Chapter 78: Silver Crown Snake
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By the time Xu Yan had selected two good horses, it was already past noon.
After leaving a deposit with the horse-selling family, Xu Yan eagerly headed outside town.
Indeed, buying horses from horse-raising families in Horse King Town was much cheaper than at the horse markets in Fengshan City. The two horses cost five thousand taels total, with quality at least mid-grade or above. Though they didn’t reach the level of thousand-li horses, they weren’t far off. If these two fine horses were placed in Fengdu’s horse markets, each would cost at least four thousand taels—more than enough to pass them off as thousand-li horses to fool some suckers.
Xu Yan didn’t really understand horses and wasn’t great at evaluating them, but he could listen.
He listened to the horses’ long, steady breathing. As long as their breathing was longer than other horses and their heartbeats slow and deep, the horse definitely wouldn’t be too bad.
A young Taoist who had dealt with pigs for years absolutely excelled at evaluating pigs. Using pig-evaluation skills for horse evaluation was Xu Yan’s clever approach, since most animals’ physical qualities could be identified this way—a skill of drawing inferences from one case to another.
With the horses decided and deposit paid, once this major concern was resolved, what remained was youthful curiosity.
“Eastern suburbs, snake demon, righteous versus evil battle…”
Standing outside town, Xu Yan grinned foolishly and muttered to himself: “Watching a show without buying tickets—how nice!”
When Xu Yan headed to the eastern suburbs to watch the show, the good show had actually already begun.
In the depths of the eastern bamboo forest, a giant python thicker than a water barrel was rapidly slithering about, sometimes climbing green bamboo, sometimes crawling through rotting leaves on the ground at extreme speed. With a powerful swing of its massive tail, it could snap bamboo as thick as a rice bowl.
The giant python was entirely green with a silver crown atop its head, resembling a rooster’s comb and looking quite bizarre. Its scarlet forked tongue flicked in and out like spitting a long rainbow, but this python was obviously somewhat agitated, crawling randomly east and west without any apparent goal.
In the forest where the python had passed, footsteps could be heard faintly. Dozens of figures were approaching—a group of martial artists carrying swords and blades, led by the Pavilion Master Yu that Xu Yan had seen in the teahouse.
Near a small stream, this group stopped.
“Pavilion Master, that beast fled westward.” A martial artist crouched on the ground, examining traces left by the python’s crawling.
“Just follow behind and drive it to the trap before acting.” The middle-aged man surnamed Yu had eyes like lightning. After giving instructions, he led his subordinates in pursuit again.
These people were herding the snake, not killing it.
At the same time, righteous sect people were running throughout the bamboo forest. When one group lost track of the silver-crowned python, another group immediately spotted the target. If viewed from above, the bamboo forest now faintly showed an encirclement, with the python being continuously driven toward a deep mountain hollow.
In the seemingly tranquil mountain hollow, a giant pit had already been dug, its bottom covered with iron spikes. This massive trap was prepared for the snake demon.
The righteous sect forces hunting the snake demon were numerous—several hundred people. However, in the depths of the bamboo forest, even more figures were hidden.
Ghost King Gate, wanting to be the mantis stalking the cicada, lurked in the shadows, waiting for the mantis to catch that cicada.
When Xu Yan arrived at the eastern bamboo forest, he could no longer see anyone at the perimeter. The gathering place Eight Fingers Wang had mentioned earlier was also empty. Standing in the bamboo forest scratching his head, Xu Yan discovered he indeed didn’t need to buy a ticket, but he couldn’t find where the theater was.
Just as he was about to search randomly, Xu Yan heard a thunderous roar from the northwest, followed by the ground trembling as if some massive object had fallen into a large pit.
“They really used a trap.”
Hearing this roar, Xu Yan immediately determined it was the sound of a trap being triggered. Martial artists hunting demons was no different from hunters hunting wild beasts—unless they had certain victory against the demon, using traps became inevitable.
With sound came direction. Xu Yan rushed toward where the noise originated. As he ran, thousands of Ghost King Gate disciples emerged from their hiding places almost simultaneously, silently killing toward that mountain hollow.
“The Silver Crown Snake is captured! Haha, congratulations, Pavilion Master Yu.”
Near the large pit in the mountain hollow, a sword-wielding woman in her thirties was congratulating Pavilion Master Yu: “One Silver Crown Snake equals half a Foundation Establishment Pill. Pavilion Master Yu, your Azure Cloud Pavilion has gained quite a harvest this time.”
The woman was named Yu Ruyi, master of Jade Sword Gate, herself a three-meridian innate martial artist. The Pavilion Master Yu she addressed was Yu Cheng, master of Azure Cloud Pavilion.
Yu Cheng and Yu Ruyi were of similar cultivation levels, and both Azure Cloud Pavilion and Jade Sword Gate considered themselves righteous sects. These two sects weren’t very large and kept extremely low profiles, which allowed them to survive in Qi Nation where evil sects ran rampant—though their days weren’t easy.
“Gate Master Yu, don’t celebrate too early. That beast can’t be dealt with by a mere trap. If we can truly slay this demon, Jade Sword Gate will naturally get its share of benefits.”
Yu Cheng kept staring at the snake demon thrashing continuously in the large pit. The trap was indeed large enough, and the iron spikes in the trap were very sharp, but after the snake demon fell into the trap, hardly any wounds could be seen on its body.
Those sharp iron spikes couldn’t easily pierce the snake’s skin!
Around the large pit, hundreds of martial artists now gathered, many holding strong bows. These righteous sect martial artists hadn’t surrounded the entire pit but only gathered on the eastern, southern, and western sides. The northern side of the pit had no one.
Just as Yu Ruyi was about to order her subordinates around the pit to shoot arrows, her ears suddenly twitched. Her expression changed as she said urgently: “Someone’s surrounding the mountain!”
Yu Cheng wasn’t too surprised upon hearing this. Looking toward the distant forest, he said quietly: “Miss Pang was right after all. How could the evil sects stand by after hearing news of the Silver Crown Snake? They really want to be the mantis once. Hmph, let’s see who’s superior!”
In the depths of the dense bamboo forest, moving figures could already be seen. Countless silhouettes were rapidly approaching. Yu Cheng suddenly waved his hand, and Azure Cloud Pavilion and Jade Sword Gate actually abandoned the snake demon in the trap, retreating toward a nearby barren mountain.
“The demon snake is here!”
“The righteous sect people have retreated to the mountain!”
Ghost King Gate’s people moved quickly, reaching the vicinity in moments. The first Ghost King Gate disciples to arrive saw the snake demon trapped in the pit and immediately reported to their leaders.
For this encirclement of righteous sects, Ghost King Gate had not only dispatched eight halls with thousands of troops, but all eighteen guardians had come out together, with Grand Guardian Zhuo Shaoyu prominently among them.
Glancing at the barren mountain where the righteous sects had retreated, Zhuo Shaoyu’s expression was grim as he waved his hand. Immediately, four halls’ worth of troops surrounded the base of the barren mountain, preparing to cut off the righteous sects’ escape route.
The righteous sects had only about a thousand people, while Ghost King Gate had brought several thousand troops. If they didn’t wipe out all the righteous sects, they couldn’t call themselves the leader of evil sects.
Actually, in Zhuo Shaoyu’s eyes, righteous sects like Azure Cloud Pavilion and Jade Sword Gate that could only barely survive in Qi Nation posed no real threat. He himself had four-meridian innate strength—the masters of Azure Cloud Pavilion and Jade Sword Gate combined weren’t his match. His personal supervision this time had a real purpose: the demon snake thrashing in the pit before him.
The Silver Crown Snake’s silver crown was precious material used by cultivators for pill refining. One Silver Crown Snake’s value equaled half a Foundation Establishment Pill. If they could gather two Silver Crown Snakes, exchanging them for one Foundation Establishment Pill would be effortless.
Precious pill-refining materials were useless to martial artists but valued by cultivators. For this Silver Crown Snake, Zhuo Shaoyu had gone so far as to host General Yan and take the demon extermination task from official hands. Striking down righteous sects was merely incidental.
Ghost King Gate had just arrived when the righteous sects retreated to the barren mountain. Zhuo Shaoyu was also puzzled, but seeing the Silver Crown Snake so close at hand, he hesitated no longer and prepared to first kill this troublesome demon.
Individual martial artists, even with five-meridian innate strength, could hardly defeat a demon. Only true cultivators—those with Foundation Establishment realm strength—could slay demons alone.
Though unable to fight demons individually, with superior numbers, thousands of ordinary martial artists plus hundreds of innate martial artists were sufficient to eliminate one demon snake, especially since the demon snake had fallen into a trap. If they let it climb out, who knew how many Ghost King Gate people would die.
Taking several steps to the pit’s edge, Zhuo Shaoyu positioned himself precisely on the pit’s northern side. He looked at the snake demon in the pit and was about to order his subordinates to attack—whether with blades, swords, or crossbows, with so many people attacking together, the snake demon would die sooner or later.
Crack, crack crack!
Before Zhuo Shaoyu’s orders could leave his mouth, the ground beneath his feet suddenly began trembling. Then wood chips flew everywhere as the northern side of the large pit trapping the snake demon actually collapsed!
