Qin Ming climbed to a high slope near where he'd stashed his armor and weapons, and crouched behind a tree so thick several people could barely circle it.
The band came for the Blood Bamboo Grove, sure enough. Eleven of them, agile, moving like wind. In moments they were outside the valley.
In the brief surge of earth-light, Qin Ming saw them clearly. All able-bodied young men, every one sheathed in gleaming armor, each clutching a long blade whose cold light cut the gloom.
Their coordination was seamless — in full motion they kept perfect step; at the valley mouth even their sword-grips matched.
"Mountain patrol," Qin Ming identified them. They wore standard patrol armor, like Feng Yi'an and Shao Chengfeng. The difference: these came armed with swords. A deliberate choice — long blades suited snakes, beating the standard iron spears.
The earth-light faded. In the dim mouth the group set down bundles of jars and set to mixing something.
An experienced lot, Qin Ming thought. Maybe they really could wipe out this nest.
Soon another figure came running down through the woods. Catching his breath he said: "Fu Entao, Feng Yi'an — none are at the outpost. Stranger still, the cabins on the ridge have vanished."
The others traded startled looks. "Weren't they about to move on the grove? Where'd they skulk off to — surely not wiped out by a mountain beast? With Redcloud City's nobles and the big organizations pouring in, Fu Entao's gang isn't going to step on an iron plate, is it?"
The leader carried real authority. "Drop it for now. I'd have worried slipping into Fu Entao's turf, afraid they'd fight to the death. One less hidden threat is better."
"Even heaven sides with us!" said a patrolman.
The leader, Liu Huaishan, built like a brown bear, spoke low: "Say it again — if anything goes wrong, scatter, each man saving himself. Don't hesitate."
The others were here for their own Second New Life; Liu Huaishan, for his eldest son's. No one else would wager his life.
They slipped into the valley and stopped. Per the arrangement, Liu Huaishan, the strongest, walked forward alone.
He was a Second New Lifer, steady and dependable. From far out he lit the contents of some jars, raising thick yellow smoke, and hurled everything at the fire spring. The rest held medicinal powder and liquid, tossed with precision into the dim red halo.
The instant he finished he fell back, opening plenty of distance. The patrolmen, anxious, retreated nearly to the valley mouth.
At the fire spring dense smoke churned amid great commotion. First a dozen small snakes, several feet long, shot out and slithered about — scouting. Then two great snakes, four meters long, vaulted out, bodies glowing fierce red. When they crossed paths they rang like clashing steel, their scales forged of red gold.
They rushed the valley mouth full tilt, even leaving the ground mid-rush, like bloody lances splitting the air, hissing in menace. They were enraged.
The patrolmen wanted to curse. Two great snakes? That exceeded every expectation.
Liu Huaishan roared: "Go! Snake-powder and stinging smoke are useless against these!"
No reminder needed. Seasoned mountain men read a lost cause and fled.
Liu Huaishan, a Second New Lifer, was fastest. Though he'd started last, his powerful legs soon passed several men.
One great snake chased out a short way, paused on a big gray boulder, then launched in a sudden burst — a streak of raw red, flying in with a hint of thunder.
Crack!
The last patrolman was struck as if by a four-meter bloody lance. Two layers of armor shattered; the snake's head, hard as refined gold, punched through.
He was a veteran, well-prepared. At the small of his back rode a thick iron plate, which in that critical moment held the snake at bay. Yet the plate buckled, the force so great he lost his footing and fell into the snow.
The four-meter Blood Snake struck like lightning and wrapped around him. No ordinary snake — not even bigger ones — could bind a New Lifer. But this patrolman was screaming.
The Blood Snake squeezed with savage force, scales ringing; the man's armor burst apart in a flash, bone after bone snapping. It bit his face — and the flesh there simply dissolved.
He died on the spot.
In that brief stretch the Blood Snake had shown every horror: a body hard as iron, monstrous strength, brief flight like an iron arrow, and a poison beyond remedy. Any one was lethal.
The other great snake had already vaulted from the valley into the woods. A second patrolman was caught; a hoarse scream came from there.
When a fourth man was seized, Liu Huaishan appeared out of nowhere, both hands on a sharp long blade, slashing at the serpent.
The full-strength cut of a Second New Lifer. The snow-bright blade swept through; part of the red-gold scales shattered, split by that terrifying blow — a wound, not very deep, welling blood.
Frightening, that. Any other second-variant creature, or a Second New Lifed human, would have been severed in two. Liu Huaishan kept hacking, but never hit the same place; the snake dodged, only taking fresh wounds.
Stung by pain, it released the dying man and hurled itself at him in a frenzy. Its hissing called the other great snake from nearby.
Liu Huaishan sighed. Abandoning the wounded serpent, he charged into the woods without looking back. He'd seized the best opening and still cut down nothing. He had no choice but to run.
The two great snakes refused to let go and chased him together. But the wounded one slowed; open wounds made it uneasy in the frozen waste. It stopped, hissed, then slid back toward the valley.
Qin Ming wore four layers of armor, and this time had masked his face too, only his eyes showing. He stood on the slope by the valley mouth, waiting in silence.
Before him in the snow stood several iron spears thrust upright, and a long blade. The long-handled black-gold hammer rode his back.
In a moment he saw a four-meter Blood Snake returning, already wounded — three patches of its body missing scales. It still glowed clear red but was plainly listless, slower than before.
As it neared the valley Qin Ming wrenched an iron spear from the ground, drew a breath, and hurled it at the snake with everything he had. Then a second, wrenched from the snow...
The Blood Snake grew utterly furious. The spears came at appalling speed; two shattered more scales, tearing wounds graver than the sword cuts.
It shot up a tall tree, then launched down in a blur — a dazzling streak of red splitting the darkness, plunging to spear through flesh.
Qin Ming had meant to draw his blade, but he changed his mind. He gripped the black-gold hammer and smashed it out to meet the head.
The Blood Snake shot in like a rainbow piercing the sun. But it struck not flesh — it slammed into the heavy hammer.
Dong. A grating metallic clash, sparks flying. The four-meter snake crashed down, its bolt-straight body curling, thrashing in the snow.
For any small snake Qin Ming wouldn't have used the hammer — they were slippery, ill-suited to bludgeoning. But a great snake diving in like this, with startling force — he'd have been a fool to refuse.
The red serpent took a mortal blow. Its head crushed, caved in, bone cracked — yet it hadn't died.
Qin Ming snatched up the long blade and rushed in close, unleashing his strongest cuts. In a storm of ringing — ktang, ktang — the red scales peeled away, and a snake's head was severed.
"This is the 'provisions' that can bring me a quick Second New Life." A ripple of excitement. To take down a spiritual creature like this.
"Hiss — hiss!"
Near the valley mouth crouched several smaller Blood Snakes, three to seven feet long. They all slithered over; some vaulted into the air, shooting like iron arrows.
Qin Ming swept the sharp blade again and again. Full strength, one cut per kill — six more corpses joined the snow.
He pulled out an animal-hide pouch and began collecting his spoils.
Suddenly a warning prickled through him. He sidestepped fast; an iron arrow tore in at terrifying speed, vanishing into the spot he'd just left. Two more grazed his armor, sparking, before slamming into a nearby tree.
Qin Ming stood blade in hand, staring at the figures nearby. "People really do differ. We both wait here — I cut down snakes, while you cut down people."