Chapter 47: Snake Spirit (2)
Not only was I stunned, but the soft flesh that was being led by the old man with me also had a weak leg. If it weren’t for the old man holding him, he would have rolled into the pit.
The others were calm, probably because they had already seen the snake spirit.
The pit was a little deep. Looking down from above, it was about 7 or 8 meters deep. In the pit, a faint stone door could be seen, half of which was exposed. The stone door was directly opposite a large stone, and the snake spirit was lying on the large stone outside the stone door.
I finally saw what a snake spirit is. It is a big snake. At this time, half of its body is still in the soil, but the half that is exposed is as long as three of me.
The color of its body was very strange. It was said to be white, but it also had faint light gray patterns. Those patterns looked very strange. I can’t describe them. Anyway, they felt untraceable, but faintly resembled unformed characters or totems.
What was even more shocking was that the big snake had a white bulge on its head, which occupied one-third of its head. At this time, the bulge looked like it had a soft and hard texture.
“It’s so big…” Just as Su Rou said “so big,” the old man immediately covered his mouth, and the lazy-looking snake spirit immediately turned its head towards Su Rou when it heard these words. The two red eyes looked at Su Rou, and the forked tongue kept moving in and out of the mouth.
The eyes of snakes are already cold and unemotional, and staring at them like this is terrifying enough.
Although Su Rou was being held by the old man, he couldn’t help but let his body soften and hang directly on the old man.
The head is as big as a basket! This was my first thought. I don’t know what to say about the second thought. Supposedly, snakes give people the impression of being cold, but I distinctly felt that when the snake spirit looked at Su Rou, a feeling of tension mixed with anger was being transmitted.
Su Rou was covered by the old man, so of course she couldn’t say anything. After a while, the snake spirit slowly softened and lay down on the rock again.
“It won’t attack people easily because it has cultivated spirituality! Don’t say what it is, it’s a taboo, and I’ll explain later. In short, if you anger it, even dozens of human lives won’t be enough.” Old Master Jiang said, actually to me and Su Rou.
I was very curious as to why he couldn’t say what it was. It was just a snake, right? But since my cheap master said that he would explain later, I didn’t ask any more. I only understood that my master would never harm me.
“Lao Wu, what do you think?” My master turned his head and looked at Lao Wu, the leader. Since he was a snake handler, he must have made a judgment by now.
“I think that just now, it proved that it was only using the negative energy here to practice, and it had not yet been affected by evil things, otherwise it would not have been so easy. You know how terrible it is for mountain spirits and wild monsters to be affected or go astray! Or the kind that has already given up and believes that it cannot be saved… You are an expert in this, and I am only talking about this kind of situation, because there are many things in the things passed down by my ancestors… Anyway, there are records of this kind of situation, both good and evil.” Old Wu was very awkward when he spoke, and it was clear that he was also trying to avoid saying the word “snake.”
“Well, I had already made that judgment early on. When someone dug it up with a hoe today, it wasn’t attacked, so I knew what was going on. I mean, do you have a way to make it leave?” Old Master Jiang frowned and said.
When he said the word “leave,” the snake spirit reacted again. The big head turned around and gave the old man a cold look. I finally couldn’t help but say, “Master, I think it has some meaning, the meaning of mocking what you said.”
I was still young at the time, and I didn’t know the word “disdain,” so I could only try to tell them what I felt.
When the old Wu head heard this, he was a little shocked and turned to look at me: “Can you feel its emotions?”
“I don’t know, I just know that when it looked at the crispy meat, I felt it was nervous and angry!” I told the truth, but when the crispy meat heard the word angry, it just softened a little bit. It was already fat, and now it was even more like a meatball hanging on my master.
“Haha, am I a bad teacher? Sanwa has a very strong spiritual sense, it’s only natural that he can feel its emotions. Tell me first, is there any way to make it leave?” Old Jiang was a little proud, and instinctively wanted to scratch his beard, but he realized that he had shaved it clean this morning. To cover up his embarrassment, he quickly changed the subject.
“There are ways, but they are all big problems. And you know, if you’re not careful, you’ll hurt it, and if you’re not careful, you’ll hurt people. In our line of work, we try to avoid harming it. To be honest, it’s a great sin to break someone’s cultivation. I think we should use the old method we discussed before. If I have to intervene, I’ll only do so when I have no choice.” Old Wu looked worried, and after thinking for a while, he finally gave my master an answer.
My master was silent for a moment before he said, “Okay, let’s do it this way.”
I couldn’t hold it in any longer and asked, “Master, what should we do?”
Are you going to drive a Jiefang car to transport it away?
“Hmph, negotiate!” Old Jiang rolled up his sleeves and said in a loud voice, looking like a complete scoundrel.
Seeing my disdainful look, the old man Jiang pulled up my sleeves and said, “You can’t get away with this! You’re just going to stand by my side and support me!”
See, bullying a child again, just stand up. You are my master, I should. But what does it have to do with my sleeves? Poor me, this is the only good white cotton shirt, and it was ruined by this cheap master. He made it so that my clothes were crumpled immediately.
“Pay attention to its mood, I’m too lazy to waste my effort. Anyway, this is your specialty, so you might as well use it.” He whispered in my ear, and the old man Jiang handed the crispy meat to another person to hold, and then he took me a step forward.
My master and I took a step forward, but the snake spirit also reacted at the same time. It stood up with a loud noise, and what was even more peculiar was that the scales on its neck also stood up.
It was just a small circle of scales around the neck, but it looked so majestic that I almost blurted out, “Master, this is a dragon! This is a dragon!”
But in the end, I still held back. I couldn’t let my master down. I had to hold on.
It stood up, and the edge of the pit was close. This kind of eye contact was very stressful, and I noticed that its body buried in the soil was also writhing, making the ground rattle.
I desperately thought of the heroism of Dong Cunrui blowing up the bunker. I had already become him, and I was barely able to calm down, while the old man Jiang was very calm.
He chuckled and said very casually, “It’s a good thing I’m negotiating with you, which means I see you as a human being. What do you mean? Don’t you want to admit it?”
The old man said this very easily, but from the strength of his grip on my hand, I knew that he was exerting himself. Sure enough, the veins on his neck were slightly prominent.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed that my master was exuding a kind of power that directly overrode the oppression brought by the snake spirit, making people feel comfortable.
Sure enough, the snake spirit did not lie down, but it no longer struggled to get out. I was very puzzled as to how the snake spirit could be buried in the soil and still breathe. This is not scientific, but I also noticed that the soil layer covering it had loosened, and it would definitely be a matter of minutes before it came out.
At this point, I felt that the snake spirit’s mood had calmed down, unlike the hostile vigilance it had just shown.
So he whispered, “It just treated us as class enemies, but now it’s calm. Master, you can continue talking.”
Old Jiang gave a nod and looked at the snake spirit with a calm but unwavering gaze. He said loudly, “We want you to leave here. You have been practicing here, and I think you can always feel that something is not right underground. If you leave, we can figure out a way to deal with the things underground. This is also a merit for you. What do you think?”
The snake spirit did not respond, at least not on the surface. I carefully felt the snake spirit’s emotions, but I always felt that this time the emotions were very complex and vague.
“Guawa, close your eyes, calm your mind, and focus all your thoughts on feeling it. In your mind, you must have the idea that I am communicating with it, and that there can only be this one idea. Do it right away.” Old man Jiang whispered in my ear.
He was actually teaching me the simplest Taoist practice requirement, to store thoughts, but at that time he did not point it out. This is also the style of the old man Jiang. Just do it. There is no need to tell people what I am going to do first by setting out the rules and regulations, which will instead put pressure on people.
When the old man said that, I immediately closed my eyes. But it was too difficult for me to calm my mind. I could only rely on the mantra for calming the mind that the old man taught me. I took a deep breath and began to recite the mantra for calming the mind in my heart. After reciting it a few times, the feeling of emptiness in my whole heart came back.
At this time, I desperately thought of the image of the snake spirit, and then imagined it sitting in front of me, as we roasted corn and talked.
The image in my head was a little strange. A big snake and I were sitting together, roasting corn, but forgive me, I was only seven years old, and the situation that seemed most suitable for a conversation in my head was this one.
Gradually, I felt more and more clearly the emotions, and it was a very strange feeling. It really didn’t say anything, but I knew exactly what it was thinking and what it was thinking, as if it was really having a conversation with me.
I suddenly opened my eyes, because my head felt like it was going to burst. I said to the old man Jiang, “Master, it said that it has been practicing alone, and that others have their own karma. What does it have to do with all this?”
After I said that, I froze. Could I say something like that at my level?