Chapter 274: Chapter 58 The Secret of the Earth Snake-man Clan
"You finally did it! If you hadn’t succeeded soon, the little snake would have been drained dry." Mud Doll cracked a smile. However, upon seeing the gasping small snake, sadness returned to its face.
"What happened to him?" Chen Jiuge looked at the little black snake. He suspected something.
"What do you think?"
"Is it because he was helping me?" Chen Jiuge felt a tinge of guilt.
"What else could it be? The Earth Snake-man Clan is an exceptionally unique race. They don’t produce clan members through typical reproduction. Of course, they *can* reproduce normally, but offspring born that way will absolutely not be of the Earth Snake-man Clan," Mud Doll sighed.
"The Earth Snake-man Clan consists only of females. They rely entirely on this Original Land to reproduce their initial forms—that is, fetuses. Only if they can comprehend their innate Earth Law during the fetal stage, thereby completing their Earth Snake-man Clan Bloodline, can they be born."
"But in recent years, for some unknown reason, the difficulty for an initial form to complete its Bloodline has been increasing. Furthermore, the Earth Snake-man Clan members outside are also dwindling, and the Original Land can provide fewer and fewer initial forms, creating a vicious cycle."
Chen Jiuge looked at the grief-stricken Mud Doll and hesitantly said, "Maybe I can try."
"You?" Doubt plastered Mud Doll’s face.
"Just give it a try. It’s not like there’s anything to lose."
"That’s true. Let’s go ahead and try," Mud Doll mused. After all, I’m not the one being experimented on.
The little black snake was incredibly weak, unable to even draw its vital core into its body. Judging by its condition, it probably wouldn’t last more than a few hours.
After investigating the little black snake’s situation, it was exactly as Mud Doll had described: only one-tenth of the unique Earth Snake-man Clan Bloodline within its body was intact, which was quite outrageous.
Then, picking up the core at its side, the profound essence of the Earth Dao rushed into his mind, as if the core *was* the Dao itself.
"Wait, the Earth Snake-man Clan Bloodline?" Chen Jiuge unearthed something peculiar. This core actually contains a Bloodline—could it be alive?
"This core is alive?" Chen Jiuge asked with a serious expression.
"Nonsense. This is a chunk of the Original Land. If the Original Land wasn’t alive, how could it procreate offspring?" Mud Doll said disdainfully.
The realization struck Chen Jiuge. Of course! What can procreate if not something that’s alive?
Now that I’ve found the corresponding Bloodline, this should be simple.
With a flick of his small hand, he extracted the Bloodline from the core.
The originally earth-yellow core instantly turned blood-red and then melted into the earth.
"What did you do? You destroyed the snake’s core?" Mud Doll was dumbfounded.
Even the practically lifeless snake widened its eyes in surprise. My core! Where did my core go? My huge core, where has it disappeared to?!
I don’t know what happened either, Chen Jiuge thought, deciding not to explain. He simply reversed his hand and injected the extracted Earth Snake-man Clan Bloodline.
"You, you, you... My god, what is this?!" Mud Doll, about to reprimand Chen Jiuge, was stunned by the scene before it.
The small snake, which had been at death’s door, slowly rose to stand. Then, it grew larger and larger.
It continued to grow until it reached Chen Jiuge’s thigh before stopping.
"An Earth Snake-man!" Mud Doll’s shriek echoed through the Original Land.
Chen Jiuge, too, discovered for the first time just how loud this little thing could be.
"I... I... I’ve been born! HAHAHA!"
This huge contrast brought sheer ecstasy to the once-small snake’s face. Wait, it has a girl’s face now. Little sister, aren’t you cold without any clothes?
Chen Jiuge took out a vestment robe from his Storage Ring and tossed it to the newly formed Snake-woman. "Put some clothes on first."
The Snake-woman then realized and, without any sign of embarrassment, dressed herself in front of Chen Jiuge. Afterward, she bowed three times and said, "My gratitude is beyond words. Benefactor, please tell me your name. This humble girl will surely repay your kindness in the future."
"Chen Jiuge from the Myriad Beasts Sect. As for repaying me, forget it. I was merely returning a favor," Chen Jiuge said, not intending to accept any repayment from the Snake-woman.
The Snake-woman, wanting to say more, was suddenly enveloped by a beam of light and immediately transported outside.
"Where did she go?" Chen Jiuge asked curiously.
Mud Doll replied with an exasperated tone, "Have you ever seen a child stay in their mother’s stomach after being born?"
That’s true, but why does it sound so awkward to me? Besides, didn’t Wan Lina and the others come in here before? Chen Jiuge wondered.
"Benefactor, please help us!" Dozens of small snakes teleported in front of Chen Jiuge, frantically kowtowing.
Dozens of small snakes bowing down was rather intimidating, especially with their faces exhibiting the blurred features of young girls.
"Helping you isn’t an issue, but first, can you help me comprehend the Earth Dao?" Chen Jiuge revealed a sly smile. It would be a crime punishable by heavenly lightning to miss such a golden opportunity.
The small snakes hesitated for a moment, but Mud Doll chimed in encouragingly, "What are you waiting for? Even if you fail, you’ll just take a nap and wake up later. If you succeed, you’ll be born!"
Mud Doll’s words instantly swayed the small snakes. They promptly shot out yellow beams from their cores towards Chen Jiuge.
If one core can increase comprehension speed by nearly five times, how fast would dozens be, especially with their full assistance?
Chen Jiuge didn’t know the exact speed, but he knew his comprehension of the Earth Dao was nearing a breakthrough. Unfortunately, the little snakes were all exhausted.
Extracting, injecting. Extracting, injecting.
Dozens of young Snake-people appeared before the man and the doll.
Mud Doll was dumbfounded. The stick that had amused it for centuries was tossed aside as it muttered, "Could this be a miracle?"
"No, I have to get all the little snakes over here. That way, I won’t have to kick the bucket!"
The mud doll let out a whistle, different from before—this time, it seemed more urgent.
Then, Chen Jiuge saw countless little snakes swimming over from a distance.
"GULP! There are so many little snakes? How long will this take me?! No, wait... how far can my Earth Dao progress with this?!"
"Sisters, it’s true!" the newly arrived little snakes exclaimed, having just witnessed the previous snakes transform into young Snake-people.
Following the mud doll’s explanation, tens of thousands of little snakes neatly spat out their cores. Their eyes gleamed, looking as if they would unleash yellow beams of light the moment Chen Jiuge nodded.
"GULP. I think we can do this batch by batch," Chen Jiuge thought, his heart practically bursting with glee.
「On the other side」
Wan Lina was idly fiddling with the little bugs in her bowl and said to Wan Hao, who was devouring his food, "Little Hao, when will your friend come out?"
Wan Hao looked up in confusion. "I don’t know."
"Shall we go take a look?" Wan Lina suggested.
"Okay, Mom." Wan Hao, ever the obedient son, would never argue with his mother.
Just as they reached the entrance to the Original Land, before they could even enter, a figure flew towards them.
Wan Hao, fiercely protective of his mother, punched the figure, sending it flying into the cliff face at the entrance.
Watching the young Snake-person slowly slide down the cliff, Wan Lina was somewhat dumbfounded. Where did this young Snake-person come from?
She immediately reacted and screamed, "A young Snake-person! A young Snake-person!"
Cradling the dazed young Snake-person with a look of concern, Wan Lina said tenderly, "Sweetheart, are you okay?"
"I..."
Before the young Snake-person could finish speaking, dozens more young Snake-people rushed out of the entrance to the Original Land.
Wan Lina tossed aside the young Snake-person in her arms and exclaimed with wild joy, "HAHAHA! I really am something! See? I told you choosing me as Clan Leader was the right move!"
The emergence of the young Snake-people startled the few remaining adult Snake-people in the village.
Flamboyant, innocent, loli-like, and mature—each of these few adult Snake-people embodied a distinct type of femininity.
"Wan Lina, did you do this?" the most flamboyantly dressed adult Snake-person asked, looking incredulously at the young Snake-people on the ground.
"From now on, please call me Clan Leader," Wan Lina said, her hands on her hips.
The adult Snake-people exchanged glances and bowed respectfully. "Greetings, Clan Leader."
Being addressed as Clan Leader for the first time, Wan Lina beamed with a silly smile. "I’m the Clan Leader! I’m the Clan Leader!"
"Um, Clan Leader, shouldn’t we first attend to these newly emerged young Snake-people?"
"Yes, yes, yes! Handle it, handle it! You all see to them," Wan Lina said, gesturing vaguely with her hands.
The other adult Snake-people, knowing their new Clan Leader was a bit scatterbrained, didn’t expect much from Wan Lina and began assigning tasks among themselves to settle the newcomers.
What they didn’t anticipate, however, was that this was merely an appetizer.
「Half a month later」
Chen Jiuge, having assisted the hundred young snakes before him, shook his head with some regret. This time, he hadn’t allowed them to exhaust their cores all at once but had proceeded slowly. Yet, he still hadn’t managed to reach the threshold of the Earth Dao.
"I always feel like I’m just short of something," Chen Jiuge mused, pondering his Cultivation problems while continuing to help the young Snake-people.
Every half month, a hundred young Snake-people were born, and a hundred cores merged back into the Original Land.
After a full year, as Chen Jiuge looked at the final batch of young Snake-people, a wave of emotion washed over him. It’s finally coming to an end.
Half a month later, bathed in the yellow light, the last batch of young Snake-people was born.
And Chen Jiuge finally stepped into the threshold phase of the Earth Dao.
"So that’s it! The upper limit of the cores within the young Snake-people corresponds to the threshold of the Earth Dao. No wonder I always felt I was just a little short," Chen Jiuge realized with a touch of lingering fear. If there had been even slightly fewer of them, I wouldn’t have reached this stage.
With the birth of the final batch of young Snake-people, only the mud dolls remained in the Original Land besides him.
Looking at the mud dolls, whose heads were peeking out and watching him, Chen Jiuge smiled and shook his head. "I’m leaving. Perhaps we’ll meet again if fate allows."
"Wait a minute." The initial mud doll suddenly called out to Chen Jiuge.
"What’s up?"
"The Master wishes to see you," the mud doll said respectfully.
"Master?" Chen Jiuge was puzzled.
"That’s the Original Land, our mother. We usually refer to her as the Master," the mud doll explained.
Why does she want to see me? Chen Jiuge wasn’t very keen on meeting this so-called Original Land. This entity is undoubtedly extremely powerful, at least a Golden Immortal with Great Power.
"Then I shall come to see you," a gentle voice sounded from afar.
In the blink of an eye, a graceful figure appeared before Chen Jiuge.