Chapter 79

Conflict between both sides could start at any time, and the viper’s ranks were steadily expanding with reinforcements. The middle-aged woman grit her teeth and shouted, “Not a single one of us will survive if more and more snakes arrive as we wait! Since that’s the case, attack them now!”

It was because the humans attacked first that a woman, a pistol in her hand, was so accurate with her marksmanship ¹ . With a flash, the bullet struck a Hua snake. The vipers became enraged. The Hua snake had been killed.

Yes, the vipers’ defensive capabilities weren’t a universal standard. The more toxic their venom, the greater their defense. And so, being able to withstand a bullet was the dividing line between a Yin snake and a Lan snake. Yin snakes and those vipers below the Yin snake were unable to withstand the force of a bullet. The vipers didn’t know this now, but soon the vipers would be sure to learn this.

These vipers were beyond all imagining. The humans sighed. Only god knew what strange mutation had happened to the snakes in this tomb. If these snakes weren’t afraid of bullets, the humans really didn’t know what they’d do.

“Those who have pistols, take them out!” The middle aged woman looked around, found a flank with relatively fewer vipers and yelled, “That way!”

Everyone began slowly moving towards the area with fewer vipers, a place where the Lan snakes and Hong snakes had gathered.

‘Although the humans seemed, superficially, to be very small and puny, they had dangerous hidden depths,’the vipers silently thought to themselves as they looked at the weapon that many of the humans were holding.

“These humans are still somewhat competent,” a chilling voice rang out over the heads of the gathered humans and vipers. The vipers didn’t react. The humans’ gaze tracked the voice to the large tree under which they had just rested. As it happened, the Mo snake in charge of searching this area had just arrived and was now coiled around the tree.

“This snake…this snake can speak!” Although it was unknown who, among the ranks of humans, had just shouted, a few of the women’s faces turned deathly white. They had been down tombs several times before and had seen strange creatures never before seen, but this was the first time they’d seen a snake that could speak human language. Or rather, it could be better said that none of the creatures they’d seen in the tomb had spoken. Now, there was this black snake in front of them. If they hadn’t seen it, they would have believed that it had been a human who had spoken.

“What’s so strange about being able to talk?” came from within the mass of vipers.

“Humans really like to make a fuss about nothing.”

“Not only make a fuss about nothing, but even their strength has degenerated quite a bit. Look, now they relying on objects! How ridiculous!”

–And so, no matter the time, the vipers’ talent for gossip couldn’t be hidden.

“Well, the objective now is to kill all these humans. Anyone with something to say can wait until afterwards,” the Mo snake in the tree impatiently said. This was an idiosyncrasy of the common viper: no matter the time or the place, they had absolutely no qualms with gossiping. “Since these humans reply on mere material objects ² , everyone should annihilate those holding those objects.”

The Mo snake continued to wind around the large tree. No viper was dissatisfied with the behavior of this Mo snake. During war, Mo snakes were always in charge of issuing commands, and were unlikely to personally take part and fight enemies in close-quarters.

The battle resumed. The scene quickly turned chaotic.

The vipers, as per the Mo snake’s commands, rushed the humans who were holding things or carrying things on their backs, rather than bite indiscriminately. This team of tomb robbers, it had to be said, still had enough mental fortitude that, when facing vipers that could speak like humans, no one fainted or lost their will to fight. At this time, no one wanted to enter the snake tomb proper. Everyone wanted to leave the snake tomb as quickly as possible.

Against snakes, against vipers, against many vipers, perhaps there would be people bold enough to enter the snake tomb in order to steal the ghost shark treasure. But against many vipers who could speak and were intelligent, had the ability to plan and even had a social hierarchy, who would be brave enough to enter the snake tomb and face certain death?

But the humans’ remorse wasn’t enough to change their fate. After a quarter of an hour, the humans’ defeat was a foregone conclusion. Of the team, the only ones left standing were the middle-aged woman and two men.

The middle-aged woman and the two men were already exhausted and gasping for breath. If this continued, this site would be the grave of all three of them. The middle-aged woman said, “I’ll handle these vipers. You two, quickly run away!”

The two men looked at each other. Each saw in the other’s eyes the desire to survive. Things having reached this stage, they had no choice but to do this.

The middle-aged woman quickly fished out a flare from an outside pocket. “Quickly leave!”

The two men looked at each other again. Simultaneously, their hands tightened around their pistols. They turned their backs to the middle-aged woman and charged into the remaining vipers encircling them.

Just as the vipers went to go and take the lives of the two men, the middle-aged woman pulled the flare open.

The flare was very effective. The vipers inside the boundary had excellent vision. Vipers also lack eyelids and so they were unable to close their eyes to shield themselves against the light. Immediately, the battleground filled with the angry cries of vipers, and the middle-aged woman was torn to shreds by the angry vipers.

“Everyone, lower your heads! Try your best to find shelter from that thing and shield your eyes!” The Mo snake roared angrily from in the tree.

In war, vipers were very obedient to the leadership of Mo snakes. Perhaps this was one of the main reasons why the Mo snakes, although so disliked, hadn’t been attacked by the other viper clans. Upon hearing the voice of the Mo snake, the vipers, without conscious thought, began to search for shelter.  For those near trees, it was easy. But for those not near trees, there were only low and small weeds while the vipers’ bodies were thick and solid! What was to be done?! The vipers quickly came up with a plan: shove your head underneath a comrade’s body.

Although it looked hilarious, at this time, what would have been funny wasn’t funny! Preserving their eyes was now the only course of action!

It was from this kind of rushed and muddled situation that the two men fled. Naturally, while they were also affected by the glare, their eyesight wasn’t as damaged and, compared to losing their lives, was worth the cost.

After the flare died out, the vipers were once again upright.

“Such repulsive humans!” said the Mo snake in the tree, fuming with rage and eyes brimming with hatred towards humans. Although Mo snakes looked down on common vipers, compared to humans who were not of their species, the Mo snake naturally favored vipers. The Mo snake looked below the tree at the vipers, who had suffered some heavy casualties, and continued to bellow, “I will kill all humans who dared to enter the boundary! There won’t be a single survivor!”

The more powerful the snake, the greater the chances of surviving the battle. Of the vipers who had died in battle, most of them were Lu snakes and Huang snakes, with the occasional Hua snake, Yin snake or Bai snake. Not a single Lan snake or Hong snake had died.

“The humans’ bullets are useless against me!” a Hong snake suddenly stated.

The crowd of snakes looked over at the Hong snake only to clearly see a white scar on the Hong snake’s body. A bullet had left a mark but hadn’t even slightly pierced the Hong snake’s scales.

“I have one, too!” a Yin snake yelled. The crowd of snakes once more turned to look. As it happened, there was a wound on the slender body of the Yin snake. However, because of issues of accuracy from the enemy, the Yin snake hadn’t been hit. The bullet had left a cut on the Yin snake’s body rather than killing the Yin snake.

In the tree, the Mo snake thought for a moment and then said, “Those snakes who are injured, stay together and find a place to recuperate. Those vipers who are uninjured, continue to look for traces of humans. When a human is found, don’t act rashly and come to me immediately!” And then said, “The two Lan snakes, immediately go and find the Clan Head. Inform the Clan Head of what happened during the battle.”

The snakes complied and dispersed. Among those were the two Lan snakes who quickly slithered to find Mo Laoda.

&

“How strange. The snake tomb should have a lot of vipers. How come we haven’t even encountered one, so far?” Having made camp that evening, Feng Yuan, with a dog tail grass ³ in his mouth, squatted in front of Zhou Feng, who was making a fire.

“Not encountering any is good. Did you want to run into a bunch of vipers?” Zhou Feng rolled his eyes. It was a miracle that they hadn’t run into any vipers, okay. This guy was so contrary, like he couldn’t wait to encounter vipers.

“Do you think…” Feng Yuan approached Zhou Feng and quietly whispered into Zhou Feng’s ear, “Could it be that the vipers in this old tomb have already died? There’s no other reason why the people who’d entered several decades ago encountered so many vipers while we haven’t encountered any! I think that, with all the time that’s passed, all the vipers have already died!”

“I hope what you think is true,” Zhou Feng whispered back. Vipers who could speak human language, was it likely that they would die out so easily? Such a thought was impossible to entertain.

Feng Yuan shrugged and raised his head in time to see Qi Zhao approaching. Hurriedly, he called out, “Qi Zhao, we’ve been walking for so long, are you able to see where the tomb is?”

Qi Zhao’s head suddenly rose and he met Feng Yuan’s gaze. The corners of his mouth pulled up into a fake smile. “What, you’re eager to enter?”

“Qi Zhao, what are you saying? Didn’t we come to rob the tomb? Why aren’t we entering the tomb?”

“Rob the tomb?” Qi Zhao repeated these words, his eyes growing even colder.

“Yes, doesn’t everyone say that this snake tomb is a large Zhou Dynasty tomb? Also…” Feng Yuan, head bowed, was engrossed in speaking and didn’t see Qi Zhao’s face, but Zhou Feng saw and immediately interrupted Feng Yuan.

“Feng Yuan! Stop talking, there’s not enough branches to make a fire. Come with me into the woods to get some dry branches!” He said, pulling Feng Yuan away. He shoved Feng Yuan forward into the woods.

“Hey, hey, hey! Zhou Feng, stop pushing me! I can walk, I can walk! Really, making me keep you company to gather dry branches! I really hadn’t thought you were such a coward.”

Zhou Feng absent-mindedly responded to Feng Yuan as he pushed Feng Yuan to walk towards the woods. However, his attention was still on Qi Zhao behind them. He seemed to faintly hear Qi Zhao softly saying something, although Zhou Feng couldn’t hear him clearly. He could only hear fragments, a few words: “tomb…corpse…kill…”

The two walked to the woods. When he was sure no one was around, Zhou Feng softly said to Feng Yuan, “In the future, don’t mention tomb robbing in front of Qi Zhao, and speak less.”

“Huh? Why?” Feng Yuan asked, surprised. “We came here to rob the tomb, and it was Qi Zhao who brought us here. Why not talk about tomb robbing in front of him?”

Zhou Feng rolled his eyes. This Feng Yuan was foolish, stupid, slow-witted and really dumb! It amazed him that  he’d managed to survive for so long! He was so hard-headed ⁴ !

“I think there’s something fishy about Qi Zhao….don’t interrupt. Listen to me!” Zhou Feng continued, saying, “I think Qi Zhao knows something that he’s not telling us.”

T/N: Sorry for the delay! Thank you for your patience!

Footnotes

<ol>sentence restructured for clarity 身外之物: external thing not physically connected to oneself 狗尾巴草: setaria vidiris 榆木疙瘩: elm wood knot; a metaphor for someone whose way of thinking is stubborn to change</ol>