Eastern Evil and Western Poison

Chen Fan immediately rushed toward the snake eggs in delight. Back then, he had planned to use these two eggs as materials for poison-making and pill refinement, but after examining them closely, he discovered that the little snakes inside showed faint signs of breaking out of their shells. No wonder that giant snake had suddenly left its nest—it had likely gone to find food for its soon-to-be-born young. Heaven had the virtue of cherishing life. Although he had slain the old snake, he had eliminated evil and brought peace to the good, so his conscience was clear. But if he were to lay hands on snakes that had not yet emerged from their shells, he truly could not bear it. Thus, he set the eggs aside and ignored them, eventually forgetting about them entirely.

Now that the two little snakes had broken out of their eggs at the same time, the wondrous sight let him feel the marvels of nature. After emerging from their shells, the two snakes wriggled slightly, but their eyes remained fixed on Chen Fan without blinking. Chen Fan shifted his body from side to side, and the little snakes' gazes moved with him, as if afraid he might leave.

These two little fellows must have mistaken him for their parent. Chen Fan secretly found it amusing. What would these two think if they knew that he had killed the old snake? It was like discovering that the person who had raised you was the enemy who had murdered your father. It might become a hidden danger in the future.

Yet karma came full circle. He had stolen the eggs, so the old snake had wanted to kill him. He had killed the old snake, and now it seemed he had no choice but to raise these two little snakes. If these two snakes harmed him someday, then that could only be called fate. Still, it should be difficult for these snakes to surpass him in strength. It was basically impossible. Ah, he would just let nature take its course.

"Listen carefully, you two. Your mother once brought disaster upon this mountain and has been slain by me. I hope you two will stay properly by my side from now on. If I discover that you are committing evil deeds, do not blame me for mercilessly destroying you as well." Chen Fan spoke sternly to the two little snakes, regardless of whether they could understand him.

The two little snakes wriggled again, seemingly expressing agreement. It appeared that the eggs laid by the old snake contained a certain amount of heaven and earth's Origin Qi, allowing the little snakes to possess some intelligence the moment they were born.

Chen Fan looked at the two snakes with satisfaction. Their eyes and tails were green, and compared to the old snake, they were nearly exact miniature versions of it. Their blood was probably green as well. They were indeed Three-Green Flower Pythons. Seeing the faint patterns already present on their bodies, it was clear that they had been born with considerable venom.

Chen Fan extended his right hand, and one little snake excitedly darted up and coiled around his wrist. Delighted, he extended his left hand as well, and the other little snake coiled around it. An idea struck him. "I'll give you two names. You'll be called Eastern Evil and Western Poison." He raised his right hand. "You'll be Little East." Then he raised his left hand. "And you'll be Little West."

Then he gently flicked both hands downward, and the two little snakes leaped back onto the table. Yet they continued staring at Chen Fan and hissing. Hm? Could they be hungry? Chen Fan took out some dried provisions and fed them to the little snakes. The snakes sniffed them, raised their heads, and hissed at Chen Fan again. They were actually picky eaters. Helplessly, Chen Fan said, "You two wait here. Don't run around." He remembered that some outer sect disciples kept pets and often hunted in the mountains, so they should have raw meat or something similar.

A short while later, Chen Fan returned and tossed a large chunk of meat to the two little snakes. They sniffed it and took a few bites, then sniffed it again and stopped eating. They continued staring at Chen Fan and hissing.

What? They would not eat meat either? Were they trying to become immortals? Chen Fan was speechless. After thinking for a moment, he took out a poison pill he had made before. The instant he placed it beside the little snakes, the two snakes seemed to become incomparably excited, scrambling to bite at the poison pill. In an instant, they had eaten it clean, not even leaving crumbs behind. After finishing, the two snakes looked at Chen Fan with lingering desire, occasionally wriggling their bodies.

What? Their mouths were that finicky? So Chen Fan took out another pill and tossed it over. The two snakes fought over it madly again, more or less splitting it evenly. Only after finishing this meal did they slowly lower their bodies, looking thoroughly satisfied. Chen Fan could not help but break into a cold sweat. Who could afford to raise them at this rate? The demonic beasts of nature usually survived by eating wild plants or hunting other beasts. Yet these two fellows wanted to eat pills from the moment they were born?

Still, if there were no pills, they would probably eat other things. But it was easy to go from frugality to luxury, and hard to go from luxury back to frugality. Could today's stipend be available forever? Forget it. He would satisfy them as much as possible. After all, now that he had become their "mother," he had to take responsibility for his children. If there really were no pills, they could eat something else, so long as they did not starve to death.

These two little snakes looked extremely well-behaved. Although they could not yet help Chen Fan in battle or poison-making, he would raise them for now. With these two little fellows by his side, his ordinary days would be a little less lonely.

Another day passed. A streak of radiant light flashed across the horizon, followed by the appearance of a beautiful figure outside Chen Fan's house.

"She's here again, and this time it's another woman." "I'm used to this guy by now. I won't be interested in this kind of gossip anymore." Quite a few disciples saw the scene, feeling both envious and speechless. In any case, they had long since grown accustomed to women appearing outside Chen Fan's door.

"Chen Fan, come out for a moment." A woman's voice spoke with a trace of coldness.

The door opened, and Chen Fan poked his head out. He had just been studying the poison-making arts in the Treasure Record and playing with the two little snakes beside him. When someone suddenly came to see him, he hurriedly tidied everything away before running over to open the door.

"Fairy Ye?! Why are you here? Did something happen?" Chen Fan was rather surprised. Ever since Fairy Ye had left that day and said she would no longer come to teach, he had thought it would be a long time before he saw her again. Yet only a few days had passed, and she had come to his door on her own. Could something urgent have happened? He could clearly sense that Fairy Ye's attitude toward him had softened considerably before. Why did her tone just now sound icy to the extreme again?

"Did something happen? Shouldn't I be asking you that?" Fairy Ye looked meaningfully at Chen Fan. "Someone asked me to give this to you." With that, she took out two books and handed them to him.

Chen Fan accepted them and was astonished. The covers of the two books respectively bore the titles Blood-Coagulation Technique and Rejuvenation Formula. When he opened them, the contents had clearly been copied by hand recently, and the ink in some places had not even dried. Could these have been copied personally by that Little Witch over the past two days?

"Hurry and put them away. That girl said you can read them without worry, so there's no need to rush to return them. Also, it isn't convenient for her to come out lately, so cultivate well on your own." After giving a few instructions, Fairy Ye turned to leave. Then she suddenly remembered something, turned back, and asked, "If you wanted to read the books in the Scripture Pavilion, why didn't you come to me?"

Chen Fan was speechless inside. Qin Ziyan must have been watched in the palace, so she had entrusted Fairy Ye to deliver the books to him. Looking at the two handwritten copies, he was deeply moved. He had not expected the Little Witch to be so loyal and affectionate. His attitude toward her before had been neither warm nor cold. Thinking about it now, he felt somewhat ashamed. But what did Fairy Ye mean by that? What difference was there between seeking her and seeking Qin Ziyan? Besides, he had not sought out Qin Ziyan in the first place—it was Qin Ziyan who had come looking for him. Another difficult, strange, beyond-the-syllabus question!

"Fairy Ye has already shown this junior much care on many occasions. This junior would not dare trouble Fairy Ye with such matters again," Chen Fan replied respectfully.

"Do you not dare, or are you unwilling?" Fairy Ye cut in. She looked at Chen Fan a few more times, then suddenly froze. "You're already at the third level? It seems I truly have nothing left to teach you. Give it back to me."

"What?" Chen Fan asked in confusion.

"The token."

"Oh..." Chen Fan tremblingly took out the Swordheart Hall token and presented it with both hands.

Ye Wan accepted the token and glanced at Chen Fan again. Hmph, he actually took it out without the slightest hesitation. So be it. With the token in hand, Ye Wan then ran off in a puff of smoke. Yes, she looked somewhat disheveled as she fled.

What was going on? She seemed angry? A woman's heart truly was impossible to fathom.

Time flew by. A year later, at the outer sect martial arena, it was the mid-month day for disciples to spar. If disciples wished to verify the cultivation methods they had practiced, they could take this opportunity to compete and exchange pointers. Naturally, these were friendly matches, ending at the proper point.

One figure wielded a sharp sword. In an instant, his body became blurred, and several identical figures simultaneously raised their swords and thrust forward. Dots of sword radiance fell toward a young man opposite him. The young man was greatly alarmed and hurriedly raised his sword to block, shattering one streak of sword radiance. Then he spun around and swung his sword backward, blocking another streak. Immediately afterward, he forcefully performed a backward flip to the side, barely avoiding the opponent's third streak of sword radiance. That streak landed on the ground not far from him, leaving another deep sword mark on the martial arena.

However, before the young man could steady himself, his opponent used an exceptionally ghostly movement technique to split into five afterimages, unleashing five consecutive streams of Sword Qi. The Sword Qi attacked from above, below, left, right, and center, and its power was even stronger than the previous three streaks of sword radiance.

"I concede!" the young man cried out in panic just in time.

The five streams of Sword Qi that had been flying toward him instantly lost most of their force, finally dissipating into nothingness just a few feet in front of him.

"Junior Brother Chen, I never expected you to become this strong. I'm afraid none of us can be your opponent anymore," the young man said.

"Senior Brother Murong, you let me win." The two sparring were none other than Chen Fan and Murong Zhu.

Over the past year, Chen Fan had cultivated bitterly day after day. Aside from continuously consolidating and improving his Internal Qi realm, his attainments in swordsmanship had advanced by leaps and bounds. He had not cultivated any more profound sword arts. Instead, he had completely fused the Azure Mountain Sword Art and Clear Wind Art to perfection, wielding them with incomparable mastery. Coupled with his third-level Internal Qi, he now had few rivals among the outer sect disciples. He had even comprehended some of the mysteries of the Soaring Art. Though he had no corresponding cultivation method to practice, based on his understanding of the Soaring Art, he had created several unique footwork techniques and incorporated them into his swordsmanship, making it difficult for opponents to grasp his movements in battle.

Over the past year, he had also occasionally sparred with Murong Zhu and other outer sect disciples. Gradually, many people could no longer withstand even a single move from him. While the disciples marveled in their hearts, they also came to thoroughly admire Chen Fan.

Over the past year, Chen Fan had not relaxed his study of the Treasure Record either. At present, he could skillfully refine nearly a hundred kinds of poison. If not for the incomplete supply of materials, the number of types he had mastered would have been even greater.

After these poisons were refined, half of them actually went directly into the mouths of Chen Fan, Eastern Evil, and Western Poison. It was one thing for the two snakes to eat them. But Chen Fan eating alongside them made the sight rather insane. Yet Chen Fan had his own purpose. He first cultivated both the Blood-Coagulation Technique and Rejuvenation Formula to the third level, then compared their Origin Qi circulation speed and detoxification effects with the Golden Wheel Scripture. The result was that they still could not compare with the Golden Wheel Scripture at all. Chen Fan was certain that even if the two cultivation methods reached the fourth level, they could not surpass the Golden Wheel Scripture. Since both methods leaned toward recovery and healing, using them as his primary cultivation methods after the fourth level would be utterly useless. Thus, he simply gave up on continuing to cultivate them, though he kept the two handwritten copies stored away. As for the Golden Wheel Scripture, after he had cultivated it to consummate mastery, he directly destroyed the cultivation manual completely, thereby removing a major hidden danger. In addition, he had improved his Internal Qi realm considerably through the method of consuming poison, detoxifying it, and recovering. Still, he remained far from the peak of the third level.

Meanwhile, the two beauties from the inner sect had seemingly agreed never to seek out Chen Fan again. Chen Fan had no way to seek them out on his own, and besides, he had no real reason to find them. So he focused wholeheartedly on cultivation. However, he had recently learned that the Little Witch had been in secluded cultivation for nearly three months. It seemed that ever since she had fallen in love with the Scripture Pavilion, combined with her already exceptional talent, once she settled down to cultivate, everything had fallen naturally into place. Judging by the current situation, she should be in seclusion as she charged toward the great barrier of the fourth level. If she broke through successfully, he would have to address her as Martial Aunt. Yet Chen Fan did not care much about that.

As for Fairy Ye, Murong Zhu had learned that some outer sect disciples had seen her at the foot of the mountain. It seemed she had gone traveling. This was perfectly normal. After reaching a certain bottleneck, what cultivators needed most was not to bury their heads in study, but opportunity. Traveling everywhere and experiencing the hundred facets of the world would greatly increase the chance of breaking through a bottleneck.

So that meant he would continue not seeing either of them. Chen Fan mocked himself inwardly. Was he suffering from springtime longing? And longing for two people at once... Still, this also inspired Chen Fan. After a year of cultivation, he had reached certain bottlenecks in many aspects. Perhaps he lacked cultivation methods, or perhaps he lacked insight into battle. Was it time for him to go out and take a walk as well? Perhaps he might encounter his own opportunity.