Chapter 17: The Nest of Venomous Creatures
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Mo Wen was unaware that someone was plotting against him. Currently he was still carrying a large bag of necessities while running around the living quarters like a headless chicken. The living quarters were too big; blocks and blocks of residential buildings filled the area and they all looked the same. For someone who was unfamiliar with the place, setting foot in here was like entering a maze.
After searching for a long time with not luck, Mo Wen had no choice but to stop and ask a relatively short male student for directions. “Hello, do you know where room A-16-805 is?”
“Are you a freshman? A-16-805 is in zone A, block sixteen, on the eighth floor, and dormitory #5,” the student responded, enthusiastically showing Mo Wen the direction to go. Now that he asked, Mo Wen now knew that the living quarters were divided into four zones: A, B, C, D. Zone A and B were male dormitories while Zone C and D were female dormitories.
The male student thoughtfully stared after Mo Wen walking away, “Hmm? Dormitory A-16-805? Why do I feel like it’s a bit off?” He suddenly shrieked as if he had seen a ghost, “Dormitory A-16-805! Isn’t that the demonic room where nobody dares to go?”
It was a hot summer day, but the male student shivered. He stole a glance at Mo Wen’s back fearfully, then bolted away and disappeared.
Following the signs, Mo Wen found quickly Block 16 in Zone A. The corridors were clean, as if someone cleaned it daily. Once in a while, grey footprints could be seen on the snow white wall, revealing the rebellion and unruliness of the students.
All the residential blocks in the living quarters had eight floors. There were no elevators installed so the students had to climb stairs to get to their dormitories. Therefore, the lower the floor one got, the better location it was. The higher the floor, the hotter it was, especially during summer.
Dormitory 805 was on the eighth floor, the top floor. It was not a comfortable room. For every floor Mo Wen climbed up, he could feel the surrounding air heat up a notch. After he climbed eight floors, he was drenched in sweat.
“Hmm. Dormitory 805.”
As soon as Mo Wen reached the eighth floor, he started locating his room. He walked along the corridor, 802…803…804…
Very soon he reached Dormitory 805, but what he found was odd. All the rooms before it seemed to be unoccupied, in fact the whole floor was empty and not single person in sight. For a big, lively campus, this didn’t seem right!
There was a lock on the door of Dormitory 805. No one seemed to be inside. Mo Wen took out the key he got from the warden’s office, unlocked the door, and stepped in.
As soon as he set foot in the room, Mo Wen’s pupils contracted and he frowned slightly while staring at the condition in the room quizzically.
Hiss!
An eerie sound rang beside his ear. A shadow suddenly dropped from the door frame and a hideous hooded beast suddenly appeared in front of Mo Wen. It was facing him with its mouth opened wide, sticking out a ghastly forked tongue.
A venomous snake!
Mo Wen frowned. If a normal person saw this, they might have been so scared that that would end up sitting stunned on the floor. However, Mo Wen didn’t even bat an eye, instead he was looking curiously at the venomous snake a foot away. Big eyes with a hood. A species of cobra; and it was not a common cobra. It had a thin golden thread on its head; it was a rare Golden Thread Cobra.
“Interesting!” Mo Wen was admiring it in his heart. A Golden Thread Cobra was not a common species of snake and it had great uses in medicine. After decocting with a special method, its flesh could make impotent patients turn erect right away and provide amazing sexual stamina. It was a precious, rare aphrodisiac.
Venom extracted from its venom sacs could be used to create potent aphrodisiacs. Even the most loyal and chaste women would be reduced to promiscuity after ingesting it.
The snake’s liver was also a highly valuable item. One Golden Thread Cobra liver was worth its weight in gold, and it was also a rare commodity that couldn’t easily be sold.
In an instant, Mo Wen had thoroughly analyzed the value of this Golden Thread Cobra. Sadly, this particular cobra only had one golden thread. It would be too premature to use it for medical purposes just yet. If it was a cobra with three golden threads, that would be considered a holy relic!
There was slight disappointment in his eyes as Mo Wen thought about the value a Golden Thread Cobra with three golden threads could hold. It could be used to create a pill to improve cultivation of Inner Qi. Adding on a few years worth of Inner Qi cultivation in an instant would definitely be valuable medicine.
It was such a pity that the Golden Thread Cobra in front of him was not of age and was not much use for him.
Hiss!
The Golden Thread Cobra seemed to be irked by Mo Wen’s disregard for it. It opened its big, stinky mouth wide as its hissing got sharper.
Mo Wen took a glance at the Golden Thread Cobra; it was odd. The cobra was hissing loudly, but it didn’t attack him. This didn’t fit the usual behavior of a Golden Thread Cobra, at least from what he knew of them. Was it possible that this cobra was domesticated?
Only domesticated Golden Thread Cobras would refrain from attacking people nearby when under the owner’s command.
All animals were highly intelligent, especially unique species like Golden Thread Cobra. With an extra lifetime of memories, Mo Wen was well aware that some experienced Insect Rearers could easily communicate with animals.
The Golden Thread Cobra in front of him was obviously trying to scare him away, but it did not intend to attack him.
Mo Wen put on a pensive smile. A Golden Thread Cobra appearing in the dormitory with such strange behavior; it was obviously raised by someone. Now he was slightly curious about the person who dared to keep a Golden Thread Cobra. Is it possible that this person was his roommate?
He simply reached out his hand and caught the Golden Thread Cobra. The serpent wasn’t small at three feet in length.
The Golden Thread Cobra was riled up as Mo Wen quickly caught it. It opened its mouth to bite down on Mo Wen’s hand. With its toxicity, once bitten, a person could die within the minute if not immediately.
Mo Wen smirked. His fingers suddenly moved rhythmically along the serpent’s body. The next moment, the beast’s ferocious movement paused and its body softened, dangling on Mo Wen’s hand like a rope. It was abnormally tame too.
Mo Wen sniggered. He had many ways to handle a Golden Thread Cobra.
Stepping into the dormitory, Mo Wen was once again taken aback by the condition before him. The first thing that he saw was a living hall, around 98 square feet. furnished with a sofa, table, and some chairs. There was even a television, an air-conditioner, and a fridge in the room. It wasn’t like a school dormitory; it was more like walking into his own home.
The dormitories in Hua Xia University were all six people dorms. Each dorm had a main living hall and six rooms. Even though the accommodation was free for students, the living conditions were rather good. However great the conditions may be, it would still be unlikely for a dormitory to have a sofa and an air-conditioner, let alone a television and fridge. Those were most likely things added on by the students living in the dormitory itself.
Mo Wen didn’t expect to enter a dormitory of a nouveau riche. It was obviously not going to be easy staying in this dormitory, because other than fancy furnishings, he saw many other unimaginable things in the room.
He could see the floor of the living hall crowded with Chinese red-headed centipedes, each the length of a chopstick and the width of two fingers. There were a few hundred of them covering the floor, and there wasn’t even a place for him to set his foot down. On the sofa there were many thin, green venomous snakes tangled together, twisting and warping to form knots. Not only were those creatures present, but on the ceiling there were spider webs everywhere. Dangling from the webs were spiders as big as infant fists.
Mo Wen’s lips twitched. This isn’t a dormitory; this is a nest of venomous creatures!
He took a step back, taking a glance at the door plate; indeed it was dormitory 805. He hadn’t enter the wrong place. Is this really his dormitory? The warden wasn’t pranking him right? The condition in the dormitory looked exactly like a base for breeding venomous creatures!
He had to be right. The warden must be pranking him. It was just that Mo Wen didn’t know about it.
A place like this in a university dormitory! This was unbelievable!