Chapter Fourteen Zhang Pa and the Old Man

  After a while, a cold voice replied from the air: "Since you have the Fugod snake in your hand, all misunderstandings can be explained. You want treasure, I'll give it to you." The voice was dry and full of bitter meaning. Then a gentle breeze blew, and an old man with white hair stood up from the grass. Zhang Pa used his divine sense to examine him, but there was no reaction, knowing that the old man's cultivation was absolutely above his own. He bowed and said: "Disciple greets senior, I don't know what senior's name is?"

  The old man's face was expressionless, his icy gaze sweeping over Zhang and the four white snakes. Many ideas flashed through his mind as he balanced for a long time before sighing and saying: "Fellow Taoist, why must you play jokes on an old man? You have four Fugang snakes, it would be easy to kill me like taking something from your pocket. Since I dared to come out and see you, I've put life and death aside. Whether you want to take me away or kill me, it's all up to you." After finishing speaking, he closed his eyes, with a look of complete resignation.

  Zhang was surprised and felt strange, asking: "Senior, why did you say that? Why would I want to kill you? It's just that there are some things I don't understand, and I wanted to ask senior."

  The old man didn't even open his eyes, and said disdainfully: "Whether you want to kill or rob, it's all up to you. Why must you humiliate me? I've seen too many of your human tricks, but I didn't expect a young boy like you to have such intentions as well. Alas."

  Zhang was completely bewildered and hastily said: "You and I have no grudges or grievances, why are you certain that I want to kill you?"

  The old man sneered: "Alright, cats catching mice, humans all like to play like this." As he said this, he suddenly thought of something and opened his eyes wide, saying: "I have a request for you, take me away and that's it. I have tens of thousands of years of lifespan left, please spare Fu'er's life."

  Zhang was afraid to say anything, the old man pretended not to hear, and hurriedly waved his hand. The old man saw it, his face turned gloomy: "It's settled, people are greedy, how can they let go of Fu'er's spirit? Forget it, we're just destined to be this way."

  The old man became more and more incoherent as he spoke, so Zhang stopped trying to persuade him and sat down to watch the old man talk nonsense.

  The old man waited for half a day, but the other party still didn't make a move. He probed with his divine sense and found that the person who was in the Refining Qi stage was still there. He couldn't help but ask, "Why don't you take action?"

  Zhang said faintly, "Sit down and chat, standing is tiring. You want me to take action, why should I?" The old man was stunned, with various thoughts flashing through his mind. Could it be that this young man really didn't know anything? He sat down and asked, "Why did you let Fu'er go?"

  "Who is that little boy? Wearing a red bellyband and a queue?"

  The old man said: "Yes, why did you let him go?"

  "What's the point of not letting him go? Take him on a trip?" Zhang Fa was really helpless.

  "Haven't you noticed anything special about him?" The old man stared at Zhang tightly.

  "What's so special about him? Ah, you're referring to his spiritual energy? Indeed, Fu Er is the person with the most spiritual energy I've ever seen in this lifetime. It's frighteningly abundant! My little snake seems to have bitten a few times and absorbed some of it. Senior, my snake is still young and doesn't understand things well, please don't be angry."

  The old man kept guessing whether Zhang's words were true or not, but Zhang's expression remained unchanged, without any sign of deception. He asked again: "Do you really not know what Fu'er is?"

  "What is it? Isn't it human?" Zhang Pa said casually.

  The old man decided to gamble, if he couldn't give a satisfactory answer, he didn't know what the young man would do, so he told the truth: "Fu'er is indeed not human, he is a thousand-year-old spirit." At the same time, he secretly grasped the magic formula in his hand and was cautious.

  Zhang was startled and paused for a moment: "Wan Nian Ling Shen? It seems that it's really not human, no wonder the spiritual energy is so abundant, it turns out that it has lived for so long."

  Zhang Pa's reaction surprised the old man, who asked: "Are you really a cultivator?"

  "My goodness, why so many questions? Of course I am." As he spoke, he patted his Daoist robe and continued: "See that? I'm a disciple of the Purple Light Pavilion in Tianlei Taoist Temple. I reached the top stage of Qi Refining at just 16 years old." Zhang was bragging about himself while appropriately hiding the fact that he had been lazy.

  The old man was stunned, recalling his own arduous years of cultivation. He muttered to himself: "Sixteen? To reach the top at sixteen... being human is really great." After sighing in admiration, he asked again: "You must have taken some kind of divine medicine?"

  Zhang shook his head: "There aren't that many spiritual medicines, I'm not even clear how they got here, anyway, it's all about reaching the top level." He picked up four small snakes and spread them out in his palm: "They should have played a huge role, but I don't understand these things."

  Zhang Pa picked up a small snake and spoke, the old man instinctively retreated, Zhang Pa hurriedly said sorry and put the snake back into his chest.

  The old man smiled wryly and slightly waved his hand, then asked: "Don't you want to capture Fu'er and take him back to refine the elixir? After taking it, your cultivation will surge violently, perhaps even advancing several ranks."

  "When the little snake just caught him back, I did have that idea, but he's so cute, I couldn't kill one life to save another, so I let him go."

  "What about now? You already know he's not human, just a spirit, shouldn't you want to capture him?" The old man asked, Zhang hesitated for a moment and shook his head: "Still don't think so." Looking at the giant pig corpse in the distance, he asked: "You brought this demon beast to kill me, all because of this?"

  The old man smiled bitterly: "That's right. I heard that Fu'er was caught by four small snakes and then released. At the time, I didn't think much of it, thinking that he was restrained by a spell, and you let him go just to lure in bigger fish. But I carefully checked Fu'er's body and found no seals or restrictions, and when I sent out my divine sense to search the surroundings, there were no discoveries, so I thought that Fu'er had encountered a kind person; just as I was putting my mind at ease, you came over slowly. After investigating with my divine sense, I knew that you were just a Qi-refining disciple of the top rank, and didn't pay much attention to it. But when you walked near the cave entrance and stopped to rest, I thought you had discovered the cave, so I sent a demon beast up, but unexpectedly, unexpectedly, you actually have four Fugitive Serpents."

  Zhang was frightened and clearly heard, pointing to his chest and asking: "Is this snake called Fushen?"

  "Don't you know?"

  Zhang said: "I don't know, please teach me more." He remembered the old man's words and asked again: "Just now you kept saying I took you away, aren't you human either?"

  The old man glanced at Zhang with a calm expression, unable to discern any thoughts. He replied, "I'm also an immortal, having lived for 700,000 or 800,000 years, I don't recall which."

  "My god, 700,000 years? How did you survive?" Zhang was extremely shocked.

  The old man finally believed that Zhang had no ill intentions towards him, otherwise he would have been caught early on. He explained: "I've lived this long because I know a secret to heaven, and if it were you, you might be able to as well."

  "What secret can live for so long?"

  The old man said, "Don't be in a hurry, I'll tell you bit by bit. First, let's talk about this snake. The name of the snake is Fushen, it's a demonic beast with great magical powers, and it's even called a divine beast. Fushen snakes like quietness, and it's extremely difficult for them to get pregnant. Once they do get pregnant, they lay over a hundred eggs, but not all of these eggs can hatch into small snakes. Being able to hatch two or three is already quite remarkable."

  "After the female snake of Fugod becomes pregnant, she will distribute a large amount of spiritual energy evenly to the snake eggs, causing her own magical powers to become extremely weak. After laying the eggs, the female snake will collect them together and incubate them. The eggs of the Fugod snake are incredibly hard, far surpassing even the strongest metals, so the young snakes must absorb a large amount of spiritual energy in order to break out of their shells. However, the spiritual energy distributed to the eggs is not enough to meet this requirement, so during incubation, the female snake will use her yuan Shen to control the spiritual energy of the eggs, gathering it into a few of them and accumulating everyone's strength to allow them to break out of their shells. The Fugod snakes are highly intelligent and know that their eggs make good materials for refining equipment, so they do not want their offspring to be refined into weapons or treasures by humans. Therefore, the remaining eggs that cannot hatch will be swallowed by the female snake after a period of time."

  It dawned on Zhang that he finally understood how Zhen Yi Shu and the others had captured the Fugod snake, and why he was able to hatch four small snakes. The pearl tears were condensed from the female snake's Yuanshen, containing a large amount of spiritual energy, and he had simply acted as a bridge in between.

  The old man continued: "The Foshan snake god is vast and powerful, its eyes can shoot ice flames, its mouth can spit poisonous liquids and flames, its body scales are extremely hard, it has no wings but can fly, it is indeed a great divine beast in the world. Fortunately, the Foshan snake likes quietness and there are not many of them, otherwise this world would be unthinkable. You have four young snakes, which really surprised me."

  Zhang was afraid of being ridiculed, after all, it's a youthful temperament. He picked up the snake and looked at it in front of him, muttering to himself: "I didn't think you had such great skills, take good care of me from now on." Then he asked the old man: "Even if the little snake is fierce, you don't have to come and deliver yourself to death, can't you run away?"

  The old man sighed: "This kind of ranked demon beast, is born to be the nemesis of grass spirit and goblin, no matter how high my cultivation is, I can only surrender in front of them, they will chase after me through spiritual energy no matter how far I run. What's more, you have four of them, so I usually ask Fu'er not to come out, just in case something unexpected happens."