After the sword cultivator clone separated from the Scripture Storage Valley’s group, he first took out the map and confirmed the direction before traveling on the flying sword.
His goal was clear. After a night of sleep, his energy was restored. After flying for a few days, he arrived at the region where mortals like himself had gone on a journey to seek immortality.
He even recognized the location where the Immortal Ascension Pavilion’s convoy was stationed when they were attacked by the Scaled Demons!
Continuing forward, he quickly found a river. After flying for a long time, a place resembling the Redwood Forest Swamp appeared ahead.
It was currently nighttime. The bright moonlight shone down, penetrating the layers of green leaves in the forest. Finally, only a small amount of light shone on the water surface, forming several spots of light.
The flying sword retracted the flames and gradually lowered its height. Jiang Li controlled the sword cultivator clone to quickly enter the treetop silently. He stepped on the flying sword and agilely shuttled through the forest.
In this kind of swamp terrain, the air quality was not much better, and everywhere was filled with an unpleasant stench of decay.
However, as Jiang Li moved forward, a faint stench entered his nose. The indescribable smell gave him a familiar feeling.
His main body was thousands of miles away. He touched the scar that had long disappeared on his shoulder and recalled a creature that looked like a human girl regardless of whether it was male or female.
Scaled Demon!
This time, Jiang Li had two main reasons for letting out his sword cultivator clone.
First, he would try to return to the Shu Mountain Five Elements Peak and secretly learn the cultivation method manuals of the number one sect in the Great Mountain Region.
Second, he would continue to investigate the matter of the spiritual root seed and attempt to expose this plot as a Shu Mountain disciple.
After all, the betrayal of Elder Duan Shuang had already indicated that the spiritual root seed could control high-level cultivators. Then, there was very likely an extremely terrifying puppet network hidden behind this matter.
If his main body was exposed, he might be rewarded by the sect and be in the limelight. However, at the same time, he might also face the threat of the parasitic cultivators hidden behind the scenes.
The enemy was likely stronger than him and hidden in the dark. A backhanded sneak attack could end his transmigration life.
So, after thinking about it, Jiang Li temporarily gave up on the intention of letting his main body take the risk. The gains simply did not make up for the losses.
The sword cultivator clone’s destination was the white-haired Scaled Demon tribe that year.
Through Yan Hong’s connection with the Immortal Ascension Hall, he successfully obtained information about the location of the Scaled Demon Tribe.
At that time, the way that the Scaled Demon spat out the spiritual root seed was different from all the cultivators Jiang Li had seen later on.
Although its hair had turned white, it was not unconscious or on the verge of death. It could still survive for a long time!
Moreover, when a group of Scaled Demons attacked the campsite at that time, besides rescuing their own kind, Jiang Li felt that they mostly wanted to retrieve the spiritual root seed. This meant that this Scaled Demon tribe might very well know some secrets about the spiritual root seed.
At this moment, Jiang Li suddenly lowered his foot and raised it up, causing the tip of the flying sword under his foot to be raised up. It looked like a technical action resembling a skating board maneuver as he suddenly stopped.
In front of him stood several clay spears planted in the ground. The spears were crudely made from sharp wooden sticks, but on the spears, they pierced through the air as if through a gourd, each having seven or eight heads!
In fact, the top few heads were still relatively fresh. The remaining flesh and blood had not rotted completely.
He stood on his flying sword and frowned as he stared at the wooden spears!
“The guts of these vile animals… how dare they!”
They treated the heads of humans as decorations and stuck them near their territory to showcase the strength and honor of their tribe. This kind of behavior instantly infuriated Jiang Li.
They really were not of the same race! When Jiang Li was still a mortal back then, he even felt some pity when he saw those captured Scaled Demons.
Now, it seemed that he was really too naive and innocent.
Previously, he had thought that their young girl’s appearance was beautiful, so it was a pity to kill her directly.
However, after thinking about it, the Scaled Demon’s disguise as a beautiful human girl was clearly meant for capturing humans.
These creatures that looked like young girls mainly ate humans as their diet.
If not for the presence of a large number of human cultivators, who often slain demons and devils, limiting the range of activity of these other dangerous races, humanity would be in deep trouble already.
Stepping on the flying sword, Jiang Li continued forward.
In next to no time, a Scaled Demon Tribe built on tree roots appeared before Jiang Li.
“A total of… 77 Scaled Demons.”
Through the effects of the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra, Jiang Li could count the population of the tribe clearly without even opening his eyes.
However, how could there be so few?
At that time, the number of Scaled Demons that attacked the convoy was not limited to this number. Could it be that because of the huge losses suffered by the other side a few months ago, the Scaled Demon Tribe had fallen to such a state?
Jiang Li did not act rashly. He stopped on a tree and quietly observed everything in the tribe ahead.
“It seems… that these Scaled Demons are either weak or old, and there are also women and children?”
Jiang Li had specially borrowed the information about the Scaled Demons in the Scripture Storage Valley. He was quite knowledgeable in this aspect and could identify them without spending much effort!
The Scaled Demons in this tribe were either so old that they had lost their ability to survive alone or were only equivalent to young Scaled Demons that were five or six years old. This was an abnormal tribe structure.
Then, where did those adult Scaled Demons go?
Jiang Li held back the killing intent in his heart and continued to observe. After all, he had come here this time for the sake of obtaining information, and not purely to kill.
He sat there quietly for a long time.
The sound of flowing water came from nearby.
Suddenly, the water surface broke open. A few Scaled Demons emerged from the water.
They let out hoarse hissing sounds as if they were talking in the language of the Scaled Demons. Then, they dragged out the corpses of several horses and threw them onto the shore.
The few young Scaled Demons did not come ashore with them. Instead, they plunged into the water again, leaving behind a series of bubbles that disappeared.
Jiang Li became energetic. His ear approached the tree that was providing him shelter and pressed against the tree trunk. Through the tree trunk and the water’s vibrations, he could clearly capture the world below the water surface where the Scaled Demon Tribe was located.
“So, the tribe above is just a facade. The real Scaled Demon Tribe is underwater!”
Due to the fact that Scaled Demons preyed on humans, it was very easy for them to be purged by human cultivators in the cultivation world.
Against humans, they had the advantage in attributes and the special talent of the Scaled Demon’s song. They basically did not need to spend much effort to easily slaughter a village.
But when faced with human cultivators, they became even more vulnerable than infants. Thus, they came up with the idea of two tribes, one open and one hidden.
After the cultivators easily discovered and killed the elderly, women, and children of the tribe above, they would leave in satisfaction. As for the true underwater tribe, it would be preserved. After the cultivators left, they would continue to cruelly hunt the humans of the nearby villages.
It seemed that their heads, which were very similar to humans, were not for nothing. They were indeed a race with intelligence and the ability to think.
However, it seemed that no cultivator had specifically studied the language of the Scaled Demons. It seemed that it was not easy to obtain information through interrogation.
His hearing captured the movements of the few Scaled Demons underwater. Following their movements, he quickly found a cave that was hidden underwater.
Jiang Li was not in a hurry to attack. He relied on his ears to listen to the movement under the water. He sat quietly in the dark, blending into the shadow of a tree trunk. Even if a Scaled Demon swam past him, it would not discover him.
At night, the Scaled Demons were originally active. In total, dozens of waves of Scaled Demons appeared, either going out to hunt or returning after hunting.
A detailed map gradually formed in Jiang Li’s heart, and he remembered all the underwater caves where these Scaled Demons entered and exited.
The Scaled Demons were a type of humanoid amphibian. Although they could go ashore, they also needed their skin to remain moist. Therefore, they usually moved in the cold and moist night. They were typical night creatures.
Finally, the night gradually receded and the Scaled Demons’ activity began to slow. When the sun rose, approximately three hundred young Scaled Demons returned to the nest.
Only then did Jiang Li stand up from the tree trunk and draw his Flying Sword Burning Rainbow.
“As a family, you should all die in an orderly manner.”