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I didn’t have the exact information, but I knew that there had been legends of snake farmers in this area since ancient times, especially in the numerous Han legends about the Miao and Yao people. Even in numerous wuxia novels, there were countless plots involving things like the five poisons (1) in the jungles of southern Xinjiang.

Snake farmers were more a part of reality than legend; they were people who caught and trained snakes. Most snake farmers made a living by selling snake medicine—i.e., treating snake bites— but a superstition arose saying that the medicine needed to be made from the snakes themselves, so that was why the snake farmers spent a long time catching them in the mountains. But the snake farmers were really catching the snakes in order to sell the venom to drug peddlers in the Central Plains. The snake medicine was mostly herbal medicine and had nothing to do with the snakes themselves, but the families had secret recipes that were inconvenient to disclose. These snake farmers also went deep into the mountains because that was where the herbs used in the snake medicine grew.

Among the ethnic minorities, snake farmers, insect farmers, and herb farmers were three very mysterious branches. It wasn’t that they pretended to be mysterious, it was just that their movements were erratic because they were active in the mountains all year round.

Snake ancestors were a relatively advanced class of snake farmers. In addition to taking snake venom and raising snakes, these people could do a lot of things with them. In the early days, they used to perform snake shows for entertainment, but there was always conflict in southern Xinjiang, so these snake ancestors became mercenaries and started working in the underworld. Because they had accumulated knowledge of snakes for dozens of generations, it was easy for these people to use snakes to do things like assassination and fighting. Among the ethnic minorities in southern Xinjiang, snakes were also considered to be related to witchcraft and sorcery. The identities of these snake ancestors often overlapped with witchcraft, which made it even more mysterious.

But I never thought that snake training could reach this level. I didn’t think anyone among the ethnic minorities could make such a sinister and covert set-up in the early days. All the tactics and information that drove these snakes revealed the characteristics of Ming and Qing Dynasty gangsters. When there was chaos in southern Xinjiang back in those days, the Central Plains gangs and local strongmen fought for hundreds of years, and I thought such sinister tactics were all forced out by various plots.

I focused back on the four green snakes surrounding the colorful bug that had been in the clay pot. They were constantly raising their heads to make threatening gestures, but the bug looked a little scary after it opened its front legs. That degree of color made one feel frightened to the bones.

The green letter snakes were not only fast, but also courageous, and would never be intimidated by the enemy. That was why they were usually hidden in cuffs or somewhere within easy reach. The speed at which you could raise a hand and have the letter snake bite the opponent’s throat could be as fast as an arrow. The best trained letter snake could even decide whether to kill the opponent or slither into their clothes according to the instructions issued. An assassination could be launched at any time, which made it a very dangerous trick.

I believed these snakes were extremely poisonous, but based on the coloring of this poisonous bug, it didn’t seem too afraid of their venom.

I was confident that I could stall the bug with the letter snakes, so that I could escape downstairs. But training snakes wasn’t easy, and they couldn’t easily be abandoned.

As I deliberated, I shook the small bottle, and then opened the cap. Sure enough, the strong aroma of wine reached my nose.

This was a kind of medicinal wine that had the very obvious scent of herbs. I shook it well, scattered it in the bug’s direction, and then changed the rhythm at which I tapped on the floor. The letter snakes immediately began to surround the pot and started slithering in a circular track. Just like a paintbrush, they passed through the places where the medicinal wine had been sprinkled and drew a circle on the floor. Soon, the clay pot was completely surrounded by a circle of wine.

I took a piece of flint out of the shuikao, immediately struck the floor, and the four snakes flew back to me. As soon as I struck the flint, the circle of medicinal wine ignited.

<Extra 2.9> <Table of Contents><Extra 2.11>

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TN Notes:

(1) If I got the context right, the 5 poisons refer to 5 animals that the ancients perceived as “poisonous”: snakes, scorpions, centipedes, toads, and spiders. In some variations, toads were swapped out with tigers.

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