“I really didn’t do it on purpose…. I was just… I was just trying to make the snakes a bit cuter, that’s all.” He was sniffling a bit, and his heart was pounding. If he had the power, he would instantly change his appearance so that no one could recognize him.
“What do I do?” he murmured to himself. “What do I do…? There’s nothing left to do. I can only go to Master’s cave and hide. Nobody will think to look for me there….” With that, he slapped his bag of holding to produce a new set of clothes. After changing, wings sprouted from his back, and he sped as fast as he could move toward Mount Daoseed.
The three mountains were in the grip of pandemonium. Howls and roars echoed out constantly. Bai Xiaochun deeply regretted having become so famous recently. Virtually everyone knew him, so all he could do was duck his head down and speed along as quickly as possible. As he moved along, if the wind even moved a branch, he would avoid it for fear it was someone about to pop out and see him.
Of course, because of the general chaos, nobody noticed him passing. Everyone was in the middle of fleeing from the horned snakes. When Bai Xiaochun saw how maddened everyone was, his heart began to pound. However, he managed to take advantage of the chaos to speed to Mount Daoseed without being noticed. He arrived out of breath, fear lingering in his heart. Moments later, he was approaching the cave in which his Master had passed away into meditation.
To other people, it was a restricted area, but Bai Xiaochun could come and go as he wished. A cloud of dust rose up into the air behind him as he raced into the cave and dropped to the ground in front of his master’s portrait.
“I really didn’t do it on purpose….” he said, sniffing. “Master, you know I’m a good person, right?” Bai Xiaochun looked up miserably at the image of his Master, a smiling man who had the demeanor of a transcendent being.
By this point, the elders of the three mountains had sprung into action. Li Qinghou, Xu Meixiang, the sect leader, and even the peak lord of Green Crest Peak all appeared. Under their leadership, they managed to capture all of the horned snakes. Soon, the three mountains began to calm down.
After the Foundation Establishment cultivators ended the snakepocalypse, the disciples of the three mountains, a massive mob of tens of thousands of people, all charged toward 10,000 Snakes Valley, bursting with anger. Seeing how the valley had been almost completely destroyed, and unable to find any traces of Bai Xiaochun, they quickly expanded the search to cover the rest of the south bank.
There was no organization of the affair; everyone instinctively took to action. Thankfully for Bai Xiaochun, he had reacted quickly, otherwise he would quickly have been apprehended.
“Take Bai Xiaochun down!!”
“And that talking rabbit too! That thing has to die!”
“Take Bai Xiaochun down! Take the talking rabbit down!”
After several hours passed, the entire area had been turned upside down, and yet nobody had seen a single trace of Bai Xiaochun. The disciples’ eyes were turning bright red, and some of them even left the sect to search outside, their anger building.
“We’re going to find you, Bai Xiaochun!”
“Even if you run to the ends of the earth, we’ll track you down!”
“Dammit! Where could he possibly be hiding!?” Countless roars echoed out in all directions, gradually reaching the ears of Bai Xiaochun on Mount Daoseed, who shivered constantly.
“Hey, I got screwed here too! It’s all that damn rabbit’s fault. I-I-I… I didn’t want any of this!” Bai Xiaochun sat there nervously, sighing constantly. After waiting for some time, and having noticed that the uproar outside seemed to have died down a bit, he looked at the portrait of his Master, heart pounding. Then he began to kowtow.
“Master, sir, please bless and protect me, and prevent those villains from finding me….” After some time passed, he crept up to the mouth of the cave, and after ensuring the shouting outside had indeed died down, breathed a sigh of relief.
“Bai Xiaochun’s wits come out on top again!” he said with a chuckle. “Nobody will ever think to come looking for me in my master’s cave.
“But this isn’t really a solution. I’ll have to leave eventually…. What do I do, what do I do…?” Suddenly, he had the feeling that someone was watching him. He looked back toward the mouth of the cave, and saw… the talking rabbit, its ears swiveled to point directly at him.
In the instant that he saw the rabbit, his eyes went wide. How could he ever have imagined that the thing could move with such unbelievable stealth? It had actually managed to enter even this restricted area. All of a sudden, Bai Xiaochun thought back to what he had just been saying to himself, and all his hair stood on end. Shrieking miserably, he cried out, “No! Don’t spread that….”
But then, a whooshing sound could be heard as the rabbit vanished. An instant later, it was far off in the distance, crying out its usual repertoire of passages. However, a new one had been added onto the end.
“Master, sir, please bless and protect me, and prevent those villains from finding me….
“Bai Xiaochun’s wits come out on top again! Nobody will ever think to come looking for me in my master’s cave.
“But this isn’t really a solution. I’ll have to leave eventually…. What do I do, what do I do…?
“No! Don’t spread that….”
Bai Xiaochun felt as if he had just been struck by lightning. He stood there mutely, watching the rabbit vanish into the distance, shouting as it ran along. His mind began to spin.
“Damn that rabbit!” he raged. “I’m gonna skin it alive!!”
By this point, the disciples of the south bank had searched just about everywhere, but hadn’t found a single trace of Bai Xiaochun. Eventually, they began to suppress their wrath and speculate about where exactly he might be.
“Where could Bai Xiaochun be hiding? The whole sect has been searching, and there’s not even a record of him leaving the area. That means he definitely has to be on the south bank.
“Fragrant Cloud Peak. Green Crest Peak. Violet Cauldron Peak. We’ve searched every nook and cranny, every mansion and immortal’s cave!!”
“We even turned the servants district inside out. Don’t tell me Bai Xiaochun burrowed underground somewhere?!?!”
However, even as their wrath burned hot, a rabbit suddenly appeared, running along at top speed and calling out at the top of its lungs. When it got to the last line, it sounded particularly despairing.
“No! Don’t spread that….”
When people heard it, their jaws dropped, and their heads turned to look in the direction of the rabbit. As for the people like Shangguan Tianyou and Lu Tianlei, they clenched their fists and burst into motion. Other disciples threw their heads back and laughed uproariously.
“Good rabbit!!”
“That rabbit is a real mischief-maker, but it’s finally gone and done something good!”
“Fine, I won’t kill that rabbit today. Instead, I’ll kill Bai Xiaochun….”
Soon, tens of thousands of disciples were streaming toward Mount Daoseed, fists clenched tightly, murderous auras raging.
Bai Xiaochun sat there in the cave, burning with hatred toward the talking rabbit. He hated it even more than he hated Elder Zhou’s phoenix. Trembling, he was just about to set to flight, when he heard a huge commotion further down the mountain. Looking down, he saw countless figures speeding in his direction. Scalp tingling, he backed up to hide as deep as he could in the cave.
“I’m done for. Finished. Kaput….” As he sat there in front of his Master’s portrait, he suddenly started to get very angry.
“Master, can’t you help me, sir? Send your soul down, otherwise… I, a Prestige disciple who has shed my own blood for the sect will be beaten to– what?” In his moment of despair, he glanced up at the portrait, and suddenly, his eyes began to shine. He slapped his thigh.