“Ugh, I really didn’t want to have to use this.”
Muttering to himself, Ye Yang pulled out some wooden chips and began setting up an array.
Retrospection talismans were too expensive, so he decided to set up his own array to reconstruct the scene. The downside of this method was that it consumed a huge amount of demonic energy and time, was quite difficult, and had a low success rate. The only advantage was that it cost almost nothing.
Shen Ming watched Ye Yang fail twice. He wanted to step in, but he had just declared that he wouldn’t casually interfere…
After thinking it over, he pulled out his wallet and took out a bank card. “How about we just buy a talisman?”
“No!” Ye Yang refused without a second thought. “I have principles. I can’t spend Teacher Shen’s money!”
It wasn’t that he didn’t have a retrospection talisman. The company had given him a free set of talismans he might need. He was just reluctant to use them.
It wasn’t that he was stingy—it was about saving where possible and spending where necessary. He had only failed twice. Next time would definitely work!
Shen Ming: “…” We’ve eaten thousands or tens of thousands worth of spiritual plants and grains, but you’re balking at a talisman that costs a little over a thousand?… Fine, whatever the little bunny said. Wait, since when did he start calling him “little bunny” too?
Fortunately, the third attempt succeeded. A soft, gentle yellow glow slowly lit up within the array, and images of the past quickly flashed across.
Time in the playback rushed past at an almost invisible speed until the moment when the assistant director was attacked, at which point it returned to normal speed.
The two of them watched the segment from the snake swarm’s appearance to their disappearance several times. It matched the intel perfectly, except for one detail: “That’s strange—it seems like these venomous snakes can’t actually spray venom?”
He couldn’t be certain just by watching with the naked eye. Ye Yang muttered to himself, “If only I could catch a few live ones to confirm.”
Based on the reconstructed scene, Ye Yang noticed that the snakes scattering in all directions was just a decoy. In reality, all the snakes were heading in the same direction—exactly where the yao aura was leading.
But they hadn’t traveled on the ground. Instead, they had burrowed through countless small holes underground. Many had slithered directly into the waterways of the wetland. Since they were water snakes, the possibility that these snakes were non-venomous was even higher.
Watching further, Ye Yang saw that the snake swarm had actually returned—sometime after the incident, after the terrified crew members had all left.
This time, their movements were extremely stealthy. They slithered around the studio, did nothing else, and then withdrew again.
Soon after the YCG investigators arrived and took away one snake carcass, a giant snake appeared!
Ye Yang gasped. “This is the snake yao!”
This giant snake was about ten meters long, as thick as a bucket. Its scales were black and red, reflecting a metallic sheen. Occasionally, it flicked out its tongue. When it opened its mouth, there seemed to be no fangs inside. Its massive head was slightly rounder than its body, with a slender protruding snout—not the typical triangular head of a venomous snake.
The YCG investigators must have also reconstructed the scene here. The snake yao, probably thinking the people had left and let down its guard, appeared here—unaware that Ye Yang would discover it.
The giant snake collapsed part of the studio’s outer wall and entered. It circled the remaining snake carcasses as if mourning. After five or six minutes, it suddenly opened its mouth and swallowed all the carcasses before quickly retreating, its flailing tail destroying a lot of debris.
No wonder the studio was so badly damaged. It was the snake yao’s doing. The drag marks on the ground hadn’t been left by the crew—they were the snake’s tracks.
“But knowing all this is still useless. We still can’t find the snake yao.” Ye Yang fell into confusion again.
Shen Ming spoke up to remind him, “Look closely at that earlier part again.”
Ye Yang didn’t understand but obeyed. While the retrospection array was still active, he went back to the moment the snake yao appeared and stared intently at it.
“Ah! Did it just drop something?!”
Ye Yang rushed to the pile of debris scattered by the snake’s tail. He pushed aside the top layers of wooden planks and plastic sheeting, moved away some props of indeterminate purpose, and found a shiny object wedged in the gap of the iron framework underneath.
Indeed, the snake yao hadn’t known there was a sturdy iron frame inside. When it swung its tail, it accidentally scraped off half a scale.
The yao aura inside the studio was so strong that the scale blended in unremarkably—otherwise, it would have been discovered long ago.
With the snake yao’s appearance and the scale it left behind, they could now try a tracking spell.
With any other yao, the tracking spell would most likely be useless. Even Ye Yang, his classmates, Little Thirteen, Lan Bao, and other young yao all routinely blocked tracking spells and similar arts.
But this snake yao, according to reports, had been secluded for a long time and had only just emerged. Chances were high that it had no idea it needed to shield itself. It hadn’t even known enough to conceal its yao aura!
Ye Yang placed the scale in his palm, formed a hand seal with his other hand, and chanted silently. Sure enough, a thin strand of black-red light—invisible to ordinary people—floated eastward.
Following the light, Ye Yang and Shen Ming once again arrived at the waterway where they had stopped earlier. The light continued east for a while longer, then plunged straight down into the water.
The investigators had been quite accurate—it was indeed an aquatic yao.
The water was relatively clear, but the spot where the light entered was too deep to see the bottom.
Ye Yang turned to look at Shen Ming. “Should we go down?”
Shen Ming nodded.
Ye Yang shifted into his true form and plunged into the water with a splash. Shen Ming made no dramatic move—he simply continued walking at his usual pace, stepping directly into the water.
As he gradually entered the water, a transparent membrane formed wherever his body made contact with it. By the time he was fully submerged, the membrane had completely enveloped him.
Even though he was in the water, it felt no different from walking on flat ground.
Ye Yang stared in awe. As expected of Xuanwu—so sophisticated!
Still, he felt a tiny hint of disappointment. He had hoped to see Xuanwu’s true form this time. But then he reconsidered—Xuanwu’s true form was unimaginably vast. This tiny wetland probably couldn’t even fit a single foot.
Tall trees surrounded the wetland, and the overcast sky brought thick fog. About two or three meters below the surface, sunlight no longer penetrated, making the tracking spell’s light all the more conspicuous.
Ye Yang, in his little sea hare form, lit up a small orb of light above his head, illuminating the area three or four meters around him and Shen Ming.
The bottom of this body of water was strange. There was no river mud or aquatic plants—just bare, oddly shaped rocks. Yet outside, there was a marsh.
Just as he was thinking this, Shen Ming stopped. Ye Yang was about to ask why when, suddenly, a tremendous force surged silently from below. The previously calm water erupted into violent turbulence.
The orb of light above him shattered. Ye Yang was sent flying, his small body launched out of the water.
He quickly used a levitation spell to steady himself. When he looked down again, a massive whirlpool had formed in the center of the water, and the powerful suction nearly pulled him back in.
He immediately landed on the shore and returned to human form. Shen Ming also emerged from the water at the same time.
Before he could say anything, the whirlpool suddenly shrank and gradually calmed. But immediately after, a wave three or four meters high crashed toward him.
Ye Yang couldn’t dodge in time. The force of the wave sent him tumbling backward, breaking two small trees as he flew.
The giant snake had appeared!
Shen Ming had already withdrawn to a distance to uphold his principle of not interfering casually.
He knew Ye Yang well—he knew this kind of force couldn’t hurt him.
And indeed, Ye Yang wasn’t injured. He steadied himself and charged back. The giant snake suddenly transformed into human form, wrapped tightly in a long robe, wearing a hood and a mask painted with eerie serpentine patterns. In his hand, he held a long blade taller than himself.
Is he trying to communicate? Ye Yang halted, hesitated, and opened his mouth. “You—”
He only managed one word before being interrupted by a sudden swarm of snakes rushing at him from all directions. They slithered with incredible speed, instantly covering the ground around him. The trees were also crawling with small snakes—thick as a carpet. Ye Yang wasn’t afraid of snakes, but even he felt his scalp tingle at the sight.
The swarm grew larger and larger. Soon, some of them launched themselves into the air without warning, lunging straight at the surrounded Ye Yang.
As a leaf sheep sea slug, Ye Yang was actually one of the more sluggish and clumsy types of yao. These small, thin snakes were extremely agile. With every sweep of his hand, he couldn’t catch a single one.
Instead, he was bitten multiple times.
Ye Yang continued trying to talk to the snake yao, asking where it came from and why it attacked people. But the snake yao ignored him entirely, only swinging its long blade to strike at between the snake swarm’s assaults.
The little snakes couldn’t break through Ye Yang’s defenses, but they bit and then retreated. He couldn’t catch them, and he also had to dodge the rather extraordinary long blade. He was flustered and annoyed.
Finally, after being slashed several times by the blade—nearly run through—he lost his patience.
Bam!
Ye Yang punched the air. The air itself vibrated. The snakes mid-flight were struck as if by a massive hammer, sent tumbling backward, convulsing on the ground as they lost combat ability. A few of them stopped moving entirely.
Even the long blade that the snake yao had swung at him was deflected by the force of that punch, sending the snake yao stumbling back repeatedly.
The snake yao barely managed to steady himself. When he looked up again, he saw Ye Yang throwing punches left and right, completely ignoring the small snakes still stubbornly biting into him. Dragging his body covered in a dense layer of snakes, step by step, using his fists to clear the way, he walked straight toward him.
With each step forward, dozens of snakes hung from Ye Yang’s body. He wasn’t walking fast, but each punch sent seven or eight snakes flying, while the force of the shockwave pushed away another dozen. In just a few punches, he had cleared a path.
The snake yao took a sharp breath and charged with his long blade.
Ye Yang had been waiting for him!
Thwack! The handle of the long blade slammed into Ye Yang’s raised forearm. Seizing the opportunity, Ye Yang grabbed the handle with his other hand and lifted upward with force—
He raised both the snake yao and his blade into the air!
Behind the mask, the snake yao’s vertical pupils abruptly contracted. This strength!
The next second, the world spun. He was slammed heavily into the mud.
The soil here was soft and moist. With his body half-buried, the snake yao couldn’t escape for the time being. Not only that, after slamming him in, Ye Yang pulled out the long blade and, using the blunt side, brought it down thwack thwack thwack onto the snake yao’s shoulders, driving him even deeper into the ground—until only his head remained above the surface.
The snake yao finally snapped out of it and quickly begged for mercy. His voice was high-pitched and thin, but clearly male. “Stop, stop! Spare me, good sir!”
Ye Yang clenched his fist and brushed the dirt off his clothes. True—the thinking stuff isn’t for me. I’m much better suited to physical work.
“Now, can we talk properly?”
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