novelhk Chapter 8 Snake meat and human flesh are not the same.
Chapter 8 Snake meat and human flesh are not the same.
“We thought all of this would be forgotten with the passage of time, but one day a month later, someone in the village grew snake scales on his body. At first, we just thought he had contracted a strange disease, but who would have thought that his legs turned into snake tails and his whole body turned into a monster with a human head and a snake’s body.”
Fear began to surface in the old village chief's eyes: "Everyone was scared. There was no other way but to kill him while he was asleep."
However, this wasn't an isolated incident; more and more villagers began developing snake scales, causing widespread panic. Just then, a Taoist priest passed through the village. After some calculation, the priest determined that the villagers' illnesses were a curse from a snake demon. Anyone who had eaten snake meat would develop snake scales and eventually transform into a monstrous creature, neither human nor demon.
The villagers knelt down and begged the Taoist priest to save them. The priest calculated that the snake demon's soul was not destroyed, and asked the old village chief to lead him to dig out the buried snake demon's head. Because the snake head looked very much like a human head, no one dared to eat it, so it was buried underground. Two months later, it was dug out and there was not a trace of decay.
The Taoist priest sealed the snake's head, used clay and the snake's head to reshape the snake demon's golden body, and sealed the snake demon in a stone statue. He then instructed the villagers to enshrine it in the original local temple as the Snake Goddess, and to offer incense to appease the snake demon's anger.
Jiang Lin: "The curse hasn't been lifted? You failed?"
The old man lowered his head, his eyes darting around: "The snake scales on our bodies disappeared, but they grew back after only a few days."
Jiang Lin's eyes flickered slightly. Looking at the old man's guilty expression, he recalled that after the old man killed Jiang Hai, the villagers inexplicably dismembered his snake body. A bold guess formed in his mind.
"No, you succeeded, but you ate snake meat? You even ate the human who first turned into a demon?" Jiang Lin narrowed his eyes.
When the old man realized that his hidden secret had been exposed, he simply told him the truth.
The curse disappeared, but the famine would not end anytime soon. After the Taoist priest left, they continued to live a life of hardship, barely able to feed themselves.
The villagers, on the verge of starvation and with no other choice, began digging up grass roots to eat. Among them, some remembered the first villager who had transformed into a snake.
Since they've already turned into snake demons, and they've even eaten grass and tree bark, why can't they make use of them?
That's meat...
They removed the body, and perhaps because of the snake transformation, the body did not decompose as quickly as it should have, but remained almost identical to its appearance in life.
Everyone remembered the tantalizing taste of snake meat, and their stomachs rumbled again.
No one knows who made the first move, but in an instant everyone swarmed forward.
The horrific corpses in the pit had turned into tempting food, and they eagerly opened their mouths.
The blood moistened his dry lips.
Fill their hungry stomachs with flesh and blood.
Ding Xuehui couldn't believe it, her lips trembling as she said, "He was human. Before he turned into a snake, wasn't he your relative?"
The old man showed no remorse whatsoever, and declared righteously, "That was in the past! You yourself said he turned into a snake, so he's no longer human!"
"We're killing snakes, beasts!"
"You'll know once you try it; snake meat and human flesh are not the same!"
The old man's tone was even slightly reproachful. These outsiders clearly had never been hungry before. How could they know what it felt like to be starving?
Ding Xuehui looked at the boy, trying to find some conscience in his face.
To everyone's surprise, the boy lowered his head and mumbled, "We can't just starve to death, can we?"
Ding Xuehui's chest heaved, her eyes reddening with anger. For a moment, she was speechless. She could only curse inwardly: Madwoman!
Jiang Lin: "How long did it take from when you contracted the disease to when you turned into snakes?"
The old village chief rolled up his sleeves, revealing black scales that had climbed up to his elbows. He shook his head and sighed, "It's hard to say. Everyone is different. The scales on my body have been growing for more than half a year, but you outsiders grow them very quickly."
The boy unconsciously touched his neck; the scabs on his neck were from plucking snake scales.
Wang Zhe felt uneasy under the old man's gaze, realizing something was wrong. He instantly put on a furious expression, gritting his teeth, "Wait a minute, that bowl of... noodles?"
The old man raised his eyelids slightly; his silence was taken as consent.
Not only Guo Yuan ate the noodle soup, but Jiang Hai also ate steamed buns, both of which contained snake meat.
Wang Zhe's face turned green. After muttering a curse, he leaned close to Jiang Lin's ear and reminded him, "Third brother, don't forget the item to clear the level."
Ding Xuehui: "The item for clearing the level must be related to the Snake Fairy."
Jiang Lin looked at Wang Zhe thoughtfully and then fell into thought. He took out his phone again to check the evacuation point time. He recalled that they only had 8 hours to evacuate, and there were only three locations on the map. This meant that the instance was not complicated, and the clues must be hidden in the information they currently knew.
Jiang Hai's head was chopped off by the old village chief because the sacrificial offering mutated, and his body was dismembered, leaving only his head.
Guo Yuan was tricked by the village chief into undergoing mutation and died in the cellar, leaving behind a severed head.
Jiang Lin had a sudden inspiration: "Could it be a snakehead?"
Ding Xuehui slightly opened her beautiful eyes and frowned, saying, "It's possible, but we won't be able to get the snake's head."
Wang Zhe asked in surprise, "Why?"
Ding Xuehui sighed: "Have you forgotten Yang Bin? Destroying the statue would definitely violate the rules of death."
“It’s not that there’s no way.” Jiang Lin shook his head and chuckled. “We can’t do it, but others can.”
He put down the scissors and said to the old man, "Village chief, I think we can talk."
Seeing Jiang Lin's sudden softening attitude, the old man became suspicious: "What do you mean?"
Jiang Lin: "In the end, we pose no threat to your village, and your suffering is not caused by us. But we can help you get rid of the curse on you."
The old village chief looked surprised and asked cautiously, "How can you help us?"
Jiang Lin: "The snake's head was sculpted into the golden statue back then, so strictly speaking, perhaps it didn't completely die. Since offering sacrifices doesn't solve the problem, haven't you considered addressing the root cause?"
Jiang Lin didn't say it explicitly, but the old man understood the meaning behind his words: he wanted them to kill the snake demon again!
The old village chief's face was filled with fear, and his hands trembled as he shook his head resolutely: "No, this is absolutely not allowed!"
Jiang Lin scoffed: "Living like neither a human nor a ghost, isn't that more painful than death!"
The boy bit his lip, his face filled with fear, but a hint of excitement lurked in his eyes: "Grandpa, perhaps..."
Seeing the old man hesitate, Jiang Lin deliberately turned to the boy in front of him and said, "I'm curious, when you cook your own kind, do you ever think that your own relatives will eventually become meat in the pot, end up in someone else's mouth, chewed and swallowed?"
"Could things get any worse by taking a gamble?"
"If I were you, I would seize any chance, even if it meant death!"