Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, but Thunderbolt Taoist Sect

A snake over ten feet long—regardless of whether it's venomous or not, its unusual size is already terrifying. And its den is in the village, so close to where people live. Even if it doesn't attack people this time, it will likely run into other villagers another day. In short, it's extremely dangerous.

Moreover, they came to find the snake to help the Bee Kingdom avert its future annihilation. Having received a favor from them, they naturally felt obligated to repay it.

During the banquet, they learned that the Bee Kingdom had been plagued by a demonic serpent for several months. According to the king, it was a giant python, thousands of feet long, that always lurked outside the Bee Kingdom's palace, waiting for an opportunity to devour the people of the Bee Kingdom, and many people had already perished.

Given the unique nature of the Bee Kingdom, this information needs to be adjusted. The actual size of the entire country is that of an artificial beehive placed in a vegetable garden, and the citizens are like ordinary bees in reality. Therefore, the so-called giant python needs to be resized.

The giant snake that Yuan Wuxiang found was already extremely rare by human standards. Judging from the reactions of those Bee Kingdom citizens, it was probably... Wait, where did these three bees come from?

"These bees..."

Yuan Wuxiang pointed to the three bees flying next to Juan Shoutian. These three little guys were the same color as Juan Shoutian's collar and were small in size. If they hadn't been startled and flown away, they would have been hard to spot.

"they?"

Juan Shoutian pinched the snake and tilted his head in the direction Yuan Wuxiang pointed.

"They followed me as I passed the edge of the vegetable garden."

Listening to the faint sounds around him, he could tell that the bees were indeed trying to speak, but their voices were too soft, perhaps due to their low cultivation level. In any case, Juan Shoutian couldn't hear them clearly.

Now he was holding the large snake in his hand, and the bees seemed very excited, flying up and down around him. The buzzing sound in his ears was also louder, but he still couldn't hear what they were saying.

"This snake bites people right away, are you hurt?"

Compared to these three bees, Juan Shoutian cares more about his own friends.

"It bit my hand, so I think I should be more concerned about the snake."

Of all Yuan Wuxiang's body, his hands were the hardest. This snake's bite was less effective than gnawing on a piece of iron. It didn't even leave a mark, let alone tear Yuan Wuxiang's gloves.

He was just checking the snake's fangs to see if they had been broken off.

"These three are citizens of the Bee Kingdom, right? What do you want to say?"

Yuan Wuxiang also heard the excited buzzing of the bees, but his situation was similar to Juan Shoutian's. He knew that the other party had something to say, but it was too vague to communicate. He could only make a rough judgment based on the way the other party flew.

It seems to be related to this snake, right?

"This must be the serpent that has been troubling your country. Don't worry, we will handle it."

Yuan Wuxiang tentatively reached out his hand, and a bee flew over and landed. He wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt as if the bee on his fingertip was performing a kind of kneeling salute to him.

Given the size and appearance of a bee, it's quite difficult to judge such a human-like movement, but he just felt that the bee in his hand bowing down looked like a person kneeling in worship.

"killed?"

"This snake has grown so big that it may have developed intelligence. Why don't we try asking it first?"

Given the presence of people in the vicinity, this snake is neither a python nor a venomous snake. Ordinary villagers would not let snakes or rats, which are harmful to humans, go unpunished; they would kill them on sight. This snake's den is very close to the vegetable garden, and it has managed to grow to such a size so quietly, it must possess some special abilities.

Judging from its behavior just now, this guy first bit Yuan Wuxiang's hand, but when it found that it couldn't bite through and that the hand was particularly hard, it decisively let go. Knowing that it hurt, it didn't resist anymore. Even when Yuan Wuxiang wanted to check its snake fangs and Juan Shoutian came over and picked it up, it didn't make any further moves. It seems to be a smart and sensible person.

It's not easy for it to grow this big. In a few more years, it might become a spirit. And if you look closely, this snake is quite special. It's all blue, except for a red dot on its forehead. Judging from the location, it looks like a mole between a person's eyebrows.

To verify his suspicions, Yuan Wuxiang asked Juan Shoutian to release the snake. With their combined abilities, the snake would have no chance to harm anyone. Of the three bees, one landed on Yuan Wuxiang's hand, and the other two flew beside Juan Shoutian, both at a safe distance.

After being placed on the ground, the large green snake neither ran away nor attacked again. It simply coiled itself up and obediently awaited its fate.

Instinctively, it actually wanted to run away, but the two creatures that were holding it were either incredibly tough and difficult to bite, or they were very intimidating. Having had contact with many humans before, it knew that it was necessary to be more compliant in special circumstances.

Moreover, they had several bees with them, bees that it recognized as similar to the bees it had been eating these past few days.

Seeing that the snake did not run away immediately, Yuan Wuxiang knew that his judgment was correct.

"You can understand human speech, right? If you can, then move around."

As soon as they finished speaking, the two saw the green snake slightly raise its head and move its body along the coiled shape.

“There are plenty of resources in the deep mountains, and you have no shortage of food and water. The fact that you have grown to such a large size shows that you are smarter than other snakes. Why are you so determined to guard a beehive in a vegetable garden?”

A large snake guarded a beehive for months, watching the bees inside eat. Given its size, it could easily swallow a person, but swallowing bees would not satisfy its hunger. Moreover, bees can fly, and the intelligence of the bee kingdom's inhabitants is higher than that of ordinary bees. Catching a few mice and squirrels would be much easier than watching bees gnaw on.

The snake coiled on the ground seemed stumped, crawling around in circles as if it were trying to say something, but it was also anxious because it couldn't speak human language.

Now, near this bush, a large green snake is crawling back and forth on the ground, making the bush rustle, and three bees are buzzing around. Neither of the remaining two people can understand what they are doing, so the situation is at a stalemate.

"Perhaps we should find a translator?"

"I'm afraid no one here can translate this."

This is just an ordinary village, nothing special. It's already quite remarkable that it could produce a bee kingdom and this giant green snake. To find a translator, you'd need someone who's become a spirit and can speak human language, which is no easy feat.

The three sides remained deadlocked for a while. Then the snake changed course and crawled out of the bushes, starting to press down on the grass on the other side. Unlike bushes, grass leaves imprints where the snake crawled. As the snake moved, the imprints connected and formed words.

"people?"

A particularly large "人" (human) character appeared before them. This green snake was over ten feet long and its body was as thick as a bowl. To carve out the character in the grass, it would have to crawl over a large area.

"You want to cultivate yourself into a human? That has nothing to do with your attack on the Bee Kingdom."

Upon hearing this, the giant snake straightened its upper body and swayed a few times, as if imitating a person shaking their head, to indicate that it did not mean that.

"This snake has been trained."

After putting the snake down, Juan Shoutian stared at it for a long time. Its various movements not only showed that it was intelligent, but also that it could perform some acrobatic tricks, such as the head-shaking motion that resembled a human's.

This doesn't look like a wild snake from the deep mountains; it looks more like it was raised by a snake charmer and used for performances.

However, snake charmers carry snakes in bamboo boxes, and snakes of this size would never be able to crawl into a bamboo box. Animals used for performances to make money would also rarely grow to such a size.

What exactly does this "person" mean? Has it been cultivated into a human form? Or is someone being searched for?

Seeing that the two people couldn't understand what it meant, the snake continued to crawl on the ground, but it was too big and there was no space for it to crawl freely. It also couldn't fold itself into the shape of words, so it could only crawl and draw randomly in the grass.

Looking at these messy marks, Juan Shoutian looked up at the location of the beehives and suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

"You want human food?"

"Eh?"

Yuan Wuxiang, who was bent over staring at the ground deep in thought, looked up and wondered how he had come to this conclusion. It didn't seem to fit... He nodded?!

Upon hearing this, the giant snake finally nodded. After all this commotion, the two sides had finally made contact. It wasn't the bees in the hive that it was after, but the honey inside.

If that's the case, the giant green snake wants honey, but its size prevents it from entering the beehive. It can only watch from the outside, waiting for an opportunity to act, or try to damage the beehive's wooden planks. In the eyes of the bee kingdom, this is even more terrifying. A giant snake watching closely from the outside and trying to break into the house is indeed a national calamity.

Once the matter was explained, the three bees flew back to their hive to report that the snake looked unusual and, fearing it might run into the villagers, they took it back to Dou Xu's house.

It was already high in the sky, and Xi Fangping had long since finished writing the complaint he needed. Dou Xu thought that since Xi Fangping was practically a ghost, he couldn't stay out in the sun forever, so he invited him inside to talk.

Through conversation, Dou Xu discovered that Xi Fangping's hometown was not far away. Although he couldn't visit often, he could occasionally take a long trip to visit her.

Such a filial and persevering person is definitely a good friend. So they noted each other's addresses, and once Xi Fangping successfully filed his complaint, he would definitely visit him.

To be honest, Xi Fangping felt that even if he succeeded in the end, he might not be able to return to the mortal world. From the moment he made up his mind to go to the underworld to check on his father's condition, his soul had been separated from his body for several months. After his father passed away, Xi Fangping was all alone. With his soul separated from his body, his body was probably left unattended, and his physical body was probably already dead. He could only repay all the kindness he had received in the next life.

Moreover, his lawsuit has even implicated the King of Hell, so his reincarnation may be in trouble for some time.

"Is the complaint drafted?"

"It's finished writing, Taoist priest, would you like to see it... Waaah!"

As soon as Dou Xu turned his head, he saw a large green snake more than ten feet long on the ground. It was the first time he had ever seen such a big snake, and he was so frightened that he kept backing away.

Xi Fangping didn't react much. In the past, a snake of this size would have been frightening, but he had seen many ghost messengers and even glimpsed the cut on his body when he was sawed open. Compared to those, this big green snake was somewhat cute.

However, such a large snake is indeed very rare.

"Where did this snake come from?"

"It was found in the bushes behind. This snake has become intelligent and is involved in some disputes. We can't leave it alone, so we brought it back first."

Not only could they not understand the snakes' speech, but the bees couldn't either. The only way for the two sides to truly communicate was to wait until nightfall, when the Bee Kingdom would once again exert its power and lead everyone into the magical Gui Palace.

"How did this snake grow so big? I've never heard of such a large green snake in the village."

Dou Xu hid behind and sized up the large snake on the ground, feeling that with its size, it could easily swallow him whole.

Are you afraid of snakes?

"Master, you jest. Who isn't afraid of snakes? Besides, this snake is huge. Who wouldn't be afraid of it?"

"but……"

Suddenly, Yuan Wuxiang had a silver metal fan in his hand. He pointed at Xi Fangping with the closed fan, while Dou Xu was hiding behind Xi Fangping.

"He's a ghost."

He's not afraid of ghosts at all, but he's afraid of snakes.

“Brother Xi is a filial son who seeks justice for his father, a rare find in a hundred years. If all ghosts are like Brother Xi, then of course I have nothing to fear.”

Since hearing Xi Fangping's story, the image of this peer has become exceptionally lofty in Dou Xu's mind. Any one of Xi Fangping's experiences could break an ordinary person.

"This snake isn't poisonous, is it...? Huh?"

Perhaps because the green snake behaved so docilely on the ground, Dou Xu dared to examine it after his initial fright, and then he noticed something intriguing: a small red spot on the snake's head that looked like a mole between its eyebrows.

"...I think I've seen this snake before."

"have you seen?"

I didn't expect there to be a collaboration!

After discovering that the snake posed no threat, Dou Xu boldly squatted down and carefully examined the large green snake on the ground.

“I have a friend in East County, where there is a very famous snake charmer. He has two green snakes, which are very clever and their coiling performance is several times more exciting than that of other snake charmers.”

How intelligent were those two green snakes? Everyone who saw them would praise them for being intelligent and understanding. The snake charmer also loved them very much, which resulted in his snakes being a size larger than those of his fellow snake charmers.

Several years ago, Dou Xu visited a friend in Dongjun and saw a snake charmer perform on the street. The snakes were a large and a small green snake; the large one was called Da Qing and the small one was called Er Qing.

The large green snake was unremarkable, just a green snake all over. The second green snake was a little different; it had a small red spot on its head, making it look very similar to the large green snake in front of them.

"But the snake charmer's two snakes... the big green one is less than two feet long, and the second green one is only a little over one foot long."

For ease of movement, snake charmers generally keep snakes no larger than two feet in size. The large and small green snakes are of normal size, but this green snake in front of us is too big. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it has become a spirit.

"Later, the big green snake died. I heard from a friend that the snake charmer found another small green snake from somewhere. It was also very clever. But after a few years, the second green snake grew bigger and bigger. It is said that when the snake was last seen performing, the second green snake was already more than three feet long. Many people were frightened by its size. The snake charmer himself could not carry it. Later, it disappeared. Now, if you go to Dongjun, you can only see him performing with one snake, which is the third green snake, called the little green snake."

If Erqing hadn't died but had been released and lived and grown peacefully, it certainly would have had the potential to grow to such a size. However, the fundamental problem with its size isn't that, but rather that the species of snake limits its size. For example, the Daqing and Erqing species are at most five feet long, so this length of over ten feet is really excessive.

Moreover, there are no pythons in Jiaozhou, and this one in front of us doesn't look like a python at all.

"Your name is Erqing?"

"Hiss."

Yuan Wuxiang tentatively inquired and received an affirmative answer from the big green snake: it was the Erqing snake from the snake charmer story that Dou Xu had told him, the one that grew bigger and bigger and then disappeared without a trace.

Juan Shoutian wasn't mistaken; it was indeed a snake raised by a snake charmer and trained for performances.