Serpent

After running for a long time, when Ao Jia could barely breathe, the ruins he was familiar with finally appeared in his sight.Ao Jia didn't care about the pain in her body that was about to break apart inch by inch, and accelerated towards the direction in memory.

One step, two steps... He could almost hear the man's faint panting.Ao Jia's heart tightened, and she rushed out with a stride.But he froze in place for an instant.

Empty in the corroded, pitted ruins.There was no man's scaly face, no withered hair, and no sound of his breathing so weak that it seemed to be crying faintly. There were only large swaths of blood that were bigger than I thought.

Seeing that there was no one there, Ao Jia suddenly felt that there was a piece missing in his world.The unbearable discomfort suddenly stuck in his throat, more painful than ever, even when he was poisoned.He always thought that this man would always wait for him at the same place, no matter how long he had been away, as long as he turned around, he would always see Snake Ancestor waiting almost unchanged.

"Ao Jia. I'm tired..." Ao Jia's long sigh suddenly sounded in Ao Jia's ear.This sentence seems to have been said a long time ago...

Ao Jia wanted to laugh, but what she shed were tears.Snake ancestor finally retired from his life. Why is this long-lost freedom so sentimental?Big drops of tears fell from the eyes.He suddenly felt that he was so fucking cheap.

Is this the freedom he longed for?Why did he feel as if he had lost something essential to him?

Ao Jia foolishly waited in the ruins for three days.But that man never came back.is dead?Or do you not want to see yourself at all?Ao Jia didn't dare to think about it.

Ao Jia didn't realize it until the fourth day.It was the Snake Ancestor who he himself abandoned first, why should the other party come back to him?In such a situation, I ignored his pleas and wanted to leave, so why should Snake Ancestor still be obsessed with him?I pushed him away with my own hands, so what qualifications do I have to ask him to come back?

Ao Jia didn't know what kind of mood she wanted to understand.Whether he is willing or not, the curtain between him and this man has really come to an end.It's time to turn the page.He is Ao Jia now, and he should live out his own appearance.Just when everything I experienced before, those sad, painful, sweet, warm... are just passing clouds.

Ao Jia finally plucked up the courage and left the place where she was waiting.The tears flowed fiercely.

He always thought that he and the Snake Ancestor were over, completely over, but in fact this was just the beginning.

Since then, he has never been able to sleep well.As long as he closes his eyes, the scenes that he has been familiar with that day will be played back in his dreams thousands of times.What he saw and thought that day has completely turned into the most terrifying nightmare in his heart. Every time he wakes up in cold sweat from the man's hoarse roar, and every time he wakes up, he can find that he is full of pain. face tears.

For him, this too much freedom somehow made Ao Jia even more helpless.He wandered aimlessly in this barren land for a long time.Sometimes he would also see snakes of different colors in the forest, but unlike the fear and disgust he had before, he had an inexplicable nostalgia for snakes.And these little creatures didn't mean to hurt him, they just stared at him with snake letters.

The body is good and bad, but fortunately, compared with before, the condition has stabilized a lot.During the few days when he couldn't get out of bed, he could always see some roasted snake corpses in front of the door.Ao Jia didn't understand where the snake meat came from, it seemed that the man was caring about him in a special way at such a distance.Until one day, Ao Jia, who was too weak to move, saw a snake with its skin peeled off and threw itself into his fire to roast itself raw as his meal.Are these snakes also his people?Or is it his descendants?Is this kind of "sacrifice" that belongs to snakes out of his order, or is it their own will?Ao Jia couldn't figure it out.

Perhaps, his feelings for that man were not just pure hatred.It was not until a long time later that Ao Jia gradually understood this point.But, is it too late?

Another thing that bothers Ao Jia is the small fragments in the dream that are becoming more and more complete.Although all the snake ancestors appeared in the dream, once or twice, he saw a sad-faced woman talking sadly.As the number of dreams increased, the whole picture became clearer and clearer.

"Our child has no heart..." Day after day, Ao Jia finally heard what the woman kept chanting.This sentence made Ao Jia suddenly suspicious.Because Snake Ancestor said more than once that he has no heart.This unexpected discovery made him a little alarmed, and he vaguely felt that this dream might be related to his own life experience.

Growing up in the most humble market place in Wu Zong Kingdom, Ao Jia is quite indifferent to everything around her.Maybe it's because he's cool by nature.The person in charge of taking care of him was a blind and dumb old woman. Since he was sensible, he never asked who his parents were.There is nothing to ask at all. There are too many children around him who have been abandoned by their parents. He has never thought about his parents. Once he is abandoned, he has nothing to do with them.But this dream confuses Ao Jia, and this is the first time he has shown curiosity about his life experience.

Anyway, with nowhere to go, Ao Jia decided to go back to Wu Zongguo once, and think of it as going back to find clues about her life experience.Thinking of this, Ao Jia's face froze.In fact, maybe I just want to go back and find clues about that man.After all, Wu Zongguo was under his protection.In fact, I want to go back to Snake Ancestor.In all fairness, if he was thinking about his own freedom, no matter how important his life experience was, he would never take the initiative to run into that man's territory.

It took Ao Jia several days to get out of this wilderness.Weak and unable to protect himself, Ao Jia ate snakes along the way, trekked for three days, and finally saw the iconic huge snake statue in the temple of Wu Zongguo.

Returning to his hometown, Ao Jia couldn't help feeling a little excited, and he entered the city as fast as he could.However, to his surprise, Wu Zongguo has changed greatly.

Different from the Wu Zong Kingdom in my impression, today's Wu Zong Kingdom has almost become a dead city.It's not that there are no people in this city, but that all the people in the city have become weak and weak as if they lost their vitality overnight.All the people Ao Jia saw, whether they were old people, children, middle-aged men or women, were all scrawny, with sunken eye sockets, and looked listless.

Ao Jia saw more and more people like this, and his mood became more and more disturbed. Finally, he couldn't bear it anymore, and asked a passerby: "Brother, what happened in Wu Zongguo? Why did I see Are all people so weak? I have been to Wu Zongguo before, and Wu Zongguo was not like this at that time!"

Yintang turned black, and the man with no blood on his face stared in a daze for a while, before he asked feebly, "What did you say?"

Ao Jia couldn't bear it anymore, so she had to patiently ask the question she just asked carefully again.

"Oh! What are you talking about!" The man raised his sickly face to the sky, wearily made a gesture full of respect, "We are sacrificing for Master Snake..."

Ao Jia's heart skipped a beat, and she couldn't help but ask more carefully: "What do you mean by 'sacrificing for the snake... Lord Snake Zu'?"

The man glanced at Ao Jia proudly, nodded and said, "If you want to know more details, go to the temple to have a look. The high priest is presiding over the priest ceremony."

After the man said this, he walked away unsteadily.Ao Jia was stunned for a while, but still walked towards the temple.

"People of the Wu Zong Kingdom! We have thrived and thrived under the protection of Lord Snake Ancestor, generation after generation. It is Lord Snake Ancestor who made us stop worrying about today's food. It is Lord Snake Ancestor who made us stop lamenting for women. Lord Snake Ancestor gave us weapons, and it was Lord Snake Ancestor who let Wu Zongguo dominate!"

Before Ao Jia entered the temple, he heard the high priest's high-spirited tone.He took a few steps forward, only to see hundreds of Wu Zongguo people gathered in front of the snake statue to listen to the high priest's speech.

The eyes of the high priest who had been blinded by burning had recovered at this moment, and he was standing under the snake statue in the most gorgeous clothes and agitating: "At this moment, the Snake Ancestor, who has always given us powerful protection, was injured by a traitor and is dying. Lu Xi. He needs the help of the people of Wuzong Kingdom! He needs the rewards of the people of Wuzong Kingdom..."

A few simple words made Ao Jia's heart ache again.The high priest was still saying something in a sad tone, but Ao Jia couldn't hear a word, all he could see was the large bloodstains that night, and the voice of the Snake Ancestor rang in his ears again, pleadings and threats densely intertwined Together, Ao Jia felt guilty and afraid: "Hello... hello... you run away... no matter where you go, I will catch you back... when the time comes... hum..." "Ao Jia Jia, don't go... Please, don't go, I'm going to die, I'm really going to die..."

"Ah!!!" The wailing sound that came like waves pulled Ao Jia back from her thoughts.Ao Jia regained his composure, and was immediately shocked by the scene in the temple.

The people surrounding the temple began to bleed without warning. Their original plump bodies were like bursting berries, and blood flowed out from their foreheads, eyes, and mouths continuously, straight to the ground. Flowing to the ground, at the same time, their bodies began to dry out at a speed visible to the naked eye, becoming skinny and weak... and their blood was actually absorbed by the ground, and the whole ground flowed from their bodies like vampires. The body sucked blood, and then swallowed it one by one, not even a drop of blood fell.

The high priest looked at the scene in front of him with satisfaction, and was about to say a few words when his eyes flashed and he saw Ao Jia in the crowd.