Chapter 3
Chapter 3: Lady White Takes Form—3 Years Later, Her Jade Radiance Is Truly Extraordinary
Thunder clouds rolled.
Even though he was not the target of the tribulation lightning, Jiang Linxian could feel the heavens and earth bearing down on him with overwhelming pressure.
Perhaps this was why all sentient beings in the world tirelessly pursued human form.
The pressure of the tribulation lightning grew heavier and heavier.
CRACK.
When the first bolt of lightning struck, Jiang Linxian felt the entire world sink into a thunderous roar. He could only vaguely make out the shape of a white snake rising up to meet the tribulation clouds.
Then everything went dark.
When he came to, Jiang Linxian was already back inside the Cave Dwelling.
In a daze.
A white-robed woman stood before Jiang Linxian, her garments flowing like mist.
Jiang Linxian was lifted into her arms, and from there he could take in her full appearance.
The woman was strikingly beautiful, yet her beauty was tempered by a dignified grace—her nose delicately arched like a suspended gall, her lips naturally tinged with vermilion though untouched by rouge, her earlobes round and lustrous as pearls, and behind each ear a small patch of skin so thin the light passed through it, faint veins of blue tracing there like narrow streams that wound down into the depths of her collar, inviting the imagination to wander toward what untouched jade-skin might lie beneath.
When she spoke, her words carried the soft lilt of Suzhou dialect, every syllable sweet as the gentle drizzle of apricot blossom season.
"What's the matter, little one—don't you recognize me anymore?"
Lady White had once been a cold-blooded creature, yet Jiang Linxian could now feel the warmth of her body heat.
A serpent's senses were particularly keen.
Though she had successfully taken Manifestation, Jiang Linxian could still detect flashes of inhuman wildness in the shifting currents of Lady White's gaze.
"Sister, you've turned into a person—how could Little White still recognize you?"
Little Green came crawling up from behind, still in her serpent form. Only Lady White had undergone the tribulation.
Jiang Linxian heard this and nodded.
Lady White smiled radiantly.
"Little Green, it seems Little White is far cleverer than you."
"That's impossible—Little White has always been dim. Sister, I'll prove it to you!"
As Little Green spoke, she moved to coil herself around Jiang Linxian, but Jiang Linxian had grown smarter too—he burrowed further into Lady White's arms.
Lady White shielded Jiang Linxian with one hand and held Little Green off with the other.
"Little Green, you should be cultivating. At this rate of laziness, when will you ever take Manifestation? You've always wanted to go see the mortal world—but with that form of yours, people would run at the sight of you."
Jiang Linxian heard this and immediately nuzzled his nose against Lady White's palm.
"You want to cultivate too?" Lady White detected Jiang Linxian's intent and seemed mildly surprised.
Jiang Linxian nodded.
"Your Sister Little Green would sooner burrow through mud than cultivate, and here you are, diligent as ever."
Lady White teased Little Green with a light remark.
Little Green was fuming.
"Sister! Little White sleeps at home all day too—how can you call him diligent?!"
Lady White shook her head. Was there really any comparison to be made?
Little Green had Awakened early, yet like some wild Sprite, she was unwilling to cultivate—an indolence that ran deep in a serpent's bones, something even Lady White could not entirely escape, though she could keep it in check.
Little Green would never admit it, but she truly looked forward to taking Manifestation and seeing the mortal world, so she would be a little more diligent than usual.
Jiang Linxian was brimming with anticipation.
Lady White's cultivation method was indeed of orthodox Immortal Sect lineage—but it required a human form to practice.
During her years as a serpent, she had cultivated using a breathing technique she had devised herself.
It was called: White Serpent Breathing Method.
Though unremarkable, its virtue lay in the fact that it did not require its practitioner to cultivate through slaughter and blood—the way lesser Sprites did—to accumulate power.
It suited the righteous path rather than the crooked, demonic one.
Perhaps sensing that Jiang Linxian's spiritual awareness was extraordinarily high, Lady White planned not only to teach him the White Serpent Breathing Method, but also to instruct him in a few minor techniques.
She even thought to give him a proper name—constantly calling him Little White felt strange to her, as it had once been her own name.
Jiang Linxian's aptitude was exactly as Lady White had expected. He mastered the breathing technique with remarkable speed, and began actively absorbing Spiritual Energy to cultivate.
In Lady White's eyes, Jiang Linxian might be a young serpent, but his spiritual intelligence was exceptional, his cultivation talent extraordinary—he was already far beyond an ordinary snake.
When the day came that he was fully grown, he would be more than capable of becoming a demon outright.
In the mountains, one loses all sense of time.
.
.
.
3 years later.
Under Lady White's supervision, Little Green was on the verge of Manifestation, her cultivation having reached the upper limit of a Minor Demon.
Should she venture out, she could rightfully be called a Great Demon.
In truth, even ordinary wild Sprites and Minor Demons could achieve Manifestation—it was simply that such a Manifestation was often imperfect.
Human heads on pig bodies, monkey heads on human frames, a backside still having a tail, ears in the wrong place...
Jiang Linxian thought that past lives' certain types of enthusiasts might have enjoyed that sort of thing, but he himself found it largely unappealing.
Though perhaps ears and a tail could just barely be tolerated.
3 years had passed, and Jiang Linxian was no longer a young serpent. His body had grown to over 4 meters in length—by any ordinary serpent's measure, a fully matured adult.
Yet before Lady White and Little Green, he remained the smallest of the three.
Or rather, among serpent demons, he was still quite small in stature.
Over those 3 years, he had also asked Lady White to procure many texts from this era. There were similarities to the historical Tang Dynasty, yet it was clearly not the same dynasty at all.
If it truly were, there would not be so many demons and monsters roaming the world.
And other dynasties existed alongside it as well.
The most notorious were the Five Dynastic Conflicts of Shu, where 5 kingdoms endlessly fought one another, now forming alliances, now breaking them apart.
This had left the Bashu region in a state of great suffering, with its people fleeing in droves.
Even the Tang Dynasty of this world was in worse shape than its historical counterpart—its decline had given rise to demons, and the National Preceptor Pudu Cihang was the clearest example: he had already begun coveting the Nation's Destiny of an entire kingdom.
But none of this had anything to do with Jiang Linxian at present.
After absorbing great quantities of texts, he had first given himself a proper name—rather than simply being called "Little White."
That name was naturally his true name from his past life.
Having read so many books, it seemed entirely natural and reasonable for him to offer up his own name.
Lady White even praised Jiang Linxian for having a literary flair, saying that had he been a scholar, he would surely have passed the imperial examinations.
Little Green also asked Jiang Linxian to help her come up with a name.
By now Jiang Linxian could just barely be called a demon in his own right.
Within his body, self-generated demonic energy circulated continuously, amounting to roughly a basin's worth of power—and it was on the verge of spilling over.
Converted into years of cultivation, that would amount to roughly 5 years' worth.
Lady White and the others measured their cultivation in the hundreds of years, beginning at a thousand.
This was the origin of phrases like "a thousand-year serpent demon" or "a hundred-year tiger sprite."
Jiang Linxian had only been born 3 years ago by any measure, and the greater portion of his power had gone into strengthening his physical body.
He was not like some demon of the wild path who had accumulated a chaotic mass of demonic energy through brute accumulation—his power was purer and more concentrated than even orthodox Immortal Sect cultivators.
A large portion of that credit belonged to the Dragon Pearl, which each day refined the Spiritual Energy he absorbed, cycled it back into him, and tempered his serpent body.
The current Jiang Linxian resembled the genius figures so often described in classical immortal tales—one capable of defeating opponents far beyond his level.
Battling Minor Demons 10 or 20 years his senior didn't seem like it would be any great difficulty.
Though of course Jiang Linxian currently had no actual combat experience.
And of course, the most important thing was this:
Recently, Jiang Linxian had been feeling an itch on the top of his head—or rather, something sharp.
When he pressed his tail against the top of his head, he could feel 2 small bumps, growing from within the flesh beneath the scales at his crown.
Under ordinary observation they were not noticeable at all—only when he carefully pressed and felt around could he detect the faint protrusions.
Beyond that, there were changes in his scales.
Each time he cultivated, his scales and their patterns seemed to be gilded with a layer of moonlight—like jade soaked in clear radiance. As his spiritual energy circulated, a line of faint frost gathered along the edges of each scale, and fine motes of luminous dust drifted and swirled, as though with each breath he was drawing in and releasing the very Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth.
Such jade radiance was truly extraordinary.
He had grown far more striking in appearance than he had been 3 years ago—it was no wonder Little Green liked clinging to Jiang Linxian.
Yet this kind of change might also invite disaster.
Even ordinary mortals could tell at a glance that Jiang Linxian was no ordinary white snake—let alone other demons and cultivators.
That Centipede Sprite, for instance, was now frantically hunting its own demon-kind, using them as resources for its dragon transformation.
Fortunately Jiang Linxian was still young—as long as he wasn't cultivating, the changes to his body were not especially conspicuous.
There was also a change in the scales on his underbelly.
Beneath the area around his waist and abdomen, several small scales had already changed color. For now they were concealed beneath his white scales and could not be made out—whether this bode well or ill, he could not yet say.
Just as Jiang Linxian was pondering the great questions of his serpent existence, yet another beguiling voice drifted through the Cave Dwelling.
"Little Immortal, where has this snake gone off and hidden himself this time?!"