Chapter 21
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Chapter 21: The Past of the Silver Snake
Tonight, something strange was happening in Shanghe Village.
From a distance, shadows flickered as many villagers hurried toward the east side of the village, bags on their backs, stepping deep and shallow.
“Tie Shuan’s father, you better not back out. I slaughtered five donkeys, nine cows, and seventy-eight chickens and ducks just to earn that piece of frost silver. Aside from my daughter, my wife, and a few servants, I killed everything else at home.”
“Rest assured, Liu Yuanwai. I’m doing this for the mighty cultivator. Look, not just you; everyone in our village with livestock has slaughtered their animals,” Tie Shuan’s father boasted proudly, seeming like someone important as he showed off in front of Liu Yuanwai. “Master Ma has offered similar things, but he added fifteen rare birds, including gray cranes, tigers, leopards, and roe deer. He doesn’t care about a little money; he just wants to befriend the mighty cultivator and hopes to gain some treasured items.”
“Hmm, Master Ma is really generous!” Liu Yuanwai gasped, feeling outdone and a bit embarrassed in front of his rival, the village chief. His face darkened as he remarked, “Humph, it’s just a few livestock. I can offer better things than him.”
Curious, Tie Shuan’s father asked, “What could be better than tiger meat?”
“Ginseng, of course, ginseng.” Liu Yuanwai gritted his teeth, saying, “I initially thought this cultivator was poor, but it turns out he casually produces huge chunks of wind-milled copper and frost silver. Tomorrow, I’ll personally present him with ginseng; you’ll see!”
The villagers of Shanghe were not foolish. When Li Hui entered the village earlier that morning, dressed in rags and covered in dirt, he looked no different from a beggar. They heard that he had just broken through to become a cultivator, and they weren’t quite as enthusiastic, which is why Tie Shuan’s father could seize the opportunity with just a few pieces of scrap silver.
In the eyes of the villagers, cultivators were much like officials—new officials had not yet had the time to amass wealth and were just poor souls. It took good service to receive a few nice words; if they served poorly, they would suffer. So why take the risk?
Common folk have their own wisdom, often saying not to spread their nets until they spot a rabbit. They valued tangible benefits. Once Li Hui revealed real gold and silver, the villagers’ attitudes changed drastically, especially Liu Yuanwai’s and Master Ma’s.
Both of them plotted, thinking, “Something doesn’t add up! He just became a cultivator, yet he can produce such large pieces of wind-milled copper and frost silver. This guy must have some background. And look at his impressive appearance; he must be a talented disciple from a top-notch sect, not a wandering cultivator like an ancestor.”
They no longer called him a beggar or a poor man.
In truth, this was all Sun Zhengyang’s fault! He often told the kids about cultivators; as a wandering cultivator, he greatly admired sect disciples and said that having connections would prevent one from being bullied. As a result, both Liu Yuanwai and Master Ma held particularly high standards.
Li Hui was unaware of the commotion outside; at this moment, he could not focus on anything else. Five pieces of Miao Jade did not satisfy the draw from the thirty-six acupoints, so he had to consume twelve pieces of green Miao Jade to feel better.
However, just as his left arm shone with a radiance, forming what appeared to be the Eagle Claw pattern of a Spirit Motion mark, a sudden sharp pain hit his mind, as if he had fallen from a cliff, crashing into pieces.
“What’s happening? Am I dead?” Li Hui shouted. Once he cleared his vision, he found himself in a daze.
He stood atop a mountain of books, surrounded by massive bookshelves towering like heavenly gates. Various words floated in the sky, with countless unknown symbols galloping like wild horses across the ground.
Though the scene was somewhat hazy, like the moon in a well or flowers in water, it still provided Li Hui with an immense visual shock.
“Where is this?”
“Where is this…”
“Where is this…”
“Hmm, an echo?”
“Hmm, an echo…”
“Hmm, an echo…”
Li Hui noticed that his hands and feet appeared blurry, as if they were mists without a real shape. In such a mysterious world, even the strongest resolve would feel uneasy.
“So many books? There’s a path through the mountain of books; does that mean I have to read all of these to find my way back?” His thoughts started to scatter as he felt something appear in his hand.
“You again?”
“You again…”
“You again…” The echo persisted as Li Hui seemingly held an ancient travelogue. Eagerly, he opened the old book and skipped over sections he had already read until he reached the page depicting the silver snake. Turning further back, he suddenly saw four words.
These four words were bewildering—not compliments, but “Goodness.”
Yes, those four words. Continuing to flip pages, it was still “Goodness,” making Li Hui feel a headache since the entire page repeated the same phrase.
“Not rushing, don’t get angry; this is a rare opportunity to figure out the reason.”
Calming his mind, Li Hui flipped to the back, but again, the same four words filled a page. Flipping more pages, still the same. With a flurry, he flipped through them.
“Goodness, is this for real?” Li Hui shouted, and along with the echoes, the entire world echoed back, “Goodness, is this for real…”
After flipping through half the book, those maddening four words finally stopped.
“Old man Chen Mengde, is it because my name is poorly chosen? Did I fail to meet my master’s expectations? Why has heaven allowed me to get this wretched snake?”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“Everything is gone, completely gone; my treasures!”
“The Wind-Calling Wheel, the Soul Refinement Tower, the Clear Void Dao Robe, the Azure Cloud Silk Sash, the Moon-Sleeping Spirit Instrument, the Ink Jade Dragon Shadow Sword, the Infinitesimal Void Hammer—why is this happening? Not to mention the huge cost I spent crafting the Celestial Doushuai Ding in front of the sect on the Nine-Mystic Continent, along with the ultimate treasure, the Ten Thousand Demon Essence Transformation Seal, which I risked my life to acquire.”
“Goodness, it’s all gone, ruined completely by this wretched snake!”
“How could I be so reckless as to pull it up from the time-space ruins?”
“What treasure cabinet? What qualifications? Without these treasures to support me, what can I achieve? I might as well go home! Back to the Jade Symbol Sect to lead a lonely life, struggling for most of my life just to make a snake a wedding dress.”
“Wait, what about my Taiqing Shadow Mirror? Had it not been for this rotten snake swallowing the Taiqing Shadow Mirror, the things I painstakingly collected wouldn’t have fallen out. Who knows how much it indulged itself inside?”
“It’s too late to say a thousand things; I can hardly imagine life without the Ink Jade Dragon Shadow Sword! If any juniors come bouncing in front of me again, I won’t even have the Soul Refinement Tower to temporarily detain them. The most terrible thing still lies ahead. If my enemies discover I’m left with nothing, they’ll hunt me down to the end!”
Seeing this, Li Hui felt a surge of empathy, truly understanding the feelings of this predecessor. The chaos caused by this snake in the Jade Symbol Sect was already maddening, not to mention it had devoured so many treasures! Yet the mystery remained unsolved—what was the origin of this snake, and why did it amplify the power of the talismans? He hoped to find the answers within this travelogue.
