Killing One Another

Lei Qu'e had been poisoned by the snake and fallen into the mud, cutting a thoroughly wretched figure. He tried to get back up, but his legs would not obey him. Hurriedly, he took a small gourd from his robes, poured out two pills, and swallowed them. Then he struggled into a cross-legged position and circulated his power to force out the poison.

Red Snake slithered over at tremendous speed and opened his jaws to swallow Lei Qu'e.

Just then, another stream of black vapor shot straight out of the woods, and he heard an extremely familiar voice cry, "You mustn't kill him!"

Red Snake knew that black vapor all too well. It belonged to Black Tortoise.

Displeased though he was, he stopped, raised his head, and looked toward the woods.

An enormous, jet-black tortoise came scrambling out of the trees, vigorously working her four great claws as she hurried over. "You mustn't kill him!" She brought her huge head close to Lei Qu'e and examined him carefully, then told Red Snake, "Hurry and suck your poison out!"

Red Snake was most unhappy. "Why can't I kill him? I'm going to kill him!"

Black Tortoise snapped, "Are your old habits acting up again? Watch yourself, or I'll tell the king!"

"The king only told me not to slaughter indiscriminately. This man just sent a flying sword at me to kill me, so naturally I can kill him in return!" Red Snake said coldly. "The king is a dragon! He's not human! He would never forbid us to fight back when humans attack and kill us."

Black Tortoise was momentarily at a loss for words, then said, "You still can't kill him. This child once saved me..."

Red Snake snorted coldly. "To save a human, you'd actually make up such a pathetic excuse!"

"I didn't make it up. It's true."

"True? Truly laughable! How old is he? You were already this big twenty years ago. Could he have saved you from inside his mother's womb?"

"It was five hundred years ago." Black Tortoise sighed. "I was only the size of a palm then, and a fisherman caught me. He bought me from the fisherman and released me back into the river."

Red Snake plainly did not believe her. "Keep making things up. I'm listening, though it isn't entertaining in the slightest."

Black Tortoise shook her shell, then raised her left foreclaw and pointed behind her. "You know that the back of my shell naturally forms the eight trigrams and bears the pattern of the Luo River Diagram. I've been studying it all these years. Though I haven't found the proper method, I've still gained some insights through the unseen workings of fate. At the very least, I calculated that the Black Dragon King would achieve extraordinary things in the future, and told you to help him when he was battling someone with magic. Only by forming that auspicious bond did we come to enjoy what we have today..."

"Oh, shut up!" Red Snake scoffed. "When the king fought that Daoist in the woods that day, anyone who wasn't blind could see his vast divine abilities and boundless magical power. Even without you saying anything, I would have gone to join him."

"Even so, I later received guidance from the king and gained some understanding of divination. I calculated that this child was the benefactor who saved my life all those years ago."

"Even if he really is the benefactor who saved your life, I'm still going to kill him!" Throwing all caution to the winds, Red Snake opened his jaws wide to swallow him again.

Black Tortoise hurriedly stopped him once more. "I also calculated that he will save our lives again in the future!"

Red Snake paused, fixing Black Tortoise with his icy snake eyes, then suddenly sneered again.

"You don't believe me? That really was the result of my calculations. Otherwise, he and I are neither kin nor friends—why would I insist on saving him?"

"You've always been this softhearted." Red Snake lowered his upper body from its attack posture, turned, and slithered toward the bank.

Black Tortoise brightened at the sight. "So you finally believe what I said?"

"No," Red Snake answered without hesitation.

"Then are you planning to let him go?"

"Not that either." Red Snake took a mighty breath toward the bank, dismantling the formation he had laid earlier and sucking all the red mist into his belly. Then he continued onward.

Yao Suxiu was still inside the yellow ring of light. When the red mist suddenly vanished, he thought Lei Qu'e had returned to save him, only to see the enormous snake slithering toward him at tremendous speed.

He reckoned that Lei Qu'e was useless. If the man himself could not defeat Red Snake while he was here, what good could the magic treasure he had left behind do? Not daring to remain inside, Yao Suxiu took to his heels, leaving the protection of the ring of light and running upstream.

Had he stayed inside, Red Snake would have had no way to get at him for the moment. That was why he had withdrawn the formation to frighten him out. Sure enough, Yao Suxiu could not withstand the scare and left the ring of light on his own. Red Snake opened his jaws and sucked him through the air to land before him.

At the sight of that enormous snake head and monstrous mouth packed with fine, curved fangs, Yao Suxiu nearly wet himself in terror. He collapsed to the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, begging forgiveness. "Spare me, General Red Snake! Spare me, General Red Snake!"

Red Snake addressed him in somewhat awkward human speech. "Only one of you and that Daoist can live. Go kill him, and I'll let you leave. Otherwise, I'll let him leave and eat you."

Seeing that there was still a chance to survive, Yao Suxiu scrambled up from the ground without another word. "I'll kill him!"

The man and snake returned to the spot where Black Tortoise had already loaded Lei Qu'e onto her back and was carrying him toward the woods.

"Stop!" Red Snake shouted with a hiss. "Do you think you can leave without my permission?"

Black Tortoise stopped helplessly. "What do you want?"

Red Snake opened his jaws and sucked Lei Qu'e off her back, flinging him onto the ground. "Out of consideration for you, I won't kill him. But I never said I wouldn't let someone else kill him. Only one of these two gets to survive today!"

"How can you do this!" Black Tortoise protested.

"Why can't I?"

"You're making them kill each other!"

"That's exactly what I'm doing. I love watching humans kill each other!" Red Snake wagged his head smugly. "Humans call themselves the highest of all creatures, possessed of great wisdom. Yet from what I've observed, they're no different from other birds and beasts. They fight viciously and kill each other over a mouthful of food or a female. Go on, kill him, and I'll spare your life."

He directed that last remark at Yao Suxiu, who summoned his courage and walked toward Lei Qu'e.

Lei Qu'e had not lost consciousness. He had taken the Emei Sect's antidote pills and opened his lung apertures and intestines to expel the poison. Now his dantian throbbed with a twisting pain, his belly rumbled urgently, and urine and feces poured out uncontrollably. He had already soiled his trousers, but his mind was much clearer. Only the left half of his body refused to obey him; his right hand and foot could still move, though not very nimbly. Lying on the grass, he watched Yao Suxiu approach with a vicious expression and said in anguish and fury, "I just saved you! Without me, this demon snake would have eaten you long ago, and now you're going to kill me?"

Yao Suxiu gritted his teeth and said savagely, "If I don't kill you, I can't live! Revered Daoist, I have no choice either. Don't blame me. Blame your shallow cultivation and feeble magic for being unable to beat them. If you'd killed them both the moment you struck, how could we have ended up like this!" He picked up a stone the size of a bowl's rim and smashed it hard against Lei Qu'e's head.

With a crack, Lei Qu'e was knocked backward into the mud, his head split and bleeding. Blood gushed out, quickly staining half his face and the sodden ground red.

Black Tortoise raged, "You repay kindness with vengeance! You'll die a miserable death!" As she spoke, she raised a claw to slap Yao Suxiu dead.

Red Snake blocked her. "If you interfere again, don't blame me for turning against you! I've already done as you asked and spared him. Now this is humans killing each other. It's none of your business, and I won't interfere either. We'll see which one kills the other."

Black Tortoise glared at him bitterly. "You're utterly despicable!"

Red Snake grew furious too. "I'm despicable? I'm despicable? I think you're the despicable one!" He lunged forward and coiled his long body around Black Tortoise, then told Yao Suxiu, "Hurry up and kill him! Once he's dead, I'll let you go!"

Thank you to "Qiongzhu" for your generous support. Thanks!