Chapter 1
Chapter 1: Forcibly Taken Home by a Green and White Snake
Late Tang Dynasty, Hangzhou.
Yuzhao Mountain, Early Spring.
A small, pure-white snake poked its head out of its burrow. Its blue, slit pupils were lively and sharp; though its body was tiny, it was flawlessly white, and its scales shimmered with a faint radiance under the sunlight.
It was markedly different from ordinary snakes.
But the moment the little snake peeked out, its pupils couldn't help but contract—because standing upright before it were 2 snakes.
"Sister, look, there's a little snake here. How adorable."
The white snake took one look at it and gave an approving nod.
"Indeed, it's no ordinary one."
Jiang Linxian did his best to slowly back away without disturbing the 2 snakes. The size of these 2 was enough to pass for flood dragons, and snakes were known to cannibalize their own kind.
Even as a snake, he had no wish to die—but the green and white snakes before him were far too large, and the fact that they could speak in human tongue made it plain they were demons.
Even if he fled, where would he even go?
"Sister, this little one seems scared? Little one, don't worry—we're not bad snakes."
The green snake said this while flicking her forked tongue.
Jiang Linxian naturally didn't believe it. He was so small he probably couldn't even fill the gap between their teeth. Just as he was about to shrink back into his burrow, he found himself airborne.
More accurately: he had been caught up and lifted by the green snake's tail.
The green snake then coiled herself into a circle, with little Jiang Linxian enclosed right in the middle.
The green snake flicked her tongue and looked the little white snake up and down.
"He really is so cute. He looks like he's a white snake, same as you, Sister—but somehow different."
Hearing this, the white snake drew closer too, though she wasn't as playful as the green snake.
Hm? Jiang Linxian gradually realized they didn't seem to have any intention of eating him. Combined with these 2 green and white snakes and their manner of address, his mind instinctively went to Lady White and Little Green.
No—not necessarily. There were far too many tales involving a green and white snake pair that had been passed down since ancient times.
Jiang Linxian turned his gaze inward to the dim orb within his body—that culprit responsible for dragging him across worlds.
After more than a month, he had long since come to understand that this was no ordinary world.
For within the few days his past wisdom had returned to his body, he had witnessed with his own eyes a striped mountain tiger manipulating a ghost-slave to lure a hunter up the mountain before devouring him.
Now and then in the sky above, people would transform into rainbows, or great demons would pass through this stretch of land.
Not to mention that Jiang Linxian himself was nothing like an ordinary snake—and that was setting aside the orb inside him.
His very body was constantly absorbing some kind of energy from between heaven and earth. He guessed that energy was most likely Spiritual Energy.
Or perhaps something else—at most, it was just a difference in name.
Every bit of Spiritual Energy he absorbed would be devoured by the orb, which then fed it back into him, washing through the flesh of his body.
He could feel his serpentine form continuously growing and strengthening.
It was exactly like a Demon Core.
But Jiang Linxian felt that calling this orb a Demon Core was less fitting than calling it a Dragon Pearl.
The only unfortunate thing was the absence of any technique inheritance—but demons were taught without discrimination, so what was there to speak of in terms of technique inheritance?
And so Jiang Linxian only wanted to pass through this fledgling snake phase in peace.
After all, no matter how extraordinary he might be, he was still just a newborn snake. And so from the moment he was born, he had walked on thin ice, terrified that one day he might become prey for one of his own kind or some other wild beast.
Just as Jiang Linxian was deep in thought, he felt a lick against him—and when he looked over, he saw the green snake slowly retracting her tongue.
He instinctively tried to open his mouth and say something, but what came out wasn't human speech—only a hiss.
"Sister, this little one is so cute. He's different from other unawakened ones of the same kind."
The white snake sniffed at the burrow entrance: "It seems like only his scent is in this cave."
The green snake held Jiang Linxian up again and leaned in for a closer look.
"Sister, it seems he's also a male."
"Hiss!" Jiang Linxian felt an acute wave of embarrassment at those words, but there was nothing he could do—he could only exhale helplessly.
Hearing this, the white snake really did lean in for a careful look. Snakes don't carry human notions, so she felt no sense of shame.
At this moment, Jiang Linxian had lost the will to live.
There was no escaping this.
The more the green snake looked at this little snake, the fonder she grew. She had never seen such a beautiful member of their kind—even more beautiful than her sister had been as a child.
"Sister, it looks like this little snake has been abandoned. Why don't we take him in? He's still so small."
Snakes don't have the concept of raising offspring—but demons do.
Both the green and white snake could see that Jiang Linxian, this little white snake, was no ordinary creature. Setting aside his appearance for now, the fact that Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth flowed into him automatically made it clear his birth parents were also no common beings.
An ordinary snake might go through its entire life without ever Awakening.
The white snake considered for a moment and ultimately agreed.
Had it been an ordinary member of their kind, she would never have allowed it—but this little snake was extraordinary.
The green snake's voice was bright and playful.
"Sister has agreed. Little snake, would you like to come away with us?"
Jiang Linxian: "Hiss (no)!"
The green snake straightened up.
"Sister, he agreed! Let's take him back!"
Jiang Linxian: "……"
****
In the mountain forest.
As Jiang Linxian was being carried along, he eavesdropped on the green and white snakes' conversation and came to understand, more or less, what kind of era he was in.
He was currently on Yuzhao Mountain in Hangzhou, under the Tang Dynasty.
This world was not ruled by a single dynasty—its level of turmoil rivaled that of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms.
There were demons, ghosts, mortals, cultivators, and even sects.
The National Preceptor of the Tang at this time was called Pudu Cihang, and some whispered in secret that he was a centipede demon.
In the Bashu region, a great demon had recently appeared—the Nether Spring Blood Demon—who had launched a surprise attack on Shu Mountain, one of the Immortal Sects.
The Jade Pool Immortal Fortress had already chosen its next-generation Fortress Lord.
The Divine Lady of Kunlun had the highest compatibility with Shu Mountain's Heaven Strike Sword.
Over in Guobei Prefecture, a great demon known as the Black Mountain Old Demon had seized Wrongful Death City in the Underworld.
Jinshan Temple appeared to have already chosen its Buddhist Heir—a monk by the name of Fahai.
On Seven Absolute Mountain, 2 butterflies had become demons.
All this intelligence came from a faction called the Ten Thousand Demons Exchange, while countless smaller scraps of gossip—every manner of strange tale—were too numerous to count.
Jiang Linxian also overheard a very general breakdown of cultivation ranks—or not quite ranks, more like a way to distinguish beings.
They were: Sprite, Manifestation, and Great Demon.
Before these, there was actually one more stage: unawakened beasts.
An ordinary beast without any stroke of fortune might go its entire life without ever becoming a Sprite.
And even if it happened upon fortune and Awakened to become a Sprite, without any technique it wouldn't cultivate—it could only rely on instinct and endure the passage of years.
Such a being, even having become a Sprite, was still nothing more than the weakest of minor demons.
It wasn't as simple as living a thousand years and becoming able to Manifest, or becoming a Great Demon.
Just as a Great Demon didn't necessarily Manifest, the ability to Manifest didn't necessarily mean one was a Great Demon.
There was no fixed order between the two.
As for what lay beyond, Jiang Linxian didn't know—but the white snake presently appeared to be at the stage of a Great Demon who had already Manifested.
The names of the green and white snakes were also quite simple: Little White and Little Green.
Yes—Little White. Not Bai Suzhen.
When Jiang Linxian found this out, he genuinely wondered if he had misheard—but that was indeed the truth.
Yet Fahai was real. The green and white snakes were real. How could there be such a coincidence?[1]
He tried to analyze it, but could make nothing of it.
Mythology, xianxia, Strange Tales, the strange and uncanny?
No—there was one more possibility: the timeline was off.
But none of that mattered now. What mattered most was that Jiang Linxian had seen hope. He wouldn't have to spend his entire life as a snake. Perhaps one day he might still have the chance to become a demon patriarch, or even Manifest and attain immortal longevity.
With that thought, Jiang Linxian settled down and stopped resisting—after all, resistance was futile.
This sudden change of behavior actually alarmed Little Green.
"The little snake was just fine a moment ago—why has he suddenly gone still?"
Jiang Linxian opened his serpentine mouth: "Hiss!"
"Oh, there he is again."
Finally, just as Jiang Linxian was on the verge of being jostled into a daze, he heard the one sentence worth being glad about.
"Little snake, we're almost there!"
Footnote: