Farewell After Many Years

The hunting party entered the forest.

The silence was eerie. Not a birdcall or beastly roar could be heard in this forest; not even a rat was in sight. The utter stillness made the party's large horses and hunting dogs restless.

The hunters ahead found something.

The clan chief rode forward and saw the hunters gathered around several strange, enormous pillars of earth. The pillars stood taller than a person, clustered together in all sizes. He recalled seeing many such odd earthen pillars along the way. The Hundred Thousand Mountains truly were wondrous, to contain even things like these. Still, why did this place make his entire body feel so ill at ease...

On the hillside, snake eyes watched coldly. Once that party had ventured deep into the forest, a tail coiled around a long strip of stone and violently flung it out!

The spinning stone bar flew over the treetops and swept past the crowd before smashing heavily into an earthen pillar. With a clang, it knocked off a small chunk, but the pillar itself remained largely intact.

The crowd froze for a moment, suspecting an ambush. They huddled together and stayed tense for a long while, yet saw nothing.

In truth, if they had run the instant the stone hit the ground, they might still have lived. Now, it was too late. Streams of black liquid began to gush from the earthen pillars like water from springs...

"Woof woof woof!"

The hunting dogs barked madly. Two even broke free of their leashes and fled with their tails tucked between their legs. The horses neighed in panic. The strange behavior of the dogs and horses unsettled everyone, and rustling sounds rose from the woods.

Then a servant felt a sharp pain in his calf. He looked down and saw a sight that made his scalp crawl.

Terrified screams shattered the silence...

More and more thumb-sized ants came swarming in!

The crowd that had just been huddled together exploded apart in an instant, scattering in every direction. As they ran, they desperately slapped at the ants crawling over them. Yet the more wildly they thrashed about, the more vibrations they caused, drawing out the ants from their nests. Every earthen pillar instantly became a black sea. Some unknown species of ant showed humanity what true numerical superiority meant. In only a short while, there was almost nowhere left in the forest to set foot.

Anyone who fell could forget about getting back up. Within seconds, they would become a ball of ants and gradually dissolve away.

White Snake recalled a crocodile that had once passed through these woods. The crocodile had been over four meters long, yet it had not taken long for it to melt away and become nourishment for the ants. Humans did not have skin and flesh as tough as a crocodile's.

She glanced at the clan chief still galloping away on horseback, then vanished into the grass.

The horse dragged the clan chief away in flight. The rugged terrain limited its speed, while the ants' bites drove the steed into a mad dash. The clan chief on its back was caught off guard when a branch swept him down from the saddle. By the time he endured the pain and climbed up, his mount had long since vanished. Hearing waves of screams still coming from the woods behind him, he ignored his injuries and limped onward.

If time could be turned back, he swore he would never set foot in the forest again. Sadly, everything was already too late.

A white blur flashed past. Pain struck the little rural clan chief's head, and he fainted dead away.

After an unknown amount of time, the clan chief slowly woke. He felt as though someone was dragging him forward. He did not know whether it was a servant or one of the hired hunters. Once they got back, he could reward them with two taels of silver, he thought. But when he raised his head and looked ahead, terror instantly filled him...

A gigantic white snake had wrapped her tail around his calf and was dragging him forward!

"Help... help me..."

No one answered. His cries for help echoed through the valley, and his heart turned ice-cold.

Then his entire body rose into the air. After landing and rolling several times, he looked up at the terrified, wailing people around him. It was still that same mountain forest. White Snake had sent him back.

The ants swallowed the greedy, and White Snake left without looking back.

Those who had escaped by sheer luck ran out of the mountains, and the name of the fierce beasts within spread without wings. The Hundred Thousand Mountains once again used blood to warn humanity. Of the dozens who had entered the mountains, fewer than ten survived. After this, even the herb gatherers who depended on entering the mountains to make a living no longer dared go in. At the same time, the villagers learned that White Snake was no fool; she had wielded a borrowed knife to kill with consummate skill.

If the mountain village had not been so poor, with everyone living in thatched huts, they would have built White Snake a temple long ago.

Mountain villages did not have all the fussy rules of the old scholars in big cities. Whoever helped them, whoever showed their divine power, was the one they believed in. Temples to Yellow Immortal, fox immortals, and even Snake Immortals could be found everywhere in the countryside. Rather than pray to lofty great gods who ignored people, it was better to seek the immortal at the village's Back Mountain. At least the immortal would reveal herself, and sometimes even cure illness and ward off disaster.

The mountain folk grew even more fearful of White Snake.

White Snake knew she could not interact with Yun'er too much, or she would easily affect the girl's life. So she decided to return to the mountains.

The valley was quiet and secluded.

Ancient ginkgo trees built a blessed land; the enlightened White Snake sought immortality.

In the mountains, one knew not the passage of years. Wind and rain, sun and shade, weather in ten thousand changing forms—beneath the ancient tree had already become White Snake's cultivation ground. Aside from climbing the cliff each morning for Breath Control, she spent nearly all her time beneath the tree, either coiled atop a massive boulder or lazily wrapped around an ancient trunk. She completely lost track of time, until she shed her skin and grew once more. Her body had reached six meters in length.

Suddenly, she thought of Yun'er. She wondered how that little girl was doing. Only then did White Snake realize that the fruit trees in the mountains had bloomed and borne fruit nine times. Nine years had passed in the blink of an eye.

She slithered all the way toward the mountain's edge.

When she saw the mountain village, White Snake sighed. It was still just as poor as it had been nine years ago.

Perhaps White Snake and Yun'er truly shared a bond. When she arrived at the Back Mountain, she saw a pretty figure standing there in a daze. The little girl had grown up, though her scent had not changed. If not for the calluses on her hands, Yun'er was still quite delicate and lovely. Her long hair fell to her waist, and in the countryside she was absolutely a beauty without equal. But... why were her delicate brows tightly furrowed?

Yun'er sensed something and turned around, seeing that long-lost white figure.

"White Snake!"

Just as she had when she was little, she ran over and threw her arms around White Snake, crying and laughing at once. She complained that White Snake had been gone for so many years. As the setting sun slanted down, the graceful Yun'er stood there like a child...

Night fell, and stars glittered. Modern humans living on Earth could never imagine how beautiful a pure starry sky was. Twinkling stars hung across the heavens, brilliant and beautiful.

Yun'er sat on the grass with her back against White Snake, her big eyes and snake eyes gazing at the stars together.

In truth, White Snake could not see the stars. Her severe nearsightedness had not improved much after cultivation, and infrared heat vision was even less capable of seeing stars clearly. She was only putting on a show. In any case, Yun'er did not know that her good friend was nearsighted.

Yun'er whispered to White Snake.

"I'm getting married..."

"..."

White Snake was speechless. How old could Yun'er be this year? Fifteen? Or sixteen? At that age, she should have been studying diligently in school, not marrying and bearing children. Giving birth at that age carried an extremely high risk of death, but who cared?

"Brother Wang from the village is a good man. I like him, but I don't want to marry him. I really like Brother Wang..."

"..."

"Last month, Steward Guo came to our village and saw me. He said he wanted to take me as a concubine. I know concubines have no standing. Steward Guo is forty, just like my father."

"..."

"The village is poor, and Brother Wang's household is poor too. Every year, they do not have enough grain to eat. They dig up grass roots and scrape bark off trees. Steward Guo is different. His household can eat meat every day without worrying about going hungry. Look at how fat Steward Guo is. Though concubines have no standing, I really don't want to go hungry anymore!"

Yun'er was somewhat agitated. White Snake knew that the girl was only trying desperately to prove that she was not wrong.

"Father and Mother did not want me to become a concubine. I wanted to go, so they had no choice but to agree. Brother Wang was very sad."

"The day after tomorrow, I will be married..."

"White Snake, can you send me off when I marry..."

White Snake nodded.

The starry night was dazzling. On the hillside, muffled sobs carried farther and farther...