Chapter 382

Chapter 382: Serpent Princess

The moment Yu Sheng saw the serpent, he nearly jumped out of his skin—for two reasons. First, he had never seen a snake that big in his life. The largest monster he’d ever dealt with was a fox young lady about the size of two vans. Second, he had never seen a creature with so many heads—and one of them was a human head.

But after the initial shock, what stunned him most was the knot.

That was so damn evil.

The serpent seemed to agree. “Are you even human?!” she screeched. “Where the hell did you find this pack of bastards with eight generations of bad karma to bully me, a protected animal?! At least tie a bow, damn it!”

No sooner had she finished than two Thunder Titans walked over from the edge of the plaza. In three quick motions, they untied her—

—and retied her into a butterfly bow.

Now Yu Sheng knew exactly who had done it.

After being “fixed” again, Serpent Princess collapsed on the plaza and kept cursing, but she clearly didn’t have the strength she’d shown earlier. Meanwhile, one of her seven heads—the one that looked like a husky—perked up and began tugging hard, trying to crawl toward the rations in a cultivator’s hand.

“Damn it, can you stop eating?!” the human head howled. “I swear, what kind of sin did I commit to end up like this… One day I’m going to eat that old bastard Yuan He!”

Yu Sheng sat on Foxy’s head, staring in a daze. After a long moment, he couldn’t help looking down at Xuan Che. “Who is she? And why does she look… totally different from the other demon beasts you’ve caught? Did she escape from the Demon Suppression Tower too?”

“She is Serpent Princess,” Xuan Che said with a helpless sigh. “She used to be a great demon who attained the Dao near Nethergloom Valley. But she ate poisonous swamp fruit at random, burned out her mind, and during her tribulation she slipped into demonic corruption. She committed many heinous deeds.

“My Master and I joined forces to subdue her. Originally, the punishment should have been to shatter her demon bones and erase her mind. But my Martial Uncle remembered that, before she fell into the demonic path, she once muddleheadedly ate villagers’ offerings and then honestly served as the local Mountain God for several years. He also pitied how hard cultivation is, so he showed mercy and sealed her in the Demon Suppression Tower instead.

“She’s been locked up for years. She was fairly obedient before, but we never expected her to take advantage of the chaos today and escape. She probably thought she could wash away her humiliation. She caused quite a commotion… fortunately, Young Lady Snow White stepped in.”

Yu Sheng glanced at the serpent again—still tied into a bow, weakly muttering curses. “…She seems to have a huge grudge against your Martial Uncle.”

“My Martial Uncle felt sorry for her and spared her,” Xuan Che said. “But he also believed that simple confinement wouldn’t solve anything, so he tried to treat her and guide her back to the righteous path—using his proud Beast Taming methods. Strictly speaking, he’s a veterinarian. By borderland standards, it was the correct specialty.”

His expression turned awkward. “But later… there was a medical accident.”

Yu Sheng’s eyebrow twitched. His eyes drifted straight to the dog head.

Xuan Che followed his gaze and nodded, looking pained. “That head was something Martial Uncle refined onto Serpent Princess to calm her demonic qi and violence, and to draw out her original kindness and peace. But for some reason it became like this… you can’t say it had no effect. Before that head existed, she was much crazier than she is now. But after it appeared… she went crazy in a different direction. Now all she wants is to eat Martial Uncle.”

Yu Sheng listened in silence, genuinely at a loss. Even Irene on his shoulder looked stunned. Little Doll took a long moment to recover, then stared at Xuan Che. “Hey, wait… doesn’t your Thousand Peaks Spirit Mountain have any decent doctors?!”

Xuan Che bowed and clasped his fists. “Martial Uncle has regretted it for years and tried many plans to fix it. But Serpent Princess won’t cooperate.”

“If it were me, I wouldn’t cooperate either!” Irene snapped. “Damn quack. And I’m telling you—now I’m really suspicious about why you people developed that medical brawl exploding fist…”

Xuan Che fell silent. “…”

Serpent Princess had heard the commotion. All her heads lifted at once, several pairs of eyes fixing on Irene. “This Sister is truly reasonable. What she says is very pleasing… If I can help Sister break free later, how about I share a piece of that old bastard Yuan He’s heart and liver for you to eat?”

“I’m not eating that. I’ve got no appetite,” Irene said, waving her hand. Then she pointed at Yu Sheng. “Give it to him. He eats anything.”

Yu Sheng coughed twice, cutting off Little Doll’s yapping before it got worse. He tried hard to ignore the bow-tied serpent demon nearby and turned back to Xuan Che. “Do you still need help here? How’s your Master doing?”

“I’m fine here,” Xuan Che said immediately. “We just have wounded to handle. Thankfully this is the Parted Clouds Palace—we’re not short on top-tier elixirs. My Master sent word earlier: several places inside the Demon Suppression Tower were badly damaged. Although he used divine powers to forcibly seal the leaks, the damaged mechanisms and sealing facilities still need urgent repairs, so he can’t leave for now.”

He paused. “Fortunately, Immortal Qian Ji is here. He’s a master of mechanisms and is personally helping with repairs inside the tower. The Demon Suppression Tower should recover soon. Also…”

Xuan Che looked up at Immortal Yuan Hao, hovering in midair on his chainsaw sword. “Elder Senior Uncle, Master also asked you to go to the tower as soon as possible to help. Aside from Immortal Qian Ji, you’re the one who understands mechanism arts and artifact refining best.”

“Alright,” Immortal Yuan Hao said, nodding.

“Then I’ll open a door in a bit and we’ll go together,” Yu Sheng said at once. “I want to check the situation too.” He looked back at Xuan Che. “Anything else?”

Xuan Che thought, then clasped his fists. “Only this: the mountain is still in chaos, and many escaped monsters, criminals, and bizarre entities haven’t been captured yet. Please remind everyone in Fairy Tale to avoid being alone in the forests. Of course, I’ve seen the experts’ strength—ordinary demons can’t beat them. But the younger children shouldn’t go out for now.”

“Got it.” Yu Sheng nodded, then turned toward Cinderella in the pumpkin carriage. “Go back and tell the guardians still waiting in the valley to keep an eye on the little ones. Also tell Dorothy and the others helping around the mountain to be careful when they move. This isn’t borderland—who knows what might show up that no one has experience fighting. Don’t push your luck.”

Cinderella nodded immediately. “Okay!”

“Rapunzel, go with Cinderella,” Yu Sheng added, glancing at Princess Rapunzel, who was still riding Foxy and rubbing her face into that silver-white fur with dangerous devotion. “You’re strong. Once you’re back, stay at Cloud Viewing Terrace and help receive anyone returning from elsewhere.”

“Oh,” Princess Rapunzel said reluctantly, lifting her head—only to immediately bury it again, wriggling like a shameless gremlin while muttering, “Ah, this feels so good… bro, let Foxy give me a tail, will you? I’m used to hugging something when I sleep…”

Yu Sheng arched an eyebrow. “If you don’t mind it suddenly exploding in your arms, sure. Just so you know, once Foxy’s tails explode, they hit harder than the bombs Dorothy drops.”

Rapunzel’s neck snapped straight. In one smooth motion she curled into a golden furball and rolled right off Foxy’s back—rolling straight into Cinderella’s pumpkin carriage.

Zheng Zhi, standing at the front of the carriage, hesitated and pointed at himself. “Then, Brother Yu, I…”

“You’re coming with me,” Yu Sheng said without hesitation. “We’re going to see what’s going on inside the Demon Suppression Tower.”

Zheng Zhi grinned. “Alright.”

Yu Sheng jumped down from Foxy’s back with Irene and raised a hand. A door opened in the air, leading straight into the core containment zone of the Demon Suppression Tower. Foxy stepped back a few paces, rolled in place, shifted into human form, and ran over with eager anticipation—no one knew what she was anticipating, but whenever she went out with Benefactor, she always looked like this.

Yu Sheng’s group crossed the threshold and vanished from the plaza outside the Grand Hall of the Parted Clouds Palace.

Serpent Princess, still tied into a butterfly bow, lifted her heads to watch them go. No one knew what she was thinking when she suddenly screamed, “Monsters!!”

Xuan Che’s temples throbbed. “Serpent Princess, can you calm down?”

“That hair monster, that fox monster with tails floating off its body, that mechanism monster with an iron shell and fingers full of blades, and that monster who can open doors and I can’t even tell what it is—” her heads shouted over each other, her one movable tail-tip stabbing the stone hard enough to spray chips. “Which one of them doesn’t look more evil than me?! Why am I the only one who gets locked in the Demon Suppression Tower, listening to you master and disciple preach at me every few days?! Go catch them too!”

“They aren’t monsters,” Xuan Che said earnestly, even though he knew he was arguing with a wall. “They’re righteous. They’re experts from borderland.”

“Righteous? They say they’re righteous and that makes it true? Do they have proof or what?”

Xuan Che spread his hands. “They do. Business licenses issued by borderland for Spirit Realm Detectives. Eighty percent of the universe recognizes them.

“And we aren’t sealing you because you’re a monster. We’re sealing you because if you get loose, you’re likely to hurt people.”

“…So what?” Serpent Princess snapped.

Xuan Che stared at her.

Then he gave up, sighed, and turned away to handle the cleanup with his sectmates and Junior Brothers and Junior Sisters.