Chapter Ninety-Two: The Battle Between Man and Snake (1)

At the last moment, thirteen, who had only just caught up to the man above the tree, looked down at the figure of Yu Wenlingxi standing in the rain with a complicated expression, and fell into a silent kind of speechlessness. They had not even begun their work, and the young master was already in such a state.

If he truly carried out the head of the family’s orders, the question was whether the young master could bear it at all.

“Forty-Seven, who has been preparing the young master’s water these past two days?”

Forty-Seven unclasped the waterskin at his waist, gave it a shake, and said, “I have always handled that. Tonight this one is due to be replaced.”

Thirteen held out his hand. Forty-Seven quickly passed the waterskin to him.

Thirteen took a pink porcelain flask from his robe. The nearby Forty-Seven, Sixty-Nine, and the recently returned Seventy-One all looked at him in astonishment. Forty-Seven stared in disbelief at the flask in Thirteen’s hand and cried, “Thirteen, what are you doing?”

“Doing exactly what you see,” Thirteen said, opening the red flask and the waterskin, then pouring the pink liquid from the flask into it. “This is the head of the family’s order. Do you have any objection?”

Forty-Seven and Sixty-Nine exchanged a glance and both shook their heads. Only Seventy-One wore a look of gleeful anticipation, as though enjoying the show.

“Thirteen, when do we make our move? How should we coordinate?”

Hearing this, Thirteen had first been puzzled that Seventy-One, who usually only made things worse, would suddenly be so cooperative, but one look at his eyes erased that thought completely.

Forty-Seven took the hot potato of a waterskin, his face twisted so badly it could have rivaled a bitter melon. But this task truly had to be done by him; if someone else did it, the young master would definitely become suspicious.

“All right, disperse. Get back to what you were doing!”

Sixty-Nine cast a sympathetic glance at Forty-Seven, then hurried off without delay, this time without taking Seventy-One with him.

Thirteen was somewhat surprised that he had not called Seventy-One along, but there was no time to think about their affairs now. More pressing matters still lay ahead, and he wondered how things were faring on Forty-Three’s side.

“Forty-Three, I’m done on my end.” Nineteen wiped away the water on his face, though whether it was rain or sweat he could not tell. He grabbed a handful of leaves from nearby and wiped at the sweat on his palms again. “Pah, this is no work for human beings. And in rain this heavy too. Who knows whether it’ll actually work.”

“What Forty-Three made really does work. It saved us a lot of trouble.” Fifty-Four had also finished and came back, clapping Forty-Three on the shoulder. “Forty-Three, you really are something.”

Forty-Three only answered that praise with a bitter smile, then changed the subject. “Why is Forty-Two so slow? He still hasn’t returned.”

Nineteen swept a glance around them and said in confusion, “Right, why is Forty-Two so late this time? That’s not like him.”

“Oh? Didn’t expect all of you to move so fast. But my side must have been even more effective,” came the voice just then, and there was Forty-Two, a thoroughly bedraggled figure dropping onto the branch.

“What, weren’t you all just poisoning beasts? How much better could you possibly be? And look at you, all in a state—how can you still boast?”

“Ah, Nineteen, that’s not how you say it,” Forty-Two replied smugly, as if savoring the moment. “Guess what excellent thing I just got hold of?”

Seeing his smug expression, Fifty-Four could not help but prick him: “What excellent thing? Show it, then.”

“Show it? I wouldn’t dare show it! That thing can kill people.” Forty-Two sat up properly, and only after seeing the interest in the other three’s eyes did he continue. “When I was poisoning things just now, I ran into a snake den, so I took the opportunity to poison the snake den as well. When I came back, those snakes had already started swimming toward that group of people. And among them was one thick as a water barrel. Those people are in for a treat this time. Heh heh…”

Forty-Three was shocked out of his wits and gave Forty-Two a thumbs-up. “You’re ruthless! Brilliant!”

Nineteen’s eyes shone with excitement. “You’re sure it was as thick as a water barrel?”

“Nineteen, why are you always thinking about such things? What we should be worrying about now is whether that group of people can withstand it with the snakes added in. If they are held up but someone should be hurt who ought not to be, then we will have done all that work for nothing.”

After Fifty-Four’s remark, the other three also felt a headache coming on, but even if they wanted to stop it now, it was already too late. The chaos over there had already begun.

In the torrential rain, the people of the Yue family and those under the prince’s command were now gathered in the open ground, their blades ceaselessly cutting down the beasts that hurled themselves at them. Every one of them was drenched through; rain struck their bodies and then ran down their clothes to the ground.

“Young Master, why have there suddenly become so many beasts? It seems the medicinal herbs are not working very well on them anymore.” Qingqiu looked at the mass of beasts and felt his scalp tingling.

“If they do not work, then do not use them for now. Tonight the beasts’ response is somewhat strange.” Yue Lingjun wiped the rain from his brow and swung his sword without mercy at the endless stream of beasts.

They had made do with a little food that night and then began to rest in shifts. Before the first group had even fallen asleep, the beasts lurking in the woods had begun to stir. At first they had paid little heed and merely increased the amount of medicinal herbs they had laid out, never imagining that the beasts would somehow cast aside their usual wariness of the herbs and charge straight in.

What was more, no matter how many beasts they killed, the rest showed no sign of retreat. By now the bodies of beasts were piled all around the group from the Yue family and the prince’s side, not even leaving the ground beneath their feet clear.

“Young Master Yue, these beasts do not seem to have gathered on their own. It looks more as though someone deliberately lured them here.” Meng Chuchen’s swordsmanship was executed with seamless precision, like a meat grinder: however many came, he killed however many. Beside him stood two silent black-clad, masked figures, his shadow guards, who were likewise two living meat grinders.

“I suspected as much too. It should be the group in black from the cliff.”

“It must be them. I only cannot understand why they would do this. And where did they get such power to control this swarm of beasts? Damn them.”

Qiao Zhi still wielded his folding fan as his weapon, but against such a horde it was less useful than a longsword. His blue robes were already smeared with blood.

“It may not be control. Poison would suffice. Either something was unknowingly smeared onto us, or those beasts were poisoned; otherwise there is no way so many of them would have gathered together.”

At that moment, a rustling sound came from within the woods, and everyone’s nerves tightened. They were already struggling to deal with what was in front of them; who knew what had come now?

Under everyone’s gaze, their field of vision gradually filled with thousands upon thousands of snakes of varying sizes and colors. The smallest were as thin as chopsticks, the thickest as broad as sea bowls. Some slid across the grass, others coiled around branches, all hissing and flicking their tongues at the group in the center.

Qiu Yifei, who had been mingling among the crowd with a sword in his hand, instantly turned deathly pale. He plopped down onto a pile of beast corpses, looking as if he were only one breath away from foaming at the mouth.

At that point, he no longer cared about hiding anything. He frantically pulled a large paper packet from his chest and, with trembling hands and feet, opened it. A strong, pungent stench immediately spread out; it turned out to be a huge packet of realgar powder.

Realgar was a very common medicine, usually used to ward off ants and insects. Whether it would be useful in this situation was anyone’s guess. Meng Chuchen snatched the realgar powder from Qiu Yifei’s hands in passing, then leapt into the air, darted three paces forward, circled once around the others, and used up the entire packet.

When he returned, he did not forget to hand the packet back to Qiu Yifei, who was still sitting on the ground.

As the swarm of snakes appeared, the beasts seemed to lessen somewhat, but compared with these snakes before them, the beasts might actually have been easier to handle.

Realgar naturally restrains snakes, and the powder did have some effect, but it mostly stopped only the smaller snakes; its effect on the larger ones was somewhat weaker.

A new slaughter of snakes unfolded once more, and these snakes were even harder to guard against. Aside from the skilled Yue Lingjun, Meng Chuchen, Qiao Zhi, Qing Feng, and the two black-clad men beside Meng Chuchen, the rest were more or less beginning to accumulate injuries.

Among Qiao Zhi’s personal guards, one was bitten directly by a venomous snake and instantly lost all fighting ability, his entire body turning black as he died on the spot.

His corpse made everyone even more wary of the snakes before them, and more careful as well. Yet one of Qiao Zhi’s guards, usually rather steady by nature, named Shan Feng, actually seemed to go mad. With bloodshot eyes, he charged straight into the mass of snakes and began slaughtering wildly.