Below the mountain, the rivers overflowed in a vast, muddy yellow expanse, but Black Snake knew only the scenery before him and little of what lay far away.
I seem to have lived too long.
So long that he could no longer remember how many times he had encountered floods like this. The muddy waters always surged on and on, drowning everything. People and beasts grew scarce, then some years later, a fresh bustle sprang up in the same places. That was roughly how it went.
A flock of crows flew over the mountaintop, cawing as they disappeared into the distance.
Black Snake quietly waited for sunset.
He could see only a hazy, warm orange-red glow sinking into the earth, unable to make out the fiery clouds said to fill the sky.
Once the bells and chimes of evening lessons fell silent, his yin spirit left his body and assumed a human form. He spread his arms and stepped lightly across the unbroken treetops.
He landed silently on the stone terrace.
The terrace had been swept clean, and the old tree still stood in its usual spot. Looking around in boredom, he discovered a Big-Bellied Black Flower Spider busily weaving a web among the drooping branches and leaves.
It was time to test the results of his recent yin spirit cultivation.
He curled his right hand around empty air, and a longsword slowly took shape. Striking a pose, he aimed at the spiderweb still trembling in the wind and stabbed hard!
The sword passed through. Amazingly, several strands of the web actually snapped.
The spider seemed to pause, then instinctively crawled over to repair it.
Black Snake flourished the sword a couple of times before putting it away, very pleased with his progress.
Hearing movement at the Mountain Gate, he