Chapter 21 | Ink East

Edited by Renderedreversed

Chapter 21

A cuter picture of wild boar Kong

“Hey.”

Hiding in the grass, I asked Chu Kong in a low voice: “What are they worshipping?”

At this time, the sunlight had gradually faded away, and night had come. Two men holding three torches were kneeling on the ground against a dusky hole. They bowed three times and worshipped with great respect.

Chu Kong didn’t answer my question. His eyes were fixed on the two men. A little while later, he said: “You go and howl two times.”

His attitude made me unhappy. I smiled coldly: “Go howl yourself. Why should I go?”

Chu Kong didn’t say anything. A hoof landed on my paw. I howled in pain, shocking all the tigers in the mountain. I gritted my teeth. This guy…this guy…

“Ah,” one of the men exclaimed. “Ti…tiger!”

Together with two torches in his hands, the man fell to the ground. Like someone paralyzed, he could only scoot a little bit back. The other guy held his torch in front of me and began to step back, pulling his companion up when he got in range.

“Calm, calm down! She’s afraid of fire. She won’t come here easily.”

Since he said that, I moved towards him. The two men were so afraid that they were trembling and sweating. One of them fell down. I was surprised for a moment and wondered if I’d scared someone to death. The other man started to run, disappearing in a blink of an eye. He must have thought that since I had prey in front of me, I would certainly not chase after him.

I shook my head, sighing. Place a person in a life-or-death situation and their true nature would be revealed. Behind me, I heard the sound of grass rustling before wild boar Kong stepped out. I patted the man who collapsed on the ground with my paw.

“Hey, look at what happened because of you. You should take him back to the village on the foot of the mountain.”

“You still have the heart to care about these stupid humans,” Chu Kong said. “You’re still as ignorant as ever.”

He ignored me and trotted into the dark cave, minding his steps. Although I was dissatisfied with his attitude, seeing the always arrogant Chu Kong being so careful convinced me to hold back my temper and carefully walk behind him.

It was very dark inside the cave; a human would certainly get lost. Fortunately, a tiger’s eyesight was much stronger than a human’s. I could see the entirety of the cave crystal clear: where the stones were, where the puddles were…wait, why did this puddle smell like blood?

My eyes tracked down the source of the sound of water: there was a hole in the wall where water was flowing from.

I was still looking at the hole, when suddenly a human head emerged. It almost gave me a heart attack. The expression on the man’s head was distorted, sickly and haggard. I didn’t know what suddenly sucked the flesh away, but it left only the bones. With a “hulalala” sound, the bones collapsed. Before my paws was a white skeleton.

Although I was an immortal, I lived a peaceful life. I never saw someone who died so miserably. Frightened, I gasped for air and felt the urge to grab hold of the Chu Kong in front of me. But right now, he was not a man, but a boar, and his back was not a back, but a rough behind. Without a care, I exposed my sharp claws and grabbed hold of it.

“There’s a demon,” I yelled.

Chu Kong also shouted: “Do you want me to use my hooves and dump you in the river of wine!”

“But there’s really a demon!”

I pointed with a claw towards the hole in the wall, as well as the white skeleton nearby.

“Before he dropped in front of me, he was eaten cleanly.”

Chu Kong no longer accused me. He turned around and looked at the pile of bones, speaking with a cold voice: “Now do you know what the two men were worshipping outside the cave?”

I shook my head.

“I don’t know.”

Chu Kong felt hopeless; he looked at me and said: “Two people carrying three torches. There must’ve been three people. One of them entered the cave.”

Chu Kong pointed at the pile of bones with his hoof.

“This man turned into a sacrifice. They are worshipping with a living sacrifice for the…”

Chu Kong thought for a moment: “I don’t know who they’re worshipping, but I can be sure that’s not an immortal from heaven. It’s full of yin air in here, just like…”

The Netherworld.

Chu Kong didn’t say it, but I could guess his meaning. My cultivation was still a bit less than his, so I didn’t detect the strange atmosphere in the beginning. Now that Chu Kong had pointed it out, I could feel it. The cold air here was exactly like the Netherworld’s.

Chu Kong explored everywhere and said: “The ground has yin. It must be connected to the Netherworld.” His voice turned deeper: “Seeing the two men like that before, this living sacrifice must be something very common.”

I wondered: “Accepting living sacrifices will harm the yin and will make it easy to fall into the evil ways. This is clearly prohibited. I don’t know any immortal from the Netherworld that’s so daring.”

“Humph, an immortal doing something evil, will he dare to say it?” Chu Kong said full of dislike: “What were you doing so many years in heaven? How come your head doesn’t have any common sense?”

I exposed my claws and said with a low voice: “If you speak like that to me again, I’ll scratch of the skin of your behind.”

Chu Kong shook his tail and continued: “The immortals of the Netherworld, aside from Yanwang and the magistrate, are all prohibited from accepting sacrifices. They are prohibited from killing. The Netherworld ghosts don’t have the ability to receive sacrifices anyway, so they won’t be asking for any sacrifices, let alone living sacrifices. Aside from the ghosts, there’s also gods from Heaven residing in the Netherworld. There are two possibilities why a god would go to the Netherworld. First, like you and me, to end something. This sort will be a short stay. We don’t have the time nor the ability to receive sacrifices. As for the second possibility, it must be a god who committed a great sin. He must go to the eighteenth floor1 of the Netherworld to atone for his sins.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“Obviously the god is being punished in the Netherworld, yet he still has the gall to do such a thing? This is a sin within a sin. Which god doesn’t want to live anymore and dares to commit such a grave offense…”

Chu Kong was silent for a moment. Then he said: “Yanwang should be informed about this matter as soon as possible.”

I nodded in agreement: “But we haven’t assessed the situation clearly yet.”

As I spoke, I walked toward the hole in the wall. I raised my head to get a clear view of it.

“I’ll look at it first…”

“No!”

Chu Kong voice hadn’t reached my ears; I already put my head in the hole. There was nothing from the left to the right. There was nothing above, below…

A gold light suddenly flashed in the dark. I was still in shock; my breath had stopped, when a cold wind came in my direction. The wind hit me right in the face and pushed me backwards. With four legs in the air, I fell onto the ground.

“So painful,” I shouted.

The running sound of a wild boar’s hooves sounded in the cave. Chu Kong stopped beside me. A nose rubbed my head.

“Where are you hurt?”

The cold air entered my nose. I couldn’t tell what my heart was feeling. I only blankly said: “I don’t know…my backbone is painful.”

Seeing that I was alright, Chu Kong stared at me for a while. Suddenly, he began to rage: “Trying to be so reckless again! How can you just go and take a look?! Do you really think that you can’t die anymore? See how you’ll reincarnate when your soul is scattered!”

“Why are you angry? If my soul is scattered you won’t need to spend a few more lifetimes with me. Shouldn’t you be happy?”

I looked at him strangely. Seeing that he was stunned for a moment after hearing my question, I suddenly came to a realization. Reluctantly, I stood up and patted his head with my paw.

“I understand, I understand. You really like me.”

“Like, your butt.”

“You don’t need to cover it with words you don’t mean.”

“Cover, your butt.”

I helplessly sighed and shook my head.

“I know that I’m too charming, and I’m a bit slow at this thing called love. Liking me must be really hard on you.”

I paused.

“You can continue to work hard.”

Wild boar Kong’s throat made a low “gululu” sound. He howled angrily. He turned, shaking off my paw from his head as he stomped toward the cave entrance.

I reflected for a moment.

“What are you being shy about? Hey! In situations like this, do you want me to chase after you, ah?! You should just say it. I said I was a little slow!”

I trotted behind him. Chu Kong couldn’t take it anymore. He turned around and yelled: “Xiaoye is going to commit suicide! You get away from me! You’re not allowed to die together with me!”

After two lifetimes, Chu Kong and I really had become indifferent to death. Look at how easy and natural he was when he declared his intent to commit suicide.

When we reached the opening of the cave, we saw that the place was lit with torches. I nodded my head: “I can foresee my fur being stripped and sold. Your meat will be cooked as dinner.”

Outside the cave, there were dozens of men holding a variety of sticks, knives and torches.

It looked like the man who fled had brought the whole village with him to kill a tiger.

“There’s also a wild boar!”

“It must be the food of the tiger.”

“It doesn’t look like it ah…”

The strong men outside discussed. I took a look at their weapons, heart pounding in my chest. Those weapons looked so dull and old. It wouldn’t be a painless nor fast death. My backbone was still aching. I whispered to Chu Kong: “Can we change our way of dying?”

Chu Kong’s eyes swept over me. He reluctantly said: “Xiaoye will divert their attention. Run when you get the opportunity. Don’t be so stupid that you can’t even escape from a few humans.”

After saying that, he pounded his hooves on the ground and ran in the direction with the most people. He rushed past them, flustering the villagers. Weapons began to cut Chu Kong’s rough skin. But even if his skin was rough, I knew it still must’ve been painful…

He knew I was afraid of death and afraid of pain, so he looked for opportunities for me to escape…

Looking at his bulky body being besieged by the crowd was a funny picture. I didn’t know what the matter was with my heart. The sight made me feel just like I had in the first lifetime, when I saw Lu Hai Kong through the fire in the dog hole. It was like someone was touching the softest string of my heart, an indescribable feeling I could not put to words.

Perhaps deep inside the arrogant Celestial Star Chu Kong lived the Lu Hai Kong of that lifetime; he was simply hiding his gentle and considerate side. Once that side was revealed, I knew it would attack and defeat me.

I knew that he was seeking death. I also knew that maybe he was looking for a way to end our few lifetimes together. Still, once my head turned warm, logic went out the window. I stopped everyone with a howl, rushing forward to pounce on the most powerful man attacking Chu Kong. I roared in front of his face. The brawny man was scared and began to shake.

Being a tiger, I was very proud, but my pride was a fleeting thing. There was just too many people. After a while, I lied on the ground, completely exhausted as I accepted my fate. I glanced at wild boar Kong. His eyes were white. He must already be on the road to the Netherworld. I sighed. Impulse, ah. Impulse. Giving up a life of a tiger in vain. Weapons dug into my bones. Being killed as an animal, I died more miserably than in any other lifetime…

Comments:

What can Chu Kong do when our XXZ admits that she is a bit dull in the love section than sigh and blame his heart lol.

The Eighteenth Floor:

Name: Chamber of Saw

Function: Those who exploit the loopholes in the law to cheat and engage in malpractice in business will find themselves being sawed into half. http://www.cvltnation.com/the-eighteen-layers-of-chinese-hell/

Previous Chapter Next Chapter