Chapter 1430: Nine Infants

"I heard this Jiuying has nine heads?" Yan Xuehen recalled the information Shun had mentioned earlier.

"It sounds difficult to deal with," Yun Jianyue said, though without the slightest hint of fear.

She and Yan Xuehen had recovered most of their strength, and with Zuan and Yu Yanluo, they could pretty much walk wherever they pleased, as long as they didn't encounter earth-immortal-level figures like the Demon Emperor.

"What I'm more curious about is why so many of these monsters have snake bodies," Zuan mused. The previous Ya Yu and Er Fu were human-headed and snake-bodied, the Xiu She was a snake, and now this Jiuying also seemed to have a snake's body.

"Why are you looking at me? How would I know?" Yu Yanluo retorted, her cheeks slightly flushed, as she gave him an annoyed glare.

Seeing her flustered expression, the others couldn't help but chuckle.

The group continued their journey in this cheerful atmosphere, soon leaving the Fields of Shouhua and arriving before a turbulent river.

The group exchanged glances. "Why does this look so familiar?"

It wasn't surprising they felt that way, as the large river before them strongly resembled the previous Ruoshui, its turbulent waves even more intense than before.

Zuan squatted by the bank and dipped his hand into the river. After feeling the water for a moment, he stood up again. "This river water seems quite normal; unlike the Ruoshui, things don't sink down here. But there's something strange about it. I just checked, and it feels bottomless."

He used his Blue Duck ability to sense it; the river was either hundreds or a thousand zhang deep, which was utterly absurd. In his previous life, the deepest part of the Yangtze River was only a little over a hundred meters, and that was due to the Three Gorges Dam impounding water.

This river was as deep as an ocean!

"Is the Jiuying hidden inside?" The group felt overwhelmed upon hearing how deep the water was. After the previous stages, they really didn't want to deal with water again.

For a moment, they couldn't find a good way to locate the Jiuying. Just as they were at a loss, they suddenly heard the faint cry of a baby.

"How could there be a baby in a place like this?" Yun Jianyue frowned.

Yan Xuehen, however, remained calm. With her cultivation of the Supreme Emotion Severance technique, it was difficult for anything to stir her emotions unless it involved Zuan or herself.

Yu Yanluo looked around. "Let's go take a look. What if it's a local child accidentally left behind? We could rescue it and return it to its family."

After passing through the previous stages, they had also noticed that indigenous people indeed existed in this world.

"Be careful, it might be a trick. A baby appearing in the wilderness like this is far from normal," Yun Jianyue warned.

Yu Yanluo nodded slightly and cautiously began searching the surroundings.

They soon arrived at a patch of reeds by the riverbank, from where the baby's cries emanated.

"Could it be an abandoned baby?" Yu Yanluo frowned slightly. A normal child wouldn't be found in such a place. She had heard before of people abandoning infants in reed beds or similar locations.

She parted the dense reeds, searching carefully for the child, when suddenly a gaping maw emerged from the reeds and lunged at her.

"Watch out!" the others quickly warned, simultaneously moving to save her.

Fortunately, Yu Yanluo wasn't naively kind. She had maintained some caution from the start, and at the critical moment, she pushed off with her toes, gracefully drifting away and evading the fatal strike.

At that moment, Zuan and the others' attacks arrived. As the gaping maw dodged, its body straightened, allowing them to finally get a clear look at their opponent.

It wasn't just one gaping maw, but nine. It had nine heads, and its body was an enormous snake.

Although its size was smaller than the Xiu She in its prime, its nine wildly swaying heads made it look extremely eerie.

Having just been attacked, the nine-headed monster roared furiously at the group.

It was then that everyone finally realized where the baby's cries had come from: they were issuing from its mouths!

No wonder its name was Jiuying!

At this point, Yun Jianyue chuckled. "Now this is the kind of opponent I like! No complicated backstories, just pure fighting."

Zuan laughed wryly, knowing she was complaining about the fierce beasts they had encountered in the previous stages, each with a convoluted past, which sometimes made it awkward to strike with full force.

By now, the Jiuying was getting angry. These tiny humans showed no fear in front of its majestic body; instead, they were chatting and laughing.

This was outrageous!

One of its snake heads suddenly opened its mouth and shot a jet of water towards the group, like a high-pressure water cannon.

The group quickly dodged, and a huge pit was instantly blasted into the ground where they had stood by the powerful water stream.

Yun Jianyue snorted coldly and, without hesitation, swung her Star and Moon Wheel to retaliate. However, several of the Jiuying's heads simultaneously sprayed water, blocking her weapon.

The splashing water droplets were like countless bullets, leaving numerous deep marks along the riverbank.

Then, the snake heads changed their method from thick water columns to spraying fine streams of water.

Wherever these streams passed, even hard stone was silently sliced in half instantly.

Facing such dense attacks, Yun Jianyue manipulated her Crescent Moon Wheel to protect herself, blocking every single drop, though she temporarily had no chance to counterattack.

Zuan was secretly astonished. They say nothing is softer than water, yet water can also be immensely powerful. In his previous life, he had seen videos about waterjet cutting, which could indeed cut through metal like mud. He never expected to witness it firsthand today.

At that moment, the surrounding air instantly dropped, and snowflakes began to fall everywhere.

It was clearly Yan Xuehen making her move; her Snowflake Divine Sword was precisely suited to counter water-based attacks.

The water jets spat out by the Jiuying were instantly frozen into ice, naturally losing their original power.

Furthermore, the chilling air traveled along the water expelled by the Jiuying, freezing the water-spouting snake heads at a visible rate.

Zuan secretly admired her. He had grown accustomed to her weaker state, but now, even though she had only recovered just over 80% of her strength, her actions already displayed the grandeur of a Grandmaster in her prime.

Just as those two heads were about to be completely frozen, several of the Jiuying's other heads suddenly opened their mouths and spewed out flames, causing the ice to melt instantly.

"It breathes both fire and water?" The group was quite surprised, especially the three women, as they rarely encountered creatures that wielded two elemental powers simultaneously.

Come to think of it, this monster was somewhat similar to Zuan.

However, the Jiuying gave them no chance to catch their breath. Its nine heads each found a target, relentlessly attacking with both water and fire.

Yu Yanluo's eyes also shone with light. The opponent was a multi-headed snake, and she was a Medusa. It was hard to say whose bloodline was superior.

Sure enough, the snake head directly facing her quickly stiffened, its skin beginning to show signs of petrification. In short order, the entire snake head transformed into a stone sculpture.

At that moment, the other snake heads turned and attacked her simultaneously.

Unable to deal with so many heads at once, Yu Yanluo quickly dodged.

Just then, a golden brick flew out, visibly growing in size before directly smashing onto the petrified head.

This was one of the Heaven-tier weapons from the Dragon Palace of the Sea Clan that Shang Liuyu had given him earlier—the Golden Brick!

It was its first use, and indeed, its power was immense. The petrified head was instantly shattered by the massive golden brick.

The Jiuying let out a cry of agony, its body trembling, as its other eight heads thrashed wildly.

The group secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Their coordination was becoming increasingly skillful. With just a few more hits, all nine of the monster's heads would be blown apart one by one.

However, their smiles quickly froze. As the Jiuying continuously thrashed, flesh buds began to writhe from the severed neck, and a new snake head rapidly grew out at a visible rate. Aside from being slightly lighter in color and appearing somewhat tender, it was identical to the head that had just been destroyed!