Chapter Thirty: The Strange Old Man

The mountain boy had been slammed flat onto the ground, and the snake’s body slid up over him in one smooth motion. His tense frame instantly went rigid; his arms hung limp at his sides, trapped by the immense coils.

At the same time, he felt a hot sting in his left shoulder. A liquid had been driven through the fangs and into his veins; the vessels there burned red-hot at once. In only a few seconds, the fluid had spread through his entire left arm, and the pain in his shoulder gradually faded into numbness.

The freezing serpent pressed close to him, and the chill made him shudder. He strained with all his strength to break free, but even after summoning every ounce of force he possessed, he could not loosen the grip in the slightest. If anything, the coils tightened further.

"It's over!"

The cry rang in his heart. His eyelids drooped of their own accord, then snapped open again.

A wave of weakness spread through him. He no longer even had the strength to keep his eyes open. He felt terribly sleepy. The cold serpent clung to his body, and even his heartbeat seemed to slow. The boiling in his veins came to a halt.

"Am I going to die?" The thought surfaced in his mind for no reason he could name. He did not even know what would happen when death came. He only knew that he did not want to die.

He wanted to live...!!

The snake had him in its embrace, and though he wanted to resist, he was utterly powerless. The leaves rustled overhead. The scene before his eyes grew blurred. Yet he could no longer feel the body constricting him at all. His eyelids fell bit by bit, and his world turned pitch-black.

...

"Such a huge snake! Enough for a feast! Heh heh!"

Ruo Xi was startled. She had never imagined that Little Mountain would shove her away and make her run. In that instant, she had even thought he was abandoning her.

And now, before she could come to terms with it, they were about to be separated by life and death. She closed her tearful eyes, then opened them again. Crystal tears rolled down her cheeks.

In just a few seconds, he had been wrapped up by the snake. She had not even had time to react.

Suddenly, an old man appeared in her field of view, swaying with his hands behind his back. A lecherous grin spread across his face, making him look filthy and obscene.

"This is quite the banquet!"

As he spoke, he lifted his right hand. It was an ordinary hand, even a little wrinkled, and he made several motions in the air.

A flash of light suddenly burst before Ruo Xi's eyes, then vanished in an instant. She followed the old man's gaze and looked toward where Little Mountain was.

Her mouth fell open in shock. She lifted her right hand to wipe away the tears blurring her face, then stared forward in disbelief.

Little Mountain was lying there peacefully, his chest rising and falling. His hand twitched now and then, as if nothing at all had happened.

The giant serpent that had been wrapped around him had actually been cut into four or five pieces. The snake's head had slid off Little Mountain's left shoulder. There were two tiny holes—the marks of its fangs—biting into a pitch-black wound, while blood ran down his shoulder and stained his blue clothing black.

Even the snake's head had split open down the middle, and a strange, round object slid out along the edge with a trail of blood, a truly horrifying sight.

Only then did Ruo Xi react. Her knees scraped against the ground as she pushed herself forward on her hands and began to crawl.

The two of them were only a few dozen meters apart, no more than a stone's throw. At that moment, she paid no heed to the bleeding serpent all around her. Crawling as fast as she could, she soon reached Little Mountain's side, seized his right arm with both hands, and shook him.

"Little Mountain! How are you?" Her voice trembled.

"It's all right. He should only be unconscious. That poison won't be enough to kill him." The old man felt Little Mountain's pulse and said.

"But wasn't he bitten by a poisonous snake?" Ruo Xi asked in confusion. She had seen with her own eyes how Little Mountain had gone motionless after being bitten.

"He isn't an ordinary body. To him, ordinary venom is only nourishment." The old man said this while touching the split-open snake head with a finger.

"Nourishment?" Ruo Xi scratched her head in confusion.

"Children are children. If you don't understand, forget it. You'll know when you're older." The old man spoke with the air of an elder.

"Why do you sound just like my father? ... Just as irritating! You always stop halfway through a sentence!" Ruo Xi said crossly, holding Little Mountain's wrist.

"That old fellow? ... I learned it from him." The old man held the snake's gall bladder and spoke with some embarrassment.

"You learned it from him?" Ruo Xi seemed to have discovered a whole new world. She stared at the old man across from her. He was holding the bloodied gall bladder, yet wore a strangely boyish look of embarrassment. That expression should never have belonged on the same face; it was utterly awkward.

"Do you know my father?" Ruo Xi asked, tilting her head slightly.

"All right, let's not talk about that!" The old man felt he had said too much. Pinching the gall bladder between two fingers, he used the other hand to pry open Little Mountain's mouth, and Little Mountain immediately opened it.

"Hey!" Seeing the old man actually feed the snake's gall to Little Mountain, Ruo Xi immediately tried to stop him.

"What is it?" The old man dropped the gall bladder into Little Mountain's mouth and asked Ruo Xi.

Ruo Xi pressed her lips together and shook her head, saying she was fine. She looked at the blood at the corner of Little Mountain's mouth and let out a soft sigh.