Forbidden Read!
Chapter 21 (part 2)

"Stop talking, Tian Shen." The old man calmed the young man down, afraid that he would anger the other party.

The young man had thick eyebrows and big eyes, the face of a tiger. But he immediately kept his mouth shut as the older man spoke. Xie Lian put down her hand, her ears no longer rang, and smiled brightly to calm the atmosphere. "All this is just a misunderstanding. Let's just relax and not panic."

He paused for a moment before explaining.

"We are not Ban Yue soldiers. This servant was only a cultivator from a small temple. They are. people from my temple. We only know small tricks, nothing great. You guys are ordinary merchants, and we are ordinary cultivators with no evil intentions. It just so happens that we all enter the same shelter to hide from the same sandstorm."

Xie Lian's voice was friendly and gentle, each word was spoken slowly to calm everyone's nerves. After many explanations and reassurances, everyone finally felt relaxed.

Suddenly, San Lang laughed, "I think they are too humble. The merchant was not as simple as they said."

No one understood what he meant and looked at him confusedly, "Didn't at least half of your entourage have disappeared while passing through the BanYue Pass? To pass through this land when you know that rumor, surely you are all very brave. There's nothing ordinary about you guys."

"That's not all true, young man." replied old man Zheng. "Some merchant entourage had made it through without anyone getting any danger before!"

"Oh, really?" San Lang muttered.

"As long as you find the right guide when going around the BanYue area then everything will be fine. So, this time we specifically found a local person to guide us," said old man Zheng.

"Yes!" The young man, Tian Shen spoke, "It all depends on the guide! We owe everything to A-Zhao! If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have been able to avoid all of that quicksand. When the sandstorm came, he knew exactly where to take us to hide, otherwise we would have been buried alive in the sand by now!"

Xie Lian glanced at him; A-Zhao, this person guiding them looking quite young, seemed to be in his twenties with a clean and respectable face. When he was praised by the other two, he did not show it, only frowning, "It's nothing. Just doing my job. Hopefully when the storm subsides there are no camels or damaged goods."

"All will be well!"

The traders were all very optimistic, but Xie Lian had a feeling that things were not as simple as they all thought.

If all problems could be avoided by not passing through the BanYue territory, then would all the previous entourage, who had lost their lives, be because they did not believe in the rumors? One or two groups would not be strange, but after having a historical example, how could people then make the same mistake?

Xie Lian thought about it and said to Nan Feng and Fu Yao in a soft voice, "This is too sudden. After this storm subsides, we have to make sure these people pass safely before going to the BanYue ruins."

Without hearing the opinions of the two junior officials, Xie Lian then went back to decipher BanYue's writing on the slate. He recognized the word 'General' earlier, but that was because the word was often used. It had been two hundred years since he last visited the BanYue kingdom. Even if he was fluent in Ban Yue at that moment, everything he had already forgotten. To suddenly take the burden of translation really takes time and patience. Just then, San Lang said, "Tomb General."

Xie Lian remembered now. The last character is the word for 'Tomb', 'Cemetery', "Cemetery', and other synonyms. He looked at the boy, "San Lang, do you understand Ban Yue's language as well?"

San Lang smiled, "Not much. I only know a few words because they're interesting."

Xie Lian was used to hearing him say that. The word 'tomb' is not so often used; if San Lang really only knew 'not much', how could he possibly know exactly what that one character meant? 'His 'Not much' meant 'don't discuss it anymore', and Xie Lian took the opportunity. "Excellent! Maybe the characters you recognize are the ones I don't know. Come closer and let's check together."

Xie Lian waved at San Lang to get closer, and the boy complied. Nan Feng and Fu Yao stood next to them, lighting up the slate for them to read with fire. Xie Lian touched softly with her finger, reviewed the writing with San Lang in a soft voice, and read the words softly. The more they read, the more they looked amazed, before gradually becoming more moody. The merchant boy Tian Shen was young, and young people tended to be curious. After a slight quarrel earlier, as if they had become familiar, he exclaimed, "Gege, what is written on the stone?"

Xie Lian regained her senses and replied, "This writing stone is a memorial stone, which tells the story of a general's life."

"A general of BanYue?" Tian Shen asked.

"No, general of the Central Plains." replied San Lang.

"General of the central plain?" Nan Feng asked, "Why did the BanYue people build a memorial stone for the Central Plains general? I think the two kingdoms are constantly at war with each other?"

"This general is special" replied San Lang. "Although the memorial stone calls him a general, he is actually nothing more than a captain."

"But, he later rose to the rank of general?

"No. At first, he led hundreds of troops, before being reduced to seventy, and then fifty."

"..."

"In other words, repeated demotion."

The feeling was lowered to the point he was nothing, quite familiar to Xie Lian, and he could feel many pairs of eyes pointing at him. He pretended not to notice and continued to decipher BanYue's writings there.

Tian Shen could not understand and asked, "What kind of official has been passed down so many times like that? As long as he didn't make a big mistake, there should only be a delay in the promotion, not a demotion? What kind of failure should he be?"

"..."

Xie Lian clenched her right hand and raised it to her lips, before she cleared her throat softly and replied in a serious tone, "Young man, receiving repeated drops is not as rare as you think."

"Huh?"

San Lang chuckled, "That's right. It happens often." He paused for a moment before continuing, "This captain was demoted many times not because he was unable and incompetent to serve, but because despite the bad relationship on both sides, he was not able to, instead of winning the battle on the battlefield, he continued to be a hindrance."

"What do you mean, 'being a hindrance'?" asked Nan Feng.

"He prevented his enemies from killing the inhabitants of the Highlands, and forbade his own troops to kill the people of Ban Yue. Every time he did that, his rank would be lowered."

San Lang spoke lightly, and seven to eight merchants sat closer to him like they were listening to a fairy tale. Soon they got into the conversation and started commenting.

"I don't think the captain made a mistake!" Tian Shen said, "It shouldn't be a problem to let soldiers kill each other, but don't kill ordinary citizens, right?"

"He was too soft-hearted for a soldier, but overall, he didn't commit any crimes?"

"Yes, he saved people's lives, not killed people!"

Xie Lian smiled hearing all those comments.

The merchants before them had never lived a single day on the battle-stricken border, and were not people from two hundred years ago. The BanYue Kingdom had long since perished. It was easy for them to say this, criticize it, even praise it, but the actions of the captain were not so easy to forgive back then, it was not as simple as 'He was only soft-hearted.'

A-Zhao, as a local in the merchant group, understood better, "Now is now, two hundred years ago was two hundred years ago. The hatred between the two kingdoms was inconceivable at that moment, so deep and heavy. Just receiving a demotion was already a blessing to that captain."

However Fu Yao, clicked her tongue. "Darken."

Xie Lian could guess what she was going to say, and rubbed her forehead. As he expected, Fu Yao looked somewhat troubled under the flickering flames. "Someone must perform the task as requested by their position. If he was a soldier, then he should always remember to defend his kingdom, and kill enemies on the front lines. The fall of the victim is inevitable in war. There was no place for a soft heart, as it would only burden his fellow soldiers. His enemies would consider him stupid. In the end, no one will thank him."

Fu Yao's words had an undeniable logic, and silence immediately filled the cave. He continued plainly, "People like that will only have one final―death. He will die in battle or in the hands of his own people."

Xie Lian broke the silence after a momentary pause, "You are absolutely right. He died in battle."

"How did he die?" tian Shen Demand.

Xie Lian swallowed his words and slowly replied, "Here it is written that at the time of his last battle, his carelessness appeared, his shoelaces came off and he stepped on them, then tripped..."

Everyone thought his death would be tragic but full of heroic impressions, so when they heard that, everyone was shocked once again. Then suddenly, they couldn't help it and started laughing together, "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Is that funny?" San Lang raised his eyebrows.

Xie Lian coughed, "Yes, that was rather tragic. Let's be more sympathetic and not laugh so hard. Anyway, we're at his grave, don't embarrass him."

"I don't mean to be evil by laughing!" Tian Shen immediately claimed, "But his death was..."

Xie Lian could do nothing. Reading the writing on the tombstone up to this point, even he also wanted to laugh, so he did not comment and continued translating.

"After all, even though this captain did not have a good reputation among his troops, the citizens who were at the border were all very grateful for his efforts and called him 'General', and built this memorial stone for him."

"Furthermore, the BanYue people discovered another miracle about this memorial stone: that as long as one prostrated himself before this slate three times, they could turn any danger they encountered in the Gobi desert into luck." San Lang completed the translation.

His tone was mysterious and meaningful, very convincing. His facial expression was also solemn, so that when the merchant group heard him, some of them immediately bowed down, believing him. However, Xie Lian looked at him confusedly, "What―? Is it written here? What's that magic?"

San Lang smiled faintly, and whispered to her, "No. I'm just making it up. But since they had laughed at him before, their prostration should have paid for it."

Xie Lian looked back at the slate and saw that it was indeed the end of the sentence and there were no other words. At first he felt a bit sad, but now he felt that it was funny, and whispered, "Why are you so naughty?"

San Lang stuck out his tongue, and the two chuckled softly.

Just then, someone shouted, "WHAT IS THIS???"

The shout echoed in the cave, resounding sharply on the wall, causing all the hairs to stand up. Xie Lian immediately turned towards the origin of the shout and asked, "What happened?"

At the place where the previous merchants were sitting, everyone moved from his place in an instant, rushing away in fear and vigilance.

"GRAO!"

Nan Feng and Fu Yao moved their palms towards the commotion and illuminated the place. Cowering on the sandy ground was a slender, brightly colored snake!

"Why is there a snake?!" The crowd was getting more anxious.

"Why...why doesn't this snake make a sound when it creeps out?"

He brought the snake closer to observe him and said, "Isn't there normal snakes in the desert?"

This unscrupulous and courageous person was of course San Lang. They said, to fight with the snake, take where the heart is, and if pressed hard enough, no matter how venomous the fangs are, the snake would be powerless. The snake weakly wrapped its long tail around San Lang's left arm, and within a closer distance Xie Lian could clearly see that the snake had translucent skin, its fiery red interior was mixed with visible black threads, resembling an internal organ and somewhat disgusting. The tail was flesh-colored, segmented like a layer of hard shell, not like a snake tail but like a scorpion.

Seeing that, Xie Lian's face changed, and exclaimed, "Be careful with the tail!"

Before Xie Lian finished her sentence, the long snake body wrapped around San Lang's left arm suddenly broke away, the tip of its tail piercing backwards, trying to ruthlessly stab San Lang.

Poisonous as the snake's tail, San Lang's right hand moved faster, and easily caught its tail. Now, holding his head and tail, San Lang showed the snake to Xie Lian as if it were an interesting toy, and smiled, "This bike is really cool."

At the end of the tail grew a long red flesh like a needle, and Xie Lian heaved a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you weren't stabbed. It looks like this is a scorpion snake."

Nan Feng and Fu Yao came to observe the snake as well, "Snake scorpion?"

"That's right" said Xie Lian. "It was a rare poisonous animal that was only found in Ban Yue, the number was quite rare. I've never seen them before but I've heard of them. The body of the snake, the tail of the scorpion, the venom is a combination of the two, and if bitten or pierced..."

Xie Lian was speechless to see San Lang twisting the snake, pulling and squeezing it like a towel, before stopping after tying it to form a knot. Xie Lian was silent for a moment. "San Lang, stop messing around with that poor snake, it's dangerous."

San Lang laughed, "Don't worry, gege, it's okay. The scorpion snake is the symbol of the Chief Priest BanYue, we should take this rare opportunity to examine it!"

"The Chief Reverend BanYue Symbol?" Xie Lian asked in admiration.

"That's right." Said San Lang. "The coup was because the Chief Priest used to be able to control this scorpion snake so the BanYue people believed in its power and became its followers."

Hearing the word 'control' brought a warning to Xie Lian. When it's about 'controlling', whatever it is, they usually come in large numbers.

"Everybody, leave this cave! There may be more than one scorpion..."

"YESHH!!!" A voice shouted before Xie Lian finished her words.

"GRAO!" Other voices began to shout, "So many snakes!!!"

"Here too!"

From within the shadows, seven or eight soundless scorpion snakes crept into the cave. They came so quickly and silently from unknown crevices but they did not attack anyone, just watching, judging. Without a sound in movement and attack, there was not even a hiss from their tongues. Nan Feng and Fu Yao released two fireballs and shot them towards the snakes, blowing up the inside of the cave.

"Get out!" Shouted Xie Lian.

No one needed to be told twice, everyone ran out. Fortunately it was still bright and the wind*****pair is long gone, the storm has subsided. Their group fled to the open ground and continued running.

As they ran, someone said: "The warning stone is too scary! How is it that after we kneel three times, we still meet something like that?"

Xue Lian was grateful because they did not know that the last sentence was made up by San Lang. But, then he heard someone else say: "Yes! The effect was the same as worshipping that God of Trash! The more you pray, the more you'll get unlucky!"

"..."

In a place where there were even rare sticks, he was still pierced by arrows. Xie Lian was speechless.

Suddenly, Tian Sheng shouted, "UNCLE ZHENG!"

The old man he supported fell down!

Xie Lian sped up, "What happened?"

Pain filled old man Zheng's face, and he raised his trembling hand. Xie Lian grabbed the man's hand and frowned, noticing the furious swelling that was developing and spreading rapidly in his palm. Inside the red and purple swelling were two small, almost invisible punctures. Such a small wound would not be visible before it was too late.

"Everyone, check and see if you have any wounds on your body!" Xie Lian immediately shouted, "If there is, use a rope to tie it!"

Xie Lian turned her hand to examine it further, and saw that the red and purple swelling was climbing through the arm vein. He was just about to release Ruoye when next to her A-Zhao tore a piece of cloth from his own clothes and immediately tied it tightly to the old man's biceps to prevent the poison from spreading. Xie Lian was amazed by his speed. He looked up and Nan Feng wordlessly took out a medicine bottle and took out a pill for the old man to swallow.

"Uncle! Are you all right?" Tian Shen shouted, "A-Zhao-ge, uncle won't die, right?"

A-Zhao shook his head, "Bite to a scorpion snake means death within four hours."

Tian Shen was shaken, "Then...what should we do??"

Old man Zheng was the leader of the merchant entourage, and the other merchant became agitated, "This friend just gave him a pill, right?"

"That's not an antidote to poison," said Nan Feng, "That pill is to prolong life for a while. The longest he can give is 24 hours."

The crowd became even more depressed, "Just 24 hours?"

"Does that mean we can just sit here and wait for death?"

"Wouldn't anyone save her from that?"

At that moment, San Lang stepped slowly, "There's a way."

Everyone turned to look at him. "A-Zhao-ge, if there's a way why don't you say it?" Tian Shen asked happily. But A-Zhou was still silent, and made no sound, shaking his head.

"Of course it wasn't easy for him to say that" San Lang said, "How could he possibly tell you that a bitten person could only be saved at the expense of the lives of others?"

"San Lang, what do you mean?" Xie Lian asked.

"Gege, do you know the story behind the scorpion snake?" ask San Lang.

In legend, hundreds of years ago, once lived a BanYue king who while hunting, accidentally caught two spirits born of two venomous creatures―one snake and one scorpion.

The two venomous creatures were cultivating deep within the mountains, not knowing the outside world and not causing suffering. However, the king had considered their nature and believed that they would cause evil sooner or later and planned to execute them. They begged and begged for their release, but the king was cruel. He forced the two creatures to have sex at one of his many celebrations in front of a drunken audience, and after the celebration, they were executed.

Only the queen sympathized and pitied the two creatures. In order not to go against the will of the king, he could only cover their corpses with mint leaves.

The snake and scorpion became vengeful spirits and cursed the offspring born from their marriage to forever stay in the BanYue kingdom to destroy its people. From then on, scorpion snakes only appeared in the BanYue region, and if anyone was bitten or stabbed, the poison would spread like wildfire and they would die miserably.

However, thanks to one act of kindness from the queen, the mint leaves used to cover her corpse became their antidote.

"The plant is called ShanYue, and it only grows inside the walls of BanYue." San Lang finished explaining.

"Is...is the legend true?" The merchants asked anxiously, "It's about someone's life and death, don't joke!"

San Lang smiled but did not say anything, refusing to talk more after telling Xie Lian the story. Tian Shen turned towards A-Zhao, "A-Zhao-ge, is what the red-clothed gege said true?"

A-Zhao finally spoke in a low voice, "Whether the legend is true or not, I don't know. But the ShanYue plant actually grew inside the walls of BanYue, and it was indeed the antidote to the scorpion snake's poison."

"That means the only way to live after being bitten is to venture into the BanYue kingdom?" Xie Lian said slowly.

No wonder so many merchant entourage would pass through Ban Yue territory despite knowing the deadly rumors. It is not that they are stupid and stupid; they have no choice. With so many scorpion snakes roaming around its territory, it would be hard not to be bitten, and once bitten they would have to go to BanYue to get the antidote.

The scorpion snake is a symbol of the BanYue Witch, and is also controlled by her. The appearance of the snakes was no coincidence. With just the four of them, there was no way they could protect the entire group of merchants, Xie Lian thought. And no one knows how many more snakes will appear. Xie Lian raised two of her fingers and stuck them on the temple, trying to connect with the spiritual communication array to ask if she could borrow more junior officials with her thick skin, and get more help in protecting people. There are no dice. Connection cannot connect.

Xie Lian lowered her hand and wondered, "I haven't used all my strength yet, have I? I counted it this morning and there's still a little left." He turned to Nan Feng and Fu Yao, "Can you guys try to break into the spiritual communication array? I can't go in."

After a while, the other two people also looked grim.

"I can't get in either" Nan Feng said.

Couldn't it be the sandstorm that disrupted their connection? Although there were cases where connections would be slow in areas with high evil auras, that could reduce the power of Heavenly Officials, and it seemed like that was the case now.

Xie Lian paced around in a circle and wondered loudly, "Perhaps because we are too close to the BanYue kingdom..."

Just then, in the corner of his eyes a red glint flashed.

Nan Feng and Fu Yao were busy trying to plug their connections back into the spiritual communication array and everyone was busy examining the wounds on their bodies. The Tian Shen boy anxiously held tightly onto old man Zheng and did not see a wine-red scorpion snake soundlessly climbing onto his spine, coiling near his neck and opening his mouth. However, his fangs did not lead to Tian Shen's neck, but to San Lang's arm next to him!

The snake took a swing, then pounced!

In the speed of one second, before the snake had the chance to stick its fangs into San Lang, Xie Lian's hand grabbed and snatched the snake right at the heart with irrational precision.

With his strength, Xie Lian could have broken the snake's heart if she wanted to; breaking its innards and spilling its insides. But he did not know if the snake meat was also poisonous, he did not dare to press any harder. Xie Lian raised her other hand to grab her tail, but the snake was slippery and agile, making it hard to catch. Xie Lian squeezed it but only felt something soft and cold sneak between her fingers, and the next moment, a sharp needle-pierced taste lit up from the back of her hand.

sorry I just updated

If I could LIKE could not? ⁇ 'S BEEN