The moment their gazes met, Feng Xue’s body stiffened. Those small, black-bean-like eyes merely reflected the sunlight naturally, yet they held an indescribable liveliness.
Feng Xue didn’t know much about snakes, and a White Snake was a rare, striking individual that only appeared due to mutations or albinism. For a moment, he couldn't even determine if this creature was venomous. As for his phone… he had to consider whether reaching for it would be misinterpreted as a threat by the snake.
Although, theoretically, a foot-long snake would generally not target humans for attack, this was a unique species with eight hundred years of Lifespan remaining. Who knew if it possessed any man-eating Cultivation abilities?
Thinking of this, Feng Xue couldn’t help but activate the over-the-shoulder view, reconfirming the lock before his Lifespan, hoping to gain a bit more confidence from it.
The White Snake, seeing Feng Xue remain motionless for a long time, actually curled the tip of her tail in a very human-like manner to scratch her head. Then, as if remembering something, she transformed into a streak of white light again and vanished from sight.
“???”
Feng Xue, finding the White Snake’s behavior difficult to understand, was momentarily at a loss. At the same time, however, he couldn't help but feel relieved that no danger had occurred.
“Look on the bright side, this at least proves that there are indeed beings in this world whose Lifespan defies logic.”
Feng Xue comforted himself as he recalled the drone, decisively giving up on continuing his search in the mountains.
He himself was just an ordinary person. Although he had superpowers, they didn’t help much in combat. Now, knowing that there were long-lived individuals suspected of being demons was enough. As for the rest, setting aside whether he could deal with a several-hundred-year-old demon, even if he did manage to capture or even kill one by exploiting weaknesses, he had no means of utilizing it.
With the drone and his ability, which he named “View of Heaven and Longevity,” finding demons didn’t seem difficult. Compared to that, it was indeed better to first enter human society and find ways to utilize demons.
In fact, generally speaking, at this point, one should consider plants more. Perhaps he could find a thousand-year Vermilion Fruit or a ten-thousand-year Ginseng. But the problem was that his View of Heaven and Longevity saw “theoretical remaining Lifespan,” not “age.” Animal Lifespan normally wouldn’t exceed a hundred years, so if there was something special, it would be easy to spot. But plants… with Lifespans often in the six digits spread before his eyes, it was truly difficult to find the special one.
Even taking a step back, even if he was lucky enough to find a Heaven And Earth Treasure, not knowing how to combine them, he might not even dare to eat such a highly nourishing item raw. Not to mention, there might be Spirit Beasts guarding Heaven And Earth Treasures. He wouldn’t die after locking his Lifespan, but injuries, illnesses, and disabilities could still happen!
With such dilemmas, Feng Xue maintained View of Heaven and Longevity and walked down the mountain.
“Rustle…”
A sudden rustling of leaves came, and as the six-digit Lifespan appeared on the screen, Feng Xue immediately turned around. The white figure emerged from the grass again.
Only this time, the tail of this little snake was wrapped with many leaves and weeds. The strange rustling sound from before came from these “burdens.”
Seeing Feng Xue stop, the White Snake quickly wagged her tail and began to adorn herself. A small flower was crookedly placed on her head, and her body, wrapped in grass and leaves, coiled into a tower shape, looking as if she was wearing a straw cloak. Her exposed tail tip was now wrapped around a twig, with a thick leaf at the end of the twig, held upright like an umbrella over her head, giving her a cute, fairy-tale animal vibe.
“What’s going on?”
Feng Xue was a bit at a loss due to the White Snake’s inexplicable actions. He wasn’t sure if it was an illusion, but he even saw a hint of expectation in the little creature’s black-bean eyes.
As an industry insider (referring to a web novelist), Feng Xue’s mind stored a considerable amount of information. As he continuously reviewed themes related to demons and Spirit Beasts, a possibility suddenly emerged in his mind.
After glancing at the locked Lifespan above his head for who knew how many times, Feng Xue finally decided to take a gamble. He took a deep breath, then spoke at a rapid-fire pace:
“You look like a 168cm tall, slender-waisted, long-legged, black-haired, oval-faced, stunningly beautiful high school girl with a tear mole, chuunibyou, evil eyes, cold on the outside but warm on the inside, occasionally venomous, who can play the cello, and loves me unswervingly, wearing highly sheer black silk cheongsam!”
As soon as the words fell, a white mist rose, and the next moment, a figure darted out of the white mist. Feng Xue felt his collar tighten, and then he saw a face that perfectly matched his System’s XP requirements glaring at him almost face-to-face. Her entire pretty face was flushed with anger, and her eyes showed intense killing intent—
“Are you sick? Who taught you to seal like this? Aren’t you afraid I’m a male? Bah! Even if I’m female, you can’t seal like this!”
“Oh, so personality and clothing can’t be sealed?” Feng Xue looked at the plain long robe the other party was wearing and sighed with some disappointment. The snake demon who had transformed into a human immediately widened her eyes upon hearing this:
“Is that the point?”
“Oh, so you want to kill me to vent your anger? Can you at least make it quick and clean? By the way, do you need heart blood for Cultivation? Or do you swallow whole?”
Seeing his plan to leech off a demon immortal to “aid my Cultivation” fail, Feng Xue calmly tried to induce the other party to kill him directly.
The snake demon was stunned by his words, then angrily retorted:
“What do you take me for? I’m going to Cultivate to become a true immortal!”
“Ah, right, right, right. So, Madam Snake Demon who wants to Cultivate to become a true immortal, can you put me down? Or just give me a quick death, please?” Feng Xue spoke as if he only wished for a swift demise, but he had once again activated the over-the-shoulder view.
Although he had checked countless times, he still couldn’t resist glancing again.
But this glance revealed a change.
It wasn’t that anything unexpected had happened to the Lifespan above his head, but rather that he saw a line of small text on the snake demon’s forehead, in addition to the six-digit Lifespan—
【Under Verbal Seal】
As his attention focused, the specific details unfolded:
【When described in detail by a human, she will transform into the corresponding image based on the description. If described as human, she will gain effects such as 【Refining Horizontal Bones】, 【Speaking Human Language】, 【Aptitude Improvement】 on top of her original Cultivation and complete her transformation. If described with malicious intent as a derogatory image, she will lose her Cultivation.】
“Ah, this?” Feng Xue looked at the golden, shining lock icon before “Under Verbal Seal” and was momentarily dumbfounded. Connecting it with the “great fortune” above his own head, he suddenly realized that his Golden Finger… seemed not so simple?
“So, it really must be a supernatural event I’ve personally experienced… or personally witnessed, for such a term to coalesce? But why didn’t a ‘Nine-Lotus Treasure Lamp’ term appear after my Nine-Lotus Lifespan Extension? Is it because it was originally a guaranteed occurrence, so there was no need for a lock? Or is the baseline for Nine-Lotus Lifespan reduction not the person whose Lifespan is reduced? Or is it because I cheated at cards?”
Feng Xue’s mind was in utter chaos. Seeing that the snake demon in front of him also seemed to be caught in a dilemma, he decided to go all out and directly focused his attention on the lock before “Under Verbal Seal.”
Click!
Although there was no sound, after this auditory hallucination, the lock immediately closed. Feng Xue, ignoring everything, shouted:
“You look like a one-inch long White Snake!”
“Bang!”
White mist rose again. A one-inch long White Snake, whose tail tip was still hooked to Feng Xue’s collar, hung upside down on his chest, utterly bewildered…