Chapter 15, Blue Tears and a Thousand Fish Leap!

Translator: StarReader

 

The viper king slithered through the underbrush, its massive body slowly closing in on Su Chen without being noticed, searching for the perfect moment to strike. Su Chen turned and ran, dashing out into an open field with no obstacles in sight.

 

The golden-banded viper accelerated, bursting out of the shrubs, and pursued Su Chen.

 

Su Chen noticed it and spun around, throwing his axe at its midsection.

 

The axe whistled through the air, spinning rapidly.

 

“Hiss!”

 

The spinning axe struck the serpent’s body, leaving a three-inch-deep, seven-inch-long gash on its thick torso.

 

The dark red blood flowed steadily as the axe then fell to the ground.

 

The blade was slightly dull and didn’t cut deeply, just a flesh wound.

 

But that was enough. The golden-banded viper king’s wound kept bleeding out.

 

The viper king was in great pain, its fury sending it into a frenzy. It chased Su Chen through the forest once more, but no matter how hard it tried, it couldn’t catch up with his agile and quick movements.

 

As Su Chen saw it approaching, he grew pleased. He circled the ancient cypress tree, occasionally picking up large stones to throw at the snake, luring it to chase him further to waste its blood and energy.

 

The viper was bleeding profusely, leaving trails of crimson on the ground. Its strength waned rapidly, and after half an hour, it lay motionless beside the ancient cypress tree, still or dead.

 

Su Chen considered delivering a final blow but hesitated since his axe was near the serpent’s body. He kept a safe distance and waited patiently for another half hour, observing that nightfall was approaching while the snake remained stiff on the ground.

 

Finally convinced it might be truly dead, Su Chen cautiously approached from behind. He carefully retrieved the axe before deciding to chop off the snake’s head, regardless of whether it was alive or not.

 

With the axe raised, he swung it down with force, delivering a decisive blow to the serpent’s head.

 

The motionless viper king sprang up, snapping its bloodstained jaws on Su Chen’s wrist with a flash of toxic fangs. The stench of venom filled the air as it made contact.

 

Su Chen cried out in pain as a searing agony shot through his wrist, forcing him to grimace involuntarily.

 

“Damn it, this viper king was still playing dead!” Su Chen angrily exclaimed, unwilling to back down.

 

He swung his axe wildly at the viper king’s thick body, striking true every time due to its large body.

 

This was a critical moment of life and death; if he didn’t fight back with everything he had, he could easily become the snake’s meal. The viper king, bleeding even more from the many wounds, lashed out with its enormous tail, sweeping towards Su Chen with terrifying force.

 

Su Chen was struck squarely in the arm, feeling as though he’d been hit by an iron rod. His shoulder dislocated, sending him flying several yards through the air. He crashed to the ground, clutching his injured arm as sharp pain shot through it. A gout of fresh blood erupted from his throat, and his head throbbed painfully. Dizziness overwhelmed him, leaving him unable to rise.

 

The golden-banded viper was riddled with cuts from all the strikes. Tormented beyond endurance, it struggled to move its serpent form through the underbrush and retreat deeper into the thickets. The snake was filled with profound regret; this contest between it and the man had ended in mutual ruin, with neither side benefiting. If only it had fled earlier.

 

After a brief moment, Su Chen gradually regained consciousness from his dizziness and managed to sit up with effort on the ground. He rested for several breaths, and though his buzzing mind slowly cleared, he still felt severely weakened. Scanning his surroundings, he found that the golden-ringed snake king had retreated into the deep mountains and forests, leaving only a trail of bloodstains behind it.

 

Su Chen gritted his teeth as he reset his dislocated arm, feeling every inch of his body ache with exhaustion. He didn’t pursue the fleeing viper king, for the battle left him spent, bringing him perilously close to death in these remote mountains.

 

Examining his right wrist, he noticed two fang marks oozing faintly with dark green venom, and his expression turned to one of apprehension.

 

He had been bitten by the golden-banded viper!

 

Su Chen had studied its venom before entering the mountains and was fully aware of its terrifying nature. The venom had strong muscle- and nerve-paralyzing effects, with just a single drop enough to paralyze his entire body. It was an extremely potent paralytic venom.

 

He planned on capturing a golden-banded viper and extracting one-tenth of its venom to assist in practicing Turtle Breath. This would allow him to close his six senses, condense a thread of spiritual awareness, and enter the Violet Palace to search for the mysterious Spirit Mountain.

 

However, he was unexpectedly bitten by the king of golden ring snakes, which injected several drops of venom into his body. The dose far exceeded the lethal amount by dozens of times.

 

After being bitten by the snake king, the wound did not hurt; there was only a slight numbness. However, this paralyzing venom would spread rapidly through his bloodline and qi circulation. Within half an hour, he would gradually lose sensation until his nerves and muscles were completely paralyzed, his breathing stopped entirely, and he suffocated to death.

 

The Medicine King Estate has a comprehensive selection of antidotes, including a specially formulated antidote created by the pharmacists to treat golden-banded viper venom. However, being deep in the mountains, returning within half an hour to take it was impossible.

 

Not to mention that these specially made medicine pills were very expensive; one pill cost half a tael of silver. Even if he returned immediately to Medicine King Estate, he couldn’t afford it. Su Chen struggled to get up and secured the axe at his waist. Absently gazing around, he inadvertently spotted the wild ginseng beneath the ancient cypress tree.

 

This wild ginseng, which had grown for decades, was something he had risked his life to obtain—of course, he couldn’t abandon it. He unsheathed his small knife and dug up the wild ginseng from the ground, tucking it into his chest.

 

The medicine basket contained some weak herbs he had casually picked in the deep mountains for their detoxifying properties. Their effectiveness against snake venom was minimal, but better than nothing.

 

Su Chen ate a few handfuls of the herbs and then set off toward a lake at the foot of the mountain half a mile away, intending to wash the toxic fangs’ wound. It was a thousand-foot-wide lake hidden deep within the mountains, secluded and tranquil.

 

As Su Chen stumbled towards the lakeshore, he already felt breathless, his breathing ragged and weak. Half of his body tingled with numbness, and he felt himself slipping in and out of consciousness.

 

He threw himself into the shallow water and frantically scrubbed at the wound, trying to rinse out the viper’s venom.

 

But it was useless; waves of dizziness came crashing over him with growing intensity.

 

Su Chen steeled his heart, pulled out a sharp herb-gathering knife, washed it in the clear lake water, and then made a deep cut on the bite wound on his wrist, forcing the blood to flow faster to purge the poison from within.

 

Crimson blood trickled out, dyeing the nearby surface of the lake red for several meters.

 

Su Chen’s face turned ashen, his slender frame trembling uncontrollably, and his expression slowly gave way to despair.

 

The wounds, several inches long, yielded no pain at all—only numbness.

 

The loss of sensation meant the poison was deeply set in.

 

The massive dose of viper king’s venom had even caused the other hand holding the herb-gathering knife to grow paralyzed, nearly slipping from his grasp despite his firm grip.

 

“I’ve only been a Medicine King Group disciple for half a year, not yet skilled in the ways of martial arts, and before I could even make a difference, I am to die here, in this wilderness.”

 

As these thoughts raced through his mind, intense dizziness overwhelmed Su Chen as he kept scrubbing his wounds, fearing he might lose consciousness at any moment.

 

His heart filled with profound sorrow and regret. Reflecting on his impoverished upbringing in a fishing household, helping out since the age of four or five by braving icy winters to fish in the river. Over the years, he had endured countless hardships shaped by his humble beginnings. His life, already fragile due to the blue stone tears, felt as insignificant as blades of grass or a mere wick that could be extinguished by the slightest gust of wind.

 

Yet, Su Chen cherished his meager existence deeply. To prevent his condition from further burdening his family and unwilling to sell himself into servitude, he had left home alone to seek his fortune in the county city’s Medicine King Group. Determined to stand on his own two feet, he had cultivated relentlessly under his master for half a year, braving any hardship without complaint.

 

He could endure poverty and humility, as well as loneliness. This time he came into the mountains to gather some venom from a golden-banded viper to cure his mysterious illness.

 

Once he recovered, he planned to cultivate hard for three or five years within the Medicine King Group. Perhaps he could become a third-rate practitioner in the martial arts world. Back in his home village, that would have been considered a great achievement, earning him envy from fellow villagers.

 

He might even team up with his brother Ah Chou and other senior brothers and sisters within the group to travel the martial world. Together, they could become renowned martial artists in the Wu Region. However, he was bitten by the viper king, and all his dreams shattered.

 

The blue stone tears had tormented him for over ten years, but they still didn’t take his life. It was this venom that ended up being his downfall.

 

[Why?!]

 

Su Chen tightly clenched his small fists and pounded against the lake’s surface, overwhelmed by a mix of sorrow and anger. Though he was strong-willed—even upon hearing the devastating news that his parents planned to sell him into servitude—he forced himself not to cry, fearing his grief might weaken him further. Yet now, as death approached, he couldn’t hold back his tears any longer; silent sobs wracked his body as two jade-blue teardrops slid down his cheeks.

 

Two teardrops shimmering with an enigmatic blue hue began their descent from Su Chen’s reddened eyes. They carried the warmth of his body and, before solidifying into stones, plopped into the lake, sending out ripples that spread across the water.

 

A mysterious, alluring fragrance filled the water, permeating the expanding waves and drifting outward into the lake’s depths. The water, once still and calm, now bore witness to this extraordinary occurrence.

 

But the strange fragrance spread incredibly fast, and all the fish in the lake sensed it. Countless large and small fish scrambled to swim towards the surface of the lake, eager to feast on those two drops of blue, fearing they would be left behind.

 

Leading the charge was a red-tailed prawn king, half a foot long. It surged ahead at the forefront of the stampeding school of fish, its tail thrashing furiously against the waves. With each flick of its tail, it lunged a dozen meters, leaving other fish and shrimp in the dust.

 

It was the first to arrive, snatching up one drop of the blue with a single gulp. But alas, the red-tailed prawn king’s joy was short-lived.

 

Just as it had bitten down, a massive Silverback Swordfish, an extremely rare specimen measuring three meters in length, erupted from the depths of the lake like a bolt of lightning. With its gaping maw wide open and eyes locked onto its prey, it launched itself at the red-tailed prawn king that had just consumed the teardrop.

 

The Silverback Swordfish swallowed the prawn king whole, leaving not even a whisker behind. Then, with a flick of its powerful tail, it shot off like an arrow through the water and vanished into the depths of the lake.

 

The other fish were stunned. This Silverback Swordfish was formidable—over three meters long, weighing at least twenty kilograms, undoubtedly the king of its kind. Its speed was unmatched; its back and tail fin were as sharp as blades, capable of cleaving through stone. If any ordinary large carp challenge it, their bellies would be instantly sliced open by its tail fin.

 

However, there was still one more drop remaining in the lake!

 

The rest of the fish continued to rush over, eager to consume the last teardrop.

 

From the depths of the lake’s bottom, water began to churn. A gigantic fish, nearly twenty feet in length, surged forth from a deep underwater cavern, its power making the water part. It was none other than a five-hundred-year-old spotted rockfish, with an ugly face resembling that of a rock monster. Its body was covered in spots, its scales as hard as stone, and its terrifying fish-like torso resembled an enormous millstone.

 

It had arrived last, coming from the depths of the lake’s abyss, but it was undeniably the most dominant. Riding upon waves that reached up to ten feet high, it forcefully pushed aside and scared away thousands of scattered fish. With its grotesque face, it bore down on Su Chen, who was situated along the lakeshore.