Hidden genius: Black belly snake

Chapter 357: All Hail The Great Empress! Part2

Tang Yue eyed the blue patterned spirit snake in front of her with curiosity. She had so many questions.

"What is this place?" She hissed, the various possibilities running in her mind.

The snake in front of her bobbed its head up and down, hissing quietly. 

"Your highness Your highness" He hesitated. "Could you please wait a moment?"

"Hmmm? Why?"

"Ah That That I am not at liberty to tell."

Huh? Tang Yue was confused. She did not know what the snake's intentions were. And why does he keep calling her highness?

It's not like he knew who she was or where she was coming from. Surely, her fame, or rather her infamy hadn't spread this far.

As she was about to open her mouth and inquire further, several other hissing sounds came from underneath.

About a dozen or so serpents came slithering upwards from within the darkness of the chasm.

"Your highness."

"Your highness."

"Your highness."

And every single one of the blue snake spirit beasts all of a sudden started greeting her respectfully one after the other.

Ah Tang Yue found herself tongue-tied. She sighed helplessly and decided to wait for the situation to untangle itself.

Thankfully, without making any more fuss, one of the snakes slithered forward towards her, this one being particularly longer and bigger.

"Your highness, I am Jin Wei, the clan elder. I will be serving as your humble servant from now on."

The snake hissed and introduced himself.

"Hmmm" Tang Yue furrowed her brows, not knowing how to respond. She lightly nodded and signaled the beast to continue talking.

"Your highness, if you don't mind, can we please head down to the main cave and talk more in detail?" He hissed.

Tang Yue was a bit unsure if all of this was an elaborate trap but the snake in front of her had only barely stepped into the Emperor realm.

In other words, he was an entire realm weaker than her and so were the other snakes who had come forward to greet her.

If they dared to double cross her or try something fishy she can kill them all within seconds.

So she decided to give them a chance and morphed back into her serpentine form, slithering down into the chasm along with the other snakes.

The snakes seemed to be very familiar with the nooks and corners of the chasm and slithered downward with confidence even though they were heading deeper into the darkness.

However, not too long after, their movements paused, as they started slithering horizontally in through a crack on the chasm's rocky wall.

It was a very narrow hole extending crisscross, farther into the solid rocky ground.

Tang Yue sighed and continued patiently slithering, following the group of snakes.

She could somewhat understand why they resided in such a convoluted place.

Considering that the island was very dangerous, inhabited by far more terrifying beasts, this made sense.

So she quietly indulged them without complaining.

Thankfully, she didn't have to wait much longer and the group arrived at an opening of sorts.

Tang Yue bobbed her head down and slithered into the small opening, which further opened into a giant cave.

It was an underground cave, beneath the hill, beside which the chasm was located.

The huge cavern had several layers, and also a stream of water, constantly flowing, streaking across, falling down these various layers, and tapering into a small waterfall on a lake at the center of the cavern. 

But that was not what caught her eyes!

Standing in front of her, or rather slithering in front of her were hundred or so serpentine spirit beasts.

Similar to the ones she had seen, these snakes as well had pale blue skin but with pitch black runic patterns.

Some of them were in their beast form, some of them were in their human form and some of them were surprisingly in their lamia form, half human, and half beast.

Tang Yue curiously eyed the serpents, especially the lamia serpents. It is said that a snake's illusion magic was most effective in its lamia form.

And importantly, not everyone in her clan had this ability to shift into their lamia form. Only some could.

Tang Yue herself had never been able to. 

She was also not particularly fond of that form as it exposed her private parts and so she never cared.

But the sight of so many serpents at the same time made her speechless.

And to make things more interesting, as soon as she entered the underground cave opening, all the snake spirit beasts immediately started bowing and hissing respectfully.

"All Hail The Great Empress!"

"All Hail The Great Empress!"

"All Hail The Great Empress!"

Tang Yue was nothing short of entranced at this ridiculous demonstration. She awkwardly smiled, unsure of how to react.

Though she was indeed a princess from a royal family, and moreover, also betrothed to the Crown Prince of the elven nation, she had never once experienced something like this.

People had always looked at her with disgust or hatred or jealousy or even pity, but never once had she been revered like this.

She couldn't help but feel small bumps crawl up on her skin all over her body and her heart thumping nervously.

She turned towards the snake who introduced himself as the clan elder and whispered. "Can we talk first?"

The elder bobbed his head up and down, and then quickly morphed into his lamia form.

"Disperse." He loudly clapped his hands. The man looked old and weary but his voice had a visible excitement to it.

Hearing his command, the snakes didn't dawdle around and instantly disappeared, slithering away as fast as they could. Some even dived into the water and swam away heading to the depths.

The elder then turned around and bowed respectfully in front of Tang Yue. "Your highness."

"Alright. Let's stop with these formalities. First, tell me what the hell is going on here." Tang Yue sat down on one of the rocks and asked.

The elder proceeded to blatantly ignore the first part of her order and obediently responded to the second part.

"Your highness, before I say anything, could this humble servant ask you a question?"

Tang Yue's mouth twitched. She had asked him to stop behaving like this.

She shook her head, giving up on the thought, and waved her hand, signaling the elder to continue talking.

"If I am not wrong, your highness, you should be able to absorb bloodlines of living beings and temper yourself?" The elder muttered with a straight face.

Tang Yue was instantly shocked. This random old snake was casually talking about her secret??? What the hell??

She nodded hesitantly, while at the same time preparing herself for any unexpected attacks.

The elder noticed Tang Yue's change in expression and quickly assured her. "Thank you, your highness. This servant is extremely grateful for your trust."

"If I may be so presumptuous, could it also be true that your highness knows nothing about this island and perhaps came here from another land?"

The elder once again asked, to which Tang Yue simply nodded.

The man's eyes immediately widened and it even glistened, as if the elder was about to break into tears.

"Ah. Thank the heavens! Thank the heavens! Our exile is over! What we assumed was indeed correct!" 

"You are our savior! Ahhh! Please accept my humble clan as your servants, your highness."

"Please give us the chance to serve you, oh Great Empress." The old snake started trembling and shouting fervently.

Tang Yue sighed, furrowing her brows. After talking this and that, they were once again back to this starting point and she hadn't learned a single thing.

Not that she was not happy to gain a bunch of followers but what was she going to do with a group of weak ass snakes?

She didn't even have the strength to protect herself, and the few people that she loved, let alone take so many snake spirit beasts under her wing.

"Listen, Jin Wei." She bluntly replied. "Can you calm down and explain things first?"

"Why are you calling me your savior? And how do you know all these specific details about me?"

"Your highness, this servant apologizes for becoming emotional. Let me explain everything."

"Ok." Tang Yue nodded.

"This island is not really a land accessible to everyone."

"It is in fact a graveyard, the resting place of one of our great great ancestors, the Great Empress Medussa."

"Her body is buried here?" Tang Yue hurriedly interrupted him. 

She couldn't help but wonder about the treasures and secrets hidden in the grave of such a powerful being.

However, the elder Jin Wei shook his head solemnly. "Even though this place is called her grave, there are no remains of the Empress."

"Her ending was a bit She was blasted into smithereens." He explained. "This was the place she was captured and killed, her regime coming to an end."