He Bang had eaten her fill. She dragged Qingxuan off to Rong Chen Zi’s room, insisting there was a mouse inside. Qingxuan entered the room, and He Bang thrust Rong Chen Zi’s Eight Trigrams mirror into his hands without saying a word.

Qingxuan looked thoroughly baffled. “Why are you giving me this?”

At that very moment, Rong Chen Zi walked in. The late October sunlight still carried the bright clarity of autumn, and his shadow on the ground showed nothing unusual. He Bang gave a dry laugh and threw herself forward: “Zhiguan.”

“Rong Chen Zi” actually reached out to catch her. He Bang spun him in a circle, maneuvering him so that his back was to Qingxuan. Qingxuan shook his head, just about to put the Eight Trigrams mirror back, when his expression abruptly changed. His lips went white, and his whole body began to tremble. He Bang kept glaring at him furiously, and at last he steadied himself and, bowing respectfully, withdrew from the room.

Rong Chen Zi sat on the bed and looked at He Bang cross-legged. He Bang smiled with great simplicity: “Zhiguan, aren’t you going to recite scriptures today?”

“Would you like me to go recite scriptures?” His voice was indistinguishable from Rong Chen Zi’s — yet he suddenly leaned close, his posture suggesting that his entire body had no bones at all. “This really doesn’t seem like you at all.”

He Bang was just about to dodge away when suddenly Qingxuan burst in from outside with all the young Daoists, demon-capturing ritual implements in hand. He Bang cursed under her breath, then abruptly fixed her gaze on the eyes of the “Rong Chen Zi” before her. Her smile was as sweet as honeyed wine. “Zhiguan.”

The light in “Rong Chen Zi’s” eyes seemed to be drawn into hers. His expression became blank and vacant, as though his every movement required tremendous effort. Those deep blue eyes shimmered like waves, vast as a thousand acres of green sea.

He Bang held his gaze, her right hand extended behind her back as she gestured at the young Daoists by the door — go!

The young Daoists could only look to Qingxuan. Qingxuan too felt the strange atmosphere in the room, but in broad daylight, in the pure and sacred grounds of a Daoist temple — why would they fear a monster? And moreover, if they left, what would become of He Bang, a woman, left here alone?

With that thought, he immediately took a demon-banishing talisman from his cosmic pouch and threaded it onto a peach-wood sword, then drove it straight at the monster’s heart. The monster was wearing Rong Chen Zi’s face, and his first thrust was somewhat hesitant — he hadn’t used his full strength. But as the sword struck, it was as though plunging into a swamp, meeting resistance at every point. He poured his full strength into it, yet the sword slowly sank into Rong Chen Zi’s body, the wound closing over it with no sign of injury. This blow also roused the monster from the soul-suppression technique He Bang had been using to hold it down. It glared with furious, wide eyes, as though it could scarcely believe its spiritual consciousness had been suppressed by the spiritual sense of an inner cultivator.

He Bang could naturally feel its resistance. The sensation was unlike that of a demon, yet not human either. She slowly broke into a smile. The young Daoists, not even looking directly at her, felt their minds go hazy, as though flowers bloomed from her white robes — overlapping flower shadows, drifting snow-petals — her beauty was the kind that captured the soul.

This thing quieted for a time, seemingly trying to outlast He Bang in a contest of spiritual power. But after a long while it began to struggle again — He Bang’s spiritual energy seemed inexhaustible, and the staring match went on and on, yielding no result. He Bang curled a finger. Qingxuan suddenly understood, and cried out sharply: “Bring water — go fetch water, quickly!”

The young Daoists didn’t understand, but went anyway to the dining hall, and soon came back carrying several buckets of water. The clear water was placed in abundance around He Bang. A ripple of water patterns spread out from where she stood, and her robes began to emanate a blue glow, while the monster’s eyes looked as though they were about to burst with blood.

After another quarter of an hour, He Bang slowly formed a hand seal. Her movements were slow, but the monster seemed to have lost all control over itself. The surrounding water condensed into ice spikes. He Bang slowly spread open her palm, and a pink pearl streaked like flowing light into the depths of the ice blades.

He Bang bit down hard on her silver teeth, and tiny traces of blood appeared at the corners of her mouth — but these were self-inflicted bite wounds and nothing serious. She gathered her energy with great effort, and the ice blades shot like arrows, streaking straight into the monster’s body. Under the excruciating pain, the monster’s soul-suppression technique suddenly dissolved entirely.

He Bang raised her pale hand lightly, retreating backward like a drifting feather — and with a gentle current of force, swept the young Daoists out of Rong Chen Zi’s bedchamber along with herself.

The late autumn sunlight was so thin it had nearly lost all color. Ten or so wild geese circled past on the far horizon. The sky was high and the clouds sparse.

The monster suddenly flew into a frenzy. Black, sharp claws grew from its hands, and it began tearing at its own skin with great force. In moments, its entire body was lacerated and dripping with blood from its own scratching. The human skin was ripped open, revealing beneath it a pointed skull — shaped like a serpent’s head, yet far larger than any serpent’s, and with three venomous fangs above and below its mouth. He Bang suddenly understood: what she had seen in the Eight Trigrams mirror earlier had likely been what it had swallowed and eaten.

It was the bad habit of snakes to swallow without chewing — that person had died not long ago, their soul not yet departed, and so it had been reflected by the Eight Trigrams mirror.

The monster with a serpent’s head and a human body let out a shrill howl — somewhat like the piercing screech of metal scraping against metal. The sound scattered the water patterns rippling around He Bang. He Bang stepped back, step by step. This thing looked terrifying, and her body was fragile as an eggshell — she absolutely could not fight it head on.

Moreover, after their earlier exchange, the thing had apparently recognized that He Bang was a tough nut to crack and was best avoided — so it turned instead and made for the young Daoists. Qingxuan assembled seven junior brothers on the spot to form a Four Symbols formation. But every ritual implement that struck the monster proved ineffective.

Its skin absorbed all weapons, talismans, and incantations — whether devised to subdue demons or subdue ghosts, not one had any effect on it. In just one exchange, Qingling had already been snatched up in its massive jaws. Qingling struggled desperately, but it was like sinking into a swamp or quicksand — within moments, he had vanished from sight.

In the blink of an eye, the human torso the monster wore swelled and burst like a balloon, revealing a thick serpent’s body beneath, still slick with blood-red mucus. He Bang retreated slowly. Seeing their junior brother swallowed, the young Daoists’ eyes were filled with murderous rage. After the serpent broke from its casing, a third eye suddenly opened on its brow — blood-red, exuding a mysterious, sinister malice.

The moment that eye opened, the already-thin sunlight vanished completely in an instant, and even the wind carried a rank, foul humidity. The young Daoists’ hands shook inexplicably. The serpent fixed its gaze on He Bang, its blood-red forked tongue flickering — it seemed deeply displeased about having been suppressed by He Bang a moment earlier.

He Bang had lived for many years and had encountered countless demons and monsters, but a creature that used human forms as a shell was something she truly had no memory of. Seeing something still moving inside its belly, He Bang grabbed Qingzhen: “Do you want to save Qingling?”

Qingzhen nodded repeatedly: “I do!”

He Bang stepped around the sinister eye in the serpent’s center. “Then go let it swallow you. Go!”

Disciples trained by Rong Chen Zi were indeed all upright and principled — hearing this, Qingzhen practically stepped forward without hesitation. Just as the three-eyed serpent was about to lunge onto him, Qingxuan grabbed Qingyuan and pulled him back: “Wait!” His clear shout rang out, and even the serpent paused.

Qingxuan looked at He Bang. “Your Majesty, Qingyuan makes the best food in all of Qingxu Temple. If he dies, you’ll have no more radish dumplings!”

Qingyuan too understood what Qingxuan meant — He Bang was obviously trying to find the serpent demon’s weakness, and she had no regard for human life whatsoever. If the person being swallowed was unimportant to her, she simply wouldn’t care.

Her scheme laid bare, He Bang still tried to negotiate: “How about you go first? After you go, Qingyuan can follow?”

Qingxuan held firm this time: “Qingyuan.”

So Qingyuan stepped past Qingzhen and stood before the three-eyed serpent. The serpent was not in the least polite about it — its massive blood-filled maw opened wide and took him in halfway. It was also guarding against He Bang making a move, all three eyes fixed unwaveringly on her.

He Bang slowly extended her hand, then suddenly clenched all five fingers. A muffled boom sounded from within the three-eyed serpent’s body, and pearl fragments burst out from inside it, scattering like streaming light. It screamed a piercing shriek, and the things inside its belly began to struggle even more frantically.

This creature was, after all, a beast — not so clever as a person. It only knew that He Bang was difficult to deal with, but didn’t understand why He Bang’s earlier ice blade had needed to carry a pearl inside it. When hit by the arrow, it had been on high alert, but eventually its attention had shifted back entirely to He Bang.

It rolled frantically across the ground. Qingyuan was expelled back out from its mouth. He Bang exhaled a great breath of relief. The three-eyed serpent shook its body — a good seven feet in length — and thrashed madly toward her. Its entire body had begun to ooze a pale yellow viscous fluid, filling the air with a pungent stench.

If it came close, she was dead. She had only one option — run!!

And so this creature turned without another word and bolted. The serpent gave chase, howling with rage the entire way. He Bang hadn’t used a water escape, but had employed wind travel: her footsteps were incredibly light, yet she stayed just within the three-eyed serpent’s line of sight the whole time. The three-eyed serpent was beside itself with fury, and after a long pursuit seemed finally to grasp that it could not catch this clam.

Brutish though the creature was, it wasn’t entirely without a brain. It immediately turned back, intending to attack the young Daoists in the temple.

He Bang stood halfway up the mountain, also hesitating — run, or not?

Truthfully, there was no need to risk her life for a handful of young Daoists. If there’d been a combat cultivator here, she could have wrapped it up conveniently. Besides, she wasn’t even that close to these Daoists anyway…

She looked for reasons to justify herself to herself, but then another thought occurred to her — but I am rather close to the lotus powder dumplings and the radish dumplings, aren’t I?

Thinking it over like this, she was in a dilemma again.

A shout came from down the mountain. Before He Bang could make up her mind, she decided — well, at minimum she should at least save Qingyuan, shouldn’t she?

By the time she made it back up the mountain, the three-eyed serpent had grown twice as thick as before, and its belly already held three people inside — fortunately the pearls had punctured holes through its hide, and all three were still alive.

The moment it saw He Bang, the three-eyed serpent immediately abandoned the young Daoists it had in hand, gave a furious roar, and lunged at her. He Bang was deeply anxious. She formed a hand seal, trying to cast a Coagulate Ice technique, but the thing was too fast — within moments it was already right in front of her.

She could only run again. Just as she turned to flee, a flash of red light suddenly appeared before her eyes, and someone’s sword intercepted the three-eyed serpent. He Bang looked up and found herself already safe and secure within someone’s embrace.

She was elated, though she pressed her voice very low: “Chunyu Lin!!”

Chunyu Lin didn’t release her, speaking quietly: “Let’s go.”

He Bang hesitated for a moment, and finally said: “Kill it first, then go.”

Chunyu Lin rarely went against her commands. Within moments he had flashed to the three-eyed serpent’s side. His weapons were a pair of Day-Moon rings — one was circular, embodying the yang principle, with a sharp outer edge capable of breaking bone and severing tendon in anyone it touched. The other was crescent-shaped, inscribed with Sanskrit incantations, used primarily to deal with demons and monsters.

The three-eyed serpent opened its sinister eye wide and swept its tail around to coil Chunyu Lin’s waist. Chunyu Lin moved the Day ring in his left hand, and the scales across the serpent’s body cracked apart inch by inch, blood and flesh flying in every direction. Stung by the pain, the serpent suddenly lashed out — but Chunyu Lin sidestepped it nimbly.

That opening was all that was needed.

He Bang formed a hand seal, and an ice spike filled with three pink pearls shot like an arrow straight through its heart. Without waiting to be told, Chunyu Lin flashed to He Bang’s side and swept his sleeve up to shield her from the debris.

The three-eyed serpent let out a sharp screech, and its vital spot exploded in a spray of blood and flesh.

A sword tip suddenly emerged from inside its belly — the young Daoists trapped within were cutting their way out. Chunyu Lin took He Bang’s hand: “Let’s go.”

As she walked away, He Bang was still lamenting with clicking of her tongue: “Tsk, tsk — such a big snake. I wonder what the meat tastes like… ow, ow, and I’ve heard that snake gallbladder is also very nourishing…”

Chunyu Lin was utterly undone.