Chapter 10

"Alan, Alan." After being stunned for a while, the male hunter couldn't help but shout loudly.

This guy probably had never encountered such a strange thing in his life: a giant snake greeting a human? Shouldn't it attack directly? So, not knowing what was going on, he instinctively called out to the leader of this mountain expedition, Cui Alan.

Inside the wooden shed, Cui Alan and a few hunters were bandaging Cui Dalang's wounds.

The hygiene and medical conditions in ancient times were far from ideal. A minor wound that would be considered trivial in modern times could easily lead to infection and death, due to their low immunity. Cui Dalang's injury was severe, but given his robust physique, the likelihood of death was low. However, the chance of his leg being broken was 100%. Thinking of this situation, the people in the wooden shed couldn't help but feel a sense of empathy, as they were also hunters, and their livelihood depended on it. Any of them could lose their lives at any moment.

In modern times, people might think that hunting in the forest would be easy, and they could return with a good harvest after a casual trip. This was a dream. Otherwise, everyone would go hunting. In fact, only a small portion of ancient hunters managed to live to old age peacefully. Most of them ended up buried in the mountains. Even Cui Alan, with her keen sense of danger, had met her match. What about ordinary hunters?

At this moment, everyone in the wooden shed felt uneasy. Hearing the shouts from outside, one of them gruffly said, "What are you shouting for? Afraid of attracting wolves?"

The man outside shouted, "Come out quickly!"

Cui Alan, recalling the wolves' howls when she left, felt a chill and pushed open the wooden shed. "What's wrong? Did the wolves come?"

The male hunter pointed at Lin Bei. "Alan, look."

Cui Alan looked over and her eyes widened. The other hunters who followed her had the same expression.

Lin Bei waved the tree branch in his hand even more vigorously.

"What is this??"

"Such a big snake!!"

"What is it doing??"

"Is it waving?"

The hunters were first amazed by the size of the snake, then by its actions. If the snake had attacked them directly, they wouldn't have been surprised.

More surprises were yet to come.

Lin Bei put down the wolf and used his tail to pick up the tree branch, drawing two large characters on the ground. He wrote the words 'transaction'.

"What is the snake doing?"

"It seems to be writing?"

"A snake that can write? Can snakes read?"

"What did it write?"

"How would I know? I can't read, I'm not a scholar."

"Jiulang can, right? Doesn't your family have a teacher?"

"I don't recognize these characters," a man shook his head. This was clearly Jiulang, but after carefully examining the characters Lin Bei wrote, he hesitantly shook his head.

Hearing the hunters' discussion, Lin Bei felt like he was about to vomit blood. Could it be that these people only recognized traditional characters? But Lin Bei couldn't write the traditional characters for 'transaction'.

Cui Alan looked at Lin Bei with a very strange expression. As soon as she came out, she realized that this snake was the dangerous beast she had sensed earlier. However, at this moment, Cui Alan felt no malice from this giant snake, which was larger than any snake she had ever seen. Cui Alan didn't doubt her intuition, as it had saved her life several times.

Since there was no malice, what was this snake doing here? And it could write? In those days, only scholars and learned people could write.

People living near the mountains had almost all heard strange legends, such as ginseng turning into the shape of a child, some trees eating people, and certain beasts becoming demons after eating strange things. These legends were passed down from generation to generation. Although no one had seen them, everyone firmly believed them. Thinking of these legends, a thought flashed through Cui Alan's mind: Could this snake be a demon? And a good-natured one at that?

Thinking this, Cui Alan felt a bit more at ease and summoned the courage to call out, "Sir... Snake, can you understand what we are saying?"

Lin Bei was a bit discouraged, not expecting communication with humans to be so difficult, especially since they didn't recognize the characters. Hearing this, his eyes lit up.

Lin Bei nodded vigorously and waved the tree branch even more energetically, indicating that he could indeed understand.

The hunters looked at each other, shocked and dumbfounded.

After a long while, a hunter stammered, "R-really... really... can you... understand?"

Lin Bei nodded again.

"Ah..."

"Three Pure Ones, please help..."

"Is it really a deity?"

"Sir Snake, are you a deity reincarnated?"

Lin Bei couldn't speak, so he couldn't answer.

Cui Alan waved her hand to calm everyone down. The situation was truly bizarre, but it seemed that Sir Snake could understand what they were saying.

"Truly a demon," Cui Alan thought solemnly, feeling relieved that this snake seemed to be a good one.

In everyone's mind, demons had special abilities, such as calling wind and rain. Even if they didn't have divine powers, the fact that this snake could kill so many wolves was impressive enough.

Thinking this, Cui Alan said solemnly, "Sir Snake, why have you come to us?"

Lin Bei, hearing this, felt that there was indeed someone with insight among them, as they had gotten to the point. He liked this way of speaking.

Holding the tree branch in his mouth, Lin Bei used his tail to point at the wolf skin on the branch several times.

"Wolf skin?" Cui Alan asked, seeing Lin Bei nod again: "For us?"

Lin Bei nodded again.

The hunters' surprise had faded, and they now looked pleased. In those days, intact pelts were quite valuable. Although wolf skins had a strong odor, they could be tanned to make wolf fur coats, capes, or boots, which had many uses and were extremely durable, far more so than rabbit skins. Selling a dozen wolf skins would be a significant gain.

Cui Alan thought for a moment, "Why for us?"

She was a bit uneasy. She understood that there was no such thing as a free lunch. A mysterious snake demon offering them something for no reason should be suspicious.

Lin Bei put down the tree branch and used his tail to point at them. Cui Alan asked, "Is it related to us?"

Lin Bei nodded.

"Are you asking us to help you, Sir Snake?"

"Probably not, demons are powerful."

"Maybe not, there might be other demons in the forest that Sir Snake can't handle."

"Even we can't handle them."

Lin Bei was speechless. These people knew nothing but were talking nonsense. He could only look at Cui Alan, who was much more reliable than the men.