Chapter 55: The Bow is Broken, But the Man Remains
Zhou Yan descended using the rope, but after only four zhang, his downward gaze spotted pine trees as thick as an arm extending from the cliff face slightly to his right.
He continued to descend a few more feet. When his waist was level with the branches, he pushed off the cliff face with his left foot, swinging his body over and using the technique “Black Dragon Twists the Pillar” to firmly grasp the pine tree.
He stabilized his body and quickly tugged on the auxiliary rope with his free right hand.
The two running knots on the stake at the cliff top were untied and fell. He gathered the two ropes, then held his breath, clinging to the pine tree like a gecko.
After more than ten breaths, Gongsun Zhi’s indignant voice rang out from the cliff top: “This brat is truly vicious. He actually tied lime powder packets to the long arrows, making them impossible to guard against. Huh? Where did he go? This is a cliff.”
Qiu Qianchi said, “So young, yet so cunning.”
“Black-hearted and ruthless. If such a person were to be captured, they would be executed without mercy. Miss Qiu, how is your eye?”
“It’s fine, I retreated in time. Valley Master Gongsun, how about you?”
“Slightly affected.”
Zhou Yan heard clearly. He chuckled softly. A trick to fool a girl. If she were simple-minded, she would probably say, “Let me take a look.”
Then he heard Qiu Qianchi say, “Since that’s the case, let the brat get away with it. Let’s return quickly.”
“It’s fine. For Miss Qiu’s sake, I must find that brat.”
Rustling sounds echoed from the cliff top, then fell silent. After several dozen breaths, Gongsun Zhi’s voice suddenly boomed, “Brat, I see you. Come out.”
Clouds churned, and echoes reverberated. Zhou Yan remained steady as a pine, unmoved.
“There he is, don’t run.”
“Hmm… Valley Master Gongsun, that brat must have used some method and left long ago. We should search along the ridge.”
“Miss Qiu, rest assured. After daybreak, I will arrange for disciples to search everywhere. I will definitely capture that brat to vent your anger.”
“Thank you, Valley Master.”
The wind whistled from the cliff top. Footsteps faded into the distance. Zhou Yan exhaled lightly; he was safe for now.
Zhou Yan circulated his breath, using the gentle aura emitted by the Jade Guanyin to alleviate the fatigue from the continuous fighting and long-distance travel.
After about half an hour, he regained his energy. He repeated the process, tying knots on the rope and descending. He descended more than ten zhang without incident.
As the night deepened completely, clouds obscured the moon, and light vanished. It was pitch black all around. He dared not take risks. He straddled a pine tree, leaned against the cliff face, and waited for daybreak to rope descent to the valley floor.
…
As daylight broke, Zhou Yan rubbed his sore thighs. Looking down from above, the towering peaks seemed ethereal and distant, surrounded by misty mountains, with no sign of the valley floor.
Fortunately, sparse pine branches and jutting cliff edges within ten zhang were all visible. He continued to tie knots and descend. After multiple repetitions, in about half an hour, the cliff slope began to undulate. The wind blew, the mist cleared, and sunlight slanted down. The valley below gradually became clearer, and he accelerated his rope descent.
Within five or six zhang of the valley floor, he no longer needed the rope to descend. He could land safely using the denser bushes and branches.
He began to reel in the rope when suddenly, from the damp wind, a foul, fishy odor entered his nostrils. He heard a rustling sound. From a tree diagonally below, a python as thick as a baby’s wrist reared up, its scarlet tongue flicking in and out of the air.
“Hiss…” Zhou Yan gasped. A Pusi Snake.
In an instant, from the bushes below, four more large snakes basking in the sun appeared. The poisonous snakes emitted a faint golden light all over their bodies, their heads raised menacingly.
A chill suddenly shot from the depths of Zhou Yan’s spine, spreading to his limbs and bones.
Based on common sense, he could tell that the four Pusi Snakes were threatened and showing signs of attack. The critical factor was the terrain: a steep cliff, with his entire body exposed to the snakes’ mouths.
In a flash, Zhou Yan made his decision.
He had snake repellent medicine in his pack, but rather than risk retrieving it, he decided to draw his saber and fight.
He had consumed the snake blood of a Big Treasure Snake, but he couldn’t be sure if he was immune to snake venom, so he couldn’t fight head-on.
Zhou Yan twisted his body, staring at the five snakes, one large and four small. Behind his back, he tied a running knot in the rope, then placed his left hand on his saber.
The next moment, he threw the rope in his hand, accurately snagging a tree branch about a zhang to his right.
Zhou Yan wasn’t skilled at throwing lassos, but having traveled from Zhongdu, he and Huyan Lei and Wang Kui, who were responsible for escorting the mules and horses, had long since practiced it.
The standoff between man and snake was broken the moment he threw the lasso. The four large snakes shot towards Zhou Yan like arrows. As his body swung, he held the rope in his left hand and drew his straight saber with his right. With the move “Night Battle in All Directions,” the surging saber light fiercely swept through half a zhang of space.
*Swish*, blood light bloomed with saber light. Two Pusi Snakes had their heads severed. Their bodies, with undiminished momentum, collided with the cliff face where Zhou Yan had previously stood, emitting dull thuds.
Swinging over, Zhou Yan landed below the branches. He stomped on the cliff face with his toes, swinging his body up. He moved like an eagle, pouncing towards the other two large snakes.
His straight saber resembled a sword. Zhou Yan unleashed the Quanzhen Swordplay move “Night Rain Whistling.” The saber light billowed, like thousands of lights arranging themselves impossibly within a Sumeru, covering the entire area where the two snakes fell. Grass clippings and branches flew, and drops of snake blood splattered on the bushes and rock walls.
Before Zhou Yan could catch his breath, the python as thick as a baby’s wrist lunged at him with a terrifying aura. In an instant, the Iron Bow appeared in his hand, having discarded his straight saber. In a flash of lightning, Zhou Yan descended. The poisonous python’s triangular head entered the Iron Bow. The bowstring, as the young man plummeted, *swished* and dug into the poisonous python’s Seven Inches.
Man and poisonous python, the python above, the man below, they plummeted from a five-zhang-high cliff.
The poisonous python struggled desperately, its body coiling, effectively preventing Zhou Yan from descending. The ox-hide bowstring dug deeply into the snake’s body, blood seeping out and staining the string crimson.
About a zhang from the ground, the poisonous python’s body wrapped around a tree branch. With a *crack* and a *bang*, the branch snapped, the bowstring broke, and the man and poisonous python crashed to the ground.
Zhou Yan landed and rolled. Behind him, with a *thump*, the poisonous python landed.
He drew his dagger, spun around, and saw the poisonous python’s body twisted and writhing. However, its head remained immobile, as if its neck vertebrae were broken.
“Hoo!”
Zhou Yan exhaled with relief. The bowstring had strangled the poisonous python, breaking its neck bones at the Seven Inches during the fall.
As his body relaxed, he felt his legs go weak. The places scraped by branches during the fall burned and stung. Looking at his clothes, they were already torn to shreds.
Zhou Yan endured the pain, moved a large stone, walked over, and smashed it down with force. With a *bang*, the poisonous python’s head was smashed into a bloody mess.
The gentle aura from the Jade Guanyin hanging around his neck continuously dispelled his fatigue. Zhou Yan calmed his breathing, rested briefly, then stood up and walked to the side of the poisonous python. He used his dagger to cut open its abdomen and retrieved a deep purple snake gallbladder.
Without pausing, he used branches to climb the steep cliff, using his hands and feet. He then extracted the snake gallbladders from the other four Pusi Snakes. The four snake gallbladders were slightly lighter in color than the poisonous python’s.
Zhou Yan sighed. Fate is truly wondrous. He had searched in vain, but being chased by Qiu Qianchi and Gongsun Zhi, he found himself in a desperate situation, accidentally stumbling into Snake Valley and killing this large poisonous python, perhaps the snake king, in such an unbelievable manner.
There’s another chapter tonight. Two chapters released consecutively. The update was slightly delayed. My apologies to all the readers who waited.
