The Vanishing Green Snake

Xu Yunxin didn't know how he walked in. There were two big men guarding the door, but he still managed to shout in that same way.

He entered the courtyard, went around the screen wall, and found a pavilion in the center of the courtyard. Uncle Fu and Yue Shaohua were writing and calculating inside the pavilion.

Upon seeing Xu Yunxin arrive, Yue Shaohua reacted as if she had seen a savior. She threw down the notebook she was holding, rushed out of the pavilion, and shouted to Xu Yunxin, "Young Master Xu, I'm resigning from this position as elder!"

"Huh? Why did you quit?"

Xu Yunxin asked, feigning confusion.

Yue Shaohua immediately poured out her grievances, saying that she was so busy all day that she was dizzy, and she hadn't even refined a single pill. The worst part was that she hadn't finished her work yet!

"Shaohua, let me ask you a question. Do you still have any spiritual herbs for alchemy? Are the spiritual herbs you usually use for alchemy easy to prepare?"

Yue Shaohua shook her head and said, "The town is in dire straits, and it's very difficult to gather medicinal herbs. Usually, Sister Ping and I would go to places far, far away outside the town to collect herbs. But since the town has been harassed by the 'Yellow Armored Violent Scorpion,' we haven't been able to collect herbs for a long time."

The conditions in the Thousand Lakes Wasteland are harsh, and going out to collect herbs is definitely not an easy task.

Xu Yunxin added, "Shaohua, the town is newly established, and we have to make decisions on everything, so we're quite busy. But today's work must not be as strenuous as going out to collect herbs."

Yue Shaohua shook his head again.

"Then Shaohua, think about it again. Are you doing what you're doing now for yourself? Or for me?"

"Of course not. You did it for this town, for everyone living in Qingxi Town, to ensure everyone has good food and clothing, to help everyone become stronger, and even more so to resist monsters and the Southern Barbarians!"

Yue Shaohua nodded emphatically!

"Look, as long as we all work together with one heart and one mind for the good of the town, Qingxi Town will definitely prosper. Once the town prospers, there will naturally be production, and we will be able to earn more spirit stones."

"The spirit stones earned in the town will definitely be handed over to you and Uncle Fu for management. After obtaining the spirit stones, can you use them to buy spirit plants and herbs?"

"With spiritual plants and herbs, you can start refining pills again, right?"

"So, the reason you're anxious about not being able to refine pills is that you're already on the path to preparing to refine pills, so you really don't need to rush."

After Xu Yunxin finished speaking, he looked at Yue Shaohua with a sincere expression.

Yue Shaohua thought about it again and again, but still felt that something was wrong.

Seeing this, Xu Yunxin immediately said to Uncle Fu, "Uncle Fu, I've said it before, no matter how busy you are, you must take care of yourself. It's so late at night, and the wind and sand are so strong outside. How can you handle things in this pavilion? From now on, whatever matters you need to handle, you and Miss Shaohua can do them in my room!"

After saying that, Xu Yunxin smiled and said to Yue Shaohua, "I have a 'Spirit Gathering Array Plate' in my room; it's very comfortable inside!"

After finally persuading Yue Shaohua, Xu Yunxin called Uncle Fu aside and gave him a special lecture, telling him to treat the little girl better, and to use things like "Yellow Armored Violent Scorpion" meat and "Spirit Gathering Array Plate" when necessary, and to let her eat them when she wanted!

If Yue Shaohua has any requests, try your best to fulfill them; if you really can't, promise to find a way to fulfill them in the future.

After confirming that Uncle Fu had listened, Xu Yunxin went to the mushroom house to check on the red mushrooms he was growing.

After a day of growth, the red mushrooms in the mushroom house have grown considerably, and their color has deepened, with the stems turning slightly reddish.

Now that Xu Yunxin has advanced to the second level of Qi Refining, his spiritual power is even stronger, so he uses the red mushrooms in the spiritual mushroom room to nurture him again.

Nourished by his spiritual energy, the red mushrooms are thriving even more. If this continues, even without the next step of [Destiny: Natural Growth], the time it takes for these red mushrooms to grow will be greatly shortened.

After taking good care of the red mushrooms, Xu Yunxin returned to his room to help Uncle Fu and Yue Shaohua with town affairs.

The three of them were busy until midnight before they managed to sort out the affairs of the town and set short-term goals.

Next, all you need to do is work hard towards this goal.

After seeing Yue Shaohua off, Xu Yunxin told Uncle Fu about the strange things that happened at the summit. When he mentioned the suspected second-tier demonic beast, Uncle Fu was startled and kept blaming himself for not being with the young master.

If something were to happen to the young master, wouldn't that be the death of his own son?

Xu Yunxin managed to calm Uncle Fu down after much persuasion, and they agreed to go to Qifeng Mountain to explore again the next morning.

Silent all night.

The next morning, Xu Yunxin and Uncle Fu went out. Just in case, Xu Yunxin asked Yue Yinping for help and brought along all six of her trained black dogs.

Seeing that there was an outing, Yue Shaohua insisted on joining, and in the end, the strongest four people and six dogs in Qingxi Town were all present, heading towards Qifeng Mountain in a grand procession.

Although the six black dogs trained by Yue Yinping were not strong in combat, it would take three of them to fight a mid-grade first-level female "Yellow Armor Violent Scorpion", but they had the advantage of having a very keen sense of smell and hearing, and these dogs also had the ability to sense threats.

Although this ability is sometimes accurate and sometimes inaccurate, it is enough if it is accurate even once.

Because Xu Yunxin's description was so vivid, the four of them did not let their guard down.

Due to the unique nature of Qifeng Mountain, they first reached the summit of the seventh peak, and then moved from the summit of the seventh peak along the ridge towards the summit of the third peak.

As they approached each of the third and fourth peaks, they would carefully observe the summit and only continue closer after confirming that there was no danger.

When the four people and six dogs reached the summit of the fourth peak, it was nearly noon. The blazing sun overhead was casting its intense heat, and the light was exceptionally good.

From the summit of the fourth peak, the group could clearly see the situation at the summit of the third peak.

On the summit of the third peak, apart from the large rock described by Xu Yunxin, there was nothing else, nor was there anything unusual.

Upon seeing this situation, Yue Yinping, who had been tormented all morning, was about to make a sarcastic remark, but then she remembered last night and forcibly held back her words.

After the four people and six dogs reached the summit of the third peak, they still found nothing unusual.

Yue Shaohua also said, "Snake-like monsters have no feet, but they still leave traces when they move. Young Master Xu, you said that green snake was nearly ten feet long and as thick as a bowl, so how could it have left some marks on the soil here?"

"Also, when snake-like demonic beasts inhale and exhale moonlight, their bodies constantly expand and contract, which has a certain chance of causing their scales to fall off, but there are no snake scales here."

Could what Xu Yunxin saw with his own eyes be fake?

He then instructed Yue Yinping to have the black dog carefully sniff the large rock where the green snake was coiled, hoping to detect anything unusual.

After sniffing the stone, the black dog circled around him and then kept circling back and forth, as if it had caught his scent on the stone.

After trying all methods, the four men and six dogs went to the summit of the fourth peak to keep watch until the moon was high in the sky, but they still did not find any trace of the green snake.

The green snake vanished into thin air, like morning dew.