Chapter Sixty-One: The Serpent's Lives Are More Than One

At half past nine in the morning, the autumn sunlight poured like liquid gold onto the bluestone square, each stone slab bathed in a gentle, lustrous sheen.

Liu Shuangling pushed open the carved wooden door of the scripture cultivation room, and sunlight instantly spilled across her face, illuminating her delicate oval features with a translucent radiance, as if her skin were carved from white jade.

She rubbed her temples to ease the fatigue from studying the scriptures, while with her other hand she took out her phone.

The dark screen lit up for a moment, only to be immediately swallowed again by a dense, inky blackness.

Liu Shuangling paused, momentarily startled, but reacted with remarkable speed, quickly turning the phone screen towards the front.

The next instant, a tall, lithe figure slid from the screen like a serpent, his form swiftly expanding to adult size. His head lifted upward, and his neck stretched long and supple like a noodle, swimming through the air before neatly righting himself, so that he landed squarely on both feet.

He wore a gray-and-white kimono, and at his waist a purple shimenawa cord was tied into an exquisite bow. The skin at his throat was so pale it bordered on sickly, as though sunlight had not touched it in centuries.

“Aoandon, thank you for your help.”

“If you are truly grateful, then hurry up and finish your own business, and don’t delay the matter of releasing the yokai of Summer Country,” came a sultry voice from the phone’s screen.

Liu Shuangling watched coldly, having no idea when a mature and alluring female demon had taken up residence in her phone. But she was certain now: as long as her phone’s screen remained dark, or there was no light, the other party could not connect with her device.

“Heh.” The man, Yamata no Orochi, gave a low laugh, his neck gradually returning to its normal length. He turned his gaze to Liu Shuangling. “Miss Liu, we meet again. I forgot to introduce myself last time—my name is Yamata no Orochi. I look forward to working with you.”

He licked his lips, the monstrous aura around him growing even more intense, as though his very presence warped the air.

Liu Shuangling calmly put away her phone and said lazily, “I’m afraid there won’t be a ‘next time’ for you.”

Orochi’s golden, slit-pupilled eyes narrowed. He followed her gaze and looked upward.

Atop the main building’s glazed tiles, Bai Yujing stood with both hands tucked into her sleeves, her sky-blue crane cloak fluttering in the breeze. “Shuangling, you may continue taking assignments. Leave this one to me.”

Orochi was surprised to be discovered so quickly. He had deliberately concealed his spiritual pressure; it should have been impossible to detect him. Could it be that Aoandon’s powers had caused a subtle fluctuation? For someone to catch even that faint a ripple—the opponent was no simple match.

“Master, since it won’t take you long to handle him, why not let me stay and watch?” Shuangling suggested.

“Senior Sister, don’t leave us out of this kind of fun!” Tia’s voice was as crisp as silver bells. Even before she finished speaking, her figure flashed like an illusion to Bai Yujing’s side.

The afterimage of her stride had not yet faded when Zhu Ying, cool and silent, appeared behind her, her taciturn presence signaling quiet support for both Senior and Second Sister.

Orochi was not angered by their attitudes; instead, his gaze was drawn to Zhu Ying as though he had discovered a rare treasure.

“Those eyes—there’s no mistake. They’re Rakshasa Eyes!” His pallid face flushed with a feverish red; his voice trembled with excitement. “I never imagined that, in this world, there is a Rakshasa Eye outside of Emperor Hong! Splendid! Those eyes—I have longed to study them!”

Before he finished speaking, Orochi’s spiritual pressure surged forth like a raging tide.

Liu Shuangling felt a chill pierce to her marrow. With a deft step, she used the Yubu technique and swept up to the dining hall’s rooftop as lightly as a swallow.

The air on the square dropped by dozens of degrees, so cold it seemed frost should form on the ground.

Zhu Ying, the object of his gaze, felt a bone-deep terror, as though she were a frog about to be swallowed whole by a snake. The cold dread compelled her to take action.

Bai Yujing raised a hand to halt her. Instantly, all the oppressive force vanished.

“Zhu Ying, I’ll use him to demonstrate the Hundredfold Holy Light for you—watch closely.”

“You are far too arrogant.” Orochi’s golden eyes narrowed even further; he could not recall the last time he had been treated with such disdain. A century ago? No, perhaps three centuries—no, five. Since his rise to fame, every enemy who heard the name Yamata no Orochi had trembled before him.

And now, here he was, dismissed by an unknown sect leader.

A murderous smile curled his lips. “Miss Liu, I want you as my assistant. As for Zhu Ying, those Rakshasa Eyes are mine to study. But that blonde woman—she is of no use to me. I’ll take her head first and show you my power.”

Tia pursed her lips, disliking such blunt honesty.

Bai Yujing’s face was calm. “You can do nothing. Because—you are already dead.”

On the glazed tiles, Bai Yujing’s form vanished like mist scattered by the wind.

Orochi’s slit eyes widened in shock as a cold sweat ran down his spine. When had this person appeared in front of him? He hadn’t detected the slightest movement!

“Hundredfold Holy Light!” Bai Yujing’s voice sounded in Orochi’s ear, followed by a storm of fist shadows, pouring down like a torrential rain.

The howling wind from the fists twisted the air into spirals. Bang! Bang! Bang! The barrage of blows sounded like war drums, and Orochi’s powerful upper body was instantly buried beneath a rain of fists.

At first, the strikes left scattered spiral imprints of spiritual force on his skin, but in moments, a hundred and eight such points were linked together all at once.

Boom!

With a thunderous roar, Orochi’s upper body exploded into a shower of blood.

Bai Yujing turned to Zhu Ying above. “The Hundredfold Holy Light works not only on humans but also on demons. Even if their acupoints differ, wherever the spiritual force is driven in—that is an acupoint. Even giant demons can be pierced easily with this technique.”

As she finished, the purple shimenawa on the ground gleamed with a ghostly light. The Japanese scripture inscribed on the cord seemed to writhe like a living thing.

Whoosh!

The shimenawa lashed out like a viper, so swift it defied reaction.

Bai Yujing, however, made no move to evade. With interest, she watched the cord coil around her limbs.

Then both ends of the rope drove deep into the bluestone square, anchoring through the mountain and earth, producing a weighty, binding force.

Orochi’s lower half sprang upright, and the shattered flesh, as if summoned, converged and reformed. The fragments fused, bones regenerated, and in a blink, a perfectly restored Orochi stood once more before the crowd.

On the rooftop, Tia mused, “Is that super-speed regeneration?”

“No,” Bai Yujing countered. “I truly killed him just now. There’s no possibility of super-speed regeneration. It must be a special ability demons possess. Do you have several lives?”

“Exactly.” Orochi, bare-chested, with his chiseled muscles exuding a strange, alluring beauty, replied, “After so many years, I’ve experienced death at the hands of humans again—commendable, but now you’re finished.

“The shimenawa at my waist is a spiritual artifact, inscribed with advanced scripture: the Binding World Rope Spell. Bound by it, you cannot move, nor can you use your spiritual force. You’ll have no choice but to watch as I destroy you!”