Chapter 492 - 247: A Snake Has Its Own Path (2)

Chapter 492: Chapter 247: A Snake Has Its Own Path (2)

As for Jun Buxiao, he had taken the rare step of removing his mask, revealing a pale, unsmiling face and hollow eyes.

The masked Jun Buxiao was richly expressive, with an unnerving laugh. The unmasked Jun Buxiao, however, looked like an imbecile.

"Young Master,"

Ye glanced at Snake, who was huffing for some unknown reason, and said to Zheng Xiu, "Why don’t we have Snake guard this place? Her hearing and sense of smell are extremely sharp. If the evil thing in that pregnant boy’s belly is truly what Fragrant Maiden is after, I’m afraid someone might try to harm him while we’re out investigating."

Zheng Xiu agreed. Someone definitely needed to stay behind and guard their base of operations. He would never leave it completely undefended.

Since Ye had said so, Zheng Xiu had Snake stay behind.

"Elder Divine Doctor, where’s your gear?"

Zheng Xiu leaped down from the roof and asked curiously, glancing at the Elder Divine Doctor’s conspicuously empty back.

The Elder Divine Doctor patted his waist, a smug look on his face. "I’ve hidden my treasures well, of course."

When his clothes pulled taut, the faint outline of a scabbard was visible. ℯ

’A little late for that, isn’t it?’ Zheng Xiu scoffed internally. ’Before, you just had to be so ostentatious, with six Treasure Sabers sticking out of your back like you were Spider-Man.’

The group walked down the street.

As the lanterns were lit for the evening, numerous men began to hurry through the streets, all heading in the same direction as Zheng Xiu’s party.

They occasionally witnessed an infuriating scene. In front of one house, a sleazy-looking, middle-aged man was trying to leave. A plainly dressed woman cried out, trying to stop him, only to be slapped to the ground by the man, who flew into a rage from the humiliation.

Xi’er couldn’t bear to watch and was about to teach the man a lesson. But Jun Buxiao, his face wooden, offered a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. "Hehe, allow me."

Jun Buxiao pretended to just be passing by. With a flourish of his scissors behind the man, he uncannily snipped off the man’s shadow, which wriggled in his hands like an insect.

Jun Buxiao pulled the shadow’s legs apart, narrowed his eyes, and with a swift snip of his scissors, cut off the slight bulge between its legs.

"KACHA!"

"Oh my, this is so hard to find!"

Jun Buxiao’s eerie, mocking voice rang out simultaneously with the snipping sound.

The crisp sound of the scissors snapping shut made both Situ Yong and Zheng Xiu instinctively squeeze their legs together. Jun Buxiao tossed the "castrated" shadow back behind the man, where it once again "lay" at his feet.

A few steps later, the man’s terrified shriek echoed from behind them. "My mighty junk! Where is it?!"

Looking back, the group couldn’t help but stifle their laughter. The man had pulled open his pants and was staring inside, looking as if he wanted to cry but had no tears. Then, still crying, he dropped to his knees with a THUD, the very picture of someone who had lost all will to live.

The corner of Situ Yong’s mouth twitched. "That ’Shadow Puppetry’ of yours is truly something to be dreaded."

"Hee hee, it’s just a trivial Blinding Technique," Jun Buxiao said modestly. He subconsciously pulled out his mask, about to put it on, but then he remembered the Red King’s orders for the "undercover vice raid" and listlessly tucked the mask back into his robes.

Laughing and chatting along the way, the group looked nothing like people heading to a brothel. Midway, Zheng Xiu gave Ye a secretive wave. Ye’s face flushed slightly as she fell a few steps behind to ask the young man what he wanted.

Zheng Xiu asked about the scales on Snake’s face.

Ye was startled. "You saw them?"

"By accident."

Zheng Xiu rubbed the spot where Snake had bitten him, thinking, ’I have to keep a close eye on this fat sheep.’ He had soaked in poison baths for a month just to raise his [Constitution] a little, and each bath only granted a "thin" amount of experience. In contrast, a single bite from Snake had given him a "small amount" of experience. ’Maybe the key to my [Evil Child]’s [Constitution] achieving a ’breakthrough’ lies with Snake.’

’I have to fleece this sheep for all it’s worth.’

’After an Incarnation’s Attributes hit a bottleneck, they can achieve a ’breakthrough’ by meeting some unknown condition. My [Zheng Baimei]’s [Scholarship] Attribute, pushed by [No merchant is honest], achieved a ’breakthrough’ all at once, turning into [Enlightenment]. I wonder what [Constitution] will become once it breaks through.’

Ye fell silent for a moment, then smiled in resignation. "I suppose there’s no harm in telling you. After all, it’s rare for Snake to hit it off so well with someone her own age."

Someone her own age.

Mm.

Zheng Xiu nodded vigorously.

Ye added, "Perhaps you don’t know this, but Snake and I are not actually real sisters."

Zheng Xiu’s gaze drifted down from Ye’s face, taking in her figure before returning with a look of sudden understanding. "Of course. I knew it all along."

Ye smiled faintly. "Young Master has a good eye."

She told a story.

Long ago, west of the Great Desert, horse bandits ran rampant. One day, after the bandits had massacred a village, they somehow disturbed a giant snake. The snake devoured every last bandit. Amid the ruins, it then heard the sound of a baby crying.

The giant snake pushed aside the collapsed houses and found a bundle of swaddling clothes beneath the rubble. Inside lay a fair, chubby baby girl. For reasons unknown, the giant snake took the infant gently in its mouth, carried her away, and raised her as its own.

Gradually, scales began to grow on the baby girl’s skin, and her habits became more and more like those of a snake.

She would molt and hibernate. Her hearing and sense of smell grew sharp, but her eyesight became extremely weak.

When the girl was seven, the giant snake traveled underground and abandoned her at an oasis outside "Mirage," a location belonging to the Incompleteness Tower.

The girl was discovered by one of the blind inhabitants of the Incompleteness Tower and brought inside. Due to her unique appearance, she was given the name "Snake."

Snake’s appearance was unique, and the blind residents of the Tower often laughed at her, calling her ugly. Ye eventually got so angry that she beat up every one of them and began to refer to Snake as her "sister." Since they mocked Snake’s appearance, Ye started wearing a veil just like her, and from then on, she never showed her true face to anyone.

"To Snake, the giant snake was like her birth mother. To this day, Snake still doesn’t understand why the giant snake abandoned her and left all those years ago."

"My intentions were good. I felt you all weren’t bad-hearted and wouldn’t judge by appearances, so I removed her veil and encouraged her to be sincere with you. I just want Snake to finally let her guard down and open up to someone."

Ye sighed softly as she spoke. "Perhaps, Snake thinks I betrayed her."

The "giant snake" in Ye’s story sounded more and more familiar to Zheng Xiu as he listened. He couldn’t help but ask, "That giant snake you mentioned... it wouldn’t happen to be white, would it?"

Hearing this, Ye looked at the young man suspiciously. "How did you know?"

"Ahem, just a guess. White snakes... they’re easy to imagine," Zheng Xiu said evasively, feeling an inexplicable pang of guilt. He and the Monk had nearly disemboweled the Big White Snake on a snowy mountain.

"Wait a minute." Suddenly, Zheng Xiu lowered his head in thought. "If that’s the case, then the Path Snake is on isn’t ’Divine-Tuning Witch’ at all?"

At his words, Ye hesitated before giving a bitter smile and lowering her voice. "You really are... well, forget it. The truth is, not even our Tower Master knows which Path Snake is on. He speculates that there are Paths in this world meant for ’non-humans.’ Once someone embarks on one, their body will involuntarily begin to show ’non-human’ changes. For instance, we have a ’Crow Fosterer’ in the Tower. His face... it looks just like a... bird."

Her first sentence seemed to be on the verge of calling him a "clever little devil." Since Zheng Xiu had already figured out most of it, Ye stopped holding back and graciously revealed the secret she had kept for many years.

Non-Human Paths!

Zheng Xiu recalled the [Path Atlas] he and Feng Bei had theorized, remembering the vast empty space between Prisoner and the Upper, Middle, and Lower Nine Professions. Indeed, just as Ye said, Zheng Xiu also believed that in the gap between [Prisoner] and [Human], there had to be paths that non-humans could walk.

Like birds, cats, or snakes, for example.

To this day, Zheng Xiu still didn’t know why [Mystics] and [Paths] even existed, why peeking into a Path allowed one to master all sorts of [Miracle Techniques], or why [Innate Mystics] were born already possessing [Mystic Techniques]. These were questions with no answers. Right now, the only person in the world who might know the truth was "Zhu." Zheng Xiu was intensely curious: what had Zhu seen at the end of his journey a thousand years ago that made him so terrified of the [Darkness]?

At the thought of Zhu, Zheng Xiu’s expression turned cold. There was something he hadn’t voiced. This case—the Wutong God, the brothel, the Orchid, Fragrant Maiden—all these interlocking clues, this familiar method... it all irresistibly reminded Zheng Xiu of Zhu’s style of plotting.

Inside the "Cannibal Painting," Zheng Xiu had personally experienced two hundred years unknown to the world, events that had transpired over two "century-long periods." If anyone in the world could claim to understand Zhu’s methods, Zheng Xiu wouldn’t say he was number one, but he was definitely among the top.

The thought that Zhu’s shadow might be behind this case made Zheng Xiu feel a mixture of anxiety and excitement. By now, the night was late. The "vice squad" passed through town and arrived before the Yan Chun Building.

Two girls, who looked to be only fourteen or fifteen, stood out front soliciting customers, their faces caked in heavy makeup in a forced attempt at seductiveness.

The vice squad, a motley crew of men and women, young and old, was certainly an eye-catching combination. The two soliciting girls couldn’t help but stare.

Zheng Xiu touched his forehead, activating his [Scouting] ability.

His [Scouting], at the "Masterful" level, was rarely known to fail. In an instant, every last clue and trace had nowhere to hide from his eyes.

A pinkish mist, barely visible, swirled around the Yan Chun Building, drifting in wisps through the entrance. Zheng Xiu reached out toward the "pink mist," which was invisible to the normal eye, and after a moment drew a conclusion: "Orchid Fragrance."

Zheng Xiu nodded. "It’s her."