Hidden genius: Black belly snake

Dum da da La di du…

Tang Yue happily hummed as she cleaned her mid-grade long sword.

It was just a loan from the palace armoury, but she didn't plan on returning it any time soon.

Beside her, a fiery wisp of energy bobbed up and down, matching the rhythm of her tune.

It almost looked as excited as its master about heading out into the forests.

"Ok. Shall we get going, little plum?" Tang Yue chuckled at the sight of the small bouncing blob of fire.

She still wasn't quite used to the strange baby elemental and even had a slight tinge of fear towards it.

After all, who could easily forget the memory of being burnt alive?!

But since they got out of the elemental plane, little plum had been nothing but consistently cute and harmless.

So Tang Yue ended up somewhat accepting the small blob as her companion.

In fact, it was one of her strongest weapons right now.

But she did not plan to rely on Little Plum for this trip into the forests.

Having been a cripple all her life, Tang Yue was painfully aware of how important it was to improve one's strength.

She did not need any more reminders.

So she resolutely decided to summon Little Plum only if it was an emergency and only if it was absolutely required.

Now that this matter was settled, Tang Yue hurried and took care of other things.

She still had lots of food leftover from the banquet tucked into her storage space.

So she didn't have to worry about her rations.

And with her weapon cleaned thoroughly and sheathed, she was now fully prepared and ready to leave.

Tang Yue had a bunch of missions that she had to finish this time around.

Almost all of them were trivial like isolating the gall sacks of common-grade beast Green Boa, collecting brown salamander's hide, and a few dozen stings of golden wasps.

Though these missions involved hunting for beasts and not foraging for herbs, they were still commissioned by the alchemy association directly.

This was because certain formulae in alchemy not only required plants and vegetation but also used beast components as ingredients, thereby greatly enhancing the potency of the resulting pills.

After flipping through the various mission parchments in her hand for a while, Tang Yue hopped onto a bristle wolf carriage and headed towards the eastern forests.

The elves were currently encroaching the eastern forests bit by bit and so most of the missions were located in these territories.

Once the carriage reached the outskirts of the forest, Tang Yue jumped down and directly headed into the depths of the greenery.

The snake then swiftly undressed and tucked away her royal robes and her sword into her space pearl, which she then plopped into her mouth.

Now that she had regained her slim and slender body, Tang Yue's tall and elegant human figure unhesitatingly morphed into her serpentine form.

She then speedily glided through the rough forest grounds as if it was second nature to her.

The small snake slithered inconspicuously amidst the bushes and the shrubs, and she quickly made her way deeper and deeper into the jumbled canopy of gigantic trees.

The mana in the air tangibly thickened and the snake sucked in a huge breath of fresh air.

Since she was on the verge of breaking through in her cultivation base from Bronze Mortal core to Silver Mortal core, Tang Yue's eyes gleamed excitedly.

She had a gut feeling that the trip this time was going to be plenty fruitful!

Little did she know that her prediction was in fact extremely accurate and to the point.

However, along with the good, there also came the bad, the worse, and the worst.

Soon after Tang Yue had left the palace, Charlotte caught hold of Lotte.

She thrashed him mercilessly and in the end, she even used her father's authority to make the simple palace aide spit out Tang Yue's entire whereabouts and plans.

Charlotte then swiftly gathered a group of her close friends and set out to finish her personal mission that she should have long back completed.

Luckily for her and unluckily for Tang Yue, the queen consort was not the only one with a target on the snake that evening.

The goblin Ginko as well had promptly jumped into action and was currently very close to Tang Yue, tailing her with extreme caution.

As if this was not chaotic enough, another group as well was currently headed into the eastern forests, the grand master's former wastrel son and his friends.

Though in all honesty, fatty Marvin was purely stepping into the forest grounds in order to finish his own missions.

He was not even aware that he was headed in the same direction as the snake princess.

And so, Tang Yue's second trip into the forests began with more danger and peril enshrouding her now than ever before.