Gu Shenge immediately pressed the jade-green orb lightly against his forehead. Its light broke into countless glowing specks and merged into his eyes. He felt a faint warmth spread through them as three small jade-green flowers, resembling tomoe, gradually appeared deep within his irises. They turned slowly, radiating a strange, soul-stealing magic.
"So this is the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils. Truly remarkable."
Gu Shenge swept his gaze around with the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils. Aside from anything else, his eyesight had improved significantly. Even bugs in the cracks of a wall hundreds of meters away were perfectly clear to him.
He turned to look at Medusa, who was healing her wounds.
Medusa's bewitchingly beautiful face was etched with pain. Her brows were tightly knitted, and a thin trickle of blood ran from the corner of her mouth. Clearly, the damage caused by that palm strike had left her in a great deal of discomfort.
Though the Battle Qi contained in the system's simulated tenfold counterattack came from the same source as hers, it was still beyond her ability to suppress. It had already reached the Dou Zong level.
Looking at the gravely injured Snake-Person Queen, Gu Shenge came up with a very bold idea.
As the saying went, the timid starved while the bold feasted.
Gu Shenge decided to take a chance. If it worked, the reward would surely be generous.
He cautiously approached Medusa. Suddenly, she opened her beautiful eyes, and a terrifying killing intent swept over him like a storm. Every hair on Gu Shenge's body stood on end. A chill climbed from his tailbone to his brain, leaving him frozen as if plunged into an icy abyss, his skin covered in goosebumps.
"Mortal, what do you intend to do to this queen?"
Medusa forced down the Battle Qi rampaging through her body and questioned Gu Shenge coldly. Her voice was icy, like a frost-laden wind blowing against him and chilling him to the bone.
Faced with the Snake-Person Queen's question, Gu Shenge simply sat down on the ground. Bearing the brunt of her killing intent, he stated his purpose.
"Your Majesty, I'd like to make a deal with you."
"A deal? You think a mere mortal like you is worthy?"
Medusa scoffed at his proposal, not taking Gu Shenge seriously at all.
A powerless mortal was hardly worthy of negotiating with her. If she hadn't been worried that her attack would be returned to her with tenfold force, she would have slapped him to death the moment he approached.
Gu Shenge wasn't angry. Medusa was right: to her, he was nothing more than an insignificant mortal. He spoke evenly as he asked the Snake-Person Queen, "Your Majesty, have you ever heard of the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils?"
"The Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils!"
At the mention of them, Medusa was deeply shaken. Ignoring the turbulent Battle Qi she was trying to suppress, she turned sharply toward Gu Shenge's eyes. Seeing the three small jade-green flowers slowly turning in his irises, her Companion Soul, the Purple Nether Flame Snake, sounded the alarm, repeatedly urging Medusa to keep away from him.
Medusa ignored the Purple Nether Flame Snake's warnings. Staring into Gu Shenge's eyes, she spoke with astonishment and deep wariness.
"They really are the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils!"
Though the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils existed only in ancient texts and Medusa knew little about them, she did know of their terrifying ability to control snake-type magical beasts. Once branded by the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, even a Dou Zun expert or an Eighth-Rank Magical Beast could be controlled and made to obey.
Suddenly, Medusa reached for Gu Shenge's eyes, moving as fast as lightning. She intended to gouge out the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils by force.
"Your Majesty, wasn't the lesson from your last attack enough?"
At the last possible moment, Gu Shenge warned Medusa. Her hand stopped right in front of his eyes. After hesitating for a moment, she slowly drew back her delicate, pale hand.
Gu Shenge breathed a sigh of relief. Damn it, this woman really did kill first and ask questions later!
"Then, Your Majesty, are you willing to hear my offer now?"
"Hmph! You think having the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils gives you the right to negotiate with me? A mortal is still a mortal."
Medusa snorted. She wasn't the least bit interested in Gu Shenge's offer. All she wanted now was to recover from her injuries, then find an opportunity to gouge out his Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils and transplant them into herself.
Faced with Medusa's mockery, Gu Shenge only smiled faintly. Then he changed tack, his words laced with threat.
"Your Majesty, you may be a Dou Huang expert, but no snake-type magical beast can escape the control of the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils. Besides, you're gravely injured. How much strength do you have left to resist? I'm offering you a deal out of respect and giving you the chance to save face. If you refuse, I won't hesitate to use more forceful methods."
"Oh, and don't think you can just slap me to death. You'd only hurt yourself. One little mistake, and you might even die."
"If you die, the Snake-People Tribe will lose its leader. The Chu Yun Empire and Jia Ma Empire will probably destroy it before long."
"Your Majesty, surely you don't want the Snake-People Tribe buried alongside you?"
Gu Shenge kept smiling as he spoke, but the three jade-green flowers in his eyes spun faster and faster, their eerie light swirling. He looked ready to brand Medusa with his mark at the slightest disagreement.
At Gu Shenge's threat, Medusa flew into a rage. Crimson Battle Qi surged like a tide, and the overwhelming might of a Peak Dou Emperor bore down on him like an avalanche. Gu Shenge felt as though a boulder were pressing on his chest, leaving him unable to breathe, while a mountain on his back forced him to bend forward.
Medusa stared coldly at the hunched-over Gu Shenge, murder in her eyes. Her voice grew even icier as she demanded, "You've got some nerve, threatening this queen! Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"
Gu Shenge struggled to lift his head. Even under the terrifying pressure of a Peak Dou Emperor, he answered with a smile. "No. I can guarantee that Your Majesty will be the one to die, not me."
To him, even the pressure of a Dou Huang expert was nothing compared to the stress of having two girlfriends meet at once and nearly blowing up his whole dating pool.
Medusa looked at Gu Shenge, who had no cultivation at all. She could kill him with a single slap, but she didn't dare take the chance. If she lost that gamble, it wouldn't be only her who died—it could be the entire Snake-People Tribe.
As the Snake-Person Queen, Medusa cared deeply about the future of her people. Otherwise, she wouldn't have risked swallowing a Heavenly Flame to break through to Dou Zong in the original story.
After a moment of silence, the breathtakingly beautiful Snake-Person Queen fixed her gaze on Gu Shenge and asked, "Tell me. What deal do you want to make with me?"
Seeing Medusa give in, Gu Shenge's lips curled into a faint smile.
"It's simple. I want to marry Your Majesty. I promise you won't be disappointed by the bride price."
Hearing that the mere mortal before her wanted to marry her, Medusa felt a surge of shame and fury. How dare a powerless nobody covet her? He was asking for death!
If her injuries weren't so severe, and if that mortal weren't so bizarre, she would have torn him to pieces and tossed him to the poisonous serpents in the lake as food.
Medusa forced herself to calm down. She couldn't let herself get angry and aggravate her injuries.
The Snake-Person Queen looked at Gu Shenge with utter contempt. Her lips parted, her voice full of disdain and disgust.
"And you think you're worthy of marrying this queen? This queen—"
Before Medusa could finish, Gu Shenge brought out the Perfect Sect-Breaking Pill and held it up before the Snake-Person Queen. Smiling, he explained, "Your Majesty, if you're willing to marry me, this Perfect Sect-Breaking Pill—which can guarantee a Peak Dou Huang's breakthrough to Dou Zong—will be your betrothal gift. There'll be even more generous gifts afterward. What do you say? Will you make this deal?"
Seeing the Perfect Sect-Breaking Pill, surrounded by nine Pill Patterns and shrouded in Pill Glow, Medusa froze for a moment, astonishment showing in her beautiful eyes.
After a long while, the Snake-Person Queen came back to herself. She scrutinized Gu Shenge, weighing whether this deal was worth taking.
She had only one requirement for a husband: he had to be stronger than her, capable of winning her over and protecting the Snake-People Tribe.
The mortal before her had no cultivation at all, yet he was unnervingly mysterious. Not only did he possess the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, which could control all snake-type magical beasts, but he also held the Sect-Breaking Pill she coveted.
For a fleeting moment, Medusa thought that the person before her had been sent by the heavens specifically to be her undoing.
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