Traveling back to ancient times to determine the zodiac

"Xing," after listening to it, Qiu held Xiaoxing's hand and said gratefully, "This time we got the realgar and last time we asked for the beast, thanks to your wisdom, we were able to escape danger and complete the task successfully. Thank you, Great Wise Star."

"Cave Master, we are facing a formidable enemy. For the safety of all the people in the cave and to avenge my brothers, it is what I should do, even if it means sacrificing my life. There is no need to thank me." Xiao Xing remained humble even when he was praised.

"Xing, you are such a good kid." Qiu nodded in appreciation, and then said to Dong, Xi, Chen, Feng and others, "My fellow warriors, as the old saying goes: brute force is not as good as cleverness. No matter what difficulties and dangers you encounter, you should win with wisdom. I hope everyone will learn from Xing and become a good hunter with both wisdom and courage."

"Yes, Cave Master!" everyone answered loudly.

"It's getting late now. Everyone should go to bed early and try to wipe out the Snake King and his army in one fell swoop tomorrow." Qiu instructed everyone again.

Everyone got the order and went to rest. Qiu came to the bottom of the cave and prayed to the statue of Nuwa on the stone wall: "Nuwa Goddess, Bai Ling Angel, tomorrow we will have a big battle with the Snake King and the Snake Army. I hope Nuwa Goddess will bless us to defeat the Snake King and destroy the Snake Army."

After praying three times, Qiu went to rest.

As for the snake king outside, when he first saw the snake spirits and snake soldiers rushing into the Tianju Cave, he thought that they would defeat and poison all the humans. Unexpectedly, in just half an hour, the snakes that had entered the cave fled out of the cave and swam quickly towards the snake king as if they were afraid of ghosts.

“Hiss—” The snake king saw this and shook his head and tail happily, shouting, “It seems that humans are really vulnerable. They were wiped out so quickly!”

"Brother Snake is indeed much more powerful than the Ox King and the Tiger King. I will go and report the good news to Emperor Nian right away." Upon seeing this, the rooster flapped its wings and was about to take off.

Unexpectedly, the python spirit swimming in the front cried out in mourning: "My king, it's bad, it's bad. I don't know where humans got the realgar from. The smell of that stuff is so pungent that we can't attack and can only escape quickly."

"What? Humans brought realgar to deal with us? Did you escape back?" the snake king asked in disbelief.

"Yes, my king, what should we do?" the python spirit asked back.

When the rooster heard this, he asked curiously, "Brother Snake, what is realgar? Why is it so scary?"

"Realgar is a mineral that is very pungent and is the nemesis of us snakes." The snake king replied dejectedly.

"Yes, my king, these monkey-like humans are too cunning. Let's retreat." The python spirit said again.

"Retreat?" Upon hearing this, the Snake King shook his head repeatedly: "If Emperor Nian knew that we were avoiding attacking, he would eat me."

"My king, what do you think we should do?" the python asked again.

"Python spirit, my fellow people, we will guard outside this cave. If they dare to come out, we will kill them one by one." The Snake King gave the order helplessly.

"Yes, my king!" The snake demon and the snake army received the order and stationed outside the cave again.

"Brother Snake, I didn't expect that humans can't die again. Alas." Upon hearing this, the rooster flapped its wings in disappointment and flew back to Gusonggang to wait and see.

At dawn the next day, Qiu and all the warriors got up. They roasted and ate the dead snake from yesterday, and then mashed the remaining "Bai Du Xiao" grass into juice, which everyone took. Then they distributed a bag of realgar to each person. Everything was ready, and the warriors gathered at the entrance of the cave with weapons in hand.

Qiu stood in front of everyone and announced, "Listen up, warriors: Snakes are afraid of realgar. We will bring realgar to the battle so that the snake army will not dare to attack in groups. In addition, we have the 'Hundred Poison Elimination' grass to protect our bodies, so there is no need to worry about snake venom. Now everyone follow me out of the cave and destroy the snake king and his army in one fell swoop to avenge Xia Heri and the others."

"Follow the orders of the cave master! Destroy the snake king! Avenge me!" Everyone raised their arms and shouted, responding enthusiastically!

Lao Zhu, Lao Zhang and Lao Song opened the three cave doors. Qiu raised his spear high and led everyone out of the cave, roaring and attacking the group of snakes lurking not far away.

The snakes had just woken up when they heard the humans shouting and killing them. The python spirit and the black snake spirit hurried to the snake king to report: "My king, humans rushed out of the cave and shouted that they wanted to destroy me. What should we do now?"

"Humans really can't stand being trapped anymore. My people, since they are out here looking for death, let's grant their wish!" The Snake King raised his head high and hissed, "My people, follow me, destroy all humans and rescue Brother Dragon King."

Upon receiving the order, the snake spirits and snake troops swarmed forward and swam towards humans like a tide.

Qiu Hedong and Xing rushed to the front, holding a wooden stick in one hand and realgar in the other, and threw them at the snakes. As soon as the snakes jumped in front of the humans, they could not bear the realgar smoke and turned to flee before they could attack.

Seeing this, the snake king shouted anxiously: "Listen, all my people, no one is allowed to retreat, rush forward and annihilate the human race! Otherwise, I will eat it."

A green snake spirit ignored the order of the snake king and continued to flee, while answering: "My king, we don't want to run away either. But the realgar thrown by humans stinks, we have to run!"

The Snake King was still trying to stop the snakes, but Xiao Xing had already rushed to the Snake King and said sternly, "Snake King, today is the day you will die. Give me your life now!"

The snake king wanted to fight back, but was hit by the realgar thrown by Xiaoxing. Then a pungent and unbearable smell spread, and it turned around and ran away.

In this way, the snakes retreated like a flood, and Qiu led the warriors behind them to chase them. Those who escaped quickly were killed, and those who escaped slowly were beaten to death with sticks.

The snake king was so big that he could not walk more than a mile before he was so tired that he cried out that he could not stand it any longer. He asked the snake spirit beside him: "I never thought that the two-legged beasts could run so fast. I am really exhausted. I am crossing the mountain and the humans are chasing me so closely. What should I do?"

"My king, let's flee to the mountains. There are many trees and dense forests on the mountains, and humans will definitely not be able to catch up." The snake demon who passed the mountain peak offered a suggestion.

"Okay. Everyone, follow me up the mountain." Upon hearing this, the Snake King immediately agreed and turned around and ran towards the back of the mountain.

The mountain behind Tianju Cave was lush and green, with many trees and dense forests, especially at the foot of the mountain, which was covered with dense and numerous shrubs as tall as a person. Soon, the snake king and the snake spirits and snake army rushed to the foot of the mountain and drilled into the dense shrubs one by one.

When they chased it down the mountain, they were blocked by a dense forest. Dong was so angry that he swung his axe and chopped wildly, cursing: "Damn that damn poisonous snake, it actually escaped into the dense forest. I chop, chop, chop."

West, North, Center, Tree Root, Leaf and others followed suit and swung stone knives and stone axes to cut down trees to clear the way, but the progress was slow. Qiu watched the Snake King and his army escape and disappeared, shaking his head and said, "East, the Snake King has already escaped far away, everyone stop it."

"Cave Master, why do you want to stop chasing?" Dong asked.

"Dong, if we continue at this speed, by the time we clear these bushes, the snake king will have run away to who knows where," Qiu replied.

"The cave master is right. There are rabbits in the mountains and tigers on the plains. Based on my hunting experience in my fifties, it is impossible to succeed by cutting down trees to chase snakes or pulling up grass to find snakes." Zhi followed.

"Cave Master, what should we do? Are we just going to let the snake king run away?" Feng asked.

"Feng, I have a way that is quick and easy." Dong put down the stone axe and said.

"Dong, do you have any good ideas? Tell us quickly." Qiu asked hurriedly when he heard it.

"Cave Master, the Snake King and the Snake Army are on this mountain. Why don't we set another fire and burn down the mountain and the Snake King, and that'll be it?" Dong gestured complacently at his clever plan.

"Set fire to the mountain?" Qiu shook his head and objected, "Dong, once the fire starts, the entire Hongmeng will probably become a sea of ​​fire, and everything will be burned to ashes. Although we can destroy the snake king and others, all our food sources will be reduced to ashes."

"The cave master is right." Xiao Xing supported him: "If the entire Hongmeng is on fire, the loss will be too great. It is better to find another plan."

"Xing, apart from setting fire, what other ideas do you have?" Qiu stroked his white beard and looked at Xiaoxing.

Xiao Xing looked at the mountain in front of him, then looked back at the plain behind him, frowned, patted his head and shouted: "Cave Master, I have thought of a way, but I wonder if it is feasible?"

"Xing, I knew you could come up with a solution. Tell me quickly." Qiu asked impatiently.

"Cave Master, if we fight the Snake King head-on, the Snake King will be able to escape easily. In my opinion, we should stop the pursuit now and wait for the Snake King to come down from the mountain. We will set up an encirclement in advance, and then let some people lead the Snake King and his army into the encirclement, and then attack them together. This way we can ensure that the Snake King has no way to escape and will be captured by us." Xiaoxing answered with gestures.

"Xing, this is a good plan. I think it will work." Qiu was overjoyed when he heard this and immediately gave the order: "Zhi, Dong, all warriors listen to my order: everyone immediately stop chasing and retreat to Tianju Cave."

"Yes, sir." Everyone agreed and turned to retreat.

Xiao Xing was afraid that the Snake King would not come down the mountain, so he shouted to the mountain: "Snake King, listen, we will not chase you anymore. If you are capable, come down the mountain and fight. If you are not capable, just go back to your Emperor Nian."

After saying that, he prepared to evacuate with everyone else.

After the snake king and the snake spirits entered the dense forest, they saw that humans could not catch up with them, and they were so tired that they crawled on the ground and gasped.

The snake king said to the snake spirits: "My people, it is fortunate that there are these dense forests blocking the humans from pursuing us, otherwise, we would be dead."

"Yes, my king, let's take this opportunity to escape back to our hometown." said the python spirit.

"The python is right, humans are too powerful. Let's go back." The black snake spirit followed.

"My people, we went on this expedition without a single person having anything to eat. If we don't get beaten to death by Emperor Nian when we return, we will at least be humiliated to death by them." The Snake King sighed.

The snakes were discussing when they heard Xiao Xing's shout. The snake king was enraged again and replied, "Monkey-like humans, if you have the ability, don't use realgar!"

Upon hearing this, Xiao Xing immediately agreed: "Viper, as long as you dare to fight, we promise not to use realgar."

The snake king believed it and said, "As long as you don't use realgar, I will go down the mountain and fight you."

Seeing that the snake king agreed to go down the mountain, Xiao Xing turned to Qiu and said, "Cave Master, you and Brother Dong quickly return to the entrance of Tianju Cave to set up a siege. Chen, Yue, Feng and I will lure the snake king in, and then we will annihilate them together."

"Okay, let's do as you say." Qiu nodded and led Zhihedong and other large troops into an ambush.

Xiao Xing led a patrol team of 50 people, including Chen, Yue, Feng, etc., and stood on the edge of the mountain, waiting for the snake king and the snake army to come down the mountain. Sure enough, not long after, the snake king and the snake spirits poked their heads out from the bushes.

"Snake King, come, come, come. We don't need realgar. Come and have a decisive battle with us humans." Xiaoxing waved to the Snake King.

"Snake King, don't you want to destroy humans? Come and destroy us!" Chen then provoked the Snake King.

Yue, Feng, Yun, Lei, Dian and others followed suit to tease the Snake King and make sarcastic remarks.

Seeing that humans really didn't use realgar to attack, the snake king reorganized his defeated troops and went down the mountain with the other snakes. The snake king was enraged by the crowd, and seeing Xiaoxing's few dozen people, he raised his head and ordered the snake army: "My people, since humans don't use realgar, they are looking for death. Everyone, come with me and eliminate these people first. They are so pissed off that I am dying."

The snake spirits got the order and followed the snake king to rush towards Xiaoxing and the others. Xiaoxing saw that he had successfully lured the enemy, so he waved his stick a few times and led everyone to turn around and flee towards Tianju Cave.

The snake king was unaware it was a trap, and led the snakes in hot pursuit.

Qiu Hedong and others had already set up a large encirclement in front of Tianju Cave, waiting for the arrival of the Snake King and the Snake Army.

Xiao Xing led everyone into the encirclement, and then shouted: "Cave Master, the snake king and snake army have been attracted, everyone quickly surround them and don't let them escape!"