Chapter 142: Chapter 142: The Snake Spirit of the Snake Tribe

“Elder Senda, should we make a move?” Maple Leaf asked.

Nearby, Kongshan and the others all looked eager to try. Killing an anaconda would mean great wealth for the whole tribe.

This was a rare windfall—if they missed it, there might not be another chance.

Leaning on his black blade, Senda replied gently, “I never said we shouldn’t act. But let’s first get a sense of the situation and figure out what’s going on with this anaconda. The snake tribe regards anacondas as snake spirits, and it’s rare for one to leave the Wangyue Mountains. Aren’t you curious why this one appeared by the small river?”

Unlike the reckless Elder Pukang, who preferred to solve problems with his fists, Elder Senda was much more rational. Though he was just as skilled at killing, he preferred to use his wits.

“If the snake tribe sees anacondas as snake spirits, can we really kill it?” Changxia asked worriedly.

The snake tribe was a powerful force in the Twilight Forest. That much, Changxia knew.

Pukang said proudly, “Why not? As long as the snake tribe doesn’t see us, who’s to say where this anaconda came from? Sure, they usually live in the Wangyue Mountains, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any elsewhere in the Twilight Forest.”

“Elder Pukang is right,” Maple Leaf agreed. “It’s just one anaconda—would the snake tribe really come after us? Honestly, I’d like to see them try. But do they even dare?”

The furry looked down on the hairless, the scaled looked down on the armored—such was the hierarchy of contempt in the Twilight Forest, and it had always been that way.

Still, when it came to the bird and fish tribes, everyone stood united against those who could fly or swim.

“I’ll go test it out,” Chen Rong said.

Everyone turned to look at him.

Senda asked seriously, “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Chen Rong replied. “It’s just an anaconda—it can’t hurt me. I’ll go check out its situation, and we can act after that.”

“But the wilds are crawling with snakes. How will you get close?” Changxia asked, skeptical. The anaconda had summoned so many snakes, likely because it sensed the small river was too close to the Heluo tribe, and the black panther tribe’s aura was intimidating.

If only the anaconda had kept a lower profile.

Maybe it wouldn’t have been discovered. But it had drawn all these snakes and alerted the Heluo tribe. It was almost asking for trouble.

“Changxia, did you forget I was poisoned by a Gu before? Gu poison can suppress snakes. Even though I’ve been cured, there’s still some residual effect in my body,” Chen Rong explained. Earlier, he’d noticed that when snakes approached him in the forest, they’d actively avoid him.

He wasn’t sure if it was the Gu or the antidote the shaman had made.

Either way, the snakes feared him, and that was enough.

“Whoa!”

Everyone was intrigued.

Who knew being poisoned could have such a benefit?

If the snakes really did avoid Chen Rong, maybe he could get close to the anaconda. Elder Senda mainly wanted to figure out where the anaconda had come from—whether it was from the Wei River or somewhere else.

That was crucial.

“Chen Rong, I’ll leave it to you,” Senda said.

Chen Rong stepped back a couple of paces, dodging Elder Senda’s polite gesture. He glanced at Changxia, signaling her to stick close to Maple Leaf and Nan Feng, and not to try fighting the snakes herself.

The snake swarms in the wilds by the small river were mostly venomous, and much stronger than the snake balls found in the forest.

With Changxia’s current strength, she could handle a small number of snake balls, but if there were too many, she’d almost certainly get hurt.

Soon, everyone watched as Chen Rong vanished from sight.

He moved like a ghost, darting swiftly into the wild grasses.

Nan Feng looked out over the wilds and sighed, “There’s so much bluestem grass here. If we could dig up the roots, we could make tens of thousands of catties of bluestem sugar!”

Nan Feng’s offhand comment immediately got everyone excited.

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Chang Xia didn’t say much.

Still, both elders, as well as Fengye, Kongshan, and Shankun, were all tempted. In terms of distance, this stretch of wilderness wasn’t far from Baihu—just north of Baihu was wasteland, and beyond that, dense forest led straight here.

Their only concern was Weishan, further upstream along the small river.

But the small river was still several hundred li from Weishan.

Because the tribe hadn’t uncovered the secrets of Weishan, they’d given up on these hundreds of li of mountain forest. After all, the Heluo tribe’s territory was vast and resource-rich—they didn’t really need this extra land.

But if this wilderness could really yield tens of thousands of jin of that sweet grass root sugar...

Then everything would change—

Who could say no to sugar?!

Especially tens of thousands of jin of it—if they gave it up, people would definitely call them fools.

Elder Senda saw Elder Pukang’s reddened eyes and quickly said, “Pukang, calm down. Let’s deal with the anaconda first, then think about the rest. After all, if we don’t get rid of the anaconda and the snake swarm, no matter how much grass root there is, we won’t be able to dig any up.”

With that, Fengye and the others immediately understood.

After so many years, the tribe might reclaim the hundreds of li of mountain forest they’d abandoned. If nothing else, all this wild grass, in the eyes of the Heluo tribe, was delicious, sweet grass root sugar.

“Right, let’s listen to Elder Senda,” Kongshan said crisply.

Nearby, Fengye and the others exchanged glances and gave Nan Feng a thumbs-up.

When Nan Feng wasn’t being foolish, she was actually pretty good.

See—

Just a casual suggestion,

And suddenly, the tribe had tens of thousands of jin of grass root sugar.

With Elder Pukang and Elder Senda’s support, even if this wilderness was near Weishan, the tribe would be sure to bring it back into their territory.

“Don’t bother killing the little ones—no meat. If you’re going to kill something, kill the pythons.”

They waited a long time, but Chen Rong still hadn’t returned.

So, Chang Xia’s group began clearing out the snake swarm. Elder Pukang directed Chang Xia to hunt the pythons; as for the regular venomous snakes, he didn’t even spare them a glance.

In fact, even pythons didn’t really interest Elder Pukang.

He only had Chang Xia hunt them because she’d said snake meat was tasty. And thinking about the flavor of the anaconda, Elder Pukang’s mouth started watering. He’d come in a hurry this time and hadn’t brought his food pouch, so when he got hungry, his eyes turned red.

Seeing this,

Elder Senda didn’t dare stop him.

He immediately told Fengye and Nan Feng to build a fire and set up a stove.

They’d roast some snake for Elder Pukang right there, so he wouldn’t go hungry.

If Elder Pukang went hungry, who knew what crazy thing he might do?

Normally, Elder Senda wouldn’t want to get into a fight with Elder Pukang either.

Elder Pukang’s fists were too hard—there weren’t many in the tribe who could go toe-to-toe with him.

Shankun and Kongshan went to find rocks to make cooking tools and fetch water. When Elder Pukang’s eyes turned red earlier, the hair on the back of their necks stood on end.

Clearly, a hungry Elder Pukang was terrifying.

“Elder Pukang—” Chang Xia started, but Elder Pukang cut her off.

“Don’t call me Elder, call me Grandpa,” Pukang said.

Chang Xia, holding her bone knife, explained, “I’ve never eaten python before, so I don’t know what it tastes like. But as for snakes, venomous ones actually taste better. Of course, you have to remove the venom glands and handle them carefully.”

Chang Xia hadn’t eaten snake before.

But after the apocalypse, she had.

Honestly, at first, she’d been reluctant.

But if you want to survive, you just have to force yourself. After eating it, she found it wasn’t so bad. Back in the Twilight Forest, she’d been weak since childhood, and Su Ye and the tribe had fed her all sorts of strange things.

So she didn’t really mind eating snake.

Still, handling them made her a bit uncomfortable. But it was just discomfort, not outright rejection.