Chapter 668: Deadly duel with the sacred artifact
Translator: Translation Nation Editor: Translation Nation
Old Aram’s raspy voice echoed throughout the jungle, carrying the regretful melancholy of a final generation descendant. The fiery flames pranced around by his side, seemingly capturing the stories of thousands of years ago.
"After a series of conflicts, the Sun and Coiled Serpent factions finally reached a compromise. Furthermore, after numerous revisions of the inheritance ceremony to draw on the power of the ‘Stairway of the Sun’, a fixed tradition was finally formed.
During the commencement of the sacrificial ceremony, one would first accept the blessing of the coiled serpent god, which was secretly to be ‘bitten’ by the serpent staff. Afterwards, he would inhale the ground dried leaves from the ‘Stairway of the Sun’, before being placed in a dark cavern of rapid current flows. In this manner, even warriors who failed the trials of the sun god, would quietly wither away from the coiled serpent venom; preventing them from turning insane and assailing others.
When Sheyan listened till here, he was finally enlightened.
"The progenitor virus, hidden in the ‘Stairway of the Sun’, actually possesses the characteristics of evolving and restructuring human genes. However, most cannot endure such a transformation, and those that could, would metamorphose into terrifying mindless fiends. Perhaps, only one in a million possesses a physique and willpower to endure that virus! Even if a Ndipaya civilian was blessed with a body stronger than modern humans, the rate of success would still be close to zero."
"As for the venom of that coiled serpent, it’s probably similar to an industrial catalyst chemical, and can counteract or smoothen the destructiveness of the progenitor virus on the human body. Thus, substantially raising the success rate. As such, when the ‘sacred artifact’ of the Coiled Serpent tribe was stolen by Old Aram, the crux of this Ndipaya system was ruined."
"Nevertheless, the Ndipaya tribe had been brainwashed by religion throughout the generations. Being clueless about the term ‘viruses’, they held faith that their devout hearts could make up for this deficiency, and their deity remained in control. Hence, they resumed conventional practices, continuing sacrificial ceremonies on the brightest of full moons. One can simply imagine the astoundingly poor success rate from henceforth. No wonder, that event eventually triggered the creation of multitudes of mutated creatures."
"Only elites from both tribes are chosen to inherit the powers of the ‘Stairway of the Sun’. When those elites were infected, they mutated into dreadful biohazard abominations, spreading the disease around and assaulting the glorious Ndipaya Tribe."
"Over time, the pious Ndipaya tribesmen believed this was a trial sent by the enraged sun god...with the minute possibility of success rate in consuming the ‘Stairway of the Sun’, they believed the next survivor and inheritor of power, would be deemed as the savior sent by the sun god!"
As it turns out, akin to drinking poison to quench one’s thirst, the ceremonial rites indeed continued. Moreover, they were fixated on producing that ‘savior’, thus leading to a vicious cycle. If Sheyan hadn’t emerged, it would be very likely that in due time, the Ndipaya Tribe of the inner reaches would continue to be besieged and eventually eradicated.
This was the miserable and wretched truth that befell the Ndipaya Tribe after Old Aram departed that year.
Of course, Guarba and others who successfully suppressed the progenitor virus and successfully obtained superhuman powers, naturally were individuals who ‘job advanced’ years before while the Coiled Serpent artifact was still present.
By this point, the final riddle plaguing Sheyan’s heart had been resolved. With the joining of events, the history of Ndipaya civilization was finally laid bare.
Sheyan gazed into the sky and nodded.
"I finally understand. So, will you let me have the Coiled Serpent staff?"
Old Aram cast an expectant look at Sheyan before exclaiming.
"Just hurry and rid this plague from me! The earlier the better, however…...bear this in mind, you mustn’t rely on brute force, otherwise, it will manipulate me to assault you. It will be definitely impossible for you to endure my wrath!"
At this moment, a profoundly sinister notion welled up in Sheyan’s mind – the rewards of eliminating royal nobility bloodline of the ancient Ndipaya kingdom. Nevertheless, he quickly tossed out that notion.
Because, the realm would inevitably consider the possibility of vicious and merciless contestants, attempting to massacre the village upon entering this world. With Old Aram assuming the responsibility of continuing the royal nobility bloodline, and being capable of escaping from the inner reaches of the Kijuju Marshland, he would undoubtedly be anointed with special ancestral tricks and fighting arts. Attempting to slay him forcefully would be mere wishful thinking.
Sheyan examined the remarkably plain looking tiny coiled serpent. Then, he reached his hand out to probe.....
Not a single reaction was made by the sacred artifact. Instead, it appeared spitefully ignorant, as though Sheyan was not worth a penny of its attention…...
Then, Sheyan attempted to gently caress the serpent’s body.
Old Aram was about to caution him, but instead, his body reflexively swung in a mighty slap at Sheyan’s face. Instantly, gold stars circled his vision, his nose bled and five fingerprint marks became incomparably distinct on his face. After listening to ringing sound in his ears for half a day, did he regain his senses…...
After regaining his senses, Sheyan couldn’t help but curse out angrily. When he noticed Old Aram gazing at him innocently with a look resembling that of the sausage mouth Ouyang Feng in ‘the eagle shooting heroes’ movie, he could only sigh.
(TL:*The eagle shooting heroes movie is a comedic spoof in 1993 on the legend of the condor heroes wuxia)
After being disciplined, Sheyan no longer dared to be reckless. He surveyed from a distance, trying to figure out a way of breaking through. Besides, he was no zoologist who grasped snake habits like the back of his hand.
Suddenly, a thought floated up in Sheyan’s mind.
"It cannot be that the serpent only recognizes Ndipaya folk! Right, this old fart only heard legends passed down by ancestors on the ceremonial rite process, but hasn’t personally witnessed it. Could it be, this darn snake only loves feasting on individuals infected by the progenitor virus?"
Pondering over that, Sheyan then produced the harvest he acquired back at the Sun Garden altar. At this moment, Sheyan was now posed with two serious problems.
Firstly, although he snapped off the tendril roots of the mother ‘Stairway of the Sun’, that root had tightly coiled and drilled into the sapling. Therefore, he could only produce that sapling along with the tiny snapped mother root.
Secondly, while the Ndipaya warriors inhaled ground dried leaves of the ‘Stairway of the Sun’, he himself harvested a fresh sapling. Logically and theoretically speaking, withered leaves inevitably contains lower toxic concentration.
In spite of that, Sheyan could only treat a dead horse like a living one, proceeding one step at a time. After producing the sapling ‘Stairway of the Sun’ from his nightmare imprint, he was astonished. Never did he expect in this short duration, the roots of the sapling had very outrageously seized the ‘meteorite’ fragment that Sheyan had also retrieved; appearing to be absorbing the energies of that ‘meteorite’ fragment in abundance.
As for the mother root tendril that had coiled around the sapling, the sapling had ruthlessly assimilated it as nutrients....
"This…...what should I do? First pluck a young leaf off this sapling to try?" Sheyan contemplated excessively while producing this sapling.
Instead, at the instance Sheyan retrieved the sapling ‘Stairway of the Sun’ onto his palm, that lackadaisical coiled serpent instantly shot up vertically and glowed with high spirits. It glared like a cobra inflating its neck hood, swiftly spilling out its red bifurcated tongue and emitting a threatening hiss!
Even more strangely, the sapling ‘Stairway of the Sun’ reacted with unrivaled offensive austerity. In a flash, it leaped down from Sheyan’s palm. Its twin tentacle-like vines whipping noisily against the air, where the bottom half of its root tendril rapidly drilled into the ground; while the other half accelerated its absorbing of the ‘meteorite’ fragment.
Sheyan clearly remembered. The leaves of the mother ‘Stairway of the Sun’ were shaded in 5 different colors. In contrast, the budding leaves of this sapling exhibited 7 different shades!
Not only did the ‘Stairway of the Sun’ reproduce in a viviparity form, its mobility was exceptionally agile, utilizing its roots to directly drill into the ground. It was truly hard to define whether it was a plant or an animal.
All of a sudden, a greyish shadow blurred. That coiled serpent had initiated an assault for the sapling ‘Stairway of the Sun’. With a single chomp, it bit down onto the main stem of the sapling ‘Stairway of the Sun’.
Nevertheless, in the face of hostility, the sapling ‘Stairway of the Sun’ was not to be outdone. Its twin tentacle vines viciously constricted around the coiled serpent body, dragging it apart with all its might. Moreover, it secreted that violet mercury-like lethal corrosive sap.
The corroding serpent’s body emitted sizzling sounds as its skin was easily corroded through, allowing the sap to infiltrate deep into its flesh.
Very evidently, the sense of pain for vegetation and animals differed greatly. Furthermore, the sapling was simultaneously absorbing the nutrients dissolved from the corroding serpent flesh. It truly embodied the essence of ‘supporting war with war’.
Still, the coiled serpent endured the agony and valiantly refused to relent.
The main stem of the sapling ‘Stairway of the Sun’ was still young and semi-translucent. As such, one could vividly observe that at the area the coiled serpent had sunk its twin venomous fangs, strands of black liquid were being discharged and diffused into the sapling’s body; causing the auxiliary vines of the sapling ‘Stairway of the Sun’ to twitch violently!
Right from the start, the two forces conflicted like that of fire and water. The venom of the coiled serpent wasn’t fatal but inflicted paralysis onto infected individuals. Instead, it served to neutralize the fatal toxins of the insurmountably rare ‘Stairway of the Sun’!
However, since time immemorial, the battles between both forces had been fought only in virus-infected hosts. It wasn’t a directly fierce confrontation between venom and virus like now. In this manner, an outcome could only be determined by the announcement of one side’s death!
Right at this instant, the two spectators were utterly shellshocked. Sheyan was now fearing that the chicken would fly off while its eggs were shattered, not reaping a single profit from this mutual destruction.
As for Old Aram, he desired most of the coiled serpent to be slain. On the contrary, he feared that if the serpent achieved a bitter triumph, it would frenziedly absorb blood vitality to replenish its grievous wounds....
The pathetic Old Aram already appeared 60 when he was only about 35. If the serpent enjoyed another ‘sumptuous buffet’, even if he didn’t perish, he would still be half dead.