Book 1 - What Is A Genius - Chapter 51 - Spirit Beasts

Upon hearing the three words ‘gold-crowned snake’, He Quanming and the two immediately understood why the Lord Master summoned them so urgently and even He laibao had shown up.
In this world, humans stood at the top of the food chain.
Yet many creatures possessed much more strength than humans in addition to certain amounts of wisdom. If ordinary people encountered these creatures, they would certainly die.
Such creatures were collectively known as spirit beasts.
Gold crowned python was a kind of spirit beasts. Although it was not considered strong, even if a tenth layer cultivator encountered it by himself, he would have no choice but to run for his life.
He Quanming sucked in a deep breath and said, “Third brother, your luck is quite good, being able to escape from a fully grown gold crowned python.”
He Quanyi bitterly smiled, “Second brother, you sure know how to poke fun at people. If I had truly encountered an adult gold-crowned python, escaping unscathed would have been as difficult as ascending heavens.”
He Wude faintly nodded and said, “Quanming, third only discovered some crawling impressions deep in the mountains, and he immediately returned back. I and your uncle Bao went to take a look. There is absolutely no mistake.”
He Quanming’s eyes shone. Spirit beasts possessed great strength, capable of easily claiming people’s lives. However, at the same time, if a cultivator managed to kill a spirit beast, it held unimaginable benefits for him.
The worth of a gold-crowned python far exceeded that of the Cheng family’s lost thousand-year blood ginseng.
“Father, what you have in mind?” He Quanming asked, lowering his voice.
He Wude’s face remained calm and composed but his voice contained faint excitement:
“Quanming, as they say: Treasures are to be sought amidst dangers. Since we have discovered that python, we will naturally not miss the opportunity.”
He Quanming swept his vision through the people in the hall and hesitatingly said, “Father, we will go, that’s without question. However, Yitian and the others, they are still small. You see….”
He Wude waved his hand and said, “They are not small anymore and should be involved in family’s affairs. Furthermore, it’s a rare opportunity to fight with a spirit beast. Their Internal Energy is above the sixth layer anyhow. I don’t wish them to lend a hand, but they should, at least, broaden their horizons.”
Not daring to speak again, He Quanming bowed and sounded his agreement.
He Wude stood up and said, “Although gold crowned-python is not a high-level spirit beast, it’s a spirit beast nonetheless. Thus, its strength will be no small matter. We can’t afford a direct confrontation. We will lay a secret trap. If we can seriously injure it, that would be convenient to kill it,” His vision swept through everybody’s faces as he sternly continued, “This matter could only remain with us. It cannot be leaked outside. Otherwise, our clan will certainly attract a disaster.”
Everybody felt a chill inwardly as they promptly sounded their agreements.
Due to a mere thousand-year blood ginseng, Cheng family was almost purged. As such, if the information that He family possessed a spirit beast leaked out, perhaps the entire clan might be exterminated.
Gold crowned-python was inherently fond of roaming in daylight and sleeping at night. In order to lay the trap, He family members decided to rest during the day, and conserve their energy. At night, under the lead of He Wude himself, the group of nine people left for the deep mountain forest.
For this time’s operation, they left the manor stealthily and not a single individual discovered their movements.
They had the whereabouts of the python scouted previously. Thus, this time their journey was smooth.
Upon entering the mountain forest, He Wude brought out a bottled medicine, and everybody sprinkled some of it on their clothes. After sprinkling this medicine, they would be able to avoid the pain of mosquito bites in the forest, and even a spirit’s beast nose would not be able to smell their scent.
Among them, the least cultivation was at least the sixth layer. The path in the forest was although quite craggy, it simply didn’t pose any problem for these people. Following He Wude, they soon arrived before a strange mountainous depression.
He Yiming carefully surveyed it. Sure enough, there was a clear snake hole.
In He Yiming’s opinion, finding a snake hole at the foot of a mountain was not surprising at all. Usually, if the animals in the forest caught the sight of a snake hole, they would usually avoid passing through there.
However, the hole before him was somewhat different than the usual serpent impression. In addition to the wriggling and sliding impressions, one could see faintly glittering traces of golden stool.
He Yiming then knew how his grandfather and third uncle were certain.
After arriving at the mouth of the depression, they nodded to each other. He Quanxin issued a hand sign, and everybody took off the bags they were carrying.
In the bags were three grey wolves and a wild boar.
These were caught by He Quanxin and his two brothers in the forest and were brought to this place alive.
These four animals were extremely fierce. Even inside the bags, they had not been well-behaved for an instant. However, this moment, as they were placed on the snake hole, they simultaneously quietened and began to shiver uncontrollably, totally restraining their threatening manner.
He Quanxin and the rest quickly acted and opened the mouths of the four beasts with their hands and stuffed the already prepared drug into their mouths. Subsequently, they untied their ropes, and using boar’s sharp teeth and one of the wolf’s claws, inflicted life-threatening injury marks on their respective bodies. They waited for them to die a natural death due to excessive blood loss, then left them on the snake hole.
After accomplishing all this, they retreated afar and climbed on big trees.
According to the Lord Master’s instructions, everybody chose a suitable position and began to wait.
Darkness slowly vanished, and the next day’s sun eventually revealed its head in the horizon. As the morning dew diffused, from within the depression came a faint hissing sound.
Everybody involuntarily held their breaths. At the same time, they almost closed their eyes, leaving only a slight opening, as they stealthily looked ahead.
Spirit beasts were not like normal beasts. They possessed much sharper perception. If someone was foolish enough to brazenly look at them, it could be easily perceived by them.
Therefore, He Yiming and the rest restricted their vision as much as possible.
After a short while, a long python eventually came out in everybody’s view.
It was more than ten meters long and as thick as a bucket. It’s appearance was hardly differed than a black python’s. However, a keen observer would be able to make out the fine circular scales growing on its skin. However, these scales seemed extremely ordinary. Thus, the lack of careful observation could easily result in it being overlooked.
The most eye catching was undoubtedly the golden crown on the top of its head.
This crown was somewhat similar to the crown on the head of a chicken. However, compared to a chicken’s crown, this crown was excessively thicker. Moreover, seeing it over a python’s head felt indescribably strange.
However, He Yiming and the rest were well-aware that this golden crown was, in fact, the most important part of this python. Reportedly, its worth was far more compared to a thousand-year blood ginseng.
Slowly sliding, the python soon went past the woods where they were hiding.
However, as it saw the corpses of the wild boar and wolves, it immediately stopped.
Its lateral body immediately moved, and it slowly coiled around the snake hole. Inside its mouth, a flexible tongue was moving in and out indefinitely.
Ordinary pythons don’t have vision. However, as a spirit beast, it couldn’t be evaluated by same standards.
Beneath the golden crown, this python evidently had two small eyes. A cruel and cunning light was flickering in these two eyes. Especially as it watched the corpses, its expression seemed to be becoming increasingly human-like. It seemed to be looking around, as if wondering where did this stuff pop out from.
However, its eyes remained cold and devoid of emotions.
In the woods, all were holding their breaths.
After attaining Internal Energy’s sixth layer, holding one’s breath for a short time period was not a big deal at all.
He Yiming had even trained in Breath Preserving technique. Not to mention a short time period, even if he didn’t breath for several hours, it would not affect him much.
After observing its surroundings for several minutes, as if making sure nothing strange was happening, the gold-crowned python eventually relaxed, and slowly unfolded itself.
Subsequently, it unhurriedly approached the corpses.
If these corpses had been its prey, its movements perhaps would have been as fast as lightning. However, while facing the corpses which had delivered themselves on its doorstep, it was instead quite cautious and meticulous.
Such a creature was indeed quite intelligent and couldn’t be compared to the ordinary beasts in the forest.
He Yiming felt that it was on a completely different level than even a fox bear.
However, even though these creatures had wisdom, it was far below that of humans. Since this gold-crowned python didn’t sense any danger in its vicinity, it immediately relaxed its guard and opened its mouth.
Its mouth was boneless, and it seemed as if it could expand boundlessly.
Soon after, one of the grey-wolves was already half swallowed by it. It was exceedingly strong. Although its mouth did not have any teeths, during the process of swallowing, even the bones of the wolf were crushed.
After swallowing one wolf, the gold-crowned python was apparently not satisfied as it shifted his vision to one of the other wolf corpse.