Chapter 217: Overlord Crow

Chapter 217: Chapter 217: Overlord Crow

Snakes were known to play dead!

Zhang Yun didn’t immediately let go. Instead, he pulled the Blood Demon Blade, widening the wound a bit more. A few seconds later, the snake’s body coiled around him began to loosen.

Zhang Yun used his longsword to flip the snake’s head. Only after confirming that the cobra was completely dead did he feel safe enough to pull its body off of him.

"Should I drink some snake blood? Maybe eat the gallbladder?" he wondered.

In Jin Yong’s novels, Guo Jing drank the blood of a snake fed with medicinal herbs, which greatly enhanced his power. Yang Guo, on the other hand, ate numerous snake gallbladders brought to him by Brother Diao, which healed his severed arm and boosted his strength.

Even in the village, Zhang Yun had heard that snake blood and gallbladders were potent tonics. When he was a kid, he used to listen to the older uncles joking that drinking snake blood would keep a man’s spear standing all night! He hadn’t understood what that meant back then. As for the gallbladder, some people would catch snakes, extract the organ, and swallow it whole. It was said to be extremely bitter, but as long as it wasn’t punctured, it was perfectly safe.

Zhang Yun poked at the carcass. Good lord, there wasn’t a pool of blood on the ground at all! Although there was still blood inside the snake, it seemed a massive amount of it had genuinely been absorbed by the Blood Demon Blade!

Smelling the metallic stench, he immediately lost interest. He wasn’t at the age where he needed tonics to keep his spear standing anyway, and his physical attributes were already far superior to those of an ordinary person.

"Forget the gallbladder too. It wouldn’t be fun if I end up poisoned," he thought. However, he could still take the snake meat back home. It would be a good nutritional boost for his dad.

Zhang Yun had come here to gather Fufeng Grass. He had grabbed his tools from the small wooden cabin, specifically a basket used for cutting fish grass. But this snake was too big and too long; it wouldn’t even fit in the basket! After a moment of thought, Zhang Yun decided to store it inside the Peach Blossom Spring Space. He could just take it out later when he reached a secluded spot at the foot of the mountain and carry it home from there.

After dealing with the cobra, he carefully examined the Blood Demon Blade again. Absorbing the blood of so many people, plus that of this cobra, made its luster much more pronounced than when he first got it. A faint red glow now coated its surface.

Back in the hotel room the other day, it hadn’t been convenient to test its cutting power. Up here on the mountain, though, it was perfect!

Zhang Yun tried using it to chop a tree branch. Because daggers were short and thin, even a very sharp one would get stuck after cutting a centimeter or two deep. They lacked the heft of a thick-backed cleaver, making longswords much more effective for chopping. But with a single swing of this blade, a branch as thick as a forearm was cleanly severed!

He then tried stabbing the tree trunk. Even though the bark and wood were made of incredibly tough, coarse fibers, the blade pierced right through! It wasn’t quite like stabbing tofu or mud, but with sustained pressure from Zhang Yun, the blade punctured entirely through the trunk. In contrast, when he had tried stabbing Yang Zhao’s sword into the bark, it got stuck in the wood and couldn’t pierce all the way through.

Zhang Yun recalled Huang Tianbi calling it an evil artifact of the Demon Sect. Since it genuinely possessed a blood-sucking ability that defied conventional science, it was bound to have other miraculous effects. However, he had no idea how to manipulate the Blood Demon Blade, so for now, he could only use it as an exceptionally sharp knife.

"This works... I can use it for chopping wood, slicing melons, and cleaving bones," he muttered.

Satisfied, Zhang Yun stowed both weapons away. After all that commotion, it was time to get back to business and continue his search for the Fufeng Grass.

Suddenly, an idea struck him!

A cobra this large might have already developed spiritual sentience. According to legends, such creatures were capable of finding Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures that could help them achieve enlightenment, standing guard until the fruit ripened.

Zhang Yun remembered how the cobra had attacked him unprovoked. Perhaps it was afraid he was there to steal its treasure! The fact that it had fled in this direction meant it might have been trying to eat a treasure to heal its injuries! Or perhaps... he had been searching high and low, only for the Fufeng Grass to be right under his nose!

Thrilled by the prospect of a miraculous encounter, he began to search the area around where the cobra died.

A dozen minutes later, Zhang Yun was deeply disappointed. The surroundings were filled with nothing but ordinary, run-of-the-mill flora. Forget Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures; there wasn’t even a single wildflower or wild berry. Naturally, the Fufeng Grass hadn’t coincidentally sprouted nearby either.

"What other options do I have?"

Zhang Yun sat down on the ground. He had been able to find ginseng seedlings quickly because, for the past two or three decades, massive numbers of people had ventured into the mountains to dig for ginseng. Relying on sheer numbers and carpet searches, they had managed to map out the growth zones. But he had absolutely no leads on this Fufeng Grass, and it was likely Zhang Lifeng didn’t either. Yet, he couldn’t just ask Zhang Lifeng to get him a stalk of Fufeng Grass and then instantly age a one-year-old plant into a ten-year-old one.

After thinking for a while, Zhang Yun decided to find some free labor!

He immediately entered the Peach Blossom Spring Space and dragged out that fat crow. He couldn’t let it just eat and do no work!

"Look closely! Memorize this! Find this type of grass for me. If you find it, I’ll let you go back inside. If you don’t, no more food for you, and I might just eat you instead!"

Holding the immobilized crow up to his phone screen, Zhang Yun made it look at the picture of the Fufeng Grass, communicating with it through his soul. With its soul under his control and its body trapped in his grasp, the crow quickly cawed in response, seemingly indicating that it understood.

"Go! Fly close to the ground and search a wide area, or else no food for you! Though I don’t even know if a fat bird like you can still fly..."

Zhang Yun opened his hand, letting it take flight. The crow flapped its wings rapidly. Being confined in the Peach Blossom Spring Space had restricted its activity, so it really did seem a bit clumsy in the air—or maybe it was just too fat...

However, Zhang Yun soon witnessed a bizarre sight!

As the crow flapped and stretched, its wings actually began to elongate and expand! It had already been about the size of a falcon, but with its wingspan now broadened, it truly bore some resemblance to a majestic eagle. Of course, its appearance was still that of a crow. It had merely mutated into a supersized crow, rather than actually turning into an eagle.

"Don’t show off! Hurry up and get to work!"

Zhang Yun threw a twig at it, shooing it away to search for the Fufeng Grass. Having the bird do it would be much easier than scouring the entire mountain himself.

The crow flapped a few times, seemingly adjusting to its new physical state, before swiftly beating its massive wings and soaring into the sky!

"CAW!"

It seemed to want to let out a regal, eagle-like screech, but unfortunately, it was just a louder version of its usual, unpleasant cawing. After circling in the air a few times, the crow likely felt an unprecedented surge of power. Thoroughly ecstatic, it suddenly swooped down toward the ground, did a loop right in front of Zhang Yun, and let out another loud caw.

What the...?

Zhang Yun was both astonished and speechless. Was it provoking him? Was it trying to say, "I’m finally free, see ya!"?

Before he could communicate with it, the damn bird spun in the air again, then shot upwards and flew off into the distance! It clearly had no intention of following Zhang Yun’s instructions to fly low and search for the Fufeng Grass. It wanted to break free from his control and never return to that space!

True, there was food readily available in there—and unprecedentedly good stuff at that, which had caused its dramatic transformation. But... give me liberty or give me death!

It was now comparable to a mighty eagle, so why should it stay locked in a cage? Naturally, it was going to return to the wilderness and become the Overlord Crow!