At this moment, there were several muffled plops around me, as if something were falling head first from the sky. Amidst the chaos, there were the cries of cats, the sound of bones rubbing and fracturing, and the fluttering of butterfly wings.
"I told you to run faster! If we had come earlier, we wouldn't have been locked out!"
"You're a cat, I'm just a skeleton. How can I be as fast as you?!"
"I said I'm here to carry you, but you refused."
"Who would let such a small butterfly carry them? It would be so embarrassing if word got out!"
It's... Cangtong Kai and the other guys! I distinctly smelled their scents.
"They arrived late and got stuck at the entrance of the villa. Seeing how enthusiastic they are, it would be rude of me not to let them in." In the darkness, Mu's faint voice turned into a monstrous growl, which ran amok in my anxious and flustered heart.
The pain was still increasing, and after the arrival of these unexpected guests, it felt like my skin was about to detach from my muscles and melt away.
"Why is there a glow around you?"
"You too!"
"I... I feel like I can't breathe..."
"My head is spinning! It feels like my body is on fire! It hurts like hell!"
Soon, I heard those guys fall to the ground.
"You still have time to choose," Mu's footsteps approached, each step determined, as if victory was assured. "Ao Chi, just that one heart of yours in exchange for the woman you love, your friends, and even all the still surviving demons in the world. You're not losing out at all. It's not worthwhile to sacrifice their lives for the sake of the petty and low human world."
Ao Chi was silent.
I didn't know what Mu and Ao Shuo were planning for the existing world, but I knew Ao Chi couldn't nod. This deal must not be made!
"No!" I grabbed Ao Chi's hand and refused to let go.
"Look at Shaluo and how much pain she is in. You should know very well how demons feel in the Shadow Land," Mu at this moment, must be using a gaze full of pity to "sympathize" with me, to "influence" him.
Indeed, I was in so much pain that I would rather be dead than alive, but I didn't utter a sound. I didn't want Ao Chi to hear it.
"If anything happens to her, I'll bury you all with her."
Ao Chi's response was simple and straightforward.
An unusual surge of energy and roaring erupted around me, and the blazing flames illuminated my darkened vision.
I heard Mu let out a low, mournful cry, followed by the thud of a heavy object hitting the ground and the smell of something burning.
Then came my own scream. A row of cold, hard teeth clamped onto my waist and tossed me into the air, dropping me onto a body covered with scales. Immediately after, strange things fell around me one after the other, something soft and furry, something ice-cold and hard, and something emitting a faint smell of alcohol. What...
Something landed on my shoulder as light as a feather, and I heard the familiar yet faint voice of Ku Yue, "It's us..."
Before I could react, I felt my body become light, and my whole body rose into the air, soaring upward at an unprecedented speed.
"Hold on tight," Ao Chi's voice came from below, and through the thick scales, I felt a fresh and beating heartbeat.
With my hazy eyes, I seemed to once again see the obstinate and unruly evil dragon hidden in the clouds when we first met.
I hugged this big guy tightly, my flushed cheek pressed against his scales. I felt surprisingly comfortable, and even the pain eased a lot. The lightness of this moment made me feel drowsy.
In a daze, I asked, "Where are we going..."
"To find the sun," his voice had never been so gentle, "Don't fall asleep, talk to me."
"The sun... will bake me like a roast pig." I chuckled, "What is the Shadow Land... Mu seems very proud."
"Every thousand years, the three heavenly bodies Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto align for an hour, and the resulting magnetic field anomaly instantly blocks the Sun's light from entering the human world. Within this hour, if our friend refines and concentrates the spiritual essence of all types of demons collected beforehand, and then selects a place filled with a negative magnetic field to release these powers all at once in harmony with the Three King Stars in the universe, our world will become what you see now. Not only will it lose its light, but it will also completely break the inherent balance and survival laws of this world. You can also think of it as a virus that covers the entire world, but the infected targets are all demons. In this 'virus kingdom,' demons will gradually lose their magic powers and finally be burned to ashes by the power of the dark land." He grew angrier as he spoke, "It is taboo to invoke the assistance of the Shadow Land. Three thousand years ago, a cultivator tried to use this method to exterminate all demons in the world, but he failed. Instead, he was wiped out by a coalition of demons and the heavenly realm, and it is said that not even his bones remained." He paused, then suddenly laughed, "It's funny. In reality, the so-called ecological balance doesn't just refer to the balance between humans and animals. If all demons were to perish, this world wouldn't fare well either. Smart people understand this and will make every effort to maintain this balance. So, anyone who invokes the Shadow Land deserves to die."
Ao Chi said a lot, but I only intermittently understood that Ao Shuo and Mu captured the demons in order to create a death realm where demons would be wiped out in one go. However, Ao Shuo's goal was obviously not to deal with demons.
"Your brother wants to deal with all the demons in the world?" I did as he said, trying hard to stay alert and not let myself fall asleep, even though I was really tired.
"What he wants to deal with are not demons, but humans, all humans." Ao Chi said after a moment of silence, "But I never expected him to persist for so long and take such a big gamble. Everything is calculated, all just to force me to submit."
"I heard him mention Axis of Time... what is the key?" This was the keyword that Ao Shuo had mentioned more than once, and it was my biggest puzzlement.
"The Axis of Time, hidden deep in the earth's core, controls the time operation of the entire world. It is a crucial device guarded by our East China Sea Dragon Clan and no one is allowed to change it," Ao Chi's voice became solemn, "That person has been different from others since childhood. He read many books, a lot of them, and often went to explore the outside world for many days at a time. Every time he returned, his expression was very unsightly, saying how dirty the world is and humans are such despicable and hateful trash. He said that if time is used to completely purify the world, eradicating the existence of such creatures as humans, he'll definitely be able to establish a perfect nation, just like our East China Sea – noble, prosperous, and clean." He sighed and continued, "The Axis of Time is sealed within the Ninefold Barrier, and only one key can unlock it. This key is placed inside the hearts of the successive guardians, and only those chosen as guardians can pass through the passage to the Axis of Time. Anyone other than the guardian, even if they force their way in and have snatched the key, cannot use it because the passage is full of light and darkness, and the force of the collisions between extreme yin and extreme yang would crush them into a pulp before they reach the barrier. Yet, despite all this, he disregarded everything to obtain the key from the dragon's heart that year."
Dragon heart and tree body, I have obtained one — I suddenly understood the meaning of this sentence.
My real body, protected by the blood of the Lord of the Underworld, can transform into a wooden boat and safely traverse any space. Ao Shuo is not the guardian, and if he doesn't want to end up as a meat patty before reaching the Axis of Time, he must first find a "vehicle" that can safely take him through that passage. No wonder he went to great lengths to steal my real body. In this world, only the Lord of the Underworld has the ability to move through any space without any hindrance. He naturally doesn't dare to touch the Lord of the Underworld, so he could only target me. This man is truly shameless and audacious. He has schemed his entire life, all for that Axis of Time that we have never even seen.
"He killed someone to get the key, didn't he?" I recalled them mentioning a cousin. And this incident should be the root cause of Ao Chi's sore point.
"That year, the successor of the key was our cousin Ao Kong. And that person dreams of reaching the Axis of Time so much that he took advantage of the occasion when my grandfather led trusted subordinates on a patrol, and he ruthlessly killed Ao Kong, who couldn't join due to illness. Before he could gouge out his heart, my grandfather returned midway and caught him in the act." Ao Chi didn't say anything for a long time, as if a scar was being slowly peeled off, terribly painful. "This incident enraged the entire East China Sea. My grandfather gave the order to kill without mercy..."
His narration was suddenly interrupted by a long sigh.
It wasn't from me, nor from anyone around me.
It was Ao Shuo's voice.
The true "evil dragon" in the East China Sea Dragon Clan, Anubis, haunting us like a ghost, emerged from a place we couldn't see. His footsteps had no direction, sometimes dropping from the sky, sometimes circling from the side.
"I always thought it would be someone else who would come after me. But it's not someone else; it's you."
Ao Shuo's shadow approached from a distance, gradually becoming clear before my eyes. The person who was identical to Ao Chi, who was once connected by blood to him and was unparalleled in the world, was now in a life-and-death confrontation with him, and that had to hurt. But when I looked into those calm and profound eyes, they were really devoid of resentment, even though his words continually recounted the tragedy of many years ago.
I shouldn't be able to see Ao Shuo, but his presence didn't require confirmation through my eyes at all. He had simply dissolved himself into the entire Shadow Land, infiltrating into our consciousness. Every inch of darkness spreading here, every wisp of air passing by, was his personification.
"Do you want to forcefully break out of here with them?" he "walked" to the nearest point to us, "Why torment yourself like this? You know it won't work. This is my Shadow Land; even I'm surprised by its power."
"There's nothing to be surprised about. You're just ruthlessly using the lives of others, including Mu, who regards you as the most important person." Ao Chi rose faster and faster, "You sacrificed a large number of ordinary low-level demons to create this disgusting place for you, then attracted this bunch of fools on my back so that this filthy realm can suck the spiritual essence of these high-cultivation demons, maintaining and consolidating this dark world for you. As expected, you make the best use of everything. But you didn't even spare Mu, who is so loyal to you."
"Mu? What happened to her?" It made me inexplicably worry about that vicious and stupid girl.
"The collapse of your body is because the spiritual essence of demons is absorbed by the Shadow Land as nutrients. The more it absorbs, the longer it'll last and the more impenetrable it'll become. As this realm expands, even more demons will die. Mu is a tree demon like you. You have suffered so much damage, and she won't be an exception. Just like you, she is using her own spirit to nourish this black demon graveyard."
It can't be true!
I refuse to believe that her body is experiencing the same pain as mine. She, too, is pretending that everything is normal with unimaginable perseverance.
"I really like listening to your chat. It reminds me of the old days. Every time Father spanked you, you would chatter away with me like this for quite a while." Ao Shuo's figure, floating in the emptiness, transformed from one to many, surrounding us. "But when you killed me, you were silent from start to finish."
I distinctly felt Ao Chi's body suddenly tense, and some scenes that were blurry like old photos passed through the flesh and blood, penetrated the scales, and entered my mind—
Translator:
Are you wondering why Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are referred to as Three King Stars? It's because in Mandarin Uranus is Tiān wáng xīng(Sky King Star), Neptune is Hǎi wáng xīng(Ocean/Sea King Star), and Pluto is Míng wáng xīng(Underworld King Star).
No comments:
Post a Comment