The villagers moved quickly.
Several dozen people worked through the night, using branches, mud bricks, and thatch they had gathered earlier as materials.
By the next morning, as sunlight spilled over the lakeshore shrouded in a thin mist, the basic framework of a simple shrine had already been erected.
Inside the shrine stood a clay statue of the Snake God.
The statue was only a little over two meters tall. Though it had been piled together from ordinary mud, for some reason, once it was completed, the villagers felt an awe-inspiring majesty radiating from it.
Witnessing such an extraordinary sight, the villagers believed Renguang's words even more.
Next, the women picked fresh flowers from the lakeshore, wove them into garlands with branches, and hung them around the clay statue's long neck.
The hunters slaughtered cattle, sheep, pigs, and other livestock before the statue as offerings.
Even after all that, the village chief still felt it was not enough.
After all, this was an existence even more mysterious and formidable than a Monster. If they could obtain the Snake God's protection, the entire mountain village would no longer suffer from Monsters.
So he personally went to Rinzi's home.
When he opened the crude door, he found the slender, fair-skinned girl carefully sewing clothes with needle and thread in the narrow room.
"Village Chief, did you come here for something?"
Seeing the elderly man leaning on a cane standing at the door, Rinzi hurriedly rose to her feet and asked in surprise.
"My sister and father aren't home. If you need anything, you can tell me, and I'll pass it on to them."
The highly respected village chief was always busy. Unless it was necessary, he would not personally come here.
"No, child..."
The village chief shook his head, then slowly said, "I didn't come to see your father or your sister. There's something I want to discuss with you."
"Me?"
"Yes."
The village chief nodded. "Following Lord Renguang's instructions, we built a shrine in the village."
"But the shrine needs a Shrine Maiden dedicated to communicating with the deity. That day, many people saw your contact with the divine lord, so..."
A Shrine Maiden was someone who devoted her entire body and soul to the deity.
If necessary in the future, the Shrine Maiden would also have to take on the responsibility of representing the village in communicating with the deity.
That golden giant snake did not seem particularly ferocious, but it was still a nonhuman being whose thoughts could not be judged by ordinary reasoning.
No matter what had happened in the past, approaching such a terrifying giant beast was still an extremely dangerous thing.
"Of course, if you're unwilling, no one would dare force you."
The village chief's tone was gentle, and he wore a smile throughout.
Though he held the highest status in the village, the old man never forced others to do anything. No matter when, he always spoke to people as if they were discussing matters together.
Perhaps that was precisely why the old man enjoyed such lofty prestige in the village.
"Can I really become the Snake God's Shrine Maiden?"
A smile of sheer delight appeared on the girl's face. Even the haori she had been clutching in her hand, which she had been preparing to sew for her sister, fell to the floor.
"I'm willing!"
Her voice was not loud, but it carried a moving resolve.
"You must think this through."
The girl's attitude instead made the village chief hesitate. "Once you become the divine lord's Shrine Maiden, even if you are devoured, you cannot regret it, nor may you harbor any resentment."
The village chief's face tightened as he spoke sternly.
"Yes, I understand!"
Rinzi nodded heavily and answered without the slightest hesitation.
"Then... all right..."
And so, with neither Su Heng nor Little Snake knowing anything about it.
The Anaconda, which had only recently entered the ranks of extraordinary lifeforms, gained its own shrine, a group of not particularly devout believers, and a Shrine Maiden who had sworn to dedicate everything she had to it.
The next day.
Su Heng's consciousness descended into Little Snake's body.
It was still the valley he had found during its previous evolution. The scenery there was pleasant, and a steaming hot spring lay in the central area.
Because of the tremendous commotion caused by its evolution, the Anaconda had forcibly expanded the hot spring's area by an entire circle.
Even though the Anaconda had grown considerably larger now, the hot spring could still easily immerse its whole body.
"So you just stayed here without moving all day?"
Su Heng reproached his Little Snake in a tone of exasperation, as fiercely as an old father catching his young daughter skipping her studies to secretly watch television.
"But... didn't you also think that loafing around, waiting for death, and sleeping all day were life's highest pleasures?"
Little Snake curled herself into a large ball, allowing her entire body to soak in the warm spring water like a pot of snake stew being slowly simmered.
"Though I may have thought that before, I don't remember ever telling you about it!"
Su Heng froze for a moment after being refuted.
Then he hurriedly adopted a serious tone to correct the Little Anaconda's unhealthy, decadent, pleasure-seeking mindset.
"You totally did! We don't transmit information through language, but through resonance between souls. Words can lie, but souls can't."
The Golden Boa, with her head buried in the snake soup, spat out a string of bubbles and argued indignantly.
"That's a thing?"
Hearing the Anaconda say that, Su Heng's old face reddened. He nervously asked, "Then you didn't resonate with anything unhealthy, did you?"
"Unhealthy things? What are those?"
Little Snake's tone was filled with childlike innocence, though when he thought about it, she really was only a child less than three months old.
"Ahem, children shouldn't ask too many questions about adult matters."
Hearing Little Snake's answer, Su Heng let out a heavy sigh of relief.
He took control of Little Snake's body, and throughout the process, she showed no resistance whatsoever. She even seemed somewhat eagerly delighted.
"Was it because she was lazy that she wanted a more disciplined personality to help her exercise or go hunting?"
Little Snake's undisguised thoughts were easy to read.
Su Heng could only silently complain that he himself had somehow become the wage slave.
Still, he dutifully opened the panel and checked Little Snake's growth over the past two days.
It was no big deal until he checked. Once he did, Su Heng truly discovered a huge surprise.
"Damn it, where did this 0.01 True Points come from?"
A day of asking for recommendation tickets.
Before you continue