Two Mandrake Snakes—Save Luo Sanpao First

Luo Sanpao lay collapsed at Yu Xiaogang's feet.

Its wings were still twitching, white foam hanging from its mouth.

Yu Xiaogang crouched down and picked it up.

"Is this Snake-Repelling Powder?"

"The academy issued it."

Tang San looked beyond the iron fence.

"Someone tampered with it."

"Only figured that out now? Too late, isn't it?"

Outside the fence, the man responsible for sealing off the abandoned Captive-Breeding Ground began to laugh.

"As long as you kill that Four-Century Mandrake Snake, everyone can leave. As for that pig, it was only hit with a little paralysis medicine. It won't die."

"There's also a Millennium Soul Beast over there."

Yu Xiaogang looked up.

"Didn't you see it?"

The smile on the man's face slowly vanished.

"The Millennium Mandrake Snake was only passing through."

"It has the scent of Snake-Luring Potion on it too."

Xu Zhou pointed across the river.

"You deliberately lured it here."

No one outside the iron fence spoke.

That was as good as admitting it.

They had originally prepared only one Four-Century Mandrake Snake. Following the original plotline, Tang San would kill the Soul Beast, absorb its Soul Ring, and everyone would leave safely.

But Xu Zhou had noticed the wrong location and changed their route in.

To keep the plot moving, they had no choice but to add another bottle of Snake-Luring Potion.

As a result, the four-hundred-year one came.

And so did the thousand-year one.

What was trapped inside the iron fence now was no longer the original scene.

"Deal with the four-hundred-year one first."

Yu Xiaogang retreated while carrying Luo Sanpao.

"The Millennium Soul Beast hasn't been fully stimulated by the drug yet. It won't attack on its own for now."

Xu Zhou glanced across the river.

The Millennium Mandrake Snake's fleshy crest had not fully spread open. Its body was coiled beside the tree roots, its eyes fixed on the medicine bottle inside the iron cage.

It was waiting.

Waiting for the medicine to take effect.

And waiting for the people inside to make the first move.

"Tang San, can you kick the bottle into the river?"

"Yes."

Tang San exerted force through his foot.

A chunk of gravel shot out and struck the medicine bottle dead on.

Crack!

The bottle split open, and a fishy-sweet smell spread through the air.

The Millennium Mandrake Snake raised its upper body, its fleshy crest opening as its forked tongue flicked repeatedly.

"You smashed the medicine bottle?"

Yu Xiaogang looked at Tang San.

"If we threw it into the river, it would be easier for it to track us."

Xu Zhou watched the flowing water.

"Now the entire river is filled with Snake-Luring Potion."

"Will it come over here?"

"It will."

Xu Zhou answered quickly.

"But it might not come for us first."

Sure enough.

The Millennium Mandrake Snake did not immediately charge at the iron cage. Instead, it slithered downstream along the riverbank.

The liquid medicine drifted away with the current.

Before a group of gray-clothed men hiding by the river could flee, they were sent flying by a sweep of the snake's tail.

"What do we do now?"

"Run!"

The men descended into chaos.

The Millennium Mandrake Snake chased after them along the river, temporarily leaving the abandoned Captive-Breeding Ground.

The people outside the iron fence immediately changed expression.

After arranging everything for so long, they had never expected the Millennium Soul Beast to attack their own people before Tang San.

Xu Zhou glanced at Luo Sanpao.

Its body had already gone limp, and its wings no longer moved.

Yu Xiaogang's expression was grim.

"The toxin is starting to spread."

Xu Zhou crouched down and rubbed some of the Snake-Repelling Powder from the ground between his fingers.

"This bag contains paralysis medicine, along with something that makes Soul Beasts sluggish."

Yu Xiaogang reached out and pressed a hand against Luo Sanpao's abdomen.

Luo Sanpao's Soul Power was dropping rapidly.

Xu Zhou placed the Snake-Repelling Powder beside the Black Ancient Book.

The pages turned.

[Medicine label: Snake-Repelling Powder.]

[Academy supply record: Realgar, wormwood, Snake-Aversion Grass.]

[Actual residue: Paralysis Pollen, Bewitching Herb Juice, Snake-Luring Pollen.]

[Proofreading result: The label does not match the formula.]

"Those people didn't merely want Luo Sanpao to fall unconscious."

Xu Zhou looked up.

"They also wanted it to lose its ability to fly."

Yu Xiaogang looked at Luo Sanpao in his arms.

"If it couldn't fly, it wouldn't have acted when it saved someone earlier."

"Right."

Xu Zhou picked up the bag of powder.

"They knew from the start that Luo Sanpao would save someone, so they prepared for it in advance."

Yu Xiaogang's fingers tightened.

People often treated Luo Sanpao as a joke, but it had accompanied him for so many years.

They could make fun of his theories.

But they could not use Luo Sanpao as an experiment.

"Where is the antidote?"

Yu Xiaogang raised his head toward the people outside the fence.

"Hand over the antidote."

No one outside answered.

The man holding the Amplifying Soul Tool finally spoke.

"Grandmaster Yu, don't make things difficult for us. The medicine came from the academy warehouse. We only arranged the site."

"You said Luo Sanpao wouldn't die."

"It really won't."

"Then hand over the antidote."

"There isn't one."

Tang San said nothing.

He removed a sleeve arrow from his belt.

Click.

The sleeve arrow was cocked.

"You don't have to open the gate."

Tang San looked beyond the iron fence.

"But the next hidden weapon won't be aimed at the fence."

"You dare?"

"There are no academy teachers here."

After saying that, Tang San aimed the sleeve arrow beside the man's feet.

Xu Zhou glanced at him.

Tang San was not without a temper.

He merely kept it buried deeper than most.

Yu Xiaogang raised a hand and pressed down Tang San's wrist.

"Save Luo Sanpao first."

"Teacher?"

"They won't hand over the antidote."

Yu Xiaogang looked at Xu Zhou again.

"Can you determine the medicine's ingredients?"

Xu Zhou did not answer.

He picked up a pinch of powder and held it beneath his nose.

Paralysis Pollen, Bewitching Herb Juice, Snake-Luring Pollen.

Mixed together, none of the three were fatal on their own.

But Luo Sanpao's Soul Power was not high to begin with, and its Martial Soul was a mutated form. After being affected, its Soul Power circulation had already stopped.

Ordinary detoxification methods might not work.

"We need water."

"Water?"

"Clean water. The more, the better."

"We have a waterskin."

Tang San immediately removed the water pouch from his waist.

But Xu Zhou shook his head.

"Not enough."

He looked at the stone trough in the center of the abandoned Captive-Breeding Ground.

The trough had originally been used to give Soul Beasts water. Half a trough of murky water still remained inside.

"That water can't be drunk."

Yu Xiaogang said.

"The stone trough hasn't been cleaned in ten years. There are rotten grass roots inside."

Xu Zhou walked to the stone trough and picked up a dried stalk of grass.

The Black Ancient Book turned its pages.

[Residue: rotten grass roots, Bitter Moss, a small amount of snake saliva.]

[Conflicts with Luo Sanpao's current symptoms.]

"We can't use the water from the stone trough."

Xu Zhou looked outside the iron fence.

"Open the gate."

"Do you take us for fools?"

"If Luo Sanpao dies, Yu Xiaogang will stay here forever."

Xu Zhou pointed at the mechanism beyond the iron cage.

"And Tang San won't be in a hurry to kill the Mandrake Snake either."

"He'll settle accounts with you first."

"When that happens, this original-plot restoration experiment can't continue."

The man did not answer.

Xu Zhou continued, "You arranged this Captive-Breeding Ground so Tang San could obtain his first Soul Ring. Now there are two snakes here, Luo Sanpao has been poisoned, and the exit is broken. As long as Yu Xiaogang stays behind, Tang San will not make a move."

"You haven't trapped us."

"You've trapped your own plot."

The people outside the iron fence began arguing in low voices.

They needed Tang San to absorb the Soul Ring.

They needed Yu Xiaogang's guidance.

More than that, they needed this soul hunt to conclude properly so the subsequent betting pool could pay out.

But Yu Xiaogang was clutching Luo Sanpao and refusing to let go.

Tang San could not possibly go kill a Soul Beast while his teacher's Martial Soul was in critical condition.

The longer the three of them stalled, the more anxious the people outside became.

Xu Zhou spoke.

"Send in a bucket of clean water."

"What gives you the right to order us around?"

Xu Zhou looked at the betting slip listing the completion requirements.

"More than five hundred people outside bet that I'd make it out alive."

"If I die in here, the betting pool can naturally be settled."

"But if I make it out alive, more people will learn about this."

"By then, it won't just be Nuoding Academy coming to settle scores with you."

The man's expression changed.

Xu Zhou had not threatened him.

He had merely stated the consequences that already existed.

The entire continent was full of transmigrators.

Once word got out, those trying to make money by forging scenes from the original work would quickly become targets watched by every faction.

They could deceive Tang San once.

But they could not deceive everyone.

"Give him water."

The man finally spoke.

The feeding hatch opened, and a wooden bucket was pushed inside.

Xu Zhou did not take it immediately.

He had the Black Ancient Book move close to the bucket.

[Residue on the bucket's outer layer: medicinal solution.]

[Residue on the bucket's inner layer: clean water.]

"Change the bucket."

"Don't push your luck."

"There's snake-luring medicine around the rim."

Xu Zhou pointed at the edge of the bucket.

"Luo Sanpao is already unconscious from Snake-Luring Pollen and paralytic poison. If it gets even a little more on him, he won't be saved."

The people outside had no choice but to replace the bucket.

Tang San took the clean water, pried open Luo Sanpao's mouth, and fed it to him bit by bit.

Luo Sanpao did not swallow.

Water trickled from the corner of his mouth, soaking Yu Xiaogang's sleeve.

Yu Xiaogang lowered his head and wiped it away.

"Luo, luo."

Luo Sanpao finally made a sound.

It was faint.

But audible.

Yu Xiaogang's shoulders relaxed slightly.

Xu Zhou poured the remaining clean water into an empty bottle, then added several Numbing-Relief Herbs he had found in the herb garden.

The Black Ancient Book marked conflicting text.

[Herb garden record: Numbing-Relief Herb can ease low-level paralysis.]

[Current record: the effects of Numbing-Relief Herb on Mutated Soul Beasts are unknown.]

[Effectiveness cannot be confirmed.]

"Can he be saved?" Tang San asked.

"We'll try."

Xu Zhou handed the medicinal liquid to Yu Xiaogang.

"Feed him small amounts."

"What if it's wrong?"

"Then we'll try something else."

Xu Zhou did not say it would definitely save him.

The Black Ancient Book could only proofread. It could not guarantee reality for him.

Yu Xiaogang took the medicinal liquid and fed it to Luo Sanpao as Xu Zhou had instructed.

A quarter of an hour passed.

Luo Sanpao still did not wake up.

The people outside the iron fence began urging them on.

"Tang San, the Mandrake Snake has already been restrained. Hurry up and do it!"

"If this drags on any longer, the Soul Beast's condition will worsen!"

Tang San looked at the Four-Century Mandrake Snake.

It was restrained by the chains of the Captive-Breeding Ground, its fleshy crest spread open as its body continually slammed against the iron cage.

But Tang San still did not raise his hand.

Xiao Wu had said not to treat Soul Beasts as answers.

He did not want to complete some so-called original plot within a cage arranged by someone else.

"Xu Zhou."

Tang San turned his head.

"Do you have any other way?"

Xu Zhou lowered his head to look at the unresponsive Luo Sanpao.

The Black Ancient Book remained quiet for a long time.

Then, a line of unfamiliar text suddenly appeared on its pages.

[Detected a compatible reaction between the host's Soul Power and Mutated Martial Soul.]

[Soul Power Resonance may be attempted.]

[Success rate: unknown.]

Xu Zhou raised his hand and pressed it against Luo Sanpao's forehead.

The moment his palm touched him, a faint ripple of Soul Power came from within Luo Sanpao's body.

The next moment, the Four-Century Mandrake Snake inside the iron cage stopped thrashing.

The Millennium Mandrake Snake across the river also raised its head again in the distance.

Both Soul Beasts turned toward Xu Zhou at the same time.

Someone outside the iron fence blurted out,

"Isn't he supposed to have zero Soul Power?"

Xu Zhou did not answer.

Because the next line of text had already appeared in the Black Ancient Book.

[Warning: if the host continues the resonance, both Mandrake Snakes will lock onto him.]

[Public Script progress updated.]

[Burden of the Soul Hunting Forest: completion requirements changed.]

[Within three days, lead the entire team out alive.]

Outside the door, the iron fence mechanism dropped again.

Click.

All exits locked shut at once.