He Bang had no time to soothe Chunyu Lin — and she wasn’t in any particular hurry. The two of them had been together for over three hundred years. Something this small could wait to be smoothed over. The most pressing matter was to deal with the three-eyed snake first.
The three-eyed snake had been hauled out of the lake and given a thorough beating. It had taken many lives, and everyone had long harbored deep hatred for it — they showed no mercy. Fortunately, its snake skin was tough and flexible enough to endure the punishment. Zhuang Shaoqin was somewhat ruthless about it: “Bring fire.” He gave the instruction calmly, and soldiers carried in braziers at his word. He picked up a coal with tongs and pressed it against the three-eyed snake’s body, but though the snake writhed, it did not appear to be in much pain.
Rong Chen Zi’s gaze sharpened slightly. “It seems to have little fear of water or fire.”
Xingzhi Zhenren’s eyes flickered. Zhuang Shaoqin then fetched some realgar and tried feeding it to the snake. Though the snake disliked the smell, its reaction wasn’t one of particular terror. Everyone was busy studying it, and none of them were prepared when the snake suddenly opened the third eye in the center of its brow. That red light flashed, and even Zhuang Shaoqin’s mind was severely shaken. Its cultivation had advanced considerably from when they first encountered it.
Rong Chen Zi moved with swift, sharp reflexes and seized Zhuang Shaoqin by the arm. He Bang applied the Clarity Heart Incantation in time to cleanse his spiritual consciousness, and fortunately he was unharmed.
The three-eyed snake was already snarling: “If you want to kill or flay me, come at me directly!”
“You think I can’t handle you?” He Bang’s voice was cold and proud, her gaze icy and cutting. She strode over to Chunyu Lin and took the Sun-Moon Wheel from his waist. “Let me broaden your horizons.”
She walked to stand before the three-eyed snake. The sun wheel in her hand spun like lightning. The moment it barely grazed the snake’s body, the three-eyed snake let out a piercing shriek. The wheel required no human force to sustain its motion, but its edge was exceptionally sharp, and its material — a thousand-year cold essence drawn from the ocean floor — could cut through anything without fail. The moment this weapon appeared, even Zhuang Shaoqin — a man well acquainted with spirit artifacts and treasures — found his eyes lighting up.
A treasure as rare as this had only managed to cut through a small portion of the three-eyed snake’s skin and flesh — but for He Bang, that was enough. She pressed her index finger into the snake’s wound. A look of indescribable terror suddenly appeared in the three-eyed snake’s eyes. He Bang was injecting water beneath its skin — once enough water had been forced in, the flesh would separate from the skin without any weapon needed at all.
The snake watched He Bang. At its current level of cultivation it was absolutely no match for an internal cultivator of several thousand years. And so it dared not use soul-capturing techniques or anything of the sort. Since emerging from the cliff’s base, it had witnessed many of its companions die horribly, and had itself faced danger more than once — but this was the first time it had tasted the sensation of waiting for its own death.
He Bang had long since worked out how to deal with it. Once enough water had been injected, the three-eyed snake’s ferocity collapsed entirely. It spoke in a hoarse voice: “What do you want from me?”
He Bang’s hand did not slow. “What do you want? What are you after, following your master?”
The snake had not expected this question. After a moment of silence, it answered: “I want to become human.” It raised its head to look at He Bang, letting her see the expression in its eyes. “I want to live in this world like a person.”
Every demon spirit had its own reason for cultivating. Rong Chen Zi and Zhuang Shaoqin exchanged a glance. The great river clam had already spoken: “A simple enough wish.” She pointed at Chunyu Lin. “Do you know him?”
The water beneath the snake’s skin was growing, and it was beginning to panic, bobbing its head rapidly. He Bang was in no hurry — after all, it wasn’t water being pumped beneath her own skin. “Guess how old he is this year.”
The three-eyed snake studied Chunyu Lin carefully once more: “Around a thousand years old?”
He Bang shook her head. “About three hundred. He does not feed on the souls of humans or livestock, nor does he draw on yin energy or gather dark forces.” She paused. “Which means: if you are willing to submit to me, I can allow you to transform into a human within fifty years — without deviating from the heavenly way, and without crossing the demonic tribulation of thunder. If your spirit root is good enough, perhaps one day you may even attain the immortal path.”
The three-eyed snake’s eyes rolled and darted. It was skeptical: “You haven’t even attained immortality yourself.”
He Bang smiled lightly. “I’m fond of this mortal world.”
The three-eyed snake considered her abilities and found itself partly believing — the survival prospects of an internal cultivator were extremely fragile. To choose the path of internal cultivation was, in essence, to place one’s life in the hands of one’s martial cultivator. Yet the inner core of an internal cultivator was supremely nourishing. And how many martial cultivators in this world were truly worthy of complete trust? In this day and age, true internal cultivators had nearly vanished entirely. For this river clam to have survived to this day, she must possess extraordinary capabilities.
After it had finished thinking, it finally asked once more: “Do you mean what you say?”
He Bang smiled softly. “Then you’ll just have to gamble. In any case, the situation is clear: if you refuse, you will certainly die — and I guarantee you’ll die regretting you were ever born into this world. But if you agree, you still have a chance to live.”
It was a clever snake, and one that had read a little. It understood the wisdom of knowing when to bend — a wise man knows which way the wind blows. Besides, He Bang had been steadily pumping water beneath its skin the entire time, and it was on the verge of no longer being able to bear it. So it flicked out its tongue: “Very well. I agree.”
He Bang did not stop. “And how am I to trust you?” She flicked her finger — nails clean and bright. “You flee too quickly, and I am far too lazy. I can never catch you.”
The three-eyed snake grew agitated: “Then what do you want?! Can you not say everything at once?!”
He Bang reached into the silk sash at her waist and produced a red pearl, its peal ringing like silver bells. “This pearl I rarely use. You’ve probably never witnessed its power. But you have seen what a pink pearl can do when it explodes.” The three-eyed snake, distended with water and miserable, nodded hastily. He Bang played with the red pearl at a leisurely pace, her manner graceful. “I’ve tested it against ocean reefs — it’s twelve times the force of a pink pearl. If it were to explode, it could pierce through ten layers of three-eyed snake skin.”
A long silence settled over the three-eyed snake as it floated on the water column. In the end, when its skin was on the very brink of bursting, it finally reached out and caught the red pearl in its mouth, swallowing it with a gulp.
The water column binding it dissolved in an instant, and it splashed back into the lake with a thud.
He Bang turned to face Rong Chen Zi, as charming as ever: “Find out everything about the three-eyed snake’s nature, trace the origins of its master, and we press straight into Changgang Mountain.”
Everyone fell silent. This river clam was truly cunning…
Without delay, that very afternoon, Rong Chen Zi, Xingzhi Zhenren, Zhuang Shaoqin, Ye Tian, and the others set out for Changgang Mountain. As for whatever was being suppressed at the base of the mountain, everyone still felt deeply uncertain. The matter had already alarmed Daozong, and even the Venerable Jiaye had sent a letter of correspondence declaring he would hasten to assist, intending to eradicate this wicked demon snake utterly.
He Bang’s view was not to wait: “By the time he arrives, he may not even be much help. Besides, we can at least go take a look at the base of the cliff first. With this three-eyed snake to guide us, even if we can’t kill the main snake, at least we can get out with our lives intact.”
Everyone had long harbored a bellyful of grievances against this snake, and inevitably none of them could bring themselves to wait any longer. Rong Chen Zi and Zhuang Shaoqin prepared their spirit artifacts. The group set out that same day for Changgang Mountain.
Chunyu Lin naturally had to go. Liu Qinfang, a person entirely without the ability to defend herself, should not by rights have been going with them at all — but she clung to Chunyu Lin and insisted on coming. No one said much about it.
He Bang summoned many sea creatures from the Lingxia sea region. She did not have them enter the interior; she only instructed them to help her store water. Her techniques were water-aligned — with a sufficient supply of water, she would be greatly advantaged. More than twenty sea creatures, all of some standing within the Lingxia sea region, though since Lingxia was not a large sea their cultivation was only middling.
As far as He Bang was concerned, storing water was about the only use she had for them.
With enough water at hand, she used a water-displacement technique and ferried the entire group directly to Changgang Mountain. Everyone was quietly astonished inwardly — though Rong Chen Zi and his two disciples kept their expressions unchanged. Rong Chen Zi knew at least something of this river clam’s true depth.
The three-eyed snake knew the area beneath the cliff well. It swam ahead, and He Bang had no fear of it attempting any tricks. From the mountain base to the cliff’s underside, there was a crack in the rock — just enough to slip through and avoid the ancient formation array above.
The group made their way into the narrow rock crevice one by one. There was no small amount of unease — in a place where they couldn’t even stand upright, if this demon snake chose to betray them, they’d all be going in without coming back out. He Bang, for her part, was lithe and flexible, and followed behind Rong Chen Zi without the slightest difficulty. After a while, the three-eyed snake finally could no longer resist turning back to look at Rong Chen Zi. “Aren’t you afraid?”
Before Rong Chen Zi could respond, He Bang laughed brightly: “Afraid! I’m afraid you’ll explode and splatter me with blood.”
The three-eyed snake looked again at the line of people behind Rong Chen Zi, gave a cold snort, lifted its head, and continued slithering forward.
Utter darkness filled the rock passage, though a faint draft moved through it. There was no way to light a fire, and everyone could only feel their way forward with caution. Ordinarily Chunyu Lin stayed always at He Bang’s side, but after the recent incident he had not spoken a single word to her. The passage here was difficult going, and Liu Qinfang — a sheltered girl of bound feet with little foundation — required his constant attention as he guided her along.
Behind He Bang walked Rong Chen Zi. A subtle fragrance drifted through the air — the scent of a celestial body’s flesh and blood. He Bang breathed it in deeply and savored the lingering warmth, unable to suppress the awakening of certain cravings. Animal instincts had defined her entire life — she had always existed only to seek food. And so she could not help herself; she began to trail close to Rong Chen Zi and inhale his scent. Her fair, soft arms wound around his firm waist. Rong Chen Zi’s breath hitched, but he dared not let those behind him hear anything amiss, so he simply reached out and patted her hand.
He Bang held on tightly, drinking in the air’s fragrance — part medicinal, part floral. The passage here was too narrow; one had to crouch to move through it. He Bang shamelessly draped herself along his back, her small tongue flicking against his neck in slow, deliberate strokes. Two soft, rounded forms pressed close against him from behind. Rong Chen Zi’s heartbeat lurched. He reached back to push her away, but in the darkness his hand found only smooth and delicate skin — long and slender — her leg.
He Bang made no attempt to evade. If anything, she licked with more enthusiasm. Rong Chen Zi had lived a life of propriety and discipline. Though he and this river clam had shared one scandalous interlude, when had he ever engaged in such brazen impropriety in front of others?
He was in his prime, and had tasted those intoxicating pleasures more than once. For an instant, his heart and mind were unruly. But he had cultivated the Dao for many years, and his self-mastery was extraordinary — within moments he had steadied himself. He grabbed He Bang and pulled her away from him, speaking in a low firm voice: “Qingxuan, come stay close to me.”
Behind him, Qingxuan immediately rose to the duty of shielding his master from trouble and squeezed himself in between He Bang and Rong Chen Zi. He Bang was vexed. But Qingsu was the sharper one — this creature was getting handsy with Master again, wasn’t she?
They crawled through the mountain passage for what felt like an hour. At last, light began to appear ahead. The exit was set into the cliff face at a height of over seven chi above the base of the ravine. Rong Chen Zi jumped down first — and then his heart seized.
The entire cliff face before him was white as snow, plastered from top to bottom with snake eggs.
The eggs varied wildly in size — the largest the size of an adult’s fist, the smallest no bigger than a chicken’s egg.
Those who followed him down felt a wave of dread. If so many eggs were to hatch all at once, the consequences would be unthinkable.
The river clam jumped down and was absolutely overjoyed — a snake worth three liang of flesh…