Deep inside the dim cave, in a corner near the pile of nuts, Black Snake carried the gold aside piece by piece in his mouth, silently counting it. After a while, he suddenly stopped, his tongue frozen in midair, looking rather dazed.
He collected himself and started over.
From outside the cave entrance, a steady clinking could be heard within. The sound was remarkably regular, ringing for a while, falling silent for a while, then stubbornly repeating.
Outside, the world was in the chaos of war, and the famine caused by the drought still lingered.
He Ning said that even with money, food was hard to buy now. Everything was expensive. He would have to wait a few years, until peace returned and all things regained their vitality. Prices would naturally fall again then, and that would be a better time to buy eggs. There was no need to hurry.
Whether it took ten years or twenty, Black Snake could afford to wait.
Only after a long while of work did he leave the cave, slowly slithering up onto the high rocky ridge and spreading out his body to soak up the sunlight.
That was really all there was to a snake's life.
The same monotony, day after day: hunting, basking, cultivating, and then sleeping.
Ignoring the little sparrows hopping about, he gazed at the quiet wilderness. It had been a long time since any worshippers had come up the mountain.
It was actually rather nice to have the wilderness grow quiet.
He could attend to his own affairs in peace, such as focusing entirely on encouraging his soft spines to grow.
Turning his head, he saw two people turn onto the road at the foot of the mountain.
He switched his vision and confirmed that they were cultivators.
He