Chapter 186 Jinjiang First Launch

Six hundred years ago, in a remote village in the Ji Kingdom, a young green snake broke out of its shell and was born.

Although it will grow up to be a great monster that wreaks havoc on the world, it is still just a baby snake now.

It tried to move its body, but found it was too weak, so it slowly climbed up a tree trunk nearby, trying to blend in with the surrounding environment.

The weather was hot and the green snake felt very hungry. It tried to catch flying insects several times but failed.

What a stupid snake, it thought.

Although it couldn't see clearly where it was, the green snake felt quite safe here. It had been here for half a day and no one came to disturb it.

Just as the green snake finished sighing, it heard footsteps.

Unlucky.

He murmured in his heart.

From the sound of footsteps, it seemed that only one person came. This person walked past the green snake without noticing it at all. The green snake yawned with relief.

The person stopped nearby, put the bamboo basket on the ground, took out the offerings from the basket and placed them on the table respectfully, then knelt down devoutly:

"Your Majesty, please accept my humble respect!"

It turned out to be a little girl. Green Snake poked his head out to listen to what she was saying.

"These are the fruits and vegetables I picked from the fields. They are all fresh. I have already frozen them in well water. The steamed buns are also steamed by me. Please have a taste, Immortal Biyuan!" said the girl.

There's a temple nearby? Green Snake secretly complained that only one person came to worship all day, so this deity must be doing really badly, right?

"My Lord, your statue is already very dilapidated. I want to rebuild it for you, but I am still a child and penniless. If I become rich in the future, I will definitely come back here and rebuild a temple for you!" said the girl.

...See, I guessed right, the green snake was a little smug, this immortal really wasn't doing very well.

“Although the world has forgotten you, I still believe in you. Please bless me with your spirit in heaven and give me divine power so that I can beat them up today!” The girl clasped her hands together, very pious.

Upon hearing this wish, the green snake's eyes widened. This was the first time it had seen such a strange woman. In this world, some people wish to get rich, some wish to become an official, but this woman's wish was to beat someone up?

The green snake became more and more curious and wanted to see what this strange woman looked like.

But it was a snake and had naturally poor eyesight, so it couldn't see clearly. At the moment it didn't know this and it just stuck its head out, stretching it further and further until it almost reached the girl's face.

The girl picked up the bamboo basket, turned around, and came face to face with the green snake. Both sides were startled.

"Okay, you little snake, you want to scare me on purpose?" The girl pulled the green snake down from the tree and held it tightly in her hand, "Look, I'm going to step on you to death!"

The green snake began to struggle desperately. The girl put it on the grass. It twisted its body wildly. Seeing it like this, the girl softened her heart again:

"Why would I kill you? Well, you didn't hurt me anyway, so I'll be magnanimous and let you go, considering that you look as ugly as me."

The green snake was very dissatisfied. It was ugly? It was a newborn snake baby, how could it be ugly? This was simply slander!

But he thought again, from what the girl said, could it be that she was just ugly?

The green snake became curious again. It wanted to see how ugly the girl was. It crawled faster and climbed onto a tree in front. Then it waited for the girl to pass by and jumped down, landing directly on her face.

The girl was not frightened this time. She pulled the snake off her face and said viciously, "I'm going to teach you a lesson this time!"

The green snake spit out its tongue, which was originally a signal of attack, but the girl took it as a sign of flattery.

"Shaochun's family has a dog, Ping'an's family has a big black horse, and I don't have a pet of my own yet," the girl looked at the green snake, "Although you are ugly, you are still a little cute if you look closely. If I keep you as a pet, you will definitely scare those brats to death!"

"Besides, my mother doesn't allow me to keep a pet. She says pets waste food. I see that you are thin and you can't eat much. If I keep you, my mother will probably agree," the girl began to think about the future. "Besides, you are cool and can cool me down in the summer. How useful!"

Just like that, the girl convinced herself. She threw the green snake into the vegetable basket and took it home as a pet.

The green snake was a little confused. It had not yet decided whether to be a pet for humans. However, it was a Buddhist green snake and decided to take things as they came.

The girl went home with the bamboo basket. She stroked the green snake along the way and loved it more and more. "Actually, you are not that ugly. You are quite pretty. You are really green, just like newly sprouted bamboo. And your scales are shiny. By the way, you don't have a name yet, right? I will give you a name - Xiaoqing. From now on, you will be called Xiaoqing!"

The green snake thought about it and accepted the name calmly.

When she was almost home, the girl quietly put the green snake into her arms. After all, her mother didn't allow her to keep a pet, so it was better to keep a low profile.

After hiding the snake, the girl confidently went home. As soon as she entered the house, she heard a roar: "Bai Wuyan, where have you been today?"

The girl said weakly, "Mother, I went to the river to catch fish, but Shaoqiu and his friends took all the fish away, so I came back empty-handed."

"You're still lying to me?" Ah Niang roared again, "You think I don't know, right? Your uncle Wang told me today that he saw you carrying a basket of food, sneaking down that path. Did you go to worship the gods again?"

The girl lowered her head in shame: "...Yes."

A Niang immediately threw the kitchen knife on the chopping board and said, "You are so generous. You gave such delicious fruits to the gods when I haven't even tasted them myself. Bai Wuyan, let me ask you, what's the point of worshipping that god? People worship the God of Wealth, Confucius, and other useful things, but what is this Bi Yuan Immortal Lord you worship? People have never heard of him. What can he do?"

Bai Wuyan said timidly: "Bi Yuan Xianjun is a good immortal. He was able to protect me. When I was six years old..."

Ah Niang interrupted her rudely: "That's enough. I really think you have been tricked. You have been talking about things that happened when you were six years old. You are already twelve years old!"

Bai Wuyan bowed his head and admitted his fault: "Mother, it's my fault. I shouldn't have wasted the family's food."

My mother said sadly, "Wuyan, I don't care about these foods, but I can't bear to see you wasting your time on this! You are twelve years old, and you are not young anymore. You should do something serious!"

Bai Wuyan summoned up his courage and said, "What do you mean by serious matters? Learning to read and write? I also want to go to school to learn to read and write like Shaoqiu and Ping'an, but you, mother, won't send me."

Ah Niang was furious again: "Look at what you are talking about? Studying and learning to read, is that something a woman should do? Even if I really send you there, the teacher at the school won't accept you. That's something a man should do, you just need to do what a woman should do!"

"Then what should a woman do?" Bai Wuyan asked.

A Niang put her hands on her hips and said, "Do I need to tell you this? Needlework, cooking, and women's virtues, which one can't you learn? But you just want to be a scoundrel and fight with boys every day. What do you think of this?"

Bai Wuyan felt wronged: "It's not that I want to fight with them, it's that they always bully me. Every time I go out, Ping An and Shao Qiu will bring their friends to laugh at me. They say I'm ugly and a freak. Shouldn't I beat them up?"

A Niang's eyes were red. "They deserve to be beaten - but you can't do it, Wuyan. You are a girl, you can only bear it. A Niang didn't mean to make you feel wronged. A Niang is thinking about your reputation. You will get married in two years. When your in-laws come to the village to inquire about you and find out that you hang out with boys all day, they will definitely not want you. What will you do?!"

Bai Wuyan said nonchalantly, "If they don't want me, then don't want me. I don't even want to be wanted by them. Is it a blessing to be liked by them? I just wash clothes and cook every day. Mom, do you expect me to go to other people's houses to wash clothes and cook?"

Ah Niang was choked for a moment, then slowly said: "But - but women should be like this, marrying and serving others is a woman's life mission. You are a woman, do you still want to pass the imperial examination? Only getting married is your life's most important event. If you can't get married, you will become a laughing stock. If you don't learn women's virtues now, you will be abandoned by your husband's family after marriage, and become like your mother and me!"

Bai Wuyan stopped talking. She knew that this was her mother's sorrow. Although her mother did not tell her, she also learned some things from the gossip of the adults. Her mother was originally a lady from a wealthy family and married a well-matched man. However, her mother was born ugly and scared the man to death when the veil of the bridal chamber was lifted.

The young master wanted to cancel the engagement at that time, but due to the power of the two families, he had to consummate the marriage with my mother reluctantly. After the marriage, my mother had a child, and the young master never came to my mother's room again. Instead, he took several beautiful concubines and made love with them every day, which made my mother sad.

The two of them lived like this for several years, seemingly in harmony but spiritually estranged, until something bad happened in my mother's family, and the family declined overnight. The young master finally breathed a sigh of relief, and was finally able to divorce his wife openly and kick both my mother and little Wuyan out of the house.

Mother was penniless and wandered to the village. She found an abandoned house to live in. Fortunately, there were many barren fields here and mother could make a living by farming. She raised Wuyan alone. Unfortunately, she found that Wuyan looked more and more like her as he grew up. Wuyan was also an ugly girl. This made mother worried and she started to worry about Wuyan's marriage early on.

Appearance cannot be changed, so the mother could only teach Wuyan to be more obedient, hoping that she could use this to please her husband in the future. However, Wuyan was born unruly, and the mother shed tears for this many times.

After a moment of silence, Bai Wuyan retorted, "Mother, all women in the world marry to serve men with their beauty. Since I am ugly, I will definitely be treated harshly after marriage. If you had known this, why did you send me to the fire pit?"

My mother was so angry that she laughed: "You mean you won't get married? Okay, I want to hear it. If you don't get married, how will you live in the future?"

Bai Wuyan said confidently: "I just don't want to get married, but I haven't been deprived of my hands and feet. I can definitely farm and support myself like you do—"

Wuyan was interrupted by his mother, who screamed, "Shut up! I worked so hard to raise you, just to prevent you from following my old path. I tell you, I will burn these lands in the future and will not let you inherit them. Forget farming, your only option is to get married!"

Bai Wuyan curled his lips and said, "Well, then I won't farm the land. Anyway, the world is so big, there will always be a place for me to go."

Seeing Wuyan was so stubborn, A'niang couldn't bear it anymore. She stretched out her hand to slap Wuyan. Before her slap landed, Xiaoqing suddenly popped out from Wuyan's chest, startling A'niang.

"Ah——How come there is a snake——"

A Niang screamed and ran away, Xiao Qing and Wu Yan smiled at each other.

In the evening, after her mother had dinner and went to bed, Wuyan lay alone on a bamboo chair to enjoy the cool air. Because of her ugly appearance, no one in the village was willing to be friends with her. But now she had Xiaoqing, and Xiaoqing was her friend.

Wuyan thought back to what happened during the day and whispered to Xiaoqing:

"Actually, what my mother said was wrong. The Immortal Lord Bi Yuan is not a useless god. He is the most useful god! People love to worship the God of Wealth, but the God of Wealth may not show up. But if I worship the Immortal Lord Bi Yuan, he will really bless me!" As she spoke, Wu Yan told Xiao Qing about her experience when she was six years old.

When she was six years old, her mother brought her to the village. They were unfamiliar with the place and they were both ugly, so they were often bullied. The adults ignored her mother, and the group of children also followed suit and started bullying Wuyan.

Leading the group were two boys named Qiu Sheng and Ping An. They were the worst. Wherever Wu Yan went, they would bring a group of people to laugh at her. If Wu Yan dared to talk back, they would beat her.

Once they came to laugh at him again, and Wuyan fought back fiercely with a few words, but was beaten up by them. Wuyan found an opportunity to escape, and the group of people chased him. In the panic, Wuyan hid in a dilapidated temple. This place had been in ruins for a long time. The statues on the table had turned gray, and the temple was full of spider webs. Wuyan rushed in and hid under the table.

Qiu Sheng and others caught up quickly. They picked up some stones. If they hit Wu Yan hard with the stones, Wu Yan would probably die here today.

They found Wuyan's hiding place, and just as they were about to take action, a muffled thunder rang out between heaven and earth, and the statue flashed with golden light, which blew them all away.

The gang of hooligans were frightened. They kept looking around at the temple gate and didn't dare to come in. After hesitating for a while, they left. Wuyan saved his life in this way.

"So, it was Immortal Biyuan who saved me. He is my savior, so of course I should worship him, don't you think so?" Wuyan pulled Xiaoqing's tail and said, "It was after that day that I realized that evil people are also bullying the weak and afraid of the strong. If I am strong enough, they will also be afraid of me. So I started to exercise and help my mother move heavy things. Soon Qiu Sheng and Ping An could not beat me. In order to deal with me, they even had to call for reinforcements!"

As Wuyan was speaking, the sound of water came from the darkness. There was a creek opposite Wuyan's house, and someone was wading across the water. Judging from the sound, there were quite a few people.

"Oh no, it must be them again!" Wuyan suddenly became alert.

Xiaoqing also hid in Wuyan's sleeves and prepared for battle.

Wuyan guessed correctly. It was Qiu Sheng and Ping An who came with their people. They had suffered a setback last time, so this time they specially called some friends from the neighboring village to show Wuyan some strength.

Wu Yansi was not afraid at all. He went back to the house, took out the hoe that A Niang used, and then closed the door tightly, not wanting the sound of fighting to wake A Niang up.

When the two groups met, neither of them spoke much. Qiu Sheng sneered and let the boys behind him rush forward. Wu Yan wielded the hoe and knocked down the two boys first. Of course, she knew that she could not hurt anyone's life, so she only cut their wrists to prevent them from getting close.

Seeing how ferocious Wuyan was, the rest of the people didn't dare to step forward. Qiu Sheng cursed loudly and rushed forward with Ping'an. After suffering a loss last time, the two of them put on a layer of protection inside their clothes this time.

Wu Yan saw through it at a glance, so she focused on hitting them in the face. She first punched Qiu Sheng in the face, making his face crooked, and then punched Ping An, giving him a black eye.

Wow, the master is so powerful! Xiaoqing cheered silently in her heart.

It was just a little dizzy, and it was swinging around in Wuyan's sleeves, almost making it vomit.

The last group of people stood there in a daze. Wuyan waved at them, signaling them to come forward and challenge. They looked at each other, but did not dare to come forward. Xiaoqing also took the opportunity to slip out from Wuyan's sleeve and hissed at them.

When they saw the snake, the group of people became even more frightened. They no longer resisted and ran away with the injured person in a hurry.

From that day on, Wuyan's days became much quieter. No one came to bother her anymore. Even Qiu Sheng and Ping An would avoid her when they saw her on the street. No one dared to gossip about her mother anymore. After all, everyone knew that Bai's mother had raised a strong daughter.

Although Bai Wuyan was very happy, her mother's eyes were almost blinded by tears. Wuyan was ugly to begin with, and now her reputation for being a tough guy had spread. She was about to reach the age to get married, but no one in the surrounding villages dared to propose marriage to her. What should she do?

Seeing A Niang sad every day, Wu Yan realized that she could not stay at home any longer. She had to leave A Niang's sight so that A Niang would be less sad about her.

Maybe it's time to go out and explore.

It happened that the imperial court came to recruit soldiers, and Qiu Sheng and Ping An were taken away. Wu Yan became interested and summoned her courage to say to A Niang:

"Mom, I want to join the army!"