Chapter 21: The Serpent and the Mysterious Man

“The snake!” The thought flashed through my mind like lightning, and I couldn’t believe it myself.

This snake is a mythical creature in Taoism. There is a type of snake that can become a dragon without transforming into a jiao, and this is the kind of snake that is called a teng snake. Its greatest characteristic is that it can fly without wings.

There are many theories about it, and Taoism is inextricably linked to it in many ways, including divination, the mysterious gate, and even in legend it is a supreme deity, the twelve star generals, the god of fire, the most mysterious of the five elements, the hidden central deity that is not visible, but because it is hidden and not visible, people generally only know about the four elements.

In short, at that moment I was completely confused… I have had a rough life and seen a lot, and I even accepted Kunlun and Penglai, but how can I accept the fact that a legendary “sacred beast” really exists?

Would that mean telling me that the Classic of Mountains and Seas is true? Would that mean that I have to believe in the Jade Emperor? Even if I believe in the Three Pristine Ones, I can’t accept the existence of gods!

I can only tell myself that it is an “alien species,” a mysterious creature that I have never seen before… But it suddenly appeared in front of King Liu Sheng, who was probably also shocked, and even took two steps back, not daring to face this strange little snake.

As he retreated, the magic spell cast on me also failed… My soul suddenly shuddered, and it felt like the tide was rushing back into my body, but this sudden return was like a tight rubber band being relaxed and bouncing back into my body, and my soul was also slightly damaged by the shock.

The flying snake in front of Liu Shengwang actually stopped in front of him, standing up very anthropomorphically and making a strange hissing sound. For a moment, I even felt the air heating up.

“Don’t look, let’s go!” The master pulled me along.

Although I was full of curiosity about the snake, I had to follow my master’s footsteps and ran deep into the mountains.

After running for about 100 meters, we had already entered the dense forest. I heard Liu Shengwang’s cry of agony. I didn’t know what had happened, but I couldn’t help but be curious. I turned around and glanced over, but saw a fire burning high in the sky.

“Could it really be the Golden Snake?” I couldn’t help but mutter to myself.

While running, my master said to me, “There are so many hidden things in this world. There was once a great vein, protected by the soul of a real sacred beast. Should I believe it or not? However, even if this snake is a real one, it is still a young one. Even Wu Tianlai would not have passed so easily.

There was no path in the dense forest, and the weeds and thorns were overgrown. The ground was pitted and uneven, and there were also stones mixed in… My master and I stumbled and stumbled as we ran, and it was extremely laborious. Due to the injury to my soul, my whole state was not good. While running, I was panting and gasping for breath, and at the same time I felt extremely shocked. I seemed to have thought of something, but my thoughts were still on the suddenly appearing Tong Snake. I couldn’t help but ask my master, “Is that really the Tong Snake? What if we run? No need to run… even if it is a baby snake.”

In my mind, it would be best to hijack a car and then ‘fly away’ with Master, and join everyone. This desolate, uninhabited forest, where even snakes appear, is definitely not a good place to be. What if we get lost in it with Master? We are still two people whose powers have been sealed, just ordinary people who are a little stronger. Even if we encounter some wild animals in there, it’s…

But Master said, “Don’t think that Liu Shengwang is a nice guy. You have a strong spiritual sense and a strong soul. What did you feel just now?”

When I thought about the feeling I had just had, my head was dripping with cold sweat. I couldn’t help but say, “Just now… just now I felt that if it had been just a little bit later, my soul would have been pulled out.”

“That’s it! He was actually trying to trick me. He seemed to be doing his best to get rid of you, but he wasn’t really trying his best. And even if that snake was a real snake, don’t you know that natural advantages need to be cultivated? It was amazing when it appeared, but I could feel that it couldn’t overpower Liu Shengwang in terms of momentum. Master ran more easily than I did, and he spoke fluently. Strangely, he seemed to know where to run. In this dense forest, I didn’t feel like a headless fly flailing about at all. He led me very calmly.

“Are you afraid they will catch up again?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“There is this reason. These snakes that appeared later are the key to the matter. But these snakes have become spirits and cannot really sacrifice themselves for us. At most, they can only delay things for a while. In addition, I heard a rumor about Wu Tian’s ten generals. Some of them are working openly, while others are secretly helping.” The master led me to jump over a dry ditch and told me something else.

I didn’t quite understand, so I asked the master, “What do you mean?”

“It means that they never work alone, always appearing in the light and in the dark, with a special way of communicating with each other. Even if we don’t find them, we have to be on guard. Do you understand?” The master explained to me.

It was completely dark now, and my master and I were running without flashlights. Even though I felt that my master seemed to know the way, the speed inevitably slowed down, and even my master stumbled and fell.

But the words of my master made me feel a chill down my spine even as I ran. If Liu Shengwang is so difficult to deal with, what if there is another Shengwang? The consequences… Besides, my master said that even if the snakes could really deal with Liu Shengwang, even if they could, the snakes would only be delaying for us…

This situation makes me feel enormous pressure, and I really want to run as fast as I can… But how can I run fast in these mountains?

Master didn’t intend to hide anything from me, and told me even worse news. He said, “There are hidden doors on the nails that are nailed to our bodies, and within a certain distance, we can know our location through a special method. We have to escape, and time is tight!”

Could it be any worse? I thought we had escaped! Now, the situation is… At this time, I wish I could grow four legs, but unfortunately, this is even more impossible than seeing all the strange beasts recorded in the Shanhaijing.

My breathing became heavier and heavier, and my master also began to breathe rapidly… But the dense forest and the overgrown weeds seemed to have no end. In the moonlight, all kinds of strange cries filled my ears, making me even more desperate.

At this time, I felt the mysterious nail in my body start to tremble slightly. At first it was imperceptible, but later it was so obvious that it was shaking!

Because it was nailed into my flesh, I couldn’t ignore it. I just looked at the master helplessly and panicked.

We have used all the tricks we can think of, and in order to get out of this predicament, even Master had to tell a lie to temporarily deceive Yang Sheng. If we get caught again this time, there really won’t be any room for maneuver, and we’ll have to fight to the death.

And losing means we will die. Under normal circumstances, who wouldn’t really care about their own life and death?

My glance received a response from the master. He happened to look at me too, then smiled wryly and said, “It seems that Liu Shengwang has already escaped and is looking for our location at this time. Otherwise, the nail wouldn’t have reacted like this.”

“How far away is it?” I gasped. In this predicament, I wanted to give myself a little hope. It’s like running without end, and running with a purpose. The latter will give people more motivation.

“I don’t know,” the master said with a wry smile, but when he looked ahead, he added, “We just have to keep running. We can’t give up hope.”

“Hm!” I agreed and continued to run with my master through the dense forest.

Because it was a long stretch of mountains, we were running uphill, which was even more exhausting… I was thinking to myself that if there were pursuers behind us, they should have caught up by now. They should be running more easily than me and my master, because they were using secret methods to track us down. We were like two bright lights in the darkness.

I don’t know if it was the word “lights” that gave me a hint, but suddenly my back went numb and I couldn’t help but turn around and take a look. Sure enough, I saw a few lights shining in the distance, a little bit farther away from us.

I gasped in surprise. The pursuers are here? So soon? And they have lighting equipment, so it’s only a matter of time before they catch up with us.

“Master,” I couldn’t help but call out weakly. When the master heard this, he also suddenly turned around. He naturally saw the situation, and his beard twitched a little, but he sighed and said to me, “Cheer up and keep running!”

What else could I do? I looked up at the sky and took a deep breath, but the moon was pale and depressing.

But at this moment, I heard the faint sound of a bamboo flute, as if guiding our way ahead.

“Yes! Chengyi, work harder.” The master suddenly became excited.

I couldn’t help but ask my master, “Master, who is it? It’s not just because of the powder, is it? Is someone helping us?”