Chapter 21

The moon hung high in the sky, and the earth was spotless.

"Ugh!" With a muffled groan, Tang Xiaojiu suddenly opened his eyes under the moonlight, realizing he was lying on the ground, still on the open space by the pond. He remembered what had happened before he lost consciousness and hurriedly stood up, feeling his body all over, but found nothing unusual except for a throbbing pain in his head.

Doubts filled his mind. He first lifted his left hand and examined it carefully, then his right hand, and even lifted his shirt to feel his stomach. He saw a black dot on the base of his left thumb, which he had been born with; a scar on his right little finger, from a childhood knife accident; and three mole-like birthmarks in the shape of a character on his belly, a unique mark! Confirming that his body was still his own, he felt relieved, realizing that the demon had not taken over his body!

Tang Xiaojiu let out a long sigh, feeling a great weight lifted from his heart. He was overjoyed, still alive and kicking, and wondered which passing deity had protected him, sparing him from a senseless death in this desolate mountain. He had never believed in ghosts or gods, but now he couldn't help but silently pray, grateful to the heavens.

But wait! He remembered clearly that at the moment he felt utterly hopeless, a golden light had entered his head from his forehead! However, despite the demon's repeated claims of controlling him, his body was still his own. Just as he was beginning to relax, a new doubt arose. If he hadn't died, did that mean the demon had been bluffing all along?

Tang Xiaojiu's heart raced again. He stood up and started jumping and dancing, shaking his hands and kicking his feet, throwing stones around, and making all sorts of noises, contorting his face and doing whatever came to mind... After a while, he confirmed that he was still Tang Xiaojiu!

"Ha ha ha, this is too good, couldn't be better!" Tang Xiaojiu laughed wildly, then lay down on the ground, breathing heavily.

But was it all just a strange dream? Or had the demon been deceiving him? Or perhaps the demon had made a mistake when entering his mind, failing to kill Tang Xiaojiu and instead being killed by him? Could it be that the demon was overwhelmed by his lewd thoughts? As he thought about this, he looked around and saw something lying where the demon had stood, a long, thin shape under the moonlight, clearly not a person, with a stick-like object nearby.

Tang Xiaojiu found this strange and quickly got up to take a closer look. Goodness! The thing lying on the ground was a large snake, as long as a pole and as thick as a bowl, with a strange, flower-like crest on its head. Could this snake be a king of snakes? Tang Xiaojiu was initially startled and jumped back, afraid the snake might attack. But the snake lay motionless, clearly dead. Next to the snake's body was a knife, completely black, quietly embedded in the soil.

Tang Xiaojiu mustered his courage, pulled out the black knife, and poked the snake, which remained still. He then slashed the snake several times with the knife, but the snake still showed no reaction. Finally, he dragged the snake's tail and slammed it on the ground, but the snake remained lifeless. Indeed, the snake was dead, completely dead!

Tang Xiaojiu threw away the black knife and the snake, looked around, and ran around the open space, but saw no sign of the snake demon, only the strange black knife and the dead snake. When he returned to the dead snake, he suddenly slapped his head, cursing himself for being a fool. This was clearly the body of the snake demon! The demon had truly died and had returned to its original form, just as the ascetic monk had said.

The original form of the snake demon was this strange snake with a fleshy crest on its head, something Tang Xiaojiu had never seen before. He looked at the dead snake, remembering how it had spoken to him, marveling at the fact that a snake could transform into a human.

Wait! The snake demon had died here, but the voice that spoke to him had said it was not the snake demon, but a spirit temporarily inhabiting the snake's body. If that was true, the death of the snake demon did not mean the death of the spirit.

Could the unknown spirit have abandoned the snake demon's body before it died, leaving the snake demon to die? Yes, it must have been the golden light. The golden light that had entered the snake demon's body and then left it, causing the snake demon to die, had entered Tang Xiaojiu's head.

Thinking about this, Tang Xiaojiu looked around. In the deep night, the moonlight and the cold wind made him shiver. The darkness around him, the insects chirping in the grass, and the desolate mountain made him feel uneasy. He remembered all the ghost stories he had heard, even the ones he had made up to scare Lu Zheng, and his heart raced.

But no matter what, he had survived, a stroke of luck amidst misfortune! And since he was alive, it proved that the spirit that had entered his head was dead.

Tang Xiaojiu picked up the black knife, sat down, and breathed a sigh of relief. "Damn it, I don't know if my ancestors were splashed with dog blood or if Lu Zheng's ancestors were dug up by rats, but I sure had a stroke of luck! Lu Zheng, Lu Zheng, I didn't expect you to die so quickly, without even saying goodbye to Brother Jiu. How could you die like that! Brother Jiu didn't let you die, how could you die... It's all the fault of that damned monk, why didn't he come earlier, sniff, sniff..."

As he cursed, he thought of Lu Zheng and began to cry. After crying for a while, he remembered that it was all the fault of the damned snake demon, and his anger flared up. He wanted to stand up and chop the snake to pieces with the black knife, but his legs felt like cotton, and he couldn't get up.

However, there was no rush to avenge the snake demon. The dead snake wouldn't run away, so he decided to rest and regain his strength first. Tang Xiaojiu lay down on the ground, muttering curses at the snake demon and the unknown spirit.

As he cursed, he thought about how he had survived, and a sense of pride and joy welled up inside him. He took deep breaths, his chest heaving, and then laughed, the laughter growing louder and louder until he leaped up, laughing wildly. At that moment, he felt a surge of courage, feeling that the world was vast and there was nowhere he couldn't go, nothing he couldn't do.

Suddenly, a somewhat impatient voice said, "Aren't you afraid of attracting wolves?"

Tang Xiaojiu's smile froze on his face! He recognized the voice as the one that had claimed to control him. He jumped up from the snake's corpse, almost twisting his ankle as he landed. The snake, however, remained motionless, showing no signs of life. He looked around carefully, but the snake still did not move.

Was it just an illusion? He tiptoed towards the snake's corpse, moving as quietly as possible, afraid that even the slightest sound would wake the snake and bring it back to life.

The voice said again, "What are you doing, acting like a thief in the wilderness?" The tone was slightly mocking.

Tang Xiaojiu was petrified! The voice was real, not an illusion, but more terrifyingly, it was coming from inside his body, or more precisely, from his mind. Tang Xiaojiu's movements froze, and he swallowed a large mouthful of saliva. He realized that the spirit had succeeded!

It was inside his body!

The spirit was inside his body, but he was still there, his consciousness intact. Tang Xiaojiu calmed down, realizing he had not been erased. He spoke to his stomach, "Hey, are you in my body?"

Sure enough, the voice lazily replied, "To be precise, I'm residing in your mud丸 palace! This transfer of hosts has drained all my power, and I was resting when your crazy screaming woke me up!"

Tang Xiaojiu's hair stood on end as he felt his body again, the presence of another person inside him was truly terrifying. He didn't know that Lu Zheng was also experiencing something similar, with the ascetic monk using his mind-reading powers, making Lu Zheng hear the monk's voice, though it was less terrifying than what Tang Xiaojiu was experiencing.

After feeling his body for a while, Tang Xiaojiu calmed down and frowned, "Hey, you said you would erase my consciousness, so why am I still here? What is the mud丸 palace? Who are you?"

The longer he conversed with the voice, the more he felt something was off. The voice was always vague and evasive, making it impossible to guess its intentions, even its tone and habits gave no clue about its nature or age, only a vague claim of "a few hundred years," suggesting it had lived for a long time, but Tang Xiaojiu didn't believe it, as the voice lacked the tone of an elder.

The voice said impatiently, "You're asking so many questions at once, which one should I answer first?"

Tang Xiaojiu thought for a moment and spoke to his stomach again, "Answer the last question, who are you?"

The voice suddenly laughed, "Hey, I'm in your mud丸 palace, why are you always talking to your stomach! If you want to know who I am, do you think I don't need to answer your other questions?"

Tang Xiaojiu rolled his eyes, "I don't know where the mud丸 palace is, I only know that children are in the stomach. But since I'm still alive, even if I don't know why, it doesn't matter. As for what the mud丸 palace is, I believe you'll tell me eventually. You need me to help you, so you'll have to teach me various things. I'm not too smart, but I'm not too dumb either. I know my limits, and even if you think I can do something, I won't be able to. So, just answer my last question!"

The voice praised, "Tang Xiaojiu, I actually admire you now. At such a young age, you see things clearly and have self-awareness, knowing your place and what to do. That's not just being smart, that's wisdom!"

Tang Xiaojiu didn't expect such direct praise and, unsure of the spirit's intentions, sneered, "So, you're praising me now because you can't kill me and have to listen to me from now on, so you're trying to build a good relationship with me!"

The voice laughed, "Is that so?" As it spoke, Tang Xiaojiu suddenly felt his left hand move, and it quickly grabbed his throat with incredible strength, far beyond what he could normally exert, let alone on himself.