snake
Fortunately, Gu Jiansheng's bamboo basket, which he had left behind, was still there. It had fallen to the ground, and its contents were scattered all over the place. The live animals he had caught had disappeared, whether they had broken free of their restraints or encountered other predators. However, the spices and herbs he had gathered were still there, and his small cloth bag and straw hat were also intact.
Gu Jiansheng happily slung the bamboo basket over his shoulder and casually remarked, "Luckily, it wasn't lost."
Zhou Lexing nodded, then hefted the water bottle next to his bamboo basket in his hand, and understood what was going on.
The group continued walking, becoming increasingly cautious and slowing their pace.
The old hunter kept his longbow half-drawn, his sharp eyes scanning the grass, not daring to let his guard down.
The crowd formed a circle, with those on the outer layer either tapping and striking with long sticks or using machetes to cut through the thorns and weeds that were covering the area.
Zhou Baoshan was also at the front, holding a bundle of herbs in his hand and swinging it around. The half-burning embers inside emitted wisps of smoke that were very choking. Every now and then, he would stretch his neck and shout the names of the people who had wandered off.
Unable to bear it any longer, Zhou Lexing wet a bath towel and tied it around Gu Jiansheng's mouth and nose. He then pulled up his wide collar to cover the lower half of his face, adjusting the angle from time to time to stay behind and avoid the smoke, carefully looking around in the bushes.
After walking like this for an hour, the highly vigilant crowd became somewhat numb.
This feeling of being mentally exhausted is even more tiring than physical labor.
The old hunter, being of advanced age, released his longbow after passing the section of road where he had encountered the giant snake. He rubbed his temples, and his face, which was as wrinkled as a withered tree branch, drooped, making him look even older. He was surrounded and walked in the middle of the crowd.
Zhou Le walked at the very back, and seeing that the people in front of him were walking slowly and their long sticks were being swung without much care, he couldn't help but frown and become more vigilant.
He didn't believe that the python was truly a spirit as others claimed, but he acknowledged that wild animals possess sentience and that they have their own hunting methods.
Judging from the python's behavior, it didn't seem afraid of people.
If they hadn't made a big enough show of force, they probably wouldn't have been able to scare the python, and given the python's enormous size, its range of activity certainly extended beyond the area where it was discovered.
Thinking this, Zhou Lexing gripped the machete even tighter.
Gu Jiansheng, who was walking a step away from Zhou Lexing, sensed Zhou Lexing's vigilance and couldn't help but tense up as well.
Just then, Zhou Lexing suddenly exclaimed in a low voice, "Watch out!"
Everyone turned to look at Zhou Lexing, and then quickly looked in the direction he was pointing. They saw the man yawning on the left looking over with a puzzled expression. Behind him, many grass stalks swayed gently to both sides in the wind, but never stood up again.
Everyone was terrified and had the urge to flee, but the python was faster than them. They didn't know how long it had been lying there, but its body contracted and sprang up like a spring, lunging straight at the head of the person who was standing there dumbfounded.
"run--!"
"ah--!"
"careful!"
Chaos was about to erupt.
Zhou Lexing acted entirely on instinct. He was the first among them to notice something was wrong, and he was quite agile. When he charged forward with his broadsword, he actually managed to chop into that sturdy big guy.
At that moment, he felt a tingling sensation in his hand, and the foul-smelling liquid spurting from the snake's mouth even splashed onto his shoulder.
The snake was struck by the force of the blow and flew away, quickly slithering away again in the waist-high grass.
This was even more terrifying than before the attack.
The old hunter shouted, "Watch your step! Don't run around!"
Zhou Baoshan also shouted, "Get to work! Don't just stand there!"
This time is different from the last one.
Last time, they kept a safe distance from this giant snake, so they could still run away. Now, if they run, they might be bitten by the snake hiding in the grass the moment they turn around, which would be even more of a loss. Moreover, there are many of them, and if they stick together, they have a better chance of survival.
Fortunately, this group of people often went into the mountains with the old hunter. Although they were afraid, they truly trusted the old hunter and were willing to listen to him. They immediately swung their large machetes with great force, cutting through the wild grass that blocked their view.
"Young man, come here!" the old hunter directed Zhou Lexing.
Zhou Lexing listened to the advice, pulled Gu Jiansheng, who was standing close to him, and backed up to get closer.
“Snakes are the most vengeful creatures, you little rascal…” The old hunter’s voice was very low, but before he could finish speaking, the two of them attacked at the same time.
The giant snake had somehow slithered up to them. When it leaped up with its mouth wide open, it was just two meters behind them. There was even another person who happened to back away to the side. But Zhou Lexing could see it clearly: the snake's mouth was staring right at his calf!
The two turned and attacked without hesitation.
Zhou Lexing felt the cleaver jolt, and the back of the blade almost hit his knee with the astonishing force. He didn't have time to be surprised and immediately twisted the blade. The snake's head swung and bit, and the blade and the snake's fangs rubbed together, making a tooth-grinding sound. The sharpened cleaver managed to trap the wide-open mouth.
Although the old hunter reacted quickly, the journey had clearly taken a lot of his energy. The slight tremor in his bow hand, combined with the swaying of the snake's body, caused him to miss the target with his arrow.
He immediately took another deep breath and drew his bow again.
"ah--!"
Just then, a figure lunged forward, wielding a machete wildly up and down without any discernible pattern. Yet, out of ten strikes, five or six would land on the slithering snake. The resounding clang of metal against metal, coupled with trembling screams, somehow managed to bring everyone back to their senses.
"Charge! What are you waiting for!" Zhou Baoshan shouted, grabbing his machete and charging forward.
"ah--!"
"Kill it!"
Those with knives used them, and those without wielded sticks. They didn't care about finding the snake's vital point; they just chopped at the snake's body.
A few people shouted out the force of dozens of people.
The snake's head struggled more and more violently, and its body rippled like waves. It even tried to swing its body to bind its prey and take it away, but unfortunately, its fangs got stuck in the cleaver and it couldn't pull them out. Zhou Lexing made a quick decision and forcefully planted the cleaver in the ground to wrestle with the snake's head.
The old hunter finally fired his arrow, this time striking the python squarely at its vital spot, embedding half of the arrowhead.
Zhou Baoshan noticed this and immediately came up to finish off his father.
The crowd hacked and slashed, their minds consumed by fear and the resulting rage. They were fixated on the piece of snake's body they had found, completely oblivious to when the snake had died. When they were finally pulled back, their arms were still trembling violently, their bodies dazed and their throats hoarse, barely able to utter a sound. They stared in disbelief at the snake's mangled remains.
"Are you alright? Is everyone alright?! Is everyone still here?!"
"Dead? Are you sure it's really dead?! Should we cut off the snake's head too?"
This time, everyone was truly terrified, and only dared to approach Zhou Lexing after repeatedly confirming the situation.
Zhou Lexing let go and took a few steps back. His dark pants were splattered with tiny water stains, presumably from the saliva sprayed from the snake's mouth.
Although he reacted quickly when the incident happened, his mind was actually blank, and he acted entirely on instinct. Now that he has come to his senses, he only feels that his arm is numb, his tiger's mouth is very painful, and his legs, which he had been trying to stabilize, feel a little lightheaded after relaxing.
His first instinct was to go and see Gu Jiansheng, who had just rushed up to help chop the snake.
Gu Jiansheng had already plopped down on the ground, his forehead covered in sweat, and his eyes were somewhat vacant, as if he were in a daze.
"Let me see."
Zhou Lexing pried open his palm, frowned at first glance, threw away the machete, and turned to the old hunter and the others, asking, "Do you have anything to stop the bleeding?"
He only brought a small bottle of mercurochrome, which Zhou Ma had put in there out of concern. He didn't know how long it had been there. In those days, medicine was precious, especially in this remote mountain village, where there was no such thing as an expiration date.
Better something than nothing. Zhou Lexing used the red medicine first, then took the herbal ointment the old hunter handed him, wrapped it around Gu Jiansheng's wound, covered his mouth and nose before applying it, and then used a towel to bandage his neck following his chopping movements.
Gu Jiansheng remained silent throughout, only occasionally frowning, indicating that he was still in pain. However, he was used to enduring pain, and coupled with the extreme emotional fluctuations, he was now extremely exhausted.
"Put the chopped parts in too. Yes, hurry up," Zhou Baoshan directed everyone to work. Seeing that everyone was sluggish, he encouraged them, "Hang in there a little longer! We'll rest after we've gone a bit further!"
They had just killed a large snake, and without fire or water to wash away the stench, they risked attracting other large animals, which was not a good thing for them at the moment.
The others understood this principle and dared not complain. They worked diligently without urging Zhou Lexing and Gu Jiansheng, who were sitting together bandaging their wounds.
The two of them deserve a lot of credit for being able to deal with this giant snake.
This snake is so big, it must be a good thing. The snake head can be sold to small clinics for a lot of money. With this in mind, they were all motivated. Many people work fast, and in no time they had collected all the scattered snake bodies into baskets. They then scattered around to search for more before setting off again.
Zhou Lexing placed two machetes, their blades badly sharpened, into his basket. One of them had a lot of blood on the part of its handle.
Gu Jiansheng was terrified and hot-blooded at the time, and he didn't even realize that his hand had slipped off the hilt of the knife. His thumb and forefinger were rubbed raw on the back of the blade, showing how much force he had used.
Zhou Lexing felt sorry for him, but he also felt a sense of comfort.
This brother is truly exceptional; we didn't spoil him for nothing.
"Would you say we've become friends who've been through thick and thin together?"
Zhou Lexing supported Gu Jiansheng's other arm and teased him with a smile.
Gu Jiansheng was still a little dazed, and simply nodded upon hearing this.
Seeing him like this, Zhou Lexing couldn't help but pat his head several times, ruffling his hair.
Don't let Gu Jian's cat-like nature fool you; cats can be quite temperamental too.
In the past, Zhou Lexing would only think about touching his head, but now he had to take advantage of the other's inability to react and quickly rub it a few more times.
I must say, it feels really good.
Zhou Lexing couldn't help but laugh when he saw Gu Jiansheng's messy, disheveled hair and the dead fish look in his eyes.
"This young Gu seems to have a good relationship with the third son of the Yuan family," Zhou Baoshan casually remarked to his father.
The old hunter was getting on in years and had expended a lot of energy, so he let his son help him. Hearing this, he gave an indifferent reply, and after walking a while, he suddenly said, "Yuanxiang's third son is quite good."
His voice was hoarse and aged, and his words brought out Zhou Baoshan's large, single-eyelid eyes.
Don't be fooled by his father's good relationship with the villagers. That's because the villagers rely on his father's experience to make a living. In reality, the old hunter was notoriously reclusive and taciturn. Getting a smile or a word of affirmation from him was extremely difficult, practically impossible.
Even if he were the old hunter's son, the village chief wouldn't get an extra cup of water if he went to his house.
Thinking about this, Liu Baoshan made up his mind and stared thoughtfully at Zhou Lexing's back.
He has been married for over ten years and has three daughters, but he has never had a son to carry on the family business. Two years ago, he considered finding a poor relative to help him get married and become a live-in son-in-law so that he could be trained and pass on the old hunter's mantle.
Now this idea has taken on a more detailed form.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com