Chapter 3: The Enchanting Snake and the Intrigued Shop Assistant

Bai Jiujiu ran for about an hour before standing on a tree, closing her eyes, and extending her snake’s forked tongue.

Although she had taken human form, her tongue remained long and agile, with a forked tip.

Sss~ Sss~

This was her unique method of sensing her surroundings, with a circle of perception emanating from her center.

Every living creature emitting heat appeared in her mind as a thermal image. Apart from a group of frightened small animals, there was no one else.

It seemed she hadn’t been followed.

Bai Jiujiu exhaled deeply, taking the opportunity to retract her small, protruding tongue.

‘Scared the snake to death,’ she thought.

‘I thought I was going to be caught and turned into snake soup.’

About seven hundred years ago, it was during one of her many attempts to find human settlements. She fell asleep in a tree and woke up in a large iron pot, boiling in scalding water.

Fortunately, she had some cultivation at the time, and her scales protected her from the heat. Otherwise, she would have already been digested by some unknown person.

The incident left a psychological shadow, and since then, she refused to drink any soup or porridge.

Ordinary people couldn’t harm her, but those cultivators certainly had ways, perhaps using a large furnace and the Three Yuan True Fire to cook her!

Bai Jiujiu shook her head, banishing the unpleasant memories from her mind.

‘Don’t scare yourself,’ she thought.

‘I’m quite strong!’

Yet, what if it was a thousand-year-old demon?

A demon that had slept for a thousand years, perhaps…

Now, she had two choices: to follow the trail of her scent back to the Thousand Clouds Mountain, or to avoid returning for now and find Su Ling’er, her disciple.

Bai Jiujiu extended her forked tongue once more, then gazed longingly at the path she had taken. With determination, she continued forward.

‘Disciples, your master is worried about you and has come to find you!’

Bai Jiujiu believed that Su Ling’er’s current state was largely due to her Buddhist teachings, requiring a physical correction of her disciple’s depraved soul.

It wasn’t because it was about to rain, which would dilute the scent and make her lose her way.

Absolutely not.

A certain snake, who once got lost and slept for a year, then wandered around a mountain for twenty years, assured herself.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The flickering light of candles cast an eerie glow in the room. A sleepy shop assistant, holding an oil lamp, hurried to the door, hastily removing the wooden bar.

‘Who is it?’

The shop assistant opened the door, annoyed. But when he looked up and saw the woman standing before him, he was stunned.

She had a pair of enchanting peach blossom eyes, deep red pupils that were captivating, and her wet white hair clung to her flawless face.

Her white Hanfu was soaked through, revealing her jade-like skin beneath the thin, wet fabric. Her breasts, as large as melons, quivered, with water droplets tracing patterns on her skin, eventually pooling and dripping down.

Although her legs were hidden by the clothes, her white lotus feet, caked with mud, emerged from the dirty ground, her big toe and second toe rubbing against each other nervously, finally curling up.

Most importantly, the shop assistant felt a heady, intoxicating scent wafting from her exposed skin.

‘Can I stay here?’

Bai Jiujiu, holding a dripping wet veil in one hand and instinctively covering her chest with the other, spoke with a blush, breathing heavily.

She tilted her head, looking puzzled at the young man standing in front of her.

‘Well, um…’

The shop assistant, called a few times, finally came to his senses. But when he heard Bai Jiujiu’s request to stay, his expression changed.

‘I’m a traveler from Clouds Coming Town, and I was assaulted by bandits on the mountain. Fortunately, the rain allowed me to escape. Please, just for one night.’

In reality, she intended to replace ‘bandits’ with ‘cultivators chasing after her’ like Tong Qiu.

The shop assistant still hesitated, as if considering something. But when he caught a whiff of the fragrant scent emanating from Bai Jiujiu, he lost all sense of judgment, his heart and lungs as if ensnared by her allure.

This lady must be a noblewoman or a celestial being, only they could possess such beauty.

‘Please, come in.’

The shop assistant, entranced by Bai Jiujiu’s scent, didn’t even bother to lock the door properly.

A dark mist slipped through the crack and into the room.

Bai Jiujiu raised an eyebrow, looking back at where the mist had entered.

Apart from water marks and footprints, there was nothing else.

‘Please fill out this form, and the fee for a better room is ten silver coins a night, while a lesser one costs five silver coins.’

‘Better, just for one night.’

The form asked for details such as name, place of origin, destination, purpose of travel, and departure time.

These were standard questions for any inn, occasionally checked by officials to prevent the presence of fugitives.

Bai Jiujiu filled out the form honestly, writing ‘Clouds Coming Town’ for her place of origin and ‘Great Chu Kingdom’ for her destination.

‘I’ll give you a discount, just seven silver coins.’