Chapter 7#

Chapter 7: Drawing the Sword#

Returning to the entrance of the snake lair, a thick, sticky layer of black blood was spread around the formation’s perimeter. The surrounding branches and leaves had been singed off on one side. The explosion had done its work, but the exposed snake pit still gaped black and bottomless, its end nowhere in sight.

Looking at the carpet of ash and snake bones, a stench even stronger than the one in the forest drifted out from the cave mouth—pungent and nauseating.

Even though Feng Xianyu had mentally prepared himself, he couldn’t help frowning and holding his breath.

According to Ayue, there was still a long distance from the cave entrance to where her husband was imprisoned.

No matter how powerful the blast formation had been, it couldn’t have annihilated them all. So once they descended, there would certainly be plenty of snakes waiting for them.

“Do we all need to go in?” Xiang Wan knew his own limits well.

Feng Xianyu flatly refused. “It’s not like it’s safe up here either. If I leave you alone and something happens, what then? You’d cry to heaven and earth with no one to answer.”

“Why not have one senior brother stay here and the other go in?” a dull-witted disciple foolishly suggested.

Feng Xianyu felt a laugh of utter exasperation rising in his throat. He took a deep breath, telling himself to be kind and approachable. But before he could speak, Zhuoyu, standing beside him, cut in with an unyielding, deep voice: “No.”

The disciple didn’t dare defy Zhuoyu and shut his mouth, but he still cast furtive glances at Feng Xianyu.

Feng Xianyu forced a smile and tried to be as patient as possible. “Splitting into two groups cuts our combat power in half without fully preventing accidents. What’s the point?”

Besides, Zhuoyu’s eyes were still injured.

Seeing that both senior brothers disagreed with splitting up, everyone checked their equipment again, reapplied some spirit snake-repelling powder that was more for reassurance than actual effect, and prepared to descend into the cave.

Feng Xianyu crooked a finger at Zhuoyu, signaling him to lean down, and whispered in his ear: “How much can you see?”

“What do you mean?” Zhuoyu asked, expressionless.

Zhuoyu’s breath was close enough to feel. Feng Xianyu’s gaze flickered away and back. “I think it’s better if we’re one at the front and one at the back. How about you take the rear?”

After all, Feng Xianyu could see clearly, so he would be better at navigating.

But Zhuoyu said, “You take the rear.”

Feng Xianyu: “…”

Feng Xianyu wasn’t comfortable letting a half-blind Zhuoyu walk at the very front, so he relented helplessly. “Fine. Then let Xiang Wan bring up the rear. Xiang Wan—”

Hearing Feng Xianyu call him, Xiang Wan hurried over. “Senior brother, your orders?”

Feng Xianyu pulled a jade pendant from his qiankun pouch. “It’s for saving your life. It can at least withstand one blow from an Nascent Soul cultivator. Take this and guard the rear. Can you do that?”

Xiang Wan had already expected to be assigned to the rear, but he hadn’t anticipated that Feng Xianyu would also give him a life-saving artifact. Overjoyed, he nodded eagerly. “No problem!”

Feng Xianyu added, “I don’t think you’ll need it. If you don’t, you can keep it for yourself.”

That meant he was outright giving such a high-grade magical artifact to him. Xiang Wan’s eyes sparkled, and he almost wanted to kiss the pendant. “Thank you, senior brother!”

Feng Xianyu then took out several fist-sized luminous pearls and distributed them to the group. He was the first to go down the cave. After making sure the ground underfoot was solid, he let out a big sigh—not for any other reason, but because the cave looked incredibly filthy. He turned around to receive Zhuoyu, with Ayue following closely, and the rest of the group behind her.

The snake pit passage was narrow and winding, pitch black. The cave walls were damp and glistened with greasy moisture. Only the cold light from the luminous pearls illuminated their surroundings. An unshakable sour, rotten smell hung in the air, and for some reason, it made Xiang Wan particularly queasy.

From time to time, the hissing of snakes could be heard. Everyone was on high alert, but aside from killing a few insignificant small snakes at the start, they walked for two or three hundred feet without seeing a single snake appear in front of them.

They could hear but not see—a frustrating feeling of the enemy hiding in the dark while they stood exposed. Feng Xianyu was quite irritated.

“I’ve heard,” Feng Xianyu broke the long silence, “that if some demon beasts keep hiding deep in the mountains and forests, it’s usually to protect some treasure. What do you think, Miss Ayue?”

“What can I think?” Ayue replied noncommittally, her tone flat. “I just want to save my husband.”

Suddenly, Feng Xianyu stepped on something. In the dead silence, a faint click sounded.

The group, already tense, instinctively froze like startled birds.

Feng Xianyu stood still for a long time, staring down. Looking at his silhouette in the dim light, Xiang Wan felt an icy chill slowly creep up his spine.

After a moment, without a word, Feng Xianyu nocked an arrow and drew his bow again. Zhuoyu immediately lit a fire talisman and held it between his fingers.

In the light of the flame, Xiang Wan’s gaze dropped—and his breath caught.

Beneath Feng Xianyu’s foot was a shattered, gray-white human skull!

The fire talisman arrow shot forth like a meteor.

The moment the area ahead was illuminated, Xiang Wan’s pupils contracted. An icy chill pierced his bones, and he involuntarily held his breath.

He saw a relatively spacious, crooked crossroad. But it was densely packed with human remains—some long-dead and decomposed, others overlapping as either shattered or intact bones. Most were fresh corpses, too many to count at a glance. There were men and women, and almost all of them wore cultivator robes.

Instantly, everyone’s face turned deathly pale. A few couldn’t help dry heaving.

Grief over kindred spirits—no wonder the stench was especially unbearable.

“What is it?” Zhuoyu asked softly.

“Don’t look!” Feng Xianyu’s stomach churned with revulsion, and he couldn’t bear to let Zhuoyu’s eyes witness such filth. “It’s… dead people.”

When they got out, they’d have to flay that snake demon alive!

At the same time, an ominous premonition rose in Feng Xianyu’s heart.

The fire talisman had already gone out, seemingly swallowed by the darkness. The three bottomless cave mouths before them were like three enormous, dark pupils, staring at them coldly and cruelly.

Everyone instinctively turned to look at Ayue. Ayue thought carefully, frowned, and said slowly, “When I escaped, I fled in a panic. I don’t really remember.”

“Is that so?” Feng Xianyu’s smile didn’t reach his eyes.

“Of course.” Ayue smiled back.

Feng Xianyu turned around, staring intently at the three nearly identical openings with a serious expression. After a moment, Xiang Wan carefully asked, “Senior brother, which way?”

“Hmm…” Feng Xianyu pretended to ponder.

All eyes shifted to Feng Xianyu. Under the expectant gazes of more than a dozen people, he deliberated for a long time before finally announcing with authority: “Let’s draw lots!”

Xiang Wan: “…”

“D-d-draw lots?” Xiang Wan’s eyes bulged. He thought his ears were malfunctioning.

“What’s wrong with that? It’s all fate and timing,” Feng Xianyu said casually. He broke three twigs of different lengths, making one end even and hiding the other ends in his palm. He raised an eyebrow. “Short to long, left to right. Who’s going to pick?”

No one wanted to take responsibility for choosing wrong. They exchanged nervous glances, and no one stepped forward.

Feng Xianyu was unperturbed. “What are you afraid of? Zhuoyu and I are here!”

Before his words faded, a slender hand reached out and lightly drew one twig from his palm.

It was Zhuoyu.

“Hey, you flatter me with your trust.” Feng Xianyu grinned and opened his palm.

Xiang Wan saw that Zhuoyu had taken the middle twig, meaning the middle path. But at that very moment, Xiang Wan felt the ground beneath them tremble for no reason. He jerked his head up and saw Feng Xianyu already drawing his bowstring, releasing three spirit arrows in quick succession without even blinking!

The left passage swallowed the spirit arrows. Everyone heard a faint pfft sound, as if they had hit something. The tremor ceased.

Someone asked shakily, “What was that thing?”

No one answered. Feng Xianyu still held his bow aloft. Zhuoyu was at his side, feeding him a spirit pill with his left hand while lightly clenching his right, where a white spiritual aura was already gathering.

But the next moment, a much more violent tremor shook the entire passage. Dirt showered down, and the piled remains toppled.

“Run!” Feng Xianyu shouted. “To the right!!!”

The others snapped back to their senses and dashed toward the right path together.

While sprinting, Feng Xianyu turned back and fired three more arrows. A massive snake head burst out from that passage—almost half a person’s height, with a gaping maw, venomous fangs glinting coldly, and a pair of golden-green vertical pupils like huge lanterns. It opened its mouth and swallowed Feng Xianyu’s spirit arrows. Its speed didn’t slow at all; if anything, it seemed faster.

Feng Xianyu was shocked. He knew the power of his spirit arrows. This snake didn’t even dodge—was it courting death, or simply unafraid?

Was it crazy?

Thoughts raced through Feng Xianyu’s mind. He slammed to a halt, turned around, and shot two arrows at the giant snake’s eyes, full of hope—one for each.

They were so bright, so big. If I can’t hit those, I might as well wash my hands of this business right now, Feng Xianyu thought.

But reality greatly exceeded his expectations. He hit them—but after the spirit arrows shot straight through the snake’s eyes, the “lanterns” remained as bright as ever, still closing in fast—

What the hell?!

Feng Xianyu was dumbfounded, his mind blank. He couldn’t believe that he and his spirit arrows could be so utterly useless. Suddenly, an arm wrapped around his waist, lifting him off the ground and flinging him over a shoulder.

“Zhuoyu! What are you doing?!”

Caught completely off guard by Zhuoyu’s sudden action, Feng Xianyu was startled and instinctively struggled, his head dangling backward.

Zhuoyu held his legs tightly, the white gauze over his eyes already gone, his eyes slightly closed, navigating by spiritual sense alone. He ran steadily forward with Feng Xianyu over his shoulder, breathing calmly. “Don’t try anymore. You can’t hurt it.”

Feng Xianyu: “What do you mean?”

“This isn’t the mortal world,” Zhuoyu answered, making a sharp turn.

Feng Xianyu switched to anger. “Then what do you mean by not drawing your sword?!”

“When it’s time to kill, I will draw my sword,” Zhuoyu replied.

They ran for who knows how long. The giant snake still pursued them relentlessly, the two “lanterns” following like shadows, the rumbling noise unceasing. Zhuoyu didn’t even have a moment to put Feng Xianyu down.

Feng Xianyu felt extremely uncomfortable being jostled around, bouncing up and down like a kite.

“What about Ayue?” Feng Xianyu suddenly remembered.

“I’m here,” Ayue replied, accompanied by Xiang Wan’s heavy breathing. “She’s right next to me, fine.”

After turning countless twisted corners, they finally seemed to reach the end of the passage.

But before they could relax, they heard the cries of a disciple running in front: “We’re back! How did we come back?!”

By the light of the luminous pearl in Zhuoyu’s sleeve, Feng Xianyu looked back, his gaze crossing Zhuoyu’s ear. He caught a glimpse of a soiled white gauze lying quietly on the ground, along with those corpses and bones—they had returned to the very place where the giant snake had burst out!

“Take the middle!” Feng Xianyu said, even managing a laugh. “See? Drawing lots works!”