CHAPTER 364: CHAPTER 364: YELLOW SPRINGS GHOST-FACED SERPENT

Several people discussed strategies overnight and finally decided to disperse the Secret Spirits near the River of Flames; otherwise, if they regroup, it would pose a significant threat to the Qilin Mountain Range.

Risk comes with opportunity. If the Phoenix King is truly about to lay eggs, this might be the best chance to eliminate the Phoenix King.

Act early to avoid complications later. They plan to take action on the River of Flames tomorrow to complete their final mission.

No words were exchanged during the night, and by early morning, the entire corps was ready to move out.

After the battles of recent days, the morale of the troops has changed considerably. Besides gaining more combat experience, they are increasingly resembling a cohesive unit.

With Chen Guan’s command, the troops launched an attack on the River of Flames.

The pet corps took the lead. Since true human-pet coordination couldn’t be achieved, they could only use pets for combat in this manner.

Unlike Leng Zhe’s confidence and boldness, Shi Zhimen preferred prudence, regarding pet sacrifices as acceptable as long as they were worthwhile.

Moreover, after these battles, the soldiers had more and more pets on hand; some lucky ones even managed to acquire more than a dozen pets.

Of course, there were also the less fortunate who didn’t manage to get any pets, but that was rare, as most had acquired several good pets.

The Secret Spirits left near the River of Flames still numbered close to one hundred thousand, but the Third Awakening’s proportion was minimal. As the corps advanced, it was a sweeping and unstoppable push.

In less than a day, the Secret Spirits near the River of Flames were either dead or fled, basically leaving no Secret Spirits nearby.

Chen Guan finally saw the white bones they had mentioned. Upstream of the River of Flames, where the river was seven to eight hundred meters wide, for some reason, there were few of those blood-red algae, allowing one to see directly to the riverbed through the clear water.

The riverbed was piled with Secret Spirit bones, as if the entire river was paved with bones, and no one knew how thick the bones were.

"Let’s go, let’s check upstream where it should be close to the Phoenix’s lair." After allowing the troops a short rest, Chen Guan continued upstream.

They wanted to see what the Phoenix was all about. If the Phoenix King were truly laying eggs, now would be a golden opportunity to eliminate the Phoenix King and rid the Qilin Corps of future troubles.

The corps advanced seventy or eighty miles and saw a large number of red giant trees on both banks of the River of Flames. Each tree was one to two hundred meters high, with trunks frighteningly thick.

One by one, the giant trees stood closely together along the riverbank, countless in number.

Amongst these giant trees, one was even larger, towering over the others like a giant, standing out amid the giant forest.

Chen Guan and his group noticed that almost every giant tree had one or two Phoenixes perched atop.

They stood quietly on the branches, their eyes fixated on the River of Flames, like ornamental sculptures, motionless.

"If there’s a Phoenix on every tree in this giant forest, wouldn’t the number of Phoenixes exceed one hundred thousand?" Chen Guan was astounded.

The Phoenixes are all level 30 Secret Spirits, and it’s tough to find even a level 29 one.

With a hundred thousand level 30 Phoenixes, their corps might be utterly unmatched, and killing them would be a mere fantasy.

Chen Guan was already contemplating retreat and was secretly relieved: "When we were clearing the Secret Spirits from the River of Flames earlier, if these Phoenixes had turned out in full force, our success would have been dubious; even escaping with our lives would have been questionable."

No one expected there to be so many Phoenixes, and they were all deeply shocked.

"What are those Phoenixes watching?" Bai Yueguang stared at the river surface and said, other than bones, there seemed to be nothing else at the riverbed.

"Forget about it, the Phoenixes are beyond us, we’d better retreat first." Zhang Yujian, experienced and cautious, was somewhat worried, fearing that if they alarmed the Phoenixes, withdrawing unscathed wouldn’t be easy.

As he was contemplating, suddenly the sound of rushing water was heard coming from upstream.

The water flow of the River of Flames wasn’t particularly swift at first, but now there appeared giant waves coming upstream, as if a massive flood had occurred.

"Woo..." The Phoenixes, which had been standing still on the branches like sculptures, suddenly emitted strange cries and collectively took to the skies.

For a moment, the sky was covered in fiery red, leaving no other color in view.

Countless Phoenixes seemed to become a canopy of red, covering the entire sky.

Everyone was even more aghast; the number of Phoenixes appeared more than they initially estimated.

They were all startled, thinking that the Phoenixes had discovered them and were about to attack.

But before they could order to fight, they saw the Phoenixes advancing towards the waves. Each Phoenix dove towards the waves, extending claws to grab something from within.

Strange Secret Spirits were grabbed from the waves by the Phoenixes, directly lifted to the sky and tossed around for pecking.

Chen Guan and the others saw very clearly that the waves were not water waves but Secret Spirits rushing out in droves like a tidal wave.

The Secret Spirits looked peculiar, with bodies resembling snakes but with what seemed like a human face on their heads.

"That’s... the Ghost-faced Serpents of the Yellow Springs... how could there be so many..." Zhang Yujian was taken aback, his face turning pale.

The faces of Chen Guan and the others were also not looking any better.

The Ghost-faced Serpent, also known as the Water Ghost of the Yellow Springs, is a famed Secret Spirit in the Yellow Springs River.

This extremely dark Secret Spirit usually resides at the bottom of the Yellow Springs River. If someone or a Secret Spirit accidentally falls into the river, it silently entangles the person or Secret Spirit.

People bitten by the Ghost-faced Serpent have their minds controlled by it.

The Ghost-faced Serpent enters through the mouth into the person or Secret Spirit’s body, using it as a vessel to orchestrate killings all around, much like a water ghost seeking a substitute, hence the moniker Water Ghost of the Yellow Springs.

Being controlled by a Ghost-faced Serpent, a person or Secret Spirit is indistinguishably normal at first glance and can easily infiltrate crowds, launching a clandestine massacre.

However, those controlled by Ghost-faced Serpents exhibit some subtle signs, but they require a keen eye to detect.

Earlier, when Old Mo taught Chen Guan to fish by the Yellow Springs River, he mentioned that the Ghost-faced Serpents were one of the seven great perils of the Yellow Springs River.

Fortunately, along the Qilin Mountain Range’s stretch, the number of Ghost-faced Serpents is minimal, posing no significant threat.

But now, seeing these densely packed Ghost-faced Serpents swarming like ocean waves, everyone felt a chill down their spine.