Old Acquaintance

Ten years passed in the blink of an eye.

The White Snake remained five meters long, not having grown any further. However, by constantly swallowing mist daily, she had become stronger and her physique more robust. At the same time, her lubricated scales became whiter and more beautiful. While people had felt fear at first glance, now they found a special kind of beauty in her.

In the pool, a triangular ripple continuously spread outwards.

Splash!

Raising her head high amidst the splashing water, she finished her bath and leisurely crawled ashore.

She slithered to rest beneath a massive, ancient ginkgo tree, so thick it would take five or six people to embrace its trunk. The ginkgo tree was very old, appearing to be at least a thousand years old. Its trunk coiled like a dragon, and its branches and leaves formed a canopy like a magnificent umbrella. Beneath the tree lay a smooth, giant boulder, cool to the touch. Only cold-blooded animals like snakes would enjoy clinging to it on a summer day.

Suddenly, the resting White Snake raised her head and looked into the distance. Her infrared sensory organs detected a humanoid object approaching. She opened her mouth, revealing her fangs, and became alert.

As the figure drew nearer, she recognized an old acquaintance through her keen sense of smell: the herb collector.

They greeted each other as they had ten years ago. In those ten years, the man who had risked his life to gather herbs in the mountains had become even more weathered. In ancient times, the harsh living environment, insufficient nutrition, and various social reasons led to generally shorter human lifespans. Being over fifty was considered a long life, and countless people died in their forties. Wang Da, in his forties, already looked as old as a sixty-year-old. The White Snake doubted if his hunched body could still climb cliffs to pick Dendrobium officinale.

After years apart, they met again. The herb collector had grown old, but the White Snake was still the same as she was ten years ago.

"Ten years... I never thought I'd see you again," the aged herb collector muttered to himself. The White Snake tilted her head back, looking at the old man who no longer chattered incessantly.

"I've become a useless old man. I can't earn money for the family and have to rely on my son and daughter-in-law to support me."

"..."

"My wife passed away the spring before last. There was a drought and no food. She didn't listen to advice and ate clay. If she hadn't eaten the clay, she might have lived a little longer. After eating the clay, she only lived for seven days. I know, she did it to save food for the children..."

"..."

"My son got married and had a daughter. Honestly, I wished for a grandson in my heart. The Wang family cannot be without an heir."

The White Snake listened quietly as the herb collector rambled on. This old man, who had worked hard his entire life to support his family, had struggled his whole life without changing his family's poverty. He didn't understand why they were poor. The White Snake understood. In this ancient era, where classes were already solidified and chaotic, the vast majority of people found it difficult to live a good life. Frankly, being able to survive was already a gift from the powerful families and aristocratic clans.

"Outside, they say a White Dragon cultivates here. I know they see you. Liu San's wife even said you appeared in her dream, haha~"

Speechless. When had she ever appeared in anyone's dream? Besides, she didn't have that ability.

Beneath the ginkgo tree, the old man muttered to himself, talking to a White Snake...

The herb collector left in the afternoon.

The White Snake felt that he might not have long to live. Her forked tongue could sense the smell of impending death on him. Perhaps he would be happy to reunite with his wife after death and save food for his son's family.

Suddenly, she wanted to seize the time to cultivate. The taste of death was not pleasant, and the White Snake did not want to die again.

Snakes prefer shade. Without any cultivation experience, the White Snake could only search for a shady spot to breathe in the mist, relying on knowledge from her previous life. She remembered the small pool near the cliff where she had consumed the spirit medicine. If she wanted to do it, she would do it. Leaving the ginkgo tree, she quickly climbed halfway up the mountain. The small pool was still there, formed by a thin stream of water flowing from the rock crevices above. The water was clear and sweet. The White Snake felt this must be a good place for cultivation.

She coiled herself into a circle, raising her head to breathe in the mist.

In the mountains, a White Snake was diligently absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to avoid dying...

Several years later.

After the mountain rain, clouds and mist surged like rivers. The vast mist, like the Milky Way descending from the ninth heaven, surged and churned. Across the vast sea of clouds, a White Snake stood atop a giant rock on the mountain peak, bobbing and weaving within the clouds.

For years, she had cultivated, seizing every opportunity to swallow clouds and exhale mist. Her intuition had been correct, and the actual results satisfied the White Snake.

Cultivation gave her something to do in her solitary life. Snakes are oviparous creatures. Upon hatching, they have no idea who their parents are and have no habit of recognizing siblings. They don't meet unless necessary, and in severe cases, they might even fight. The White Snake had lived a solitary life since birth, never approaching other snakes. She could be considered a shut-in snake who had lived for over thirty years.

Finishing her breathing exercise, she descended the mountain, leaving behind a gust of fishy wind.

Recently, the White Snake had encountered trouble, and the situation was very strange.

For some reason, large snakes kept entering her territory and approaching her. She couldn't drive them away. Annoyed, she used her size advantage to roughly fling the large snakes away, but as soon as she threw one off, another would come, endlessly.

In front of her, a large snake raised its body and danced, following her wherever she went. In a fit of rage, she bit its head and violently flung it away!

The White Snake would only understand this phenomenon much later...

Life had become unbearable. She was disturbed while sleeping under the ginkgo tree, and even her cultivation on the mountain was disrupted, preventing her from breathing in the mist. She would drive one away, only for a group to come, endlessly.

Four or five more large snakes slithered over. Helpless, she could only use her speed, which surpassed that of ordinary snakes, to quickly escape.

She fled to the other side of the mountain, but several large snakes gathered there again.

Exasperated, the White Snake felt she needed to find a solution. Gazing in the direction Wang Da entered and exited the mountain, she had a sudden impulse to go out and see the human world, to see what ancient times were like. After all, she had come to the ancient era; it would be a waste of her serpentine life not to experience it.

Of course, she would only look from a distance at the edge of the forest. There was no need to leave the forest and put herself in danger.

She decided to go. With no possessions to weigh her down and no need to consider what to eat or where to live, she crawled out of the mountains, following a faint human scent, embarking on a new journey in an S-shaped path.

Two days later.

The further she traveled, the more traces of human activity she encountered.

For example, beneath a large rock that could provide shelter from the rain, there were many traces of campfires, marks from chopping with a woodcutter's axe, and some simple traps. In the outer areas, large animals were rarely seen, and the variety of animals was limited, mostly pheasants, rabbits, foxes, and so on. Of course, there were also rodents, which were found everywhere.

After a long while, she finally reached the edge of the forest and saw the village of this world.

Her first impression was poverty. Her second impression was extreme poverty. As the saying goes, the poor clang like bells, but this place couldn't even produce a ding. Below the hillside were rows of low, dilapidated thatched huts. Along the small stream in the valley were many rice paddies. Two elderly men were listlessly operating a waterwheel to irrigate the rice fields. A scrawny yellow dog ran across the field ridges. Even the rats here were not fat.

Twenty-odd households, less than a hundred people. A very, very small village.

She remembered the herb collector mentioning his son's family, but she didn't know them and couldn't go looking for them. She decided to just look around and then return to the deep mountains. Perhaps by then, those large snakes would have calmed down.

Thus, the White Snake began her life of peeping.

Some people in the village noticed the unusual activity nearby...

"You know, it's really strange. Yesterday, when I came back from the fields, groups of rats were carrying their young and fleeing towards the outskirts of the village as if escaping. The chickens and ducks didn't return to their nests, and the dogs have been barking non-stop every day. It's uncanny."