White Snake

"I wonder how Zhang Chen is doing. It's raining so heavily outside—nothing must happen to him."

Wang Yizhi looked at the stir-fried shredded potatoes with green peppers and the cooked tomato-and-cabbage soup she had made herself, feeling anxious.

"Come on, sister-in-law, just eat without worrying. Brother Chen might have run into a little trouble and been delayed. He may come back later. Back when we played CS, Brother Chen always turned the tide by himself. Don't worry, he'll definitely be back this afternoon."

Fatty Tan was naturally squeezed in with Wang Yizhi and Dai Xu. Seeing this, he finally said something nice.

"What Fatty said is pretty accurate. Just eat first. I'll wait with you by the lake this afternoon, all right?" Dai Xu said, patting her best friend on the shoulder.

Wang Yizhi nodded and slowly began eating the rice in front of her.

"Don't worry. When Zhang Chen gets serious, even I'm no match for him. He'll be fine," Jia Xin, who was sitting not far away, unexpectedly spoke up.

"See, sister-in-law? This little white-faced scholar might look rather sinister, but what he said was indeed true." Tan Fei seemed incredibly petty and was still holding a grudge against Jia Xin.

"All right, I'll eat, okay? Honestly, you people... I just made something tasty for him, and he didn't get to eat it." With a flushed face, Wang Yizhi slowly began wolfing down her meal.

Everyone at the dining table could not help but laugh.

"The weather really is unpredictable. If this heavy rain keeps up, we'll be able to get back safely."

As Zhang Chen spoke, he moved his right hand. The rainwater outside gathered into a stream that wound around him, and another "Zhang Chen" slowly appeared.

Xiao Lan had not understood what Zhang Chen meant at first, but the instant this Zhang Chen made of water appeared, she was stunned.

"Is that a Water Clone?" Xiao Lan asked in surprise.

"More or less. I'm not very skilled with it, though. It'll fall apart after only a few steps. But it should still be useful for fooling the thing in the lake."

"Come with me to the backyard. We need to retrieve something from the well. You can stay here too, but I might be gone longer than before," Zhang Chen said.

"I'll go... with you." After what had just happened, Xiao Lan had benefited from it, but she was still afraid of being left alone.

"Can you walk by yourself?"

"I can." Xiao Lan gritted her teeth, slowly braced herself against the Buddha statue, and stood up. Step by step, she headed toward the backyard.

"The girls at No. 1 High are really tough." Zhang Chen slowly followed behind her, afraid she might accidentally fall again.

"Head toward the well," Zhang Chen said when Xiao Lan walked out through the temple's back door.

"You're not planning to push me down there, are you? If you do, I'll turn into Sadako and come for your life."

Xiao Lan was forcing herself forward step by step, yet she was somehow still joking. Zhang Chen smiled faintly when he heard her.

"A little ghost like you can only be my sparring partner. We're going down the well to find something, something extremely important to whether all of us can leave this villa safely."

"Hehe, I was joking. What is it? Can you tell me?" Xiao Lan asked.

"A relic. Have you heard of it?"

"Yes. I once saw Buddhist monks talking about them on TV. It seems relics are formed through a practitioner's power of discipline, meditation, and wisdom. They are an outward manifestation of the heart becoming one with Buddha, and they are extremely rare. Anyone who forms a relic after death must be a highly respected eminent monk. Could the one from before...?"

"It was formed when the old master who helped remove your scales attained enlightenment and passed away in meditation."

"Then I really should thank that master. It was just so sudden earlier that I was terribly frightened. Huh? This well is full of water. How are we supposed to go down?"

Slowly, the two arrived before the well. Looking at its water-filled opening, Xiao Lan had no idea how they were supposed to descend.

"Let me take a look."

Zhang Chen placed his hand into the well water, then smiled faintly.

"Jump in. You'll be fine," Zhang Chen said slowly, withdrawing his hand.

"I believe you." After hesitating for a moment, Xiao Lan held her breath and jumped into the well.

With a splash, Xiao Lan fell into the well water and kept sinking, but she did not panic, because she knew Zhang Chen would not harm her.

After sinking roughly eight meters, Xiao Lan actually fell out of the water and landed on cold, damp rocky soil. Not long afterward, Zhang Chen fell down in the same manner.

Xiao Lan raised her head and looked at the well water above them in astonishment.

"How come the water in this well only exists in the middle section? It's empty above and below. How strange."

"It was probably meant to conceal the relic below. I thought the relic was directly beneath this well, but it turns out there really is another world down here."

The faint sunlight shining in from the entrance could only illuminate where Zhang Chen and Xiao Lan stood. Everything around them was pitch-black.

The moment Zhang Chen landed, he spread his Telekinesis outward in every direction. Even after extending twenty meters, it had not touched any boundary. Still, he roughly determined the terrain of the place they were in.

The two of them were currently standing in a passage no more than two meters wide. A narrow stream ran beneath their feet, flowing slowly ahead of them.

"Xiao Lan, we need to walk against the current of this stream. If I'm right, its source is where the relic is."

"It's... so dark here, and the ground is slippery," Xiao Lan said softly.

"Get on my back. I'll carry you over. You're very light anyway."

Zhang Chen did not mind carrying her again. The underground rocky passage was extremely damp, and stream water flowed beneath their feet. Even a normal person could easily slip if they were not careful, let alone Xiao Lan, whose legs were not in good condition.

"Then... thank you." Xiao Lan slowly climbed onto Zhang Chen's broad back and gently rested her head on his shoulder.

If only this could go on forever.

Zhang Chen paid no attention at all to Xiao Lan's movements behind him. He focused entirely on sensing everything around them. The relic had been placed here for nearly seventy years, and anything could have happened during that time. Naturally, he could not let down his guard.

After nearly a hundred steps, Zhang Chen's Telekinesis was no longer confined to the narrow rocky passage. It sensed a vast open space.

The instant Zhang Chen stepped out of the passage, lights suddenly came on in the spacious chamber. Looking closely, it turned out to be a huge hemispherical cavern. The moment he entered, the torches around the rock walls ignited on their own.

At the center of the cavern was a spring eye of moderate size, constantly bubbling with clear spring water. The water split into eleven tributaries, flowing into eleven rocky passages. The passage Zhang Chen and Xiao Lan had come through was one of them.

"But it's so cold here. Not naturally cold, but a chilling cold, like being inside a swimming pool. Ghostly things may have bred here over the years."

Zhang Chen sensed something unusual about the huge cavern. His mind was highly focused as his Telekinesis scanned every corner, yet he found nothing else.

Was it just my imagination? Was it only ordinary cold? I should first see whether the relic is here.

Carrying Xiao Lan, Zhang Chen slowly approached the spring at the center of the cavern. Clear, transparent spring water washed over his heels, bringing an extremely pleasant and refreshing coolness.

"Is this the relic?"

A small white sphere floated motionlessly at the center of the spring eye. Yet beside the white sphere swam a tiny white snake, no bigger than half a little finger.

"Xiao Lan, I'll put you down first. Let's see whether this is the relic."

"Mm." Xiao Lan answered softly from his back, then slowly stood behind Zhang Chen.

"What is that Little White Snake? Forget it, I'll take the white sphere out and have a look first." With that thought, Zhang Chen directly reached out with his right hand, intending to pick up the white sphere in the spring eye.

Suddenly, the instant Zhang Chen's fingers touched the sphere, the Little White Snake shot upward and bit the tip of his right index finger.

At once, Zhang Chen's entire right palm went numb. The numbness rapidly spread upward along his right arm. In less than a second, his entire right arm had lost all sensation.

Splash! Zhang Chen immediately liquefied his right shoulder, severing the numb arm from his body. It hit the ground heavily. The next second, the entire arm turned pale and crumbled into a pile of white fragments.

"So poisonous? And after being bitten, the cells in my right hand died almost instantly. I couldn't even liquefy it."

The clear spring water on the ground slowly drifted toward Zhang Chen's right side. Before long, a new arm formed. At the same time, a white-faced scholar appeared standing opposite Zhang Chen. He looked somewhat similar to Jia Xin, with the same fair, delicate appearance. However, he wore a white robe and a scholar's headscarf, and his pair of emerald-green Dual Pupils stared straight at Zhang Chen.

"Zhang Chen, that..." Xiao Lan, standing behind him, had witnessed the entire process of Zhang Chen being bitten and poisoned. She was clearly badly frightened. At the same time, she had seen the little white snake swim out of the spring and transform into the white-faced scholar on the ground.

"Xiao Lan, step back. A little faster," Zhang Chen said.

"Okay." Xiao Lan reluctantly retreated toward the edge of the cavern, one step at a time.

Zhang Chen and the white-faced scholar stared at each other for a long time. Yet Zhang Chen could not sense even a trace of ghostly aura from him. Only those emerald-green eyes revealed a hint of deadly danger.

"May I ask..." Zhang Chen wanted to make peace, since the other party was not a ghostly creature.

But the moment he spoke, the white-faced scholar's hands transformed into dozens of venomous snakes. With a kick off the ground, he charged straight at Zhang Chen.

"If you don't show a tiger's might, people think you're a sick cat. Cutting off one of my hands was one thing, but now you want my life too? You're courting death." Zhang Chen was enraged. The nails on both hands instantly lengthened to half a meter, and he kicked off the ground to meet the scholar's attack head-on.

Their clash in midair lasted only an instant. After they landed, all the dozens of venomous snakes forming the scholar's hands had been cut in two, without exception. Zhang Chen's left arm had also been bitten once. He immediately liquefied his left shoulder, then used the spring water to form another arm.

Zhang Chen smiled. The place was filled with clear spring water, so he was practically invincible. As long as his brain was not damaged, there would not be much of a problem.

The severed snake bodies on the scholar's hands gradually turned into dust, reverting to his original fair palms. Looking at Zhang Chen, he could not help smiling faintly.

Gah! The scholar raised his head and opened his mouth wide, spitting out a long green hilt. He grasped it with his right hand and slowly pulled it out, while a cold gleam burst from his mouth.

A nearly 1.6-meter-long ** was held in the scholar's hand. The ratio of the blade spine's thickness to the blade's width was roughly one to three. The chill emanating from it made Zhang Chen feel extreme danger.

This was the second time Zhang Chen had faced an opponent wielding a blade. The first time, Ding Jian's "Moon" had left an enduring shadow in Zhang Chen's heart. Before that blade, he had been like an ant, utterly incapable of resisting.

This time, the ** was much longer than Ding Jian's katana, but it posed far less threat to Zhang Chen. He was confident that he absolutely would not lose against a blade-wielding opponent this time.

The scholar seemed not to have used a blade for a long time. Holding it in his right hand, he lightly drew it across the ground. A deep gash opened in the wet floor, while the surrounding stream water froze into ice.

With a ringing clang, the scholar's figure vanished. A cold gleam flashed first, and the long, narrow blade was already before Zhang Chen...