Unbelievable Speed

"Hm... it's actually quite simple. All we need is to pay attention to the trees.

Blue-striped snakes always make their nests in trees.

The only difficult part is that they are quite well-hidden and usually don't attack unless provoked, so we can only find them with our eyes since we won't be climbing every single tree to check if they are present or not.

The only relief we have is that they have blue stripes on their bodies, which are easily discernible. If we are lucky, we will be able to see them.

If we go closer to the lake, then the chance of encountering them will be higher. But the Blue-striped snakes there would be definitely in Foundation Establishment realm, so we have to start finding them from here"

Jiang Hao understood the general gist of it, but he wasn't too worried that he would miss seeing them as he had other means to find them.

His peerless instincts could work as a charm here. These snakes wouldn't attack unless provoked, but it didn't mean that they wouldn't show any aggression if someone intruded on their territory.

All Jiang Hao had to do was to touch the trees, and if there was any blue-striped snake on that tree, it would definitely become agitated and have thoughts of striking him. That would be enough for him to sense them.

With this way, they could easily reach the target of 100. In fact, they might even complete it with only two of them.

After all, the toughest part of this mission was to find these well-hidden snakes.

Jiang Hao wasn't afraid of showing his abilities because it was almost impossible for them to guess how he did it, and even if they did, it wouldn't change anything.

In fact, he wasn't even afraid of showing his full strength. It's just a matter of inconvenience if the strong, mighty figures of this world began to chase him. He might have to hide for a very long time, which wasn't an ideal situation for him right now.

Jiang Hao went closer to a tree, touched it, and began to touch trees one by one as he walked by them.

When Ming Yue saw that, she became intrigued, after watching him curiously for some time she asked.

"What are you doing, Junior Brother?"

"You will find out soon, Senior Sister,"

Jiang Hao replied with a calm smile.

"Ohh... being secretive huh?"

Just as Jiang was about to reply, he sensed a little danger when he touched the current tree.

He smiled, looked at Ming Yue, and pointed to the tree he just touched.

"Senior Sister, do you believe me if I say that a spirit beast is hidden on this tree?

I don't know if it is a blue-striped snake or not, but there is definitely a spirit beast on this tree."

He could only tell if a spirit beast was hidden or not on the tree. It was impossible to guess which spirit beast it was.

But since this was the territory of blue-striped snakes, the presence of other beasts was almost impossible.

Ming Yue got stunned and watched the tree carefully, but she still didn't find out anything.

She smiled and took out a sword from her storage bag. It looked quite extraordinarily beautiful and graceful. It was a work of art. It didn't seem like a weapon made for killing.

When she had seen Jiang Hao's punch earlier, she was thoroughly stunned. Others might not know, but she had easily seen that even while punching casually, Jiang Hao had held back.

That meant he was far stronger than what others thought of him. This was also the reason she decided to team up with him, because she wasn't sure that others could handle him.

That was also why she believed in him for this assumption. Even if he was wrong, it wouldn't change anything. It was just a matter of cutting a single tree for her anyway.

She arrived in front of the tree and watched the treetop again. There was no activity or sign of any spirit beast on it.

She moved her sword and took the stance to hack it, and the moment she attacked, a shadow darted out from the top of the tree and attacked her.

She didn't get flustered as, to her eyes, it wasn't that fast. She changed the direction of her attack and easily sliced the head of the snake beast. It really was a blue-striped snake, but it was only a stage 8 beast.

She wasn't disappointed at its level. The fact that there really was a beast surprised her.

She smiled beautifully and looked at Jiang Hao.

"Junior Brother Jiang, you are really full of surprises."

She wasn't going to ask him how he figured it out, as it would be rude of her. They weren't close and weren't even sect mates.

"Senior Sister Ming, it's just a simple trick. Nothing much,"

Jiang Hao replied calmly.

"Is it?"

While responding to him, Ming Yue found a good spot and sat down.

"Then what are you waiting for, Junior Brother Jiang? There are a lot of trees here. You shouldn't just touch them while they are close to you while walking. Why not touch all of them which are in our vicinity?"

When Jiang Hao heard that, he got stunned. Did he just dig his own grave? He sighed internally. Forget it. I will just have to find them. It will be her who would deal with them anyway.

Although they found only a stage 8 beast, they weren't disappointed. The closer they got to the lake, the stronger the beasts they would encounter.

And since they found a stage 8 beast here, it meant that there was a chance of finding stage 9 beasts here too.

Jiang Hao started touching the trees in the vicinity.

He finally found another tree with a beast, but he didn't show any reaction and just kept it in his mind and moved to touch other trees.

After a while, he was done touching all of the nearby trees present and found a total of 4 trees with spirit beasts.

After that, he went to Ming Yue. She looked at him questioningly, but he didn't respond and found himself a good spot to sit.

After he sat down, he looked at Ming Yue with a smile and pointed to the four trees he had found earlier.

"Senior Sister, those four trees have spirit beasts. You should deal with them quickly. We still have a lot more to find later."

Ming Yue got stunned this time. Wasn't the tone similar to how she used it before?

She smiled charmingly, stood up gracefully, and went to deal with the trees which he had pointed to. Fair enough, all of them had spirit beasts, and one of them was even a stage 9 blue-striped snake.

Although the other three were stage 8 beasts, this didn't mean that their sacs had no value. They were still valuable resources, so Ming Yue collected them all in her storage bag.

After she was done, she looked at Jiang Hao, who was still sitting, and spoke.

"Junior Brother Jiang, you sure know how to hold grudges."

"Senior Sister, you jest. I am just an ordinary stage 9 Qi refinement cultivator. How can I deal with them as easily as you did?"

When she heard that, she shook her head while smiling and left for another spot. Jiang stood up and followed her.

Occasionally, they found blue-striped snakes roaming on the ground or hanging on branches.

In fact, this was the real way for others to find them. If not for Jiang Hao's peerless instincts, they would have to find them this way too.

But now their speed of finding them was quite fast. Now that they were even closer to the lake, the number of stage 9 beasts they found increased.

...

"Senior Brother, why did Senior Sister Ming have to team up with that guy?"

Jun Jei asked Xiao Dan with a little anger in his voice.

"Hehehe... feeling salty, are we?"

Xiao Dan spoke in an amused tone and continued.

"You shouldn't assume too much. There is definitely a valid reason why Senior Sister did that.

You have already seen how strong he is, and who knows if he had some treasure which can help him fight even early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators like us.

Maybe that's why Senior Sister chose to team up with him. Don't forget Senior Sister also has a protective treasure given by her master."

"I see. You are wise, Senior Brother Xiao Dan."

"Now pay more attention to finding the snakes instead of thinking about meaningless things. We haven't found even a single one."

"Of course, Senior Brother."

...

Others were also not that lucky and only found one or two snakes occasionally.

Time passed, and the sun was about to set.

Ming Yue and Jiang Hao were the first to return to the decided location.

Ming Yue was quite happy right now because they had collected a total of 76 sacs, which was quite unbelievable to say the least. 42 were stage 9 sacs, while 30 were stage 8 sacs. They even got 4 Early Foundation Stage sacs.

With this speed, they would be able to complete the sect mission in only 2 days, even if others didn't find much.

They waited for about 20 minutes when Xin Yan and Jia Li arrived.

" Sister Ming, you are already here."

They both came to her side.

"We didn't have much luck and only found one stage 9 sac. We didn't dare to enter too deep."