Looking at those eyes across from him, Xie Yixuan suddenly drew in a sharp breath. That was terrifying.
It turned out that the administrator, who had been sorting and organizing books nearby, had become so absorbed in their conversation that he accidentally bumped into something.
The administrator came out from the other side, wearing an embarrassed smile.
"How strange. Something just as bizarre involving a snake happened in the library during the summer, too."
Xie Yixuan's curiosity was piqued. "What happened?"
"That's a long story."
"At first, we thought someone was playing a prank. Then we installed surveillance cameras. Guess what? It was actually a snake that knocked all those books down."
After hearing the administrator's story, Xie Yixuan and his companion were left gaping in astonishment. "Something that bizarre really happened?"
Xie Yixuan looked the administrator up and down. "You're not pulling our legs, are you?"
The administrator rolled his eyes without the slightest concern for his image. "Do I look that bored? Why would I mess with you? If you don't believe me, you can watch the surveillance footage. I still have it."
Xie Yixuan immediately became interested. "Come on, let's take a look too."
After watching the footage, the two of them finally believed what the administrator had said.
Xie Yixuan's companion clicked his tongue in amazement. "Huh, that really is strange. It almost looks like the snake was reading the books. And what was it reading? The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon, the Yi Jin Jing, and other ancient texts."
"Of all those books, why did it choose these in particular?"
His friend muttered to himself, but there was no response beside him. He nudged Xie Yixuan. "Why aren't you saying anything? You've always liked this sort of mysterious stuff."
When he turned his head, he saw Xie Yixuan staring at the screen without blinking, as if he wished he could press his eyes against it.
A storm of emotion raged in Xie Yixuan's heart. The longer he looked at the snake, the more familiar it seemed.
The snake in the surveillance footage was identical to the one he had seen in the deep mountains a few days earlier! Aside from a slight difference in size, the one in the footage looked a little smaller.
It might have been an issue of perspective. Besides, so much time had passed, and some growth would only be natural.
"That snake is the one I saw in the deep mountains before!"
Now it was the administrator and his friend's turn to be astonished. "You're not joking, are you? How could something that coincidental happen?"
Xie Yixuan had originally wondered whether he had been hallucinating, but the surveillance footage before his eyes made him certain once again that the snake had absolutely not been an illusion.
The one in the footage and the one he had seen in the deep mountains last time were definitely the same snake!
The administrator and his friend exchanged glances.
No matter how they looked at it, the whole thing was simply bizarre.
A snake had gone from a library in the city to a remote mountain forest a thousand li away—or perhaps it had originally lived in the mountains and had only come to the library for some unknown reason.
According to the administrator, after the surveillance cameras were installed, the snake never came again.
Later, he even began to wonder whether it had all been an illusion. Yet every time he watched that footage, he knew it had all truly happened.
Xie Yixuan walked out of the library, still looking dazed. "Why does this snake seem interested in ancient texts like these? Of all the places it could stay, why did it choose here?"
His companion heard him muttering and felt that Xie Yixuan was about to become obsessed. He smacked him hard on the back of the head.
"You should stop thinking about it so much. Maybe it's all just a coincidence. Besides, how could a snake really read? Maybe it was simply used to that spot and refused to move."
"And snakes all look pretty much alike. Maybe you just saw wrong. Those two might not be the same snake at all."
His companion continued rambling on beside him, but Xie Yixuan did not hear a single word. That experience in the deep mountains might become an unsolvable mystery for the rest of his life.
The police searched the mountains several times but never found anyone. In the end, the matter gradually faded away, and they could only give up helplessly. Although the animal-smuggling case had been closed, the Poacher's death became an unsolved case.
Ye Qin had no idea how great an impact he had caused Xie Yixuan and those police officers. Compared to them, his life was like a tranquil lake, disturbed only by the occasional faint ripple.
Every day, he did nothing but cultivate.
As the sun set and the moon rose, the long winter finally passed. Under the sun's rays, the ice and snow melted away, and the vibrant green of life once again appeared across the mountaintop.
The tenacious little grass poked its head out the instant the ice and snow melted. It was like a signal. Before long, the entire mountaintop was suffused with lush, vigorous green.
Ye Qin was wholly immersed in cultivation and paid no attention to the changes outside. It was not until one day, when a faint fragrance drifted through the air, that he followed the scent and discovered that its source was actually right at the cave entrance.
Dense vines crawled all over the area outside the cave, almost completely concealing the entire cavern and forming the most natural of barriers.
Amid the lush greenery, a nameless white flower could just barely be seen blooming leisurely.
"So it's spring already."
"There wasn't even the slightest New Year atmosphere. The first New Year since my rebirth just passed like that."
Perhaps it was because Ye Qin was deep in the mountains and had not heard any firecrackers. Or perhaps the modern authorities had banned fireworks and firecrackers so strictly that the New Year had lost all its festive flavor.
On top of that, he had been cultivating day and night and had not noticed any fireworks.
It truly brought to mind that old saying:
In the mountains, there are no calendars; in the human world, the days and months stretch long.
Everything from his previous life was like passing clouds to Ye Qin. Sometimes, he wondered whether he was a human reborn as a snake,
or whether the life he had lived as a human had merely been a distant, resplendent dream.
Just as Zhuang Zhou dreamed of becoming a butterfly—or a butterfly dreamed of becoming Zhuang Zhou.
By now, he had completely adapted to life as a snake, as well as to this perspective in which everything he saw was gigantic. He had long since grown accustomed to it.
Back then, he had not even known how to crawl properly. Now, he moved so quickly that he almost left behind only a fleeting shadow.
Not to mention that the force of his tail could now snap a moderately sized tree. All these changes had come from cultivation.
The only thing he could say was that the world was unpredictable. Even in his previous life, he could never have imagined that he would walk such an unprecedented path in this one.
Ye Qin let out a long sigh, and at the same time, a powerful sense of danger surged through his heart.
Although his physical body was constantly growing stronger and his form had changed, Ye Qin could feel that his lifespan had not increased at all.
Ordinary small- and medium-sized snakes only lived for a few years. In other words, at most, he had only one year left to live!
"One year... In this year, I have to improve rapidly. I just wonder what realm I have to reach before my lifespan will increase."
"Time is a little short."
Ye Qin came to the highest point of the entire mountaintop. From there, he could see almost the whole landscape, looking down on all the other peaks at a glance.
He had been cultivating here throughout this period.
The mountain was lush and verdant, resembling a coiling Azure Dragon. The dragon lay within it, its head facing the position of Ye Qin's cave. The view was broad, and it was truly an excellent landscape.
As the sky darkened, the setting sun sank into the sea of clouds, and night drew back the curtain.
The entire mountaintop became a richly painted landscape in deep ink, most of its contours swallowed by darkness until only a gigantic shadow remained. At a glance, it looked like a primordial giant.
At some unknown point, the moon hung high in the vast sky, scattering countless silvery rays without the slightest stinginess. The mountain forest, which had fallen into darkness, was illuminated once more.
Cold radiance adorned the mountaintop, and a veil of silver poured down with it, guiding those fated to receive it.
Ye Qin was clearly one of its fated snakes.
He fully stretched out his body, like a straight measuring ruler, allowing his entire serpentine form to receive the moonlight's cleansing more effectively. Every so often, he even flipped over.
After doing all that, he raised his body upright again, though his head bent slightly.
From a distance, he looked just like he was worshiping the moon!
(End of Chapter)