"Phew~"
"I'm old, I'm old! I really am useless now. These days, this old woman can't even beat a rising star of the martial world."
As soon as Zhang Daring left, the old woman seemed to deflate. She sighed incessantly about her own age, all the while stealing glances at the young man who had fought alongside her earlier.
Watching Zhang Daring leave, Zhou Zhen turned back with a smile and said gently, "Snake Granny, you give yourself too little credit. If Zhang Daring hadn't swallowed the Martial Stone, how could he have fought you?"
Then he changed the subject. "Granny, I've heard you keep all sorts of strange and mysterious little creatures. Do you have any idea who stole the Ice Silkworm?"
"Hahaha, you've got a silver tongue, young friend. You're nothing like those stiff, merciless people from the Demon Slaying Bureau. And what you've heard is true. Just let this old woman take a good look."
"Honestly, I'm curious too. What kind of extraordinary person could steal the Ice Silkworm right under our noses?"
As she spoke, Snake Granny shed her kindly expression and grew rather fierce.
Well, how many people who made their living in the martial world were truly kind, after all?
She walked a few steps to where the rat had been, then bent down to examine the spot closely.
She touched the ground, pinched up some dust and rubbed it between her fingers. Then she brought it to her nose and sniffed. Frowning thoughtfully, she couldn't help murmuring to herself:
"What's this smell?"
As she spoke, she suddenly put the dust in her mouth to taste it. Her face darkened.
"Urine? Rat urine!"
"No, that's not right. These traces belong to that rat."
Zhou Zhen watched Snake Granny's string of actions, baffled. Were people who worked with snakes, poisons, and medicine all this peculiar?
Before long, Snake Granny shifted over to a depression in the ground.
"What's this?"
"What is this?"
Zhou Zhen crouched beside her and asked curiously.
The depression was far too conspicuous in this spot.
Snake Granny ignored him. She gently ran her fingers over every part of the indentation, as tenderly as if caressing a lover.
Of course, if anyone could have zoomed in on her fingertips just then, they would have seen some strange little creatures there.
As her fingers traced the ground, they suddenly passed over a faint scratch. Her hand paused almost imperceptibly, then continued as before.
Her expression shifted several times throughout. At last, she darted a glance at Zhou Zhen and slowly uttered one word:
"Snake!"
"Snake?" Zhou Zhen exclaimed in disbelief. "That can't be right. How could a snake show up here and eat that rat and the wooden box?"
Snake Granny glared at him. "Are you questioning the years of experience this old woman has? I've worked with snakes for years. Don't I know whether something's a snake?"
"If nothing unexpected happened, it was probably a Ten-Thousand Snake. Spring has arrived, so it must have just woken up and come out to hunt. It happened to run into them and ate them."
"Is that so?"
Zhou Zhen answered, eyeing Snake Granny suspiciously. He sensed something was off, but couldn't figure out what. After all, he knew little about snakes.
"If that's the case, then let's part ways here and search separately."
With that, Snake Granny stood up and left as if nothing had happened.
Yet at that moment, she hesitated inwardly, with a hint of joy she couldn't quite explain.
Was it really just a snake?
Zhou Zhen folded his arms and rested his chin on one hand as he watched Snake Granny recede into the distance, asking himself.
At night, the bright moonlight spilled like water across the woods. The bustle of the day had long since faded, leaving only chaos in the forest.
But now a figure appeared—a figure who should have left.
Snake Granny!
It turned out she had never left. She had only pretended to go, hoping to fool Zhou Zhen.
Now that she seemed to have seen Zhou Zhen leave, she had returned at her leisure.
As for why she had come back, that had everything to do with what she had discovered that day.
She was still turning over in her mind the faint scratch she had seen around noon.
Was that trace really from a snake? A Ten-Thousand Snake?
Yes and no.
When Snake Granny had answered Zhou Zhen's question, she had been honest. She hadn't lied to him at all. But there was one thing she hadn't mentioned: she hadn't told him everything she had discovered.
There really were snake-like traces there, that much was true. But why was there also a sharp scratch among them?
She hadn't had time to think it through, since things had been urgent.
But she had studied snakes for years.
She realized that, judging by the position of the body at the time, the scratch really had been on that unknown "snake"—it hadn't been made by an eagle that happened to swoop down.
So she had instinctively kept it to herself.
After all, they were neither kin nor friends. She had no reason to tell him everything.
Then she forced down her curiosity and pretended to leave. She waited until Zhou Zhen had more or less gone, then came back to investigate.
As she pondered, Snake Granny returned to the spot once more.
Only when she saw the traces were still there did she breathe a sigh of relief. Thank goodness they hadn't been disturbed.
After all, she had spent this time turning those traces over and over in her mind. In the end, it had struck her that they looked a little like Jade Claw.
A snake's body-shaped indentation—and Jade Claw...
And then there was the strange unease her precious little creature had shown that day.
Could these be the traces of an Earth Dragon?
No, that wasn't right. An Earth Dragon's scratches couldn't be so sharp.
Besides, her precious little creature wouldn't have felt uneasy around an Earth Dragon. It would only be so unsettled in the presence of a higher-ranking member of its own kind, or one of its natural enemies.
But she had raised her precious creature for years. Ordinary snakes couldn't possibly be a match for it.
Then...
A certain premonition surfaced, and Snake Granny could hardly wait. She bent down and began examining the traces closely.
Since she had left once, she had prepared everything she needed.
Countless tiny insects crawled down from her body. Following the scent she directed them toward, they spread over the ground, soon coating it like ink.
Then, on the earth, they formed the shape of a mysterious creature: long and narrow, with claws.
The moment Snake Granny saw the shape emerge, her eyes flew wide and her expression froze. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.
Th-this... this trace was...
Snake Granny's heart began pounding wildly. It meant her guess might be right!
She instinctively glanced around, suddenly suspicious of everything, though there shouldn't have been anyone nearby. Then she swiftly waved the insects away.
No, she couldn't be so hasty.
Snake Granny firmly shook her head. The mighty imperial court had spent who knew how much manpower and treasure, and nearly a thousand years, searching for this mysterious and powerful creature.
They still hadn't found it. How could she possibly have stumbled across one so easily?
She needed to search carefully for other traces nearby.
With that thought, she made the insects memorize the scent and began searching slowly.
But she failed to notice someone else in the darkness...
"Ten-Thousand Snake," another elegant title for the King Cobra, meant "king of ten thousand snakes."