At midnight, Ye Wenlu and Ni Hongye sat where the campfire's heat could just reach them. One ground the fruit they had gathered over the past few days; the other tended her blades.
Everyone else was asleep, though lightly. At the first sign of danger, they could spring up at once.
Python Mountain's climate was damp, especially after nightfall. The clouds and mist seemed to sink slowly from the sky. Clammy vapor settled on the leaves and soaked them in moments; clothes caught in it soon felt wet too, like laundry that had only just been washed and had yet to dry.
In such conditions, the damp left people sluggish. If the ancients had encountered miasma in the mountains as well, it might have cost them their lives.
Fortunately, Nameless and the others were no ordinary people. Internal Force circulated through their bodies, and with the campfire nearby, the chill and damp did not trouble them much.
"Phew. Why do you think Python Mountain has no pythons?" Ye Wenlu exhaled a puff of smoke, then asked Ni Hongye.
Ni Hongye paused. Instead of answering, she lowered her head and went back to tending her blades. Ye Wenlu gave a helpless sigh. "I spotted plenty of venomous snakes just now, but not a single python. Yet this mountain is called Python Mountain. Don't you think something's odd?"
"I don't know. If there really is a python, I'll cut it down," Ni Hongye said flatly.
Ye Wenlu gave a wry smile. "I'm afraid this python might not be an ordinary one."
Deep in the night, rain began to patter down. Another kind of rain, unlike ordinary rainwater, fell with it. The travelers on the mountain noticed nothing; only someone looking up from the foot of the mountain could have seen the strange