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Chapter 6: The Serpent Horde
The shortest route back to Jiangcheng was the one they had taken before. But both Li Xingyuan and Old Liu opposed retracing their steps.
“We’ve seen how bad it is along that road,” Li Xingyuan explained to Lin Song. “Really, really bad.”
“If we don’t have extra vehicles for cover, there’s no way through,” Old Liu added.
Neither elaborated on what exactly they’d encountered, but the decision to take a detour was final. They would head north first, skirting the edge of the plateau, then turn eastward.
Though the alternative route might bring its own horrors, some experiences were best endured only once.
Under normal circumstances, with smooth roads and no interruptions, the journey wouldn’t have been long. But given the current state of the world, reaching Jiangcheng in half a month would count as a victory.
Lin Song was initially disappointed when he learned of the detour, but he quickly became the cheeriest person in the vehicle. Sitting in the front passenger seat—Pan Shuai’s old spot—he hummed songs while gazing out the window. Several times, he tried to strike up conversations with Li Xingyuan about his family, but Li Xingyuan deflected them vaguely.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to tell Lin Song; he simply didn’t know where to begin. Avoidance seemed easier.
The roads winding around Snake Coiling Mountain twisted like a great serpent coiled among the peaks. Originally built as a nuclear bunker to protect valuable assets rather than serve as a military base, the location prioritized concealment over transportation convenience.
Today, without an eclipse, the mountains appeared lush and serene, their verdant slopes stretching endlessly, seemingly unchanged from before. But as Li Xingyuan gazed outside, his feelings were bittersweet. This landscape no longer belonged to humanity.
Chen Yancheng had mentioned the possibility of ancient life forms still existing on Earth—creatures from the previous tidal surge of existence. To them, humans might be intruders, mere dust accumulating in the room during their absence.
What kind of beings were they? What forms did they take? Li Xingyuan wasn’t a man prone to vivid imagination.
Lost in thought, he half-listened to Lin Song’s rambling chatter.
When Lin Song began boasting about how gentle and virtuous his wife was, Old Liu’s vehicle suddenly skidded. Lin Song’s head slammed against the window with a loud thud. Before he could glare at Old Liu, the latter spoke.
“There are snakes on the road.” Anticipating confusion, Old Liu clarified: “A lot of them.”
Li Xingyuan looked out the window and saw them—if not for Old Liu’s warning, he might have mistaken the writhing mass for black oil stains on the ground.
But it was indeed snakes—countless snakes. They blanketed the entire mountain road, their slick, black scales pressed tightly together, their limbless bodies entwined in grotesque harmony. The sight alone was enough to trigger anyone’s phobia of dense clusters, and the incessant rustling of scales scraping against each other was impossible to ignore, evoking instinctive revulsion.
Lin Song was visibly shaken. Instinctively, he reached for the rifle slung across his chest, but Old Liu’s hand stopped him.
“Don’t move.”
Old Liu turned off the engine and parked in the middle of the road. “At first, I thought it was a hallucination, so I didn’t say anything. But more and more snakes got crushed under the tires, their flesh clogging the wheels and causing us to skid. We can’t keep going—it’s too dangerous on these mountain roads.”
“We’ll pull over here and wait. They won’t come near us. From what I can see, the snakes are heading uphill. They’ll probably pass soon enough.”
“Where are they going?”
No one answered Lin Song’s question, but they all thought the same thing.
“What are they doing there? Looking for death?” Lin Song muttered, puzzled.
Humans were still the masters of this world.
No matter how many snakes there were, they were just snakes. If they ventured toward The Ember Base, it would be suicide—even though their numbers were spine-chillingly vast. Earlier, soldiers at the base had refrained from using firearms to kill snakes, relying instead on nets and hands. But if push came to shove, eradicating the serpents would be child’s play.
“It’s always like this,” Li Xingyuan said, shrugging. He was used to such occurrences. “Just get used to it.”
The vehicle sat idly by the roadside as the snakes ignored them, continuing their march toward The Ember Base. Not only did they crawl across the road, but Li Xingyuan noticed the cliffs beside the highway were also teeming with serpents. It was clear that if this many snakes were visible in broad daylight, countless more likely lurked in the shadowy, humid forests.
In the age of humanity, these creatures had remained hidden, their presence overlooked. Now, they emerged en masse, challenging human dominance.
Occasionally, some snakes mistook the vehicle for an obstacle blocking their path. They slithered up the tires, scaled the windows, and exposed their pale bellies. At times, their vertical pupils locked onto the passengers inside. Imagining them as rational beings akin to humans felt strange, yet those cold, unblinking eyes conveyed something unsettling—an emotion beyond mere animal instinct.
Lin Song shuddered under their gaze. Clenching his fist, he pounded the glass: “Shoo! Go away!”
The bulletproof glass didn’t shatter, but the vibrations startled the snake. It paused, staring intently at Lin Song through the pane.
Lin Song swallowed hard. Watching the snake, Li Xingyuan reassured him: “Don’t worry. It can’t get in.”
This was a military vehicle, designed to withstand humanity’s worst—the most hostile species on Earth. It was sturdy, reliable, and impenetrable to the snake horde. To them, it was an unassailable fortress.
Feeling somewhat reassured, Lin Song knocked the glass again, growling: “What are you looking at? Keep staring, and I’ll catch you and eat you. Wonder if it’s venomous… does it taste good?”
“Even venomous snakes are edible,” Old Liu interjected, his hands resting on the steering wheel. “I’m from special ops. You just need to remove the venom glands and prepare them properly.”
His words shocked not only Lin Song but also Li Xingyuan. “Old Liu, you’re special ops? You’ve never mentioned that before.”
“Not worth mentioning,” Old Liu replied casually, his eyes fixed on the snake outside the windshield. “Our food supplies are running low. If we get a chance tonight, we can try catching a few for dinner.”
“That sounds great,” Lin Song chuckled. “Looking forward to tasting your special ops cooking.”
But at that moment, Li Xingyuan’s attention was elsewhere. “I think we should focus on the problem right in front of us.”
“What are those snakes doing?”
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