Chapter 18: Snake Pack

But is it really quiet? Master didn’t show any expression, just concentrating on smoking his pipe, as if the smoke was too sweet and he couldn’t leave it alone for a moment… And I couldn’t figure out what Master was up to. Cigarettes are different from pipes, and they burn quickly to the end.

I threw the cigarette butt away with a calm face, but in fact I was a little anxious. Less than five seconds later, I took out another cigarette and lit it.

“Wow, you really have a strong craving for cigarettes. Is this a way of getting back at me?” Liu Shengwang’s strange voice came from above us.

In fact, what I didn’t say was that he was like this all the way, quite a bit of meaning to give us a show of force, but my master and I didn’t pick up on his ‘stalking horse’, and we were ‘honest’, so he was quite boring.

I didn’t say anything because I didn’t care, but I didn’t expect him to be a bit resentful and start criticizing people again.

I thought that he was probably feeling a sense of crisis because my master and I were going to join Yang Sheng, and he was afraid that we would be given important tasks, so he couldn’t help but say something.

But this time, I was so anxious and had to stay outside for a reason, so I replied, “I’m really craving it.

Liu Shengwang froze for a moment, his face turning gloomy again. He was about to say something when a rustling sound came from the dense forest in the middle of nowhere. Amidst the heat, a faint breeze blew. Could it be that the heavens were also sympathetic to my anxiety and sent a gust of wind to help me calm down?

But the truth is obviously not the case. It was only a matter of seconds before the campsite was filled with screams.

Liu Shengwang suddenly realized that something was wrong and turned around. I couldn’t resist my curiosity and stood up with a loud noise. Then I saw the snakes. There were so many of them. In such a small campsite with only two tents, it was suddenly crowded with snakes from nowhere. At a glance, there were at least more than 30.

These snakes were not a fixed species. I didn’t know much about snakes, and although I had had a close encounter with some of them, they were terrifying, like the level of a dragon… However, I could only roughly distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes.

In short, round-headed ones are non-venomous, and pointed-headed ones are venomous… I was able to tell this at a glance with this little bit of common sense, and the rest of it was just staring at it subconsciously.

“Fuck, we’ve broken into a snake den?” One person couldn’t help but curse.

After all, they were people in the circle of cultivators. Even if there were 30 or 40 snakes, or even double that, it wouldn’t make people panic… especially these guys who were wrapped up so tightly, as if they were unusually mysterious.

Although they were a bit flustered, they could kill a snake with one swift move, faster than the snakes that were attacking them. Even if they were inevitably bitten, they didn’t care.

Faced with this situation, the first reaction of Liu Shengwang was to angrily glance at me and my master, but I just looked over there curiously, and my master just glanced at it twice and continued to smoke his pipe as if nothing had happened. After all, there were dozens of poisonous snakes, and my master’s reaction was within the normal range.

In short, there was nothing suspicious about us. We had our powers sealed, and we were even just innocently smoking. What was suspicious about that?

So, Liu Shengwang just looked at us like that, and the next moment, he probably thought it was unlikely, so he turned to his subordinates and said, “Snakes, just deal with them quickly…”

He probably wanted to say to get rid of it quickly, but before he could finish his sentence, more snakes came out from the depths of the forest and grass, this time not in the dozens, but hundreds at once… I had only seen such a spectacular sight when I was a child in the Yin-cultivating place… At that time, I vaguely remember that it was the snake repeller grandfather and grandson who drove away the snakes…

If there are so many snakes, I think we will be in danger. At least the cultivator is still a mortal, and he cannot resist the snakes’ bites. My first reaction was to pull my master into the tent. My master, however, took a drag on his pipe and glanced at Liu Shengwang: “I know Yang Sheng’s temper. You are responsible for escorting us. I hope you can deliver us to the place without a scratch.”

Then, the master stood up. It seemed that the tobacco had burned to the end. He let me lead him into the tent… I don’t know if he caused all this.

I just saw Liu Shengwang being unable to speak because of my master’s words. At this time, a small poisonous snake suddenly rushed at him from behind, but he didn’t turn around at all. He just looked at my master with some resentment, then casually raised his hand, and two fingers were firmly extended, as if something was caught.

I saw the snake being caught in mid-air, struggling for less than a second before it went limp. Liu Shengwang withdrew his fingers, and the snake fell to the ground with a loud ‘pop’.

“It seems that you are quite capable, so I don’t need to worry about you.” The master said very casually, and then entered the tent with me, of course not forgetting to firmly close the tent door.

The master, who had just been relaxed, suddenly became worried. He whispered to himself, “He is stronger than I thought. He is just a subordinate.”

Who is he? I didn’t pursue this stupid question. Obviously, he was referring to Liu Shengwang, who had attacked me three days ago. That time, I was shocked, but it was just a shock. How could he attack a person’s soul with his bare hands?

Just now, he probably wasn’t showing off on purpose, but he made a move that was unintentional, but it really shocked me.

I didn’t want to admit this feeling, because admitting that your enemy is strong can be suffocating… But I had to face this reality. I think my master must have felt the same way.

But the master just muttered a sentence and then took a newspaper that I had read when I was bored, and a bottle of mineral water that I had thrown in the tent.

Then, he poured the still-hot tobacco ash from the pipe into the newspaper, rolled it into a cylinder, unscrewed the cap of the mineral water bottle, carefully poured the dust into the bottle, screwed the cap back on, and shook it vigorously.

The water in the bottle quickly turned a strange grayish color under the Master’s treatment. He took a closer look, then opened the bottle and splashed the grayish water on me and him.

When the master was doing everything, he was very quick, and it was done in less than a minute. During the process, I was very quiet… until everything was done, the master breathed a sigh of relief and said in a low voice, “Don’t I need to explain anything?”

“The problem is in the tobacco?” I asked in a low voice.

The master didn’t say anything, took the pipe, and deftly moved his fingers. I didn’t know what he had touched, but I found that there was a small space under the bowl that could be popped out, and it was also filled with some yellowish-brown powder.

“Is this the powder…?” I asked in surprise, and at the same time I was impressed by the ingenious design of the pipe, and the carved patterns on it also perfectly concealed this hidden little mechanism.

“The best is yet to come. Open it slowly.” The master didn’t answer me specifically, but opened a small corner of the tent window. Fresh air came in, relieving my heat, but at the same time, a bad smell came in, like the peculiar smell of snakes, and a faint smell of blood.

In addition to this, there was an increasingly strong ‘soughing’ sound. At this point, I realized that this was not the sound of the wind blowing through the forest and the weeds, but the unique sound of snakes crawling in the forest.

I had previously wondered how such a small breeze could cause such a strong reaction. But then I thought, if the sound of the snakes caused such a commotion, how many snakes must there be?

Did the master smoke that whole pack of cigarettes and attract all the snakes in the forest?

Outside, there was a heavy breathing sound. As the saying goes, “Many ants can kill an elephant,” and there were snakes all over the mountain. But I also believed that Liu Shengwang and his group would not sit around and wait to be killed.

Sure enough, the door to our tent was suddenly opened, and Liu Shengwang yelled at us with a very unpleasant expression on his face: “Go, we can’t stay here anymore. If you dare to take advantage of the chaos, be careful, I’ll leave you to the snakes!”