Chapter 354: Breakthroughs in Succession

The Snake Den.

As thread after thread of snake speech spread through the dark night wind, it quickly carried into the Snake Den, causing the curled-up venomous snakes to lift their heads one after another.

On the way here, Wangchuan had already heard Ye Baiyi explain it:

This 《Snake Control Art》 was actually not that difficult to learn. At its core, it was nothing more than repeatedly conveying things like there is food, there are enemies, or there are women and handsome men...

With the aid of drugs that excited snakes, any snakes within the general area would usually be lured out.

Only...

Ye Baiyi had never dared use 《Snake Control Art》 near a Snake Den before, because his mastery of the technique was not high enough, and he had not raised any high-level venomous snakes. He could not control the entire swarm. Once he exposed himself to these snakes, he would become prey just like anyone else.

He had also warned the boss again and again.

Near a Snake Den, it was possible to draw out a massive swarm of snakes all at once. They might even end up surrounded.

And now...

Wangchuan had seen it for himself.

With the powerful five senses granted by 《Xuanwu Art》, he could clearly “see” the growing chorus of slithering sounds rising from inside the Snake Den...

Hundreds, even thousands, of venomous snakes formed a serpent tide and began crawling toward the cave entrance.

The commotion was growing louder and louder!

Ye Baiyi swallowed hard, but seeing the boss standing at the front, he could only steel himself and continue.

Wangchuan gripped his long spear, his gaze grave.

As he stared at the swarm pouring out of the Snake Den, goosebumps rose across his body.

Although he had seen a sight like this before, now it was night...

Within the range of the torchlight, layer upon layer of venomous snakes looked like slick black floodwater, enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.

But!

He had come fully prepared this time. Taking a deep breath, he said to Zhao Heiniu, “Captain Zhao, you’re responsible for protecting Ye Baiyi.”

“Understood!”

Zhao Heiniu nodded, Hundredfold Steel Saber in hand.

Wangchuan charged forward with his spear.

In 《spirit realm》, once martial arts reached Practice Makes Perfect, they generally hit a bottleneck. To keep gaining Experience Value after that, one had to rely on real combat and killing.

That was why so many martial arts remained stuck at Practice Makes Perfect!

Now, such an opportunity was hard to come by.

Wangchuan intended to use this chance to push some of his martial arts from Practice Makes Perfect to Entry-Level Mastery, stacking up as many attribute points as possible and charging toward fourth-rank martial artist!

The long spear in his hands trembled, producing one spear tip after another...

Sensing danger approaching, one venomous snake suddenly raised its head and opened its mouth wide in an exaggerated display, hissing a threat at the rapidly closing spear.

Thrust!

The spearhead showed it no mercy. It shot forward and blew its head apart on the spot.

Two nearby venomous snakes lunged onto the shaft of the spear, intending to slither along it, but with a slight vibration of the shaft, they were flung away. Their limp bodies hit the ground and never rose again.

What a joke.

Wangchuan was a third-rank martial artist now, after all.

With 62 points of Strength, and the power unleashed through 《Green Bamboo Staff Art》, he could easily empty out a venomous snake’s HP bar.

Crack! Crack!

The long spear quivered again and again, casually smashing seven or eight nearby venomous snakes into broken, limp heaps as Experience Value surged upward.

More snakes behind them pressed forward over the corpses of their own kind and closed in on Wangchuan.

In Wangchuan’s hands, the spear seemed to come alive, shaking and shattering snake after snake. He hooked, swept, chopped, and thrust—shocking, swinging, blocking, and striking!

Dozens of venomous snakes lost their lives in an instant.

His Experience Value skyrocketed.

The serpent tide surged forward.

Wangchuan fought as he retreated.

Every time he stepped back once, he unleashed at least three or four moves and killed twenty or thirty snakes.

Before long, he heard the system prompt:

“Ding!”

“《Green Bamboo Staff Art》 has advanced from ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ to ‘Entry-Level Mastery.’ Reward: +3 Strength!”

A smile appeared on Wangchuan’s face.

At first, he had wanted to train the first-rank 《Yang Family Spear Technique》, but after asking Li Na about it on short notice, he learned that if one possessed both a first-rank spear art and a third-rank spear art, and both had reached the same realm, then even if the first-rank spear art advanced, it would no longer provide attribute points.

A breakthrough in a second-rank spear art, however, could still increase attributes.

In order not to waste the resources in his hands, Wangchuan directly began training with second-rank martial arts.

His Strength rose to 65.

Without hesitation, Wangchuan immediately changed martial arts and switched to the third-rank 《Po Jun Twelve Spear》!

The staff art became spear art!

Wangchuan had already retreated more than ten meters.

The serpent tide was still ferocious!

The long spear whirled in Wangchuan’s hands, casting out overlapping flashes of lethal edge. The spear tip moved like a sword, slicing through more than a dozen snakes in one breath.

The severed snakes fell to the ground, writhing madly in agony.

Ye Baiyi, Zhao Heiniu, and the others watched in shock.

Wangchuan’s expression did not change as he continued slaughtering them.

As he retreated, he left behind patch after patch of snake corpses.

From Practice Makes Perfect to Entry-Level Mastery only required 500 points of Experience Value.

Not long after, the system prompt rang out again:

“Ding!”

“《Po Jun Twelve Spear》 has advanced from ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ to ‘Entry-Level Mastery’! Reward: +3 Strength.”

His Strength attribute climbed like a rocket, shooting all the way up to 68.

“Stop summoning them!”

“Fall back!”

Wangchuan called for Ye Baiyi to halt 《Snake Control Art》 while switching to a Hundredfold Steel Saber and changing over to the second-rank saber art 《Crocodile-Mouth Saber Art》...

After training spear techniques, the strength-based axe techniques could no longer support further attribute gains unless he continued pushing them toward Integration.

But Wangchuan did not know exactly how many venomous snakes were still inside the Snake Den, so for now, he wanted to prioritize lower-realm martial arts first.

The reach of the Hundredfold Steel Saber, however, was far inferior to that of the long spear.

An inch shorter meant an inch more danger.

Although saber techniques were faster, and horizontal slashes and vertical cuts killed snakes more quickly, several times venomous snakes still lunged right at his face, too fast to dodge, biting into his arms and calves.

Wangchuan had activated 《Dragon-Elephant Body-Protection Technique》 early on. Even without internal energy reinforcement, once a venomous snake bit down, it was very difficult for it to break his skin.

《Blazing Leg》.

He shattered a venomous snake and retreated as his body moved backward. While still in midair, two flashes of saber light sliced through one snake body after another.

Smack.

Thud.

Snake corpses kept falling.

Blood splashed everywhere.

But even that could not halt the advance of the serpent tide.

More and more venomous snakes attacked in an unending stream.

The blade of Wangchuan’s saber was covered in snake blood.

His face, leather armor, and clothes were stained with more and more of it.

At last.

As the system prompt sounded:

“Ding!”

“《Crocodile-Mouth Saber Art》 has advanced from ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ to ‘Entry-Level Mastery’!”

Wangchuan’s eyes turned cold.

Hm?

No attribute increase?

Damn it.

He did not complain. Without breaking stride, he switched immediately to the third-rank 《Parting-Waters Saber Art》.

The venomous snakes continued to press in, leaving one bite mark after another on his body.

Wangchuan paid them no mind.

《Dragon-Elephant Body-Protection Technique》 ensured that he would not be harmed by venomous snakes with only Quasi-Martial Artist strength. As long as venom did not spray into his eyes and poison him, there was nothing to worry about.

He retreated all the way to fifty meters outside the Snake Den.

Looking ahead, the ground before him was densely packed with venomous snakes, forming a slick black river.

Ye Baiyi, Zhao Heiniu, and the others had already fallen back, calmly widening the distance as they cleaned up the stray snakes that had slipped through and been lured out by 《Snake Control Art》 behind them.

In just a few dozen breaths...

“Ding!”

The system prompt sounded: “《Parting-Waters Saber Art》 has advanced from ‘Practice Makes Perfect’ to ‘Entry-Level Mastery.’ Reward: +3 Agility.”

Wangchuan let out a breath of relief.

What should he train next?

Fist techniques?

Or should he push his sword art, saber art, and spear art toward a higher realm instead?

After only a brief hesitation, he thought of one martial art—

《Snake-Driving Staff Art》.