poison, Yuan Ming felt delighted.

The green toxic miasma inside the snake den quickly thinned, and the Single-Horned Snake King, witnessing this scene, stopped wreaking havoc. Its thick snake body slowly coiled together, its snake pupils revealing wariness.

The toxic miasma inside the snake den soon disappeared completely, with very little poison miasma remaining.

When the Black Toad finally stopped absorbing, nearly half of its inner core had turned emerald green, and it became extremely excited, as if it hadn't absorbed enough.

Yuan Ming had been worried that the Black Toad might not be able to handle absorbing too much external poison, but now it seemed that he had worried unnecessarily, as the Black Toad's ability to withstand poison far exceeded his expectations.

Besides cultivating an inner core, the demonic power-infused Demon Vine residing within the Black Toad seemed to have been injected with new vitality and had grown much stronger.

Yuan Ming merely had a thought, and a "popping" sound of rupture echoed.

More than a dozen Purple-Black Demon Vines erupted from the Black Toad's back, each one thicker than before by twice as much and covered with purple leaves, resembling a dark purple vine forest.

The Purple-Black Demon Vine was already difficult to deal with, and now its numbers had exploded, and it was even more resilient than before, possibly even formidable for ordinary Second-level Fierce Beasts.

...

On the ground above, the Single-Horned Snake King watched the ground around it with vigilance, golden light flickering on its horn on the forehead.

Just then, it seemed to sense something and its massive body darted to one side.

A dozen thick Purple-Black Demon Vines emerged from the ground, rolling towards the Single-Horned Snake King's body, but mostly missing their target, with only two vines managing to wrap around the snake king's tail.

The tips of the two Demon Vines suddenly became sharp, piercing directly through the Snake King's tough scales and into its flesh.

The Single-Horned Snake King felt a severe pain in its tail, and the demonic power inside was being sucked away by the two Demon Vines. The previously full tail visibly shriveled at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Fury and surprise mingled in the Snake King, and as it swung its head, blobs of dark green poison liquid scattered towards those Demon Vines.

A "hissing" sound arose as the parts of the Purple-Black Demon Vines that came into contact with the poison turned pitch black and swiftly decomposed and disintegrated, but they were only rotten by a small part, with the remaining vines still firmly restraining its tail, even the speed at which they devoured demonic power hardly slowed.

The Snake King's delay allowed other Demon Vines to sweep in, entangling various parts of the Single-Horned Snake King's body, with vines piercing into the Snake King.

A trace of fear flashed through the Snake King's eyes, and it struggled fiercely, spewing out poison liquid while its horn on the forehead shot out golden rays, slicing at the Demon Vines around it.

Although the Purple-Black Demon Vines feared neither the snake's poison nor the rot, and were far more resilient than before, any vine touched by the golden rays was neatly severed in two.

However, the number of Purple-Black Demon Vines had greatly increased and their regenerative abilities were extremely strong. As soon as they were cut, new vines grew out.

The Single-Horned Snake King shot out seven or eight golden rays, but the Demon Vines entangling it not only didn't decrease but increased instead. In no time, its massive snake body was gradually wrapped into a zongzi.

All the vines were crazily drawing the demonic power from the body of the Single-Horned Snake King, which increasingly found it difficult to resist. As its body shrank, it went from an initial wild struggle to a weak flicking of its head and tail at the end.

After a full half quarter of an hour, the Single-Horned Snake King had completely turned into a withered corpse, all its demonic power being swallowed by the Black Toad as if ripped away by a blunt knife.

The Black Toad had just absorbed a Second-level Middle Stage Snake King's core, and now having devoured the essence blood of a Single-Horned Snake King equivalent to a Mid-to-late stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator, its aura surged once more, pressing close to the threshold of Second-level Middle Stage.

Yuan Ming, observing the remains of the two snake kings through the soul crow, felt somewhat incredulous.

Although the Single-Horned Snake King had just gone through a fierce battle with a human, it was still a Second Rank Upper Stage Fierce Beast. Now, before this Black Toad, it seemed to have almost no power to fight back.

He couldn't help but think about re-evaluating the strength of the Black Toad Spiritual Beast in his heart.

Now that the battle in the snake den was over, the battlefield there needed to be cleaned up. There were still quite a few spiritual materials that needed to be collected from the bodies of the two snake kings, and the Black Toad was not particularly suited to doing these things.

Yuan Ming stood up, retracted the Four Directions Sealing Spirit Talisman, and made his way towards the Snake Cave.

As he rushed along, he sensed, through another soul crow, the situation with Sang Yan and the others from the Black Fire Sect.

Inside the dilapidated hall, the Yin-locking Restriction had started flickering erratically, looking like it could collapse at any moment.

Elder Gu Tu suddenly expelled a mouthful of mana, merging it into the white Jade Talisman, as his hands executed a series of seals in front of him.

His white Jade Talisman exploded with a "bang," turning into a white light arrow several feet long, striking the black light screen.

The Jade Talismans of the other four also shattered, turning into white light arrows that fiercely struck the Yin-locking Restriction.

The already precarious restriction completely collapsed, turning into countless wisps of Yin Qi dispersing, revealing the interior of the hall.

Yuan Ming hastened the soul crow closer to spy on the situation inside the hall.

In the center of the great hall lay a black coffin, with two towering blue tiger statues on either side, appearing to be grave guardian beasts.

Deeper inside the hall, there seemed to be a White Jade Platform with various bottles and jars placed on it.

That place was too far away, and the soul crow couldn't see clearly.

Yuan Ming controlled the soul crow to move closer, and Elder Gu Tu suddenly looked over, shouting loudly, "What is that!"

Startled, Yuan Ming quickly controlled the soul crow to retreat, flapping its wings and fleeing outwards.

"Trying to escape?" Elder Gu Tu flicked his finger.

A nearly invisible fine black line shot out, which was a slender as a hair Black Needle, instantly crossing a distance of more than ten yards, aiming for the soul crow's chest.

The soul crow flapped its wings to dodge to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack of the black line.

The direction of the Black Needle abruptly shifted, and it shot towards the soul crow once more, piercing directly through its left wing.

The left wing of the soul crow disintegrated instantly, causing it to fly somewhat unsteadily. Not long after it had taken flight, the Black Needle pierced through its body again, and the soul crow disintegrated completely, dissipating into a cloud of black qi that vanished without a trace.

...

As Yuan Ming sprinted, his mind suddenly buzzed, and his complexion turned a few shades paler.

The destruction of the soul crow he had dispatched resulted in considerable harm to his Soul Power.

Fortunately, he had now cultivated the Moonlight Technique to the second layer, and with the incense burner in hand, he would be able to recover after a period of nurturing.

"It seems I still underestimated the detection abilities of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator," Yuan Ming didn't stop but glanced in the direction where the soul crow had been destroyed and sped up towards the direction of the Snake King Cave.

...

Inside the great hall.

"Elder Gu Tu, what just happened?" Sang Yan asked.

"It must have been someone spying through a secret technique, with their presence extremely well concealed. I only spotted a hint of it just now," Elder Gu Tu pondered as he spoke.

"To escape your Divine Sense, they must be no ordinary Qi Refinement Cultivator," Sang Yan said.

"Could it be Bai Ye or Huan Shi?" The black-clad girl, who didn't get along well with Sang Yan, didn't argue with him this time, instead raising the possibility.

"It doesn't seem like tactics those two would use, it's probably someone else," Sang Yan said.

"No matter who it is, you go in and retrieve the items first, I'll stand guard here! Remember to be quick!" Elder Gu Tu immediately commanded, turning to face the outside.

Not daring to delay, Sang Yan and the others hastened into the hall. They examined the stone platform behind the coffin first, where vats and jars were placed, containing elixirs that, unfortunately, had become worthless over the passage of time.

The group was deeply regretful. They searched the rest of the hall in vain and eventually gathered around the black coffin. They quickly figured out the mechanism on the coffin lid and were about to open it.

"Wait."

Sang Yan raised a hand to stop the others, released a white bowl into the air above the coffin, and then signaled that they could proceed with opening.

With the sound of the mechanism turning, the heavy lid of the coffin slowly opened.

Before the group could make out what was inside the coffin, a dense black qi emerged first, emitting a nauseating stench.

"Back away!" Sang Yan shouted, retreating like lightning.

The others also withdrew hastily.

The floating white bowl immediately dove down, emitting a burst of white spirit light that enveloped the black qi.

The black qi, as if alive, surged and tried to break through, but ultimately could not escape the white light's confinement and was slowly absorbed by the white bowl. However, the once pristine white bowl slowly turned black.

"Corpse Poison! Luckily, Sister Sang Yan was prepared, or the consequences would have been unimaginable," a young man with sword-like eyebrows exhaled lightly as he spoke.

The black-clad girl looked at Sang Yan with a complex expression before turning her gaze back to the coffin.

Lying in the coffin was a corpse over seven feet tall, with a lean body and long limbs, much like a bamboo pole.

The corpse was dressed in a tattered green robe, a red jade crown atop its head, its body covered with green hair, yet its aura was exceedingly weak.

"Is this the body of the Heavenly Snake Master, the Loose Cultivator who passed away a hundred years ago? It's said that he had reached the mid-stage of Core Formation during his lifetime, but why is the aura so weak, almost like a common yin corpse?" the black-clad girl surveyed the body and said.

The others, including Sang Yan, all wore similar expressions.

They were disciples of the Black Fire Sect, which excelled in Corpse Control, and their research on corpses was profound. Even if a high-level Cultivator's remains were not intact, they would still retain some of the Cultivator's power from their lifetime and would not look like this.

With a blur of a figure, Elder Gu Tu appeared next to the coffin as well. Upon seeing the green-haired corpse inside, he also frowned.

"Could it be we are mistaken? Could this person not be the Heavenly Snake Master?" the young man with sword-like eyebrows suggested.

"Impossible, I came here following that fragmented map, which was drawn by the only disciple of the Heavenly Snake Master. It clearly marks this place as the tomb of the Heavenly Snake Master. The Yin-locking Restriction outside the hall and those abandoned elixirs are also proof. Furthermore, it is said that Heavenly Snake Master was tall and thin, which matches the corpse here. It couldn't be anyone else!" Sang Yan stated confidently.

"That fragmented map was nothing more than something you bought at a stall; who knows if it wasn't just randomly drawn by some swindler," the black-clad girl retorted with a curl of her lip.

Sang Yan's eyes darkened, ready to argue back.

"I understand now, it's the Corpse Sealing Nail!" Elder Gu Tu's voice rang out, interrupting the argument between the two.

He stood at the top of the corpse, eyes fixed on the corpse's head.

"The Corpse Sealing Nail?" Sang Yan inquired.

"The Corpse Sealing Nail is a unique Magic Artifact of the Corpse Chasing Sect from the Central Plains Chu country, used to refine corpses. As long as this nail is thrust into the Bai Hui Acupoint, it can seal all the meridians in the body, preventing any leakage of qi, and it can also make the body automatically absorb nearby Yin Qi, thereby gradually transforming and absorbing it," Elder Gu Tu explained as he moved aside the jade crown on the corpse's head to reveal a black iron nail driven deeply into its brain.

"Could it really be so easy to transform a corpse into a refined corpse?" the black-clad girl asked in disbelief as she looked at the iron nail.

For the Black Fire Sect to refine a single refined corpse, many steps and a significant amount of resources were required. To think that inserting a single nail could autonomously refine a corpse was nearly beyond imagination.

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