Huang Rong from The Return of the Condor Heroes: Brother Jing, let's get a divorce.

It was completely dark by then.

The temperature in the valley dropped to freezing.

Thick white steam rose from the surface of the cold pool.

Yang Guo, shirtless, carried the Xuan Tie Heavy Sword on his shoulder and stood barefoot on the moss-covered stones.

After a day of intense physical training, most of the bruises on his shoulders and back had faded, and his muscle lines appeared extremely solid under the firelight.

Cheng Ying straightened her pink Taoist robe and quickly walked to his side.

She looked up at the waterfall.

"The water flow is much faster at night than during the day."

Cheng Ying whispered, "If you go down now, the pulling force of the water will double."

"The snake king is injured and is most likely hiding in a cave at the bottom of the pool."

"That's where two water veins meet; the stronger the external force, the more violently it rebounds."

"If you try to cut through the water with a heavy sword, you will be the one who is exhausted first."

Yang Guo turned his head to look at her.

As Cheng Ying spoke, her fingers were subtly calculating inside her sleeve.

She wasn't just offering casual advice; the water patterns she'd seen by the fire had already deduced seven or eight parts of the hidden currents in the cold pool.

The Qimen Dunjia technique of Peach Blossom Island is based on the terrain and the flow of water.

This valley is surrounded by high cliffs on three sides. At night, the cold and damp air sinks in, causing the backflow in the pool to be even faster than during the day. Ordinary martial artists would not last more than half an incense stick's time before being swept into the crevice of the rock.

Yang Guo may seem carefree and nonchalant, but he has actually thought through these words in his mind.

He had just used the waterfall that afternoon to hone half of the heavy sword technique, and the third line of the red and black primordial energy bead in his dantian had also stabilized.

While it's possible to remain calm, the odds of winning a direct confrontation with the snake king underwater might not be as high as on land.

That beast has been entrenched here for many years and knows the waterways intimately.

"Steward Cheng, your accounting is even more detailed than that of the Xiangyang Bank."

Yang Guo raised his hand and gently brushed the tip of her nose.

"I'm going down to retrieve an inner core, and you're making it sound like I'm delivering takeout to the King of Hell."

Cheng Ying was bumped by him and took half a step back, her sleeve twitching slightly.

She didn't react, but simply lowered her voice and said, "Stop messing around."

"If the gall of the Bodhi Serpent King truly has extraordinary effects, it must also have a way to protect it."

"The reason why Senior Dugu left the snakes in this valley back then was not necessarily just for future generations to eat and practice their skills."

As soon as he finished speaking, Yang Guo's hand froze in mid-air.

He glanced back at the cold pool.

During his daytime sword practice, he noticed several very fine sword marks behind the waterfall.

The sword mark was ancient, and even after years of being washed away by water, it had not disappeared, which shows how much control the person who made the move had over the force.

If Dugu Qiubai truly left rules here, this snake king may not just be a ferocious beast; perhaps it also represents some kind of trial.

The divine eagle perched on the boulder, tilting its head to look into the pool.

Instead of urging it, it scratched at the stone surface with its claws.

Yang Guo understood a bit of what was going on and chuckled, "Brother Condor, are you also advising me against being reckless?"

"Alright, let's force it out of the water tonight. If we can kill it, we will; if not, we'll just skin it alive."

"Bosses also have to consider performance; they can't make employees work overtime to the point of exhaustion every day."

Lu Wushuang ran over at this moment, carrying a willow-leaf scimitar.

After Yang Guo neutralized the effects of the medicine in her thigh, her steps became much lighter, but as she walked faster, fine beads of sweat appeared on her forehead again.

"Husband, don't listen to your cousin's scary story."

Lu Wushuang held the knife horizontally in front of him.

"If that snake dares to show its head, you kill it with your heavy sword, and I'll finish it off from the side."

"Didn't you always say that teamwork makes the job easier?"

Yang Guo patted her head.

"Our Wushuang's words are mainly meant to boost morale."

He looked down at the scimitar in her hand.

"But don't rush to the front later."

"Those snake fangs are poisonous, and the blood may not be clean."

"If it splashes on my face, I'll have to make sure you're my wife every time I turn over in the night."

Lu Wushuang was so angry that she kicked him.

Yang Guo stepped aside and pulled her behind him.

"Kick as you like, but don't mess up your positioning."

"You are behind the fire on the left, and Butler Cheng is by the stone wall on the right."

"If there's any movement, retreat to under Brother Eagle."

"Its wings are big, so it's more reliable at blocking projectiles than the two of you."

Cheng Ying's expression relaxed slightly when she heard that he had clearly arranged their escape route.

She took out a few copper coins and held them between her fingers, then picked up a few pebbles from the ground and placed them according to the direction of the water flow.

"I'll set up a small formation first."

"It can't stop a master, but it can disrupt their footwork."

"If someone is hiding at the entrance of the valley, stepping in will cause them to deviate by three feet."

Yang Guo glanced at her and laughed, "If I had told you you had this skill, I would have had half an hour less to practice."

"Formations must take advantage of existing momentum."

Cheng Ying replied, "The yang energy hasn't dissipated during the day, the moisture hasn't condensed, and the array's core isn't stable. Now is the right time."

Yang Guo nodded and stopped joking.

This is also why he was willing to listen to Cheng Ying's rambling.

She likes to manage people, but when it comes to real issues, she acts with method and strategy.

Lu Wushuang is willing to risk her life, and Cheng Ying is good at strategizing.

The two stayed by my side, one protecting me and the other watching over things from afar, each serving a purpose.

He bent down, picked up the heavy black iron sword, and was about to walk towards the pool.

Just then, a sharp, piercing sound came from the left side of the mountain wall!

The sound was thin and piercing, cut off immediately, and after entering the ear, it could even stir the true energy in the meridians.

The flames on the campfire were suppressed by the mountain wind, and a few pieces of damp wood made a slight popping sound.

The eagle, which had been half-closing its eyes, suddenly bristled with the feathers on its neck upon hearing the commotion.

It flapped its wings suddenly, its giant claws gripping the stone surface, scraping away a patch of stone chips.

Yang Guo stopped in his tracks.

Inside the dantian, the red and black primordial energy beads rotated faster on their own, and the positive and negative Nine Yin True Qi split into two paths to protect the heart meridian in the meridians.

This shrill sound was not an ordinary musical sound; it contained internal force and echoed repeatedly through the valley.

If one's skill level is low, their breath may be disturbed, resulting in minor damage to the meridians or even fainting on the spot.

Lu Wushuang was the first to be affected.

She has only been practicing the Yi Jin Duan Gu technique for a short time, and her foundation is not yet complete.

Upon hearing this sound, a feeling of blockage occurred near the Tanzhong acupoint.

The willow-leaf dagger in her hand clattered onto the stone, and she collapsed to the ground.

"My husband... I feel a tightness in my chest."

Cheng Ying would find it even harder to cope.

Peach Blossom Island's internal energy cultivation follows the pure and spiritual path. When encountering this kind of sound-based energy cultivation that specifically disrupts one's aura, it is actually easier to be affected than by thick and powerful internal energy.

The few copper coins she had just placed swayed gently, and before the formation was even complete, they were mostly destroyed by the sound waves.

What's more troublesome is that the Qiankun Technique mark inside her body also became hot when it was impacted by external force.

Cheng Ying bit her lower lip and barely managed to hold onto the stone wall beside her.

Two copper coins fell from her sleeve and landed at her feet, but she didn't even have the strength to pick them up.

Yang Guo did not rush to find the enemy.

He took a half step back, protecting the two women behind him, then placed his left palm on Lu Wushuang's back and pointed at the air with his right hand!

A golden finger strike of the fifth-grade One Yang Finger precisely penetrated Cheng Ying's Jianjing acupoint.

Two streams of true energy were sent in separately.

The blockage of true energy in Lu Wushuang's body was cleared, and her breathing became somewhat smoother.

Cheng Ying's shoulders trembled. The restless mark in her dantian was suppressed by Yang Guo's Qiankun Technique and finally stopped causing trouble.

"Cover your ears and hold your breath!"

"Practice the Small Heavenly Circuit according to the Yi Jin Du Du technique I taught you!" Yang Guo said to Lu Wushuang in a deep voice.

Lu Wushuang nodded and quickly did as instructed.

Cheng Ying looked up at him and said in a soft voice, "This is not ordinary sonic skill; the bone flute contains snake bones."

"This person is most likely skilled in poisons."

Yang Guo hummed in agreement.

He could already smell a faint, sweet, fishy odor in the wind.

It's faint, yet it can't escape the five senses after being refined by the Nine Yin Manual.

They had killed many of the Bodhi snakes in the valley, and the scent of their corpses and blood had not yet dissipated. The fact that this person was able to follow the scent showed that he was extremely familiar with the snakes.

In other words, this person had been eyeing Snake Valley for a long time.

Yang Guo gathered his inner energy, enveloping his throat with the Nine Yin Manual, and shouted, "Playing funeral music in the middle of the night? Is your ancestral graveyard unguarded?"

"Want me to crowdfund a coffin for you?"

This shout was not intended to harm the enemy, but only to interrupt the rhythm.

The powerful innate internal energy reverberated in the valley, forcibly suppressing the sound of the bone flute.

The moment the man's music went out of tune, the aura of his hiding place was also exposed.

A low laugh came from behind the old pine tree on the left side of the mountain wall.

"So young, yet possesses such profound inner strength. No wonder he dared to touch the snakes in my valley."

As soon as he finished speaking, a man dressed in a gray-green robe walked out from behind the tree.

This person was thin and bony, with sunken cheeks and high cheekbones.

His skin had a sickly pallor, as if he had lived in a damp, dark place for a long time.

He held a white bone flute in his hand, with several small holes in the body. The edges of the holes were yellowed, as if it had been soaked in poison for many years.

He stepped on the rubble, but his clothes remained relatively still, each step precisely avoiding the copper coin formation that Cheng Ying had previously set up.

Cheng Ying's expression darkened upon seeing this.

"He understands formations."

Yang Guo gripped his heavy sword tightly and remained standing in place, not daring to step forward rashly.

If he had rushed out just now, he would have exposed Lu Wushuang and Cheng Ying behind him.

Since the other party is proficient in sound techniques and skilled in using poisons, there may be more than one person.

Moreover, the area around the cold pool is humid, and if the poisonous powder mixes into the fog, it will be impossible to guard against.

The gray-robed man stopped ten feet away and gently tapped his palm with his bone flute.

"I have been raising the Bosqu snake in this valley for seven years."

"Only three snake gallbladders are taken each year to make poison cups, and the rest are kept as blood food."

"Your arrival has cleared the room for me."

Yang Guo smiled.

"Oh, so you're a farmer."

"You should have said so earlier! I ate a few of your snakes, name your price, by weight or by the snake?"

"But your after-sales service is terrible. The snake bites people, bad review."

The gray-robed man ignored his nonsense and looked past him, his gaze greedily landing on Lu Wushuang and Cheng Ying.

Lu Wushuang felt uncomfortable under his gaze, picked up the willow-leaf dagger, and forced herself to stand up.

Cheng Ying put the scattered copper coins back into her sleeve, while her other hand quietly reached for the short sword at her waist.

Yang Guo stepped aside, once again shielding the two women behind him.

"What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a beautiful woman before?"

"You'll have to pay to watch it again."

The gray-robed man chuckled sinisterly twice.

"Excellent!"

"Although they stole my thunder, at least they brought me two top-tier cauldrons."

"This pure Yin constitution is absolutely perfect for nourishing my Myriad Poison Gu!"

The man tapped his palm with the bone flute again.

"Remember my name, lest you go to the King of Hell and not know who sent you down there."

"My name is Shen Buyan."

People in the martial arts world call me Poisonous Sound Old Man.