Yamafu Military Affairs

Chapter 662 Gambling

Although the brushstrokes depicting the pottery jars were quite simple, Qin Huai still managed to discover, through the sharp angles and details, that the pottery jars held by these snake-people priests were from the same source as the antiques he had previously bought from the peddler Ash.

During the ritual, the snake priests would carefully examine each child, assessing their talents and special abilities, and then mark them with pigments, categorizing them into various classes.

Next, these children, now categorized, were fed liquids from different earthenware jars by the snake-people priests, and then taken away by different snake-like creatures: those who drank the liquid from the spherical jars were taken away by snake-like creatures, those who drank the liquid from the long, narrow jars were taken away by snake-people with sharp claws, and those who drank the liquid from the huge earthenware jars were taken away by flying snakes.
A considerable number of children, whose sexual characteristics are clearly depicted, would return to the nursery and be cared for by the women who gave birth to them. Some children were chosen as human sacrifices and lived a life without labor with other human sacrifices. The smallest group was raised by ordinary people who engaged in simple labor and painting murals.

Next, the murals expanded outwards, depicting more scenes and showcasing the different fates of these children.

All the children who drink the liquid from the earthenware jar will become more and more like the snake that took them away, and then become loyal followers of the snake, participating in all aspects of the operation of the ancient Nanyu Kingdom.

As Qin Huai walked through the cave filled with skeletons, following the narrative sequence of the murals deeper and deeper, he felt that the strange, fishy stench was getting stronger and stronger, as if it was going to stagnate the air.

Soon, Qin Huai, having reached the back of the cave, discovered another cave at the end of the murals, from which the strong stench was emanating.

Qin Huai raised the torch and stretched it into the cave entrance, bending down and probing directly into this cave, which was much smaller than the previous two caves.

It was only about the size of a small auditorium, and its highest point was no more than twenty feet. To the left of the entrance, several rows of ancient pottery jars covered in thick dust were piled up haphazardly. These jars were about a foot tall, decorated with many strange patterns and ornaments, and their shape was no different from the one that Qin Huai wore at his waist.

Unfortunately, most of the pottery jars were broken, leaving only a pile of dusty shards. But a few were well preserved, with some clay sealant still covering their openings.

In front of the cave, there were several pottery jars that had clearly been recently broken. In the firelight, Qin Huai could see that a thin layer of viscous black liquid remained at the bottom of these jars. The peculiar stench that filled the entire cave and spread outside was emanating from this black liquid.

Without touching the black liquid that could transform mortals into snakes, Qin Huai's attention was completely drawn to the intricate mural on the right side of the cave.

Like the previous murals, this is also a narrative mural, and it contains an astonishing amount of information.

The murals appear to depict a completely different ascension ritual. The participants in the ritual are several serpent priests and an ordinary person dressed in ornate ornaments, who have appeared as the presiding figures in the sacrificial murals outside.

During the ritual, the snake-man priests would use strange knives to cut open the person's chest and abdomen, then smear the wounds with a black liquid from a clay pot. Next, a snake-man resembling itself would emerge from the person's abdomen and crawl outwards. Several snake-man priests would then skin the corpse and craft it into scrolls inscribed with strange symbols.

Without a doubt, it was the black leather scroll that Qin Huai obtained from Yu Gongcao and the Zisuomo from Yi mythology.

However, as Qin Huai watched this ceremony, he couldn't help but think of a certain science fiction movie he had once watched: "Facehugger? Alien?"
Having seen many storms, Qin Huai didn't think much of it. He raised his torch and continued deeper into the cave, hoping to find more discoveries.

Immediately afterwards, Qin Huai rounded the corner, and the crimson glow of blood flames illuminated a pile of filthy things that could be described as garbage.

It was a pile of tattered clothes and armor mixed together, and as Qin Huai stretched out his greatsword to pry open the tangled garments, a large amount of rotting hair and flesh appeared before his eyes.

"Those missing soldiers? Did they voluntarily shed their human skin and become snake people?"

Qin Huai stared at the rotting flesh and skin. There wasn't a single bone in the pile; it was just the skin on the surface of the human body and a thin layer of flesh attached underneath, as if it had been cruelly peeled off a person.

Qin Huai, who had already learned about many murals, had a different guess about this.

Just as Qin Huai was pondering the current state of those recruits, a soft, rustling sound suddenly came from not far away as loose stones collided with each other.

Qin Huai's eyes flickered, and he stretched out the torch, the Qingfeng Seven Star Sword in his hand glowing with a shimmering light that was dedicated to slaying evil spirits.

Hiss hiss~
The blood-red flames flickered, the sound drew near, and a giant snake twisted its body and quietly crawled down from the pile of stones at the deepest part of the cave.

It has a large, flat head, and its slender, smooth body is covered with speckled gray-green scales. Its slender, clawed arms, each covered in scales and holding a short knife, sweep across the ground like shadows moving in the darkness.

Behind it, four more identical serpents emerged from the cracks above the pile of rocks and slithered through the cave.

"Are they the five missing soldiers?"

Qin Huai, carrying his Qingfeng sword, warily watched as the foremost snake-like creature slid down the pile of stones, its body rising like a venomous snake to reveal its milky-white belly covered in scales. It wriggled its tail, extended a thin, bony claw, and pointed its short sword at the pottery jars. Its purple, forked tongue flickered at its snout, uttering a few strange syllables in a hissing, hollow sound.

"What do you mean? You want me to drink that stuff inside and become like you?"

The snake demon's movements were not difficult to understand, and Qin Huai guessed the general idea without much effort. However, he did not make any move, but just stared coldly at the five recruits who had returned for some unknown reason.

Oh no, they should now be called snake demons.

Perhaps noticing Qin Huai's actions, the five snake demons shook their heads in unison, pointed with their claws at the black leather scroll at his waist, ignored the gleaming giant sword, stretched out their tails to clear away the pile of trash, swept aside all the useless clothes, carefully wrapped the intact human skin still attached to the thin flesh with their snake tails, and then crawled back to the pile of stones at the deepest part of the cave.

Now Qin Huai knew why they had returned.

They want to retrieve their human skin to make Zisomo and enter the kingdom of the Bahui.

"But they're already like that, can't they still be accepted?"

Qin Huai pondered for a while, then stepped forward and carefully observed the path through which the snake demon had disappeared.

The deepest part of the cave was carved into a passage leading upwards with a very steep slope, but it has collapsed. The rubble that collapsed from above has piled up into a high impact heap at the exit of the passage, leaving only a crack to mark the original location of the cave entrance.

The five-headed serpent demon had just emerged from that crevice and then escaped. Qin Huai tested the size of the crevice and found that the width could barely accommodate his host body, but the height difference was too great; it was only the length of a palm. Apart from reptiles, it would be difficult for other creatures to move freely in such a rock crevice.

Qin Huai used a knife as a shovel to move rubble and dig a large hole, but unexpectedly, the passage collapsed severely. As soon as he cleared space, large pieces of rubble fell and blocked the gap. After working for a long time, Qin Huai finally gave up on the method of crawling through the gap to leave this place.

After all, he didn't know what lay ahead. If he encountered any danger, his overly robust body would find it difficult to move freely in the narrow rock crevices. It would be too much of a loss if he were to capsize in a ditch.

But Qin Huai knew that as long as he drank the black liquid in the pottery jar and transformed into a snake demon, he could easily pass through the crevice in the rock and leave this place.

"If things are really that simple, then where does the 'sharpness' in 'snake's sharpness' come from?"

Qin Huai calmed down and carefully thought about everything he had seen since entering the cave. He felt that there were some things he had deliberately ignored.

"Is it the ritual depicted in the murals? Or those original, sinister stone carvings?"

Having witnessed the current state of those recruits, Qin Huai still insisted on his own judgment, not believing that anyone who smoothly found this place, drank the black liquid in the pottery jar, and turned into a snake demon could enter the kingdom of Ba Hui.

A bounty that can be rated as black by the Assassination Department is definitely not that simple.

But just then, Qin Huai suddenly felt an itch on his cheek. He stuck the Qingfeng sword in his hand into the ground and scratched it. He felt something sharp scrape across his face and even tore off a small piece of it.

Qin Huai felt a slight coolness on his face, as if his flesh and blood were exposed to the air. Then he looked down and found that his large hand had tightened and shrunk, and his nails had grown long and hard, looking somewhat similar to the claws of a snake demon.

And at the tip of that dagger-like fingertip, there was a small, clearly defined snake scale.
"Snake-like transformation? Demonic contamination? Is it because of that evaporating black liquid?"

In an instant, Qin Huai realized the cause of his strange condition. The peculiar stench in the cave was particularly strong, which meant that a lot of the black liquid had evaporated and existed in the air as tiny droplets. Even if Qin Huai did not drink it, he would inhale it passively.

"Luckily, I have Quanshui."

Qin Huai remained calm, pulled the gourd from his waist, broke the seal, and gulped down the liquid inside.

The strange sensation disappeared as soon as the spring water entered his throat, but for some reason, Qin Huai felt that this spring water had a slightly fishy and astringent taste. However, since he was in a cave, he assumed it was just due to the environment and didn't pay too much attention to it. He picked up his giant sword and returned to the outermost huge cavern.

He had a strange premonition that if he wanted to truly pass this test called "Snake's Agility," he had to start with the last mural that depicted the chaotic massacre.

Standing before the mural again, Qin Huai quietly watched the frenzied, distorted expressions of the Ba Hui believers. His gaze lingered for a long time on the brown figures hidden in the wide cloaks, finally settling on the enormous, ethereal portal that was faintly visible in the center of the nine stone platforms.

"What kind of portal would be used to open such a bloody, insane, and painful ritual?"

As Qin Huai murmured, the broken characters on the edge of the mural suddenly twisted and transformed into huge and distorted buildings, as well as a large number of bizarre patterns and sculptures.

"The Great Dragon Igkukulkan, Father of the Serpents"

A hoarse, low sound, like a snake flicking its tongue, rang in Qin Huai's ears. It was a mix of Chinese, English, Scandinavian languages, and even Native American languages. People from all over the world whose myths involve snakes were now using similar strange tones to pronounce the names of Ba Hui, which mingled together and echoed in Qin Huai's mind.

However, Qin Huai, who was caught up in the demonic illusion, did not make any move. He was completely absorbed in admiring the bizarre cities, patterns and sculptures, his lips moving unconsciously as he chanted the name of Ba Hui.

He understood the ritual represented by the mural, and he also understood the specific meaning of the strange syllables that the serpent had made while flicking its purple forked tongue.

"Suffering is extreme for body and mind, the skin is peeled off and the serpent is summoned; the serpent controls absolute pain, and its great power is given to all beings!"

Yes, it is necessary to skin them, but not the skin of ordinary people, but the skin of those who have become snakes and serpents, the followers of the Basil!

Qin Huai grinned, raised his large hand covered in bluish-gray snake scales, and his sharp claws popped out, as if he were about to skin himself.

"Wait. What am I doing?"

Upon seeing the claw-like arm that had suddenly appeared in his field of vision, now severely mutated and completely unlike a human hand, Qin Huai felt a surge of heat in his chest. His eyes regained a sliver of clarity, and he realized that his vision was now mostly filled with countless bizarre patterns and symbols. The seal on the small ceramic jar hanging at his waist had been opened at some point, and not a drop of the black liquid inside remained.

"When...did I drink the wrong thing in the cave?"

Without a second thought, Qin Huai reached for the gourd containing the spring wine at his waist.

But just then, a hoarse, deep voice rang in his mind.

"Are you really going to give up halfway? This is the only way to pass the test. Rather than watching yourself fail, embrace the pain and have faith in Bhadra!!!"

The bewitching demonic sound suddenly arose, causing Qin Huai to stop what he was doing. But thinking of his consciousness being corrupted and his mind twisted by the demonic influence, he made a decisive move, taking out a brightly colored [Dragon Blood Transformation Potion] from his storage item and injecting it into his chest, where the skin was gradually hardening!
"Then let's see which is more poisonous: snake venom or dragon blood!"

With the dragon blood entering his body, the host body, which was originally created based on Qin Huai's Guizhen Qi, immediately underwent visible changes. The bluish-gray snake scales covering his body became larger, thicker, and brighter; his ten fingers became thicker and longer, and the extended claws gleamed with a metallic sheen; his pupils gradually turned golden; and a pair of jagged, menacing bone wings grew from his back.
Qin Huai himself had changed his perspective, silently monitoring the state of the thoughts controlling the host body through that deep-seated thought, ready to cut it off at any time.

The situation was urgent, leaving him no time for careful consideration. He could only gamble that the host body could seize some authority from the transformation of the snake fluid through the erosion of the dragon blood, preserve its original thoughts and consciousness, and at the same time deceive the ritual's determination.

If they win, Qin Huai will gain a rare host body that Si Chen approves of, and the benefits are self-evident.

If we lose, we can always start over.

(End of this chapter)