Chapter 143: The Three-Headed Giant Serpent

Guosangong leaped backward with agile movements, dodging the snake's head attack. He suddenly whipped his head around to glare at me, his eyes filled with fiery rage as he entirely blamed Yun Mutian's death on me.

I felt genuinely displeased. It wasn't as if I had killed him; if I hadn't dodged just now, either I would have been bitten to death or killed by that bastard's malevolent poison. Speaking of that poison, my skin still felt scorching hot, as if it were being burned by fire.

When all was said and done, that bastard had brought this upon himself! He only had himself to blame! If he hadn't attacked first and kicked me down here, none of the subsequent events would have happened!

The three heads were still lunging outward frantically, mouths agape and forked tongues flickering, but they could not emerge, as if their bodies were imprisoned in place.

As our group approached and the faint light of a mobile phone swept forward, we saw that those three heads shockingly grew out of a single body! This thing was a gigantic three-headed snake!

Good heavens! Such a massive creature, why hadn't we seen it before? What about that woman from earlier? Where had she gone?

The enormous snake tail was pinned down by massive chains. The light was too dim to see clearly, but one could faintly discern that those huge chains were covered all over with strange incantations.

This was what kept it locked up. Yet, since this creature was chained here, how could it ascend to the surface and slither through the forest every single night?

Moreover, I remained puzzled about where that woman from earlier had actually gone. Why had she vanished?

I retreated into the crowd, ignoring Guosangong's resentful glare. He was simply venting his anger wherever he could find an outlet. No matter what I said, it would be useless, and there was no need to say anything anyway, since we were natural adversaries.

"Master, why did you guys come down too? What is this thing?" I asked.

Old Man Ma didn't answer. Instead, he grabbed my hand, examined my skin, and said, "It's fungal poison! Fortunately, it only spilled on your skin; if you had breathed it into your mouth, your little life would be finished!"

He glanced toward Guosangong, then continued, "Could I possibly not come to save you when your bratty self got kicked down here? You need to be more alert and not let yourself be ambushed so easily. Luckily nothing happened this time."

I chuckled twice, thinking to myself that it must have been Old Man Ma who kicked Yun Mutian down. No wonder Guosangong shifted the blame onto me—that bastard had been kicked down by Old Man Ma, and moments ago, it was because of me that he had tumbled into the darkness and been bitten to death by the snake.

Still, to reiterate, that bastard had brought it upon himself!

"Wh... what kind of monster is this?!" the village chief said with a crying quiver in his voice.

They had already been badly frightened by the corpse and the two-headed snake, and now, seeing this behemoth, their strained nerves snapped completely.

Yang Baoshu stammered, "Why is there such a huge snake in a place like this? This thing must have attained demonic form!"

Old Man Ma scrutinized the colossal three-headed snake, whose three massive heads kept straining outward, mouths wide open to reveal sinister, sharp fangs.

"This creature is likely the mother snake. It is supremely yin and malevolent, carrying an overwhelming murderous aura. The few of us cannot handle it; we should retreat for now and return once we are fully prepared to deal with it," Old Man Ma said.

I had just noticed that his voice sounded somewhat hoarse, which must have been from exhausting his vital energy while dealing with the snakes above.

"No, it was artificially forged," Tuer suddenly said.

I looked at him in surprise, not expecting him to suddenly make such a remark. Under normal circumstances, I would have been more inclined to trust Old Man Ma, but now, prompted by his words, I seemed to recall something and instinctively began to examine our surroundings closely.

The dense yin energy and the swarms of snakes gave me a strange, persistent sense of familiarity, yet I couldn't place where this feeling came from.

"Why do you say that?" Old Man Ma asked.

Tuer thought for a moment and replied, "The yin energy here is extremely heavy. It wasn't formed naturally; it was intentionally cultivated."

That was it! I finally understood where the familiarity came from! So that was it! What felt familiar wasn't the environment here, but the methodology!

"Those dense snakes above were merely background set dressing; this three-headed snake in the deepest part is the real master! Everything here is nothing more than 'nourishment' for this three-headed snake!" I said.

Old Man Ma looked at me disdainfully. "How would you know, brat?"

Of course I knew; I had already encountered this type of setup twice before!

I asked, "Master, did you guys carefully examine those earthen jars when you came in?"

"We heard the commotion and hurried straight over here, how could we pay attention to earthen jars? What on earth are you trying to say?" Old Man Ma said impatiently.

I glanced toward Guosangong's direction, then continued, "There is a 'Gen' character carved on top of those earthen jars!"

Old Man Ma's expression changed abruptly. Without me needing to explain further, he already understood what was going on. He understood that "Gen" character much better than I did, or rather, he knew precisely what it represented!

The pattern here operated on the same principle as the burial of bones to refine ghosts and the nine-corpse soul-refining technique, only on a much larger and more complex scale.

Initially, I had thought it was a coincidence, but looking back now, what kind of connection did that old ghost hag have with this "Gen" character? Why did she know such techniques?

With a dark face, Old Man Ma stared at the three-headed snake, whose heads were thrashing and twisting wildly. "If it really is them, then this creature was indeed artificially forged! I never imagined they could actually cultivate a monster this big! Hmph!"

"Which heaven-forsaken bastard raised such a huge thing out here? That is utterly devoid of conscience!" Yang Baoshu said, terrified and enraged. He didn't understand anything about refining or forging, but he knew one thing for certain: this creature wasn't born naturally; it was man-made.

"Old Ma, what should we do now?! Can this thing even be killed? If it stays here, how are our villagers supposed to survive?" the village chief stammered.

Old Man Ma's face remained grim. Clearly, he harbored immense hatred for whoever had cultivated this creature. Regardless of the other party's motives, it was certainly never intended for any good cause!

He looked at Tuer and asked, "What are your thoughts?"

Tuer looked back at him in bewilderment, not understanding what Old Man Ma meant.

This fellow wasn't very sharp; if the question was too broad, he couldn't react in time. So I added, "Since you can tell this thing was artificially refined, do you know of any way to deal with it?"

Tuer thought for a moment and said haltingly, "The snakes above have already been eliminated. If we can disperse the yin energy here, it should work. This creature doesn't seem to have fully matured yet."

Disperse the yin energy? How was that supposed to be done? The yin energy here couldn't possibly be any thicker! Even if we excavated this entire place and left it exposed to the blazing sun for a month, it might not completely dissipate!

"Then that's what we'll do—disperse the yin energy here!" Old Man Ma declared.