Yamafu Military Affairs

Chapter 629: Stone prophecy?

After passing through the deep abyss, through the misty fog, one could vaguely see the towering, sharp, bird-beak-like Ten Thousand Snake Rock.

The Ten Thousand Snakes Rock is nearly a hundred feet high, half of which is submerged in a cold abyss. It resembles a small mountain, covered with countless venomous snakes whose scales shimmer. Hence, it is also known as Snake Mountain.

Where the mountain meets the abyss, there is a deep, dark cave with sharp rocks at the entrance, resembling a giant, menacing maw ready to devour anyone who might enter.

"Seventh Brother, ahead lies the Dragon Tooth Cave, where the Serpent Granny Wu Hui and other heavy prisoners are held. You are of noble birth, so please be careful and do not come into contact with the waters of the Abyss. Otherwise, if you fall ill, we will be willing to die a thousand deaths and we will not know how to explain it to the True God of Candle."

Before the old ancestor of flesh-seeing finished speaking, the flying chariot soared into the air and rushed to the cave entrance. The thousands of poisonous snakes on the rock wall immediately roared up, hissing and flicking their tongues, ready to pounce.

Qiang Liang struck out with a palm strike, unleashing a powerful shockwave that sent the snakes flying and crashing into the abyss. Their shrill cries echoed, and white steam billowed everywhere.

Everyone looked down, the chill stinging their eyes and instantly freezing their eyelashes. The snakes were stiff and pale, hovering motionless for a moment before slowly sinking into the abyss, clearly frozen to death in an instant.

Looking down intently, the misty water cast shadows, and one could vaguely see many four-foot-long, dark blue bubbles. In each bubble, a figure seemed to be curled up, but upon closer inspection, nothing could be clearly discerned. It was unclear whether they were drowned corpses or wanted criminals imprisoned at the bottom of the water.

The Frost Vulture Flying Chariot hovered at the cave entrance. The Iron Guards of the Extreme Saint Palace whipped and shouted, driving the women, including Usma, who were disguised as prisoners, off the chariot and into the cave. The Old Ancestor of Flesh led the way with Candle Drum at the front, followed closely by Qin Huai. The other four immortals of Pingqiu were scattered among the group, and the guards were very tight.

As soon as the group entered the cave, they heard hoarse, piercing roars and curses echoing through the passageway. After walking for a while, the dark and filthy passageway widened, and the lights gradually brightened. They could vaguely see many caves carved into the walls, enclosed by iron pillars made of black ice to form prison cells. Many heavily imprisoned prisoners, covered in blood, were trapped in these cells, screaming and cursing, wildly waving their arms.

Upon reaching the deepest part, they saw two burly men sitting on either side of the cell. One had a blue face and fangs, while the other had a red face and a red beard. They were the Gan brothers, the most skilled and accomplished of the Seven Immortals of Pingqiu.

"Do it!"

Just then, Usma, who was in the prisoner's entourage, suddenly shouted, and her shackles were instantly broken. Her long ribbon, flowing like water and clouds, flashed and wrapped around the nearest Qingma Zhenren.

But someone was even faster than her. Qin Huai, who was moving through the narrow passageway, activated the eighth level of Instantaneous Movement. Like lightning, she passed through the gaps between the crowd, and her brilliant Qi energy trailed out thousands of streams of light, binding all the Seven Immortals of Pingqiu and everyone from the Extreme Saint Palace together.

"Keep a close eye on them. If they make any unusual moves, kill them without mercy."

He left Zhuguzhi outside to keep a close eye on the various water demons with their own thoughts, while Qin Huai drew his Seven Sins Blade, revealing the Black Edge that signified the ease with which evil deeds could be committed. With two swift strokes, he sliced ​​a hole large enough for a person to pass through the solid North Sea Mixed Gold.

When the Seven Immortals of Pingqiu saw Qin Huai's actions, they were all greatly shocked and terrified.

That's a Mixed Gold and Black Iron Gate that even a god-level expert could withstand for several hours. Throughout the entire Great Wilderness, its toughness is second only to the [Nine Dragon Rope] that binds the Unyielding Serpent Granny.

And this man was able to break through it so easily, could he be another top expert like Zhulong or Baidi?

Yes, that must be it. That's why he is Zhu Qilang's master and why Zhulong sent him to Pingqiu to rescue Wu Hui, who is also a snake descendant!

Seeing the incredibly varied expressions on the faces of these people, Zhu Guzhi knew they were definitely overthinking things, but he was too lazy to explain. He was still struggling with whether or not to take advantage of this great opportunity to escape and break free from Qin Huai's control.

Qin Huai, already in prison, had no idea what the people outside were thinking. At this moment, he was looking at the dark-skinned girl who was being held down under the Thousand Jun Mountain, her limbs, waist, abdomen, neck, collarbone, and crown tightly bound by the Nine Dragon Rope. His expression was rather strange.

【Zhu Juan Shi】: A 36th generation descendant of Nuwa, a snake witch of the Wuhu Kingdom. Because she possesses the formula for the elixir of rebirth, she has many entanglements with Zhulong.

Note: Because this demon rarely appears in the Great Wilderness, the information network about her is extremely limited.

This Zhu Juanshi looked only three or four years old. His face was deathly pale, his large eyes were bright and lively, and his lips curled into a half-smile. In his right hand, he tightly gripped a two-foot-long thin purple copper rod, on which were engraved two human-headed snakes, intertwined in pairs. His waist and abdomen were covered with snake scales, and his knees and calves were pressed down by the rocks, making them limp and powerless.

"You are the descendant of Nuwa, the Undying Serpent Granny?"

Upon hearing Qin Huai's question, Wu Hui Snake Granny didn't blink and chuckled, "Good grandson, since you recognize your grandmother's beauty, why don't you quickly rescue your grandmother?"

"Arrogant! After I kill you and dissect your soul and spirit, I'll have no trouble getting what I want!"

Qin Huai's eyes flashed with a fierce light, his killing intent surging. He pushed out with his palm, and a rainbow light burst forth, directly striking towards the spirit of the Unyielding Serpent Granny.

"Come on, my spirit is protected by my ancestors, let's see if you get what you want!"

Unexpectedly, Wu Hui Snake Granny was not afraid at all. Instead, she stood up and raised her head, and took the initiative to run into Qin Huai's sword palm.

"Humph!"

The edge of his palm twisted and struck the dark mountainside heavily, leaving hundreds of cracks as thick as fingers. Qin Huai snorted coldly, lowered his eyes to look at the legendary, ferocious, and wicked Wu Hui Snake Granny, and said softly.

"So, you're like a dead pig that's not afraid of boiling water, determined to court death?"

"Stop with your tricks. Grandma has been battling with the Candle Demon for years, she's seen it all. If you want the formula for the Rebirth Elixir, then agree to my demands!"

Seeing that Qin Huai ultimately dared not kill her, Wu Hui Snake Granny laughed, her arrogance indescribable.

"Oh? So you are indeed connected with Zhulong?"

Qin Huai narrowed his eyes slightly and asked casually.

At that very moment, Zero, who was always on duty, also found clues about the "rebirth medicine" in the Ninja Land Information Network and projected them onto his iris in the form of a Yama's hint.

Legend has it that after the great god Fuxi passed away on Mount Ling, Nuwa, realizing the brevity of life, gathered hundreds of herbs to refine elixirs in hopes of achieving immortality. After ten years, although she successfully created the "elixir of immortality," she still could not obtain the "elixir of eternal life."

One day on Danxue Mountain in the Southern Wilderness, Nuwa accidentally witnessed the phoenix being reborn from the ashes. She suddenly realized the truth and mixed her own snake molt with amethyst and other rare substances into the elixir of immortality, finally creating the "elixir of rebirth" that would grant eternal life.

After Nuwa ascended to heaven, the recipe for the elixir of rebirth was lost in the Southern Wilderness. The eight elders of the ancient snake clan searched everywhere but could not find it, making it a mystery in the Great Wilderness.

For thousands of years, countless shamans of the five tribes have exhausted their life's efforts, wishing they could dig three feet into the ground in the southern wilderness, in an attempt to find this medicine, but they have always returned empty-handed, dying with regret. Until one hundred and eighty years ago, Zhu Juan, a snake shaman of the Wuxi Kingdom and a thirty-sixth-generation descendant of Nuwa, accidentally unearthed a bronze medicine pot in Fanlin in the North Sea. The pot's walls were engraved with ancient snake script.

Zhu Juanshi was a rare descendant of the snake race in the Great Wilderness who was proficient in ancient snake script. Upon studying it, he discovered that these snake scripts were actually the prescription for the "rebirth medicine" made by Nuwa herself!

Zhu Juan was overjoyed, guessing that the place must be where Nuwa refined medicine in the past. So he dug up the surrounding area within a radius of ten miles and found Nuwa's ancient snake-clan divine weapon, as well as several artifacts engraved with ancient magic and herbal recipes.

She studied diligently and her cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds. In just over ten years, she became a god-level expert in the Great Wilderness, successively defeating Ru Shou of the Golden Clan, the West Sea Ancestor of the Water Clan, and the Yellow Dragon True God of the Earth Clan. She became famous throughout the world and was known as the number one demoness in the Great Wilderness.

If it weren't for her excessive ambition and widespread harm, her intention to rebuild the snake clan dynasty, which ultimately led to her being subdued by Shennong, she might have already been recruited by the water clan elders and become the water clan's holy maiden.

After Zhu Juanshi was defeated by Shennong, she was forced to swear an oath never to leave Pingqiu for the rest of her life. She kept her promise and never escaped from prison.

The nobles of the Water Tribe desperately wanted to extract the recipe for rebirth from her. For over a hundred years, they tried to coerce and entice her, but they could not get a single word out of her. Gradually, they all became desperate and even believed that she had never obtained Nuwa's recipe at all, but was just bluffing to incite the snake descendants to follow her.

Only the True God of Xuanshui, Zhulong, persisted, secretly sending people to contact her, hoping to use the power of the Undying Serpent Granny to achieve some deeper goals.

"Collusion? I have no interest in that old snake-like body of Zhulong. Like I said, if you want the prescription from me, do as I say!"

Perhaps sensing the hostility in Qin Huai's words, Wu Hui Snake Granny narrowed her eyes, smiling as she looked the person in front of her up and down, her heart pounding with anxiety.

"Wait."

After much deliberation, Qin Huai still couldn't be absolutely certain whether Nuwa's protection, as she had mentioned, actually existed. So he left the cell and called over Wusima and Bomu, who had come to Pingqiu with ulterior motives.

“I don’t care what you’re planning to do in Pingqiu. But I want you to get the information about the Fuxi Stone Prophecy from her.”

"I never expected that Senior Taotie would come here for the Fuxi Stone Prophecy, just like Old Demon Zhu. Coincidentally, I happen to have some secrets here that might be of help to you."

Seeing that Qin Huai had returned empty-handed and had finally come to her for help, Usma's eyes lit up with admiration, and she took the opportunity to continue the conversation.

"Oh? Tell me."

Qin Huai's heart stirred, and he suddenly felt that Usma in front of him seemed to know a lot of inside information.

"It is so. A few days ago, the True God of Candle returned to Zhangwei Mountain from Pimu Hill. On his return journey, he fought with some powerful expert and was severely injured. Even the witch doctors were helpless. Seven days ago, the Elders' Council secretly dispatched eighteen witch envoys to Ling Mountain, hoping to invite ten witches to the North Sea to rescue him. Unexpectedly, those ten old demons had already been invited to the East Sea by the Queen, leaving the mountain deserted. The eighteen witch envoys then searched everywhere, hoping to find some elixirs and medicines to take back to the North Sea to heal the True God. Unexpectedly, they unearthed a stone tablet thousands of years old under the Longevity Tree, covered in ancient snake-script characters. The witch envoys all recognized it as an extraordinary treasure and hurriedly brought it back to the North Sea."

"Could this stone tablet have been carved by the great god Fuxi?"

Qin Huai thought about the rumors about Ling Mountain and felt that they were indeed reasonable.

After all, Mount Ling, where Fuxi transformed after his death, has been a sacred mountain in the Great Wilderness for thousands of years, and ordinary people dare not enter it recklessly. Even when the Serpent Clan Dynasty was at its peak, the eight elders of the Serpent Clan had to take a detour and prostrate themselves every seven steps and bow every ten steps when passing through Mount Ling. The stone tablet unearthed by the eighteen shamans is written in ancient Serpent Clan script and is at least several thousand years old. Just imagine, who, apart from Fuxi himself, would dare to bury this tablet on the mountain?

Given the previous request regarding the Yanfu incident, Qin Huai had no doubts and nodded, signaling Usma to continue.

“Indeed, after the eighteen shamans retrieved the stone tablet, the council of elders summoned shamans who were proficient in ancient texts to study and decipher it all night. However, they could only recognize a small portion of the characters. But a snake-shaped seal on the tablet was clearly the seal of the great god Fuxi, without the slightest doubt.”

Usma paused, then continued, "The True God of Candlelight held the Great God Fuxi in the highest esteem. Obtaining this ancient stele was like receiving divine assistance, so he hastily summoned the snake descendants of twenty-five kingdoms to the North Sea to study it together. It took three days to roughly translate the inscription. Although the Elders' Council classified it as top secret and forbade its dissemination, the news had already spread like wildfire, even reaching the enemy tribes of Wood and Fire."

"So, you came to Pingqiu also because of this Fuxi Stone Prophecy?"

Thinking of how the two Arctic Venerables followed Usma's lead, Qin Huai said thoughtfully.

"Yes and no. Although an elder in the Jisheng Palace did make a copy of the stone prophecy and send it back to Tiangui Mountain, that was not the purpose of my and Sister Bomu's visit to Pingqiu."

Usma pulled a roll of bluish-brown deerskin paper from her sleeve and handed it to Qin Huai, continuing, "We came here for two reasons: first, to rescue the Snake Granny, unseal the Vermilion Scroll Serpent, and fight against the Candle Demon; second, to obtain the Snake Granny's remains, to combine them with Sister Bo Mu's elixir of immortality, to concoct a rebirth elixir, revive the Black Emperor, restore order, and completely quell the Great Wilderness War."

"An elixir of immortality? Do you possess the formula for Nuwa's elixir of immortality?"

Qin Huai looked at the silent Bo Mu and asked curiously.

"For decades I have been collecting poisons and refining medicines in Pimu Hill, and I have achieved some success. As long as I can obtain the remains of Zhu Juanshi, the direct descendant of Nuwa, I can create a medicine of rebirth and bring my deceased brother back to life even without you."

Bo Muzhi Xuanqing touched her beautiful face and said confidently.

"You two are quite thoughtful."

Qin Huai glanced at Usma, whose face was full of compassion, as if all her schemes were for the sake of the common people, nodded, unfolded the deerskin paper, and found that several lines of ancient snake-clan seal script were written on it in a crooked cinnabar ink.

The inscription reads: "[Heaven and earth shattered, the abyss collapsed, and ten thousand snakes and birds merged into the flat hills. Nine steles appeared, the Kun fish came to life, and Fuxi and Nuwa were reincarnated. Chaos became clear, the five elements became one, and the Great Wilderness was no longer divided into the eight directions.]"

The prophecy seemed simple, yet it was also vague. Qin Huai read the entire text and waited for a long time, but still did not receive any progress updates on the Yanfu incident.

'Hmm? This prophecy is useless? Or is this just a rubbing, and we need to find the original engraving?'

Qin Huai frowned, glancing at Usma out of the corner of his eye, sensing that things weren't so simple.

"You're quite sensible and know when to back down. Go inside. I'll allow you two to have a good chat with that Wu Hui Snake Granny."

With a wave of his hand, Qin Huai watched as Wusima and her two companions escorted a beautifully dressed and dignified young girl into the prison cell.

(End of this chapter)