"Don't worry about him. The fact that the Grandmaster is coming out at this critical moment doesn't just scare us—there are plenty of people from other sects who are afraid too. Whatever they try to do is pointless. The Grandmaster has no intention of protecting us, and as for those with ulterior motives from outside factions, he will be even less merciful. Just wait and see—monsters and demons haven't even shown themselves yet." The elder in the center chuckled with his eyes closed.

Chapter 5

Evelyn Foster has always slept like a log. Even after arriving in a fantasy world and witnessing two murder scenes, it didn't affect her sleep at all.

Around three in the morning, when she was sleeping most soundly, a faint hissing suddenly sounded in the room. A huge black snake silently slithered over and coiled itself around her bedside.

"Hiss—hiss—"

The big black snake hissed at the sleeping Evelyn Foster for a long time, but saw no reaction from her. Its massive snake head crept closer and closer, so close that its sharp fangs, glinting coldly, were almost right above her cheek—yet she still didn't move.

The big black snake: "..." Something's not right. With its presence so strong, how come no one has woken up after all this time? She can't possibly be that unguarded. Could she have fainted?

The big black snake wasn't very smart. In fact, it wasn't even a demon beast—just an ordinary little snake that, years ago, had wandered into Three Saints Mountain and was about to die, until Brian Carter woke up, caught it, and, out of boredom, gave it a bit of his own blood, allowing it to survive here.

At first, the black snake was actually a patterned snake, only as thick as a finger and as long as an arm. Later, a few times when Brian Carter went mad and hurt himself, the snake ate some of his flesh and blood, and gradually mutated—its body grew larger and larger, and the beautiful patterns on its skin disappeared, turning into a pitch-black color as dark as night.

There wasn't much to eat here. Although it couldn't die, it always felt hungry. This afternoon, it caught the scent of the bamboo sap that Evelyn Foster drank and started craving it, so it snuck over at night hoping to beg for some food.

Its brain was only so big, and after a while, it couldn't think of a good idea, so it stuck out its tongue and licked Evelyn Foster's hand—a habit it had developed when it was starving. It would suppress its fear, crawl hesitantly to Brian Carter's hand, and lick it like this. Brian Carter would then absentmindedly run his finger along its sharp fangs, prick his finger, and give it a few drops of blood to stave off its hunger.

Now, it tried the same method on Evelyn Foster.

In her sleep, Evelyn Foster felt something wet on her hand and groggily pushed it away. "Big baby, stinky dog, stop licking, go away!"

Her former roommate had a dog named Big Baby who loved to go crazy in the middle of the night, jumping onto the bed for a surprise attack and a whirlwind face wash. But this time, when she pushed, she didn't feel fur—instead, it was something cold and slippery.

Evelyn Foster opened her eyes and saw a ferocious, gaping maw right above her head. The black snake's pair of red eyes stared at her without a trace of warmth, as if considering whether to start swallowing her from the head down.

Evelyn Foster was instantly jolted awake, instinctively covering her mouth to keep from screaming. Her heart pounded like a drum, her scalp tingled—she was, in short, a complete mess.

The big snake, on the other hand, was overjoyed. When it was happy, it opened its mouth even wider, which only made Evelyn Foster more terrified. Those fangs! Your fangs! Don't come any closer! I can't breathe!

Lying in bed, Evelyn Foster was on the verge of tears, thinking, Is this snake brother here for a midnight snack? Can't you pace yourself? There are a hundred people in total—if you eat one a day, that's three months' worth. If you eat three a day, that's only a month's supply!

But she misunderstood the big black snake. It actually didn't like eating people. Compared to the last bloodline of the Fengshan clan, Brian Carter, everyone else's flesh and blood tasted like rocks and wood—it didn't like it at all. It was just that Brian Carter hated having corpses lying around, so he made the snake clean them up. It had no choice but to act as a garbage disposal.

Evelyn Foster was still having her life-flashing-before-her-eyes moment, reviewing her twenty-something years in a flash, but the big snake still hadn't started eating.

So, snake brother, are you going to eat or not?

The big snake wanted to ask too: Friend, could you spare me a bite to eat?

But it couldn't speak human language, nor was it smart enough to clearly express that it just wanted some food and drink. So, human and snake stared at each other, lantern eyes to lightbulb eyes, both gazing intently for a long time, both feeling exhausted and helpless.

Finally, the big snake caught a whiff of something, grabbed a bamboo tube that Evelyn Foster had knocked under the bed, and placed it in front of her, wagging its tail.

This bamboo tube held bamboo sap. Suddenly, Evelyn Foster had a flash of inspiration and tentatively took out another tube of bamboo sap. This was the most common drink in Qinggu Tian—as long as you had a section of Qingling bamboo, it would continuously produce bamboo sap. Since she liked drinking it, she had stocked up on plenty of Qingling bamboo, and naturally had a good supply of bamboo sap.

As soon as she took out the bamboo sap, she saw the snake's tail wagging faster and faster, even whipping up a breeze.

But wait, do snakes express happiness and excitement by wagging their tails? Why does this ancestral snake act a bit... like a dog?

To raise a giant snake like a dog—truly, the ancestor is worthy of being called the ancestor.