Chapter 56

Yin Xiaoxiao jumped in fright at the sudden sound. He had just begun to believe that it really had been thunder. But if it was thunder then it would have been absolutely impossible to understand what the thunder had said! Thus, Yin Xiaoxiao realized and immediately understood that, if he could understand the “thunder”, then this surely wasn’t “thunder”. It must be a person behind him! No, it must be a snake! Also no, it must be something else!

Yin Xiaoxiao’s whole body stiffened. His tail lashed as he thought about how whatever was behind him absolutely couldn’t be Heitan! Even if Heitan wanted to scare him, his voice wouldn’t be so deep as to sound like thunder!

….The voice spoke words which sounded like thunder???!!! God! How big was the thing behind him?!

“It seems like this small guy is afraid of you,” Following after the voice which had joked behind him, came a male voice which sounded simple and honest. A voice which also resembled thunder.

“Hmph, if comparing beauty to ugly, clearly I am better looking! If the little guy is afraid, then he’s afraid of you.”

Yin Xiaoxiao wanted to cry. Ah! There were two big brothers ¹ behind him (both sounded male)! ‘If you two want to chat maybe you can go somewhere else? I humbly don’t want to be met with calamity and disaster ² ! I humbly still want stay alive to wait for Heitan to return and eat! My humble self has already been hungry for quite a while and can’t help but be scared!’

While Yin Xiaoxiao let his imagination run wild, the two things– for the time being let’s call them things — behind his back had already finished chatting and had turned to look again at Yin Xiaoxiao, who was by the side of the lake. What reason did they have to quarrel! They had quarrelled for how many millennia and they still hadn’t quarrelled enough! Now they could see with great difficulty a snake coming down the cliff!

One of the “things” took the lead to break the impasse. All at once, it slithered forward to take a look. It stretched out its huge head and finally met Yin Xiaoxiao’s eyes. “Little guy, did you come by yourself?”

Now, Yin Xiaoxiao absolutely did not have the presence of mind to reply to its questions. Yin Xiaoxiao stared, dumbfounded, at the thing before his eyes. One thought revolved in his mind, ‘This, what is this?’

Looking at the thing in front of Yin Xiaoxiao, the shape seemed circular. In the circle was another circle, the outside of which was white and the inside of which was brown. He looked carefully again. Oh, close to that brown circle was another circle which was black, on the other side was the same thing. His gaze shifted and looked outward. Oh, white…skin? Skin, well call it skin for now, skin the color of snow, exquisitely smooth skin on the outside of which were black threads of some sort…hair??

Yin Xiaoxiao again stared blankly. Suddenly, he realized that, quite possibly, this thing was so big that he couldn’t see it in its entirety. And so, Yin Xiaoxiao drew back a bit and thought that this thing looked a little like a man! By the time he had backed up enough to see the thing in its entirety, Yin Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened. If it had hair, it had hair roots. Oh, it had scales, but where the scales spread out, with careful examination, flesh could be discerned among the scales.

This, this was a man’s face, ah! Yin Xiaoxiao shouted in his mind, ‘Holy shit ³ ! How can there be a human being here?!’ Just a moment ago, he had clearly seen the eyes on this man’s face and the hair on his head and temples! Because this thing was looking down at Yin Xiaoxiao, the most prominent features had been the eyes. After becoming aware that this was a human face, Yin Xiaoxiao unconsciously looked at what lay below the human face.

Yin Xiaoxiao: “……?? …….!!”

‘Holy shit ⁴ ! Laozi ⁵ was wrong! Why had Laozi thought just not thought the question “How can there be a human being here”?!  Laozi was wrong! Laozi really held out the unmet wish of seeing a human! Even if it was a giant, Laozi would also accept it! But you have the body of a snake under your head, WTF ⁶ !’

“It seems that the little guy is scared stiff of you.” Came the simple and honest voice from just a moment ago. There was a smile in its voice.

“Are you joking? I’m so handsome, how could he be scared of me?! He’s much more likely to be scared of you!”

At this time Yin Xiaoxiao was still, in vain, thinking of questions such as — ‘the person in front of me didn’t open his mouth to speak, could it be that these goods ⁷ are using ventriloquism to speak?’

Well, there was one thing Yin Xiaoxiao could admit to. From having experiences such as opening his eyes and seeing a bunch of snakes to accidentally trespassing into an old tomb and running into ghosts, Yin Xiaoxiao’s resilience to psychological shocks had already become very durable. It had been a while since Yin Xiaoxiao had last fainted, which left him with more time to come up with even more questions to answer.

Yin Xiaoxiao only hesitated a second, then, ready and determined, he looked back. After only a glance, Yin Xiaoxiao knew why the human head before him just now didn’t open its mouth to talk! It was because this thing had nine heads! Nine heads! Nine heads sharing a snake’s body! A snake’s body below which were four feet.

Seeing the entirety of this thing, Yin Xiaoxiao wasn’t scared into a swoon, rather five characters flashed through his mind: this thing is the Xionghui ⁸ !

The Xionghui (hui sound ⁹ ) was extremely venomous and, according to legend, was the nine-headed snake, Xiangliu. More than four thousand years ago, the river god, Gonggong, caused a flood. This flood pervaded the whole of Central China. Halfway through, he encountered Emperor Da Yu ¹⁰ who was determined to stop the flood. Unable to defeat Da Yu, Gonggong was banished and imprisoned.  Xiongliu was one of Gonggong’s loyal and devoted ministers, and he carried on Gonggong’s mission of sowing chaos. Da Yu was furious and killed Xiangliu. But Xiangliu’s blood was foul ¹¹ . Where it flowed over the land, the five crops ¹² wouldn’t grow, and it formed a huge venomous marsh. Da Yu filled in the marsh three times and, each of the three times, the marsh swallowed it. He was forced to open it up and form it into a large and clean pond and, in service to the Celestial emperor, constructed palaces and pavilions along the side of the pond, called the Terraces of the Emperors. As far as describing the appearance of Xionghui, it was just as it was seen at that moment by Yin Xiaoxiao: nine heads, men’s faces, snake body, four feet.

It is said in《The Songs of Chu·Summons of the Soul》: “The nine-headed Xionghui sometimes swallows people in order to benefit its heart a little.” Wang Yi commented, “Speaking of the Xionghui with nine heads on one body. Hastily going and coming ¹³ , ever fond of swallowing peoples’ souls for the benefit of its thieving, evil heart.” From this, the viciousness of Xionghui can be seen.

Yin Xiaoxiao was very calm and collected. Yes, very calm and collected. ‘It’s just Xionghui! A nine headed snake, so what?! So what!! Isn’t it still a snake?! As long as it’s a snake, Laozi is not worried!’

“Eh? Could it be that this little guy really isn’t scared of you?” The simple and honest sounding voice was full of doubt. It couldn’t be! This guy, Xionghui, had nine heads, but the heads actually all looked human! Tsk tsk, human beings really were ugly! In other words, since the nine heads had become human faces it had become the ugliest snake among snakes! Still, this guy still actually believed he looked good! Even narcissism has limits!

Yin Xiaoxiao followed the voice and looked at another of the “thing”.

Only, it appeared that its entire body was golden. It had a snake’s face and a snake’s body, and on its back there were four wings, two large and two small. Yin Xiaoxiao also knew this guy’s identity — Mingshe.

Mingshe. In the second volume of《The Classic of Mountain and Sea》(山海经: a compilation of mythical geography and fantastical creatures https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%B1%B1%E6%B5%B7%E7%BB%8F/270208 ), it was written that if one travelled west for three hundred miles, one would come to the base of Xian Mountain, which was rich in gold and precious jade and where vegetation didn’t grow. Water originated from here, flowing north to the Yi river. Within the water there were many mingshe. In body, they were very like a snake, hundreds of feet long, but with four wings. And they produced sounds like rocks. Major droughts follow its viewing.

The 《The Classic of Mountain and Sea》was not the only written account of mingshe. Interestingly enough, the other written records that wrote about the mingshe all had one thing in common: that was that the ming snake could be found where there was gold, precious jade, tombs, hidden treasures, etc. Therefore, in other words, in folklore, the mingshe’s duty was to guard hidden treasures. Where there was a mingshe, treasure could be found.

And so, after Yin Xiaoxiao realized that before his eyes was a mingshe, he sighed to himself, “Ji Kang’s funerary objects are indeed priceless!”

Yin Xiaoxiao’s thoughts returned to the matter at hand. Very earnestly, he said to Mingshe, “I remember that seeing a mingshe heralds a huge drought, so how come now that I’ve seen you there isn’t a huge drought?”

…Was this really his brain after having returned to the matter at hand? Lies!

Mingshe: “…”

Xionghui: “Pfft-hahahahahahaha…”

Mingshe helplessly said, “Little guy, Xionghui is with me. How could there be a huge drought?”

Yin Xiaoxiao cocked his head and thought for a moment then suddenly realized: Xionghui, otherwise known as Xiangliu, had been one of Gonggong’s court officials. And Gonggong was a water god. How could Xiangliu not know how to form clouds and make rain? And for Mingshe with Xionghui on hand, naturally it would be impossible that “major droughts follow its viewing”.

Yin Xiaoxiao laughed in embarrassment. Had his head rusted away after such a long period of disuse? Ah, speaking up to here, Yin Xiaoxiao thought of another question: Was Xiangliu not killed by Da Yu? How could it appear here? Could it be that there had still been another xionghui in this world?

By the time Yin Xiaoxiao reacted, it was only to find that he just carelessly said what he had thought to himself.

“Hmph, the reason was not because that child of the Zhou Dynasty disturbed my just and honest dream,” Xionghui sneered. “I am the only xionghui in the world. Heaven and Earth bestowed to me an immortal soul. Da Yu killed only my flesh. After the destruction of my physical body, I embodied a swamp and sank into sleep in order to reassemble a physical body. Who would have imagined that Zhou Kang Wang would order someone to summon my soul and, by force, bind me inside this boundary to assist Mingshe in guarding this tomb.”

Yin Xiaoxiao’s first thought was — so it turned out it was Xionghui who was assisting Mingshe, not Mingshe who followed Xionghui! (……)

Still, before Yin Xiaoxiao could speak, Mingshe opened its mouth, “If your skill is not equal to another’s, don’t make excuses for yourself. If you were strong enough, how could someone bind you to within the boundary.”

“It was naturally because my physical body was destroyed! If my physical body hadn’t been destroyed, how could a single human order me about?!” It had to be said that, if one only looked at the face of the xionghui (naturally, only looking at only one of the heads), it was indeed very attractive(naturally, this was from the point of view ¹⁴ of Yin Xiaoxiao’s human soul). For instance, even now that Xiongui was angry, it really was a great beauty!

Mingshe: “%￥%#&*……”

Xionghui: “*&￥#@*……”

Yin Xiaoxiao: “….”

Yin Xiaoxiao, seeing that the two snakes had again gotten caught up in an argument, was saddened and injured. ‘Say, I’m the protagonist, okay!’

“Why are you ¹⁵ here?” A voice brimming with anger made Mingshe and Xionghui stop arguing. Although this voice was much softer than those of Mingshe and Xionghui, it was obvious that this snake had quite the imposing manner! That was right! Mo Laoda had already returned from hunting.

Mo Laoda indicated for Yin Xiaoxiao to stand behind him. Yin Xiaoxiao obediently did so, after which Mo Laoda confronted the ming snake and Xionghui with open aggression. Again, he opened his mouth to ask, “Why are you ¹⁶ here?!”

“Isn’t this the little Hei snake that came ten years ago to pick Huiyan this is the grass that can be used to remove scars? What have you come for this time?” Xionghui glanced over and immediately recognized that this Mo snake was the one from ten years ago. After all, even if snakes all look very similar, their scents couldn’t be changed.

Veins pulsated on Mo Laoda’s head. “I am a Mo snake! Not a Hei snake!” Well, for Mo Laoda, being called a Hei snake was far more infuriating than being called “little”.

Indifferent, Xionghui rolled its eyes.

Mingshe actually laughed and said, “Are you here to accompany the snake behind you this time?”

Here, Mo Laoda, Xionghui and Mingshe chatted cheerfully and lightheartedly. To the side, Yin Xiaoxiao stared blankly at the food that Mo Laoda had brought back. ‘This was a rabbit on the ground, right?! Because this rabbit looks like a pig, it’s that big! How can I possibly finish eating this?!’

T/N:

Edit 12/08/2021: Mistranslated the name Yan grass from Huiyan grass. It’s changed. Please excuse the mistake.

Footnotes

<ol>大哥: a term used to address close friends, elders, competent people, etc 池鱼: idiom meaning disaster, but literally means pond fish 尼玛: internet slang which has profaned a sacred word. Equivalent would be Holy shit or the like 尼玛: internet slang which has profaned a sacred word. Equivalent would be Holy shit or the like 老子: Originally the founder of Taoism, in this context, his name is being used in place of ‘I’. Can be used to address oneself arrogantly or sardonically, depending on the context. Here I think it’s being used sardonically 闹哪样: literally means the trouble/noise, but is used to contemptuously ask ‘what are you doing? ’ 这货: a slang way of saying guys or chaps 雄虺: xionghui; like a chinese hydra. Has nine human heads, a snake’s body and four legs this was in the raw, so I’m leaving it. Just how the second character is pronounced 大禹: a mythical emperor who helped prevent flooding by building dams and dikes; founded the Xia Dynasty 血液腥臭: literally, blood smelled fishy 五谷: millet, soybeans, sesame, barley, rice 往來: can also mean intercourse as well as coming and going added for clarity plural plural</ol>