Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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The docile dragon, presumably able to understand some speech, hissed and flicked its tongue, stretching its head forward and rubbing against Xie Lingya’s knuckles. The snakeskin was cool, and Xie Lingya moved his fingers against it.
Shang Wu hadn’t expected Xie Lingya to get so engrossed in playing with the snake, even muttering something to it, making his scalp tingle. He kept glancing back, afraid Xie Lingya might slip away.
Xie Lingya saw Shang Wu staring intently in the rearview mirror and said, “Mr. Shang, you need to watch where you’re going.”
“Sorry, sorry,” Shang Wu sheepishly looked away, honestly saying, “I’m just afraid the snake will get away.”
Xie Lingya didn’t want it, but he was afraid of snakes, especially one so mischievous.
The docile dragon showed no sign of running away; it gently circled Xie Lingya’s wrist. With each movement, the scales on its body reflected the gleam of the car interior, adding several variations and a faint sheen, its slender tail twitching. If not carefully observed, it resembled a unique bracelet.
Xie Lingya extended the hand that was wrapped around the docile dragon towards Shi Changxuan, tentatively pulling on his hand.
The docile dragon swam from Xie Lingya’s hand to Shi Changxuan’s palm, coiled there for a few seconds, then immediately swam back, wrapping itself around Xie Lingya’s wrist again.
Just then, they encountered a traffic light. Shang Wu, seeing that the docile dragon was also quite friendly towards Shi Changxuan, asked curiously, “It’s not fierce, is it?”
Xie Lingya said thoughtfully, “Would you like to touch it?”
He also wanted to know if the docile dragon was like this to every stranger.
Shang Wu flinched, “No, no.”
Shang Wu saw them off at the bus station, bidding them a respectful farewell and watching them leave.
When Xie Lingya lowered his hand, his sleeve drooped down slightly, obscuring the docile dragon, making it unnoticed under normal circumstances.
The bus journey took over three hours, finally arriving in Zhuyang. There was still one last bus left; they took it to the pedestrian street, and from there walked a short distance back to the Taoist temple.
Xie Lingya opened the gate, revealing a courtyard still lit up. Fang Zhe and the others stood inside, the others staring at Fang Zhe with wide eyes. He was holding a box with a compass mounted on top, seemingly equipped with some modern system, emitting a “ding, ding” sound like an alarm clock.
This was originally developed by Fang Zhe and other inheritors of the *Luban Book* (a classic text on ancient Chinese crafts), aiming to detect the presence of Youdu’s aura within a certain range to determine the location of the Youdu Child.
However, it had been in the experimental stage until now. Xie Lingya heard this noise as soon as he opened the door and asked curiously, “That sound is too confusing. How can anyone tell if it’s this or an alarm clock? By the way, how’s the experiment going?”
Fang Zhe looked up blankly. “I was just about to tell you, it’s a success.”
“What?!” Xie Lingya almost jumped up, and his next thought was: Holy crap, it rang?
His mind went blank for a moment. He hadn’t expected the Son of Youdu to arrive so suddenly. Xie Lingya pulled out a stack of talismans from his pocket. “Don’t be afraid! I’ll handle it!”
The door wasn’t closed, and some people returning home late were passing by. They were almost startled by Xie Lingya and fell over. Seeing him holding talismans and talking about “handling it,” they took several steps back, stumbled, and ran away.
Xie Lingya’s momentum didn’t change. He kicked up a broom on the ground, grabbed it, and planned to use it as a substitute if he didn’t have time to grab the Three Treasures Sword.
Fang Zhe said weakly, “I haven’t mentioned the sensing range yet…”
Xie Lingya thought about it and agreed. “Then what is your sensing range? Am I overreacting? Maybe he’s still far away?”
Fang Zhe nodded. “The sensing range is 9.5 million square kilometers.”
Xie Lingya: “…………”
Xie Lingya: “You know that the land area of our China is 9.6 million square kilometers, right?”
Fang Zhe honestly replied, “I know, it’s almost encompassing all of China.”
Xie Lingya silently put away the talismans and closed the door again, lest someone passing by think he had gone mad.
Fang Zhe said, sweating, “I was just about to tell you that success means the realization of the concept. This is the initial stage. Next, we plan to narrow the scope to the province, then to the city… becoming more and more precise.”
Xie Lingya’s initial excitement quickly faded, “Alright, keep it up, and may you succeed soon.”
The other onlookers chuckled, rarely seeing Teacher Xie make a mistake.
“Teacher Xie, you’ve been here a bit long. Didn’t you say it was a small matter?” Zhang Daoting asked.
“There was a slight accident. We discovered this…” Xie Lingya raised his hand.
Zhang Daoting had been watching calmly, wondering if Xie Lingya was wearing some kind of decoration on his wrist. But upon closer inspection, a small snake emerged from his sleeve, its head darting towards him.
“Oh my god!” Zhang Daoting jumped back in fright, landing heavily on a wicker chair in the courtyard, still exclaiming in shock, “A snake! A snake!”
He hadn’t expected Teacher Xie to return with a pet after his trip.
Zhang Daoting wasn’t particularly afraid of snakes, but cold-blooded animals were always a bit scary, and being startled like that, he stood up, holding onto the chair, and said tremblingly, “Teacher Xie, I’ve never heard of you liking snakes before.”
Petting foxes is one thing, but snakes?
“Snakes are little dragons, they control clouds and rain. I’m a disciple of the two True Lords, Chong’en and Long’en, and I learned thunder talismans. This snake brings me good fortune,” Xie Lingya said with a hint of pride. “Moreover, it was my ancestor who instructed me to go to Xiaoba Village.”
True Lord Chong’en was the Sazu, and True Lord Long’en was the Lingguan. Hearing these two names, the snake seemed to sense something, and it bent over and rubbed against Xie Lingya.
Shi Changxuan also reached out and stroked the snake’s head. “This snake was anciently called a ‘docile dragon.’ One of the ancestral masters of Baoyang Temple also raised one.”
The snake broke free from Shi Changxuan’s touch after only a few seconds, but it didn’t hurt anyone and was very docile.
Hai Guanchao was surprised and walked over, saying, “A docile dragon? Is it this gentle?”
He reached out his hand, wanting to touch the dragon, but the snake instantly raised its upper body, hissing threateningly in his direction, its body swaying slightly as if it were about to leap out and bite.
Hai Guanchao was also frightened and took a few steps back, “I won’t touch you, I won’t touch you.”
Xie Lingya explained again, “It’s not a good dragon, it’s a ‘docile dragon,’ which means ‘quirky’ and eccentric.”
Although in his hands, it seemed to be the ‘well-behaved’ kind of ‘docile.’ Xiao Dian also cautiously came up, feeling quite close to the little snake. So he reached out and slowly approached the dragon head-on, but the dragon relaxed its body, no longer looking defensive, and even curled its tail around Xiao Dian’s hand.
In this way, Xie Lingya understood its preferences. The dragon was willing to interact with those who were also disciples of the Spirit Ancestor, including Shi Changxuan, but if it was someone else, like Hai Guanchao, it would show no mercy.
….
Xie Lingya wanted to raise the docile dragon, so according to the records in the Baoyang Notes, he asked Fang Zhe to make a crude horn cup out of the ox horn he had brought back. He placed his hand next to the cup, and when he saw that the docile dragon did not move, he tapped the table. The docile dragon then slid down and coiled up in the horn cup.
Xie Lingya placed the lamp next to the ox horn cup, as it was winter and the temperature was too low for the snake to withstand. Thankfully, they now had an electric light bulb; his notes mentioned that the docile dragon raised by his Grandmaster Yuan would knock over the oil lamp, then run to his bed to sleep. Once, the lamp was halfway over when the snake coiled its tail around it.
At the same time, Xie Lingya picked up Liu Lingtong and placed it on the offering table. He then checked what to feed the docile dragon.
Taoists, except for certain dates or when observing certain precepts, didn’t need to be vegetarian; as long as they didn’t kill living beings, it was fine.
Logically, the dragon’s need to forage for food was a natural process, but since it was with his Grandmaster, it couldn’t go out freely, so his Grandmaster would find small animals that had died naturally for it to eat.
There wasn’t enough time tonight, so Xie Lingya only placed some water nearby. However, one meal was enough to sustain the snake for a long time, so it wasn’t a problem.
Next, Xie Lingya prepared fresh food for Liu Lingtong, which also needed to be cleaned. He washed some fruit and then discovered that the docile dragon had somehow crawled out of the ox horn cup and swam onto the offering table, circling around Liu Lingtong.
Startled, Xie Lingya went over to pick it up.
The dragon moved swiftly, climbing onto Liu Lingtong and coiling around its body, making it look as if Liu Lingtong had been adorned with leather ornaments.
Xie Lingya grabbed the dragon’s tail and lifted it up. “What are you doing running around like that? You’re scaring people.”
He listened intently and, sure enough, Liu Lingtong was sobbing, “Waaah— more terrifying than the Eastern Ghost King—”
Xie Lingya looked at the tiny snake, barely as thick as a finger, and thought, “…” If the Eastern Ghost King knew this, he probably wouldn’t know whether to be happy or sad…
Xie Lingya put the dragon back in, gave it a few warnings, and then put Liu Lingtong’s bed in the drawer. It would be safer for it to sleep there tonight; he didn’t know just how docile the dragon really was.
Having stayed up all night researching, Xie Lingya hadn’t had much sleep the next day, and it was already past midnight when he finally got ready for bed.
The next day, Xie Lingya felt an itch in his palm. He woke up to find the little dragon resting its head on his hand, flicking its tongue against his palm.
“When did you get here…” Xie Lingya struggled to sit up, and the moment his hand left the bed, the little dragon quickly coiled around him.
Xie Lingya released Liu Lingtong, placing it on his other shoulder, and yawned as he washed up.
There were no classes today, so Xie Lingya took the ox-horn cup with him. After breakfast, he went to the Spirit Ancestor’s Hall. He placed the little snake in the ox-horn cup, put it on the offering table, lit incense, and reported the matter.
The little dragon didn’t dare to be presumptuous in the Spirit Ancestor’s Hall, quietly coiling itself in the ox-horn cup, only resting its head on the rim.
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