Chapter 3: Slaying the Snake Spirit

  Remember in one second

  Dai Yan held the short sword, pointing at the snake spirit's head, which was as tall as a person. His hand trembled. The short sword had been used once before, consuming the previously added magical power, and had not been re-enchanted yet. At this moment, the short sword was dull and lusterless, its blade thin, probably even inferior to those carried by village men in the mountains.

  Dai Yi's body leaned against the wall corner, watching as the snake spirit opened its mouth wide and bit down fiercely. Dai Yi curled up into a ball, scared out of his wits, eyes closed tight, feeling only the stench of blood and the cold wind blowing over his entire body. He thought for sure he was done for, wildly swinging the short sword in his hand. After a moment, he suddenly realized that the snake spirit hadn't bitten him after all, and hastily opened his eyes.

  The snake spirit was right in front of him, constantly struggling with all its might, wanting to bite towards Da Yun, but it was just a little short, no matter how hard it tried, it couldn't bite. Watching the snake spirit continuously twisting its body, its eyes emitting a cold and icy glow, Da Yun suddenly understood that this snake spirit had broken through several doors, circled around the long corridor, tables and chairs to chase him, but its body was trapped by the entire house, making it difficult to move forward even an inch.

  。

  Dai Yun thought for a moment, then sheathed his short sword and took a deep breath to calm himself down. He sat cross-legged on the floor, focusing his energy into the sword. As he faced the snake spirit, its plate-sized eyes glowed with ferocity, and it began to struggle violently. The creature's strength was immense, causing the entire pavilion to creak and groan.

  As time went on, the snake spirit's body slowly loosened, and Dabai became increasingly anxious. Dabai felt that a long time had passed, but the short sword in his hand seemed to be malfunctioning today, with its speed slowing down significantly. Dabai and the snake spirit stared at each other, their foreheads gradually sweating.

  It seemed like a long time had passed, but the short sword finally let out a loud cry. With a loud shout, Da Yun grabbed the wooden chair beside him and slammed it towards the snake spirit's eyes. Next, Da Yun took a step forward and inserted the short sword into the top of the snake spirit's head. A white light flashed, and it pierced straight into the snake's head. The snake spirit opened its mouth wide and struggled desperately, but instead, it made the short sword sink even deeper.

  Dai Yun rolled over to the corner, and saw that the snake spirit struggled for a while, its body twisted a few times before it stopped moving. The snake spirit let out a low, mournful hiss, one of its huge tawny eyes staring fixedly at Dai Yun. After a while, the snake spirit's eyes gradually lost their luster, leaving behind only dull black holes.

  Dai Yun knew that the snake spirit had finally been killed by himself, and he was overjoyed in his heart. He immediately fainted again, feeling weak all over. After a while, Dai Yun recovered his spiritual power, took back his short sword, dug open the wall, and climbed out of the window of the attic. Outside, many villagers had already gathered, saying: "Look, look, the Taoist priest has come out."

  With a loud laugh, he shouted: "Fellow villagers, I have killed the demon!"

  The crowd cheered and swarmed up, an elder in the village saw that Da Ye's body was stained with blood, and shouted: "Quickly, bring a bamboo chair, Dao Zhang is injured, quickly carry Dao Zhang to my home to rest."

  Everyone hastily brought over a bamboo chair and, without giving him a choice, helped Da Yun to sit down. Da Yun only said one sentence: "My magic tool, that golden hoop." Immediately someone shouted loudly: "Everyone quickly help the Taoist priest find the golden hoop!"

  People immediately dispersed to search, and soon someone found the demon-repelling jade from the ashes and ran over to respectfully hand it to Da Ye. Someone also found Da Ye's package, and then several young people lifted the chair and left the attic, followed by dozens of villagers holding torches, waving them continuously and cheering loudly.

  Dai Wu lay on the bamboo chair with a pleased smile, like a landlord enjoying himself immensely. He was then supported into a large room by someone. Dai Wu lay in bed and had people drive away the villagers, and arranged for someone to stand guard outside his door until he fell fast asleep.

  It wasn't long after falling asleep that the sky lit up, and Da Yi suddenly thought of the snake spirit's hundred years of cultivation, perhaps it had already formed a demon pill. He heard people say that absorbing the demon pill could increase his magical powers, so he had to dig it out immediately, otherwise, as time passed, the power of the pill would dissipate, which would be a great pity.

  。

  At this thought, all drowsiness disappeared, and he immediately got up. The young man outside saw that the Taoist priest had woken up and immediately asked how he was, shouting: "The Taoist priest is awake."

  As he walked out of the outer room, the hall was already filled with village elders waiting for a long time. Someone brought tea and snacks, and they started talking about last night's events, praising how brave and powerful Daoist Zhang was. However, Daxi secretly sighed in his heart, thinking that he had been too reckless and狼狈 last night, and many people had died unnecessarily, all because the short sword was too shabby. If only he had more gold, things wouldn't have turned out this way. The crystal iron used to forge the sword was extremely expensive, and he had spent 100 taels of gold just to buy two pieces of it.

  At this time, Dà Yǎn suddenly remembered that the snake spirit's venomous fangs and scales were also valuable things that could be worth a lot of money. Moreover, he had to get his hands on the demon pill as soon as possible. However, the snake spirit was being suppressed in the attic, and he would have to dig it out completely, which would be exhausting. Dà Yǎn thought for a moment, then casually deceived them by saying: "Although the demon has been eliminated, I'm afraid its soul hasn't dispersed yet, and it's likely that after a long time, it will come out again to harm people."

  The clan leader hastily asked: "Daozhang, what's good about this?"

  "With a serious expression, he said solemnly: 'I have a way to disperse your souls and scatter your corpses. Listen carefully.'"

  Everyone said: "Master Dao, please give your orders quickly."

  "Go immediately and dig up the snake spirit's corpse, but do not damage its skin. Then cut off its head and bring it to me, also pull out its skin and bring it to me. I need these things for my spell, the faster the better. Divide the remaining body into five portions, go outside the village ten miles in each of the four directions, and bury them one zhang deep. Burn the last portion on the spot until it turns to ash. Finally, I will cast my spell, and you will all be safe."

  The village elder hastily agreed and called for all the able-bodied villagers to come, instructing them to hurry up and do as Da Wei said. Da Wei sat in the hall waiting, and indeed with many people, things were easily settled, and within less than half an hour, everyone had handled it according to Da Wei's instructions. Da Wei ordered the tables to be set up in the outer room, and had someone bring in the snake head and skin, then had everyone withdraw. Da Wei took out a short sword, carefully dug out the venomous fangs, peeled off the snake scales, and put them all into his own package.

  Finally, Dabai carefully cut open the snake's head with a short sword and took out a bead the size of a chicken egg. As soon as the bead saw the wind, it continuously emitted a chaotic glow. The bead was the Snake Essence Dan, which was formed by the gathering of the Snake Essence's power. Dabai quickly grabbed it in his hand, and saw that something like smoke and light floated out of the Dan, being constantly absorbed into his palm.

  After a while, the pill lost its luster and turned into a pile of useless dregs, which were thrown onto the table by Da Yun.

  He opened his eyes, and the light in his eyes flowed. He smiled slightly, thinking that this trip was not in vain, just taking the demon pill had increased his cultivation by five or six years. This was much faster than practicing meditation, no wonder the Taoist disciples considered the demon pill a great tonic.

  Everything was settled, and Da Wei smiled with satisfaction, thinking that there was nothing more to do here, and he should also hurry back. Da Wei left the outer room and bid farewell to everyone. The villagers all sincerely persuaded him: "Master Dao is in too much of a hurry, we still want to host a banquet for several days, which is reasonable."

  Someone else said: "I have a niece who is elegant and intelligent, similar in age to Daozhang... If Daozhang can stay with us..."

  "We cultivators only want to eliminate harm for the people, so let's not mention wine and feasts, and even more so, let's not bring up women."

  Everyone politely said: "The Daoist priest is young, not only has strong magical powers, but also has such a broad mind, which is beyond our comparison. However, the Daoist priest's departure like this makes us uneasy."

  With a slight change of mind, he sighed and said: "Gold and silver are things that I, a poor Taoist priest, will never want. Alas, the Taoist temple where I cultivate my Tao has been in disrepair for many years, and the master of the temple is unwilling to ask the people for donations. Now it's almost impossible for people to live here. If you have a kind heart, you can donate some money. You will also increase your good fortune and accumulate blessings for your children and grandchildren."

  Everyone immediately responded and after a while the head of the clan brought some gold and silver, saying: "The poor village is really unable to take out much, I hope the Taoist priest will not disdain it."

  The big bag was handed over, and upon opening it, there were only a dozen or so taels of gold, and the loose silver coins were only worth around a hundred or so taels. The big bag felt somewhat displeased in his heart, secretly thinking that if he had known the people here would be so stingy, he should have used a more severe tone of speech.

  The Taoist priest took the gold and was about to leave, when someone else said: "Taoist priest, we rarely have outsiders passing through here. If we encounter ghosts or monsters again in the future, what can we do if you're not here?"

  Dai Yan's eyes lit up, and he found that there were still dozens of talismans in his package, which he had bought for sixty taels of silver before coming. He had only used them to drive away mosquitoes and ward off evil spirits, but they were actually not very useful to him. Why not sell them to these people? Dai Yan pretended to be extremely reluctant, saying: "I don't have anything else, but I do have dozens of spiritual talismans here that are effective in calming the house and driving out demons. However, these talismans are not mine, they were given to me by my master who spent tens of taels of gold to ask an old immortal for them."

  Seeing Da Wei's embarrassed face, everyone said: "We absolutely dare not force Dao Zhang."

  It seems that Da Yun has made up his mind and said: "Alright then, whoever makes me have a good relationship with you, I'll give half of it to you as a gift."

  。”

  The clan leader thought for a moment and said, "We dare not accept such great kindness from the Taoist priest again. Even if the Taoist priest spent money to beg for the talisman from the old immortal, it's better for us to buy some at a fair price."

  "Very well, I'll give them to you. Although the Master of the Observatory spent almost two taels of gold on each symbol, a total of one hundred taels of silver, your fellow villagers here are not wealthy, so I'll sell you one symbol for sixty taels."

  The clan leader and the crowd were all moved, sixty taels was not a small amount, but thinking that it was the Daoist priest who had obtained the talisman, it must be able to bless the whole family. As soon as the news spread, many families with savings went home to fetch money to buy the talismans.

  With a heavy heart, I bid farewell and left the residence, passing through the village streets, only to see that many houses had damaged walls, and there were dozens of villagers who died or were injured last night. Many families were burying their dead, and the air was filled with mournful cries. At this time, the villagers who had heard the news all rushed to bid farewell, bringing their elderly and children, and the crowd grew larger and larger, until the farewell procession escorted us out of Zhenjia Village for several miles.

  When they parted ways, the villagers all said: "The Taoist priest not only has powerful magic to save us from the evil spirits' harm, but also doesn't like money and didn't take a single penny, and even didn't eat a mouthful of food and wine, truly a god-like person."

  Dai Wei had already taken a few steps forward, and suddenly her face turned bright red, and she almost stumbled.

  After leaving Zhen's house, Da Yi hired a carriage and rushed along the way with his head down. He had completed the order for the first time, and he was thinking about what reward he could get, and also thought that it took great effort to get more than 30 taels of gold this time, and wondered how long it would take to re-forge his short sword again.

  They walked straight for over ten days, changing several horse-drawn carriages, before finally arriving at Chang'an City. After entering the city and resting briefly, they rushed to the Tianjian Platform next to the imperial palace. The Tianjian Platform was extremely large, with a circular outer shape and a square inner shape, all paved with strange stones from the five lakes and four seas. The ground was inlaid with patterns of strange stones, with the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams arranged outside, and the Yin-Yang Five Elements placed inside. At the very center was a high platform that pierced the clouds.

  Dai Yun walked for a while before arriving at the foot of the high platform. He avoided the crowd, made his way to a corner and stood still, casting a spell that struck the Heavenly Monitor Platform. After a moment, a ray of light descended from the sky, piercing through Dai Yun's head, and a voice said: "Dai Yun of the Lower Realm, for vanquishing demons and eliminating evil, your Dao cultivation will be rewarded with 15 years and 87 days."

  Daiyue was overjoyed in his heart, he originally had shallow Taoist skills, the reward of 15 years of Taoist practice was already extremely generous for him. Daiyue thought even more, going on like this, becoming an immortal through Taoist practice would also happen sooner or later.