Chapter 95: The Tables Turned

Reentering the strange mist, Shang Lu immediately felt his vision was badly affected.

Wherever he looked, all he could see was a pale, hazy whiteness.

He scanned his surroundings, his expression growing grave.

The visible range inside the mist had shrunk again.

That meant the mist had grown even more intense.

If this strange fog truly had been released by the serpent undergoing metamorphosis, then it was clearly in the midst of drastic change.

Could it really be on the verge of a successful transformation?

Shang Lu could not help wondering what such a serpent would become if it succeeded.

Fortunately, the thickening mist did not affect Third Madam. She could still tell directions apart and keep track of what was happening around them.

More than that, her crimson figure stood out sharply in the dim, dense fog. Even when she drifted beyond the edge of his visible range, Shang Lu could still see her clearly.

Of course, that was only true for him. No one else could see Third Madam at all.

"Come with me."

Third Madam called softly, and with a flicker of movement she drifted deeper into the fog.

Shang Lu hurried after her and soon returned to where they had first encountered the tall-contending serpents.

The field was still littered with serpent corpses.

He quickly moved in and gathered quite a haul of serpent gallbladders, flesh, and hides, and even found some serpent bones.

The bones of the tall-contending serpents were not only extremely hard, but also very sharp.

The previous times Shang Lu had met them, they had blown themselves to pieces in rage, so he had failed to collect any bones, and barely any meat at all.

This time, he guessed, there had simply been too many of them killed by fury. With the numbers so high, a few more intact bones had been left behind.

These bones were real treasures.

Over the past few days, Shang Lu had asked the shaman-priests and the old clerks for guidance and learned quite a bit about sorcery and demon-kind.

So he knew that the bones of monsters were often excellent materials for crafting magical implements.

Although Shang Lu had never studied sorcery himself, there were many talismans and implements that did not require sorcerous power to activate, such as the five-colored cord he had used before.

If these serpent bones could be fashioned into an implement that broke curses and dispelled spells, that would be ideal.

Even if not, their hardness and sharpness made them perfectly suitable for daggers, hidden weapons, and the like.

At the very least, they could be soaked in wine for medicinal use, strengthening sinews and bones.

So Shang Lu did not want to let a single bone slip through his fingers; he gathered them all.

Third Madam came to help as well. With man and woman working together, the labor felt light, and before long the couple had cleared the battlefield and collected a full sack of spoils.

Because gallbladders were fragile and difficult to preserve, Shang Lu had Third Madam help him clean them, then swallowed all the gallbladders he had collected.

Now, after eating good things, Shang Lu no longer needed to hurry into cultivation as he had before in order to transform and absorb them.

The deity enshrined in the shrine of his five viscera—the spirit of the spleen—could help him digest the gallbladders.

The refined vitality and blood essence produced in the process would then be sent through the Small Intestine Channel to circulate once around, separating the pure from the turbid.

The purified essence would be stored within the liver deity image, to be absorbed later when Shang Lu had time to cultivate.

The whole process was, in a word, fully automated, leaving Shang Lu with nothing to worry about.

After swallowing the last gallbladder, Shang Lu wiped his mouth and forcefully suppressed the urge to vomit.

With the Five-Viscera Temple, he could eat as much as he liked without ever feeling bloated, but many of the gallbladders had burst open, spilling bile that was bitter and astringent, making swallowing miserable.

Once the battlefield had been cleared, Third Madam led Shang Lu on through the strange mist.

They encountered several more groups of serpents along the way.

With Third Madam serving as his living map, Shang Lu always learned in advance what kind of serpents were ahead, how many there were, and where they were located.

So he changed tactics. He no longer hid from the serpents, but took the initiative and struck first.

"One hundred paces ahead to the front left, there’s a nest of tall-contending serpents..."

As soon as Third Madam relayed the latest report, Shang Lu was already charging off at high speed, one hand gripping the ox-tail blade, the other lifting the scabbard over his head as he rushed toward the serpent nest.

The moment he arrived, he roared, "I’m taller!"

The tall-contending serpents were stunned.

What was wrong with this human? Had the thick fog not impaired his vision? Why had he found them before they even noticed him?

And this human was using their own challenge-word!

After a brief daze, the tall-contending serpents reacted at once and reared up, ready to compete with Shang Lu in height.

Most of them could not measure up to Shang Lu with the scabbard held above his head, and on the spot they killed themselves in a fit of rage.

A few longer ones actually managed to loom above him, but before they could lunge in for the bite, Shang Lu hacked them in half with a single strike.

Not only that, he even shouted at them, "Still taller than you!"

Some tall-contending serpents refused to accept being bested by Shang Lu in this way and writhed their severed bodies, trying to knit themselves back together.

But Shang Lu gave them no chance at all. The instant they were nearly healed, he would cut them apart again.

After several attempts, these serpents became enraged too and exploded one after another.

Shang Lu did not merely ambush the tall-contending serpents; he also laid a trap for the strange serpents that burrowed into people’s backsides.

With the five-colored cord, he bound them all before they could even think of making a move on him from behind.

These serpents were too small. Once they burst from rage, their gallbladders could not be found at all, so Shang Lu could only collect their flesh and, once back home, see whether it could be refined into meat pills.

Whether tall-contending serpents or backside-burrowing serpents, all of them were defined by their bizarre and uncanny nature.

With Shang Lu’s cultivation, as long as he found the right method, killing them was no difficult matter.

What truly worried him were the ghost hands summoned by shamanic talismans, as well as paper men and bean soldiers.

Those ghost hands could easily kill an intelligence agent at the peak of meridian cultivation in an instant; their strength and terror needed no further explanation.

The paper men and bean soldiers were no weaklings either.

If he encountered only one, Shang Lu was still confident of victory.

If he ran into a whole squad, then all he could do was flee.

Fortunately, after entering the strange mist this time, Shang Lu did not meet any ghost hands, paper men, or bean soldiers.

No one knew where those odd things had been sent by the senior shaman-officials.

But Shang Lu did not let his guard down for a second, maintaining his vigilance at the highest level.

Soon, Third Madam warned him again.

"A group of constables, forty paces ahead to the front right."

At the same time, Shang Lu also heard the sounds of slaughter.

Because of the dense fog, the noises were blurred and indistinct.

Even so, he could still tell that the fighting was fierce.

Shang Lu immediately rushed over.

When he drew near, he discovered that the constables were not fighting serpents at all, but slaughtering one another with bloodshot eyes.

He also spotted Constable Niu there, though he was wounded all over and locked in combat with the head of the strong squad.

The head of the strong squad was also drenched in blood, and his condition was no better than Constable Niu’s.

Shang Lu immediately held a mouthful of blood-qi in his mouth and roared harshly:

"Stop! We’re all brothers here. Don’t fight!"

Startled by the thunderous shout, the constables who had been killing one another actually halted, all turning to look at Shang Lu.

Because of the strange mist, only those closest to Shang Lu could see him. The rest could only hear his voice.

Then, no one knew who it was, but someone suddenly yelled:

"Kill him!"

The constables, their eyes still red, truly let out feral cries and rushed at Shang Lu.

Even though they could not see him, they still charged toward the direction from which his voice had come, howling as they came on.

As if Shang Lu were truly their sworn enemy, with a blood feud between them that could never be settled.