Chapter 103 If you won't help me, I'll go find my senior sister.
Duan Lansheng frowned: "No, I'll go with you."
However, the next second, his shoulder was pressed down, and he couldn't get up. Lu Yuanyuan shook her head and said, "Really, there's no need. You can just wait here for me. Fetching water isn't dangerous. You've worked hard, let me do my part too."
Unable to sway her resolute attitude, Duan Lansheng hesitated for a moment before nodding: "Alright then. Be careful in everything, and don't go too far."
"I know, I will be careful."
She withdrew her fingers from his shoulder, stared at him quietly for three seconds, then turned her head, picked up the empty water pouch, and walked away.
Emerging from this sparse woodland, we walked down the hillside, where dappled sunlight danced and the soil was soft. After about ten minutes, the sound of the waterfall grew clearer and clearer.
Finally, Lu Yuanyuan emerged from the dense forest, and a deep pool appeared before her. A waterfall cascaded down the western cliff, its roar like a stampede of horses, deafeningly loud. Mist-like water droplets filled the air, and even the tree trunks were covered with thick moss. The light became even dimmer and more eerie, and the temperature seemed to drop several degrees.
The pool is emerald green, quiet and deep, its depths unfathomable. Only the surface below the waterfall ripples, while the rest of the pool is covered with a thick layer of decaying leaves, making it even harder to see if anything is peering through the gaps in the dead branches underwater.
On the steep cliff beside the waterfall, a peculiar plant grew askew, its silver leaves highlighting the bright red, fiery fruits, which were quite inconspicuous. It was the very Silver Jade Fruit that she had desperately tried to pick in her past life.
This time, she wouldn't make the same mistake and do anything unnecessary. But she needed the python to appear sooner, to buy herself more time before Duan Lansheng arrived.
Lu Yuanyuan stepped on the stones, walked to the waterfall, squatted down, pulled out the stopper of the water bag, and pretended to casually fill it with some water. Then, she placed the water bag at her feet, slowly raised her hands, crossed them behind her head like the hand posture of someone doing sit-ups, slowed her slightly trembling breathing, stared at the water, and her body was as taut as a bow about to release an arrow.
She knew that thing would emerge from the pool, but when and where it would come out was completely unknown.
Just as Lu Yuanyuan was watching the water warily, she suddenly felt something wet on her cheek; it was the waterfall splashing onto her face.
It's normal for the waterfall to splash when it hits the protruding rocks. But she hadn't moved, so why wasn't she splashed before, but is now?
Unless... the stones behind have moved.
Lu Yuanyuan slowly turned her neck and saw a huge shadow appear behind the waterfall. After a "splashing" sound, a huge, deformed triangular snake head emerged from the water curtain.
Lu Yuanyuan's pupils contracted.
In her past life, she was attacked from behind by this giant python when she was climbing up to pick silver jujubes. She had never been so close to it before.
The python's head was nearly two meters in diameter, its body segmented like waterfalls, covered in hard scales teeming with parasitic snails, making it look as ugly as a prehistoric creature. Its gaping maw, like a bottomless pit, was wide open, with droplets of water dripping from its long, curved fangs, and a foul stench emanating from deep within its throat.
Before she could retreat, the python suddenly lowered its head. Its movement was impossible to detect with the naked eye; Lu Yuanyuan felt herself being knocked down, her waist tightly constricted, her chest intensely compressed, and her internal organs seemingly shifted instantly.
With a splash, water was dragged into the icy pool. Dry branches and fallen leaves swirled and slapped against her face.
Constricting its prey is a python's nature; the more violently the prey struggles, the tighter the python will tighten its body, accelerating the prey's suffocation and death.
Lu Yuanyuan held her breath, forcing herself to fight her survival instincts so as not to provoke the python. She let it coil around her and plunge into the water without resistance.
Fortunately, she had been pestered by Yin Xiaozhu several times in her life, which had honed her courage in the face of snakes—at such a crucial moment, such a thought vaguely flashed through her mind.
The python swam very fast, and the further it went from the surface, the dimmer the surrounding light became. Fortunately, the python was the only large threat in the entire body of water, so there was no need to worry about anything else biting her and tearing her in two.
Sensing the python's movement gradually slowing down, Lu Yuanyuan knew it was about to reach the bottom. She pinched her nose and slowly opened her eyes.
The underwater world was dark and murky, with countless aquatic plants stretching and swaying, creating an indescribable sense of oppression and claustrophobia.
The massive snake's belly swept across the bottom of the pool, stirring up mud and sand. Lu Yuanyuan waved her hand to clear the sand, focusing her spiritual energy on her eyes. She could see that the bottom of the pool was relatively flat, covered with dark silt and smoothed rocks polished by the water. Piles of white bones were scattered among the rocks, along with the bloated corpses of many monsters and animals that had been eaten.
Right in the cracks of the rocks, several clusters of plants, like epiphyllum flowers, emitting a dim glow, swayed with the flow of water.
The bone-corroding flower blooms from white bones.
It is also the source of the name of the poison "Bone-Eating" and the only antidote.
In her past life, Lu Yuanyuan was bound from shoulder to leg by a giant python, her arms tightly strangled to her sides, unable to move. Before falling into the water, she had placed her arms behind her head, allowing her to still move her hands.
The suffocating feeling of lack of oxygen began to rise in her head. Lu Yuanyuan endured the discomfort, tried her best to tighten her abdomen, leaned forward, stretched out her arms, and reached into the cracks in the rocks. Finally, she reached for the flowers.
The storage ring flashed and took in a Bone-Corroding Flower. She resolutely uprooted the remaining flowers, crumpled them, and tore them apart.
As soon as you let go, the petal fragments are swept away in all directions by the undercurrent at the bottom of the pool, as if ink has been diluted by seawater, and not a trace of its existence has been left.
When the bone-corroding flower was pulled up, it startled the creatures below. Several small snake heads emerged from among the bones and stones. The narrow, pointed snake heads were covered with densely packed eyes, and their scales were bright red. Their bodies were longer and thinner than those of ordinary snakes, and they were staring menacingly at her, the uninvited guest.
Lu Yuanyuan was wrapped around the waist and hung upside down in the water, facing them. She gripped a thin, sharp bone fragment she had picked up from the mud and sand.
These are the ones.
In this instance, the ones that truly carry the aphrodisiac venom are never the giant pythons, but rather these small red snakes at the bottom of the pool. They usually hide in the crevices of the rocks, and the things that nurture the bone-corroding flowers have also raised them.
She cannot go against the original novel of "The Enchanting Fairy Tale". From the moment she was dragged into the water, to Duan Lansheng going into the water to save her, being bitten by a small snake, being poisoned by the bone-corroding love poison, and finally her attacking Duan Lansheng... all of these are strict requirements. If she does not follow the original plot, she will die.
How could she find a way out of the constraints, how could she outwardly comply but inwardly defy them, and how could she switch the roles of perpetrator and victim? There was only one way: to exploit loopholes.
Yes, a vulnerability.
The original novel does describe Duan Lansheng being bitten by a snake, but it doesn't describe her condition as a cannon fodder character.
When she and Duan Lansheng fell into the same predicament, and her situation was more serious than his, she could become the perfect victim, rather than the perpetrator or the conspirator who helped him find relief.
This can't be faked. With the medical skills of the Shu Mountain sect, a thorough investigation afterward will uncover the truth.
To ensure absolute certainty, one must turn a charade into reality, thus putting oneself in an unjust position.
A myriad of complex emotions coalesced into a resolute decision. Then, without hesitation, she cut her palm.
Blood gushed from the narrow wound instantly, spreading like mist in the water, causing the small red snakes to swarm in alarm. They opened their mouths and shot out like arrows, their fangs digging deep into her hands, arms, and calves through her clothes.
Just then, she felt the python coiled around her suddenly thrash, its tail creating a powerful vortex. The little red snakes that couldn't swim away in time were instantly and cruelly flattened. It coiled around her and swam upwards, tightening its grip on her body, making her feel as if her bones were about to pop out with a creaking sound. The pain finally made her unable to hold back the air from her lips, and she exhaled gurgling bubbles.
The boundless, dark underwater world was suddenly illuminated by light. The light grew brighter and faster, like shooting stars colliding in the night.
The python seemed enraged by the intruder and realized that having her with it would make fighting difficult, so it suddenly released her. Lu Yuanyuan's vision went black. She tried her best to swim upwards, but her lungs ached as if sandpaper was scraping them, and her body sank involuntarily.
She couldn't see what was happening above her, nor could she hear any sounds, but she saw a large cloud of blood mist spreading above her head.
Indistinctly, a dark figure was struggling to swim towards her.
...
"Splash—"
Thick blood floated on the surface of the pool, and air rushed into her nostrils, causing her tightly constricted lungs to expand. Lu Yuanyuan curled up in a ball, feeling herself being carried ashore.
Duan Lansheng's breathing was heavy and rapid. He laid her flat on a flat ground and began to press on her chest, pat her face, and pinch her cheeks until it hurt: "Yuanyuan, wake up!"
Water dripped down his chin and onto her eyelids. Lu Yuanyuan coughed up a mouthful of water from the pressure, and groggily opened her eyelids. Seeing that she was still breathing, Duan Lansheng seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and calmed down a little.
Then, his gaze shifted elsewhere.
Lu Yuanyuan closed her eyes and felt him lift her arm up and roll up her sleeve.
“You…” Duan Lansheng’s hand seemed to tremble slightly when he saw five or six small, round snake bite marks distributed from her wrist to her forearm.
Looking down, it wasn't just her arms; her calves were also bitten, and there were two bloody holes in her pants.
Lu Yuanyuan slowly opened her eyes.
Duan Lansheng was soaked to the bone, his pale face glistening with the faint light of water droplets. He stared stiffly at the several bloody holes, his face alternating between pale and flushed, before slowly turning serious.
At that moment, the person beside him let out a muffled groan, a sound he had never heard before. Not only did she groan, but her other arm began to wrap around him.
Duan Lansheng's hand tightened suddenly, but the next second, he pulled her hand down, steadied his breathing, and said, "Don't be afraid. You've been poisoned by snake venom. The antidote is in the place where those snakes live, right under this pool of water. Wait for me."
Having said that, he seemed too afraid to look at her again and strode away quickly. Only after hearing the sound of water did Lu Yuanyuan turn over and look towards the deep pool.
Duan Lansheng must know what's going on.
Because she saw that he also had the exact same bite mark on his body—in the same location as in her previous life.
She had anticipated that when he saw she was unable to move, he would risk going into the water to find the antidote. She was determined not to let him have his way.
Lu Yuanyuan took a deep breath, but felt her breath growing hotter and hotter. Even though she had just come out of the cold water, she felt a burning, itchy sensation coursing through her bones, sometimes like ants crawling, sometimes like soft thorns tickling her.
Lu Yuanyuan's face flushed red as she bit her hand hard on her thumb.
In her past life, she had never experienced what it felt like to be bitten to the bone, but even someone like Duan Lansheng was tormented terribly by a single bite. Having been bitten so many times, her reaction would naturally be even stronger.
Her teeth sank deeper into the space between her thumb and forefinger, and she tasted the metallic flavor; she had to hold onto this lucidity.
Although her cultivation level is not as high as Duan Lansheng's, her self-control may not be any worse than his. This is because Duan Lansheng has half demon blood, while she is human and will not be affected by the estrus instincts she inherited from her beastly days.
She endured wave after wave of mild heat, and finally, she heard the sound of water gushing from the deep pool once more. She immediately bit her hand again, waited a moment, and saw a pair of boots stop ahead.
Duan Lansheng is back.
He was dripping wet, looked dejected, and didn't look good.
Is it because they searched the entire bottom of the pool but couldn't find the antidote?
Although not as severe as hers, the snake venom had clearly begun to seep into his bloodstream. When he returned to her side, his breathing was obviously very unstable, and his lips had turned a strange bloody color.
However, upon discovering that she was curled up in a ball and biting her own hand, he first held her jaw to prevent her from hurting herself further.
His hand approached, seemingly offering her immense comfort. She breathed heavily, pressing her face tightly against his palm, and raised her tormented, moist eyes: "Where's the antidote...? Haven't you found it?"
Duan Lansheng's breath hitched, and he tried to pull his hand back, saying with some difficulty, "I'll think of another way."
The person in front of him closed her eyes in discomfort, as if she were already delirious. Her body twisted, and she slowly crawled onto his lap, rubbing her face against his leg, as if just being close to him could ease the burning sensation boiling in her bones. She murmured, "It hurts... I hurt..."
She felt Duan Lansheng's breathing become heavier. But soon, he pulled her down again. His hands were like iron clamps, pressing her down so she couldn't move.
Finding herself unable to break free or reach anyone, she seemed angry and a little aggrieved, saying indistinctly, "Fine, you won't help me... I don't need your help anymore... I'm going to find Senior Sister... Senior Sister knows everything, she can definitely help me..."
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