The Legend of the White Snake

"Ma Feifei, are you really that powerful?" Yun Qingyang flew over from a distance, looking at Ma Feifei with disbelief, searching for the dragon's whereabouts. But even after circling around, Yun Qingyang couldn't find where the giant dragon had gone.

Ma Feifei was also dumbfounded. He had just swung his sword, and the dragon was directly absorbed into the book without him even realizing it.

"There are fragments in the book," Yun Qingyang said, pointing to a spot on the page.

Ma Feifei glanced at the book and noticed an Orange Fragment lying quietly in the lower right corner, clearly left behind by the dragon.

"Let's go back first. I need to figure out what's going on." Ma Feifei put away the Tianshu Fragment, picked up the black book, and flew towards the Bookstore, with Yun Qingyang and Ba Jiu following closely behind.

The heavy rain had stopped, and the summer sun was scorching even in the morning. It quickly dried up the damp earth, and the air seemed to be filled with a burnt smell.

In the backyard of the Mysterious Bookstore, Ma Feifei placed a rocking chair under a maple tree, using its Overgrow leaves to shield himself from the scorching sun, and then took out the book he had used to smash the dragon earlier.

This book was a gift from the system when Ma Feifei purchased books and triggered a critical hit effect. It's an Epic-grade- quality book, and the content is a well-known story in Ma Feifei's world. Its name is "The Legend of the Righteous Demon," but we can also call it "The Legend of the White Snake" or "The Leifeng Pagoda."

The Legend of the White Snake is one of the "Four Great Folk Tales" of ancient China in Ma Feifei's world. The story of the White Snake originated as early as the Northern Song Dynasty, but it evolved from the love story of "Lianmei and the Calf" recorded in the "Wei Du Fu" of the Wei and Jin Dynasties into the story of "The White Snake Troubles Xu Xian". The female protagonist of the story also changed from "Lianmei Girl" to the White Snake.

Unlike the "Legend of the White Snake" passed down through generations, according to the late Ming Dynasty story Jingshi Tongyan, during the Song Dynasty, a snake demon who had cultivated for a thousand years transformed into a human named Su Zhen. She and the green snake spirit Xiaoqing met a scholar Xu Xian at West Lake in Hangzhou. Bai Xiao Qing, driven by lust, desired to be with the scholar and married him. After experiencing many trials, Xu Xian realized that Su Zhen and Xiao Qing were both supernatural beings and, threatened by the white snake, was terrified. He sought help from the Fahai Master Fahai. The white snake was then captured in a bowl and imprisoned under Leifeng Pagoda. Xu Xian, disillusioned with the world, willingly became a monk, taking the Zen Master as his teacher and shaving his head at Leifeng Pagoda.

Therefore, in "The Legend of the Righteous Demon," there is no story about the White Snake repaying Xu Xian's life-saving grace in a previous life, nor is there the later story of Shilin becoming the top scholar in the imperial examination and rescuing his mother from Leifeng Pagoda. In "The Legend of the Righteous Demon," Xu Xian is so frightened that he sees through the world and cultivates under Leifeng Pagoda for several years. He passes away in meditation one night, and the monks buy a shrine to cremate him and build a bone pagoda that Immortal a thousand years.

Before leaving, Xu Xian also left behind eight lines of poetry:

The patriarch guided me out of the mortal world; only when the iron tree blooms does spring arrive.

Transformation and reincarnation, life after life, transformation and rebirth.

To know whether something has color or not, one must recognize that something has form yet is not.

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form; emptiness and form must be clearly distinguished.

In general, the ending of the Legend of the White Snake in "The Legend of the Righteous Demon" is not good. Therefore, in later generations, in order to make the story more accessible to the general public and to suit popular tastes, many additional elements were added.

However, the content of this book is indeed related to snakes. In the "Records of Strange Things" volume, it says, "The water snake transforms into a jiao after five hundred years, the jiao transforms into a dragon after a thousand years, the dragon transforms into a horned dragon after five hundred years, and becomes Ying Long after a thousand years."

In other words, the next evolutionary direction of the snake is the jiao, the evolutionary direction of the jiao is the dragon, and so on. The jiao evolved from the snake.

"But what does it mean that the dragon was sucked into the book?" Ma Feifei looked at the Legend of the White Snake in his hands, completely bewildered. He didn't know what was happening to the dragon inside, so he had no way of knowing more.

With this in mind, Ma Feifei searched his mind for the system's help.

"Ding! Congratulations, host, you have triggered the Epic-grade- quality 'The Legend of the Righteous Demon' quest, 'Suppressing the Dragon at Leifeng Pagoda'."

"Mission Details: It is known that the Divine Beast Jiaolong has mistakenly entered the <The Legend of the Righteous Demon>. Please go into the book to subdue the Jiaolong and suppress it under Leifeng Pagoda. (Note: You cannot Sheer Force within the book's world.)"

"Quest Reward: Leifeng Pagoda Flood Dragon Dungeon"

As soon as Ma Feifei saw this mission, he knew that this dragon had no hope of ever becoming a dragon. It had actually been turned into a dungeon boss by the system. In the future, let alone transforming into a dragon, it would be ravaged by countless cultivators, and that feeling would be no different from being worse than dead.

However, he had no pity for Jiao Ma Feifei. If Jiao hadn't launched the spirit beast attack on the city, hundreds of thousands of soldiers wouldn't have died outside Zhenbei. Jiao's sins were grave and he couldn't be forgiven.

"It's a bit frustrating that I can't use force. Do you think I can subdue that dragon with just words?" Ma Feifei lay on the rocking chair, gazing at the lush maple leaves, and muttered to himself.

"Hmm... By the way, am I invincible in the book world?" Ma Feifei suddenly thought of this and asked the system in his mind. It was fine that he couldn't use force, but his life safety definitely had to be guaranteed. Otherwise, what was the point of going in? To seek death? It would be better to let Jiao stay in the book for the rest of his life. At worst, he could just give up on this book, <The Legend of the Righteous Demon>. He was rich and could do whatever he wanted!

"Host, you are now invincible in <The Legend of the Righteous Demon>," the system Frillish announced.

Then Ma Feifei retreated with a smug look on his face. As long as it was invincible, it was fine. He didn't need to use force; he, Ma Feifei, had plenty of ways to deal with that dragon.

"Hmm... there's no time like the present, why don't we go in now and deal with that dragon?" Ma Feifei glanced at the book "The Legend of the Righteous Demon" in his hand, slapped the cover, and was about to go in when he suddenly remembered something, put the book away, and ran towards the Wantong Trading Market across the street.

An hour later, Wantong Trading Market issued an announcement.

"The Divine Beast within Nine Heavens Mountain have been subdued by the Mysterious Bookstore. Furthermore, the Mysterious Bookstore still possesses nineteen Orange Fragment scattered throughout Nine Heavens Mountain. To collect these remaining nineteen Orange Fragment, the Mysterious Bookstore is increasing its rewards: one Orange Fragment can be exchanged for five million Spirit Crystal and one ordinary Divine Abilities and Spells; those who exchange three Orange Fragment at once can exchange for one advanced Divine Abilities and Spells."

This news caused a stir, but everyone's attention wasn't on the increased reward of Orange Fragment, but on the fact that the Divine Beast in Nine Heavens Mountain had been captured by the Mysterious Bookstore!

"If I remember correctly, this should be the second Divine Beast that the Mysterious Bookstore has captured, right?" The cultivators who had just received the news began to discuss among themselves.

"Yes! Last time we tamed the Sky-reaching Ape Monkey, and now we've tamed another one, the same one from the Nine Heavens Mountain. You know, that Divine Beast is said to have lived since ancient times!"

"Could it be fake? I haven't sensed any important figures fighting these past two days!" one cultivator said skeptically, but his words were immediately refuted by everyone else.

Could the news about the Mysterious Bookstore be false?

"That's right. This morning at the North Town Entrance, I saw the shopkeeper and the Saint fighting with a middle-aged woman. It might just be that Divine Beast."

"I saw it too. The Saint One was even knocked away by that middle-aged woman."