Chapter 28: Direction

But Master didn’t say anything about what the great era would be like. What would happen? How could he be so sure that a great era would come?

The first time he mentioned it, I thought he was just talking about a great era in a moment of excitement. Now he is talking about it so seriously in front of Xiaoding, I believe that there must be something hidden behind this great era, but here, Master is asking Xiaoding so seriously, and I can’t ask.

Faced with Master’s question, Xiaoding was a bit stunned. It was probably half a minute of silence before he said, “I don’t know what the great era is, but I haven’t considered leaving here for the time being… During the critical period of the sacred snake’s growth, I always have to be there to protect it.”

At this point, he blushed a little and whispered, “My grandfather’s lifelong wish was for our family to prosper and the sect to grow. I should have accomplished this major event in my life ten years ago, but I never expected the sacred snake to advance… This matter has been delayed, and I always thought that I would wait until the critical growth period of the sacred snake was over before I came out of the mountains. Grandpa Jiang, this…”

When the master heard this, he showed a concerned expression on his face and couldn’t help but ask, “Xiao Ding, the Snake Sect cannot fall apart! Although I am a master of snake control in the Great China, the Snake Sect has a good heritage, but you are considered to be the best of the best. This matter, you…”

It is not good to ask too many questions about something that is private, so the master could only say so much and then fell silent.

After all, Ding looks young and innocent, but in reality he is a little older than me, almost forty years old.

When the master said this with some concern and anxiety, Xiaoding smiled shyly again. This smile was even more shy than the previous ones. He scratched his head and said, “Actually, there is no rush. Just like my father, he was 47 years old when he had me, and my grandfather was about the same age when he had my father… The people of the Snake Sect live in the mountains and fields, and they live a long life. Besides… Besides… there is a girl in the Xiaolong lineage who has been waiting for me. Because we have already set a wedding date, she knows that I am here guarding the sacred snake. She…”

Ding was a little embarrassed when he got to this point and didn’t continue.

Xiao Long is another name for a snake. I heard that this sect is also related to snakes. It turns out that Xiao Ding has a fiancée.

“The Dragon Gate, huh…” The master thoughtfully pondered for a while before saying, “Xiao Ding, is she their Holy Maiden? I’m asking you a personal question. Do you have any bloodline from the legendary Snake Sect, the bloodline of the Snake Man?”

“Ah?” The master’s words had just fallen, and Xiaoding had not answered yet. I couldn’t help but let out a cry.

In front of me, Xiaoding looked like a normal person, with no trace of a snake. How could Master call him a “snake man”? I couldn’t help but think of the sword and fairy game I used to play. The “boss” in it was half man and half snake. Hmm, in the fox fairy cave, if Xiaoding is a snake man, then the holy woman might be a fox fairy? Is what Li Xiaoyao encountered true?

This is… really shocking!

Master and Xiaoding seemed to know what I was thinking, and they looked at me at the same time. Xiaoding kept saying “I” and “I” to explain, but he couldn’t explain it for a long time.

The master slapped me on the head and said, “Xiao Ding is a human being, 100% human… the so-called ‘snake people’ is a respectful title in their Snake Sect. Not everyone has this bloodline. This refers to people who are born with the ability to communicate with snakes.”

So that’s it, communicating with snakes! That is indeed the bloodline that the Snake Sect seeks, or a superpower.

This reminds me of the Indian man, Mr. Patel, who is also a magical being who can communicate with fish in the water… This kind of thing is really not unbelievable to me. I even think that this kind of “spirit” or “potential” is hidden in the human bloodline.

If you want to explain it scientifically, it’s not uncommon for ‘wolf children’ (children raised by wolves) and ‘ape children’ (the same applies) to naturally have the ability to communicate with wolves and apes, and even if they return to human society, this ability will not disappear.

I believe that the existence of this ancient bloodline is just a little bit more magical than communicating with snakes.

Seeing that my master had explained it for him, Xiaoding was relieved and said, “Yes, this bloodline has been passed down in my family, and it has been completely manifested since I was 18 years old… Before that, my talent was nothing special. My grandfather once said that our Snake Sect was originally founded by our ancestors, a pair of twin brothers, who had the ability to communicate with snakes. This bloodline would appear from time to time, sometimes after many generations, sometimes for several generations in a row, and the bloodline would be strong or weak…”

It seems that Xiaoding’s endless rambling is not going to change. When he mentioned the secrets of the sect, his master also found it funny and quickly waved his hand to stop Xiaoding from talking. His master said, “It is an old rule for the Snake Sect’s “Holy Child Snake Man” to marry the Xiaolong Sect’s “Holy Maiden.” However, since you have this bloodline, I don’t need to persuade you about the great era. Fate is always unavoidable…”

This sentence was again incoherent. Not only was I surprised, but Xiaoding also looked at my master strangely. My master did not want to say any more, but only said, “Okay, that’s all I have to say. Xiaoding, quickly prepare a room for us. I’ll go deal with this thing on my body. Even if there is a formation to protect it, if someone comes here by mistake, at close range, the nails can still generate a sense of induction.”

“Okay.” Xiaoding agreed very quickly and stood up to clean up the room for us.

The reason why secret arts are called secret arts is that they naturally have their own unique characteristics. What is often most praised about secret arts is that they are not necessarily limited by the level of one’s skills. In other words, if one does not have high skills, one can still break the secret arts. Of course, one can break them forcibly, but if one does so, the effect will naturally not be perfect, and there will be some “aftereffects.” This is not a good thing.

In the room of the sacred place of the Snake Gate, the master is doing exactly that, forcibly breaking the secret technique that Liu Shengwang has put on us.

This is a difficult process. It is extremely laborious to pull out each nail. After all, without understanding the principles of secret arts, resisting them forcibly will definitely have this effect.

These nails were essentially nailed to the soul through some kind of secret method. In addition to the effort, each nail pulled out was accompanied by a heavy pain in the soul!

When the nails were completely pulled out, my sweat and Master’s sweat had soaked through our clothes. Looking out the window, I saw that the edge of the sky had turned a little bit pale.

It turned out that, in the process, an entire night had passed without us realizing it.

My master and I looked at the bloody wounds where the nails had been and the fourteen cold metal nails on the ground, and we couldn’t help but exchange a wry smile. Yes, the moment all the nails were removed, we could already feel that our souls had been suppressed and injured to some extent.

The trauma was caused by the strong secret technique, and the suppression was because after the nails were pulled out, the effect of locking all abilities did not completely disappear, especially the suppression of the soul still existed, but was slowly disappearing.

I estimate that it will take five days for this suppression to completely disappear. As for the soul trauma, it is not a trauma that hurts the essence, but it will take about a month for it to completely recover to its peak state naturally.

But in this situation where the whole world is being hunted down and the future is uncertain, is our current state really good?

I smiled wryly at my master, and then we were silent for about a minute. It was also because we were tired that we didn’t want to talk for a while. Then I said, “Master, what should we do next?”

“Naturally, we will reunite with those we have lost contact with.” Master didn’t seem confused at all. It was as if he had seen it all and knew exactly what to do.

“But where do we meet up?” I was exhausted and fell to the ground. The wooden floor of the room in the sacred place of Snake Gate was very comfortable to lie on, and the aroma of the logs also eased my exhaustion, but it could not ease my confusion about the future.

The master also lay down on the ground, exhausted, but with a calm smile on his face. He then said, “Chengyi, when you were very young, I had to guide you in the right direction. When you grew up, I had to shape your personality… This is the responsibility of a master. But… there is also a deep, deep feeling in all of this.”

“Huh?” I didn’t understand what the master was trying to say. I just turned my head and looked at the master’s somewhat weathered profile, a little confused.

“Chengyi, I just want to say that in your future life, as long as I am around, how can I bear to let you be uncertain about the future? I just instinctively want you to feel that I am there, and that everything will naturally be in the right direction.” The master said this and suddenly smiled, with a rare, loving light in his eyes.

“Master.” I was moved, but I didn’t know what to say, so I subconsciously called out to him.

“In fact, the place of convergence has long been decided, a place that Yang Sheng would never dare to go after us.” The master said word by word.

“Where is it?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“The Snow Mountain Range!” Master said these four words!