Chapter 83

As the vipers were talking, Mo Laoda suddenly drew up his upper body, raised his head and looked in the direction of the riverbank.

The vipers surrounding Mo Laoda stared then looked at each other blankly. What was the Clan Head doing?

“This is Xiaoxiao’s scent!” Mo Laoda murmured quietly before he quickly rushed to the riverbank. The speed with which he traveled could scarcely be imagined. As for the vipers present, they only said this short sentence: “Wait for me!”

By the time Mo Laoda slithered to the riverbank he, just by chance, saw a Yin snake floating in the water. This was Yin Xiaoxiao.

“Xiaoxiao!” Mo Laoda’s liver and gallbladder wanted to split ¹ . With a howl, without caring that he couldn’t swim, he threw himself into the river. In a flash, he grasped Yin Xiaoxiao with his mouth and pulled him from the river.

Yin Xiaoxiao knew he was floating in the river and he also knew that his body hurt awfully. Even more, he knew that his consciousness was dissipating. bit by bit. Yin Xiaoxiao didn’t know how long he’d been in the river. He even thought that he’d already died. But as he despaired, a familiar voice tugged on what little consciousness Yin Xiaoxiao had left. Dazed, Yin Xiaoxiao sensed his body being gripped in the mouth of a snake as he was taken from the river. The reassuring scent amplified Yin Xiaoxiao’s pain and Yin Xiaoxiao weakly, in an aggrieved voice, said, “Heitan, I hurt.”

After saying these words, Yin Xiaoxiao passed out, his mind at rest. As long as Heitan was by his side, he surely wouldn’t die. There was obviously no basis for this, but Yin Xiaoxiao’s certainty in this was unshakable.

When Yin Xiaoxiao woke up, there was a faint light in his eyes. Yin Xiaoxiao forced his eyes to open and found that Mo Laoda was standing next to him, his face filled with a violent rage. When he saw that he had regained consciousness, Mo Laoda’s face immediately changed to one of loving concern. “Xiaoxiao, how do you feel?”

“Not very good,” Yin Xiaoxiao answered, honestly. “My whole body hurts a lot.”

Yin Xiaoxiao wanted to stand up, but found that he didn’t even have the strength to sit up. Even more, he felt that the strength in the left half of his body was continuously being drained. Yin Xiaoxiao turned his head. The wound was horrible, not to mention blood was still flowing from it unceasingly, although it didn’t seem to be bleeding a lot. Still, how much blood did a snake have? If it bled like this, surely he would die from blood loss.

Yin Xiaoxiao’s mouth formed a pout as he was about to cry. Tears had already formed in his eyes. “Heitan, it’s so ugly! My shining silver scales are gone!”

A group of vipers standing not too far away: “….” ‘Please, Clan Husband! Is now really the time to be worried about scales?! You should be thinking of a way to staunch the bleeding!’

Mo Laoda: “Don’t worry. After a while, they’ll be fine and they’ll become just as pretty as they were before.” Mo Laoda stepped forward and pressed a kiss to Yin Xiaoxiao’s wound. “I promise.”

Yin Xiaoxiao let out a ‘yes’ and the tears in his eyes cleared.

Of course, Mo Laoda didn’t appear as unreasonable as Yin Xiaoxiao did, worrying about something insignificant. He was worried about the continued bleeding from Yin Xiaoxiao’s left side. The vipers’ ability to heal themselves was very strong, but Yin Xiaoxiao wasn’t included in this, perhaps because  he didn’t have any of the inherited memories. Once, Yin Xiaoxiao had suffered a minor injury and it took no less than half a month for him to recover. He didn’t know how many months it would take for this wound to heal but, if Yin Xiaoxiao’s wound kept bleeding, he certainly wouldn’t be able to wait several months.

Mo Laoda, naturally, wanted to tear the humans who hurt Yin Xiaoxiao to shreds. But not even vengeance for Yin Xiaoxiao was more important than Yin Xiaoxiao’s safety and life. Thus, Mo Laoda now had no choice but to forcibly suppress his anger and instead comfort Yin Xiaoxiao.

At the present, Mo Laoda was confronted with a serious choice. In order to make Yin Xiaoxiao’s bleeding stop, he would have to look for Zhi Xue Grass ² . This grass only grew below the cliff. With his own speed, he could very quickly retrieve the Zhi Xue Grass for Yin Xiaoxiao, but he wouldn’t feel at ease simply leaving Yin Xiaoxiao here. And, because of Yin Xiaoxiao’s current condition, he also couldn’t follow him down the cliff.

Since it was like this, why not issue an order as Clean Head and send the closest viper below the cliff to get the Zhi Xue Grass? The reason was very simple: after the Zhi Xue Grass was harvested, the medicinal properties would only remain for a day. With Mo Laoda’s speed, it would take the better part of a day to return here. Of the vipers within the boundary, who else could return with Zhi Xue Grass within a day? Not even a day, the next strongest Mo snake aside from Mo Laoda would take nearly three day to return with the Zhi Xue Grass!

And then there were humans in the mountain range! Mo Laoda wouldn’t feel at ease with only a group of Lan and Hong snakes guarding Yin Xiaoxiao. Not only was Yin Xiaoxiao a Yin snake, and not only was Yin Xiaoxiao a young snake, he couldn’t even withstand a bullet, so how could he feel comfortable leaving?

Yin Xiaoxiao didn’t know that Mo Laoda was struggling with this issue. To him, as long as he could open his eyes and as long as Mo Laoda was with him, he absolutely wasn’t in any danger; there was no one and no snake who could injure him.

“What’s happened?”

At this moment, from out of this scene came a voice. And this voice, to Mo Laoda’s ears, was undoubtedly a voice from heaven! As it happened, Mo Laoda had been so busy that he’d  entirely forgotten that he’d told Mo Dayi that, when he arrived, he was to send Mo Damo to help him. This voice was Mo Damo’s.

By contrast, Yin Xiaoxiao didn’t feel very comfortable. He recognized this Mo snake. This was that Mo snake, Mo Damo, who had fought against Mo Laoda in the selection for Clan Head! At first, this Mo snake had nothing to do with him. If he had any connection, then it was as nothing more than the future partner of the snake who had defeated Mo Damo. But when Mo Laoda had succeeded in becoming Clan Head, Mo Damo’s gaze while speaking to Mo Laoda had made Yin Xiaoxiao feel a sense of crisis.

So suddenly seeing Mo Damo here and now, Yin Xiaoxiao naturally wouldn’t feel happy. But why did Heitan look so happy?!

Mo Laoda slithered to face Mo Damo. “You came just in time. Xiaoxiao was injured from a human’s bullet. His bleeding isn’t stopping. I have to go below the cliff to look for Zhi Xue Grass. Before I return, Yin Xiaoxiao’s safety is in your hands!” There was a pause and then Mo Laoda added, “I’ll be sure to gather some vipers. Please, I ask you to protect Xiaoxiao!”

Mo Laoda’s manner, rather than being commanding, was more beseeching.

Mo Damo glanced at Yin Xiaoxiao, who was lying on the ground, and said, “No problem. Leave Yin Xiaoxiao to me.”

Having Mo Damo’s pledge, Mo Laoda felt partial relief. Last time, when he’d participated in the selection for Clan Head, Mo Laoda knew that, if he hadn’t participated, Mo Damo would have become Clan Head. In other words, Mo Damo was the second powerful Mo snake. The reason he was only partially relieved was because, since Mo Laoda himself wouldn’t be at Yin Xiaoxiao’s side, then Mo Laoda couldn’t feel entirely relieved.

Mo Laoda turned to Yin Xiaoxiao and kissed Yin Xiaoxiao’s forehead. “Xiaoxiao, I have to go below the cliff to get Zhi Xue Grass. You must obediently stay here and wait for me to return, understood?”

Yin Xiaoxiao hesitantly asked, “Does Zhi Xue Grass have to be used on my wound?”

Mo Laoda was silent for a moment then answered, “Yes.”

Yin Xiaoxiao knew that he couldn’t stop Mo Laoda from getting the Zhi Xue Grass. Yin Xiaoxiao also didn’t want to stop him. He wanted to live. He wanted to live for many more years. He wanted always, always, to be together with Heitan.

Yin Xiaoxiao was silent for a moment and then quietly said, “I’ll wait for you.”

Mo Laoda leveled a heartfelt look at Yin Xiaoxiao and couldn’t help but move forward and kiss the corner of Yin Xiaoxiao’s mouth. Softly he said, “I swear, I will return as quickly as I can.”

Mo Laoda’s silhouette gradually disappeared amongst the underbrush. Yoin Xiaoxiao stared, somewhat lost in a daze. When he’d returned to himself, he discovered Mo Damo wasn’t too far away and was already standing beside him.

Yin Xiaoxiao didn’t like Mo Damo so he was unwilling to acknowledge him. There was silence for a while, then Mo Damo suddenly opened his mouth, “Yin Xiaoxiao, you are too weak. You don’t have the qualifications to stay by Mo Laoda’s side.”

Yin Xiaoxiao’s whole body stiffened. After a very long time, he looked over at Mo Damo, an especially earnest look in his eyes. Because he was injured, his voice was very small, but his tone was very resolute, “Love doesn’t have qualifications.”

&

Having fired on Yin Xiaoxiao, Liu Zhixin didn’t go over to see whether or not he had hit or injured Yin Xiaoxiao. Rather, he turned and fled after firing his gun. Although he had only seen one snake, who knew if there were other snakes around? He was alone now and, aside from the gun in his hands, he didn’t have any other weapons. Although he was wearing the clothes made specifically for the snake tomb, when all was said and done were these clothes actually useful? Because of all this, it was now of utmost importance to return to the rest of the unit.

As Liu Zhixin returned to the team’s rest area, he panted for breath, an anxious expression on his face as he looked for his master, Su Lao. Before he could find him,  Su Lao found Liu Zhixin. “Zhixin, didn’t you go to get water? Where’s the water?”

Liu Zhixin hurriedly walked over to Su Lao. “Master, nevermind the water! Just, I found a snake at the riverbank!”

“What? Snake?” Su Lao had yet to speak. It had been the other men, near Su Lao and Liu Zhixin, who had overheard what Liu Zhixin had said and blurted this out in a shout.

“There’s snakes? Where, where?”

“Quick! Arm yourselves!”

The other men present heard all this shouting and, without conscious thought, joined in the alarm. Those who had been lying down, those who had been sitting, those who had been drinking water, those who had been eating rations, they all stood up immediately and took out their weapons.

“Everyone, quiet!” Old Bai shouted. “What the hell’s happening?”

Liu Zhixin glanced at Su Lao and saw Su Lao nod faintly. Liu Zhixin plainly stated, “Just now, when I went to the riverbank to get water, I saw an all-silver snake so I rushed back to inform everyone.”

“Only saw one snake?”

“What’s so frightening about a snake?”

“Exactly, exactly. Such a big fuss about nothing. Large groups of snakes would be difficult to handle, but one snake is easy to handle.”

Everyone present though Liu Zhixin has grossly overreacted. It was only a snake. What was so scary?

“But I just saw a snake! That’s proof that there must be other snakes around here, too! Those that entered the first time all ran into large groups of snakes!” Liu Zhixin added.

Everyone thought and thought on this matter. If they didn’t need to, no one wanted to fight snakes. Everyone came to rob a tomb, not to stage a war between man and snake!

“This being the case, let’s leave this mountain!” someone proposed.

Just as another was going to second this motion, Old Bai’s voice rang out first, “No! Not only shouldn’t we leave this mountain, we’re going to scour this entire mountain! Everyone, think about it: we’ve searched so many mountains and didn’t find the old tomb. Similarly, we also hadn’t found any vipers. Yet here we found a viper! Vipers are in charge of protecting the old tomb, so the place where the vipers gather is surely where the old tomb is located! Therefore, the old tomb is surely on this mountain!”

T/N:

Footnotes

<ol>肝胆欲裂: idiom used to describe when someone is very angry or extremely distressed; https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E8%82%9D%E8%83%86%E6%AC%B2%E8%A3%82/53608932 止血草: literally Hemostatic Grass or Staunch Bleeding Grass</ol>