Translator: Cinder Translations
---
Song Wen turned to He Su, frowning, his voice somewhat cold.
"Steward He, the current situation is quite different from what you reported to the sect."
He Su seemed flustered, stammering, "This... this..."
Song Wen turned and walked outside the snake pen. "Let's try a different snake pen and choose a few more Green Jade Snakes to test."
"Elder Wu, don't bother. He hasn't been truthful with us," Zhou Siyi suddenly spoke up.
She fixed her gaze on He Su and continued, "Just tell us what you've been hiding. There's no need to conceal it any longer. I already know that the Beast Essence Pills are absolutely effective for Green Jade Snakes."
Faced with Zhou Siyi's questioning, He Su appeared somewhat flustered, stammering for a long time without uttering a word.
Song Wen cast a peculiar glance at Zhou Siyi.
Recalling her contradictory behavior during the mission briefing, Song Wen was sure that she knew something.
Song Wen said, "Sister Zhou, since Steward He is unwilling to speak, let's return to the sect and report everything here honestly. Then we can consider our mission complete."
As he spoke, Song Wen's figure floated into the air, and a flying sword appeared beneath his feet, ready for him to depart.
There was undoubtedly some secret hidden in the Spirit Breeding Workshop.
Moreover, Zhou Siyi seemed to know some of those secrets.
But Song Wen had no interest in the workshop's mysteries; he just wanted to return to the sect as soon as possible.
As Song Wen tried to leave, Zhou Siyi disagreed.
"Elder Wu, wait a moment. It seems someone has deliberately reported the mission falsely, deceiving the sect. Since we are already here, we must clarify everything in the Spirit Breeding Workshop before returning to report to the sect."
He Su appeared at a loss, unsure of how to respond, as if caught in the middle and feeling pressured.
At that moment, a voice suddenly sounded.
"As elders of the Pill Peak, why trouble a Qi Refinement disciple?"
Before the words had even finished, a figure flew out of the water and landed beside He Su.
The newcomer was a male cultivator appearing to be in his forties, with somewhat pale skin, likely due to prolonged exposure to darkness.
A hint of melancholy was visible between his brows, as if he had long been troubled by some issue.
"My name is Liu Jiang, an elder in charge of the Pill Peak at the Beastmaster Sect. Given your appearances, you should be the honorary elders of the Foundation Building stage."
"I am Wu Xian, honored to meet Elder Liu. This is Sister Zhou beside me, and we are indeed honorary elders of the Foundation Building Stage," Song Wen replied, cupping his hands in respect.
Unlike Song Wen's polite demeanor, Zhou Siyi directly questioned, "Since you are an elder in charge of the Pill Peak, you must be well-versed in alchemy. Why then did you seek assistance from the sect, asking us both to come?"
"The message I sent back to the sect requested the dispatch of a steward elder, not two honorary elders of the Foundation Building Stage," Liu Jiang replied.
Upon hearing this, Song Wen began to understand the sequence of events.
It appeared that Liu Jiang had encountered a dilemma and sought help from the Beastmaster Sect, requesting that a steward elder be sent to address it.
For some reason, however, the Pill Peak had not disclosed the true nature of the task when issuing the mission, instead claiming that there was an issue with the reproduction of the Green Jade Snakes.
In the end, the task fell onto Wei Ding's shoulders, but he was unwilling to come and forced it upon Song Wen and Zhou Siyi.
After Song Wen and the others arrived at the Spirit Breeding Workshop, Liu Jiang dismissed them, thinking little of their presence.
Zhou Siyi, aware of certain insider secrets of the workshop, refused to leave, which was why Liu Jiang had revealed himself.
Zhou Siyi said, "Elder Liu, since we've come, please tell us the real mission. What if we can resolve it?"
Liu Jiang was silent for a moment before slowly replying.
"Alright, follow me. But what you will see next involves the sect's secrets, and you must not reveal a word outside."
Liu Jiang raised his protective spiritual power and leaped into the lake.
Zhou Siyi followed closely behind.
Song Wen hesitated for a moment but ultimately jumped into the lake as well.
Diving down over ten meters, an entrance located at the bottom of the water came into view for the three of them.
At the entrance, there was an invisible barrier keeping the lake water out, but Song Wen and the others easily passed through the entrance and entered the cave.
Inside, the passage was very smooth, clearly man-made.
After walking for several dozen meters along the passage, they came into a large underground hall covering several acres.
At the top of the underground hall, a glowing sphere illuminated the entire space.
On the floor of the hall, there was a water pool about thirty feet square.
Liu Jiang pointed to one of the pools, "The creature that truly needs help with reproduction is in that pool."
Upon hearing Liu Jiang's words, Zhou Siyi seemed unable to contain her excitement and quickly approached the pool.
The sight before her made her eyes widen in shock.
Curious, Song Wen hurriedly followed her, and soon, disbelief showed on his face as well.
In the pool floated a strange creature with a human upper body and a snake tail.
The creature's entire body was covered in scales, with the upper half resembling a woman and the lower half a snake tail.
The human-snake hybrid was about ten feet long, with the human portion taking up only three feet, the rest being snake tail.
Its eyes were vertical pupils, and upon seeing Song Wen and the others standing at the edge of the pool, it opened its mouth and extended a blood-red tongue.
When Song Wen saw it for the first time, he thought he was witnessing a legendary creature from ancient tales.
But he quickly realized that this could not be an ancient creature.
Its power was far too weak, appearing to be only at the first level of Qi Refinement.
Moreover, its condition was not good, giving off a very weak impression.
"What the hell is this thing?" Song Wen murmured softly to himself.
He looked up and discovered similar creatures in other pools, both male and female, each varying in size—some resembling children, others resembling adults.
Zhou Siyi, on the other hand, had her eyes shining brightly, looking quite excited as if she had seen something incredible.
She turned to Liu Jiang and asked, "Elder Liu, what are these?"
"They are hybrids of humans and Green Jade Snakes," Liu Jiang explained.
"Humans and snakes can hybridize?" Song Wen asked in surprise.
Liu Jiang, who had appeared gloomy before, suddenly became animated when discussing this topic, even revealing an expression of pride bordering on madness.
"Humans and snakes are two different species; under normal circumstances, they cannot combine. I extracted the unformed human embryos and fused them with the embryos of Green Jade Snakes. After tens of thousands of attempts, I finally succeeded in creating a human-snake hybrid."
"To think that humans and snakes can merge into one, transforming into a new kind of creature—the mysteries of life are truly full of endless possibilities."
Song Wen was taken aback upon hearing this.
Liu Jiang's methods were simply unfathomable.
To create the human-snake hybrids before him, countless pregnant women must have fallen victim to his cruel experiments.
As Song Wen's understanding of the cultivation world deepened, he slowly realized that there was no real distinction between righteous and demonic paths. One side may be truly evil, while the other pretends to be virtuous.
However, what was the purpose of the Beastmaster Sect in cultivating these human-snake hybrids?
These hybrids were weak, and Song Wen couldn't see any other special qualities about them. Were they really just for exploring the mysteries of life, as Liu Jiang claimed?
(End of the Chapter)
---
Want More of (RDC)?
Read ahead on [Pa.treon](pa treon . com / CinderTL) – up to Chapter 416.
Early access starts at $5. Your support keeps this going!
Translated 1000+ Chapters and 1.1M+ Words
REVIEW CRITERION MET! Happy MASS RELEASE!💥