A Thought Through Eternity

Before even arriving, he noticed a white and tender figure on the trail from afar. That figure was holding a charred piece of meat, and taking a bite from it while walking. The person seemed to be eating quite happily, even humming a melodious tune.

Li Qinghou’s face instantly darkened. With a single glance, he recognized the piece of meat concealed in the person’s hand to be a chicken leg. He couldn’t help but explode in anger.

“Bai Xiaochun!”

His shout was not loud at all. However, it seemed like roaring thunder once it had reached Bai Xiaochun’s ears. After hearing the shout, Bai Xiaochun, who was sucking on the chicken bone, nearly jumped in fright.

“Elder Li!”

Bai Xiaochun widened his eyes and gulped. He subconsciously shoved the entire chicken leg into his mouth. With his mouth just like a ball, he chewed hard a couple times before swallowing the chicken leg whole, his face turning purple as he choked on it.

The person whom he was afraid of the most in the sect was Li Qinghou. Especially after he had eaten so many of his chickens, Bai Xiaochun was now even more tense in front of Li Qinghou. As sweat gushed out of his forehead, he quickly wiped it off with his sleeve then hurriedly approached Li Qinghou, made a nice and cute face, and greeted him.

“Esteemed ancestor.”

Li Qinghou stared at Bai Xiaochun without any expression. Looking at Bai Xiaochun, Li Qinghou really felt helpless. Bai Xiaochun’s ancestors had helped him once, and Li Qinghou greatly valued their kindness. Looking back, what they had done was only a small favor, however, he had always felt indebted to them.

A while ago, the ancestors of the Green Peak Mountain and Purple Cauldron Mountain came and spoke with him about the disappearance of the Spirit Tailed chickens. Although these chickens weren’t particularly valuable, he didn’t want the others to criticize his own disciples. Therefore, he had compensated the other ancestors.

Looking at Bai Xiaochun now, Li Qinghou felt more exasperated by Bai Xiaochun’s failure to improve his attitude.

“Barely half a year has passed since you became an outer sect disciple, yet you have already improved your Qi Condensation from third-level to fourth-level, you should be quite proud of yourself.” said Li Qinghou with a snort.

Bai Xiaochun blinked his eyes and coughed dryly, unsure of how to respond. He could only keep up the nice and cute face, thinking that as long as he kept showing a good attitude, he would certainly be fine. But then he remembered how moments earlier, he had been holding one of Li Qinghou’s Spirit Tailed chicken’s leg. Sweat immediately surfaced on his forehead once again.

Li Qinghou felt a headache just by looking at Bai Xiaochun. Thinking for a moment, he continued in a flat voice, “Since you have so much time to do all this nonsense, you should join the small competition held amongst the Scented Cloud Mountain’s outer sect disciples, who have reached fourth to fifth level of Qi Condensation, three months from now.”

Bai Xiaochun’s heart raced as soon as Li Qinghou let the sentence out. He had heard about this kind of small competitions. He knew that although the winners could win prizes, it was also said that the fights were ferocious and the competitors could easily get hurt. Thinking about this, his cheeks instantly turned sour.

“Esteemed ancestor, I’m only in the fourth level of Qi Condensation, how could you send me to compete against them, what if they beat me to death…”

“In this competition, you must get into the top five, otherwise, I will get you…” said Li Qinghou with a harsh look, disregarding Bai Xiaochun’s words. Before he finished his speech, Bai Xiaochun let out a long sigh.

“I know, you will kick me out of the sect…”

Li Qinghou glared at Bai Xiaochun. He knew that Bai Xiaochun was stubborn and unruly. Perhaps threatening him with expulsion wasn’t enough to spook him anymore. He then thought how this kid was very afraid of death. With this thought in mind, he abruptly raised his right arm, pulled Bai Xiaochun closer with a wave of his sleeve, and they both flew straight towards the mountaintop.

Bai Xiaochun’s heart was racing. He stared at Li Qinghou\'s expressionless face, feeling that something bad was about to happen. In the middle of the air, he could feel gales blowing right against his face. Before he could even see clearly, Li Qinghou had brought him to the back of the Scented Cloud Mountain.

This was considered as a forbidden area of the Scented Cloud Mountain since it was filled with all kinds of plants. Normally, none of the disciples were allowed here.

Once they landed on the ground, Li Qinghou grabbed Bai Xiaochun and darted towards a valley in the back of the mountain. A frosty atmosphere immediately attacked Bai Xiaochun after they entered. The colors of the surrounding plants could barely be distinguished as they swung from Li Qinghou’s movements.

Looking at those plants, Bai Xiaochun’s heart heavily pounded. Sensing danger, he opened his mouth to say something, but in the next moment, he suddenly noticed a blood-red venomous snake which slowly raised its head from a brushwood and thrusted out its forked tongue, staring at him coldly.

“Snake!” yelled Bai Xiaochun as his scalp turned numb. Right after which, along with Li Qinghou’s advance, the entire valley entered Bai Xiaochun’s sight. He immediately noticed that the ground of the valley, as well as all the branches and brushes, were filled with all kinds of snakes.

Red and blue, all of these snakes were in bright vivid colors, clearly indicating that they were all venomous. Every single one of them thrusted their forked tongues out and coldly stared at Bai Xiaochun.

Bai Xiaochun trembled. He had been afraid of snakes since he was little. Even more frightening was that many of those snakes opened their jaws and exposed their venomous fangs, showing signs of aggression. A few of them even started to spew venom.

However, Bai Xiaochun quickly remembered that he had the impenetrable skin which these venomous snakes shouldn’t be able to break through. Thinking of this, he suddenly felt that no matter how many snakes this valley had, they would all be as weak as a chicken in front of him. In his mind, he told himself that there was nothing to be afraid of.

But then he rolled his eyes, realizing that if he acted fearlessly, Li Qinghou might take him to somewhere even more dangerous, therefore, he immediately let out a high-pitched scream, pretending to freak out.

Li Qinghou snorted with scorn then released his power. Those snakes instantly wriggled their bodies and slowly moved away, opening up a trail. At the end of the trail, a dark cave constantly emitting an odor capable of making people sick could be seen.

“Uncle Li…You…help! I have never violated any rule!” yelled Bai Xiaochun with a trembling voice. Li Qinghou remained expressionless as he grabbed Bai Xiaochun and rushed straight towards the cave. After they entered the cave, Li Qinghou waved his sleeve, and the inside of the cave instantly lit up.

With this light, Bai Xiaochun quickly noticed that inside the cave, there were even more venomous snakes than outside. Every one of these snakes were bigger than those outside. These snakes let out hissing sounds, which seemed to contain some kind of mysterious power, that could make people temporarily stunned. Seeing this, Bai Xiaochun widened his eyes.

A strong sense of danger made him unable to breathe. Even more astonishing was that these snakes had power similar to cultivators. In the distance, he even saw a four-coloured venomous snake with Qi that was equivalent to the fifth level of Qi Condensation.

Being stared at by this snake, Bai Xiaochun felt chills run down his spine. He realized that even his impenetrable skin wouldn’t last too long in this place. This time, without pretending, he really freaked out.

“This place is called Ten Thousand Snakes Valley. It is where our cultivators acquire toxins. Every single one of these snakes is highly toxic and a single drop of venom from any of them can easily kill a hundred cows.” said Li Qinghou.

“Without a timely rescue, cultivators below Foundation Establishment would be poisoned to death just by touching the venom. Especially the snake king deep inside the cave, which is as powerful as a cultivator who has achieved the Great Circle of Qi Condensation, once poisoned by its venom, even people like me would have no chance of survival.”

“If you failed to get into the top five in this small competition among the outer sect disciples, you needn’t worry about getting kicked out of the sect. I will just send you here to fetch some toxins for me.” continued Li Qinghou blandly as he stared at Bai Xiaochun.

“Th…this…Uncle Li, trust me, it’s nothing but a small competition in the sect, and the top five should be easy! I, Bai Xiaochun, can certainly do it!”

Bai Xiaochun’s face had turned deathly pale, and he felt that his mouth had turned dry. He swore that he would never come back to this place upon learning that there were even scarier venomous snakes deeper in the cave.

Having heard Bai Xiaochun’s words, Li Qinghou smiled inwardly, however, he kept his face expressionless. He snorted once again before bringing Bai Xiaochun out of the valley. After they returned to the Scented Cloud Mountain, Li Qinghou dropped Bai Xiaochun on a small trail, then he turned around and left.

Before he left, he paused for a second without turning his head as his voice flew into Bai Xiaochun’s ears.

“Oh yeah, were the Spirit Tailed Chickens tasty?”

After letting out this question, Li Qinghou’s silhouette slowly vanished into the air before Bai Xiaochun could even answer.

Bai Xiaochun went back to his yard with endless sighing and groaning. While he was walking back, the wind blew across and rustled the plants beside the trail, reminding him about those venomous snakes for quite a while.

“Li Qinghou… your name should be Green Snake Li! Too vicious!” murmured Bai Xiaochun while sitting down in the yard with a long face.

(ED NOTE: Qing=青=green Green Snake Li=李青蛇)

“I will certainly not go back to that Ten Thousand Snake Valley, I’ll be killed if even a single drop of venom touches my skin. Since he has said so, then I’ll do my best to reach top five! It’s nothing but a simple top five!” Bai Xiaochun made up his mind.

“My current cultivation is not powerful enough for the small competition. I need spirit medicines!” Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath and clenched his fist. His eyes even showed a trace of fierce light. He looked at the surrounding area, then fixed his eyes on those Spirit Winter Bamboos.

“After finishing the mission for these Spirit Winter Bamboos, I can get contribution points as a reward, which I can trade for some spirit medicines. But my bamboos have only grown to less than five zhang. I’m not sure if it qualifies as a pass…” thinking of this, Bai Xiaochun hesitated for a second, however, he had no other ideas at all. With a quick calculation, he figured out that the scheduled handover for plant-related missions was just a couple of days away.

(ED note: 1 zhang is equal to 3.58 meters or 3.645 yards)

Bai Xiaochun anxiously waited a couple days with a sour face. Finally, in the morning of the fourth day, he got up early and walked up to the bamboos, grabbed them with both of his hands, and pulled them out one after another.

These bamboos didn’t look heavy at all. However, once he tried to pull them out, he discovered that every single one of them were as heavy as metal.

After the ground shook for a while, ten five-zhang-long spirit winter bamboos were carried on Bai Xiaochun’s shoulder. Bai Xiaochun then walked out of the yard step-by-step, preparing to complete his mission.

The space of his storage pouch wasn’t big enough. These bamboos couldn’t fit in, and so he could only carry them on his shoulder. Fortunately, Bai Xiaochun’s strength had been largely improved after he achieved a breakthrough with the impenetrable skin, otherwise, he probably wouldn’t be able to carry these bamboos uphill.

While walking, Bai Xiaochun was feeling depressed. He thought of the small competition, then he thought of those venomous snakes, and his head was filled with imaginary scenes of his bones lying there broken on the floor.

“My, Bai Xiaochun’s, life is so miserable……”