The viper's venom broke him. His cries grew weaker and weaker, until they finally faded into the empty valley.
First, crows circled down, their black wings slicing through the sunlight. They gathered in cawing clusters to peck at him, and the smell drew wild beasts as well, bringing a feverish bustle to the hillside.
Dragged by beasts and picked apart by crows, his old clothes and bones gradually scattered.
After some days, vigorous weeds sprouted between his ribs, covering every trace and quietly folding him into the vast, verdant mountains.
Black Snake watched for two days. No phantom appeared, leaving him thoroughly puzzled.
He soon put it out of his mind.
He kept spending his days tempering his Yin Spirit into shape, but progress was as slow as drawing out a strand of silk.
Although transforming it was difficult, there were unexpected rewards. By chance, he discovered that his memory had become clearer than before, and he could remember more and more. Only then did he realize that concentration could make his little brain smarter.
In a hazy daze, he lost track of how much time had passed.
At night, moonlight filled the valley. Black Snake lay coiled motionless on a rock.
Within his dim gray field of vision, Black Snake's Yin Spirit swayed beside him, changing shape.
After countless days and nights of painstaking tempering, he could barely manage a rough human form. Its four limbs had begun to take shape, but its fingers and toes remained undivided, and a snake's head sat atop its neck.
Fortunately, this was a Yin Spirit body. Had flesh taken such a form, it probably would have struggled even to stand.
It tottered like a paper cutout when it tried to walk. Its movements could not exactly be called inhuman, but anyone who saw it would have been frightened to death.
Rather than walking, it was more like drifting.
It was about the size of the little boy who wet the bed. Transforming his snake body into this was already the limit of what Black Snake could currently manage.
His Yin Spirit returned to his body, and he gazed into the hazy night sky, thinking.
Suddenly, he felt that his fixation on taking human form might never have been necessary. It was merely something he had found to occupy himself through the endless years. He had never expected to gain such enormous benefits from this tedious tempering.
His little brain grew clearer by the day, and his body grew tougher along with it. His strength, his speed, and even his body length, stagnant for years, quietly increased.
He vaguely came to understand something: the painstaking process of shaping his Yin Spirit could improve his intelligence, which in turn became strength for cultivation.
And intelligence was the root of continued existence in this world.
So he silently resolved to work hard at transforming his Yin Spirit's appearance, forming fingers and imitating the movements of limbs.
Slack off today, become bones tomorrow.
He absolutely could not just eat and wait to die!
Whenever the sun sank behind the western mountains, Black Snake sent his Yin Spirit out of his body and repeatedly kneaded and tempered its shape.
Time slipped by unnoticed, and the length of time his Yin Spirit could remain outside his body quietly increased.
This gave him more time to knead its shape and practice walking in strange, swaying postures. Even swinging an arm with the leg on the same side was progress; at least he knew to move his arms. Sometimes he appeared to step forward but actually moved backward, doing worse than a toddler learning to walk.
After who knew how many more springs and autumns of effort, he finally formed fingers. But all ten hung limp, like boneless noodles.
Fortunately, no one saw him. Otherwise, he would have been even more frightening.
If he could not learn, he would watch how people moved. His Yin Spirit returned to his body, and he slid down the Giant Rock and wound his way toward the familiar village in the small basin.
His enormous snake body did not hinder his speed. He hurried through dense forest and across streams.
Only after covering most of the distance did he remember that it was nighttime. But since he was already here, he might as well try.
He coiled beneath a secluded cliff, and his Yin Spirit swept swiftly toward the village.
Through his dim gray vision, the little basin looked cold and deserted. Only somewhere in the mountains did a solitary stone pillar give off a faint glow...
His Yin Spirit drifted along the path outside the village, then abruptly stopped. A figure stood ahead, alone at the village entrance instead of sleeping in the dead of night.
He raised his snake head to look. This person... was very strange.
Black Snake noticed that the man's gaze rested on him, yet there was no energy within the man. He was perfectly ordinary.
He moved a little to one side, and the man's eyes followed. He moved again, and they followed again.
Black Snake was puzzled.
It would have been nothing unusual for someone with cultivation to see a Yin Spirit, but this man was plainly ordinary, with disheveled hair, shabby clothes, and a foul, muddled smell.
Just as Black Snake hesitated warily, the man moved.
What was he doing?
With his neck tilted, the man dragged a lame leg and staggered forward. He waved both arms wildly to drive Black Snake away, making indistinct grunting noises. He even bent down to pick up stones and throw them over...
Black Snake retreated and dodged the flying stones. He confirmed that the man was attacking, but the attacks were pitifully weak.
Just then, the noise disturbed a villager in the nearby thatched hut. A burly man rubbed his eyes and pushed the door open.
The moonlight was bright enough for him to make out the strange man on the road.
The burly man barked at him.
"Fool! What are you yelling about in the middle of the night? Go home and sleep! Keep making noise, and I won't catch fish for you to eat tomorrow!"
The man called the fool raised a hand to point at Black Snake and shouted earnestly to the burly man.
"Huh... ah... ugh...!"
Leaning against the fence, the burly man craned his head to look. The pure white moonlight was bright enough to show even the shadows on the ground, but the spot the fool pointed at was completely empty.
"All right, all right. Go back and sleep. Be good."
With that, he turned back inside and shut the door. Without sleep at night, how would he have the strength to work during the day?
The fool paid him no mind and kept bending down to pick up stones to throw at Black Snake.
Black Snake slipped backward, easily avoiding the stones. He reflected that it had not been so long since he had last come to the village to watch the bed-wetting child, yet he had no idea when such an odd fellow had appeared.
The fool drew closer and closer to Black Snake, then suddenly froze. He put down his stone and stared straight at him.
"Ah-ba, ah-ba~~"
For some inexplicable reason, he dropped his hostility, mimicked offering incense and bowing in worship, then clapped happily with a foolish chuckle.
Black Snake was momentarily stunned. His limited intelligence struggled to understand this abrupt change.
Since the man had put aside his hostility, Black Snake continued with his original plan. He quietly slithered toward the households with young children, peering through their windows one by one to watch them.
As he moved forward, weaving from side to side, the fool was especially delighted. He clapped and followed close beside him, muttering strange, indistinct words.
"Temple... temple..."
Never mind. If he wants to follow, let him.
He soon located a young child by its heat and slithered over to look. The tiny figure lay curled up, sleeping soundly, and no special images emerged. He tried three households in succession, all with the same result. It seemed tonight was a lost cause.
There was nothing for it but to wait until daytime and find another way. His Yin Spirit could not venture out in daylight, so he would have to come in person.
He glanced at the fool beside him, who had followed along and was peeking curiously, then turned to head back.
Only when they reached the village entrance did the fool stop. He waved vigorously in farewell toward the empty fork in the road, his smile innocent.
Moonlight washed over his face, revealing a rare hint of cleanness.
Black Snake paid it no mind. He returned to his body and waited quietly beneath the cliff.
Before the first light of dawn appeared, the village was already awake.
White mist still wound around the mountainside. Cooking smoke rose from the village homes, the well windlass creaked, roosters crowed, and dogs barked. Another ordinary day of hearth smoke and daily life had begun.
Whenever the fool met someone, he muttered about a temple. The villagers thought nothing of it, and each household broke off a little coarse-grain flatbread for him to eat.
Seeing three adults set out with two young children, Black Snake quietly moved to follow them without a sound.
The two children scampered merrily back and forth. The three men talked about favorable winds and timely rain. Thanks to the Dragon King's protection, there should be a good harvest this year.
None of them noticed a long, slender black shadow silently parting the grass nearby...