Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Right as Chu Yi was fully on his guard, a black snake the size of an adult male’s arm suddenly slithered forward from the bushes, its forked tongue flickering out. In an instant, it had wriggled beside Chu Yi’s foot.
Before Chu Yi could react, the snake slithered up his leg at lightning speed, attempting to coil its body around him.
When Chu Yi glanced down and spotted the snake, he was so frightened that his hands began to shake. In fact, he very nearly hurled away the broadsword he was holding.
This type of soft-bodied creature terrified him most of all; their cold clamminess gave one goosebumps.
His entire body went stiff, and he swung the broadsword in his hands toward the black snake.
In the short span of time between raising his hands and the blade slicing down, the black snake’s head was immediately separated from its body.
The smell of blood began wafting through the forest.
Right after that, an even more frightening thing happened.
The moment the black snake died, more snakes began appearing from every direction.
It was as if they had made a pact to slither as a body, straight toward where Chu Yi was standing.
Even though each of these snakes was only as thick as a human thumb, their bodies were completely black and tinged with purple. One look, and it was obvious that they were extremely venomous.
Chu Yi was utterly flustered.
He was fully convinced that his master should not have asked him to come here.
He was not afraid of the most vicious enemies; instead, his biggest fear was this sort of soft-bodied creature.
One of them was fine—if he forced himself to, he could handle that. However, hoards of them like those right in front of him, twined together in a dense, slithering mass—this was the stuff of one’s worst nightmares.
Furthermore, he could not understand why all these snakes were slithering straight at him as if seeking vengeance for the black snake.
“Master, help!”
When Chu Yi saw that the snakes were about to swarm up his body, he went rigid. Unable to take it anymore, he let loose a loud yell.
Long Yang frowned slightly. His sword gleamed in a snow-white flash, and he was about to slaughter the tangled mass of snakes when Lu Liangwei suddenly held him back.
“Your Majesty, you can’t kill these snakes. If they pick up on the scent of blood, it will cause them to go into even more of a frenzy. I’m guessing this is only a small fraction of them. The larger snakes haven’t made an appearance yet.”
Chu Yi was almost in tears. “If we don’t kill them, what else can we do?” As he finished shouting, his eyes went wide as he noticed a few of those small snakes slithering up his calf.
“Oh no, the snakes—the snakes are crawling up on me…”
Chu Yi’s terrified shriek tore through the heavens, scaring the birds resting in the forest so much that they flapped their wings and took to the sky.
Right at that moment, a strange fragrance wafted toward Chu Yi, and the snakes surrounding him immediately scattered.
Chu Yi did not understand what was happening. Suddenly, he heard a youthful, girlish voice say crisply and clearly, “Snakes are most averse to realgar powder. Just scatter some on yourself; when they catch the scent of it, they will detour around you.”
Chu Yi pulled himself together. That strange fragrant scent—was it the smell of realgar then?
Right at this moment, a paper packet was abruptly shoved into his hands. “Take this.”
Chu Yi looked down and had a sudden epiphany as to why the snakes did not attack his master and Second Miss Lu just now.
It was because of this realgar powder, was it?!
Chu Yi’s spirit was energized. Without hesitation, he quickly tore open the paper packet and scattered the medicinal powder all over himself.
By the time he was done, the snakes which had been congregating in the forest at first had long since vanished without a trace.
A delighted look appeared on his face, and he turned to look at Lu Liangwei fervently. “Second Miss Lu, you’re really far too amazing.”
Lu Liangwei shot him a glance. Taking exception to this, she disagreed, “It’s nothing. Since we’re in an old forest deep in the mountains, there are bound to be insects and snakes. Most people would think to bring along realgar powder to drive snakes away.”
Chu Yi, “…”
Why did he suddenly feel that Second Miss Lu had just looked down on him?
He rubbed his palms together as something occurred to him. “Second Miss Lu, you have must come to Sacred Hillock Peak fully prepared. In that case, do you have any other medicinal items on you?”