When the old man, Lin Defeng, knelt before the Snake King's statue, the crowd was jolted from a daze. They quickly followed his lead, kneeling one after another in an endless stream.
So many people knelt that the line stretched from the Snake King's Main Hall all the way to several kilometers outside the Snake King Temple, forming a great, long dragon of people. The scene was as magnificent as it was sorrowful.
"Lord Snake King, please emerge to vanquish the demons and slay the devils! Restore peace and tranquility to the people of Bai Town!"
Their heartfelt, resounding cries joined as one, soaring to the heavens and shattering the clouds above, leaving the sky clear for miles.
The smoke from the incense in the Snake King Temple billowed upward like mist and clouds, shrouding the sky and stubbornly refusing to disperse.
