"Yellow Emperor's Scripture of Yin Symbols"

The hawk circling overhead gave Ye Qin no chance to catch his breath.

He had barely dodged its beak when its sharp talons came one after another.

Ye Qin had still been somewhat unaccustomed to his serpentine body, but at that moment, it was as if the Ren and Du Meridians had been opened. He began crawling rapidly across the ground.

Even so, the shadow of death overhead clung to him like a maggot burrowing into bone, impossible to shake off.

Ye Qin had already suffered severe injuries. On top of that, this life-and-death chase was more than his serpentine body could bear, and his speed gradually slowed.

Several times, the hawk's talons nearly seized his body. He could feel his scales being forcibly torn away, the pain so savage it nearly ripped his heart and lungs apart.

The massive loss of strength left Ye Qin's consciousness hazy. He failed to notice the downward slope ahead.

Desperate to escape with his life, he suddenly sprang forward. His body rolled down like an arrow released from the bow, quickly vanishing into a wide patch of grass.

There were plenty of stones around as well. They left Ye Qin dizzy and seeing stars. He could feel his wounds tearing open again, fresh blood gushing out like a spring and splattering across the grass tips beside him.

For a moment, he truly wondered whether he would bleed to death.

"Bang!"

With a muffled thud, Ye Qin finally crashed onto the ground. The heavy impact nearly knocked all his internal organs out of place.

Ye Qin struggled to open his eyes. The light was dim, but perhaps because he had become a snake, his vision was unaffected and no different from before.

"Where am I?"

Perhaps Heaven had seen that he was about to die and finally decided to bestow a little luck upon him. As he tumbled down the slope, somehow, he had fallen into a mountain cave.

Outside the cave, green ivy stretched on without end, forming a natural barrier that completely concealed it.

No one could have imagined that behind that enormous wall of ivy lay an entirely different world.

The hawk in the sky lost its target. It cried out several times in frustration before flapping its wings and flying away.

"Looks like my luck isn't too bad."

If he had not fallen into this cave, he would probably already have become the hawk's meal.

Ye Qin let out a bitter laugh inwardly, but all that came from his mouth was a hiss.

The area was rarely visited by humans, and there were no animal tracks either. Perhaps he would be the first intruder.

The ground was somewhat damp, and the temperature was considerably lower than outside.

A cool breeze swept across his face.

Snakes naturally favored shade and moisture. This environment made Ye Qin feel a long-lost comfort.

But the chase just now, along with his tumble down the slope, had worsened his injuries once more. It was as if a ball of fire were burning inside him, and searing pain spread throughout his body.

The lightning strike had already left him with barely any scales. Now, pitifully few remained, just a handful dangling precariously from his body.

His entire serpentine body was a horrible sight.

Ye Qin could feel his life force ebbing away bit by bit. Before long, he would lose consciousness completely and fall into an eternal sleep.

"Looks like this cave will be my final resting place. I hope I can be reborn after I die..."

Ye Qin tried to make light of his misery. At least he would not end up being swallowed by some bird or beast.

His body suddenly brushed against something. It was icy cold and somewhat hard, and a flash of white light passed before his eyes.

He focused his gaze and saw that it was actually a heap of gleaming white bones!

At first, he thought they belonged to some beast, but scraps of tattered clothing still hung from the bones, making Ye Qin realize they were human.

Although the clothes were worn and ragged, their general outline could still barely be made out. They were actually a long robe, filled with an antique air.

In other words, this skeleton must have belonged to an ancient person who had been dead for at least a hundred years.

And based on the world this snake had once witnessed, Ye Qin knew that the present day was modern, with technology roughly at the level of the twenty-first century. This ancient person had lived no earlier than the Ming dynasty.

He had initially thought this was an abandoned cave, but he had never expected someone to have arrived before him and died here long ago.

"I never thought that, on the verge of death, I would still find a companion. What an unexpected delight. On the road to the Yellow Springs, you and I can keep each other company. It won't be so lonely then, will it?"

Ye Qin mocked himself, as though he had already seen the fate of his own body turning into white bones.

He did not know the skeleton's origins, nor even whether it had belonged to a man or a woman. Perhaps this person had died long ago and remained forgotten, until Ye Qin entered a hundred years later.

"You and I are both wanderers fallen to the ends of the earth. I would like to gather your bones, but now that I'm a snake, I have the will but not the strength."

"I wonder if anyone will burn incense for us in the future. If someone burns paper offerings for me, I'll give you a share, seeing as we died in the same place. That will count as fulfilling our bond."

Ye Qin muttered to himself. His long, black serpentine body formed a stark contrast with the pure white bones beside him.

The skeleton remained silent, as though listening intently.

A snake and a skeleton—the sight was somewhat eerie, yet strangely harmonious.

The silent mountain cave echoed with an endless hissing, its lingering resonance stretching on.

"Huh? What's this?"

Ye Qin crawled along, originally planning to go around to the other side of the skeleton and wait for death, but he suddenly discovered another book lying on the ground.

The book was covered in dust, its corners stained yellow and curled up, with numerous traces of worm damage.

After enduring the corrosion of time, the book's cover was impossible to make out clearly. Ye Qin could vaguely see several blurred characters. After staring at them for a long while and piecing them together by guesswork, he finally identified the book's title.

"Yellow Emperor's Scripture of Yin Symbols."

"I couldn't tell that you were a book lover when you were alive. Perhaps you were a scholar? Were you on your way to the capital to take the imperial examinations?"

In ancient times, scholars traveled to the capital for the examinations. Since the journey was so far, it was not unheard of for some to fall ill and die along the way. Perhaps the unlucky fellow beside Ye Qin had been one of them?

There was nothing else beside the skeleton, only this book. Perhaps the deceased had read it while alive; otherwise, why would it have been lying right beside him?

As for the Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon, Ye Qin had heard of it. It was considered one of Great Xia's monumental historical works, as famous as books such as the Baopuzi and the Zhuangzi.

Ye Qin was somewhat curious about its contents. What could it contain that had made someone remain obsessed with it even at the moment of death?

Unfortunately, he had no hands or feet now. Trying to turn its pages using only his serpentine body was simply a fool's errand.

Because of the loss of blood and strength, Ye Qin's entire body had grown somewhat cold, perhaps also because snakes were cold-blooded animals to begin with.

He coiled himself into a ball beside the skeleton, as though he could draw warmth from it that way. From a distance, he looked just like a fossil.

Ye Qin grew drowsy. His consciousness felt as though it had sunk into a mire, unable to break free no matter what he did. He desperately told himself not to sleep.

If he fell asleep this time, it would probably be forever.

But the weakness and pain throughout his body tugged at him bit by bit, dragging him toward the abyss.

A cool breeze blew in from somewhere, bringing Ye Qin a moment of clarity. By then, his eyes had narrowed to slits, and he was just about to lose consciousness.

A rustling sound came from not far away. The book, which had been closed, had somehow been blown open.

It was as though a pair of invisible hands hovered in the air, slowly turning the gears of fate.

(End of Chapter)