The Mountain God Temple That Worships Snake Statues

After preparing the food, Hu Xiaocao started cleaning up. By the time she finished everything, it was already dawn. She grabbed her enamel mug and her basket and prepared to leave.

"Mom, I'm going out. There's porridge on the stove, remember to eat it later."

The woman nodded and gently warned, "Be careful yourself. Don't go into the mountains anymore. It's too dangerous for a child like you to go into the mountains."

"I'm not scared. Grandpa Mountain God will protect me."

Hu Xiaocao mumbled a few words, but her voice was too soft for the woman to hear clearly.

A day seemed very long, but Hu Xiaocao had so many things to do. She was like a spinning top, constantly moving from the moment she opened her eyes.

After cutting pig feed as usual and finishing all her chores, Hu Xiaocao picked a lot of wild fruits and headed towards the mountain path. On the way, she met a few villagers returning from their work in the fields.

"Little Cao, where are you going so happily?"

Hu Xiaocao bounced and replied, "I'm going to pay respects to Grandpa Mountain God."

Watching Hu Xiaocao's receding back, the other villagers exchanged glances. "Mountain God? Where did this Mountain God come from? How can that little girl believe in such things?"

They chatted for a bit and didn't think much of it.

Hu Xiaocao arrived at the place where she had met the Mountain God the previous night.

However, it was a pity that she didn't see the Mountain God. Everything here had returned to normal, ordinary, as if what happened yesterday was just Hu Xiaocao's hallucination.

But she knew it wasn't a hallucination. The Mountain God was real, the moon was real, and even the Moonpetal Grass was found thanks to the Mountain God's blessing.

After a moment of thought, Hu Xiaocao suddenly clapped her hands. "Grandpa Mountain God must be sleeping."

She placed the wild fruits she had picked on the ground, bowed devoutly, and kowtowed a few times before leaving.

As days went by, Hu Xiaocao continued to make offerings like this every once in a while, but she never saw the Mountain God.

Hu Xiaocao was not discouraged. One day, Grandpa Mountain God would surely be moved by her sincerity and agree to see her!

Although she didn't go very often, she was seen by others several times, and the other villagers learned about Hu Xiaocao's visits to worship the Mountain God.

Initially, the woman was worried and didn't want her to go into the mountains, but she couldn't resist Hu Xiaocao's persistent requests. Moreover, she only went during the day and wouldn't stay too long, so the woman reluctantly agreed.

She only warned Hu Xiaocao to stay on the outskirts and not to go deeper, as it was easy to encounter wild beasts.

One day, after finishing her usual offerings, Hu Xiaocao didn't leave. Instead, she fell into thought. "Why is Grandpa Mountain God still unwilling to come out? Am I not sincere enough? I really want Grandpa Mountain God to bless Mom!"

Hu Xiaocao remembered the temples she had seen in town when she went to the market with her mother.

"All those gods are enshrined in temples, and there are all sorts of delicious pastries and fruits..."

Hu Xiaocao looked at the small wild fruits placed on the ground, a hint of guilt showing on her face. Compared to those offerings, hers were too meager.

No wonder Grandpa Mountain God hadn't appeared again. He must have thought she was fooling him.

How could she ask Grandpa Mountain God to bless her mother like this?

Hu Xiaocao's eyes darted, a spark of intelligence flashing through them. She suddenly patted her head, as if she had thought of a brilliant idea. "I've got it!"

She ran down the mountain, not noticing a snake's tail flashing past behind her.

A faint rustling sound could be heard, barely noticeable, like the sound of snake scales sliding across the grass.

Ye Qin watched Hu Xiaocao run away. "I was wondering why there were always wild fruits appearing here recently. So it was this girl. Is she worshipping me as the Mountain God?"

He rarely appeared during the day because his cultivation had reached the second stage, which required moon contemplation. However, he had recently noticed fresh wild fruits appearing here at regular intervals.

Ye Qin couldn't help but be curious, so he came to investigate. He never expected to accidentally witness Hu Xiaocao making offerings to him.

"It seems this girl really thinks I'm the Mountain God."

Meanwhile, Hu Xiaocao didn't know that her beloved Grandpa Mountain God had already appeared.

At the foot of the mountain, she picked up some bricks left over from other people's work. She mixed them with mud and straw and began to build, brick by brick.

A villager passing by saw Hu Xiaocao working diligently and couldn't help but tease her, "Little Cao, are you playing with mud here?"

Hu Xiaocao, a small figure squatting on the ground, was engrossed in her mud and brick work. Without lifting her head, she retorted seriously, "No, I'm building a house for Grandpa Mountain God."

The other villagers found this amusing.

To their surprise, Hu Xiaocao was serious and actually built something. A small temple, less than half a meter tall, took shape. Apart from being crude, there were no other flaws.

Hu Xiaocao scratched her head, looking at the small temple before her, and muttered, "I feel like something is missing. What could it be?"

Her eyes lit up. "How can a Mountain God temple be without a Mountain God?"

Hu Xiaocao pinched a lump of mud from nearby. Soon, a thin, long creature appeared in her hands, resembling an earthworm.

She carefully and devoutly placed it inside the temple, as if it were the Mountain God himself.

A small Mountain God temple was thus completed.

The Mountain God presided, and wild fruits served as offerings.

Though small, it had all the essential components.

Then, Hu Xiaocao respectfully knelt before the small temple and kowtowed three times, muttering something that sounded like a prayer. After a long while, she stood up.

The villagers who saw this couldn't help but tease her again, "Little Cao, didn't you say this was a Mountain God temple? Why did you put an earthworm inside?"

Hu Xiaocao stomped her foot in frustration, nearly crying, "What earthworm! That's a snake! It's the all-powerful Mountain God grandpa!"

The villagers rubbed their noses. Although they didn't understand the connection between the Mountain God and a snake, seeing Hu Xiaocao on the verge of tears, they felt bad continuing to tease her.

They could only chime in, "Yes, yes, yes, this is Mountain God grandpa."

Hu Xiaocao didn't dwell on what the villagers had said earlier, but fearing they might offend the Mountain God, she piously kowtowed a few more times.

"Mountain God grandpa, please don't listen to those people's nonsense. I made it very realistic, so please don't dislike it. When Xiaocao earns a lot of money in the future, I'll build you a big house and sculpt a golden statue."

After doing all this, Hu Xiaocao left with a satisfied heart.

As evening approached, Ye Qin appeared. He looked thoughtfully at the small mountain temple before him, falling into silence.

"Is this really not mocking me?"

What greeted his eyes was a crooked, unidentifiable creature.

Coiled up inside the temple, calling it an earthworm would be an exaggeration. If he truly looked like that, he'd cry from ugliness.

Ye Qin's gaze flickered and he saw three foxtail grasses blowing in the wind in front of the temple. It was clear that Hu Xiaocao hadn't managed to get any incense, so she'd pulled up a few blades of grass to serve as a temporary substitute.

It was passable, looking somewhat like the real thing, though many aspects couldn't withstand close scrutiny.

Although everything looked very simple, a simplified version of everything, it was Hu Xiaocao's heartfelt intention, and she had built it with her own hands.

"The little girl is quite interesting."

Ye Qin shook his head and didn't linger there, then continued back to his cave.

It wasn't that he was cold-hearted, but he was powerless in such matters. The girl hoped her mother would recover soon, but Ye Qin couldn't heal people.

He was still just a snake right now, not yet at a realm where he could turn the world upside down, nor had he learned the art of alchemy. Therefore, he could only offer his sympathies in such situations.