Chapter 382: Serpent Princess |
The instant Yu Sheng saw the giant serpent he jolted in fright, mostly for two reasons: first, he had never seen a snake this big; the largest monster he had ever encountered in his life was a fox maiden the size of two vans. Second, he had never seen a creature with so many heads—one of them was even a human head. Yet beyond the shock, what stunned him more was the dead knot the serpent had been tied into: [too damned mean.]
The serpent herself was cursing: “Are you people even human? Where did you find a pack of bastards eight generations short of virtue to bully me, a protected animal? You could at least tie me into a butterfly bow!”
Before the monster had finished, Yu Sheng saw two thunder titans stride in from the edge of the square and, with a few swift motions, untie and retie the serpent into a butterfly bow. Now he knew who had done this wicked deed.
After being tormented again, the serpent slumped on the plaza, swearing, but she was obviously weaker than before. One of her seven heads, the one that looked like a husky, suddenly perked up; yanking the body forward, it tried to gnaw on the rations in a nearby cultivator’s hand. The main head snapped: “Damn it, can you stop eating already! What karmic debt am I paying here… Yuan He, you old thief, one day I’m going to eat you!”
Perched on Foxy’s head, Yu Sheng watched, dumbfounded, then at last lowered his gaze to Xuan Che and asked: “Who is that? Why does she look so… out of step with the other captured beasts? Did she also escape from the Demon-Suppressing Tower?”
“She is the Serpent Princess,” Xuan Che sighed, explaining with resignation: “She was once a great demon who attained the Way near Nether Valley, but she burned out her wits by eating fruit from a poisonous marsh. During her Tribulation she slipped into demonic madness and committed many heinous deeds. My master and I subdued her. The proper punishment would have been to shatter her demonic bones and disperse her mind, yet my senior uncle remembered that before her fall she had, by muddleheaded chance, eaten offerings from villagers and then honestly served the local people for years as a Mountain God. She did have a simple, kind side, so he spared her and confined her within the Demon-Suppressing Tower.”
“She has been locked up all these years and was originally fairly docile, but this time she slipped out amid the chaos and, perhaps thinking she had a chance to wipe away past shame, made a real ruckus… fortunately, Miss Snow White lent a hand,” Xuan Che added.
Yu Sheng raised his head, glanced again at the giant serpent tied into a bow and still muttering curses on the ground, and said: “I feel like she has a huge grievance against your senior uncle.”
“My senior uncle did spare her, but he felt mere confinement would not solve the root problem, so he tried to save her and guide her back to the right path—using the Beast Taming way he’s proud of. Strictly speaking he’s a veterinarian; in Borderland terms, his specialty is a perfect match,” Xuan Che said, his expression turning awkward. “But later there was a bit of a medical accident.”
Seeing where he was looking, Xuan Che nodded with an equally awkward expression: “That head was something my senior uncle specially refined into the Serpent Princess. He meant to calm her demonic qi and bloodthirst, drawing out her original gentle nature. For some reason it became what you see now… not that it had no effect. Don’t be fooled by her current state; before this head, she was much crazier. Now she’s mad in another direction: she’s fixated on eating my senior uncle.”
Yu Sheng stared in stunned silence, and even Irene on his shoulder was floored. The little doll finally reacted, stared straight at Xuan Che, and said: “Hey, tell me… do you have any good doctors on Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain?!”
Bowing, Xuan Che said: “My senior uncle has been deeply regretful for years and has considered many ways to remedy the situation—but the Serpent Princess refuses to cooperate.”
“If it were me, I wouldn’t cooperate either! What a quack! I’m telling you, I’m starting to think your motivation for developing that medical-dispute explosive punch is very suspicious,” Irene said.
“…” Xuan Che could only fall silent.
The serpent lying on the ground heard the exchange, lifted a cluster of heads, and stared at Irene: “This junior sister is reasonable; her words are most pleasing… if you help big sister get free, big sister will share a set of Yuan He’s heart and liver with you to eat. How about it?”
“I won’t eat that, I’ve got no appetite,” Irene said, waving a hand, then pointing at Yu Sheng: “Give it to him. He eats anything.”
As the topic veered off course, Yu Sheng coughed twice to cut off the little doll’s chatter. Doing his best to ignore the bizarre-looking serpent, he turned to Xuan Che and asked: “Anything here that still needs help? How’s your master’s side?”
“I’m fine here, just some injured to treat—thankfully this is Queyun Palace and top-grade pills are plentiful,” Xuan Che said at once. “Master, the elder, just sent word: several sections inside the Demon-Suppressing Tower suffered heavy damage. Although he used divine powers to forcibly mend every leak, the damaged mechanisms and sealing arrays must be repaired as soon as possible, so he can’t leave for a while.”
He paused, then added: “Luckily, Immortal Qian Ji is here. He’s a grandmaster of mechanisms and is personally inside the tower repairing things. The Demon-Suppressing Tower should recover quickly. Also…”
Xuan Che looked up at Immortal Yuan Hao, who was flying in midair standing atop a chainsaw sword: “Grand Senior Uncle, Master also asks that you get to the tower to help as soon as you can—other than Immortal Qian Ji, you know the most about mechanism arts and forging.”
“Very well,” Immortal Yuan Hao nodded. “I’ll head over now.”
“I’ll open a door in a moment and we’ll go together. I should take a look over there too,” Yu Sheng said at once, then glanced at Xuan Che. “Anything else to pass along?”
After thinking, Xuan Che clasped his fists and said: “Nothing else. It’s just that the mountain is still chaotic. Many demon beasts, dangerous felons, and strange Entities that escaped the containment zone haven’t been recaptured. Please remind the ‘Fairytale’ group not to go alone into the forests—of course, I’ve witnessed the strength of your experts, and ordinary demons won’t beat them. But the younger children should stay indoors for now.”
“Got it,” Yu Sheng nodded, then turned to Cinderella, who sat in the pumpkin carriage parked on the square: “Head back and remind the ‘parents’ waiting in the valley to watch the little ones. Also let Dorothy and the others still out helping know to be careful in their movements—this isn’t the Borderland, and there may be things beyond everyone’s combat experience. Never be reckless.”
Cinderella nodded at once: “Alright!”
“Rapunzel, go with Cinderella,” Yu Sheng said, looking at Princess Rapunzel, who sat beside him on the demon fox and was earnestly ruffling Foxy’s fur. “You’re strong. After you get back, guard Cloudwatch Terrace and receive our companions returning from every direction.”
“Oh,” Princess Rapunzel reluctantly lifted her head from the fluffy pile, then couldn’t resist diving back down to rub hard into Foxy’s silver fur, murmuring as she squirmed in bliss: “So comfortable… Bro, have Foxy give me a tail, will you? I’m used to hugging something when I sleep.”
Yu Sheng arched an eyebrow and said: “If you don’t mind that thing suddenly exploding while you hug it. Let me remind you, Foxy’s tails, once they blow, hit harder than the air-dropped bombs Dorothy throws.”
Rapunzel shrank her neck at once, instantly curling herself into a glittering golden furball, and rolled right off Foxy’s back into Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage.
Hesitating in front of the carriage, Zheng Zhi raised a hand and pointed at himself: “Brother Yu, I…”
“You’re with me,” Yu Sheng said without hesitation. “We’re going to see what’s going on inside the Demon-Suppressing Tower.”
Zheng Zhi grinned: “Alright.”
As they spoke, Yu Sheng and Irene hopped down from Foxy’s back. He raised a hand and opened a door leading to the tower’s core containment zone. Foxy backed up a few steps, rolled in place into human form, and ran over with a face full of expectation—whatever she was expecting was unclear; she just always looked like this whenever she was heading out with her benefactor.
Then Yu Sheng’s group stepped through the door and disappeared outside the main hall of Queyun Palace.
On the plaza, the Serpent Princess, still tied into a butterfly bow, lifted her crowd of heads to watch Yu Sheng’s group leave. Who knew what she was thinking, but suddenly she shouted: “Monsters!”
Xuan Che felt his head throb: “Serpent Princess, can you calm down for a moment?”
“That hair monster from just now, the fox monster whose tail floats free from her body, the mechanism monster in iron armor with a bunch of blade-fingers, and that door-opening monster I can’t make heads or tails of—tell me, which one looks less sinister than me?” The Serpent Princess’s heads clamored, and the only tail tip that could still move jabbed hard at the stone tiles nearby, sending chips flying. “Why am I the only one locked in your Demon-Suppressing Tower, forced to hear you master and disciple nag at me every other day? Go arrest them too!”
“They’re not monsters, they’re of the orthodox righteous path,” Xuan Che said solemnly, staying patient even though he knew she was being unreasonable. “They’re masters from the Borderland.”
“They call themselves orthodox and that makes them orthodox? Do they have credentials?”
“They do. A Borderland-issued Spirit Realm Detective business license, recognized in eighty percent of the universe. Also, we don’t confine you because you’re a monster. It’s because once you get out, you tend to hurt people.”
“So what?”
“…” Xuan Che found he truly could not communicate with this serpent. With a long sigh, he left her there and focused on leading his fellow disciples to continue handling the scene.
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