Business 3

"Entire place is booby trapped," Qiongqi said.

Although his tone bore the air of nonchalance, the iciness of his pale blue eyes glared piercingly at Orochi with an unsettling defiance and a deep-seated resentment

Kanghui stood by, watching Qiongqi's act of sheer intimidation, intentionally aimed at adding to Orochi's growing unease.

Qiongqi was sizing Orochi up by deliberate agitation, revelling in any reaction, providing Kanghui with an opportunity to open the seal while Orochi remained distracted.

Last thing she needed was to let Orochi memorize the methods of entering or exiting the facility.

The deliberate show of the first security device served as a covert warning to Orochi.

With her eyes moved to the side, discreetly watching the interaction between Orochi and Qiongqi, Huntun came bumbling down beside her, adding an obstacle in the line of Orochi's sight, blocking his view.

Perfect, Kanghui thought, despite how annoying Huntun acted. Huntun behaved like when he took his original beast form, always tagging along like a spider stuck to its cocoon prey.

Among the four, Huntun was the most dangerous one. Below his show of outward childish demeanour, he escaped the fate of being devoured by the other three. Not to mention his recent prowess in shape-shifting to human form.

Never aggressive, but none of the three revealed the reason not for devouring Huntun despite them bullying him.

Kanghui placed her hand on a metallic panel which appeared on the wall. Three beams appeared and scanned her from head to toe. Then a similar seal with the same reddish vapor, a poison which she is immune to, appeared and then vanished again.

She beckoned for the rest to enter a narrow tall passageway of smoothened rock enough for two individuals to pass through, where a larger chamber awaited inside.

Once all entered, Kanghui re-started the security system and the reddish glow confirmed the activation of the seal again.

Orochi walked on ahead as Qiongqi followed, accompanied by Huntun, who placed his hand on the walls, sliding along it like a child.   

Orochi stopped as his eyes soaked the first view of the chamber, as Qiongqi and Huntun brushed past him.

The impressive structural pillars, the height of a human skyscraper, took Orochi's breath away.

"You haven't seen all of it yet," she said, hinting for him to move.

Orochi continued walking as his head moved to grasp how gargantuan the complex was.

"This isn't the ground level," he said to her.

"We are several storeys up from the base," she replied while he stared at the barrier railings on the side and a stone carved bridge at the far end of the edge upon exiting.

Orochi heard the repeated echoes of the pitter patter from the beast kings' feet with each step they took.

"What is this place?" He asked.

"An ancient defence facility," she answered without a flinch.

"Yours?"

"They exiled me here when I was alive and even after death, I still return here," Kanghui replied.

Exiled when Kanghui hit the succession age of fifteen. She, or rather he, back then, was an anomaly in the serpent worlds. A hermaphroditic serpent, unheard of in the serpent worlds, capable of switching genders with ease, created anxiety among her kind.

Some called Kanghui a divine creature, while others derided her as a curse. Kanghui's father forced her, or rather his, mother, a lowly concubine of her ruthless father, into suicide upon birth to satisfy the superstitious living serpents.

Fuxi and Nüwa were twin children of the primary consort. Both favoured and pampered while Kanghui was ill-treated, even by the slaves who served the House of Pangu.

Marriage alliances were out of the question, but Kanghui's father decided on using Kanghui as cannon fodder in the Realm of Mo. As a member of the House of Pangu, he sent Kanghui out under the pretence of guarding their territory.

Orochi took a step forward to the ledge to look at the structure that stood stoic past its age for at least a million years now, or maybe less.

"Out of curiosity," he trailed off and thought of the potential backlash in asking.

"Just ask," Kanghui said.

"If your House stationed here some, what happened to the others of your kind?"

The House of Pangu, Kanghui's house, ruled the realm and other serpent houses couldn't station their own here. Judging from the ruins he had seen mid-way from the mountain, a civilisation of her kind once flourished here.

"Wars. That happened when I was long gone. They exterminated each other," came her answer with no change in her expression.

Kanghui really didn't care.

"There are those who made the final evolution. Like Xiangliu, my old lieutenant, he is generations younger than me," she continued with an air of ambivalence, almost like describing a boring text.

Did the signature belong to the said Xiangliu the one he detected earlier? Orochi wondered.

"Kanghui," a figure of a man called out from the opposite end of the bridge.

Orochi glanced in the figure's direction and then gasped as the hated name escaped his mouth. "Nüwa can take male form?"

Kanghui's eyes narrowed at him with a silent fury emanating from the mention of the name as her fist clenched tightly.

The two beast kings immediately stepped a few paces back, expecting a violent outburst.

"Dude, don't mention the name," Huntun whispered loudly as Kanghui's ears pricked up.

"I am fine. He doesn't know," she spat.

"Well, I am Fuxi, older brother of Kanghui," the man quickly diverted attention to himself with a quick introduction, after a look at Kanghui's face, careful not to mention Nüwa's name

Orochi bit his lips at the unintentional faux pas.

To his memory, Fuxi is the twin brother of Nüwa, and a sibling to Kanghui. The pale face of a young man, delicate yet beautiful and genteel, bore some resemblance to Kanghui's face.

Only the House of Pangu bore serpents with human faces, a unique feature of their kind. Unlike Orochi's - Orochi had to learn how to model his snake face after human features.

"Maybe I should change back to my older form," Fuxi said aloud to diffuse the tense situation.

"Don't bother. Go rest," Kanghui marched towards him across the solid stone bridge with an irate look on her face while Orochi bowed slightly to him, trailing behind her.

Her family business is unfinished even after death, Orochi thought.

Then again, who was he to say anything?

The seven clones of the serpents used to belong to his seven older brothers. Until he cannibalised and absorbed their energy waves when they sought to control him.

"You sure?" Fuxi asked as she stopped beside him without looking at his face.

"Orochi here and I have business to discuss, less you know the better," Kanghui spoke without once turning to him.

"Orochi, from the House of Oyau?" Fuxi glanced at Orochi, looking at him from head to toe. "My goodness, I can barely recognise him now."

Orochi frowned at the mention of his former House.

"You both met before?" Kanghui swung around and stared at Orochi, who looked puzzled.

He had never met Fuxi in his life, but his eldest brothers could have.

"He looks a little different," Fuxi said. "Taller. The features are better now."

"I've never met you, but it could have been one of my other brothers," Orochi said as Fuxi frowned with a smirk.

"Yeah… maybe," Fuxi trailed off while staring at his neck. "One had a marking on his neck. Come to think of it, he had red eyes, not purple like yours."

Orochi sighed and feigned sadness. "That was my late eldest brother. He died - didn't evolve."

That was an outright lie. Not that he really cared - his eldest brother was the worst of the seven, the one who made plans to kill him, but appearances needed to be kept.

Orochi was among the first few to die in the line of fifteen brothers and the first to complete the transition as a fully evolved being with an intact soul.

The tables turned in his favor - first to die, and in an odd twist of fate, the unique ability to absorb souls.

Orochi laid in wait, patiently for decades, for the seven who plotted his demise and pounced on the fully evolved soul of his dear oldest brother, the first opportunity he had.

Out of the seven, four became ghosts and Orochi cannibalised them too, out of sheer rage and vengeance. A smile of satisfaction appeared on his face, which Fuxi mistook as a friendly gesture.

Fuxi leaned in and whispered, "that's fortunate for you then."

Orochi contemplated what Fuxi's words meant when he noticed Kanghui's face growing darker. Now, he didn't want to know. Ignorance is bliss.