Chapter 138: There should be an end to not recognizing someone by now.
Sensing a huge threat, the mother snake suddenly raised her head, her neck suddenly bulging and flattening, and opened her huge mouth towards Yang Qi who had suddenly invaded!
Perhaps startled, its heavy, swollen belly convulsed violently beneath layers of decaying leaves, and did not rise with the movement of its upper body.
The cold light reflected from the wood-chopping knife flashed across those venomous vertical pupils. As Yang Qi approached, the fierce, swollen snake head shot out like lightning!
"Don't go! It's a poisonous snake!" the snake catcher shouted, but the boy who had been standing beside him had already darted away, his scabbard striking the snake's head that was biting Yang Qi.
The snake's head was knocked off course by the sword sheath, and its sharp, barbed fangs grazed Yang Qi's wrist, breaking the skin.
A woman's terrified scream came from behind.
The mother snake turned her head, her cold, vertical pupils like two venomous stars, staring intently at the attacker. She leaped up fearlessly, her tail sweeping up the fallen leaves, and frantically bit at Li Liuyun.
Just as Li Liuyun's longsword was about to sever the snake's head, a wooden fork unexpectedly grabbed the snake's head from under his sword, pinning it to the ground and killing it!
The snake catchers, adhering to taboos and rules, intervened, saying, "Pregnant snakes must not be killed."
The snake's head struggled frantically under the fork. Its body, which was about to coil around the long fork shaft, froze for a moment. Its entire body suddenly curled inward, its swollen abdomen spasming and contracting violently. The snake's body seemed to twitch. Near the base of its tail, the scales were pushed open and stretched outward by a force. A thing wrapped in a viscous, transparent membrane slowly squeezed out of the expanded abdominal cavity.
With a soft "plop," it slid from the mother snake's belly into the messy, decaying leaves.
It was a thin amniotic sac, filled with mucus, enveloping a young snake curled up in a ball.
None of the teenagers had ever seen a mother snake give birth before, including Li Liuyun, and they were all stunned.
The change happened in an instant, and none of them had time to react. Taking advantage of this moment, the woodcutter's knife suddenly rose and fell, slashing down hard at the green snake, splitting its body in two from its swollen belly!
Yang Qi had only one thought in his mind: once this wicked beast gave birth, his son would die, so...
The green snake let out a shrill roar, like the heartbreaking scream of a pregnant woman. It was "cut open," and seven or eight "baby snakes" wrapped in amniotic sacs leaked out of its bloody belly and were cruelly born into the world. Three of the baby snakes wrapped in membranes were severed by the blade along with their mother.
The two snake bodies writhed and twisted in agony in the pool of blood, and the pungent, fishy smell of blood filled the air.
The snake catcher stared in disbelief at the snake's body, severed in two, and the ground littered with young snakes. His hand, gripping the harpoon, suddenly trembled.
At the same time, the mother snake broke free from the fork. The excruciating pain and impending death enraged her. Her remaining body arched violently, like a poisoned arrow released from a bow, shooting straight at the man carrying the woodcutter's knife!
That's too fast!
It happened so fast that no one had time to see it clearly, and Yang Qi didn't have time to react either. The fangs, like iron nails, dug deep into his neck, the barbs gripping the neck bone tightly, injecting venom.
"Ah—" Yang Qi let out a shrill scream and swung his wood-chopping knife to chop.
Unexpectedly, the mother snake, dragging her bloodied and mangled body, coiled around his arm holding the knife, one circle, two circles, three circles, tightening her grip relentlessly.
"Snap!"
Yang Qi broke his arm, and the machete suddenly crashed to the ground.
"Ah—" Yang Qi tried to pull the mother snake down with his other hand, but only managed to scratch at the cold, slippery snake body in vain.
The more Yang Qi struggled, the tighter the snake coiled around him, its fangs lodged firmly in his throat, and his neck, soaked in venom, quickly turned blue and purple!
The woman and two servants beside them were already terrified.
The mother snake unleashed a chilling ferocity, delivering a fatal blow to Yang Qi in the blink of an eye—a blow that would also result in mutual destruction.
The young snakes inside the amniotic sac are oblivious to the outside world. They wriggle and use their tiny teeth to cut open the membrane...
The young snake's fine fangs, hooked at the snout, pierced the skin as if gently pricked by a needle.
"It's biting you!" Lin Mu came in carrying a basket of vegetables and saw Bai Yuan sitting in the afterglow of the setting sun, her eyes half-closed, one hand resting loosely on the edge of the uncovered earthenware pot, a thin snake coiled on her knuckles, its small mouth open, nibbling at Bai Yuan's fingers.
Lin Mu couldn't stand idly by, so he went over and said, "Can you be a little more careful? Who knows what kind of poison the ghosts raised by the Gu Master might carry?"
The baby snake was so small, as thin as a thread, that it felt cool and slippery when coiled around my fingertips.
Upon hearing this, Bai Yuan raised his hand, glanced at the thin snake that was gnawing on its fingers, and said nonchalantly, "It's not poisonous."
The young snake raised its triangular head, staring at Bai Yuan with its vertical pupils for a moment. Then it lowered its head, flicked out its forked tongue, and licked the skin it had gnawed.
"Hiss," Lin Mu wanted to rip the snake off her finger. "What if it's some kind of infectious disease, like snake plague? Stop playing with it!"
This kid, how can you say she's playing with him? It's clearly this snake that's playing with him.
When the young snake flicked its tongue again, it was suddenly frozen by a frost, and its body instantly became covered in a layer of white frost. The young snake shuddered from the cold finger and slid limply into the earthenware pot.
forest:"……"
Will they freeze to death?
Lin Mu peered into the earthenware pot and was relieved to see the young snake wriggling inside. Elder He had been studying the snake a lot lately, treating it like a precious treasure. Lin Mu was afraid that if anything happened to the snake, Elder He would yell at him.
Bai Yuan glanced at the bamboo basket at his feet, which was full, and asked, "What are we having for dinner?"
Lin Mu covered the earthenware pot: "Steamed locust flowers, bracken sprouts and salted pork soup."
Having grown accustomed to the porridge Lin Mu cooked recently, she became more and more comfortable with the lively atmosphere of this small courtyard. In a daze, it seemed as if she had finally settled down in this world and, like everyone else, was living a peaceful and leisurely life.
But their lives were far from secure; they never had a moment of peace, because Bai Yuan knew perfectly well that this was just a temporary refuge for them, and that their time here would soon come to an end.
Bai Yuan casually brushed aside the fern seedlings in the vegetable basket: "Where did this salted meat come from?"
Having suffered such a heavy blow, Lin Mu felt even more that she had become more vibrant, which might not be a bad thing.
"Elder He cured Granny Wang's leg ailment next door, and to express her gratitude, she specially brought two ounces of salted meat."
"So it's all thanks to the elder," Bai Yuan said. "Can you do it well? Don't waste these two ounces of salted meat."
Don't underestimate me.
As the two were talking, a gentle breeze swept over the wall, "plucked" a flower blooming on the vine on the wall, and blew it into Bai Yuan's arms.
The gust of wind was certainly strange. Bai Yuan picked up the flower that had been carried into his arms by the breeze, held it between his fingers for a few more glances, and suddenly asked, "Do you think this was intentional or unintentional?"
Lin Mu was bewildered: "Huh?"
Bai Yuan raised the corners of his mouth: "Of course it was unintentional."
As she spoke, she put the flowers into the vegetable basket, stood up from the wicker chair, and stepped into Zhou Yaren's room with the gentle breeze.
Zhou Yaren sat on the couch, surrounded by a gentle breeze, holding a flute in her hand, her back ramrod straight. Needless to say, she was observing the wind.
Ever since Zhou Yaren had that dream, he has been unable to find peace of mind. However, he is trapped in this house and can only perform divination. Although the result of the divination is ominous, Lu Bing is not in danger of death, which can put Zhou Yaren at ease a little.
In addition, he would occasionally use his divine sense to listen to the wind, both to find Lu Bing's whereabouts and to search for Li Liuyun and the other teenagers.
Although Pinglu is separated from Shanzhou by a large river, the distance between the two places is not close; he can only catch sniffs up to the riverbank at most.
Bai Yuan leaned against the door, not uttering a sound to disturb them.
In fact, Zhou Yaren was not the only one trapped in this house; Bai Yuan was also unable to easily step out because his physical form and spirit could not be maintained for long.
She needs a little more time, enough time for her body and mind to stabilize, until then...
Bai Yuan stared blankly at Zhou Yaren's calm and focused profile. The world was full of troubles and distracting thoughts. This person in front of him had survived countless hardships and dangers in this world. Shouldn't it be coming to an end?
Bai Yuan still remembers that he had died unjustly countless times, and once, amidst his death and resentment, he pleaded with her, asking, "Who are you? Did you come to save me?"
It's so pitiful.
She said no.
They gave him no hope, because even he himself couldn't save himself from the injustice at that time, so how could he save him?
She was just there to deliver the news of his death.
"Did you come to save me?"
Please save me.
Please.
After several brushes with death, those words still echoed in my ears; how could I remain unmoved? Human suffering is far too much to bear. Bai Yuan, trapped in the Taiyin Daoist realm for a thousand years, has countless times tried to break free of his shackles, attempting to lend him a hand…
Now that things have come to this, perhaps she really can. Bai Yuan suddenly spoke up: "Let me take you back."
Zhou Yaren turned her head: "What?"
Bai Yuan repeated, "I'll take you back."
Her sudden, seemingly unrelated question caught Zhou Yaren off guard: "Go back where?"
Bai Yuan said, "Go home."
"Home?" Zhou Yaren was stunned. Where did he have a home? What home was he talking about?
Bai Yuan said, "I'm not staying in this godforsaken place anymore. I'm going back to the place where I was born and raised."
“You mean…” Zhou Yaren hadn’t even considered it.
"The Boundless Secret Realm, that is your homeland."
“Boundless…Secret Realm,” Zhou Yaren murmured these four words with a sour tone. So he had come from the Boundless Secret Realm? “How did you get back?”
After blurting out the question, Zhou Yaren immediately shook his head. No, he couldn't answer.
Azhaosu killed his own people and is a sinner banished from the Boundless Secret Realm. His sins are unforgivable. Why should he return to his homeland? He has no right to do so.
He heard the words "never to return" clearly.
Bai Yuan knew perfectly well what he was worried about: "Isn't my presence here enough to make you understand that A Zhaosu was wrongfully killed?"
These days, Zhou Yaren is so preoccupied with the heinous crimes committed by A Zhaosu that she is completely oblivious to the truth about the A Zhaosu incident.
Azhaosu was wrongfully killed, so: "Were you also drawn in by the injustice of Azhaosu's death? That's how you got involved?"
Bai Yuan did not answer, but his expression was tantamount to acquiescence.
“And before that,” he asked, “what was your relationship with Azhaosu?”
Bai Yuan replied casually, "It doesn't matter."
Upon hearing this, Zhou Yaren remained silent for a long while, a look of confusion on her face. She had seen Bai Yuan guarding that lonely grave in the "Report on the Death Umbrella," as if he were guarding someone very close to her. How could it be a casual remark that it was unrelated, even if she was answering a close friend?
Zhou Yaren changed her perspective: "Do you know them?"
Bai Yuan said, "I don't know him."
Zhou Yaren stared at Bai Yuan, trying to find any trace of the truth in her face.
However, Bai Yuan's expression remained unchanged, revealing no flaws. Yet, he clearly sensed Bai Yuan's state of mind as he guarded that lonely grave. While he could not say he was heartbroken, he was certainly not just facing a complete stranger.
Zhou Yaren had a vague feeling that Bai Yuan was hiding something from him.
He really wanted to ask more questions, but he was afraid of bothering people, so he became more and more hesitant and swallowed his words.
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