Yun Qing gently rubbed the little snake's forehead with his fingertip and mused, "Normally, once a Chaos Ancient Beast hatches, its bloodline should contain its race's inheritance. Yet you have no inheritance now, only instinct..."
Oh, and not much instinct, either. He could not even slither.
"This might have something to do with the Chaos Sea drying up. Or perhaps it was because your birth coincided with the mass deaths of ancient beasts, when the Fortune of the Heaven-Devouring Python lineage was severed."
At this, Yun Qing sighed softly.
"Although I've passed on as much of the relevant inheritance as I could, I'm not a Chaos Ancient Beast, after all. My knowledge is limited."
Ye Hui looked at Yun Qing.
"Hiss, hiss."
Thank you.
Yun Qing laughed despite himself. "You were forcibly bound by a contract, and you're thanking the person who bound you?"
But Shopkeeper Yun is different, Ye Hui thought.
Yun Qing reached into the box, spreading his palm before Ye Hui.
"Come up."
Ye Hui looked at that clean, slender hand. Everything that had happened since their meeting surfaced in his mind, and his serpentine body shifted.
Then-
He could not slither.
The Chaos Heaven-Devouring Python, whose fearsome name had once resounded throughout the Chaos Sea, struggled through two twists, bending his body into an utterly outrageous curve on the soft cushion.
Yun Qing paused, genuinely a little surprised. "You still can't slither?"
Ye Hui: "..."
He closed his eyes briefly.
Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west.
In thirty quarter-hours, I'll definitely have learned to slither!
A strange competitive urge welled up in Ye Hui. With great difficulty, he inched his body forward until his head barely rested on Yun Qing's fingertips.
Then his whole body tilted sideways again.
In the end, Yun Qing