The Legend of the Condor Heroes: From Being Expelled from Peach Blossom Island

Chapter 170 Snake Catching Life
After tidying up the cave and driving away the snakes, insects, and rats, Wu Chengyu left Xian Mountain early before dark and returned to Xiangyang.

Ultimately, today I just came to see Snake Valley with my own eyes and find a place to settle down, since I will be spending my future days here. Running into that eagle was expected, but being looked down upon by a bird was unexpected.

He wasn't particularly interested in wilderness survival, but having a good shelter was always a good thing.

The next morning, just as dawn broke, a horse-drawn carriage loaded with goods left Xiangyang City and slowly arrived at the foot of Mount Xian.

The carriage was borrowed from Manager Zhou, who was indeed a good person. He handed over all three formulas and always took good care of Wu Chengyu. He provided all the medicinal herbs and daily necessities Wu Chengyu needed, and even gave him a twenty-year-old wild ginseng when he saw that Wu Chengyu was not in good health.

For Wu Chengyu, twenty-year-old wild ginseng was barely worth anything, but for Manager Zhou, it was a huge sum.

The carriage had a driver, and it was loaded with daily necessities: salt and seasonings, grains, oil, various medicinal herbs, and even an iron pot and a kitchen knife.

Even though he lived in the mountains, Wu Chengyu did not intend to live a sloppy life. He had to have what he needed and use what he could. It would be most foolish to force himself to endure hardship when it wasn't necessary.

The most they carried were ten jars of wine, the strongest wine available in Xiangyang City, which they used to consume snake gallbladders and neutralize their toxicity.

Coachmen and carriages couldn't get into the mountains, so Wu Chengyu had to carry everything up the mountain by himself, trip after trip. He couldn't use his lightness skill now, so he had to rely on his physical strength to carry it all. He made four trips in total, and finally managed to get everything over there.

Finally, Wu Chengyu, carrying a large black pot on his back and two jars of wine in each hand, said to the coachman.

"Please tell Manager Zhou that my transaction with him is complete. Manager Zhou has taken good care of me these past few days, and I will remember it. Thank you very much."

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In the days that followed, Wu Chengyu began a daily routine of catching snakes.

At first, as before, they found a place far from the entrance of Snake Valley, used medicine to soften a few snakes, and then used an iron rod to nail them to their seven-inch mark to extract their gallbladders. They could get quite a lot at a time, but things soon became less smooth.

First, the decrease in the number of snakes and their offspring attracted the attention of the Snake King. Some of the thicker snakes, as thick as a large bowl and three or four meters long, began to coil around the Snake Valley. The effect of the "Sad Breeze Long Insect Edition" on these giant snakes was greatly reduced, and even iron rods could not easily penetrate their scales.

Wu Chengyu's snake-catching efficiency decreased significantly, and he even faced dangerous situations from time to time, with three or four giant snakes chasing him at the same time, forcing him to turn around and run away.

Secondly, a competitor appeared who was vying for his business—that divine eagle, which Wu Chengyu had decided to call the Bald Eagle from now on.

Several times, just as Wu Chengyu had softened the giant snakes and was about to harvest them, the bald eagle would immediately appear and snatch the snake gall from Wu Chengyu.

At first, Wu Chengyu always remained polite, addressing him as "Brother Eagle" whenever they met, even though he was met with cold indifference.

According to his plan, he couldn't handle the Snake King. Only by joining forces with the Bald Eagle could he possibly defeat the Snake King.

But soon Wu Chengyu lost interest in greeting him. No matter how polite he was, the bald eagle would give him a disdainful look and swat him with its wings if he got too close.

Wu Chengyu didn't know if birds rolled their eyes, but he insisted that it was a sign of disdain.

Later, when Wu Chengyu was catching snakes, he suddenly encountered a snake queen. The snake queen seemed to have come out specifically to deal with Wu Chengyu and almost entangled him.

Wu Chengyu was no match for the snake queen and could only run away, but the snake queen pursued him relentlessly. Wu Chengyu had a flash of inspiration and led the snake queen to the place where the bald eagle was hunting.

The bald eagle usually fights the snake king and is always surrounded by four snake queens. Today, it's rare to see a snake queen alone. Wu Chengyu thought it would immediately attack and kill the snake queen. But to his surprise, when the bald eagle saw Wu Chengyu running over with the snake queen, it rolled its eyes and then casually let them pass.

Wu Chengyu was immediately dumbfounded. He had no choice but to use his cat-like steps repeatedly, risking aggravating his injuries, and run for several miles in one breath before he was able to shake off the snake queen.

Having lived next to the bald eagle for a month, constantly being looked down upon, daring not to speak out against it, and finally being tricked in the end, Wu Chengyu truly hated it to the core. Even when he was seriously injured and fell into the water, in Wu Chengyu's opinion, it was not as psychologically damaging as it was now.

The difference in treatment is just too great.

A month later, late at night, a campfire was lit in the cave where Wu Chengyu was hiding, with an iron pot on it. It wasn't a frying pan, but that didn't stop Wu Chengyu from having the rare mood to bake a few pancakes.

Today's task of collecting ordinary snake gallbladders is finally over. I no longer have to go out to catch snakes every day, and I don't have to let that bald eagle steal my business.

On ordinary days, he would just make some barbecue, mainly with the meat of the Bosqu snake. The meat of this snake is really tastier than that of ordinary snakes, but Wu Chengyu had long been tired of eating barbecued snake meat every day.

He was in a good mood today. He had managed to get some wild eggs and picked some wild onions. He picked up the flour and oil he had brought with him and prepared to make an egg pancake to treat himself.

A month has passed, and nine of the ten jars of strong liquor he brought were filled with snake gallbladders. Each jar contained ten jin (5 kg) of liquor, and on average, each jar contained more than twenty snake gallbladders, with more and more large snake gallbladders appearing.

In total, Wu Chengyu used the Beisu Qingfeng Changchong version to catch more than two hundred Bosiqu snakes, including two giant snakes that were second only to the snake king and four snakes. The snake galls alone were the size of eggs. Now they have all been put into wine jars and will be ready to be consumed after soaking for ten days.

The only remaining jar of wine was specially prepared for the snake gallbladders of the snake king and queen, but unfortunately he had not yet figured out how to kill the snake king.

At this point, he had collected all the common Bodhi snake gallbladders he needed to heal his injuries. As long as he consumed all the gallbladders according to the prescribed method, all the external injuries he had suffered and the severe damage to his muscles, bones, and internal organs caused by the pills would be completely healed.

Besides the internal energy generated from consuming the snake gall, which was absorbed by the silkworm to treat his meridians, it won't be long before his physical body returns to its full strength.

However, without internal energy, his martial arts skills could not be fully restored, and his lightness skill was reduced to the effect of instant acceleration using cat steps. Wu Chengyu was still a first-class external martial arts master, and he could at least put up a fight against masters below the level of Qiu Chuji.

But if that were all, Wu Chengyu would not be satisfied. Before he was injured, he was already someone who could go toe-to-toe with the Five Greats level experts.

Now that his foundation is completely destroyed, the price is too high. Not only will his martial arts skills never be able to improve, but most importantly, it will directly affect Wu Chengyu's lifespan.

Wu Chengyu's physical body may appear to have returned to its original state, but in reality, his life force has been greatly depleted.

His physical body would rapidly collapse when he was in his thirties or forties. Based on the bamboo slips' estimation, Wu Chengyu was not expected to live past fifty.

Originally, he could have gained two 60-year lifespans by mastering Taoist divine skills, but suddenly he became a short-lived ghost. Wasn't Wu Chengyu just another Wang Chongyang?

It now appears that Wang Chongyang also cultivated the Taoist divine skill, the Innate Skill, yet he died young, likely because his foundation was damaged, just like Wu Chengyu's.

Therefore, figuring out how to kill the Snake King and completely complete the silkworm transformation process became Wu Chengyu's primary goal.

(End of this chapter)