Chapter 19 - The Unique Fragrance Of Green Spirit Grass.

Since it had lost one of its heads, the cobra's strength had dwindled to the peak of mid-grade rank 1. With his sword grasped tightly in his hand, Raymond felt a great amount of courage in the face of the ferocious beast. After looking at it from up close, Raymond noticed how huge the cobra truly was. He wasn't able to see it clearly from a distance, but from up close, he guessed that the snake must have been at least 8 meters long. Not only that, but it was also wider than Raymond's thigh.

The massive snake hissed at Raymond before it instantly went on the attack. The cobra lunged at a speed that most would find frightening, but Raymond was calm. Seeing the poisonous fangs heading straight for his neck, all Raymond did was swing his sword. The collision brought about by the swing of his sword sent the cobra flying backwards for more than a meter. The cobra seemed bewildered by this result, as it didn't expect Raymond to be so fast. Raymond wasn't about to let this opportunity slip by, and he immediately went on the counterattack.

With a large stride, Raymond swung for the cobra's head, upon which the cobra seemed to regain its bearings. To Raymond's surprise, the cobra didn't even attempt to dodge his attack. The sound and feeling of cutting into the cobra's flesh didn't appear as Raymond expected. Instead, Raymond felt like he had just tried to cut a piece of sheet metal. The cobra's scales shined with an eerie black light, and Raymond instantly realised his foolishness. Naturally, he wasn't the only one who could utilise his spiritual energy in this fight.

Since his attack failed miserably, Raymond's defence was left wide open. The cunning cobra seemed to have anticipated this, as it lunged for Raymond's neck once again. Since there was no way for Raymond to bring his sword back to guard in time, Raymond did the only thing he could; he threw a punch. An uppercut hit the cobra right on the chin, and its mouth was forcibly closed. This bought Raymond the time he needed, and he used it to swiftly retreat a few meters.

Because of his awkward position, as well as the fact that the punch was thrown with his left arm, the damage of the punch was limited. The only thing it did was piss the cobra off even more.

Both Raymond and the cobra had a short staredown before their battle resumed. Raymond knew that a normal attack probably wouldn't be able to wound the cobra, and since he didn't want to prolong the battle, there was only one logical thing to do. With a peculiar glint in his eyes, Raymond slowly raised his sword above his head and waited patiently.

The cobra was vigilant; it thought that Raymond was about to attack. To its surprise, Raymond just stood there, calmly. The cobra was confused for a few seconds before its rage took over. This human had cut just off one of its heads, and now it was just standing there, waiting for death? The cobra was confident that the human wouldn't be able to harm it, no matter the angle of the attack.

Once again, the cobra lunged forward at a frightening speed. Raymond's expression was still abnormally calm, and it didn't look like it would change anytime soon. When the snake was within striking distance, Raymond simply swung his sword downward. This simple strike was faster than anything Raymond had ever done before, and the cobra had a hard time reacting to it. Instinctively, it managed to mobilise its spiritual energy to harden the spot where the strike would land just in time.

The cobra was sure that it had just won the fight, and it had already imagined the taste of Raymond's corpse in its mind. The sad thing was that this thought would be the last thought the cobra would ever have.

Before the cobra could react, Raymond's sword sliced through its scales without any resistance. The cobras last head was sent flying into the air, ending the small scuffle. Even Raymond himself was a little surprised by the power of this strike. His plan was initially to stimulate his sword force to the point where he could injure the cobra. From there, he could either try and exhaust it to death, or even run away if he needed to.

Apparently, that wasn't needed. When he stimulated his sword force fully, the power that was generated was simply absurd, allowing Raymond to slice through the cobra's scales without issues. Stimulating the sword force like this granted Raymond immense powers, but it was also equally taxing, and Raymond wasn't sure if he could do it more than 3 times at full power. The recovery of the sword force was also something Raymond didn't know much about, which was why he needed to use this power sparingly.

As he was thinking, a sweet fragrance drifted out of the cave the cobra had been ardently guarding. Raymond had nearly forgotten about the cave altogether, but after smelling the fragrance that was coming out of it, Raymond decided to go take a look. After entering the cave, the fragrance only became stronger, and Raymond started to feel a little weird, almost... refreshed.

After going a little deeper, Raymond saw a few green stalks growing on one of the cave walls. This spiritual plant was something that Raymond had seen before. Not in real life of course, but he had seen it in the compendium of spiritual plants in the library. To his knowledge, this should be a few stalks of Green Spirit Grass.

As Raymond walked closer to pluck it, he could feel a soothing feeling originating from his soul. Sensing this feeling, Raymond thought about the introduction to Green Spirit Grass in the compendium. According to the book, Green Spirit Grass was an important alchemical ingredient. With it, a qualified alchemist could create a True Soul Pill. This was a very rare pill that could enhance a cultivators soul.

Since he felt his soul being soothed, Raymond was sure that this was the Green Spirit Grass he had read about. After he realised this, Raymond was beginning to get a little excited. A stalk of Green Spirit Grass was worth 100 gold coins! And in front of him, Raymond counted four stalks. This meant that Raymond had just stumbled upon 400 gold coins! If he counted in the demonic cores he had gotten earlier, Raymond had already crossed the halfway point to his next talent upgrade!

With plenty of care, Raymond plucked the four stalks of Green Spirit Grass and put them in a jade box that he had bought earlier in the city. Jade boxes were excellent for preserving the quality of spiritual plants, and without one, there was a high chance that the spiritual plant would degrade or wither on the way back to the city, even if only a little.

Although he didn't expect to run into such an expensive spiritual medicine, Raymond had still prepared a jade box that could contain spiritual plants, just in case he was lucky. To Raymond's delight, his investment actually paid off.. If he had found this Green Spirit Grass without anywhere to put it, he would've truly cried.