Chapter 89

When evening had darkened the sky, Su Lao decided they should rest here for the night to wait and set off the next morning. Naturally, Liu Zhixin had no objections, and the two men entered the cave together.

“There seems to be a strange smell here,” Lou Zhixin said with a frown as he entered the cave.

Su Lao casually replied, “Perhaps there were animals living here, before.”

The smell inside the cave was, of course, because of Mo Laoda and Yin Xiaoxiao, and was actually the smell of snake. But Su Lao and Liu Zhixin couldn’t smell this. If the two men knew the truth, that vipers had “formerly” lived here, the two men would have surely stayed in the wilderness rather than willingly stay in the cave.

Seeing Su Lao and Liu Zhixin entering Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda’s cave…

Yin Xiaoxiao tried to struggle free of Mo Laoda’s hold, roaring, “Let me go! Heitan, are you listening to me?! Let me go! I’m going to bite these two to death!”

Helplessly, Mo Laoda tightened his tail around Yin Xiaoxiao’s body. “Xiaoxiao, stop it. Now’s not the time to appear in front of them.”

“I don’t care! They actually dare to stay in our home! I want to bite them to death!” Yin Xiaoxiao continued to struggle.

“Xiaoxiao, believe me, those two absolutely won’t face a good end, but now is not the time. Otherwise, wouldn’t everything we did before be for naught?” Mo Laoda continued to comfort Yin Xiaoxiao, “Now, let’s go to Ji Kang. Let’s have Ji Kang teach them a lesson, okay?”

Yin XIaoxiao thought for a moment. “Okay, let’s go visit Ji Kang!”

Yin Xiaoxiao lay on Mo Laoda’s back as Mo Laoda slithered to Ji Kang’s. Yin Xiaoxiao continued to rant even while carried on Mo Laoda’s back. “Going to die! They will surely die!!

“Oh, what brings the two of you here?” Just as they entered within range of Ji Kang’s senses, they heard Ji Kang’s angry voice. How long had it been since Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda had last been here?! He’d thought that these two snakes had forgotten about him!

Yin Xiaoxiao didn’t shout. Hearing Ji Kang’s voice, his immediate reaction was to one thing: even though he and Mo Laoda had been fighting to eradicate those humans to protect him, it seemed Ji Kang didn’t know that humans had entered from the outside world!

Yin Xiaoxiao slithered off of Mo Laoda’s back, looked towards the old tomb with a solemn and respectful expression, and, with a serious and sorrowful voice, said, “Ji Kang, I wanted to tell you of some unfortunate news. Humans have already entered the boundary.”

Well, on this point, Yin Xiaoxiao really wasn’t lying.

“What?” Ji Kang cried out in shock. “Humans have actually entered the boundary?”

“Yes, that’s right. There’s some more unfortunate news.” Yin Xiaoxiao’s voice became even more serious. “Even though the vipers have suffered heavy losses, they still couldn’t stop the humans’ invasion. Now, there are two humans that have broken through layer upon layer of the vipers’ containment. Soon they will reach here.”

Mo Laoda really couldn’t listen to Yin Xiaoxiao’s wild tales and the slandering of he vipers’ strength like this! How could the pathetic humans possibly be the equals of the vipers? And saying that two humans managed to break through the heavy encirclement and soon arrive here, surely he would have been able to handle two humans?

And so, Mo Laoda clearly explained this, that and the other to Ji Kang. Yin Xiaoxiao lay on his stomach and curled his lips. Heitan really was too dull!

By the time Mo Laoda had explained everything, ten minutes had already passed. Ji Kang fully understood what had happened.

“So, you ¹ thought to have me properly teach those two a lesson?”

Yin Xiaoxiao nodded wildly, “Don’t they want rare treasures and long life? Then we should let them obtain these things. But how unfortunate for them that there’s no way for them to leave with any of it! Let them die full of grievances and with their desires unfulfilled!”

Ji Kang was already a ghost, but when he heard Yin Xiaoxiao speak, he still felt a chill go down his back. Ji Kang forced a laugh. “Well, it’ll be as you say.”

Yin Xiaoxiao was satisfied. “Well then, in that case, tonight we will stay in the old tomb.” When he said this, Yin Xiaoxiao was once again reminded of Su Lao and Liu Zhixin occupying his home, and he couldn’t resist the anger that filled him. Originally, Yin Xiaoxiao had wanted Su Lao and Liu Zhixin to die with their bodies intact. Now, with the pain of his injuries and his hatred due to his invaded home, Yin Xiaoxiao was intent that the two die without intact bodies.

Below the cliff…

Xionghui, lying next to Mingshe, suddenly raised his upper body to look towards the old tomb, and said in a serious voice, “I smell humans.”

Xionghui’s nine heads rose as well. All nine heads carefully sniffed the air ² . Then, one of the heads said, “I smell it, too.”

Just after saying that, shadows from the other strange snakes were cast from the sky, seemingly headed towards Mingshe and Xionghui.

“You all smell it?” Bashe asked immediately after landing in front of Mingshe and Xionghui.

Mingshe and Xionghui both nodded their heads.

Within the span of a sentence, the other strange snakes also landed.

“The vipers, have they already been defeated?” Feiyi asked.

“This is still unknown,” Mingshe interjected. “But it’s very strange. I smell two humans, so there must be two, but their scent is really very faint. They smell quite weak.”

Goushe thought for a moment then said, “Perhaps they’re injured.”

To the side, Xionghui shook his head. “They don’t seem to be injured. Just pathetic.”

“This, it doesn’t seem very likely,” Heili said hesitantly. “Since the two humans were able to enter and are also near the grave room, they can’t be as weak as they appear. As you know, Mo Laoda is the only Mo snake inside the boundary who has consumed seven Mo Grass plants. If the humans can beat him, how could they be so weak? From the smell of these two, they are a lot weaker than Mo Laoda.”

The seven strange snakes talked for a long time but ultimately couldn’t reach any conclusions. Finally, Mingshe said, “If this is the case, one of us should first investigate the situation.”

The strange snakes looked at each other and agreed. Mabanshe said, “Then who should go?”

Although it was decided that one of the strange snakes should go and scout out the situation, it was clear that Mingshe, Xionghui, Mabanshe, Feiyi and Heili couldn’t go, leaving only Goushe and Bashe. Goushe and Bashe glanced at each other, then Goushe said, “I’ll go.”

Bashe nodded in agreement, and the rest of the strange snakes didn’t oppose. And so, Goushe flew off to the base of the cliff.

By the time Goushe had hurriedly arrived,  Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda had already entered the old tomb ³ .

“Have humans entered?

A voice from behind caused Yin Xiaoxiao to jump in fright. Mo Laoda was even more startled and he made as thought to attack. Turning around, he saw that it was actually the strange snake, Goushe.

“Goushe, why are you here?” Yin Xiaoxiao was the one to ask. There was no helping it since Yin Xiaoxiao got along with the strange snakes quite well.

Goushe wasn’t annoyed that no snake answered his question. Instead, having listened to Yin Xiaoxiao’s question, Goushe patiently explained, “Below the cliff, we smelled humans, so I came to see what was happening.”

To the side, Mo Laoda listened to Goushe speak and finally remembered what he had overlooked. As it happened, when creatures from the outside approached the old tomb, the strange snakes would become aware that foreign creatures had arrived and that the vipers could no longer continue to repel the invaders ⁴ . The strange snakes would then fly out from the bottom of the cliff and join the conflict.

However, this time Mo Laoda and Yin Xiaoxiao who had deliberately allowed humans to come this far and, since Mo Laoda had forgotten to give advance notice to the strange snakes, Goushe had come here.

Thus, Mo Laoda once again had to fully explain the situation to Goushe. Goushe suddenly understood.

Finally, Goushe sighed and said, “So humans really have become so weak?”

After the explanation, Goushe took his leave and returned to the bottom of the cliff.

Yin Xiaoxiao became aware of Ji Kang standing behind himself and Mo Laoda. “Ji Kang, was Goushe unable to see you?”

“I was visible,” Ji Kang said with a forced smile. “Goushe ⁵ pretends that I’m not….after all, the strange snakes are trapped in this place all because of me.”

Although quite a long time had passed and the lives of the strange snakes’ wasn’t too bad, this didn’t mean that the strange snakes didn’t mind being trapped here. With the situation like this – when they saw Ji Kang, they pretended as though he wasn’t there.

– Well, when it was put like this it seemed that the strange snakes could also be petty.

Goushe left, and Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda also left to go and sleep in the main grave room. That night, Yin Xiaoxiao slept incredibly soundly. Perhaps it was because he was dreaming but, from time to time, he’d open his mouth and emit a short burst of strange laughter.

Su Lao and Liu Zhixin got up very early. Although Su Lao and Liu Zhixin couldn’t have said to know the exact location of the old tomb, Su Lao and Liu Zhixin did have a feeling that they already weren’t too many li away from the old tomb. After waking up this morning, this feeling became even stronger.

Liu Zhixin secretly let out a sigh. Not only was there the feeling that they were near the tomb, he was cheerful because that constant feeling of being stared at was gone.

Su Lao and Liu Zhixin ate something in front of the cave and then, once more, they set off to look for the old tomb.

“Master, there’s something here!”

Just as they neared the old tomb, Liu Zhixin discovered the bronze figures. Su Lao also discovered them, and they excitedly stepped forward to look them over carefully.

Liu Zhixin was very excited at first, but then he suddenly had the feeling that he was being watched from all directions. All the hair on his body stood on end. This, what had caused this? Liu Zhixin swallowed. He wanted to ask Su Lao but, when he saw the fanatical expression on Su Lao’s face, Liu Zhixin swallowed the words he wanted to say. ‘Surely if I say anything now, Master won’t listen to any of it.’

That Liu Zhixin felt this way wasn’t a shock. After all, they’d revealed their presence to Ji Kang as soon as they neared the bronze figures. Once within the range of Ji Kang’s senses, the two men no longer had anywhere to hide.

“Hahahaha, we’ve almost found the old tomb! I’m going to get eternal life!” Su Lao’s expression could no longer be described as fanatical, instead he seemed crazy. Everything encountered since setting off for the old tomb replayed in front of Sun Lao, one after another. He’d experienced so much. Wasn’t it all to find the old tomb and get eternal life? Now that the old tomb was right in front of his eyes and immortality was in his grasp, Su Lao’s madness was of no surprise.

Liu Zhixin cautiously and solemnly followed behind Su Lao, not daring to speak. He’d never before seen such a crazy and frightening Su Lao. In his heart, Liu Zhixin was somewhat afraid. This was no longer the master he knew.

“If we follow these bronze men, we will surely find the entrance to the old tomb!” With this sentence, Su Lao walked ahead, leading the way. Liu Zhixin hesitated for a moment but still followed behind Su Lao.

The Shendao wasn’t long, and Su Lao and Liu Zhixin’s footsteps soon came to a stop.

The illusion that worked on the vipers didn’t work on humans. Having reached the end of the Shendao,  Su Lao finally saw the entrance to the old tomb – a large door.

Su Lao suppressed his excitement and stepped forward a few steps to examine the stone door.

“There’s still dust on this stone door and there’s not even the slightest hint of damage!” said Su Lao. “It seems that nobody else has come yet. The two of us are the first to arrive!”

After saying this, Su Lao began to look for the mechanism to open the stone door. The stone door’s mechanism was very easy to find because of Ji Kang’s “aid”. Su Lao pressed against the loose stone at the top of the stone door. The door, it opened.

T/N:

Footnotes

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