Lie Huo Jiao Chou Volume 2 Chapter 32

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"Little demon, when did you realize it?"

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　　Thousands of 'neither-dead-nor-alive' shaman tribe's people were circling around Aluojin. But then, those quiet whispers stopped; they all looked toward the cave entrance and looked at Sheng Lingyuan —— in the memory, as well as outside of the memory —— and questioned silently.

　　Time seemed to stop.

　　In that quiet silence, Aluojin who was hugging his head stood up, softly asking: "Gege, how did my father die?"

　　Danli who had his face covered shouted: "Bixia, you cannot approach!"

　　"Is it him?"

　　Aluojin stretched out his hand to point Danli, the head in his arms directed its eyes. At the same time, the burned shaman tribe people also followed the direction his finger pointed to look over.

　　"Or is it you?"

　　Aluojin's finger then moved to Sheng Lingyuan, the head and the people also followed.

　　The more horrifying thing was, when Aluojin's head showed a faint smiling expression, the shaman tribe people had exactly the same expression.

　　That teenager who was once as radiant as the sun turned into a spider, spreading out a large web for him to play in and control all the insects as he pleased.

　　Danli shouted: "Bixia, Aluojin had been haunted, all the people in this cave had become puppets under his butterfly! This place doesn't have any living left!"

　　Aluojin burst out laughing, the two lines of bloody tears streamed down on the head in his hands, all the shaman tribe beside him also laughed.

　　"The living… is there something so noble about the living?"

　　The Sheng Lingyuan outside of the memory looked deeply at him, continued to say where he was cut off: "Because that fire was called 'Nanming Li Fire'. Little demon, you called yourself a member of firekeeper tribe, can't you recognize the difference between that fire and a normal one?"

　　Xuan Ji forced a smile: "Bixia, in your entire life, have you ever truthfully said half a sentence with anyone?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan heard that, then slowly turned his head and smiled at him: "Ah? Why do you say that?"

　　Xuan Ji suddenly noticed, under the corner of his left eye, there was a small scar. It had already healed, and usually it would be unrecognizable. Only when he really smiled and the undereye rose, there would show a slight white dip, looking like a lingering tear.

　　The thoroughly burned shaman tribe people followed Aluojin's mind to head toward the cave entrance. On the other side, Danli flew quickly forward and created a sign with his hand. A pure white fire flew out from his sleeves, the fire solidified into a big bird, and with a sharp sound, it headed towards the cave underneath and the altar.

　　Yet the young emperor used his body to stop the bird, his throat was torn, making a sound that was inhuman: "Stop!"

　　Danli gritted out: "Bixia, if you let them leave this place, what would be the fate of millions of citizens in this country?"

　　This line had two meanings —

　　Once the devilish human-faced butterfly incantation was released to the outer world, the consequence would be unimaginable, because this butterfly was clearly unlike the original version. If it wasn't taken care of thoroughly, this would become a silent pestilence.

　　Not to mention Aluojin, who was when alive, his temperament was extreme. He hated the demon tribe. Regardless of whether they were good or bad, he didn't discriminate. As long as they were related to the word 'demon', he wouldn't show mercy; every time he passed by a demon race city, he definitely had to kill the entire city and would not let even one creature survive.

　　Then… how would his tenfold anger for the human tribe lead?

　　He was torn apart then glued back together by evil incantations numerous times, he couldn't live yet couldn't die, he had finally become a devil. Did they really want him to kill all the people in the world?

　　Bang! The teenager Sheng Lingyuan dejectedly kneeled down, and that snow white bird passed by him screeching as it entered the cave, engulfing thousands of shaman tribe puppets. Everyone screamed and shouted in the oppressing fire… as if they were still alive.

　　But they were unable to be burned, unable to die.

　　The teenager Sheng Lingyuan suddenly took out a sword on his side and charged towards the closest shaman tribe person. Only until their head fell down that the shaman tribe person struggled and collapsed. A small human-faced butterfly flew out from their body.

　　Aluojin was covered by the fire that covered the sky and shouted loudly: "Danli! Where are you? Liar, where are you! You won't die in peace!"

　　Danli's voice came from outside of the cave: "Bixia! How long do you want to protect him?"

　　The young Sheng Lingyuan screamed out and headed towards the altar. It was as if the oppressing fire intentionally avoided him, not even a corner of his clothes caught on fire. The butterflies that came out from the decapitated puppets also avoided it. Those butterflies united together to become a group of light and headed towards Aluojin. On their wings, numerous faces solidified into a shade of happiness but also anger, then it was cut in half by a strike quickly coming from Sheng Lingyuan behind.

　　The sword didn't slow down, piercing through Aluojin's chest.

　　A cold light suddenly flashed on the sword, and numerous shaman tribe writing appeared. Aluojin couldn't believe his eyes as he looked at the sword, the head fell down from his hand, opening its mouth to say: "This is the sword that I brought the first time when I entered the army… left Dongchuan… the one I stole from my father to bring with me… to keep peace, to chase away all kinds of evil…Ge…"

　　I brought it for you.

　　In the memory, the young emperor was in so much pain he wanted to die.

　　Outside of the memory, the thousands of years old spirit stood and watched, as if this had nothing to do with him.

　　Xuan Ji quickly jumped back a couple steps: "I haven't actually done anything terrible to you."

　　"I haven't truthfully said half a sentence, but have you, little demon?" Sheng Lingyuan's smile deepened, "Are you really Bifang's descendant? Then why do you have in your hand the Thousand Demons Illustration Book? That was created by Danli himself — a member of the Nanming Firekeeper tribe."

　　The fire in the cave aroused a strong wind, and along with Aluojin's agonized scream, the mask on Danli's face was blown away.

　　This moment, Xuan Ji threw out: "If I die, the fire of Chiyuan will rise again, do you believe it?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan was surprised.

　　Danli's mask was blown away by the wind. Under the mask, his face was clearly exactly like Xuan Ji's!

　　The face appeared in an instant. Behind Xuan Ji, a hand tore through the space and stretched out. The palm had a hole full of blood, holding him at his neck. At the same time, Sheng Lingyuan suddenly moved.There was suddenly a nail on his hand. Not caring if the other hand was still on Xuan Ji's neck or not, he directly nailed it down.

　　Xuan Ji screamed in the inside: "I knew it!"

　　In the imminently dangerous situation, he took out a coin from his pocket. The coin's surface shone the light of a blaze, then he pressed onto the wrist of the hand on his neck. With a sizzling sound, that hand was almost burned through and let go by instinct. Xuan Ji then quickly dodged aside. At the same time, Sheng Lingyuan nailed onto the hole on the hand. This nail went through the hand and scraped the outer skin layer of Xuan Ji's neck — luckily, he was quick to dodge, if not he would be strung together with the old devil like a skewered candied fruit!

　　Sheng Lingyuan insincerely said: "Sorry, temporary solution. I didn't plan to hurt you."

　　Xuan Ji gritted out between his teeth: "Send my regards to your mother.*" 

*Chinese profanity

　　A person was suddenly pulled by Sheng Lingyuan out from space, it was Aluojin — his forehead had a bloody hole, that was the one crawling out of the coffin.

　　As soon as Aluojin was caught, the surrounding memory and scenes broke, and they were once again back to the dark and quiet shaman tribe cave.

　　Sheng Lingyuan acted quickly and decisively. In a flash, Aluojin's limbs and chest had a nail on, but his eyes angrily followed Xuan Ji.

　　"What are you staring at me for?!" Xuan Ji was pissed beyond belief and covered his neck, feeling so wronged, "He used me as a bait to lure you out, that Danli thing in the memory was basically drafted by your good old emperor! How can there be such a stupid dummy in the devil world?"

　　Aluojin couldn't understand the modern Mandarin mixed with internet slang, not even a comma made sense. He continuously stared at Xuan Ji with anger.

　　Sheng Lingyuan slightly raised his brow: "Little demon, when did you realize it?"

　　Xuan Ji's voice was hoarse as he faked a laugh: "You said that since you're still attached, you were easily trapped within the memory of your teenage years. When you told me to ask questions, I immediately felt something wasn't right."

　　After knowing this guy for a while, Xuan Ji had soon realized, this great devil clearly didn't have a bit of humanity, how would he be so sentimental?

　　The backlash from the sacrificial writing ritual didn't deter him, but a mere child with some "Go Upstream" incantation could make him bring out his memory? Such good dreaming.

　　Sheng Lingyuan judged from Xuan Ji's expression that though this little demon spoke respectfully, but on the inside he had already cursed him through his generations and casually said: "Yes, you know me well."

　　"When such a critical character like Danli didn't appear, I started suspecting that you planned to use this person as bait."

　　"Danli originally didn't show his real face," Sheng Lingyuan said, "If he wasn't covering it, then he would wear a human skin mask. You later generations said he had 'beautiful face' —  it was just one of the human skin masks he usually used. Until his death, Aluojin has never seen his face."

　　Xuan Ji laughed coldly: "Yeah, if not, then how can you lure him in? So he didn't show his face, but this person was always by your side, playing such an important role, yet in your memory he wasn't as remarkable as a bodyguard. This showed that you suppressed your own memory and tried to avoid thinking about him too much. If not, the later act would be ruined — Bixia, I'm not good at math, but at least I have gone through nine years of mandatory education. That memory lane came from three perspectives, you feel that I can't count?"

　　The logic was very simple — if the "Go Upstream" incantation was on Sheng Lingyuan's memory, then all the perspectives should come from Sheng Lingyuan himself.

　　But if one carefully watched, there were three different perspectives: Aluojin's, Sheng Lingyuan's, and the strangest one — Danli's.

　　In there, Danli's perspective only appeared towards the end, it was incredibly hidden, and the content was very few. It was the short scene when the shaman tribe hid in the cave and the human skin puppet lit up the fire in the altar — the puppet was manipulated by Danli, so the perspective was Danli's.

　　A person's conscious memory couldn't split into different perspectives, let alone to have such smooth changes in the perspective. Not even someone with a split personality could do that, because he couldn't "remember" events where he wasn't there.

　　So this part of memory in the "Go Upstream" incantation definitely did not have just one person.

　　When the two of them were pulled into the abyss of memory, the first scene was the shaman tribe saving the injured prince and the young soon-to-be shaman tribe leader meeting with Sheng Lingyuan for the first time — that was actually Aluojin's memory. Because at that moment, Sheng Lingyuan was in a critically injured condition and was hazily brought there on the leader's back, it would be hard for him to remember all the scenery at the shaman tribe's mountain.

　　The most important person they met in the memory lane was also Aluojin.

　　Sheng Lingyuan, this great devil, must have reacted then. Besides the two of them, there also was the person who laid down the "Go Upstream" incantation.

　　So in the beginning, when they were stuck at the childhood years going through miscellaneous life, it wasn't this heartless Sheng Lingyuan who reminisced — it was Aluojin. Sheng Lingyuan telling him to "ask questions" was for Aluojin — otherwise, if not for this great devil having an incredible control on his mind, why would he need another person to help?

　　Xuan Ji: "In some critical events, with my knowledge of history, I thought the memory must be real… but overall, the majority of it is his?"

　　Aluojin must have wanted for the memory to look like Sheng Lingyuan's own, so the memory was about the two of them. However, those meager things between the teenagers were too vivid, as if there was someone who couldn't help but hurry to tell him the truth about the rise and fall of the shaman tribe, almost like "pouring one's heart out", and thus revealed himself there.

　　Xuan Ji glanced at the ancient one next to him and felt that in this one's dictionary, there was probably no words such as "pouring one's heart out". 

　　Sure enough, Sheng Lingyuan responded, his face expressionless: "Yes, you're not wrong."

　　"And you let your mind be empty to go along with his feelings, thinking of all the ways to lure him out." Xuan Ji coldly said, "Was it because the first time I talked too much, saying that the two of you running from the demon tribe was unnatural, that gave you the inspiration to drop the shit onto my head?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan truthfully said: "That's not it, it was my negligence that got me into the incantation. The situation was tight, so of course anything in hand was good to use."

　　Xuan Ji: "..."

　　So happy to be useful for you!

　　Xuan Ji gritted his teeth: "So when you wanted me to talk about the later generation, you really didn't want to talk philosophy with me, right?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan said: "The common person likes to listen on about private affairs, they even like to think they're smart, so once they see the whole scheme, they couldn't help but point it out."

　　"Then as he heard it, I sounded more and more suspicious."

　　Sheng Lingyuan smiled: "But you are always surprising every time you open your mouth, that's very interesting."

　　"You know that the extermination of the whole shaman tribe was Aluojin's most painful memory. In this moment he's the most unstable, so you subtly squeezed in a piece of Danli's perspective."

　　"I just have to imagine myself as him," Sheng Lingyuan casually said, "I was taught by him after all."

　　Xuan Ji smiled wryly: "Yes, in the 'Go Upstream' incantation there were only three people: you, me, and Aluojin. Three perspectives. The last perspective belonged to whom? Aluojin would think, of course, it would be fucking mine!"

　　"Danli lived in hiding, his entire life was under a human skin mask," Sheng Lingyuan said, "When I imprisoned and decapitated him and stripped down his mask, underneath was a bloody face whose features were unclear. I have never seen his real face so I used your face for the moment."

　　This sentence was pronounced correctly. Aluojin, who was nailed down, heard about Danli's death and his face finally moved minutely.

　　"Danli had been dead for thousands of years," Sheng Lingyuan gently raised his hand to cover Aluojin's eyes, "You and me also. This world no longer distinguishes between human and demons, they have lived a hundred years without war. The fire in Chiyuan has gone out for a long time, Aluojin…"

　　Aluojin said something in shaman tribe language, speaking very slowly, stopping after each word, so even Xuan Ji realized, this was what he said in the memory before he died.

　　Xuan Ji: "What did he say?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan didn't respond. He nailed the last nail on Aluojin's forehead. Aluojin finally stopped moving. In his bright eyes, the light slowly left, then they closed.

　　Sheng Lingyuan hugged this terrifying body and jumped to the coffin in the middle of the lake, once again placing him in there. Right afterwards, he waved his sleeves, and all the sacrificial writing on the stone platform disappeared.

　　Xuan Ji didn't come over. There was a collar of bruises from Aluojin's grip on his neck. He stood from afar and watched that great devil pretending — Sheng Lingyuan leaned against the coffin, looking at Aluojin for a really long time.

　　As if he cared.

　　"Bixia, let me say something," Xuan Ji waited impatiently, crossing his arms in front of his chest, half-mockingly said, "You have shown this ending pose for five minutes already, it's enough for the audience to take pictures eight rounds already. Let's go."

　　Sheng Lingyuan was as if awakened. He reached out to close to coffin and slowly stood up.

　　Right then, the elbow leaning against the copper coffin became soft, Sheng Lingyuan suddenly turned and covered his mouth ——

　　Blood dripped out through his fingers.

Chapter end