Volume 7 Chapter 41: The King of Snakes

It was a “pheasant-necked” snake.

How could there be such a snake here!

I looked more closely, and the fiery red crest and body, as well as the terrifying upright posture, were indeed the “pheasant-necked” snake.

Suddenly, cold sweat began to trickle down my face. This kind of snake is very rare. In our hometown, it is called the “King of Snakes,” and I saw one once when I was a child in the mountains. According to the old people, this snake is the king of snakes. All snakes are afraid of it. It flies close to the ground, moves like lightning, and its poison is extremely powerful. Where it has crawled, plants and weeds will even separate themselves. And this kind of snake cannot be beaten. If you kill it, its kind will come to avenge it.

I later read a Qing Dynasty novel, which said that this kind of snake is a small dragon that lives along the dragon veins of mountains and rivers. Some places have legends of thunder killing demons, mostly about lightning striking a mountain and blasting out this kind of snake. But this kind of snake has almost become extinct in recent decades, and it’s here, which is really unexpected.

The fat guys had never seen this kind of snake before, and they were all amazed. Only the stuffy oil bottle had a change in his face, just like me. But the fiery red snake body and fierce posture showed the identity of this highly poisonous snake, and the few people dared not move lightly.

I was annoyed, and reminded myself that I really had to be careful in this place, and I couldn’t just go anywhere.

Fighting with a python is still a chance of survival, but fighting with a poisonous snake is generally a total loss. No one would risk it, and “wild pheasant necks” generally don’t provoke people. Now that it is making such a threatening gesture, it is a warning.

It is possible that this gap is its lair. Then we definitely can’t stay here. I waved my hand to tell them not to make an aggressive gesture and to slowly go out. Ning took out a cold firecracker and handed it to me, asking me to use it as a weapon.

I held the cold firework in front of me so that I wouldn’t have to use my hands to block it if the “wild pheasant’s neck” suddenly attacked. We carefully exited the gap, one by one, and it went smoothly. When it was my turn, I finally breathed a sigh of relief. I turned around and glanced into the gap. It was already dark and I couldn’t see the snake. I thought to myself, “Fortunately, nothing happened.”

After stepping out of the gap and into the water, the fat guy used his miner’s lamp to look outside the waterfall. After shining it around a few times, he said, “The big snake is gone, so it’s safe…”

Everyone let out a sigh of relief. We went to see Pan Zi, who was being supported by the fat guy. He waved his hand weakly and said that he was fine, just a little injured from the fall, but he wasn’t dead. We looked at each other and all of us let out a wry smile. Several of us were disheveled and covered in mud, and Ning’s chest was almost exposed. She casually pulled her clothes to cover herself, and we didn’t have the energy to look. There were only two equipment bags left, and the black gold ancient knife of the oil bottle was lost. The fat man had my dagger in his hand, and he didn’t have his own dagger anymore. Muyoubing and Panzi’s shoulders were covered in dense blood holes, bitten by the python’s teeth. Muyoubing in particular, he may have broken free, and many of the wounds were open.

I really didn’t expect a python to be able to make us so miserable.

I looked up at the sky. The rain had stopped and the sky was brightening. The trees on the edge of the canyon were sparse, and I could see the kind of morning light that heralded the dawn. On one side was the waterfall, on the other was the jungle, and birds were chirping all around. If I hadn’t experienced the fierce battle just now, this would have been a beautiful scene.

Everyone quietly looked at the scenery for a while, and then the fat guy asked, “What now?”

A-Ning walked to the edge of the waterfall, picked up some rainwater and washed her face. She said, “When it gets light, we’ll go back and pick up our equipment, then find a place to rest. It’s too dangerous here, we still have to get out quickly.”

The fat guy said, “Damn, it’s easy for you to say. When we were running, we were completely running around, and we didn’t know where that tree was. How can we find it?”

“We have to find it. If we don’t go back now, it will be impossible to find it when we need it.” Aning pressed her face tiredly, rolled up her sleeves, and stuck her head into the waterfall to rinse it off. After washing, she shook her short hair, and the mud and sand retreated, and her pretty face finally returned to its former appearance. She then called us to set off.

I thought about going back to that place, and sighed, but this woman was right. At this time, we really had to do it, and it was not letting people catch their breath. I still felt unwell.

Several people picked up their things. After seeing that we were far away, she opened her clothes and washed her chest with water. At this time, I saw a red flash in the waterfall and heard a faint “gurgling” sound.

I suddenly felt that something was wrong and said to Aning, “Be careful and stay away from the waterfall!”

“What’s wrong?” A-Ning turned her head and looked at me. I don’t know why, but she gave me a very faint smile, different from the smile she had before. I was stunned.

In that instant, a fiery red snake suddenly burst out of the waterfall and wrapped itself around A-Ning’s neck. It raised its head high and let out a series of piercing and high-pitched “cuckoo” sounds. I was finished! I dropped what I was holding and rushed over. I took my first step and saw the “pheasant neck” bite down like lightning. Aning tried to block it with her hand, but the snake’s head bit her neck. She screamed, pulled the snake off her neck, threw it to the side, covered her neck, and fell into the water.

We rushed over, but the snake didn’t run away. It jumped out of the water again and flew towards us like an arrow. The fat man cried out, but he missed with his knife. He was about to be bitten again when the other man, who was holding a bottle of oil, grabbed the snake’s head with one hand. The snake’s body immediately coiled around his arm, trying to pull the snake’s head out. Then he saw that the oil bottle had used the other hand to grab the snake’s neck, and the two hands twisted in the opposite direction. With a crack, the snake’s head was twisted 360 degrees for him, and then he threw it into the water. The “pheasant neck” twisted a few times and then stopped moving, slowly floating up.

We hurried to see Anning. I went up to pick her up, but saw that her expression had already frozen on her face. Her throat moved as if she wanted to speak, and tears flowed from her eyes, as if she was unwilling to accept it. My scalp went numb all of a sudden, and I didn’t know what to do. I started to tremble. Then, in just a few seconds, her eyes became unfocused, her whole body softened, and then her head drooped.