Serpent Ancestor

Chapter 40: Meeting an acquaintance in a foreign land

"According to our agreement, you should get half of these things," Xu Hei said coldly.

Hei Huang was taken aback, then forced a laugh, "Haha, there's no need for that. I don't need these."

Feeling uneasy under Xu Hei's gaze, he turned to leave.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, Xu Hei lunged at him with his mouth wide open.

"Ah! Stop, let's talk this out!"

Hei Huang screamed repeatedly, using both hands and feet to hold Xu Hei's jaws apart.

"You old dog, hand over the Spirit Stones!"

"Stop, stop!"

"…"

After a fierce struggle, Hei Huang finally spat out ten Spirit Stones, giving half to Xu Hei.

Xu Hei saw through this old dog.

Damn it! Too greedy! Even scams his own people.

He wasn't even sure if these ten Spirit Stones were all of them.

"Xu Hei, I'm doing this for your own good. You're still young. Why do you need so many Spirit Stones? I'm saving them for you to use in critical moments," Hei Huang said earnestly.

Xu Hei couldn't be bothered to argue. He took out a large pile of jade slips and began to probe them with his Divine Sense. These human knowledge records were what he craved the most.

After a short while, Xu Hei skimmed through them and took out one jade slip, placing it in front of him.

"Wooden Puppet Clone."

This jade slip recorded the method to refine a Wooden Puppet Clone.

The old dog had mentioned before that clones were divided into different levels.

The weakest Paper Puppet Clone only had the strength of the Qi Refining Stage and would burn away easily.

The Wooden Puppet Clone was also weak, only slightly stronger than the Paper Puppet Clone, but it had the advantage of being able to perfectly imitate the original, in terms of aura and Divine Sense. Unless one had extraordinary vision, it was hard to tell the difference.

Above that, there were Stone Puppet Clones, Flesh and Blood Clones, and the strongest, the External Incarnation.

Hei Huang glanced at the jade slip and mocked, "What's the use of this Wooden Puppet Clone? It's just for scaring people. Don't cultivate this. I recommend a type of clone that, if practiced well, can be even stronger than the original!"

"What?" Xu Hei quickly asked.

"Puppets!" Hei Huang's eyes gleamed as he spoke, "Puppet techniques are one of the six arts of cultivation. The Heavenly Puppet Sect, the number one sect in the Qin Kingdom, are experts in this."

"It's said that their puppets are stronger than their masters, feel no pain, have physical bodies comparable to Demonic Beasts, and come in large numbers. Releasing a hundred or eighty at once, who can compete with them in the same Realm?"

Listening to Hei Huang's boasting, Xu Hei's mind was filled with vivid images.

In a battle, without hesitation, releasing a hundred or eighty puppets to gang up on the opponent, wouldn't that be exhilarating?

Xu Hei swallowed and muttered to himself, "Then in the future, if I see people from the Heavenly Puppet Sect, I should avoid them."

Hei Huang: ???

Isn't the normal thought process to join if you can't beat them? Xu Hei, this coward, his first thought is to run away.

He was speechless.

"Xu Hei, ahead at the border of the Qin Kingdom, there's a small frontier town. Let's go there to buy some body-tempering herbs and some nourishing Demonic Beast meat," Hei Huang suggested.

Xu Hei didn't think much and nodded.

Body tempering consumed a lot, requiring large amounts of meat daily. Hunting alone could no longer suffice.

The two demons traversed mountains and rivers, continuing forward for fifty miles.

Gradually, a misty scene appeared ahead, revealing a large river running north to south.

Yanluo River, its waters swift and turbulent, even wild geese couldn't cross it. Low-level cultivators couldn't fly over it either, relying only on ferries.

On the other side of Yanluo River was the Qin Kingdom.

Hei Huang took out a black robe and a bamboo hat, covering himself tightly, and walked upright to the dock.

The ferryman at the dock glanced at Hei Huang, puzzled, but said nothing.

However, a piercing voice came from the boat.

"Hey, where did this little dwarf come from? This height, barely a meter tall, right?"

"Hahaha! Maybe the strong wind on the river will blow him away!"

The crowd on the boat burst into laughter.

These people were shirtless, their bodies covered with tattoos of fierce beasts, large knives at their waists, and ferocious faces. They were likely from a nearby gang or bandits.

Other passersby also looked at Hei Huang, guessing what kind of body was under the black robe, probably a dwarf?

Hei Huang just snorted coldly and waved his hand.

Whoosh!

A gust of wind swept through, and the bandits who had insulted Hei Huang were immediately blown off the boat, flailing in the river.

The rest were shocked.

"My heavens, an immortal!"

"This dwarf… is actually an immortal!"

The crowd on the boat turned pale. This unremarkable dwarf was actually a cultivator, which was no small matter. No one dared to provoke him.

The ferryman became courteous, quickly inviting Hei Huang onto the boat. Hei Huang stood proudly and boarded.

Xu Hei also hid under the black robe, observing the boat's environment.

The boat was medium-sized, with two levels, capable of holding over a hundred people.

The first level was full of mortals, looking at Hei Huang with awe.

The second level had only two people, a man and a woman, both with extraordinary temperaments, never glancing below.

The woman, however, frowned slightly, glanced at Hei Huang, then looked away.

Xu Hei felt that the woman looked familiar, as if he had seen her somewhere before.

The woman, dressed in purple, seemed about sixteen, with an ethereal and refined aura. There was a faint fluctuation of Spiritual Power within her, indicating she was a cultivator.

Hei Huang sat at the stern on the first level, motionless, waiting for the boat to depart.

Gradually, more mortals boarded the boat.

Finally, a white-bearded elder, holding a horsetail whisk, boarded the ferry. The man and woman on the second level immediately stepped forward to greet him.

"Junior Qin Ye greets Elder Zhou!"

"Junior Qiu Ling greets Elder Zhou!"

The two bowed, and the white-bearded elder quickly returned the gesture, and the three went up to the second level together.

At this moment, Hei Huang and Xu Hei on the first level were stunned, their eyes wide open.

"That old man is…" Xu Hei's pupils contracted.

"Shh! You didn't see wrong, it's that old man who raises chickens!" Hei Huang gritted his teeth.

Xu Hei's heart was in turmoil.

Why was Elder Zhou from the Carefree Sect, who raised Spirit-Tail Chickens, here in the Qin Kingdom? And on the same boat, no less? What the hell?

Xu Hei instinctively wanted to leave, but Hei Huang held him back.

"Don't be impulsive. If you leave now, won't you be discovered?" Hei Huang said.

Xu Hei cursed, "Isn't your dog's nose supposed to be sharp? How could you not notice when he's so close?"

"Damn it! Who the hell remembers that old man's sour smell all day? I forgot!" Hei Huang retorted.

At this moment, Elder Zhou on the second level hadn't noticed anything unusual, sitting with the two young people, eyes closed, resting.

Hei Huang couldn't help but feel puzzled. What was this elder from the Carefree Sect in Chu Kingdom doing in the Qin Kingdom, sitting with someone who seemed like a royal prince?

He didn't want to care, as long as they didn't notice him.

If they did, he would have no choice but to kill them all. A fierce light flashed in Hei Huang's eyes.

Just then, the bandits who had been blown off the boat earlier climbed back from the shore.

They knelt by the river, kowtowing to the ferry, "Immortal, please forgive us. We didn't mean it. We deserve to die!"

As they spoke, they slapped themselves.