A Fortuitous Opportunity

After resting for a night, he waited until noon the next day.

Meng Yuan peered down, but the fissure was narrow at the top and wide below. Only at noon did a thread of sunlight fall into it. The green at the very bottom was a thick carpet of moss, along with quite a few shrubs and dwarf pines.

Where the sunlight shone directly, a great black snake as thick as a water vat lay coiled in sound sleep.

Beside the black snake stood a plant that looked neither quite like grass nor quite like a tree.

The plant was about three feet tall, with extremely slender branches and tiny leaves. He could not make it out clearly.

Taking a rope, Meng Yuan lowered himself down, inch by inch.

After descending only a hundred feet or so, Meng Yuan could already see clearly. The hollow inside the mountain was enormous.

The black snake had bulges on its head, as though horns were about to sprout.

Under the sunlight, the plant's leaves and stems turned a vivid red. It indeed bore no fruit.

"No fruit yet? Am I supposed to eat the leaves?"

"A black snake growing horns-has it become a spirit? Or is it some kind of flood dragon?"

"But there's nothing down in this valley. What does the black snake eat? This is far too uncanny. How did the Chen family raise it?"

This great snake would certainly be difficult to deal with. Meng Yuan did not dare act rashly just then. He merely climbed slowly back up the rope and returned to the mountaintop.

According to Chen Yuyin, the purple fruit was supremely Yang and required the black snake's gallbladder to balance it.

But now the purple fruit had yet to grow, and there was only the black snake. That left Meng Yuan in a difficult position.

"The Chen family raised the black snake, so the purple fruit must also be a family secret, reserved for their own people. In my previous life, after Lü Yinglong ate the fruit, he also relied on Chen Yuyin to prepare medicine and regulate his condition."

"Even if it doesn't bear fruit every year, it probably does once every eight or ten years. Who ate the last fruit? Chen Yucheng? Or Chen Qingyuan?"

Half a month passed. With his dry rations almost exhausted, Meng Yuan descended the mountain.

After borrowing some money, Meng Yuan sought out a run-down alley and found an aging prostitute in her thirties who had a venereal disease.

"I fell in love with you at first sight. I swear I'll cure your illness!" Taking the aging prostitute with him, Meng Yuan headed to the Chen Medicine Hall.

Chen Yuyin's father, Chen Qingyuan, was seeing patients at the medicine hall. He was over eighty, his hair and beard entirely white.

"This illness can indeed be cured, but it will take some effort. And I'm afraid bearing children may no longer be possible."

"Young man, one look tells me you practice martial arts. You have fine features, too. You ought to choose a worthy partner."

"If you don't mind, you can take this calling card to my son. He admires young heroes above all else and could find you a good match."

Chen Qingyuan was an old hand indeed. After looking, listening, asking, and taking her pulse, he wrote a prescription. He even recognized that Meng Yuan had martial training and tried to recruit him.

But every few sentences, he had to pause for breath, much like Lü Yinglong in Meng Yuan's previous life. Clearly, he could no longer suppress the purple fruit's effects and was already exceedingly weak within.

The scene resembled Lü Yinglong's approaching death in his previous life, though Chen Qingyuan was in much better shape.

"Old sir, you're gravely ill. Why are you still here seeing patients?" Meng Yuan asked.

"Sitting idly and waiting for death is a pleasure, too." Chen Qingyuan smiled.

What did that mean?

Meng Yuan suspected Chen Qingyuan had eaten a purple fruit but had not killed the snake and taken its eggs. Thus, he could only rely on pills to alleviate the fruit's harmful effects, with no way to suppress and balance them completely.

Meng Yuan knew his own limits and did not dare fight him. He merely carried the medicine back with the aging prostitute, left her some silver, then rose to leave.

"Once I'm cured, I'll marry you, young master, and serve you for the rest of my life!" The aging prostitute shed tears of gratitude.

"There's really no need!" Meng Yuan refused decisively. "Once you're cured, find someone to marry and live a proper life."

"So that's what you like, young master. Then I'll find an honest fellow. I guarantee that while we're having our fun at the foot of the bed, he won't hear a thing at the head..." The aging prostitute looked as though she understood everything.

What in the world was she talking about? I stopped doing that sort of thing ages ago!

Meng Yuan wandered around Spring Radiance Prefecture for a few more days. Though he had Chen Qingyuan's calling card, he did not seek out Chen Yuyin's elder brother, Chen Yucheng.

Three months passed, and winter arrived. Meng Yuan entered the mountains a second time, only to find the hollow as warm as spring, with green grass and red flowers. The black snake slithered about contentedly, while the plant it guarded remained unchanged.

Meng Yuan had intended to see whether the great snake weakened during winter. He had not expected his calculations to come to nothing again.

Winter passed and spring came. Braving the wind and drinking the dew, Meng Yuan practiced the Pure Yang Dragon-Controlling Art alone in the mountains, living like a wild man.

Living his life over and returning to his youth, Meng Yuan felt that his mind had grown younger as well.

Especially after he began studying the supremely unyielding and Yang Pure Yang Dragon-Controlling Art, his rapid progress was accompanied by worldly desires constantly surging into his heart. He actually began longing for women and often thought of Chen Yuyin.

A year passed like this, yet there was still no fruit.

Another year passed. Meng Yuan was now twenty.

In his previous life, this had been the year Lü Yinglong obtained his fortuitous opportunity, and also the year Chen Yuyin's father died.

Sure enough, before the first lunar month was over, word spread that Chen Qingyuan was gravely ill.

Within a few days, Chen Qingyuan breathed his last.

But Chen Yucheng had gone away a year earlier and had not returned. Chen Yuyin had never come back at all. It was Lü Yinglong who handled the funeral.

"Those two siblings have secrets. Too bad I have no idea where to start looking!"

After waiting a few days, Meng Yuan entered the mountains again.

Spring had arrived. The plant finally began to flower, and by late April, it had actually borne a tiny green fruit.

Another month passed, and the green fruit slowly turned purple.

By late May, the fruit was entirely purple. The Black Serpent circled the plant every day, cherishing it greatly.

Having lain in wait for over a year and prepared numerous supplies, Meng Yuan decided to act.

That morning, Meng Yuan packed his things, planning to descend into the valley at noon. Instead, he saw someone approaching in the distance. The figure moved with elusive lightness, displaying considerable martial skill.

"Who is it?"

Meng Yuan hid in the shadows. As the man drew closer, he could make him out clearly. Dressed in blue, he was twenty-seven or twenty-eight and powerfully built. It was Chen Yuyin's husband, Lü Yinglong.

"Hahaha! That old bastard kept this hidden and wouldn't let me know! Bet you never expected this! You're dead, and neither of your children came back. I even had to wear mourning hemp for you. Doesn't that leave the prize to me?"

Lü Yinglong peered down into the fissure, then could barely contain his delight.

Meng Yuan saw it clearly. Presumably, Chen Qingyuan had died without telling Lü Yinglong about this place, but Lü Yinglong had picked up on some clues, found the route, and made his way here.

Chen Qingyuan had recognized Lü Yinglong's worth, taught him martial arts, and even married his daughter to him. He had been closer than a birth father, yet this was how Lü Yinglong referred to his father-in-law in private.

And in his previous life, Chen Yuyin had done her utmost to ruin Lü Yinglong.

All he could say was that this couple was truly outrageous.

Meng Yuan did not reveal himself. He intended to sit back and watch dragon and serpent fight, then adapt as circumstances demanded.

Sure enough, Lü Yinglong first made a circuit of the surroundings. Then he found a dead branch, took off his robe, and wound it around the branch. He lit it to make a torch, shone it into the fissure, and then began climbing down bare-chested.

"He's taking no precautions at all. Clearly, he doesn't know there's a great snake at the bottom!"

It was early morning. The fissure had a narrow mouth and a deep interior; only at noon could sunlight reach the valley floor for a brief moment. Now the depths below were utterly dark, revealing none of their mysteries.

It seemed Lü Yinglong knew only the route here, not the dangers within.

Sure enough, when Meng Yuan peered down, he saw a spark of fire slowly descending along the cliff wall into the dark valley. After nearly an hour, the spark began descending faster and faster.

Then the spark stopped. Two eerie green lanterns suddenly lit up in the dark depths.

The lanterns moved slowly, looking particularly uncanny.

The Black Serpent had opened its eyes!