A midnight tide of snakes

"How did this end up inside a Black-Feathered Sparrow?" His eyes narrowed slightly, as though he were pondering something.

Yellow viper fruit held an irresistible allure for desert snakes, and Black-Feathered Sparrows were their natural prey. Together, the two would undoubtedly lure large numbers of snakes into the city.

"Well played, Qin Zihui. He certainly deserves his reputation as the Qin Kingdom's youngest Purple-Pattern General. His mind is something else, coming up with such a vicious scheme." Yetos spoke meaningfully, clearly having identified who was behind this.

"My lord, are you saying...?" William bowed his head and listened attentively.

"Yes. It seems they didn't just lure the flock into attacking the city. They also stuffed yellow sand viper fruit into some of the Black-Feathered Sparrows to draw snakes inside. The snakes would ambush us at night and whittle down our forces, giving them an opening to march on the city."

"An astute observation, Knight Commander. What should we do now?"

"Send out orders immediately, warning everyone to clear away all Black-Feathered Sparrows around their rooms. Have them scatter some snake-repellent powder as well, to prevent nighttime attacks by venomous snakes."

"Yes, I'll see to it immediately." William acknowledged the order, then hurried out.

Yetos pinched the soft, springy black fruit between his fingers, his gaze sharp. "Is it really that simple?" he murmured. He felt he had underestimated the enemy's scheme, but for the moment, he could not work out what he had overlooked.

"Phew. We'll just have to take it one step at a time." A trace of gloom crossed Yetos's eyes. Compared with Qin Zihui, he felt his own mind was falling short.

Elsewhere, half an hour later...

After drinking, Zeng Mu leaned against a wall in an alley, his face flushed and his body reeking of alcohol. Thoroughly drunk, he swayed slightly from side to side, his eyes unfocused. He had clearly had a little too much.

"My lord, please be gentler..."

"Heavens, your hips are so strong. I feel like I'm riding a flying tiger, floating through soft clouds, with the wind rushing past my ears and making my whole body tremble..."

"Oh! My lord, take me flying with you!"

A woman's soft, intoxicated voice drifted into his ears. At the same time, Zeng Mu could feel faint tremors through the wall against his back, vibrations from the wooden bed creaking inside the room. He could not help smiling. Was Kanni really that vigorous? From the sound of it, that woman was practically soaring into the sky.

When Zeng Mu first met Kanni, he had thought he seemed decent enough. After seeing him fight covered in blood, he had come to consider him dependable, cool on the outside but strong within. He had never expected the man to be doing that just on the other side of the wall. It added a certain uninhibited streak to his impression of Kanni.

As Zeng Mu entertained these thoughts, it never occurred to him that in this chaotic age where the strong preyed on the weak, his insistence on remaining chaste was precisely what made him the odd one in everyone else's eyes. There were no saints here.

If he looked around and listened carefully, he could faintly hear moans of release coming through the walls on both sides of the alley. The sounds stirred a restless itch, like cats calling on a spring night.

Experiencing such a scene for the first time left Zeng Mu's heart pounding. Fortunately, the alcohol dulled some of his nervousness, making everything feel hazy and unreal, and therefore less awkward than he had imagined.

"My lord, why are you sitting here all alone? Come, let me take you into the room next door for some fun and help you unwind. If you keep holding it in, you'll make yourself sick."

Zeng Mu looked up at the voice and saw a woman standing before him, waiting expectantly for his answer.

She was about thirty, with full breasts, broad hips, and an enticing figure. She wore a black cotton floral dress that left her knees bare. Her neck and face were not particularly slender; she was pleasantly plump. Her features were fairly attractive, the kind that grew on a person.

"I'm not alone. My friend is inside. Besides, I should be calling you my older sister, not my little sister."

The woman covered her mouth and giggled. "You certainly have a way with words, my lord. Never mind older sister-you can even call me Mommy if you like. Plenty of lords enjoy that sort of thing."

Zeng Mu smiled awkwardly and shook his head. "That's them. I don't have any strange tastes like that."

The woman stepped closer and slipped an arm around his shoulders, coaxing him sweetly. "Come inside with your big sister, little brother. We can share a bed with Xiao Pei. She loves playing in pairs. I imagine the lord inside would be delighted if we joined them."

Having never been touched like this by a woman before, Zeng Mu felt his legs weaken and momentarily lost the will to resist.

While they remained at an impasse, the nearby door opened. Kanni, fastening his belt, stared at the scene in surprise. Then his lips curled upward, and he gave Zeng Mu a mischievous look. "I didn't know you liked this type. You should've said so sooner. You put me through all that trouble earlier."

Zeng Mu rolled his eyes without answering. Kanni immediately laid a hand on the woman's soft arm and said gently, "Please stop teasing my friend, big sister. That won't work on him."

Feeling the strength of his hand and imagining the size of what he had elsewhere, the woman's cheeks burned. She smiled. "Then I'll listen to you, little brother. Remember to come find me next time."

"Of course. I'll let you take good care of me then."

Zeng Mu sucked in a breath, goose bumps rising all over him. He rubbed his forehead, trying to stay calm. "Phew. If you're finished, let's get going." It was late, and after an exhausting day, he had long since grown sleepy. All he wanted now was to return to the stone hut at camp, stretch out on the bed, and sleep soundly.

Noticing the fatigue in his eyes, Kanni agreed. "All right. Let's go."

The two started walking, while the woman pushed open the door and went inside. Before they had gone ten paces, a scream rang out behind them.

"Ah!"

They immediately turned and rushed into the room, where they saw what had made her scream.

A naked woman lay on the bed, her head tilted toward one shoulder, her eyes shut and her body stiff. A black shape writhed atop the swell of her left breast.

It was a small, jet-black snake with brown bands, about a meter long. Its head was triangular, its eyes tinged purple, and a red, inch-long diamond-shaped spike protruded above its snout. Its scales were diamond-shaped, their texture growing coarser toward the tail. It was unmistakably a Yellow Sand Diamondback Snake.

Two needlelike fangs pierced her neck, sinking into her carotid artery. Through their hollow channels, the snake greedily sucked up the young woman's sweet blood as though through straws. Its belly pulsed with its breathing, already swollen and round.

"Damn it!" Kanni's right hand swept past his waist as he cursed. A whistle rang out, followed by a flash of cold light and a dull thud. A steel ball knocked the Yellow Sand Diamondback Snake to the floor, where it rolled over, exposing its pale belly.

Zeng Mu hurried to the bedside, cradled the woman, and checked her pulse. There was nothing. Even her wrist had already grown cold. Clearly, she was beyond saving.

The voluptuous woman approached the bed as well, clutching her head in both hands. Tears glimmered in her eyes as she looked at them in panic. "How? How could this happen?"

"Xiao Pei, wake up! Please, don't scare me!" She gripped the woman's shoulders and shook her.

"Please calm down. She's already gone." Kanni sighed dejectedly, his expression shaken. Only minutes ago, the young woman had been enjoying herself with him. Now death had separated them forever, and even he found it difficult to accept.

The three fell silent for a while before Zeng Mu broke the stillness.

He turned to look at the Yellow Sand Diamondback Snake lying stretched out on the floor, his brow deeply furrowed. "How did this venomous snake suddenly appear in the room?" He had been outside the door the whole time and had seen no sign of a snake. The room was built of stone, with no openings such as barred windows. How had it slipped inside to attack her?

Kanni looked over as well and said uncertainly, "That's a Yellow Sand Diamondback Snake, one of the most common highly venomous snakes around here. They're extremely aggressive, and people often die from their bites. But normally, they wouldn't dare enter the city."

"Of course-the Black-Feathered Sparrows! They must have lured it inside." The sobbing woman was the first to realize it, pointing to a black heap in the corner.

A pile of Black-Feathered Sparrows lay against the wall, presumably gathered there temporarily during the earlier cleanup.

Half a meter away, a thumb-sized crack ran through the wall. Clearly, the Yellow Sand Diamondback Snake had seized the opportunity to crawl through it.

Kanni picked up a Black-Feathered Sparrow and immediately noticed something wrong. Its belly was swollen, as though something were inside.

He slit its belly open with a small knife, and a black fruit dropped to the floor with its intestines.

He picked up the fruit and examined it, then exclaimed in surprise, "Yellow viper fruit?"

"These have it in their bellies too," Zeng Mu added as he checked several others.

"Was this what attracted the Yellow Sand Diamondback Snake?"

Kanni nodded. "Yes. Yellow viper fruit is highly poisonous. Anyone who eats it will suffer an agonizing death, but it's extremely tempting to snakes. Its scent can attract Yellow Sand Diamondback Snakes from dozens of miles around, and their urge to attack humans is even stronger than their urge to eat the fruit."

"Looks like this was planned all along."

"Yes. Those bastards really weren't that simple. It was a scheme within a scheme."

While the two were discussing it thoughtfully, the sobbing woman's eyes suddenly widened. She pointed toward the door beside her and shrieked, "Snakes! A tide of snakes!"

A chorus of scraping sounds rose from the floor. The two turned toward it, and blackness filled their vision, clogging the doorway completely.