An Emei Disciple

Though Red Snake and Black Tortoise had taken a liking to each other and applauded wildly for love every year, their temperaments were worlds apart. Black Tortoise was generous and kind, regarding all living things with a benevolent, optimistic heart. Even after being hurt by humans, or hacked to death countless times, he hated only those who had killed him, never venting his anger on all humanity.

He also believed humans were clever and possessed great wisdom, and he liked making friends with them.

Red Snake was different. He was vicious, spiteful, and venomous by nature, repaying even the smallest slight. Of all living creatures, humans had hurt him the most, and he hated them most bitterly. Once, a hunter had laid a trap with blades buried in the ground that slit his belly open. Only the boundless miraculous power of Queen Mother Grass had saved him. After waking that time, he had sworn to kill every human he saw—to slaughter every human under heaven!

Now that he served the Black Dragon King, he was forbidden to kill people at will. He simply could not understand why the Black Dragon King liked humans so much, not only sparing them but even saving them. He believed that sooner or later, those treacherous, cunning humans who repaid kindness with betrayal would hurt the Black Dragon King, perhaps even kill him.

Countless times, he had wanted to cry out to his king, If you keep this up, sooner or later you'll die at human hands!

He had gone so many days without killing anyone...

He could not kill ordinary villagers, but heaven had mercifully provided Yao Suxiu, someone who had committed a wrong and been condemned by the king.

The king tied his hands and feet and threw him into the river because he wanted him dead, didn't he? That had to be it!

He did not know that the Black Dragon King was essentially human. Unable to understand his king's feelings toward humanity, he naturally had even less hope of fathoming why the king had released Yao Suxiu this time. First, the villagers who had been wronged and brought the complaint had forgiven Yao Suxiu and pleaded for him. Not only did they think he should not die, they actually believed he had done the right thing. Second, Yao Suxiu truly had built a temple for Shi Feiyang.

Red Snake could not grasp the intricacies of it. All he knew was that if he killed a human condemned by the king, the king probably would not be angry.

Yao Suxiu had been cursing fiercely before, but when he saw Red Snake's enormous body swimming swiftly toward him, his legs went weak. He dropped to his knees with a thud. "General Red Snake! General Red Snake, spare me! The Dragon King Prince promised to leave me to live or die on my own..."

Red Snake paid no heed to what he said. His two icy eyes fixed on Yao Suxiu as his body wound its way out of the water. He came before Yao Suxiu, whose head bobbed against the ground like a pestle pounding garlic, and raised his head high, ready to swallow him in one bite.

Just as he opened his fang-filled jaws to swallow him, a streak of Sword Light suddenly flew in from afar. "Monster, don't you dare harm him!"

Red Snake turned his head like lightning and saw a streak of white Sword Light several dozen feet long flash in from the side, thrusting straight toward the vital spot below his head. He hastily opened his mouth and spewed a thick stream of Elixir Qi to envelop it.

The Sword Light was pure white, following the orthodox Daoist tradition, and of superb quality. It shone within the Elixir Qi, slashing sideways and thrusting up and down. Then, with a fierce shout from its wielder, its radiance suddenly surged, cleaving the Elixir Qi apart in one stroke before cutting toward the snake's head again.

The old Red Snake would certainly have been killed by that strike. Despite possessing over three hundred years of magical power, he had never known how to use it properly. Since joining the Black Dragon King, however, he had received instruction several times, learning both cultivation methods and practical techniques. He had not only purified and refined his existing power, drawing true yin from his poison-fire medicinal core to bring about a fundamental transformation, but had also learned several spells for practical use.

Seeing how formidable the enemy's flying sword was, Red Snake rolled toward the muddy bank beside him. Red smoke surged from the ground. The flying sword pursued him and slashed into the smoke, only to strike empty air. The enormous snake had vanished into thin air, nowhere to be found.

Having escaped death, Yao Suxiu hurriedly ran toward the direction from which the flying sword had come.

Just then, a red-faced Daoist with a long beard emerged from the woods, dressed in a blue cloth robe. Forming a hand seal, he recalled his flying sword and strode toward the riverbank as swiftly as if he were flying.

Yao Suxiu hurried over and knelt, knocking his head against the ground. "Thank you for saving my life, immortal! Thank you for saving my life! May I ask your honored name?"

"I am Lei Qu'e, abbot of Whitewater Abbey." The Daoist recalled his flying sword but did not draw it into his body, instead keeping it circling him as he watched his surroundings warily. "I returned to Mount Emei to pay my respects to the sect's head adept and, under the guidance of several senior martial uncles, refined my sword in the mountains. Only a year has passed, yet I never expected such a formidable snake demon to appear here!"

Lei Qu'e was a disciple of the Kǎnlí Adept, Xu Yuantong. He had entered the sect only three or four years earlier, and his cultivation was not particularly deep. But the Emei Sect's Swordsmanship stood unrivaled under heaven, and his elders had helped him forge that flying sword. Thus, Red Snake could not withstand it.

Yao Suxiu had been searching for a Sword Immortal to slay the demons. Hearing this, he nearly wept with joy and pointed toward Dinghu Peak, looming faintly through the distant clouds and mist. "There are more demons in there! A black dragon demon! This snake is his subordinate. Oh, and they have a huge black tortoise too, another very powerful monster! Immortal, quickly wield your divine sword and kill them all! Rid the world of these scourges!"

Lei Qu'e shook his head. "I've long known about the dragon demon inside Dinghu Peak. But he usually cultivates in seclusion at the bottom of the lake and never comes out to harm anyone. Otherwise, we orthodox Sword Immortals would not tolerate him. He possesses the Heavenly Book in its Jade Casket, so the Sword Immortals of the heterodox sects would have killed him long ago as well. How could he have survived until now?"

"He does harm people! He does!" Yao Suxiu hurriedly said. "That monster came down the mountain several months ago, whipped up wind and waves, and unleashed a great flood. Flash floods swept through a hundred li around, collapsing people's homes and leaving them homeless and wandering. In many families, old and young alike died together in mudslides. It was utterly tragic. He forced us to provide money and labor to build him a Dragon King Temple and worship him daily with incense. Every month, when the moon was full on the fifteenth, we also had to offer him young boys and girls to eat. And today, he said the Dragon Palace was lonely and made us choose the youngest, prettiest girls from our households to become his Dragon Consorts. Boohoo... those poor girls, only fifteen or sixteen, lovely as flowers and jade, all fell victim to that monster!"

Lei Qu'e was shocked. "That dragon demon can already speak human language?"

"Yes! Of course he can!" Yao Suxiu wept as though his heart and lungs were being torn apart, bowing his head in blood-soaked anguish. "I beg you to show mercy, immortal, and save the people of Mount Xiandu! Otherwise, before long, that dragon demon will slaughter us all!"

Lei Qu'e pondered, then said, "I've only studied the Dao for three to five years, and all I have is this one Flying Sword. I was never a match for that dragon demon to begin with. Now that he can speak, he must have eaten some heavenly treasure after shedding his skin and truly come into his power. I cannot subdue him. We'll have to ask my master to intervene. Come with me!"

He intended to take Yao Suxiu back to find the Kǎnlí Adept, Xu Yuantong. But he had barely turned around when red smoke suddenly surged from the ground again. This time, there was not one plume but eight, arranged in a circle according to the Eight Trigrams, surrounding them.

"Careful! The demonic mist is poisonous!" Lei Qu'e formed a seal with his left hand and stirred his True Essence. A powerful wind gushed from his sleeve toward the red smoke ahead, attempting to disperse it.

Naturally, Red Snake had produced this red smoke. He possessed over three hundred years of magical power, but previously could only spew it wildly on a monster's instinct, bringing out barely three or four tenths of its strength. Now, using the spells Shi Feiyang had taught him, he could unleash twelve or thirteen tenths of its power!

Lei Qu'e continued casting his spell. The Emei immortal arts held boundless mysteries, and his sleeve seemed like the legendary Gods of Wind's wind sack. The gale pouring from it grew stronger and fiercer, sending sand flying and stones rolling, blotting out the sun and moon.

Yet the seemingly thin red smoke surged and twined amid the wind and sand without dispersing. Instead, its plumes linked together, growing ever denser.

"This is bad! It's the Eight-Gate Reversal Formation... how is that possible?" Disbelief covered Lei Qu'e's face.

He could see that the formation was founded on Qimen Dunjia. Rest, life, injury, obstruction, scenery, death, fright, and opening—the Eight Gates were reversed and interlinked.

For a snake to know the arts of Qimen was already extraordinarily strange. Yet this technique was both orthodox and heterodox. It appeared to have strayed down a crooked path, pursuing only overwhelming power and thereby creating numerous weaknesses. Lei Qu'e studied orthodox Daoist arts and spotted many flaws at a glance. By exploiting them properly, he could break his opponent's spell.

But whenever he actually tried to act, those weaknesses either shifted and vanished or were balanced and filled by other parts of the formation, leaving him no opening. He examined several places, only to find the same thing each time.

"How truly strange and wondrous!"