Chapter 6: Late Summer, Early Autumn, and the Plump Salmon
Xu Hei stopped in his tracks, staring at the bloodstained ground, his heart racing uncontrollably.
That was close! He nearly lost his life; fortunately, he reacted quickly, or it would have certainly been him who died.
Xu Hei didn’t dare to underestimate humans. The appearance of these two people was highly unusual; they might have been part of a plot.
“Why does something always happen every time I come to a temple? Last time it was the Ren Dan and the Taoist priest, and now it’s a man and a woman. Why do I always encounter these things?”
Xu Hei cursed inwardly, doubting whether he was under some kind of curse, always encountering trouble upon entering a temple.
He glanced one last time at the large, vague statue and suddenly felt a strange sense of palpitations.
Could it be that his act of stealing the offerings had angered the Mountain God?
Xu Hei hurriedly wrapped up the two corpses and placed them on the offering table before returning to his mat and performing a few kowtows.
“Lord Mountain God, these offerings are to make up for the ones I’ve disturbed; they’ll surely be tastier than the roast chicken. I’ll be leaving now.”
Xu Hei climbed out through the window and left without looking back.
He left at an incredible speed.
After this experience, Xu Hei vowed never to return to this cursed place. It was better to stay in the mountains. Not just this temple but the entire Chen Family Town within a twenty-mile radius had become off-limits in his eyes.
Not long after Xu Hei left.
The statue seemed to flicker slightly, with dust falling down.
The smell of the corpses quickly attracted some wild dogs, but that was no longer Xu Hei’s concern.
…
…
After returning, Xu Hei resumed his usual quiet life.
Fortunately, since that day he prayed to the deity, he had not experienced any nightmares, nor had he dreamt of Chen Fan. It seemed to have worked.
The experience gradually faded from his memory.
Time passed.
In the blink of an eye, two months had gone by.
During this period, Xu Hei wandered in the mountains, hunting small prey and occasionally eating fruits and vegetation to replenish his energy.
He passed by the farm outside Snake Village a few times, seeing the farmer teaching his son how to farm in the fields.
Perhaps by coincidence, the young boy always managed to spot Xu Hei, once in the trees and once among the rocks.
From afar, their eyes met, but there was no exchange of words.
“Xiao Niu, why are you daydreaming?”
“Nothing.”
Under his father’s scolding, the boy looked away.
From his observations, Xu Hei learned that the boy’s name was Wang Xiao Niu, and his father was Wang Da Niu. They were both farmers from the village. In addition, the family also had an elderly mother and a younger sister named Wang Ya.
Wang Xiao Niu did not want to spend his whole life farming. He wished to study, pass the imperial exams, and take his sister to live in the city. He often carried books and sneaked to the watermelon field at midnight to study under the moonlight.
Wang Da Niu, on the other hand, was very helpless. The family did not have the money to support his studies, but he did not want to completely crush his child’s aspirations. He often sighed when thinking about it.
Xu Hei quietly left.
…
“Studying, gaining knowledge…”
Xu Hei, hanging from a tree branch, suddenly felt a pang of envy.
He too wanted to read and gain knowledge, to live like a human.
Humans are born with superior conditions, without the constant fear of danger, unlike these wild beasts who face the threat of death at every moment.
Unfortunately, becoming human is a skill, not every living being has such good luck.
A squirrel climbed up the tree and into a hole full of pine cones.
This was its hard-earned harvest of the year, ensuring it could safely get through the winter.
Suddenly, a green snake darted out from a corner, coiling and strangling the squirrel, killing it instantly. The squirrel didn’t even know how it died.
The green snake had been hungry for a long time.
Xu Hei wondered if they envied human life.
“Hey! Can you understand me?”
Xu Hei used his divine sense to communicate with the green snake.
The green snake seemed startled, releasing its prey and fleeing, disappearing without a trace.
As he watched the snake disappear, Xu Hei suddenly felt a wave of loneliness.
He had gained spiritual intelligence but had no one to speak with.
However, he had no time for idle thoughts because he was hungry.
Xu Hei devoured the squirrel and then went after the green snake, swallowing it in one gulp.
“May you be reborn as a human in your next life.”
Xu Hei plunged into the forest, starting a new round of hunting.
However, such food could only barely satisfy his hunger and could not improve his cultivation. Relying solely on breathing and nurturing, his training progressed very slowly.
He fantasized about eating a demon beast again soon.
…
Late summer, early autumn, heavy rain poured down.
It was the annual downpour. The river swelled, creating tributaries, and many fish leaped out of the river into the branches, making it a good season for fishing.
This year’s rain was exceptionally heavy, and there were particularly many salmon. At the village entrance, farmers often went out with fishing nets and returned full after an hour. Even blacksmiths who did not know how to fish could return with a large bucket.
Wang Xiao Niu’s family also joined the fishing team.
“Another tide coming.”
Seeing the teams leaving the village, Xu Hei recalled last year.
At this time last year, Xu Hei had hidden in the river, launching a surprise attack and swallowing both people and fish, causing several deaths and prompting the authorities to dispatch a hundred men and even Taoist priests to hunt him down.
It was that time that Xu Hei almost met his end.
“I won’t go this year,” Xu Hei thought to himself.
With his current perspective, he could naturally see that the Taoist priest was a Qi Refinement stage cultivator.
He suspected that he was already a demon beast last year, otherwise, he would not have been able to escape from a cultivator.
“Dad, we’ve caught enough fish, too much will spoil, and we won’t be able to eat it all.”
“What do you know! Take these fish back, and I’ll go out again.”
Wang Da Niu threw the fish at the door and went out with his fishing net again. The fish at the door had already been placed in several buckets.
Wang Xiao Niu could only carry the heavy bucket of salmon back home.
Suddenly, Wang Xiao Niu’s head turned, and he spotted Xu Hei on the distant hillside, who was also looking at him.
In recent days, Xu Hei had often wandered near the farm, listening to the conversations of the Wang family. He had grown accustomed to it.
And Wang Xiao Niu had spotted Xu Hei more than once.
Although there was no direct communication between the Boy and the serpent, they had grown quite familiar with each other.
“Old Snake King is back again. Does he also want to eat fish?” Wang Xiao Niu wondered inwardly.
In fact, a normal person would be terrified if they saw a snake circling around their home, but Wang Xiao Niu was not afraid at all.
He looked at Xu Hei, mustering his courage, and took a step forward.
Xu Hei immediately shrank back a bit.
He had been hiding in the shadows, observing human life, but that did not mean he wanted any contact with humans.
Wang Xiao Niu, carrying a bucket of fish, boldly walked forward and placed it not far from the hillside.
“Old Snake King, everyone is afraid of you, but I’m not. This bucket of fish is for you,” Wang Xiao Niu said, placing the fish down and retreating to a distance with a smile.
Having learned human knowledge, Xu Hei could understand what he said and was puzzled.
“Why is this foolish boy giving me fish? Could it be poisoned?”
If it were someone else offering fish, Xu Hei would certainly think ill of their intentions, but Wang Xiao Niu was someone he knew well, just a naive boy with no scheming.
Moreover, Xu Hei had seen the Wang family catching these fish, so they couldn’t be poisoned.
Xu Hei looked at the large bucket of fish, flicked his tongue, and his appetite was immediately stimulated.
“Never mind, let’s try a bite.”
Xu Hei climbed over and bit into a fish.
Wang Xiao Niu sat at a distance, watching quietly with a silly grin.
Xu Hei tasted it; the flavor was quite good. These two-legged beasts had such peculiar thinking, even offering food to a snake. Don’t they know the story of farmers and snakes?
Though he didn’t understand, his body was honest. Xu Hei quickly devoured the entire bucket of fish, easily satisfying his hunger, which made him very content.
He looked at Wang Xiao Niu in the distance and mimicked a human gesture, nodding.
This nod immediately brightened Wang Xiao Niu’s eyes, exclaiming, “The Old Snake King nodded at me! He actually nodded at me!”
“Where?”
His sister in the house immediately ran out, looking into the distance and also seeing Xu Hei’s nodding gesture, her mouth wide open in surprise.
As someone outside the village returned, Xu Hei quickly vanished into the woods.
Wang Xiao Niu and his sister remained stunned, still unable to recover from their shock.
Rumors should not be fully trusted; the Old Snake King was not a man-eating monster but rather polite.
“I told you, the old snake king isn’t a villain who harms people; he’s actually helped us before!” Wang Xiao Niu said with a tone of someone who is pointing out the truth.
“I know, I know, he ate the pig demon and avenged our mother,” Wang XiaoYa replied innocently.
Just as their conversation ended, a scream suddenly came from the village entrance.
“Help! The old snake king is eating people again!”
The voice was extremely tragic, and it came from the blacksmith Zhou’s son next door.
Hearing this, Wang Xiao Niu and his sister immediately ran out of their courtyard. Outside the village, villagers were frantically running into the village, each of them looking terrified, as if they had seen a ghost. Among them was their father.