From a country cook to a master chef

Four Symbols Martial Arts School

Shangwutang.

"Brother Liu, how have you been?"

Li Dakang stood up, clasped his hands in greeting, and smiled expectantly, "I heard that Brother Liu recently took on a new and outstanding disciple. In less than half a month, he has mastered the eight-way, seventy-two-stage stance training of the Pine Crane Long Fist. He is exceptionally talented and will soon be promoted to Martial Master."

"I have always liked young people. I wonder if Brother Liu could let my beloved disciple come out so that I can see what he's made of."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yue remained silent, simply watching the people from the Qingshan Martial Arts School.

Being stared at like that made even Li Dakang uncomfortable. His smile vanished, and he said in a low voice, "Brother Li, you probably don't know how much trouble your disciple has caused you."

"If you want the Four Symbols Martial Arts Academy to remain safe and sound, Brother Li, you'd better sever ties with that person. Otherwise, I can't guarantee that your disciples will be able to go out safely in the future."

After saying this, Li Dakang picked up the teacup, gently pushed it with his index finger, and the lid shot out, just brushing past Liu Yue's face and embedding itself into the central wooden carving behind him.

Liu Yue's face instantly turned ugly, and his right hand almost crushed the armrest of the seat. After hesitating for a moment, he finally held back and nodded in agreement.

"Great idea. In that case, I'll give this box of Black Jade Bone-Mending Ointment to Brother Li. I imagine your eldest disciple will find it useful."

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Li Dakang led his disciples out of Shangwu Hall with laughter. After leaving Sixiang Martial Arts School, they immediately headed towards Honghualou in Yucheng.

Liu Yue sat dejectedly in his seat. A disciple stared blankly at the black jade healing ointment in his hand for a moment, then softly reminded him, "Master, you should hurry up and heal Senior Brother Wang!"

"hateful!"

Enraged, Liu Yue roared and smashed the armchair beneath him with a single blow before turning and walking to the backyard.

Watching his master's departing figure, Chen Meng clenched his fists, silently swept up the broken wood chips on the ground, and then quietly left the martial arts school.

……

In the woods.

Lin Jue took a deep breath and followed the four men quietly, holding a long spear in his hand.

The five people were upwind, using the strong wind to avoid the wolves' keen sense of smell and hearing.

Suddenly, Sun Guo raised his hand to signal everyone to stop and whispered a reminder: "The four of us will deal with the wolf pack. Junior Brother, hurry up and gather herbs. Once you succeed, don't linger and retreat immediately."

"Hmm." ×4

Sun Guo and Liu Ruyan exchanged a glance, then each led one person to the left and right, crouching low as they slowly made their way to the flanks of the wolf pack.

Lin Jue hid behind a tree, estimating that he was still about 500 paces away from the wolf pack. Once his senior brothers lured the wolves away, he would have to run there as fast as he could, pick the Golden Lotus, and leave.

He slowly moved his feet, using the trees as cover to gradually close the distance with the wolf pack. The cold wind howled in the forest, the branches and leaves swayed, and the snow on the trees slid down, creating a cacophony of sounds.

Just as he was about to take another step closer, the wind suddenly changed direction, and the gray wolf on lookout smelled the scent and suddenly howled.

The situation has changed!

Without hesitation, Sun Guo got up and roared in the forest, taking the lead in randomly cutting off tree branches to make snow fall from the trees and attract the attention of the wolves. On the other side, Liu Ruyan shook the bell in her hand and also tried her best to attract some of the wolves.

Aww...

The wolves howled and immediately reacted, splitting into two groups and rushing to the left and right.

Lin Jue stood still, hiding behind a bush, holding his breath.

He couldn't move; his target was the golden lotus that sprang from the ground, a few hundred paces away.

At such close range, any unusual movement would immediately attract the attention of the wolf pack.

Fortunately, the wind direction changed again, so he didn't have to worry about his scent giving him away.

Seeing that the wolf pack had gone far away, Lin Jue, who had been observing from the shadows, suddenly stood up and strode toward the golden lotus that sprouted from the ground.

He sprinted down the nearly 300-step distance in one breath, taking less than 30 seconds.

This martial arts training was definitely worthwhile!

The leaves are oval, the inflorescence is upright and dense like a spherical spike, and the bracts are layered and gradually unfold from bottom to top, like a blooming golden lotus, which is the precious medicinal herb, the Golden Lotus.

Lin Jue was overjoyed and was about to pick the herbs when suddenly the ground shook and the rocks beneath the precious herbs seemed to crack open layer by layer, as if covered with red scales.

The original monolith split into two tentacle-like rock blocks, and the tops of the two rock blocks split apart again, turning into two human hands covered with blood-red scales. With a powerful pull, the red rock peeled off like a molting skin.

Lin Jue's expression hardened, and he took several steps back before realizing that the Golden Lotus that sprouted from the ground was actually growing on the head of a snake-shaped monster.

It turns out that the monster had buried its body in the soil, leaving only its head above ground, covered by layers of red rocks, and only now was its true form revealed.

It has a snake's head and a human face, half human and half snake, with narrow eyes and sharp vertical pupils. Its lower body is covered with smooth snake scales that shimmer with a reddish light. Its tail is long and thick, and it stands nearly five meters tall.

Cassiopeia, the Serpent's Embrace?

As a veteran League of Legends mobile game player, Lin Jue immediately felt that this guy looked a lot like the village icon Cassiopeia, whom he had played nearly a thousand times.

Unfortunately, this guy is male, and a bit ugly.

The snake-man stared intently at Lin Jue, his eyes filled with hatred and resentment, but he could only utter hissing sounds of unwillingness.

Lin Jue was surprised, but after observing carefully, he was astonished and could not believe his eyes.

Liu Hua, the head of the Liu Family Troupe!!!

He didn't die.

Judging from the appearance, it must have used some means to possess and merge with the body of the Crimson Scale Python, becoming neither human nor snake.

Upon recognizing Lin Jue, the snake-man roared and then twisted his body to pounce, leaving a winding trail on the ground with his huge snake tail.

Suddenly, the enormous snake-man disappeared from Lin Jue's sight. He instinctively took a step back, searching his surroundings for the snake-man's whereabouts.

A shadow loomed over Lin Jue, who sensed something was wrong and rolled into the nearby woods.

The next second, a colossal object plummeted down, crashing heavily onto the spot where Lin Jue had just been standing, letting out another unwilling roar.

The heavy, long snake tail lashed out at the forest, sweeping across large swathes of fir trees with devastating force. Snow slid off the trees like a white waterfall, crashing to the ground with broken ice fragments, stirring up a white mist.

The giant snake-man emerged from the snow mist, its scaly hands grabbing snowballs and hurling them at Lin Jue, who was desperately trying to escape.

Lin Jue turned around, dodged to the side, and continued to flee towards his senior brothers' location. In his fear, he took out a large handful of beast-repelling incense, lit it, and scattered it along the road, praying that it would buy him more time to escape.

The snake-man was incredibly fast. As it moved forward, its tail whipped up a thick fir tree and hurled it out, slamming it to the ground with a thunderous crash, blocking Lin Jue's path.

It roared at Lin Jue, and the ear-piercing sound waves stirred up the snow on the ground, like a ten-foot-long snow wave.

The snake-man pierced through the snow waves and rushed towards us.

Lin Jue's pupils suddenly contracted, he clenched his fists, disregarded everything else, silently recited the Spirit Summoning Incantation, and activated the Spirit Summoning Seal within his body. At this moment, the snake-man was already so close that it was almost touching his face. As the Spirit Summoning Seal within his body flashed with a strange light, the snake-man's body paused, as if it had lost control, and it crashed straight to the ground.

Lin Jue breathed a sigh of relief, patted his head hard to keep himself from being overwhelmed by the fatigue coming from his mind, and then ran away.

Lin Jue felt both surprised and puzzled.

Surprisingly, the Spirit Seal did not fail and could instantly cause the enormous snake-man to lose control of its body, unlike before when it was impossible to control beasts weighing more than fifty pounds.

What's puzzling is how he managed to control the snake-man's body today.

Could it be because of the two strands of energy that appeared in his body?

Lin Jue had only run a few steps when the snake-man who had fallen to the ground shook his head and woke up. With a sweep of his huge snake tail, he was sent flying and crashed into a pine tree as thick as an arm.

"We're finished!"

As his consciousness gradually faded, Lin Jue vaguely saw four figures running towards him.