Chapter 21: The Mysterious Disappearance of the Dried Snake Meat

  The world is vast, every river and mountain has something occupying or guarding it. Even a snake that has become a spirit can have some power, and after death, it's possible to occupy a piece of land and become a Land God. This requires two conditions: first, there are no other more powerful demons in the area, and second, all the spiritual animals and plants in that place submit to it.

  If the original Tóng Tóng continued to stay in the river, after a hundred and eighty years, it could dominate a region of water, collecting many aquatic ghosts, fish spirits, and crab monsters, becoming what is called a River God. Of course, this god is just a title, just like how a big dog can be called an immortal too, but in reality, it's just a dog ghost. As for the Landlord that the old woman spoke of, who knows whether it's a monster or a ghost? Calling it a god or an immortal is just a respectful title.

  After the old woman disappeared, I walked onto this single-plank bridge, wanting to take a stroll in this dream world. Just as I reached the middle of the bridge, it suddenly broke off, and I tumbled out of my sleep with a start.

  It was just past six in the morning, and I had only slept for a little over an hour. Ye Fei, Xiao Jianzi, and my uncle were still fast asleep. Although I had only slept for a short while, after waking up with a start, I no longer felt sleepy. I opened the door and walked outside to breathe in the fresh morning air.

  I thought of going for a walk, but there was nowhere to go because the grassy areas were all dewy and I would have gotten my pants wet. Plus, I felt hungry, so I went back inside, lifted the table cover to grab some leftover snake meat from last night, only to find that the plate was empty. I distinctly remembered that there was a lot left over last night because only I and Ye Fei Jiu's uncle ate it, how could it all be gone now? It's unlikely that Ye Fei Jiu sneaked in and ate it in the middle of the night.

  There's nowhere to go outside, and there's nothing to eat at home. I had no choice but to lie down and take a nap again until Ye Fei Jiao woke me up after 8 o'clock. My uncle also got up, he sat in the mosquito net and smoked a cigarette before getting up to brush his teeth and wash his face. I climbed onto Ye Fei Jiao's bed and continued sleeping. Xiao Jian Qi was still asleep, with her little hand resting on my neck, it felt so happy.

  Just as I was about to fall asleep, a sudden shout came from outside the door. It was Ye Fei's uncle yelling something that I couldn't quite make out. Ye Fei rushed out to take a look and returned with a terrified expression on her face, telling me that the dried snake meat had disappeared.

  I immediately jumped out of bed and ran to the door to see, but I didn't notice earlier. Only now did I realize that all the dried snake meat hanging on the bamboo pole at the door was gone. My uncle was searching around the house, trying to find some clues about the disappearance of the snake meat. He probably thought it was stolen by monkeys or yellow weasels. But I felt a sense of inexplicable fear because the leftover snake meat on the table was also gone. If something really came to eat it away, why didn't we discover anything? Connecting this to the warning from the old lady in my dream last night made me find it hard to think that it was an animal.

  If any monster came in, Ye Fei Chui's dog Da Xian and Tong Tong should have been the first to discover it, but they didn't find anything. The leftover snake meat on the table disappeared into thin air, and even the ones hanging at the door were gone. Could this be the revenge of the land god's descendants that the old woman in my dream told me about?

  Although it's the Landlord, who knows if it's a ghost or a monster? If I still had my ancient bronze dagger, I wouldn't be afraid. But now I don't have anything to defend myself with, and there are Ye Fei Chui and Xiao Jian Qi by my side, how can I protect them?

  Ye Fei's uncle came back from the backyard with a puzzled expression, and it was clear that he hadn't found any clues. I went inside and opened the table cover for him to see. This time he didn't say anything, but instead had a solemn face, as if thinking about something or recalling something.

  He suddenly asked me where the few insects I caught last night were thrown, and I said they weren't thrown away, but were all put back in the bottle. My uncle then took out that bottle again, and the black beetles were all inside, so the disappearance of the snake meat should have nothing to do with the insects.

  The disappeared snake meat seemed to have become a headless injustice, and it had disappeared without leaving any trace. After thinking about it, I still told the dream to Ye Fei Jiu's uncle.

  The uncle spat on the ground and said, "This is a disaster, a disaster!" I asked him if the two snakes were really the descendants of the land god.

  My uncle sighed ceaselessly and told me another story.

  It is said that during the Qianlong period of the Qing dynasty, a young woman from this area went into the mountains to cut firewood. Unexpectedly, she encountered a large snake in a mountain cave. The snake was surprisingly human-like and happened to be in heat, so it wrapped itself around the woman in the bushes and forcibly had its way with her. The woman fainted from fright and when she came to, the snake was nowhere to be seen. She immediately ran back home but didn't dare tell anyone what had happened. A month later, the woman felt uncomfortable in her stomach, but no matter where she went for medical treatment, no one could give her a reasonable explanation. Five months later, this woman gave birth to an egg on her own bed at night. Recalling what had happened in the mountains five months prior and adding that she had given birth to an egg, she was extremely frightened and secretly threw away the egg she had given birth to into the mountains.

  The woman never told anyone about this matter, and later married, had children and grandchildren until her old age. In the year she turned 80, on the night when she was seriously ill and about to leave the world, a snake as thick as a water bucket crawled into the house.

  The snake did not harm anyone after entering the house, but instead crawled to the bedside of this woman, stretched out its long and thin tongue to lick her face, and then crawled away. After the snake left, the woman died, and every year on Qingming Festival, a large snake would appear in front of her grave.

  After hearing this story, my first reaction was that it's too fake! How can a person lay eggs? And how did later generations know about the woman being invaded by the giant snake when she never told anyone about it?

  My maternal great-uncle also smiled and shook his head, saying that these were stories passed down from our ancestors, who knows what's true or not!

  I don't quite believe in the story, but I do believe that snakes can become spirits, such as the blue double-headed snake raised by Chen Erbing, a ghost-raising master from Guiping. The old man had used secret methods to put the vengeful spirit of a woman who died by hanging into the body of this double-headed snake, making it a spiritual being with a consciousness that ordinary snakes do not possess.

  Such a highly spiritual snake can be called a demon, and if it lives long enough, its Tao will be even higher. After death, it is completely capable of occupying a piece of land as a land god.

  This land deity is different from the one we worship in our temple, it's just using its own strength to occupy a place, whoever occupies it becomes the master of that place. It's similar to Mountain Great King, and can also be seen as those demons in Journey to the West who speak with their fists.

  Although I don't believe the story told by my uncle, I do believe what the old woman said in my dream is true. That earth god might be a snake transformed. I guess it was raised by some immortal in the past.

  The spirit snake and the old ghost are of the same nature, both have been put into human souls, that is, human soul snake body.

  In the past, Xiangxi was not short of high people. Compared to Yanggui Old Man, it's unknown how much stronger they were. The spirit snake raised by the high person is naturally stronger than the blue double-headed spirit snake raised by Yanggui Old Man.

  The clever me guessed that after the death of the tall man, the spiritual snake he raised also escaped to the deep mountains and forests. After hundreds of years of quiet cultivation, although the snake's body had long since died, its soul had been sublimated with Taoist practice, occupying a piece of land for further cultivation.

  If my guess is true, then all the snakes in its territory have become its descendants, and those two cobras must be of high status. If that's really the case, it won't let us off so easily.

  Thinking about it, those two snakes didn't seem like ordinary snakes at all. King cobras are solitary animals and it's not the mating season, so why would they be living together in a tomb? It's clear that they were using this place to cultivate their powers! Who would have thought that we'd ruin their important business, kill them, skin them, and eat their meat? Can we just let bygones be bygones after that?

  To be honest, I'm not very afraid myself, but I'm worried about Yefei and Xiaojianzi, and I don't know how this so-called Land Public Association will retaliate against us. The crystal fish can't be caught, how can we leave? Xiaojianzi is still young, take advantage of now to cure his dumb disease, otherwise in a few years, it may miss the best treatment opportunity.

  Unconsciously boasting until noon, it started raining when we had lunch, and the mountains in front of the house were shrouded in misty clouds. We stayed in the house doing nothing, Ye Fei Chui's uncle went back to his room to take a nap, and I chatted with Ye Fei Chui again, also discussing serious matters.

  I wanted Ye Fei to take Xiao Jianqian home first, and then I would catch the crystal fish and prepare the medicine before bringing it back. But Ye Fei said that if she left, I would become half-deaf and mute, because I couldn't speak or understand the local dialect, so I had no choice but to give up. Thinking about Ye Fei having the Dog Da Xian amulet, I didn't need to worry too much, Dog Da Xian should be able to protect her.

  The rain continued until evening without stopping, and I couldn't go out. The dishes for dinner were a chicken I brought and some dried mushrooms, the other one was killed at noon that day.

  After dinner, I took a bath and went to bed. My uncle added another wooden board to Ye Fei's bed, so that Ye Fei, Xiao Jianzi and I could sleep together. Xiao Jianzi slept in the middle, Ye Fei slept inside, and I slept on the outside, which was the most miserable. Half of my body had no bedboard, and if I wasn't careful, I would fall to the floor.

  In the middle of the night, Tongtong appeared in my dream, saying with great urgency that she felt something dangerous approaching the house and told me to get up quickly. She then blew a mouthful of cold air at me. I felt a sharp pain all over my body and woke up to find myself fallen off the bed. I hurriedly got up, lit the kerosene lamp, and also woke up Ye Fei and my uncle.

  I fabricated a panic, saying that the old woman who had a dream last night told me that danger was coming and asked us to get up quickly. Ye Fei Chou's uncle, still sleepy, took out his flashlight and shone it around the room in confusion, finally asking me if I had a nightmare.

  As soon as the voice of my uncle's brother-in-law fell, a strange sound echoed outside the house, just like a rope being dragged on the ground. Our hearts in the room immediately rose to our throats, and no one dared to speak. The sound lasted for a long time, but nothing appeared. My uncle's brother-in-law scolded loudly, then went back to his room to fetch his bamboo slip, and returned to the main hall to open the door.

  The flashlight shone brightly on the doorway, and we saw that the ground was crawling with thousands of snakes of all sizes, green and colorful.