Unedited chapter
11. Making the Huge Snake Cultivate
Edgar had been tired for several days. To begin with, he was in half-conscious state, just about to fall asleep. Then at that very moment, his tail was tossed aside, and he immediately woke up.
The little sub-beastman had been unconscious for three days. During those three days, he had been keeping watch at the little sub-beastman’s side for fear that the little sub-beastman would have some troubles. Now that the little sub-beastman was awake, he was happier than anyone.
Edgar was happy to be happy, but he also understood that it was time for him to leave.
These three days, the little sub-beastman had been dreaming all the time. Dreaming the whole day, he kept repeating the words “don’t eat me” and so on. Although he did not understand what the words meant, but previously when the little sub-beastman had seen him, the little sub-beastman had also shouted these words.
The little sub-beastman trembled in his sleep; sometimes his body was also stiff. All because the little sub-beastman was afraid, and the object of the little sub-beastman’s fear was himself. Yes, it was himself.
After realizing this, Edgar"s heart inevitably felt pained. If it were not for the little sub-beastman needing to be taken care of, and also because his tail had been grabbed over and over again, preventing him from leaving, he felt that he certainly wouldn’t have the face to stay here.
Now that the little sub-beastman was awake, he should leave.... Withdrawing his tail, Edgar slithered out of the little sub-beastman’s cave.
Shu Shu completely didn’t notice the huge snake leaving. He was a bit slow at this moment. After he had shrunk in fear, his brain had suddenly and finally received some information from the red bead.
After the red bead had been eaten by him, it had settled within his body. It would often transmit some information to him; for example, the method to start cultivating, or some a.s.sortments of matters to take note of when cultivating. But ever since Shu Shu had arrived in this world, there had been no activity at all from the red bead. Only now Shu Shu was provided with some information. Shu Shu finally knew why he had had a nightmare and why he had changed into his current appearance of half-man half-mouse.
As it turned out, he simply hadn"t pa.s.sed the tribulation to become a human.
Daemon spirits who wanted to transform their appearance into human had to pa.s.s the tribulation. Even more, they had to pa.s.s two tribulations.
These two tribulations, one was lightning tribulation, and Shu Shu had been scorched black by the lightning strike; he had barely pa.s.sed. And he had almost failed the other tribulation, so he had been forcibly stopped by the red bead. Until now, he had not pa.s.sed yet. That tribulation was heart’s devil tribulation.
As a daemon spirit, although Shu Shu was quite useless, but he didn’t go so far as to get tired to the point of having a fever and losing consciousness. Normally, he would recover after sleeping for two days. So the reason why he had had fever nightmares was actually because the red bead had helped him to simulate some scenarios. It wanted to make him train himself more so he could pa.s.s the heart’s devil tribulation.... That’s right, his heart’s devil tribulation was related to feelings. Love, ah? He never had any relationship, ah! Repaying a kindness, taking revenge, and so on, it did not matter to him. His heart’s devil was fear.
Wanting to pa.s.s the demon tribulation meant he had to be chased by a snake? It was too depressing, right? When Shu Shu thought of this, he could not help but want to cry—wanting to become a human, why it was so difficult, ah!
Having fully and clearly understand the ins and outs of the matter, Shu Shu was finally clear-headed. Then he realized that the huge snake was gone.
The huge snake was not here. Shu Shu first breathed a sigh of relief. Then his heart seized up—he seemed to have seen... the huge snake’s wounds had all rotted?
Couldn’t the huge snake look for medicinal herbs? How could it let its wounds to worsen to that point?
Shu Shu frowned. After sleeping for a long time, his body was already much better, so he nimbly crawled out of the bedroom to the living room. Then he abruptly discovered that the situation did not seem right.
The fruits he had picked before had actually dried up!
He... had he been unconscious for several days? Just think about it, if he had not been unconscious for several days but had only slept for a day, the huge snake"s wounds would not have rotted.
So, the huge snake had taken care of him for several days?
Shu Shu was suddenly unable to stand still.
He was instinctively afraid of the huge snake, but he was also very grateful to the huge snake. When he had not known that the kind person was actually the huge snake, he had even liked and felt very close to the kind person. He had felt that he wouldn’t mind at all letting the kind person be his owner.
The huge snake had been seriously hurt before, and now its wounds were also serious. Wouldn’t it meet with an accident?
Shu Shu could not help but worry. Unfortunately, he did not know where to look for the huge snake.
Pushing on his cheeks to spit out the chestnuts inside his food pouches, Shu Shu couldn"t help but sigh while gnawing at the chestnuts. If only the huge snake were not a snake! If it were not a snake but a person, he would certainly like the person very much....
Not a snake but a human?
Shu Shu thought of this and suddenly thought of one thing, that was, the huge snake could actually cultivate into a human!
He had been a hamster in the past, but now he had cultivated into a human. The huge snake could definitely do it, too!
With such a thought, Shu Shu immediately felt that everything has become clear at once.
Wait until the huge snake became a human and then he did not have to fear the person! At that time, he could let the person stay in the living room! He could also let the person be his owner.... No, no, he was already a human now and he certainly shouldn’t look for an owner.
The more Shu Shu thought about it, the happier he was. He began to ponder how to teach the huge snake to cultivate.
The huge snake was very clever; it could do so many things. Most likely it had already developed intelligence, so cultivating should be very fast. Surely it would not be as difficult as when he had tried to communicate with his fellow hamsters. The huge snake was quite fond of his current appearance of half-human half-mouse. No doubt it also wanted to become a human....
The more Shu Shu pondered, the more he felt that his plan had no drawback. Once he began to teach the huge snake cultivation, he became the huge snake’s master, and the huge snake had to obey him in all things!
Shu Shu once again felt very proud of himself. Right at this moment, the huge snake suddenly appeared at the cave mouth.
The instant the snake"s enormous head got into the cave, Shu Shu reflexively shrieked. He immediately jumped up and went directly into the bedroom.
Observing Shu Shu"s antics, Edgar once again laughed bitterly in his heart. It was absurd to feel deeply hurt.
After he had left, at first he had planned to leave and never come back here, but he had suddenly remembered about the tiger skin.
The weather was getting colder every day now, and the little sub-beastman was afraid of the cold. Later on, he would certainly be unable to endure it.... Edgar was worried that the little sub-beastman would freeze. Thinking about it, he had gone to the lake in the end. After being soaked for three days, when he fished the tiger skin up, there already wasn’t any particle of flesh on it.
The tiger skin still could not be used at the moment. It needed to go through a few more processes…. Edgar was very worried about the little sub-beastman. He thought about it and eventually came to find the little sub-beastman.
The little sub-beastman had been unconscious before; maybe he was still staying inside his sleeping hole now. At that time, so long as he quietly treated the tiger skin outside....
Edgar planned well enough, but after he arrived at the cave where the little sub-beastman lived, he found that the little sub-beastman was already up and got scared again by him in the end.
As beastmen, they should strive to protect and treat the sub-beastmen well. But he had obviously "scared" the sub-beastman over and over again....
The little sub-beastman had gone back into the cave. Upon seeing this, Edgar, holding the tiger skin with his mouth, came to the bonfire for the ashes next to it.
On the past few days, the little sub-beastman had kept complaining loudly about the cold, so he had lit a fire in the cave, ultimately getting a lot of ash. And so now, these ashes just came in handy.
The tiger skin was placed in the ashes. Edgar used his tail to stir the ashes, smearing every inch of the tiger skin with ash.
There was no special bottled chemical to treat fur in the forest, so he could only used some simple soda ash to treat the fur.... Edgar had already thought of this, so a few days before, he had looked for alkaline plants to light a fire with. The plant ash naturally contained soda.
The tiger skin was coated with plant ash; then he once again used his tail to rub in the ash. Rubbing and rubbing, Edgar"s tail gradually lost its strength. In addition, he suddenly felt a little dizzy.
After his body had gotten seriously injured, even though he had already gotten medicated and slept for a night, but he had only recovered a little. Very soon after, he had gotten busy rushing about. Furthermore, these three days, he had kept watch over the little sub-beastman day and night, not sleeping for a bit. Now he naturally could not endure any longer.
Swaying, Edgar suddenly collapsed into the plant ash.
Although Shu Shu was hiding in the bedroom, but today his condition was pretty good, to say the least.... He dared to take the initiative to come out and see the huge snake.
When he had been unconscious, not only had the huge snake not eaten him, but it had also taken care of him. It made him increasingly feel that the huge snake would not harm him.
When he first saw the huge snake rubbing the tiger skin with plant ash, Shu Shu was a little baffled, but he quickly guessed that the huge snake was treating the tiger skin.
As it turned out, animal’s skin could be treated like this, ah. If he had known earlier, he would not have thrown away the rabbit skin and the like from before!
The huge snake… no, his future disciple was really smart. Not only his future disciple could hunt and pick medicinal herbs, his future disciple also understood how to treat fur. In the future, having such a person at his side, he would definitely be able to live very comfortably.
Unfortunately, his future disciple was still a snake now....
Shu Shu sighed. Watching the huge snake attentively, he was planning to learn how to treat fur, when he saw the huge snake suddenly pa.s.sing out.
"Big snake! Hey! What"s wrong with you!" Shu Shu called out a few times, but the huge snake was still unconscious and had no reaction.
Although Shu Shu was still scared, but he in the end could not sit still. He jumped out of his bedroom and approached the huge snake, only to find that the huge snake’s condition was worse than he had imagined.
Indeed, when it came to this, the huge snake now looked worse than when it had just finished fighting with the giant tiger. Not only the wounds on its body did not heal, but they also festered and rotted.
Such small wounds on his feet were even covered with medicine, but such big wounds on the huge snake’s body surprisingly weren’t given medical care at all.... Moreover, even being injured like this, it still went into the water to fish up the tiger skin, making the wounds wet!
Shu Shu was both angry and worried. He moved closer to the huge snake and started to inspect its wounds.
Being so close to the huge snake, Shu Shu was filled with dread. But he had once helped treating the huge snake, thus he could accustomed himself to it.
So many wounds, didn’t the huge snake know pain? Why didn’t you think about taking care of yourself? Shu Shu’s heart was very troubled. Thinking about it, he turned round and went out to pick some medicinal herbs.
Having picked some medicinal herbs before, Shu Shu was now considered to be familiar with them. He quickly returned with a good deal of medicinal herbs. Afterwards, he clinically used his claws to sc.r.a.pe off the rotting flesh on the huge snake"s wounds.
The huge snake twitched and trembled. Shu Shu unconsciously wanted to flee, but in the end he still managed to restrain himself.
"This is my disciple, this is my disciple...." Muttering incessantly to himself, Shu Shu once again helped applying the medicine to the huge snake. He also infused his negligible, practically-useless spiritual power into the huge snake"s wounds.
TL"s note:
心魔劫 (xīn mó jié) = heart devil calamity = heart"s devil tribulation
心魔 could also be translated as demon, as in "a source or agent of evil, harm, distress, or ruin", not the literal evil spirit or devil.
I chose to use heart"s devil because demon is too ambiguous, moreover since I use daemon for Shu Shu.