Lie Huo Jiao Chou Volume 2 Chapter 37

Happy Lunar New Year~

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Just at that moment, Xuan Ji recognized a positive emotion in Sheng Lingyuan's mind for the first time.

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      At the end of Dongchuan, the mountain was torn by the mithril bullets and collapsed through the Panshan Road, exposing the white bones. The bronze coffin followed the mountain to sink into the deeper part of the lake; after the earthquake, the coffin lid shifted aside and revealed Aluojin's androgynous face.

      The dark red iron nails pinned on his forehead made his originally relaxed and delicate face a little more constrained, adding to the ferocious demonic aura, as if he was trapped in a nightmare he could never wake up from.

      On the cliff, the billowing black clouds converged in the sky, covering the bright and clear night sky. As a result, the field workers from the Deviant Control Office who were clearing up the scene did not notice that the moon hanging on the top of the hill glazed a blood-red layer.

      At the same time, in the depths of the tranquil lake, there was a whisper somewhere, then, a delicate humming sound came with the flow of the water, and the sound as fine as a needle weaved around the bronze coffin.

      The current also swirled around with it, stirring up countless tiny air bubbles.

      Gradually, the bubbles gathered together and formed a human figure, and with the rhythm of the singing sound, a 'man' circled around the coffin, singing, tapping on the bronze coffin.

      Dong—— Dong——

      The four walls of the bronze coffin began to bleed, the droplets of blood didn't dissolve into the water, nor flowed downstream despite the laws of physics: they turned left and right from time to time, winding around something, until the walls of the coffin were stained with blood and the gloomy sacrifice writings that had been hidden were now emphasized.

      The humming and knocking sound on the coffin became more and more urgent. With every sound echoed from the bronze coffin, the sacrificial writings in the coffin became more and more pronounced, then, the sacrifices seemed to be alive. From the four sides of the coffin, they "swam" to the bottom of it and seeped into Aluojin's body.

      Thump——

      The nail in Aluojin's palm shifted up gently, and his pale fingers trembled violently.

      The 'man' formed by the bubbles stretched out his 'hand' and touched Aluojin's forehead. The sound of the water current was mixed with the shaman tribe language as he murmured: "He sealed us into Chiyuan forever, leaving only ordinary mortals in the world, in order to let these ants have a makeshift life. Kill the wolves, leaving only sheep, and the world will be peaceful. Look at the present, a group of hybrids who had a few drops of dirty blood could be praised and hailed, say, isn't that ridiculous?"

      Dong—— the nails on Aluojin's leg bones also loosened.

      "The demon tribes have fallen, are you alright with that? Shaman tribe, High Mountain people, Shadow people... Those who called themselves righteous, didn't they all retreat from the stage? And you, even your bones and remains have to be turned over and blown up twice."

      The bronze coffin made a gritting 'creak' sound, and the nail in Alojin's eyebrow was pushed up bit by bit by the gloomy sacrifice writing.

      The bubble 'man' bent down and enunciated into Aluojin's ears word by word: "The human history book doesn't have your name on it, fool. Thousands of years, you have seen it all. You trash shamans who toy with curses, how would you deserve to share the prosperity of the Qingping? Your childhood brother can kill you once, and he can kill you for the second time… Snap out of it!"

      The bronze coffin suddenly collapsed, and the gloomy sacrifices spread like blood from Aluojin.

      The 'man' in the water gave a slight laugh, turned into foam again, and calmly floated away.

      It took Sheng Lingyuan a long time to understand that although this place was called a 'wine shop', it wasn't specialized in selling wine.

*Chinese word for wine shop and hotel are the same: 酒店 (jiu dian). 

      It was three in the morning, but people still came and went into the lobby.

      First, a group of old men and ladies were chattering past them, each wearing a small yellow cap. The old ladies were as if competing against each other's beauty, showing colorful headscarves. From afar, they looked like herds of male and female birds who switched roles.

      Then, without waiting for Sheng Lingyuan to see clearly, a very thin young woman rushed by again, dragging a box half her height, holding up her cellphone and spoke with someone:  "Yes... I'm on a business trip, I'm returning to Yong'an, it's a night flight... Rest assured, you will see the latest version of the plan before boarding the plane!"

      Sheng Lingyuan looked left and right, there was no guard around the girl, neither were there servants, everyone turned a blind eye to her, no one even helped her with the suitcase.

      He calculated in his mind: from Dongchuan to Yong'an, there were more than a thousand miles; this late at night, not to mention a single girl, even for a small group of cavalry, they had to be extra vigilant.

      Sheng Lingyuan suspected he was mistaken for a moment and thought: Is this seemingly mortal woman a rare powerful master?

      "What master? Just at a glance, she is a distressed Second Party." Xuan Ji 'heard' his doubts, took the room card from his colleagues, and casually said, "When going on business trips, no one will pick you up. 24-hour on the clock. Of course, you have to go at night to save money on flights... Oh, it's the airplane that takes off late at night —— the airplane, you know, the one we took when we came."

      Sheng Lingyuan watched the girl's back in surprise, seeing her shivering in the night wind at the entrance of the hotel lobby. Sure enough, she didn't look like a powerful master. Then there came a car, she reached out to wave and it stopped at her will, without even asking, she jumped up and left.

      "That's a taxi," Xuan Ji said, "The driver — oh, the coachman, who specializes in picking up people, takes money based on the distance."

      Sheng Lingyuan couldn't help asking, "Is she not afraid?"

      "Afraid of what, of going out at night? I don't know, but everybody's like that, just to make a living… Ah!"

      While they were talking, a colleague from the local Deviant Control Office came over, carrying several large bags. Their group got in an 'airplane crash' and rolled in the swamp for eighteen rounds. They went through so much they barely looked like humans, so their colleagues who arranged for their accommodation went to pick up some clothes and daily necessities, and also packed some snacks from the 24-hour shop.

      The colleague said: "This is what we have left from the organization sporting event last year, the head director originally came here, so we should buy some good clothes for everyone, but I don't know everyone's sizes. I'm afraid it wouldn't be suitable, but these are at least all sportswear, big or small sizes are not a big problem, just have it for now."

      "Too formal, too formal, this is already a great help." Xuan Ji thanked the colleague profusely, then looked back and called Sheng Lingyuan who was still in a daze to go upstairs. As he walked, Xuan Ji opened a bottle of Coke and drank it, sighing, "Ah, suffering in hunger and cold, only a colleague saves my dog life — Bixia, want a bottle?"

      Sheng Lingyuan stared rigorously at the small bottle of bubbling black water.

      Just like that, Bixia's first human food and drinks after 'descending to earth' was a 'fattie at home's happy drink'*, which seemed to have established a lifestyle that will never get any better.

*internet term for Coke.

      "I told people, you are my sword spirit, so now you have to spend a night with me first, and we will talk about other things later," Xuan Ji said, then took him up to the thirty-first floor.

      The hotel corridor wasn't only very clean, but it was also in a luxurious and magnificent style. Coming out from the elevator, they directly faced a drawing of cold spring blossoms glazed in snow, and a dazzling crystal lamp was above their heads. Bixia especially liked the sound-absorbing carpet at his feet, feeling that the 'lord of the house' was very considerate... It was just that the room was too crowded, and a little awkward — with Sheng Lingyuan's hearing ability, standing in the elevator, he could hear all kinds of movements in the adjacent rooms.

      There was an earth-shaking snore coming from one of the rooms. That one seemed to have trouble breathing, they stopped for a few seconds from time to time, like they would stop breathing at any moment. 

      Next door, a group of people played some type of a game, they laughed and made noises nonstop, it was almost time for the lights to be out, yet they didn't go to sleep.

      And in the room on his right, a couple who were cheating on each other's partner were busily fired up, they talked quite a lot, talking as they did things. Bixia's modern Mandarin listening comprehension was intermediate, he didn't dare to think he had heard it correctly, but as he was guessing, he thought the two were trying to figure out how to kill each other's spouses with drugs. 

      Xuan Ji was forced to listen to his mind's 'real-time broadcast', the hand that brushed the room card shook: "You need to move quickly, Bixia!"

      How could curiosity be so strong that you are not afraid of burning boils in your ears?

      Xuan Ji found that Sheng Lingyuan, no matter what he saw, his expression was bland, and his face did not change, never showing a 'jungle man's first time in the city' type of awe and astonishment... if it hadn't been for the 'bluetooth' in his mind, Xuan Ji would have been fooled by him.

      After Bixia passed through the door, he touched everything quietly first, then quickly made a general deduction about their use.

      Leaving him alone, he would be able to guess nine or ten correctly, except for a few things that were slightly different ——

      "That's soap, for washing your hands, not pastry."

      "The holes in the wall? That's the power supply... No no no, there's no danger risk, every family has it, have mercy on it. There's no thunder seal in it… Yes, it's not Xiao Zheng's power either, it's equally distributed by the power plants."

      "That's the air conditioning vent, no... no need to block it, normally no one would put poison there."

      "The water in the tap can't be drunk directly, it's not clean."

      As Xuan Ji said this, he heard Sheng Lingyuan's thought "At least there's no medicinal taste", and he was silent for a moment: "Are you insulting our happy drink?"

      With this, he tore out a bag of fried chicken with indignation.

      When Sheng Lingyuan was in the sword, he saw Xuan Ji cooking at home. Back then he thought that this little demon had outstanding abilities and was also the head of a clan, but there was nothing 'extravagant' in his ordinary life.

      Only then did he realize that it didn't seem like that.

      The meat that had sucked up oil was carelessly put together, and there were also no chopsticks or bowls, nothing noble about it. The box was covered with a layer of colorful skin, which was being torn off by Xuan Ji.

      Sheng Lingyuan picked it up and looked carefully, and was shocked to find that there were words on it! There was no paper in the era of the Jiuzhou War, all the writings were done on slips of stone, which were very ceremonious and grand. Even the shaman tribe people who wrote on leaves, the leaves that recorded words were also precious and sacred... And these people were actually using it to wipe off oils! 

      Sheng Lingyuan didn't say a word, but he couldn't help but frown, thinking: "Living in luxury and being wasteful has become a trend, but this is too blasphemous."

      Xuan Ji: "..."

      "We not only have words on oil-absorbing paper, some paper that wipes all kinds of stuff also has words on it. They are mass printed, not luxuries," Xuan Ji sighed, "Bixia, aren't you hungry?"

      Sheng Lingyuan remembered the medicinal taste from the "happy drink" before and shook his head with reserve: "Well, thank you, no need."

      Although Xuan Ji had wings, there was no such feeling of "hurting their own kind" as he gnawed on a chicken wing, he wasn't even a bit reserved. Those yellow skin made from some type of cooking technique, they were very crisp, making 'crunch' sounds as he gnawed. Sheng Lingyuan's ears were like a rat's; Bixia felt it was a bit indecent to stare at people eating, so he looked at his surroundings.

      The room was very small, a so-called "standard room", with two snow-white single beds that could be seen as one passed through the door. The mattress was soft, the pillow was clean, even by Sheng Lingyuan's standard, it couldn't be said to be simple. But unfortunately, it was rather chosen without care for quality, there wasn't even a bed curtain on top.

      The windows looking to the ground was sealed, but curtains didn't cover them. It was the 31st floor; standing by the window, one could see the lights from thousands of houses.

      Unlike the small county town near Chiyuan, Dongchuan was a big city. Under the brilliant lights, even the stars were dim. The city was built on the hills, large areas of skyscrapers followed the ups and downs of the terrain, looking spectacular. Highways and viaducts were intertwined and braided together, getting highlighted into shapes by tall and thin street lights, making it dizzying to look at.

      Now it was deep in the night; although there was no traffic jam, there were still many people on the street.

      There was a big theater downstairs in the hotel, a music star happened to have a concert here, it didn't finish until early in the morning. A large crowd of audience poured out from it, and the street was lined with little girls waving lights, standing in groups of three to five, jumping and skipping. In Sheng Lingyuan's impression, there were a lot of people in this mountainous area.

      He couldn't help being drawn to the window, staring at the crowd unblinkingly under the neon lights.

      Sheng Lingyuan was looking out of the window, while Xuan Ji was looking at his back. Just at that moment, Xuan Ji recognized a positive emotion in Sheng Lingyuan's mind for the first time — it can't be called happiness, just like some undercurrents, rising up constantly and being suppressed by force to disappear temporarily.

      Xuan Ji 'heard' his thought with half amazement and half suspicion, "How many people are there here?"

      "Dongchuan?" Xuan Ji took a french fries, thinking, "Not sure about the exact, I think there are tens of millions."

      Sheng Lingyuan was stunned. Xuan Ji felt he was at a loss, perhaps with his limited imagination with mathematics, Bixia could not deconstruct the concept of this level of magnitude for a moment.

      This rare confusion made him somewhat human, Xuan Ji couldn't help laughing: "Don't you really want to taste it? Or you can take a shower first, since we're still in this unfortunate situation, let me tell you how to turn on the shower — clothes to change into is in the bag over there".

      "The dispenser over there sprinkles out water, the hot water is turned on by the red side, the other side is used for adding cold water... Those bottles are filled with shampoo conditioner or something, they're all the same size, the contents are the same to me, so just pick one bottle to use then wash off with the water…"

      Xuan Ji pointed out to him the toiletries, Sheng Lingyuan could naturally 'see' the use of these things from his mind, so there was no need to yammer on so much, it saved some work. But there were so many new things. It had been several thousand years, everything he knew before had been turned upside down. Though Bixia's acceptance ability was astonishing, he was unable to follow it, his eyes were always a few seconds slower than Xuan Ji's words, making him look lonely and helpless.

      Xuan Ji imagined his feelings slightly, and his tone couldn't help but soften: "It's not complicated, after two times you will get used to it... If you have any questions, just call me."

      "Mm." Sheng Lingyuan was still acting as if nothing had happened, took his eyes off the shampoo and nodded, "Such a good child."

      "Alright, still trying to save his face." Xuan Ji thought helplessly.

      As soon as the thought came, in the next moment, he met Bixia's smiling eyes.

      Xuan Ji's heart was so tight, the first alarm popped up immediately, right as he heard Sheng Lingyuan's question: "I just wanted to say, how old are you, why do you still get hungry easily? Didn't you innate spiritual demons cultivate 'fasting' from an early age?"

      This sentence was like a firm and cruel hook. Xuan Ji was not guarded at the moment, he relaxed too much and was caught off guard, countless sceneries suddenly poured into his mind ——

Chapter end