"Mom, are you saying what I just saw was a House Snake?" Tu Xiaoyue asked in pleasant surprise after snapping out of her daze. "We actually have a House Snake in our home! Oh my god!"
"A snake in the house protects the home and brings great fortune!"
Wen Qiu was overjoyed. If anyone from outside the region heard her, their entire worldview would be shattered.
So happy about a snake hiding in the house? They must be crazy.
Every region has its own culture and beliefs. The people of Bai Town lived by the mountains and made their living from snakes.
To them, the significance of a House Snake was no small matter. It was as if the God of Wealth himself had come to visit.
"Mom, what do we do now?" Tu Xiaoyue was suddenly flustered.
Wen Qiu looked at her daughter. "Go back to your room and sleep. Act like you saw nothing. If you see that snake again, you absolutely must not scream. If you scare it away, our family will suffer a bloody calamity."
The saying, "If the House Snake leaves, the family falls; if the House Snake stays, the family prospers," was deeply ingrained in their minds.
"A bloody calamity?"
As Wen Qiu said this, she froze. Tu Xiaoyue froze as well, her expression turning mournful.
Hadn't their family just suffered a bloody calamity? Her only son had died a month ago—a blow that struck them like a bolt from the blue.
"Go to sleep."
Wen Qiu seemed to age a dozen years in an instant. She turned, her back now slightly stooped.
Seeing her mother's back, a stream of tears flowed down Tu Xiaoyue's face.
"Little brother, do you have any idea your death nearly killed Mom?"
As Tu Xiaoyue murmured to herself, in a dark corner, a small, lustrous white snake trembled, its Snake Pupils watching everything with an ice-cold gaze.
'Mom, Sis, I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry for making you grieve!'
The children of Bai Town were no strangers to snakes. Many grew up and naturally became Snake Catchers.
It was an extremely high-risk profession, as they caught venomous snakes. The more venomous the snake, the more it was worth.
A month ago, a legendary Mutated Bloodsucker Snake appeared on She Mountain, causing a huge stir. A wealthy boss even offered a million yuan for its capture.
He had been young and reckless, hoping to bring immense fortune to his family. Unfortunately, Tu Xiao'an failed. The price of his failure was death by poisoning.
'How ridiculous. I failed to catch a snake and lost my life, and now I've become a snake myself. It must be fate.'
However, becoming a snake had also been a wish of Tu Xiao'an's. In the hearts of the people of Bai Town, snakes were the most spiritual animals in the world, beyond compare.
But his body was a gift from his parents. Forcing his mother to bury her own child was the greatest act of unfilial piety imaginable.
Now, although he was reborn as a legendary House Snake, he could neither reveal his identity nor meet them. He could only hide in the darkness.
This made Tu Xiao'an want to cry, but how could a snake shed tears? Even if his heart was in turmoil, his eyes only emitted a cold light.
A moment later, Tu Xiao'an took a deep breath and instinctively slithered toward his mother's room. Before he even got close, he heard a faint cough.
Hearing this, Tu Xiao'an's heart jolted.
'Mom always had a chronic cough. With my death on top of that... from the sound of it, her condition has clearly worsened!'
His mother's door wasn't fully closed. Tu Xiao'an slipped inside silently and entered her room with ease. The first thing he saw was a pale, middle-aged woman lying on the bed, curled up and looking ill. Her face was covered in crow's feet, and though she wasn't yet fifty, half her hair had already turned white.
This was his mother. Just one look made him want to wail, to cry his heart out. His mother was right in front of him, yet he couldn't reveal himself.
Because now he was just a snake—a cold-blooded animal.
Tu Xiao'an quietly crawled to the side of his mother's bed. In the darkness, he watched her face, his ears filled with the sound of her coughing.
It seemed she coughed every few minutes, and when the fits were severe, her whole body would tremble.
'Mom, you have to take care of yourself. Your son isn't dead. One day, I'll stand before you again, out in the open, and take care of you!'
Looking at his aged mother, Tu Xiao'an felt an endless surge of determination. Even as a snake, he had to live well.
Even as a snake, he would show his mother filial piety!
This was now his reason for living.
Tu Xiao'an couldn't stay in the room for long. He was afraid that if he wasn't careful, his mother would see him. If she saw a snake slithering by her bed, he might just scare her into having a heart attack.
Although the people of Bai Town—men and women, young and old—weren't afraid of snakes, the context still mattered.
.............
Snakes are truly miraculous creatures. They have no limbs, no hands or feet. Their heads consist of little more than two small eyes and a large mouth. Yet, perhaps because of their innate, terrifying aura, they can become the overlords of the deep forest. Even humans are terrified of them.
A venomous snake can easily kill an adult human. A massive python can easily crush a person to death or even swallow them whole.
Tu Xiao'an now slithered back to the bathroom and in front of the mirror. In the reflection, a small snake with lustrous white markings appeared. It was miniature and delicate, with none of a snake's usual ferocity. However, the coldness faintly emanating from its Snake Pupils was a perfect fit.
Just like that, he had gone from a primate, a High Rank Creature, to a limbless, crawling reptile.
'Still, it's good to be alive, even as a snake.' He was all too familiar with snakes, and besides, he now had a system.
The little snake he had become was quite beautiful, about the length of two chopsticks laid end to end.
'The more I look, the more I resemble a pet snake. All show and no go.'
'With looks like these, I could probably fetch a good price at a pet store.'
It was rare for Tu Xiao'an to be in the mood for such dark humor.
The Devouring System. Tu Xiao'an began to study the system now bound to him. Since he had become a snake, he would become a being like a Snake King, commanding all the snakes in the world, with none daring to disobey.
According to the initial data, he needed to gain Energy Value by Devouring creatures in order to level up.
The thought of swallowing things suddenly made Tu Xiao'an feel ravenous. An intense hunger gripped him.
'Since I chose to become a snake, what should I eat?' Tu Xiao'an slithered to his family's kitchen, and a certain food suddenly came to mind.
Eggs. His mother would put the household's eggs in a large, dented iron bowl, which she always kept on the kitchen floor.
A moment later, the small, lustrous white snake reared up, its Snake Pupils flashing in the dark as it stared at the five free-range eggs in the large iron bowl.
For some reason, the sight of the eggs was now incredibly tempting to him.
Snakes have a special affinity for eggs; they have an instinct to swallow them on sight.
Tu Xiao'an prepared to dig in. He had to swallow an egg first; he was starving.
After opening his serpentine mouth, he froze, utterly bewildered. He made a tragic discovery: his mouth couldn't open wide enough to swallow an egg. His body was still too small.
'Damn this system! Why did it have to turn me into such a tiny snake? I, a proud snake, can't even swallow a single egg. I'm a disgrace to the entire snake family!'