Chapter Eleven: Hatching Snake Eggs

  Unfortunately, the black leopard was too fast, and the jungle was too dark. After a few jumps, it disappeared without a trace. Zhang felt a bit frustrated - how could he just run away like that? He stood still, perked up his ears to listen carefully, trying to locate the black leopard. Unconsciously, he released his divine sense, but immediately scolded himself: "You're really the stupidest and most cowardly waste in the world! You're a cultivator, you're a top-tier master of the Refining Qi stage, you have divine sense that can cover your surroundings to keep watch for you! If only you had released your divine sense earlier, you wouldn't have been bitten by that clumsy leopard three times." However, on second thought, if he hadn't been bitten, he might not have known how fearsome it was.

  Zhang was smiling foolishly, releasing his spiritual sense to explore the road, and he himself was leisurely and not afraid of the darkness in the forest.

  The forest was too vast, and Zhang didn't stop walking until dawn broke. However, the harvest of this night was not small. Along the way, he saw many wild beasts, which would have made him scream for help in the past. But tonight, he played with abandon. Giant pythons, black bears, ferocious tigers, giant mouse groups and more came to attack one after another. Zhang used his divine sense to probe them and found that they were ordinary wild beasts, so he let them wreak havoc. The three small dogs in his arms were still afraid, and Zhang pretended to be a mature critic, educating them: "What's there to be afraid of? Be brave, it's nothing."

  As the sky brightened, the view opened up and it became easier to travel. Zhang Fei unleashed his Wind Technique and sprinted northward. After five hours, the trees began to thin out gradually, and Zhang Fei's heart was filled with joy, thinking that he had reached the edge of the forest. As he walked further ahead, indeed there were no more trees in sight, only sandy ground stretching before him. With all his might, Zhang Fei pressed on, and after six hours, the sandy ground gave way to yellow earth - vast expanses of yellow earth, as far as the eye could see, except for the sandy ground behind him. Zhang Fei was puzzled in his heart: did Tianlei Mountain really have such a region? Why had he never heard anyone mention it before?

  With a sense of doubt in his heart, he released his spiritual awareness to investigate and found that the surroundings were eerily quiet. What kind of place was this? He continued on, walking for an entire day, until the yellow earth turned into frozen soil. Zhang Pa became completely disoriented - had he arrived at the legendary Extreme North Land? He took out a dagger, squatted down, and stabbed it into the ground, only managing to create a shallow pit.

  Zhang Pa continued to move forward, the frozen earth gradually disappearing and turning into a vast expanse of white ice. Could it be that the northern part of Tianlei Mountain was the extreme north? Zhang Pa wondered randomly, the three small dogs in his bosom shivering with cold. Zhang Pa smiled, putting away the icy wall barrier and replacing it with a thousand walls of raging flames to protect himself, and only then did the little dogs calm down.

  The glacier was vast and endless, the further they walked, the more they couldn't see the edge. Zhang Pa was so scared that he cursed out loud, feeling a chill run down his spine as he continued forward. He stopped in his tracks and spread out his divine sense to search thoroughly. Suddenly, he detected an unusual aura in the distance, vaguely sensing its immense power. His first instinct was to flee, and without hesitation, he immediately used the Wind Escape Technique to retreat backwards. As he fled, he manipulated his divine sense to observe, and indeed, the unusual aura was approaching him, getting closer and closer.

  Zhang Pa stopped thinking and withdrew all his divine consciousness, focusing on escaping. The advantage of being timid is that it allows for timely escape from danger. When Zhang Pa ran across the frozen ground and arrived at the yellow land, the powerful aura behind him stopped moving. Zhang Pa only dared to manipulate his divine consciousness to check after running far away, but he could no longer detect any unusual aura. Although he was curious, he deeply understood that only by staying alive would he have the right to be curious, so he decided to change direction and continue walking.

  The south is where I came from, the north has unknown dangers, let's head east.

  After walking east for a while, the ground turned into sandy land again, and after crossing the sandy land, it was forest. Zhang Pa understood that he was still in the forest, and the cold place just now should be the center of the forest, with glaciers as the center, followed by permafrost, yellow soil, sandy land, and forest outside. He couldn't help but stick out his tongue, this broken forest is too big.

  The sky was darkening again, and he had been walking for three days and two nights, feeling a bit tired, so he decided to rest. He let out the three little dogs, took out dry rations and clear water to feed them, and ate some himself. Then he stuffed the three little dogs back into his bosom, and the little guys were well-behaved, knowing they were afraid, but still poking their heads out of the opening to look outside. Zhang set up a dozen or so seals around himself, surrounding himself completely, before slowly falling asleep with the little dogs in his arms.

  That night, he slept fitfully, his heart always fearful. Fortunately, as a cultivator, he could rest while meditating, and after running his cultivation technique for several cycles at dawn, he stood up refreshed and headed east.

  The beasts in the forest began to increase, and they were almost the same as those seen a few days ago. Zhang Pa was no longer in the mood for fun and games, and when he saw fierce beasts, he would hide if he could, or scare them away if he couldn't. Before long, four days passed, and they finally walked out of the forest. Zhang Pa hadn't even had time to catch his breath before he was stunned by the scenery in front of him, and he cursed loudly: "What kind of ghost place is this? What kind of ghost place is it after all?"

  At the edge of the forest, it was a cliff. Looking across, there was nothing but fog, a vast expanse of white; in both the north and south directions, the fog was dense and endless. Zhang sat down at the edge of the cliff and looked down, below him was also a sea of white fog. He released his spiritual sense to search, within the range of his search, there were no signs of any living creatures.

  Zhang was too lazy to scold, found a stone bigger than himself, threw it down the cliff, waited for a long time without hearing any sound coming up, and sighed: "I've gained some experience." For the first time, he wanted to know what Tianlei Mountain was like? Why were there all sorts of strange creatures everywhere?

  Lying on the edge of the cliff and looking down, I suddenly felt an urge to jump down. Afraid of being depressed, I quickly retreated backwards, or else I would have jumped down in excitement and died without knowing how.

  Lying on the grass, looking at trees, clouds and blue sky, patting three small dogs in my arms, I suddenly remembered 128 snake eggs. I got up, let out the small dogs, tore open the lining of my Taoist robe, took out a beast-controlling bag. I inserted my divine consciousness, took out the snake eggs and that pearl tear, piled the snake eggs together, and examined each one carefully under the sunlight.

  It was the first time he had observed them so carefully since he got the snake eggs without asking, each one smooth and round, crystal clear and shining, grasped in his hand, he could feel the life jumping inside, although weak but non-stop. After looking at each of them, he stuck them to his chest, letting his heartbeat move them to jump together.

  She took the pearl tears again and looked at them against the sun. It was strange, originally transparent teardrops, yet sunlight couldn't penetrate through. Zhang feared that if she used force to grasp the pearl tears, in an instant, a faint sorrow enveloped her body. Slowly, as the sorrow accumulated, there were no other thoughts in her mind, excitement, happiness, and even fear didn't exist, only sorrow remained.

  Zhang Pa let go of his hand, it was a strange feeling. He turned to look at the little dog, afraid they would get lost, and found that three little dogs were crawling on the ground with tears in their eyes. Zhang Pa was shocked, got up and looked around, the grass and trees beside him also bowed down, could this be the power of pearl tears?

  Once again grasping the Pearl of Tears, letting sorrow seep into his entire body. The power of sorrow was too great, causing the 128 snake eggs in front of his chest to rise into the air and gather into a circle above Zhang's head. Suddenly, a beam of spiritual light shot out from Zhang's forehead, striking one of the snake eggs. The egg slowly rose higher and shone brighter.

  The snake egg is getting brighter, and Zhang Pa's pain is becoming more unbearable. He doesn't know why his forehead is emitting a spiritual light, but he knows that the spiritual energy in his body is rapidly draining away, all pouring into the snake egg. Before long, his spiritual energy is completely depleted, and just as he is about to collapse, the pearl tears in his palm suddenly shine with a brilliant white light, releasing a large amount of spiritual energy that flows into Zhang Pa's meridians.

  Zhang suddenly understood that the scene in the Cave of Ten Thousand Beasts would have to be replayed, but with a different person. He couldn't help but bitterly smile, many things had happened without him understanding, who said being foolish was joyful?

  On the top of the snake's egg, under the crazy influx of spiritual power, the light reached its peak, and the white was dazzling. Suddenly, a cracking sound was heard, and the snake's egg cracked open, revealing a small white snake as long as a finger and as thick as a chopstick. The little snake slightly moved its head, saw Zhang Pa, and quickly crawled onto his body, scaring him half to death. In his heart, he muttered: "It's over, it's going to bite me." But the little snake didn't bite him, instead lying quietly at the edge of Zhang Pa's palm near the pearl tears.

  Zhang was relieved, thinking that it was all over, but before he could even express his gratitude, another flash of light appeared on his forehead, shooting towards another snake egg. The egg rose into the air, absorbing spiritual energy, and then hatched, revealing a small snake that lay quietly on Zhang's body.

  The process was repeated four times, and the spiritual energy in the pearl tears was exhausted before it stopped hatching. Zhang Pa finally managed to move around, hastily collecting the remaining snake eggs and pearl tears, and focusing on the four small white snakes. The little snakes were too young, lying quietly in his palm without moving, Zhang Pa worried that they might bite him, but he didn't dare to touch them.