Unorthodox Wuxia: While Others Practice Martial Arts, I Cultivate Immortality - Chapter 40

Chapter 40: White Snake—Ice Silkworm (Part 1)

Before she realized it, the sky had grown dark again, yet the cliff still showed no sign of ending.

Fortunately, Yuan Zhao found a pine tree growing out of the cliff face.

The tree was fairly lush, and its trunk was thick and sturdy enough, so she decided to spend the night there.

After stepping across the rocks and jumping onto the trunk, Yuan Zhao tested it and found it quite solid. Satisfied, she sat cross-legged on it.

However, when she looked toward the treetop, she was surprised to discover a huge bird’s nest hidden within the branches.

Not only that—there were three fluffy chicks inside the nest.

Although they were chicks, their bodies were not small at all. Each one was about the size of a full-grown hen.

Sensing Yuan Zhao’s arrival, the three chicks mistook her for their mother returning. They pushed and shoved each other as they opened their beaks, chirping noisily and begging to be fed.

Yuan Zhao: …

Naturally, Yuan Zhao had no intention of feeding them. If she hadn’t been carrying food herself, she might even have considered these three little fellows as backup rations.

What troubled her now was this: if there were chicks here, then their parents must be nearby. Should she move somewhere else? Otherwise, she’d surely be treated as an intruder and attacked.

But on this sheer cliff, finding a place to settle down was no easy matter.

Just as she was hesitating, a piercing cry like shattering gold and cracking stone suddenly rang out from the sky.

Yuan Zhao looked up and saw that, at some unknown point, a massive eagle cloaked in snowy feathers was circling overhead.

She suddenly understood—this was a Snow Eagle’s nest.

Moments later, the Snow Eagle flapped its wings and landed at the edge of the nest, a completely dead rock goat clutched in its talons. After tossing the goat into the nest, it turned a wary gaze toward Yuan Zhao and silently positioned itself in front of the chicks.

However, it seemed quite intelligent and didn’t attack her as Yuan Zhao had expected.

And so, one human and one eagle faced off in silence.

After a long while, once both sides confirmed that the other had no intention of attacking, they tacitly accepted peaceful coexistence.

The Snow Eagle then tore the rock goat into pieces and fed the meat bit by bit to the three chicks.

Before long, night fully descended. After finishing their meal, the chicks curled up together and fell into a deep sleep. Their mother spread her wings to shield them and closed her eyes as well.

Cold winds howled through the ravine. Yuan Zhao’s eyebrows were coated with frost from the chill. Even with spiritual energy protecting her body, it was difficult to fend off the biting cold.

At that moment, she dearly wished she could grow a coat of feathers like the Snow Eagle’s to keep warm.

To distract herself, she immersed herself completely in cultivation.

Time quietly slipped into the dead of night.

Suddenly, a shrill cry jolted her out of her meditative state.

She opened her eyes and channeled spiritual energy into them. To her shock, she saw that at some point, a white snake had appeared in the Snow Eagle’s nest.

The snake was opening its mouth and slowly swallowing one already-dead eaglet, inch by inch. The other two chicks were nowhere to be seen.

From the bulge in the white snake’s belly, it was clear they had already become part of its meal.

With its children slain, the Snow Eagle let out a mournful cry and then dove down violently, its sharp talons striking straight for the white snake’s vital point.

The white snake wasn’t particularly large. Before feeding, it was only as thick as a baby’s arm and about three to four meters long—nowhere near a match for the enormous Snow Eagle.

Moreover, eagles were natural predators of snakes, their nemesis. Yuan Zhao felt that the snake was surely doomed.

Yet to her astonishment, the instant the Snow Eagle attacked, the white snake twisted agilely, easily evading the strike. Then, with lightning speed, it wrapped its slender tail around the Snow Eagle’s neck.

The Snow Eagle struggled desperately, but the white snake did not budge in the slightest.

Yuan Zhao stared in disbelief. It was hard to imagine that such a snake possessed such terrifying strength.

Because the Snow Eagle’s body was so large, the white snake’s length wasn’t enough to coil around it completely.

Thus, when the Snow Eagle tried to seize the snake’s body with its talons, the white snake struck like a bolt of lightning, biting down on the Snow Eagle’s neck.

In an instant, the Snow Eagle stopped struggling, and a layer of frost rapidly formed around its neck.

This white snake actually carried an extremely violent cold poison!

After killing the Snow Eagle, the white snake didn’t eat it. The three chicks had already filled its belly.

It merely raised its tail and flicked it lightly, sending the Snow Eagle’s corpse plunging straight into the ravine.

Save it for tomorrow? Not a chance—it wouldn’t deign to eat leftovers.

At this moment, the white snake flicked its tongue and looked toward Yuan Zhao. Her heart jolted in alarm—she had a strong feeling that she was no match for this snake.

Silently, she tightened her grip on the Heaven Prison Blade.

The moment the white snake attacked, she would counterattack without hesitation.

Yet the very next second, her vision blurred. The white snake streaked past her side and vanished into the night in the blink of an eye.

Only then did Yuan Zhao realize she was drenched in cold sweat. At the same time, she was secretly astonished.

Strange—it hadn’t hurt her at all.

After a long while, the turmoil in her heart gradually settled.

Yulian Mountain was truly perilous beyond imagination! That snake probably counted as a rare and exotic beast by now.

Yuan Zhao then reentered her cultivation state.

But only moments later, she suddenly felt every hair on her body stand on end.

A long snake body slowly coiled around her.

“Hiss—hiss—”

A snake head flicking its tongue slowly extended forward and appeared in Yuan Zhao’s field of vision.

She didn’t dare make the slightest movement. With this snake’s speed, it was fully capable of injecting cold poison into her body before she could even react.

Unexpectedly, the white snake did not harm her. After meeting her gaze for a moment, it gently tapped her cheek with the tip of its tail, as if trying to convey something.

Unfortunately, Yuan Zhao didn’t understand what it meant.

After several attempts, a hint of anxiety appeared in the white snake’s intelligent eyes, which terrified Yuan Zhao—she was afraid it might suddenly bite her.

Then the white snake suddenly loosened its coils around her and crawled to her front, using its long body to strike a complex pose.

Though the pose was abstract, Yuan Zhao still recognized it—it was the posture she used while cultivating.

It wanted her to cultivate?

Suddenly, a flash of insight struck Yuan Zhao.

Could it be that, like the old wolf, this snake wanted to cultivate by drawing on her spiritual energy?

After spending so long with the old wolf, she had long since figured out where its transformations came from. Realizing this, Yuan Zhao took a deep breath, activated her cultivation technique, harmonized her aura with the surrounding environment, and quickly entered a meditative state.

Sure enough, seeing this, the white snake showed a look of satisfaction.

It coiled its body around Yuan Zhao once more, gently resting its head on her knees, its face full of contentment as it absorbed the spiritual energy overflowing from her body.

The night passed in the blink of an eye.

When the first ray of sunlight shone upon Yuan Zhao’s face, she slowly opened her eyes. Only then did she notice that the white snake had disappeared at some unknown point.

Thinking back on what had happened the previous night, she felt as though it had all been a dream.

She glanced at the Snow Eagle’s nest. It was now completely empty. Scattered feathers and traces of dried blood along the edge proved that everything from last night had been real.

Yuan Zhao braced herself against the cliff behind her and tried to stand, only for her legs to nearly give out and send her tumbling off the cliff.

Having maintained the same posture all night without daring to move, her body was numb and stiff.

After finally recovering, Yuan Zhao ate something, replenished her water, and continued climbing.