Chapter 3 Zhang Fei and the Snake

  After entering the cave, it turned out that it wasn't a cave, but an extremely spacious hall. In the far corner, there was a seven-colored glow surrounding something. Zhang Pa took a closer look and saw that within the glow, a white snake over ten feet long was coiled, as thick as a bucket. The big snake had been resting with its head down, but when it saw someone approaching, it raised its cold gaze and locked eyes with Zhang Pa. Zhang Pa's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively turned to flee, but was caught by Zhen Yi Shu Shu, who scolded him, "You coward! What is there to be afraid of? It can't even get out because it's trapped by the seal!"

  Zhang's face turned white, and he stuttered: "I, I, I..." He was so tense that he couldn't even finish a sentence. Zhen Yi glared at him: "What's with you? You're holding the Tian Luo umbrella! What are you afraid of? Just listen for my signal to release it."

  After finishing speaking, he walked towards the giant snake and stood still outside the seven-colored flowing light. He spoke to the giant snake: "I know you understand human language, and making a pact with me is somewhat disadvantageous for you, but after making the pact, your magical powers will not decrease. It's better than being subdued by me and losing your magic, only to be controlled by me."

  The giant snake didn't make any movement, but instead looked at Zhen Yi with disdain, then glanced at Zhang Pa and the Tian Luo umbrella in his hand. Zhang Pa felt a chill run down his spine as he was swept by the cold gaze, and he was so frightened that he wanted to leave, but didn't dare to. He kept muttering to himself to boost his courage: "I'm holding the Tian Luo umbrella, the Tian Luo umbrella."

  Zhenyi Shibo continued, "If you don't agree to make a pact, I'll have no choice but to take you away." As he spoke, he walked into the Seven-Colored Flowing Light. The giant snake had been coiled motionless, but when it saw Zhenyi enter the seal, it suddenly flashed with electricity and opened its bloody mouth wide, biting towards Zhenyi. Zhenyi pinched a hand seal, and suddenly disappeared from his original position, reappearing behind the giant snake's body. He raised a string of small bells, and in an instant, the bells rang out loudly. Zhang Faren, who was outside the seal, felt the earth shake and his head spin, but the giant snake inside the seal seemed to not have heard anything, its tail sweeping horizontally, knocking the bells open, then sweeping towards Zhenyi again.

  Zhenyi continued to pinch the magic trick, his body disappeared again, and then appeared beside the giant snake, still ringing the small bell, disturbing its mind. The giant snake became even more enraged, opening its mouth to swallow the bell.

  One person and one snake exchanged hands several times, Zhen Yi knew that the big snake would eat anything, even if the magic treasure entered its belly it would be dissolved into rotten water, so he quickly withdrew the bell. He raised his flying sword to nail the big snake's tail. The big snake did not dodge, but instead shot icy flames from its eyes towards Zhen Yi.

  Zhenyi completely relied on his quick dodges to entangle with the giant snake, Zhang Pa watched from outside and thought that this technique was really good, even better than what he had learned himself, learning it would definitely be very useful for self-preservation.

  The giant snake's white scales were as hard as steel, and the True One's flying sword couldn't even scratch them. Then, he took out the Soul-Stealing Bell and recited the incantation of the Beast-Taming Cauldron. Suddenly, a seven-colored glow gathered and wrapped itself around the snake's body. Although the snake was divine and fearless of being killed, it was unable to break free from the seven-colored glow that bound it. Its body kept flipping and twisting, struggling ceaselessly.

  Shinichi exerted all his strength to activate the seal on the Beast Cauldron, resisting the giant snake. After a long and intense battle, just as he was about to lose his strength, he whispered an apology: "Sorry." Then he shouted loudly: "Release!"

  Subconsciously, Zhang feared that he would drop the umbrella in his hand. The umbrella spun around and opened by itself, then covered the giant snake in the flowing light. The giant snake was struggling at first, but after being covered by the heavenly net umbrella, its strength began to weaken. Slowly, the seven-colored flowing light wrapped around the snake more and more tightly, densely entwining it.

  Zhen Yi recalled the flying sword, sat cross-legged in mid-air, muttering to himself non-stop, his hands continuously forming hand seals. His body began to radiate light, and suddenly a beam of light shot out from his forehead, striking the seven-colored flowing light. The flowing light began to change, the seven colors slowly disappearing, leaving only a fiery red flame that ceaselessly burned the giant snake.

  The seven-colored glow of the beast-refining cauldron's seal was getting smaller and smaller, while the heavenly net umbrella in the air firmly locked down the giant snake, greatly reducing its strength. The giant snake struggled and rolled about in agony, unable to escape the flames.

  Shinra continued to chant without stopping, his incantation unceasing, as he began to sweat and his face turned red. He knew this was the critical moment, so he doubled his caution. Gradually, the giant snake's moaning grew fainter, it stopped thrashing about, and a look of joy appeared on Shinra's face - it's going to work!

  Another beam of light shot into the unceasingly burning scarlet flames, and the flames began to turn white, dancing around the giant snake's head. Suddenly, another beam of light appeared in the air, covering the snake's head. In an instant, a light ball faintly appeared on top of the snake's head within the light, and as it continued to refine itself, the light ball slowly darkened and formed into a solid, turning into a bead the size of a grain of rice.

  Zhang was familiar with this thing, called the Lingzhu, all the demon beasts in the Wan Shou Cave had one, after refining it and placing it in a divine shrine, as long as you grasped the law, holding the Lingzhu could control the demon beast. However, the refining process was something he had never seen before. This thing was actually extremely poisonous, using the demon beast's primordial spirit to refine it, after refinement, the bead was alive, and if the bead was destroyed, its life would be gone, it was actually the demon beast's innate bead. However, between humans and beasts, it couldn't be said what was poisonous or not. Alas, Zhang sighed secretly, pitying this giant divine snake, from now on being controlled by humans.

  Zhenyi was getting more and more tense, the round bead on the top of the snake's head was getting bigger. He is now holding on, waiting for the beast cauldron to give him a hint before he can make his move.

  Just as the pearl was slowly growing larger and was about to be completed, the big snake suddenly let out a loud hiss, and the round pearl on its head actually flew quickly into the snake's head. Zhen Yi was greatly shocked, took out a dan medicine from his waist and swallowed it, then raised the soul-snatching bell again, while urging the beast-refining cauldron to restrain it, and re-burned the refined pearl.

  After the pearl entered the snake's head, there was no movement for a long time, and the light on its head disappeared. Zhen Yi felt something was wrong, so he chanted an incantation, and the white flame turned back into seven-colored flowing light, still tightly wrapping around the giant snake, temporarily giving up refining the Ling Pearl.

  After a while, the snake's head slowly emerged with a small transparent and lovely snake, but its eyes radiated an extremely hateful gaze, staring tightly at Zhen Yi. Zhen Yi was frightened and stuttered: "Yuanshen Tunti? You, you, what do you want to do?" As soon as the thought flashed through his mind, he shouted loudly: "Run!" Zhang Pa was originally timid and stood at the entrance of the cave. Seeing that things were not going well, when his master shouted "run", he swiftly fled out of the cave. Immediately afterwards, the mountain cave shook violently, with intense tremors, but after a moment, it returned to calmness.

  Zhang Pa stood outside the cave, his mind in a state of utmost confusion, unsure whether to go inside or return to report back to his sect. As he hesitated, a thought floated up in his mind: what if Master Zhen Yi was injured and because of his delay, her injuries became severe and untreatable? He wasn't quite sure what that would mean, but it felt bad. The cave had fallen silent once again, and he had no idea what was happening inside.

  Hesitated for half a day, finally decided to sneak in and take a look at the situation, if it's dangerous, immediately exit and report to the leader. Zhang put on his protective gear: Earth Shield, Angry Fire Wall, Ice Barrier, Wood Spirit Protection, Golden Armor, Thunder Shield, layer upon layer, then cast Swift Wind Technique, before carefully opening the seal and stepping into the cave.

  The cave was pitch black, the seven-colored glow of the beast-refining cauldron had disappeared. Apparently, the seal had been broken. In its place was a white light over ten feet long, but it was too dim, similar to fluorescent light, and not as bright as the seven-colored glow. Zhang Pa was puzzled, what was that? Although curious, he was still afraid to get close, calling out in a low voice: "Master Uncle, Master Uncle."

  After a long time, a faint voice came back: "Come over." Zhang was startled by the sound and plucked up his courage to release a light ball, throwing it towards the source of the sound. Under the illumination of the light ball, he saw that Zhen Yishi's uncle was lying on the ground covered in blood. Zhang was afraid that the giant snake would escape from its restraints and didn't dare to approach easily. He clapped his hands repeatedly, releasing nearly a hundred more light balls, illuminating the entire hall as if it were daytime. After carefully searching, he found that the giant snake was lying still and motionless, curled up in an arc. It turned out that it was the white light over a foot long from earlier. He was amazed: "What kind of snake is this? Its scales can even emit light?"

  Seeing no danger, Zhang put his mind at ease and went to support his master. Only then did he discover that his master's eyes were lifeless, his limbs weak, and his face much older. He hastily asked: "Master, what's wrong with you?"

  "Nothing's wrong, just help me out," said Master Zhenyi in a low voice.

  Judging from his appearance, Shifu was extremely weak. Zhang Fei kindly offered to carry him on his back. As soon as he got on his back, Shifu was in extreme pain and groaned softly. Zhang Fei was worried and asked: "Shifu, are you okay?"

  Zhenyi sighed and said, "Let me down, you go find Zhen Tian. Zhang was worried and asked, "Can you take care of yourself?" Zhenyi forced a smile and said, "Of course I can." As he spoke, he took out a dan medicine and swallowed it, then sat in meditation to treat his injuries.

  Zhang obeyed the order and hurriedly ran out, passing through the Bagua Hall to arrive outside the Wan Shou Cave. He took out a talisman and casually tossed it into the air, where it suddenly disappeared without a trace. After a while, several figures flew in from the sky, led by Zhen Tian Dao Ren, the great master of the Purple Light Pavilion.

  Zhen Tiandao flew down quickly and asked Zhang Pa in a hurry, "What's the matter?" Zhang Pa hastily replied, "Master Zhen Yi..." Before he could finish speaking, Zhen Tiandao had already flashed into the Cave of Ten Thousand Beasts. What Zhen Yi had been doing these past few days, he naturally knew. Since something had happened, it must be related to the Beast-Taming Cauldron and the giant snake.