Chapter 103
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 103
Chapter Title: Black Python (1)
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: : I don't know what words you heard that brought you here... but it's all pointless. I won't bend my will. So if you're here to persuade me, get lost. Otherwise, make it quick and painless for me. : :
The Black Python hurled an expulsion order at me right from the start.
But I didn't bravely step into this poison-choked nightmare just to hear that.
...Well, honestly, with my Immunity to All Poisons, I didn't really need much courage.
Still, facing a snake head bigger than a person, hissing away, took at least a little guts, didn't it?
But there was something slightly off about the nuance.
"Your unworthy disciple Geum Sihyeon pays respects to the Divine Beast Black Python. ...But how exactly am I supposed to put you at ease, O Divine Beast?"
At my words, the snake's mouth corners drooped subtly.
: : Ever since that day, I've had only one wish. Since I can no longer shed my skin and soar to the heavens, to be buried in the earth alongside it... It's just regrettable that I can't even manage that. : :
In that voice thick with gloom,
I instantly grasped the truth of the incident.
The Black Python's following words filled in the details perfectly.
: : I have neither the right nor the will to keep living. Having failed to ascend, and as the monstrous evil that harmed countless people who trusted and followed me, how could I even speak of life? So if you're here with outdated nonsense about persuasion, turn back. Better to spend that time tending a bit more to the Myo Flower Grove—that would be the true path to merit. : :
I tweaked the causal chain a little.
It wasn't that he'd turned dark and rampaged in a fit of rage.
He simply couldn't control his surging power and had ended up coiled here.
But one question lingered.
"If I may be so bold, couldn't you just end it yourself?"
A irreverent doubt crept in—was this a mentally unstable snake, perhaps?
To my foolish question, the Black Python sighed and lifted his chest, revealing a dark crimson orb embedded there like a jewel.
: : This was the jewel that should have become my Ruyi Pearl. As long as it remains unbroken, I cannot die. But to discard the merits I've accumulated all this time would go against the natural order... that's why I'm longing for death. : :
It was too murky to call a proper Ruyi Pearl, and no matter how I looked at it, this seemed the source of the rampant poison around us.
If I just neatly sliced it off here and brewed some snake liquor, it might turn this Southern Barbaric Beast Palace into a utilitarian paradise where everyone wins.
...But the one who'd specifically asked me to persuade him
must have been the Myo Flower Grove's desire to forgive the Black Python, even after losing her lifelong home and beloved people.
I couldn't even empathize with such sentiments as an ordinary mortal, but a request was a request.
"Ugh."
I plopped down on the ground with a thud and shook the pooled poison off my butt.
: : ...? What are you doing? : :
"You have to hear the whole story. Who knows? If I learn the full extent of your misdeeds, I might just want to smash that orb myself."
To my wildly arrogant words,
: : ...That girl Narang really has no eye for people. : :
"What's that supposed to mean? There's no one as good-hearted as me."
True to form for a snake, he immediately bared his venomous fangs with a personal attack, so I fired back.
Anyway.
He clearly wasn't some mad lizard gleefully slaughtering people on purpose.
: : Hah, I've lived a thousand years, but a lunatic like you is a first. : :
Surprisingly, the Black Python readily accepted my conversation request.
And then he calmly began unraveling the tale from long ago.
How he'd come to the Beast Palace, how he'd settled there, his exchanges with the palace disciples, his story with the Myo Flower Grove...
: : Yes. That day was a full moon night, just like tonight... : :
The Black Python fell silent for a while, then continued with a hissing voice laced with refined anger.
: : There was an interloper. And not one of the Beast Palace disciples—it was a complete stranger I'd never seen before. : :
The rest matched my deductions almost exactly.
The only difference?
: : Not content with merely obstructing my ascension, I don't know what trick they used, but they even bound my soul and this Ruyi Pearl. So I lost my reason and rampaged in madness, and when I came to my senses... everything the Myo Flower Grove had nurtured was already in ruins. : :
A third party had intervened.
I couldn't explain why,
but my instincts screamed that the Blood Cult was involved.
In the Central Plains martial world, whenever something shady happened, naming those three groups gave you a 1/3 hit rate.
Azure Heaven Society, Blood Cult.
And the irredeemable scum among the unorthodox sects.
As for the third bunch,
borrowing Chick Master’s wisdom, the Waterway Village fit the bill perfectly.
Fee-based roads my ass—they were the types who enjoyed ripping people apart, fleeing the Green Forest Bandits to hole up in Waterway Village. Not wrong at all.
: : So, now do you feel like cutting my tiresome lifeline? I'm no longer fit to live as either divine beast or human... : :
"If I may offer a word, presumptuous as it is."
: : What's with the sudden formal speech? It's creepy. : :
I didn't particularly want to hear "creepy" from a snake.
"What do you think makes a person die, O Black Python?"
: : I could sink my fangs into your neck right now and show you. : :
I brushed off the threat—which carried no real killing intent—with a light snort and pulled out Geum Sihyeon=Poem Anthology Vol. 2 from my mind, flipping it open.
"A person dies when forgotten by all. ...And why should that be unique to humans? If you were to meet your end here, O Black Python, how do you think the Myo Flower Grove—or even little old me and Narang—would feel? It would hurt, deeply. Even after all these years, she hasn't let go because she doesn't want to bid you farewell."
: : .... : :
"Then, I'll take my leave for today. See you tomorrow."
The key to persuasion is not to get greedy all at once.
Dragging a suicidal, mentally fragile shut-in out of their room was never easy.
After that.
For a full week, I visited the Black Python every day, singing the praises of humanity.
- The important thing is an unyielding spirit. Even with the pain of the past, stepping beyond it is what makes one superhuman.
: : ...How could I ever wash away the past? : :
At first, the reactions were somewhat negative.
- Yes, your current delusion is like a mirror flower, water moon—turning from reality to chase empty ideals. Clinging only to ideals leads to drowning; you can't escape it.
: : Turning from reality... : :
But bit by bit, changes began to appear in his responses.
- Humans learn more from failure than from success or victory. O Black Python, though you've failed now, you're at a crossroads where you can move forward.
: : Failure... Yes, I failed... : :
Sometimes I'd toss in trauma-triggering keywords to nudge his mental fragility gauge up by +1.
- There's a saying in the world: 'And yet, we live on.' It's a famous quote from someone who overcame a horrific body-swap overnight. You too can shed your skin and rise again, O Black Python. Yes, like Skinny...
: : Who's Skinny? Not a woman, I hope? : :
I'd pull the wrong material and elicit some odd reactions.
- Lessons without pain hold no meaning. No being gains anything without sacrifice. But confronting and surpassing that pain grants a resilient mind unbeatable by anything. Yes, a mind like steel...
: : A mind like steel... Could I get another chance... : :
Little by little, I succeeded in breaking down his mental barriers.
Steel unions are divine, and alchemists are invincible, after all.
As they say, sincerity moves heaven and earth.
"Geum Sihyeon...! The poison... the poison is fading...! Incredible! As expected of you, Geum Sihyeon!"
Darami wagged her tail furiously, chittering praises for my feat.
...Strictly speaking, I'd just ladled some from the great authors' quotes and repackaged them as Geum Sihyeon=Poem.
Knowledge depends on how you use it, after all.
"Heh heh. Now do you see my greatness?"
"Saying it like that makes you annoying!"
Maybe because I'd seen her chittering so much at the academy.
She didn't feel divine at all, so I flicked her forehead with a knuckle rap.
"Kyaaang!"
Darami immediately teared up, clutching her head.
This... was a divine beast?
: : So, what nonsense are you here to spout today? : :
Snake psychotherapy: one week in, Day Seven.
Compared to the start, with the poison now half as thick, the Black Python flicked his tongue in greeting.
His will to live seemed much stronger; a spark of vitality now gleamed in pupils that had once been utterly clouded.