Crown Prince and Ghost King

Chapter 13

Suddenly, a shriek echoed in the cave, harshly reverberating against the walls and causing all the hairs on Xie Lian's arm to stand. Where the merchants were once sitting, now everyone had scrambled in a flash, scurrying away in fear and alarm and crying out "snake!" for everyone to hear.

Immediately, the two martial gods moved their palms toward the commotion and lit up the ground; there was, in fact, a brilliantly colored snake curled on the sandy floor. As soon as the flames reached it, the snake became alert and raised itself to a position of attack.

Feng Xin was about to torch it when Hua Cheng leisurely strolled over and snatched the snake with his left hand, clutching at its heart. The snake, helpless, meekly wrapped its long tail around the ghost's arm.

Xie Lian frowned; it was normal to have snakes in a desert, they were animals that thrived in that sort of climate, but upon closer inspection he felt his blood freeze over.

The snake had translucent skin, its vivid red insides mixed with threads of black completely visible, a sight truly disgusting but fascinating at once. It was the tail, however, that alarmed Xie Lian: segmented, darker, like layers of a hard shell. It was a snake with the tail of a scorpion.

As if found out, the long snake body that was wrapped around Hua Cheng's left arm suddenly let go, and the tail snapped backwards. The Ghost King was faster and easily caught the tail with his right hand, the flesh-red needle now fully in view.

Despite knowing his husband couldn't die because of venom, Xie Lian sighed in relief, then frowned again: «This is a scorpion-snake».

Why was there a scorpion-snake? They were scarce in numbers, a rare poisonous vermin found only in BanYue, so what was that creature doing in that cave? As far as he knew, they weren't too close to the Kingdom of BanYue, or Shi QingXuan would have seen them by now.

«What the fuck is a scorpion-snake?».

«They're dangerous creatures», Xie Lian explained, to sate Feng Xin's curiosity. «Body of a snake, tail of a scorpion. Their venom has the strength of both combined, and if bitten or pricked...».

He trailed off, watching Hua Cheng play with the poor creature, and shook his head.

Hua Cheng laughed, twisting the snake as if it was nothing but a towel: «The scorpion-snake is a symbol of the BanYue Guoshi, I just remembered», he said, a glint in his eyes. At first he didn't think about it, because to him it seemed an information like many others, but it was one of the few things he heard of. «Apparently, the Guoshi could control these scorpion-snakes, and that's why the people of BanYue believe in her powers».

Hearing the word "control" brought alarm to Xie Lian, and something clicked into his mind; when it came to controlling anything, whatever it may be, it usually came in mass numbers. He was about to yell that they needed to leave the cave, when more voices cried out in fear, and more scorpion-snakes soundlessly slithered in from the shadows. They weren't hissing or attacking, just soundlessly watching, but it was enough to rouse even more fear.

Feng Xin and Mu Qing releaser two fireballs, and Xie Lian took advantage of the flames expanding into the cave to order everyone to get out. No one stayed to be told twice, and all ran outside, escaping into open ground and refusing to stop running.

«That stone memorial didn't work! How come after we kowtowed three times we still ran into stuff like that?!».

«Same effect as worshipping that Scrap Immortal!».

In a place where barely any sticks could hit, he would still get shot by an arrow. Xie Lian was speechless, and faltered in his steps. Even without a single mention of the Crown Prince of XianLe, even so far away from his old kingdom, people would still be that bitter about him.