The fire pit in the house drove away the dampness of the rainy days.
Mu Duo sat silently beside the fire pit, turning over and roasting some kind of root vegetable resembling sweet potatoes. The old priest's stooped body had grown ever frailer; his face was so wrinkled that his eyes were nearly invisible, as though he might fall asleep at any moment.
The other woman, in her thirties, was the successor the old priest had trained. Her name was Shui Yun, and Bai Yujun recalled who she was by her scent.
The first time Bai Yujun had come to the Southern Wasteland, she had been summoned by someone. Back then, Shui Yun had still been a young girl.
Facing the sacred White Snake beast, Shui Yun was a little nervous.
Bai Yujun grabbed her own misshapen snake tail with one hand and raised it for the three of them to see, then gave it a shake. It had unexpectedly acquired something of a brush-like function, looking very much like a tail fin used for swimming, though its spikes were clearly unlike those of fish.
"Look, I've changed so much I don't even recognize myself. I'm certain I crawled out of a pile of Snake Eggs back then."
She lowered her tail, picked up a piece of roasted meat, stuffed it into her mouth, and gulped it down...
Perhaps the old priest had fallen asleep. Or perhaps he was reminiscing.
After a long while.
"I'll go look through the ancient records. There should be something written about it."
He trembled as he tried to rise. Shui Yun hurried forward to support him, helping the old priest toward the back room piled with ancient records. Bai Yujun was genuinely worried that the unsteady old priest might topple headfirst into the fire