Another missing page?

Mu Yunjin was somewhat surprised. The last time she came here to search for records about the Underworld God, there were also missing pages. Now, regarding snake spirits, there were missing pages again?

This was truly strange. Who had such an ability to tear out exactly what they were looking for in advance?

“Could there be something unspeakable about the snake spirit form?” Mu Yunjin took the book from Chu Li’s hand and flipped through it several times.

Huang Yan frowned tightly, looking at the missing corner, feeling increasingly frustrated. Angered, he kicked the bookshelf beside him. “Damn it! The spring water from Biyue Spring doesn’t work, and now there’s no method to become a spirit beast. Is heaven deliberately toying with me?”

Seeing this, Mu Yunjin sighed slightly and exchanged a glance with Chu Li beside her.

“Let’s continue searching. There are so many books here, perhaps others have records of it.” Mu Yunjin turned around and casually pulled several books from the shelf to read.

Chu Li reached out and patted Huang Yan on the shoulder, then joined Mu Yunjin in continuing to flip through the books one by one.

Huang Yan stood motionless, his face increasingly haggard. Despite the turmoil in his heart, seeing Mu Yunjin and Chu Li leafing through the books, Huang Yan clung to a last thread of hope and began to read as well.

…

…

The three stayed in the book chamber until nightfall.

When Qiqi entered the book chamber, she saw Mu Yunjin sitting in a chair with a thick stack of books beside her, reading carefully.

Chu Li and Huang Yan were standing by the bookshelves, reading books directly. All three were silent and serious as they read.

Qiqi stood there for quite a while, not daring to disturb them, until Mu Yunjin turned her head and saw Qiqi standing at the door.

“Qiqi,” Mu Yunjin called out to her.

Hearing Mu Yunjin’s voice, Qiqi smiled at her and walked to Mu Yunjin’s side. “Master, I saw you’ve all been here for a long time. I was wondering if you’re hungry and want something to eat?”

Hearing this, Mu Yunjin looked toward Chu Li.

“You go eat first,” Chu Li said to Mu Yunjin.

Huang Yan, standing nearby, seemed not to have heard, focused intently on leafing through books.

Mu Yunjin put down the book in her hand and rose to follow Qiqi out of the book chamber.

Outside the book chamber, the night breeze blew against her body. Mu Yunjin took a deep breath, her heart full of helplessness.

“Master, you’ve been in the book chamber for so long. Have you found anything?” Qiqi turned to look at Mu Yunjin.

Mu Yunjin shook her head. “Though all are spirit beasts, snake spirits seem peculiar. We can’t find any detailed records about snake spirits anywhere.”

“How can this be…” Qiqi paused her steps and frowned. “It doesn’t make sense. We are all spirit beasts, from the same lineage. How can there specifically be no records of snake spirits?”

“I’ve been wondering the same thing. Moreover, Hua Ying drank the spring water from Biyue Spring with no effect; she couldn’t transform into human form.” Mu Yunjin spoke softly.

Qiqi sighed, her small face looking distressed. “This matter truly exceeds all our expectations.”

“Is Hua Ying the only snake spirit in Fengyu Pavilion?” Mu Yunjin asked.

Qiqi nodded. “Yes, only Hua Ying.”

“What about Hua Ying’s parents? They should both be snake spirits, right?” Mu Yunjin thought for a moment and asked again.

“Yes, Hua Ying’s parents were both snake spirits. However, in their generation, only the two of them remained, so they had only one daughter, Hua Ying. After they passed away one after another, Hua Ying became the only snake spirit in the world.” Qiqi patiently explained to Mu Yunjin.

Mu Yunjin’s thoughts were somewhat confused now. She rubbed her temples, and after a while, she remembered something. “Are the rooms they lived in or the things they used still around?”

“Hmm…” Qiqi scratched her head, thinking for a long time. “The things her parents left behind seem to all be in Hua Ying’s room.”

“Let’s go take a look!” Mu Yunjin immediately made the decision and walked toward Hua Ying’s residence.

Qiqi was slightly startled and ran to catch up. “Master, aren’t you going to eat something first?”

…

In Hua Ying’s room.

“Master, is it really okay for us to go through her things?” Qiqi looked at the neat and clean room, her expression somewhat hesitant.

Mu Yunjin pursed her lips slightly. “Although this isn’t quite right, we might find a trace of a clue, so let’s look anyway…”

“Alright…”

The two of them then turned Hua Ying’s room inside out. Mu Yunjin, fearing the room had hidden compartments, even checked the floorboards beneath their feet and the walls around them.

“Master, let’s give up. It doesn’t seem like there’s anything.” Qiqi deflated.

Mu Yunjin was now crouching on the ground and didn’t respond to Qiqi. She continued tapping the remaining floorboards that hadn’t been checked yet.

Until there was only one floorboard left, Mu Yunjin heard a crisp sound.

“Knock knock.”

The floorboard was hollow.

“There is a mechanism here?” Qiqi raised her eyebrows and quickly looked around, searching for a way to activate the mechanism. Finally, her gaze fixed on a black porcelain jade vase nearby.

“This must be the mechanism. I’ve been to Hua Ying’s room several times and always saw her wiping this vase. She treasures it.” After speaking, Qiqi walked over, first examining the black porcelain jade vase, then reaching out to gently touch it.

Mu Yunjin had been crouching for a long time, and her waist was now a bit sore. She sat directly on the ground, waiting for Qiqi to investigate the vase.

Finally, when Qiqi had turned the vase for the third time, the hollow floorboard that Mu Yunjin had been tapping slowly moved aside, revealing a package inside.

Seeing this, Mu Yunjin curved her lips, took out the package, and slowly untied it.

There weren’t many things in the package: two old books and two white porcelain bottles filled with something.

Mu Yunjin first took out the two books. One had “Book of Hundred Poisons” written on its cover.

Mu Yunjin was familiar with this book. She had heard Hua Ying mention it before. The method to remove the hundred poisons in Xu Heyu’s body also came from this book.

Knowing the importance of the Book of Hundred Poisons, Mu Yunjin quickly reached back into the package and picked up the other book.

The cover of the other book had no writing on it.

Curious, Mu Yunjin opened the first page. What met her eyes were rows of graceful and elegant handwriting. However, perhaps due to its age, the ink on the writing had faded considerably, with some characters no longer legible.

Before she could carefully read the content, Mu Yunjin’s gaze had already glanced at the last line, where there was a signature, named Ru Yan.

“Who is Ru Yan?” Mu Yunjin looked at Qiqi.

“Hua Ying’s mother,” Qiqi answered.

Mother…

Mu Yunjin frowned slightly and quickly flipped through the next few pages, discovering that all the content in this book was handwritten by Hua Ying’s mother.

“What should we do? This was left by her mother for her. I don’t feel right looking through it…” Mu Yunjin closed the book, somehow feeling contempt for herself.

Qiqi pouted. “But what if this book has information about snake spirits?”

“This is written by her mother for Hua Ying. Since Hua Ying has kept it until now, she probably knows the content by heart. So there might not be anything in this book…” Mu Yunjin felt her own words lacked conviction as she spoke.

“What you say makes sense. Then let’s not look at it.” Qiqi followed along with Mu Yunjin’s words.

After a pause, she picked up the two porcelain bottles filled with something and examined them in her palm. “I wonder what’s inside these? They were specially placed in the package.”

Qiqi looked for quite a while but didn’t dare to open the stopper to smell. After all, Hua Ying was skilled in using poisons; who knew if there were poisonous substances inside?

“Master, come look at this.” Unable to discern anything, Qiqi handed a bottle to Mu Yunjin.

Mu Yunjin reached out to take it and casually looked at it. Just as she was about to put it back in the package, her hand paused slightly, and she brought the porcelain bottle closer.

“The color of this porcelain bottle is light. If you don’t look carefully, you can’t see that it has many small scratches on it.” Mu Yunjin bit her lip.

In that case, these two bottles had also been kept for a long time.

Then…

Could they have been left by Hua Ying’s parents?

Thinking of this, Mu Yunjin’s gaze drifted to the book handwritten by Hua Ying’s mother…

“Master, should we look at it or not?” Qiqi also found this situation perplexing.

Mu Yunjin sighed, feeling extremely conflicted.

Just as the two were undecided, the door was suddenly gently opened. Even though the sound of the door opening was extremely soft, it still startled Mu Yunjin and Qiqi.

When they turned their heads to see who was standing at the door, Mu Yunjin’s lips twitched, and she covered her face with her hand, feeling so ashamed that she wanted to crawl into the hole in the floor.

Qiqi gave a dry laugh and waved at the person at the door. “Ah ha, ha… Hua Ying, why did you suddenly come back?”

Hua Ying stood at the doorway, expressionless, showing no emotion. She slowly walked over to where Mu Yunjin and Qiqi were crouching. Without a word, she took the porcelain bottles from their hands, put them back in the package, and placed the package back in its original spot.

After the floorboard underneath closed again, Hua Ying raised her eyes, tugged at the corners of her mouth, and looked at Mu Yunjin and Qiqi. She said softly, “Master, please don’t help Huang Yan anymore. He cannot become a snake spirit.”

“Why?” Mu Yunjin and Qiqi asked in unison.

Hua Ying lowered her gaze, her long eyelashes trembling slightly. She clenched her fingers tightly, seemingly suppressing her emotions.

Seeing this, Mu Yunjin had an inexplicable sense of foreboding.

“Throughout history, male snake spirits have never lived long lives. The snake spirit clan has records that the longest-lived male snake spirit only lived for thirty-five years. The shortest-lived was stillborn.”

“That’s why, gradually, I became the only snake spirit left today.”

After speaking, Hua Ying still smiled faintly. “I tore out the missing pages from the book chamber in advance.”

“Please, help me persuade him.”

The room fell silent.

Since seeing the missing page, Mu Yunjin had thought of many possibilities, but never imagined the truth would be like this.

Just as Huang Yan had said, heaven truly was cruel to him this time.

“Then, is there a method in this world to become a snake spirit?” Mu Yunjin raised her eyes to look at Hua Ying and spoke slowly.

Hua Ying nodded.

“Alright, I understand.” Having received an answer, Mu Yunjin took a deep breath, slowly stood up, and without lingering any longer in the room, walked toward the door.

Just as her feet stepped out of the doorway, she caught sight of someone standing outside and was startled. After composing herself, she headed down the mountain path.

Indeed, some people are destined to be entangled in their fate.