The master of the palace winked at his servant. After a slight hesitation, the servant led Shen Qianshan and Gu Qiang through the corridor and headed towards the higher mountain behind.
They walked through the long corridor and stopped before a wall and a closed rustic gate. The servant couldn’t help telling them, “Honestly, you don’t need to get Suxin Grass by yourselves. Some herbs are left in the palace. So long as you can have a good talk with my master, he will give them to you. You don’t know how rough the path is behind the gate.”
The servant looked reluctant to see them off. It seemed that he was sure they couldn’t survive if they entered.
Gu Qiang turned around, gave a faint smile to him, and said, “Even if we have a good talk with your master, he may not give it to us. Since we are here now we have to enter.”
The servant lowered his head and gave the herb in his hand to Gu Qiang.
Gu Qiang took it over. It was a lovely grass with three leaves. Each leaf had a small round hole. It could be distinguished easily.
The servant told Gu Qiang and Shen Qianshan, “Suxin Grass likes wet places and can often be seen by the water. You can walk along the path and go to the places with water to look for it. Please be cautious.”
Then he left. Shen Qianshan and Gu Qiang took torches from the nearby bonfire and entered the gate.
It was late at night. After entering the gate, they found themselves in a mountain again. The path was winding. Obviously, many people had trudged here. The herb was precious, so it couldn’t be found easily. Shen Qianshan grasped Gu Qiang’s hand for fear that she would be afraid of the dark.
But Gu Qiang didn’t seem afraid of the dark at all. She was attentive and confident.
Shen Qianshan told Gu Qiang, “You don’t need to enter. I can do it by myself. If you stay outside, I will be less worried.”
Gu Qiang shook her head and said, “Your Highness, I’m going to collect more Suxin Grass, but I don’t want to give them one hundred thousand taels of silver.”
Hearing what she said, Shen Qianshan turned around and looked at her in surprise. The sum of money meant nothing to him. If the money could help them get what they want earlier, he didn’t mind paying it immediately.
However, Gu Qiang didn’t think so. The master of the palace wanted to extort money from them apparently. Even if they paid him the money, he might not give them Suxin Grass, or he wouldn’t let them enter to collect it by themselves.
If Gu Qiang got Suxin Grass, it would be owed to herself completely. Why would she pay Suxin Palace the money?
Gu Qiang didn’t explain more. It was dark and the path was rugged. The torches lit up everything around them. They were told that Suxin Grass liked wet places, especially the waterside. She could hear the rippling sound of water neither too far nor too close. It might take them a few more minutes to get there.
Shen Qianshan understood Gu Qiang’s meaning. He happened to have the same idea. He just thought it troublesome to take her with him.
It was dead quiet. The chirping of insects sounded unreal. The moon hid in the high sky behind a tall tree and gave off light as cold as water. The torches cracked in the dark sometimes, and their shadows were stretched.
Finally, they got to the source of the water sound. They pushed aside the grass in front of them and saw a small pool. Above it, there was a small waterfall. Its water dropped into the pool and produced a loud sound, which was not harsh.
The moonlight gleamed on the pool, turning it looked like a mirror. They stood by the pool for a long time in silence.
After quite a while, Shen Qianshan turned around and told Gu Qiang, “Be careful.”
Then he turned around to look for the herb with his torch. Gu Qiang also squatted down with her torch to look for the herb carefully.
It was a torment to look for the herb at night. Gu Qiang felt her eyes tired and blurred. Finally, hard work paid off. Gu Qiang found a piece of Suxin Grass on the top of a raised stone heap. Suxin Grass seemed to grow in groups. Soon she found more. Therefore, she went farther and farther along the growing traces of the herbs.
When Gu Qiang had collected amounts of Suxin Grass, she raised her head and found herself extremely far away from Shen Qianshan.
She looked around, but didn’t see the familiar light. Feeling kind of nervous, she heard a sound came from the nearby grass at the same time. Even if she listened carefully, she could not tell what the sound is. It sounded like something was moving across the grassland, which made one’s toes curl.
Gu Qiang put the herbs on her back and the torch in front of her for protection. She stood still looked like been tranquilized.
It was unknown where the source of the sound was. Was it a beast or wind? Or was it made by a beast hunting for a person?
She held the torch closer to the place that was covered with grass and dotted with a few lush trees. Without light, all leaves looked black.
When waving the torch, Gu Qiang noticed something shiny flash by.
The shine was familiar and was just like…
Gu Qiang shone the torch to that place again. Her blood froze when she looked for the second time because as soon as she shone the torch on it, she knew what it was. The scales of a big black snake were gleaming.
Gu Qiang stepped back at the sight. With the light of the torch, she saw the black snake winding around a thin tree. The snake’s diameter was like that of a bowl. The branch was on the verge of collapse. It seemed that it couldn’t bear the weight of the big snake and might break anytime.
Because she was a little away from the snake, she couldn’t see the whole body of the snake with the torch. She even didn’t find its head. Therefore, she didn’t know if its head had approached her.
Her hands and back became sweaty immediately. She kept stepping back desperately, but she couldn’t move too quickly for fear that the big black snake would give her a fatal attack.
Gu Qiang bit her lips. The surrounding was lit by the torch. Behind her, there was a bottomless pool. She felt scared. If she hadn’t noticed the big snake, she might have lost her life.
At this moment, what came to her mind first was to look for a safe place instead of turning to Shen Qianshan.
She couldn’t hold the torch steadily. It inclined and nearly fell. At that moment, the huge black snake raised its head suddenly in the shadow that she couldn’t see.
Gu Qiang felt her hair all over almost prickle. She shone the torch to that direction and saw the big snake raising its head, flicking out its tongue, and staring at her with yellow eyes. When raising the head, the snake was up to seven feet high and looked overwhelming. In Gu Qiang’s eyes, it was like a nightmare.
She managed to keep calm. She knew the torch in her hand was the only thing that could protect her.
She should protect herself at such a critical moment instead of expecting someone else to save her.
She was nervous and scared, but she didn’t flinch. She couldn’t run faster than the big black snake. While she was stepping back, the snake that remained still before seemed to see her and rushed to her suddenly.
With a strong wind, the snake attacked Gu Qiang like lightning. At that time, she resisted its attack with the torch instead of screaming or being overwhelmed by tension. The snake didn’t expect the torch would be so hot, so it retracted its neck and didn’t dare to attack her rashly again.
Gu Qiang continued stepping back. She grasped the torch and pointed it at the snake, but she didn’t know how to escape. The snake stared at her like a sculpture. Finally, she couldn’t stand it. She held the torch against the snake and began to move towards the pool. It was not easy to grope the way at night, but she could hear the water sound, and it was not very difficult for her to move.
After walking a few steps, she found out of the corner of her eye that the big black snake was gone. Then she was startled to see it on the road that she couldn’t detour. It stood there and confronted her like a man.
It seemed that she couldn’t steer clear of the snake. It attacked her suddenly before she figured out how to walk past it. She froze instantly and protected herself with the torch. At this time, a black figure flew over behind the snake. The figure moved quickly and kicked the snake hard. The snake didn’t expect there would be someone behind it, because it attacked Gu Qiang with all its strength.
When the snake fell, the black figure jumped onto its back and stabbed its neck with something. The snake wiggled its tail in pain. The steel-like tail cut all trees around.
Gu Qiang hid behind a large stone instantly. Where the snake wiggled its tail on the stone even turned into the dust.
After struggling for a few quarters, the snake stopped moving.
The day was breaking, and the sky was turning bright in the east. Gu Qiang put out her torch. Shen Qianshan jumped down from the snake and stood before Gu Qiang with a cold face. He was angry.
“Why didn’t you call me when you were in danger?” Shen Qianshan examined Gu Qiang carefully to see if she was hurt. After making sure she was fine, he sighed with relief.
“I’m OK. I have collected enough herbs. Shall we go back now?” Gu Qiang still clenched her fists tightly so that her palms were sweaty. She didn’t realize it until she finished saying. Then she wiped her sweat.
Undoubtedly, she was scared. The snake looked scary. Besides, Gu Qiang was a weak woman.
Shen Qianshan took all herbs from Gu Qiang’s back, put them on his back, and asked, “How can we go out?”
They looked around but couldn’t tell the difference as well as the way they came.