The little snake writhed and swam back towards its attacker.
“Ah, help!” Wu Shi tried desperately to crawl away, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate. She rolled away on the ground for a long distance, trembling with fear.
Wu Dalei quickly pulled the woman on the bamboo slat far away.
Cai Lihua’s expression also changed. Meng Shaode had missed three times in a row.
Looking back, Meng Shaode and his wife were dumbfounded. The snake twisted and suddenly changed direction, aiming for A Jiu.
“A Jiu, hurry! This snake is probably possessed,” Cai Lihua turned to pull her daughter away, but grabbed nothing.
Don’t come near!
The snake stopped less than three steps from A Jiu, its head raised, staring at her coldly.
“Jiu’er, don’t move,” Wang Shi was also stunned.
A Jiu’s throat was dry and her whole body was tense. Hearing her grandmother’s reminder, she didn’t dare to move.
The snake, only as thick as a finger, had black scales that glowed with a blackish-red light under the setting sun, making everyone’s skin crawl.
“Shaode, you… shoot it, quickly! This is a king cobra, it’s highly venomous.”
Cai Lihua’s face turned ashen. The snake was so close to her daughter.
Meng Shaode’s hands had been trembling for a while. From his position, if he missed the snake slightly, he might hit his daughter.
“Dad, I’m scared… Dad, what should we do?” A Jiu’s voice was faint. She knew how poisonous king cobras were.
Ordinary cobras couldn't possibly turn into king cobras.
Hearing this, the couple’s hearts ached as if stabbed with a knife.
“Daughter, you must not be afraid.”
At this moment, Wu Dalei, Wang Shi, Wu Shi, and the others didn’t dare to breathe. Zhao Di, sitting weakly on the bamboo slat, looked at A Jiu with great concern.
Meng Shaode held his breath, not daring to relax for a moment.
Just then, the king cobra retracted its hood, and the venomous sacs on its head visibly disappeared.
The snake’s head slowly lowered, and it slithered along the ground towards A Jiu.
A Jiu, terrified, took two steps back.
But the snake moved so fast, its tail flicking as if it were propelling itself forward rather than slithering.
It landed right at A Jiu’s feet.
“Ah!” A Jiu’s hairs stood on end, and she instinctively jumped, kicking the little snake away. She turned and threw herself into her father’s arms, crying.
Meng Shaode, afraid of hurting his daughter with the solid bamboo in his hand, quickly put it down and comforted her.
“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. It ran away, look.”
A Jiu slowly stopped crying and turned to look. Indeed, the king cobra had crawled back to the eagle meat.
Unexpectedly, in the brief moment of inattention, the other snakes that had arrived had scattered and fled.
Only the few that Meng Shaode had shot remained.
“That really scared me to death,” Cai Lihua said, rubbing A Jiu’s hand vigorously.
“Snakes like that, no matter how small, are incredibly venomous. It eats its own kind.”
A Jiu had heard of this.
“A Jiu girl, are you alright?” Wu Dalei’s face had not yet recovered.
“Good girl, good deeds are rewarded. That snake must have some human understanding.”
A Jiu looked at Aunt Wu, who was sitting weakly on the bamboo slat, holding a swaddled infant.
“These things can understand humans?” A Jiu said casually.
Zhao Di smiled and said, “Some can. Even chickens kept at home for a long time can become quite understanding.”
A Jiu, seeing how tired she was, helped her lie down. “Auntie, drink some water and rest more.”
“Nonsense. It just smelled the spiritual energy on you.”
Wang Shi immediately debunked it. Seeing that the crisis had passed, she sat back down.
Anyway, Wang Shi often spoke nonsense, and Meng Shaode and Cai Lihua, having narrowly escaped, didn’t pay her much mind.
As the sun began to set, the snakes were coincidentally scared away by this king cobra.
“Huh?” Meng Shaode looked at the bamboo grove again, scratching his head in confusion.
“Why do you think the king cobra ran away? It didn’t even touch the eagle meat.”
A Jiu quickly went to check. The few of them huddled together, heads almost touching, to examine the unharmed eagle.
“Yes, why? It scared the other snakes away just for this meal,” Cai Lihua admitted she was out of her depth this time.
A Jiu frowned. Could Aunt Wu be right? The snake had human understanding?
Grandma said it smelled the spiritual energy on her.
Perhaps Grandma was right.
Cai Lihua rolled up her sleeves and took out her “family heirloom” cleaver to start processing the snakes.
A Jiu squatted beside Wang Shi, nudging her grandmother affectionately with her elbow.
“Grandma, how did you know that snake smelled the spiritual energy on me?”