Chapter 2: The Hundred-Year-Old Snake Spirit

  It had been a long time since the two of them left, and they still hadn't returned. It was already late at night when every household was asleep, and the village was pitch black, with only the occasional shout from the night watchman breaking the silence.

  Dai Wu sat up anxiously, thinking that if the snake spirit's skills were high and profound, it would see through his tricks and find him. If he wasn't a match for it, things would be bad. Just as he was thinking wildly, a strange cry suddenly came from outside, followed by loud shouts and cries from the street. Dai Wu quickly focused his attention and saw a night watchman holding a windproof lantern running frantically past. After a moment, a faint rustling sound came from the darkness, and it seemed like something was moving around, but couldn't be seen clearly.

  Dai Yun suddenly exerted his spiritual power, focusing all his attention, but what he saw was a black, water-bottle-sized thing crawling on the street. Dai Yun's heart skipped a beat and he broke out in cold sweat.

  The thing was several feet long, and it took a while to crawl past. Dahan hastily pulled out his short sword and cut off the door bolt, quickly walking out. It seemed that the little guy had indeed done what he said, but Dahan hadn't expected the snake to be so huge, and he couldn't help feeling intimidated in his heart.

  He was hesitating, when suddenly a loud clang of the copper gong rang out, and the night watchman was startled, only then remembering to strike the gong. After a while, the village became noisy, and Da Bai ran onto the street, just in time to see a group of villagers carrying torches and pickaxes rushing over, hearing several people shouting that they were going to find the village's San Shu Gong. Da Bai learned that San Shu Gong was the village chief, so he followed behind them.

  On the second floor of the attic, many people had already gathered, and everyone's face was pale with fear. At this time, a young man rushed in crying: "Report to Uncle Tai, the demon is too powerful, Brother Zhang and Xiao Qiang were eaten by the demon, and the demon rushed into my aunt's house and ate everything in it."

  "Oh heavens!" an old woman wailed: "What's to be done? What sin has our Zhen family village committed?"

  "Shut up! Shut up!" shouted the clan leader. "What's the use of crying at this time? Old Fifth, quickly lead people to invite Daoist priests from Chaotian Temple outside the county town to subdue the demon."

  Lao Wu muttered: "Third Master, this back-and-forth will take several days, what can we do now?"

  The clan leader sighed and struck the ground vigorously with his cane, causing the crowd to become even more frightened.

  At this time, Daxin made up his mind. Taking advantage of the snake spirit's true form being forced out by the medicinal wine, if he didn't kill it now, it would be even more difficult later. Thinking of this, Daxin used force to push open the crowd and loudly said: "Fellow villagers, don't panic, I will subdue the evil spirit."

  The clan leader stared at Da Yun and hesitated: "Who are you? You say you're the Dao Master?"

  "The poor Taoist said with a loud voice: 'I have been cultivating Tao for many years and will naturally subdue demons and eliminate evil.'"

  Saying that, Da Yun joined his palms together and a column of flame suddenly appeared in his hands. Seeing everyone staring blankly, Da Yun withdrew the Heart Fire and laughed: "Don't you believe me?"

  The clan leader saw him and hastily stood up from the taishi chair, yielding the upper seat to him, cupping his hands and saying: "Daozhang please take a seat, please take a seat."

  Dai Yan did not decline, and sat down with a smile. The clan leader knelt down again, begging: "Please, Master Dao, have mercy and quickly cast a spell to get rid of the demon, save our Zhen family village."

  The rest of the people saw it and knelt on the ground. Da Yi was shocked, hurriedly helped up the clan leader and the crowd, and clasped his fists: "Everyone, I have come from afar to this place just for this demon, today I will definitely eliminate this demon."

  At this time, a man came in, who was one of the young men who participated in binding the big sheep yesterday. He said strangely: "What are you doing here?"

  Someone quickly covered the man's mouth and pulled him aside, saying in a low voice: "You offended a powerful person yesterday, he is not a human trafficker, but a Taoist priest who came to help us get rid of monsters..."

  Dai Yun sat firmly on the Taishi chair, and everyone held their breath and stood still, all staring at Dai Yun. For the first time, Dai Yun was stared at by so many people, feeling a bit uneasy, but thinking of the snake spirit in the village, it was the perfect opportunity to kill it, and immediately put everything else aside.

  Seeing everyone waiting for him, Da Yi thought for a moment and took out a porcelain bottle from his bosom, saying: "I have an elixir here that is specially effective against the snake spirit. Quickly go get a few jars of wine and water to dissolve it."

  Several villagers responded, holding their babies and hurriedly went to do it. Seeing that everyone was convinced, Da Yi said again: "Summon a dozen more strong men, take torches and tools, and help me exorcise the demon together."

  The clan leader said beside him: "Our Zhenjia Village has many young and strong men, Daozhang, I'll let them all prepare according to your instructions, is that okay?"

  He nodded heavily and said, "That's naturally good."

  Outside, the sound of wailing and shouting could be heard. The tribal elder and other senior members of the tribe all looked flustered, and Da Ye also furrowed his brow. After a while, the villagers brought in several jars of wine and water, and a few sturdy young men came in saying: "Master Dao, Uncle Gong, we have dozens of people ready, what do you say we should do?"

  Dai Yuan nodded and said, "I have prepared the medicine wine, which is specially used to subdue the demon. Don't be afraid, sprinkle the medicine wine on your bodies. Then go find the snake spirit, shake the torches, and think of a way to lure the demon here for me. I will cast a spell here, and we must eliminate the snake spirit."

  Everyone responded in unison. Dabai followed the crowd and walked outside, only to see that many villagers had already prepared themselves, holding torches, knives, and guns. People moved over the medicinal wine, carefully sprinkling it on each other's bodies. The villagers knew that this was a spiritual medicine brought by Daoist priests, so they were afraid of wasting even a bit. Everyone carefully applied the medicinal wine, but since there was not enough, later on, some water was added to it. In the end, the last few people simply touched the wine jar with their hands and wiped it on their chests.

  He secretly felt ashamed in his heart, fearing that these villagers would be timid, so he said it was a special medicine to cure snake spirits. In fact, they were just ordinary mosquito repellents. Even if it were a spiritual medicine, with so many people sharing it, it's likely to have no effect at all.

  After everyone finished applying it, Da Yun instructed: "Be careful, don't fight the demon head-on, just lead it here."

  As everyone's emotions were stirred up, they responded and left. Dabao again hastily ordered people to gather villagers, and in front of the building, they laid out a thick layer of straw, wood shavings and other flammable materials.

  After a while, the distant noise grew louder and louder, and it seemed that everyone had found the snake spirit. At this time, the front of the building was already set up, and people were afraid that there would not be enough straw, so some brought out their home quilts and spread them out on the ground carefully.

  After a while, the cries of killing came closer and closer. Someone ran back crying and shouting: "Dao Zhang, it's not good! That demon is too powerful, it has bitten many of us to death!"

  Da Yi's face turned red and white, while the clan leader on the side shouted: "That must be done according to Dao Zhang's orders, quickly bring the demon here."

  The clan leader said to Da Wei: "Dao Zhang, what do you think we should do now?"

  "Alright, everyone can disperse now. I'll take care of the rest."

  The clan leader bowed repeatedly: "Then I'll entrust everything to Daoist Master."

  As the crowd dispersed, a patch of empty space appeared. Da Yun nodded to himself, he had already seen that this place was big enough. Da Yun's hand touched his wrist and took off a dark golden cuff from it. Da Yun fondled the cuff lovingly, and the cuff emitted a wisp of golden light. This was Da Yun's only treasure, apart from Mo Zhuo, Da Yun relied on having this treasure to dare to come and slay the hundred-year-old flower snake spirit.

  With a big sleeve and finger gestures, he lightly shouted, "Go!" The demon-destroying jade pendant grew bigger and bigger, becoming one square meter in size, before disappearing into thin air.

  Just as Da Wei had just taken out his treasure, he heard the sound of killing getting closer and closer. Suddenly, a group of people holding torches rushed over. As soon as they turned around the corner, a giant snake with a thickness of two men suddenly appeared at the corner of the street. The snake spirit raised its head to a height of several meters, then dived down fiercely, and immediately several people were knocked into the sky. Looking again, a young man was bitten by the snake spirit on his mouth, and after shouting twice, he was swallowed into its belly.

  The crowd saw the giant python and rushed over, shouting and screaming. The snake spirit moved swiftly, its eyes fixed on the giant python. The giant python retreated a few steps, and the snake spirit struck again, its body flashing with lightning speed. The giant python was shocked and let out a loud roar, pointing his finger at the snake spirit: "Hurry!"

  A golden light flashed, and a huge ring suddenly appeared out of thin air, encircling the snake spirit. Da Hun's hands made a swift gesture, and the Demon-Beheading Ring rapidly shrank, tightly constricting the snake spirit, as if it would cut it in two. The snake spirit was trapped by the ring and could no longer move forward, writhing in agony with its body, opening its mouth to spew out waves of toxic substances.

  The giant retreated a few steps to avoid the poisonous gas, and at this time, the snake spirit stirred up its body. The Demon-Beheading Sword immediately grew much larger, as if it was about to be wrestled open. The giant looked at it with alarm and hastily made a hand gesture to control the sword to resist. As they were locked in a stalemate, the giant's heart was racing with anxiety. The snake spirit was powerful, while the giant's magical power was weak. The giant knew that his own magical power wouldn't last much longer. He turned his head to look back and saw the villagers holding torches, knives, and guns peeking out to watch. Knowing that the crowd was timid, the giant loudly deceived them, saying: "The snake spirit has been trapped by me and can't move. Everyone come quickly to stab it to death."

  The villagers had already seen clearly, and they rushed up one after another. Someone shouted: "Charge!" More than a dozen young men rushed to the snake spirit's side, frantically chopping and stabbing with their knives and guns. The snake spirit was chopped more than ten times, its body in pain, enraged, no longer resisting the magic crystal, turned around and continuously struck the villagers with its body, its tail rolled up and swung, throwing a young man into the air.

  Dai Wen took a deep breath, seeing that the villagers, even if they hacked at the snake spirit, couldn't break through the scales on its skin with their weapons and couldn't hurt its internal organs. Seeing that the snake spirit was no longer paying attention to him, Dai Wen took another deep breath, untied the short sword from his leg, ran a few steps forward, jumped up, raised the short sword and stabbed it into the back of the snake's neck with all his might.

  The short sword emitted a white light and stabbed in all at once. Dabai exerted force to pull it out, but couldn't pull it out, and hastily rolled backwards. As expected, the snake spirit suffered this heavy blow, and immediately swung its tail towards Dabai, who barely avoided it by rolling and crawling away. The snake spirit was now desperately shaking its body, and no one dared to get close. Dabai saw that the demon-subduing jade was about to be shaken off by the snake spirit, and loudly shouted: "Quickly set fire, set fire!"

  The crowd threw torches at it, and the snake spirit's body was covered in straw and cotton, instantly bursting into flames. The fire quickly spread to the sky, illuminating the surroundings as bright as day. The snake spirit continued to writhe in the flames, but soon the straw was burned out, revealing the snake spirit lying motionless, with wisps of black smoke rising from its body.

  After a while, Da Wei and the crowd slowly surrounded it. A brave young man threw stones at the snake's body, but the snake spirit did not react at all. The man shouted: "It's dead, the demon is killed."

  Dai Wu saw that his short sword had already fallen off when he saw the snake spirit struggling, and he hurriedly walked over to pick it up and hold it in his hand. He looked for the demon-expelling pendant again, but didn't know where the snake spirit had thrown it. Dai Wu lowered his head to search carefully, when suddenly everyone shouted and rushed away.

  The snake spirit's body straightened up, lifted its head, and two dark yellow eyes stared straight at Dabai. Dabai's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly retreated backwards without stopping. The snake spirit chased after Dabai, its snake head already poised to strike, as if it would pounce and bite Dabai at any moment.

  The giant swung back and forth, seeing the snake spirit in front of him was gray and black all over. The giant suddenly felt regretful, thinking that he hadn't mastered his skills well enough, and had rashly come out to subdue the demon. Now he had exhausted all his methods, causing many lives to be lost, but only managed to cover the snake in dust, making a complete mess of things.

  The snake spirit let out a shrill cry and struck at Da Yuan like lightning, but he barely dodged it with a stumble. His face turned pale as he turned around and ran into the attic. The snake spirit followed him in, crashing into the doorframe and sending splinters flying everywhere. Da Yuan ran into the attic, continuously knocking over tables and chairs as he climbed up to the second floor. The snake spirit crawled into the attic, smashing tables and chairs, chasing after him from behind.

  After passing the second floor gate, Dabai rushed through the corridor and ran into a room. It was a study with another small room inside. Dabai broke into the small room only to realize that there was no way out of this room. At this moment, the door was smashed to pieces with a loud crash, and the snake demon climbed over four or five doors, still blocking Dabai's way.