Invincible Snake Emperor-Chapter 122 - 120: Celestial Punishment

Elder Zhao took a deep breath. He was eighty-two years old. 'I should be able to live to a hundred,' he thought.

"Fifty years ago, I, Zhao Changmin, met a female teacher who was tutoring my son. Her name was Zhao Xinlan. I fell in love with her at first sight and pursued her relentlessly."

"A few months later, the two of us began an affair."

Instead of reading from the paper in his hands, Elder Zhao seemed lost in reminiscence, speaking in a casual, matter-of-fact tone.

The moment he spoke, all the villagers were dumbfounded, their faces showing complete confusion. 'What is this all about? He gathered us all here in the dead of night, and we thought he was going to announce something earth-shattering.'

'So you dragged us out here just to tell us about your romantic escapades as a young man?'

The Zhao Family members were just as stunned. 'Has today's excitement gotten to him?' they wondered.

Suddenly, the surrounding crowd began whispering amongst themselves. If it hadn't been for Elder Zhao's revered reputation, they would have started heckling anyone else long ago.

But Elder Zhao had already steeled himself. With a distant gaze, he continued, "Soon, Xinlan became pregnant with my child. I housed her in the back courtyard of the Zhao Family estate."

"But I was married at the time. My wife discovered my affair with Xinlan and knew she was pregnant. Fearing I would divorce her, she went behind my back. While Xinlan was waiting to give birth, my wife used a quilt to suffocate her, killing both mother and child."

At this, Elder Zhao's voice filled with remorse. It was unclear whether he hated his wife for her viciousness or himself for failing to protect Xinlan and their child.

A collective gasp swept through the crowd.

As the story reached this point, everyone stared with wide, horrified eyes at the old man in the wheelchair. A dead silence fell over the area. 'What they thought was a story of a romantic affair had turned into a murder case in the blink of an eye?'

'His mistress and child were murdered by his wife?'

'That was a lot to take in.'

The Zhao Family's grandchildren exchanged a stunned look. "Grandpa is saying... our grandmother was a murderer?"

They had never actually met their grandmother, only knowing that she had passed away long ago. They had never been told how she died.

As Zhao Changmin continued to speak, he paradoxically seemed to relax. The secret he had suppressed for fifty years had been like a great mountain weighing on his heart. Living with it for all those years had not been easy.

Now that he had spoken it aloud, he felt a weight lift from his entire body. He even felt a decade younger.

However, the next part of the story was even more difficult to speak of—an act that would outrage both gods and men.

He subtly glanced up. High above the villagers, a Gold and Silver Snake hung bizarrely suspended in the void, staring down at him with a pair of cold, serpentine eyes.

He knew he had no choice but to continue speaking.

"After Xinlan and my unborn child died, strange things began to happen constantly in the Zhao Family. Not long after, my wife also died. It was retribution."

Zhao Changmin sighed regretfully. "Strange things kept happening at home, so I hired a Daoist. The Daoist said it was because Xinlan could not rest in peace. He said that for the Zhao Family to have peace, I had to dig up Xinlan's body and use her bones to craft a piece of Hongxin Wood. Not only would this ward off evil, but it would also transform her spirit into a House Snake to guard the Zhao Family's home and accumulate good fortune."

"I did as he instructed. I had Xinlan's bones made into Hongxin Wood and hung it high from the rafters of the Zhao Family house."

At this, everyone present stood dumbstruck, a cold sweat trickling down their spines.

'Her bones made into Hongxin Wood, and her ghost turned into a House Snake?'

To the people of Bai Town, a House Snake was a benevolent creature. It was a guardian that watched over a home and ensured its prosperity, sometimes even considered an incarnation of the Snake King.

But there was a deeper meaning: people believed that House Snakes were the spirits of deceased relatives, so they must never be killed, lest there be retribution.

There was a legend that if a Snake Catcher was killed by a venomous snake but was unwilling to pass on, their spirit could become a House Snake and continue to stand guard.

The price for this, however, was to be forever barred from the Six Paths of Reincarnation, denied the chance to be reborn for all eternity.

It was too great a price to pay. No one would ever choose it willingly.

Zhao Changmin had listened to the Daoist and had the bones of the woman who died so tragically for him made into Hongxin Wood, forcing her spirit to become a House Snake to protect the Zhao Family.

'How utterly cruel.'

'Zhao Xinlan died a tragic death in the Zhao household, only to be forced to become a House Snake, guarding their home and bringing them fortune, forever denied reincarnation.'

'Diabolical. Utterly diabolical. What a ruthless man.'

In an instant, the villagers finally understood why the Zhao Family's House Snake had returned to kill its members.

It was the revenge of that poor woman.

The puzzle was solved in an instant.

"Elder Zhao, how could you treat the woman you claimed to love like that? She and her child were murdered by your wife, and you still had her bones made into Hongxin Wood? You're worse than an animal!"

"Zhao Changmin, are you even human? How could you resort to such a vile act? Do you have a conscience?"

"The House Snake is killing your family? Good! You all deserve it!"

"If I were her, I'd come back for revenge too!"

In an instant, the crowd erupted, every single person filled with righteous fury.

That poor woman, Zhao Xinlan... it was an absolute tragedy.

The villagers' understanding of the situation wasn't entirely accurate, but that didn't matter. They didn't need to know the whole truth. All they needed to know was that Zhao Xinlan had died a wrongful, miserable death. She was a tragic woman, and justice had to be served.

In an instant, the once highly respected Elder Zhao became a public enemy, scorned and hated by all.

One couldn't do that to an ordinary person—turn their bones into Hongxin Wood and deny them reincarnation—let alone to the woman who had died because of you.

She carried your child and was murdered by your wife, and this is how you treated her?

Worse than an animal.

"Zhao Changmin, you bastard! That woman was carrying your child when your wife murdered them both, and you still turned her bones into Hongxin Wood! You're an absolute monster! You're the one who should have died! You had a wife but still went chasing after another woman, leading her to such a miserable fate!"

An old woman erupted in fury, hurling an egg that smashed squarely on Elder Zhao's face. The shell shattered, spattering yolk everywhere.

"I am a sinner! I was wrong! I have now revealed the secret I've kept for fifty years. I beg for your forgiveness!"

Overcome with emotion, Elder Zhao stood up. For a moment, he froze in shock. Then, everyone else froze too.

Elder Zhao, who had been paralyzed by a stroke, whose legs had long lost all feeling, who had been confined to a wheelchair for two years—had suddenly stood up.

The scene was earth-shattering. It was as if a bombshell had been dropped on the crowd, stunning everyone into silence.

A moment later, strange expressions appeared on everyone's faces. 'It's true what they say,' they thought, 'the good die young, but a scourge like him lives for a thousand years.'

'Elder Zhao treated the woman he once loved so cruelly, yet not only has he lived to be eighty-two, but now even his paralyzed legs have miraculously healed.'

'The heavens are blind!'

A look of ecstasy spread across Elder Zhao's face. Unburdening himself of the fifty-year-old secret had relaxed his entire being, restoring the circulation and feeling to his legs.

"Hahaha..."

He laughed, roaring with laughter in front of everyone. 'Even I think I deserve to die, but the heavens themselves seem to be on my side.'

In the pitch-black night, the wind howled wildly, chilling everyone to the bone. Only the old man's unrestrained laughter echoed through the air.

That night, the respected "Elder Zhao" died, but Zhao Changmin was reborn. It seemed he would live on, and live well, for a very long time.

Just then...

CRACK!

A dazzling flash of lightning illuminated the sky and the earth. The thunder that followed seemed to have gathered all its strength, sounding the horn of a Doomsday Judgment. The sky ripped open, and a bolt of lightning, like a snow-white sword, descended as if guided by a supernatural hand, plunging directly into the head of the wildly laughing Zhao Changmin.

The lightning struck. The air between heaven and earth filled with the murderous intent of Celestial Punishment.

The sky itself seemed to be collapsing. Zhao Changmin was completely enveloped in the massive bolt of light, letting out a blood-curdling scream.

A mere second later, as everyone's vision returned from the blinding white light, they all stared, wide-eyed. They saw...

Zhao Changmin, who had just stood up, had been struck dead by the lightning. His body was charred black, and thin wisps of smoke rose from it.

When the astonished crowd looked up, they saw a snake suspended in the void, its body crackling with electricity. It was incomparably majestic, sacred, and inviolable.

"Lord Snake King..."

In an instant, every villager present fell to their knees, overcome with emotion. It was the Snake King, master of the thunder and lightning, who had acted, delivering Celestial Punishment to Zhao Changmin.

It was a moment of deeply satisfying justice.