Dawn broke, mist flowed, and the valley lay steeped in celadon stillness.
Water thundered along the valley floor.
Treetops appeared and vanished in the thick white mist like bleeding ink stains, while the cliffs stood dark, soaked through by the night's rain.
Despite his injuries, Black Snake insisted on raising his head to breathe.
Shuffling footsteps came from the hillside path, punctuated by repeated yawns. The steps were sluggish, each one heavy with fatigue.
Tiny droplets clung to Chi Ke's brows as he struggled onto the Giant Rock and greeted him breathlessly.
"Morning, Snake Brother. Thank you for your help before. An old friend visited yesterday, but you gave him a fright in the middle of the night. This morning, he hurried down the mountain without even eating."
Before he could set down the cushion tucked in his arm, he spotted several open wounds on Black Snake's body.
"This... what... what fierce beast could have wounded you, Snake Brother?"
He suddenly recalled the sinister affair from a few days before and felt a pang of guilt, thinking he had dragged Black Snake into it. On closer consideration, though, that seemed unlikely. The evil presence did not seem capable of harming flesh, and these wounds were fresh, not old injuries.
Seeing that Black Snake was still in fairly good spirits eased his mind a little, and he set his doubts aside for the moment.
Even wounded, the snake cultivated without slacking, while he, supposedly the most enlightened of all creatures, had grown lazy. He ought to correct that.
He hurried to sit upright on a rock shaped like a stone stool and began slowly breathing in and out, taking advantage of the mountain air while it was at its purest after the rain.
At some point, a small patch of thick mist overhead quietly thinned.
Sunlight shone through the cloud barrier, dyeing the suspended moisture into swirling gold dust. Motes danced within the shafts of light.
Black Snake carefully drew the golden radiance mist into his belly.
Beside him, Chi Ke stared, transfixed. Only after a long while did he recover from the wondrous sight and hastily immerse himself in his breathing practice.
The swelling mist obscured the sunlight. Beautiful as the scene had been, it returned to the ordinary before there was time to savor it, leaving only regret.
After a while, the moisture rode the wind and became clouds.
A snake and a man remained on the rock, watching the scenery.
After that wondrous display of breathing in golden mist, much of the frustration that had piled like stones in Chi Ke's chest over his failures in alchemy dispersed. He took a book with frayed edges from his sleeve and continued teaching the great snake.
Black Snake tried his best to remember Chi Ke's complicated calls, but he could neither understand nor retain them.
By noon, the rambling lesson was over.
Closing the book, Chi Ke hesitated, then decided to speak his mind.
"Snake Brother, you and I met in the Wilds and have cultivated together. I have long since regarded you as a friend."
"A few days ago, I happened upon an Alchemy Manual. After reading it, I discovered it was an evil book, yet many beyond these mountains still revere it as a secret canon. It actually records techniques for refining living creatures into pills, especially recommending the refinement of mountain spirits and water monsters, and cooking and eating the flesh of demonic beasts to strengthen oneself. Every line reeks of the blood of creatures that have awakened their intelligence!"
"Hah. If these techniques really work, those hypocrites with mouths full of benevolence will surely practice them in secret too. They were never particularly diligent to begin with. If they can take a shortcut, why endure the toil?"
Then he looked into Black Snake's eyes and said,
"I had hoped you could live on friendly terms with the people of the world, Snake Brother..."
"But human hearts are treacherous. From now on, whenever you see anyone walking on two legs like me, you must stay alert. Do not readily trust anyone, myself included!"
Having spoken, he felt much more at ease, with an indescribable sense of clarity.
In truth, he had been tempted when he first glimpsed the book's contents. Immortality was hard to attain, and here was a shortcut that could satisfy his desires without years of bitter endurance. Chi Ke had indeed entertained the thought, but in the end, he chose to abandon it.
He had thrown the book into the furnace and burned it.
If the road to heaven was paved with bones and drenched in blood, he would rather go without such filthy immortality.
Black Snake still could not understand. All he could do was flick his tail.
Chi Ke returned to his alchemy, and wisps of bluish smoke curled up from the valley floor.
Black Snake coiled on the rock, catching intermittent sunlight through gaps in the drifting white clouds. His wounds no longer troubled him. Only a few damaged scales curled up at the edges, and he would probably have to wait until his next shedding for the scars to disappear completely.
After experiencing the effects of last night's thunderstorm on his body, Black Snake had dimly brushed against some hidden mystery.
A vague intention arose within his simple awareness.
Since thunder could alter old ailments in his body, and the essence of rain and mist could ease his hunger, perhaps some invisible, intangible food circulated between heaven and earth. Then how could he consume this formless food more effectively to sustain the needs of his ever-growing body?
Over the past few years, he had hunted more and more frequently, driven to roam almost daily by bone-gnawing hunger. The shortage of food severely limited his growth.
He had to seek a change, or he would be unable to keep growing.
When rain fell or mist rose, should he take deeper breaths? Or go somewhere higher?
It was deeply troubling...
Time passed quickly as he pondered these things.
Only when the sun sank behind the mountains did his pondering end.
Perhaps that thunderstorm had helped his brain make a little progress. Troubled, Black Snake thought of the stone man, the fox, and the fat weasel. A hazy notion surfaced: he suspected they were like him, unusual beings set apart from the rest.
Chi Ke was left out because Black Snake could not switch his vision to him, and his body did not glow either.
Black Snake decided to seek out the fox and see how much food it ate.
Naturally, the quickest way was to leave his body.
He coiled into an ink-dark circle, fell still, and soon stopped flicking his tongue. His awareness darted through the mountain wilderness like a streak of black light, silently gauging the distance as he traveled.
He reached the limit of his range without finding the fox, so he returned to his body.
After waking, he slid down the great boulder and traveled toward the area where the fox generally roamed.
He casually found a sheltered spot, coiled up, and slept peacefully. Switching once more into that dim gray view, he swiftly searched the slopes, dense woods, and deep gullies.
Before long, beneath a large rock in a mountain hollow, he found a distinctive glowing cluster that gave off heat.
You'll never believe why I moved to... Kaohsiung
My life in emojis: ️, , , ️
MeetSingles
Looking for someone in Kaohsiung today
Willing to lie about how we met
Singleflirt
You'll never believe why I moved to... Kaohsiung
My life in emojis: ️, , , ️
MeetSingles
Looking for someone i
n Kaohsiung today
Willing to lie about how we met
Singleflirt
He swiftly approached.
The fox had just finished its prey and was licking the blood from the corners of its mouth.
Suddenly sensing something, it looked toward Black Snake.
It recognized Black Snake almost at once and bounded about, calling joyfully. Then it curled into a ball where it stood. A moment later, the fox, radiating warm heat, left its body and sprang lightly over to Black Snake.
Black Snake tried to describe what he had experienced, but he did not know how to express it. He could only flick his tail and nod.
The fox thought Black Snake had come to play and happily bounced in circles, copying his tail flicks and nods.
"..."
For the first time, Black Snake truly wished he could make calls.
His troubles only multiplied.
Two unusual beings capable of temporarily leaving their fleshly bodies attempted a futile exchange beyond words in the most primitive way: one bounded joyfully, tracing one arc after another, while the other nodded and flicked his tail.
After a brief spell of commotion, Black Snake turned and left. The fox stood on a large rock, its gaze following him until he disappeared from sight.
Returning to his own body, he tried hard to think seriously about how he could establish communication with Chi Ke or the fox.
Clearly, his snake brain's limited abilities made it almost impossible to devise an answer.
For the moment, he set aside that insoluble worry.
He returned to the great boulder and coiled there, leaving his body to focus on raising his head toward the moon.
The moonlight was cool and clear. Some kind of energy entered his body with each breath-very little, but enough to ease his hunger. So moonlight counted as a kind of food too.
Time passed quickly. The sky gradually brightened, while the pale full moon still hung motionless overhead, not yet faded from sight.
He returned to his body, raised his enormous head, and greedily swallowed the newborn dawn glow together with the mountain mist into his lungs.