Chapter 485: A Bit More Lively

When Little Red Riding Hood called him on the phone, Yu Sheng was taking a walk in the nearby park with Hu Li. The situation in the valley startled him, so he found a secluded spot and opened a door straight to Fairy Tale Town. Then, there in the square, he saw the great snake demon playing with the kids.

The snake demon looked different from how he remembered her.

Somehow, she had shed all those wolf, tiger, and leopard heads she used to have. Although her lower body was still a long snake tail, her upper half was now a pretty girl from the waist up, wearing a plain, elegant dress in the style of the Taixu Lingshu. She almost looked like a "celestial maiden."

Right now, a few bold kids were gathered around her. Two were even riding on her long tail, and Xiaoxiao was using a bunch of colorful plastic hair clips and bead strings to give the Snake Lady a "hairstyle." The snake lady had already been decked out in all sorts of trinkets by the children, including a "flower crown" someone had woven—a rough grass ring with a few wilted wildflowers stuck in it, with a few bite marks on the grass ring as well.

But even so, the snake demon wasn't annoyed at all. She'd completely shed her earlier insane behavior and was laughing and joking with the kids. She used her magic to perform tricks and lifted her tail up like a slide for the children to glide down.

Little Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel were watching from the edge of the square, muttering to each other:

"How did she get so chummy with everyone so fast... Like she owns the place, and the kids love her, too."

"I dunno... Last time I saw her, she'd just been caught by Snow White. The Thunder Titans were swinging her by the tail like a noodle, and when they let go, she bit people. Scared the hell out of me!"

Little Red Riding Hood frowned, then caught sight of Yu Sheng out of the corner of her eye as he stepped into the square.

"Ah, he's here."

"Bro!" Rapunzel immediately waved her arms furiously. "You're finally here! Take a look at this."

"I was about to ask, what's going on here?" Yu Sheng stared in bewilderment at the huge demon in the square. "I mean... I heard this snake was cured, but how did she end up here?!"

"Apparently, she sneaked through when Xuan Che opened a door to bring the kids some sanfu paste," Little Red Riding Hood sighed. "But once she got here, she found she couldn't go back—she doesn't have door-opening permission."

Yu Sheng blinked. "Then what?"

Little Red Riding Hood spread her hands. "Then she built herself a 'cave dwelling' in the nearby woods and stole quite a few things from the town..."

Before Little Red Riding Hood could finish, the Snake Lady not far away suddenly lifted her head and shouted over, "How is that stealing! I picked them up! Your kitchen doesn't even have a guard!"

"Whose kitchen has a dedicated guard?!" Rapunzel immediately shook her fist at the Snake Lady. "I'm telling you, we just weren't on guard. If we were serious, even our gatekeeper would be at the Supreme Unity Realm... You sticking your tongue out again?! Do it one more time and I'll call over those Thunder Titans from outside the town and tie you into a knot!"

The Snake Lady instantly shrank back, pretending nothing happened as she continued performing tricks to amuse the children.

Yun Qingzi was watching this scene with amusement. He walked over and waved at Rapunzel. "It's fine. She was originally a mountain spirit and wild demon, and she was mad for so long, so naturally she lacks manners and common sense. But I can see her nature is still good at heart—otherwise, she wouldn't get along so well with the children."

Yu Sheng listened to everyone talking back and forth until he finally understood the whole story. Then it hit him. "Wait—so what about Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain?"

"We just got in touch," Little Red Riding Hood sighed. "I went over there myself. The Beast Taming Peak is in chaos right now, since such a major demon just vanished out of thin air from within Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain. When she sneaked over, she avoided a lot of the surveillance and patrolling disciples along the mountain paths, and since our tunnel to Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain was only recently built, they had no idea she'd slipped away through that door on Cloud Viewing Platform."

"Yuan He tried to trick me into going back to cultivate—cultivating is so boring," the Snake Lady said, crawling over and muttering. "Your place is really interesting. Everything is fun, totally different from Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain!"

As she spoke, her gaze fell on Yu Sheng. The curious demon raised herself up, propping herself on her tail to circle around Yu Sheng a few times, until Hu Li suddenly bared her fangs and let out a threatening "Grrr—", only then did she back off carelessly. "I remember you. I saw you when I escaped from the Demon-Suppressing Tower, but my head was a mess back then...

"Yuan He and them say you're a 'master,' someone who can beat the Dark Angel. Is that true? Is the Dark Angel really that strong?

"Are you the sect leader here? Or sovereign... valley lord? What should I call you?"

Yu Sheng was speechless at this snake demon with no sense of propriety and a stream of random thoughts. He couldn't help but smile wryly as he took half a step back and waved his hand at her. "Just call me Yu Sheng. By the way, if you skip home like this, won't Yuan He worry?"

The Snake Lady said, "So what?"

Yu Sheng: "..."

"Yuan He... the old man knows I'm here now!" the Snake Lady continued matter-of-factly, then rummaged around on her body and pulled out an exquisitely crafted little mirror. "When Little Red Riding Hood came back earlier, she brought this for me—a Lingxi Mirror. Yuan He gave it to me. I used it to tell him I'm safe. The old man said I could stay at your place for a couple of days, as long as I don't cause any trouble."

Yu Sheng looked at the snake demon propped up on her tail, towering a head taller than him, swaying left and right like a piece of seaweed with no sense of posture (though you could call it a graceful waist swaying with charm, but her total lack of class and straightforward gaze didn't deserve those nice words). He thought for a moment, then silently pulled out his phone, opened "Border Communications," found the Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain group he'd recently joined, and searched for Yuan He's name.

A contact with the nickname "Beast 40K" popped up, with an avatar of an old man with an immortal air.

"Beast 40K" had two recent status updates: one was "Snake is missing, disciples search the mountain; features: half-human half-demon (split top and bottom)," and the other was "Snake found."

Yu Sheng felt a strange sensation, then sent a message to Yuan He to confirm. And it turned out... the Snake Lady was telling the truth.

He looked up at the great demon still twisting and swaying beside him like a piece of seaweed.

"See? I didn't lie to you." The Snake Lady raised her head, looking very proud.

"Yuan He told me you're allowed to come visit, but while you're here, you have to listen to me and follow the valley's rules," Yu Sheng said unhurriedly. "Anyway, this valley is just one door away from Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain, and authorized disciples are already allowed to come and go between both sides. Besides, actually, the day I left the door open, he wanted to bring you to Cloud Viewing Platform to meet me, but you'd crawled into the ice cellar and frozen yourself into hibernation, so you missed out."

The Snake Lady said, "...Really?"

Yu Sheng was amused by her attitude. He sighed, raised a finger, and waved in a certain direction. "Luna—"

As soon as he said that, a series of continuous leaping shadow gaps "whooshed" from afar. The artificial saint lady, who had been watering the ground outside the town, jumped over using shadow leaps, chopped down with her hand, then leaped back outside to continue watering the ground.

Yu Sheng held out his bleeding hand to the Snake Lady. "Come on."

The village girl snake demon had never seen anything like this. She immediately recoiled, this fearless creature suddenly looking as if she'd seen a ghost. "You... what are you doing?!"

"A blood grant ritual," Yu Sheng said, keeping his arm extended. "Just touch it—hurry up before it heals."

The Snake Lady blinked, then suddenly yelled, "You're a heretic cultivator!"

"Heretic your grandpa!" Yu Sheng had veins bulging. "It's to give you 'door-opening permission'! Without this, you can't open any of the portals in the valley. Do you want to visit freely in the future or not?"

The Snake Lady hesitated, then warily came closer, keeping her eyes on Yu Sheng's blood while quietly confirming, "...Did Yuan He and the others do this too? And Xuan Che?"

"Of course."

She seemed to believe him, but then she frowned. "...But I'm a vegetarian."

"You don't have to drink it! I just told you to touch it! The blood will seep in by itself..." Yu Sheng laughed helplessly, then paused in surprise. "Wait, you're a vegetarian?"

"Yeah."

"You're a great demon, and a snake demon at that! And you're a vegetarian?!" Yu Sheng stared at the Snake Lady in shock. "Then why did you keep saying you were going to eat Yuan He, and why did you eat your own dog heads..."

"I was out of my mind back then," the Snake Lady said matter-of-factly. "Normally, I'm a vegetarian. Otherwise, how do you think I gained enlightenment in the first place?"

Having listened to the excitement from the side, Rapunzel finally couldn't hold it in anymore. "What does that have to do with gaining enlightenment?"

"Cultivating immortality and attaining the Dao goes against the heavens. So the first step is to rebel against heaven," the Snake Lady argued confidently. "My diet is rebellious..."

Yu Sheng was dumbfounded. Her reasoning was so absurd that he wasn't even sure if it was true. He could only turn to look at the greatest cultivation expert on site, Yun Qingzi.

The old man immediately shook his head. "Fake. Don't believe it."

Yu Sheng pressed his thumb against the Snake Lady's forehead, completing the "blood grant" before this long-winded, dawdling demon could keep babbling.

The Snake Lady bounced up like a spring and started rolling on the ground. "Ahh, blood! Blood! Are you sure you're not a heretic cultivator?! It hurts—oh, it's seeping in... Wait, it doesn't hurt? Okay, never mind, that scared me..."

Yu Sheng: "..."

He looked helplessly but fondly at the big snake rolling around on the ground, then sighed with a smile.

It was predictable that the valley would gain a bit more liveliness from now on.

(The end)