Lie Huo Jiao Chou Volume 2 Chapter 38

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Some people end up alone with nobody to rely on because of their tragic fate, while others truly deserved it.

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      Crawfish take-outs to watch a live broadcast of the World Cup at midnight, smoky kebabs and hot peppers in university towns, working part-time in western-style restaurants to both eat and study, looking for night markets all around the world when travelling… Suddenly, all the sweetness and bitterness of Xuan Ji's entire lifetime flowed through the tip of his tongue and into his mind; his life experience was so rich, it was almost enough to cut for two seasons of 'The Best Recipes in the World'. It was a pity he couldn't hide the deepest memory ——

      The innate nature of spiritual beings was to fast, naturally, they were unphased against cold and hunger. Unfortunately, Xuan Ji wasn't.

      He was born in the darkness, the world welcomed him with the loud noise of horses neighing, roaring and slamming metal, his 'crib' was full of hatred, anger... as well as hunger.

      It was the memory of the two battles of Pingyuan in history, spilling blood inside Chiyuan.

      A faint voice seeped inside his body, directly entering his deep consciousness.

      The voice said: "Thirty-sixth Nanming Fire Guardian... Child, I... This is it, from now on..."

      Wordless inheritance came flooding in from the first generation of the Nanming Fire Guardian up until this day.

      Xuan Ji was forced to open his eyes: he saw a man who looked exactly the same as himself standing in front of him. The man only had enough time to smile at him before dying and falling to the ground, becoming a bone. On the bone was an engraved character 'Seal (封)' brimming with vicious air.

      The scene flashed by as quick as an afterimage, and Xuan Ji forcibly suppressed it.

      His eyes were blazed with flames and long chains of fire flew out of his palms and smashed down on Sheng Lingyuan.

      When killing intention surged in Xuan Ji's heart, Sheng Lingyuan could feel it, but for some reason, he was dazed and forgot to evade. Seeing the crude fire chains almost touched Bixia's face, Xuan Ji finally got his reason back; the chain stopped in mid-air and the fire was reflected on Sheng Lingyuan's pale face. The surroundings were silent —— their unlucky connection was cut at this moment. 

      "I respect you very much, Bixia," Xuan Ji gritted his teeth and spat out word by word, "I feel that whoever had ended the War of Jiuzhou was truly a hero, even if you always act like a scum."

      In the shaman tribe grave, Sheng Lingyuan spat out blood next to the bronze coffin, making them become spiritually connected once again and then were forced to cooperate.

      During this period, even though Sheng Lingyuan had always been counting in order to suppress his thoughts, it was a hard thing to do, and Xuan Ji actually had the opportunity to explore a lot of information.

      But on a rare occasion, he acted like a man with honor and didn't do so.

      On one hand, Emperor Wu's achievements were so admirable, he dared not to disrespect this person for a moment.

      On the other hand, Xuan Ji himself couldn't tell for sure whether Sheng Lingyuan was particularly good at manipulating people, or if something was wrong with him... it was as if he was in the last stage of being blinded by beauty. In short, whenever he saw Sheng Lingyuan, something always stirred in his heart, trying to bypass his reason and numbing his guard.

      When Sheng Lingyuan had once again sealed Aluojin, Xuan Ji actually had wanted to ask him why he didn't destroy the body directly, but he didn't say it in the end, because he always felt that the blood that he had vomited in the shaman tribe grave coming from both his lungs and his heart, and he couldn't bear to do it.

      On the way back, Sheng Lingyuan seldom behaved like a devil, he was quiet and laid back. Xuan Ji thought that since he had helped him cover up his identity, he decided to do the same, and both of them knew to respect each other's privacy, and now the truce ended!

      Bah!

      Those with a sliver of humanity couldn't be emperors, they all were 'better to betray the world than let the world betray me' type of goods.

      Sheng Lingyuan's pupils slightly contracted by the flash of fire; at that instant, his expression was almost astonished.

      Xuan Ji didn't notice this —— the phone that was plugged into the charger rang, and he was distracted by the phone's ringing. 

      The caller ID showed Xiao Zheng. Xuan Ji raised his hand and pressed it, and at the same time retracting the chains; it turned into coins before drilling back into his palm.

      Xuan Ji coldly said to Sheng Lingyuan: "Fine, you can't live without finding out how many threads there are on other people's underpants, right? Since you've got a glimpse of it, I'll just open the sunroof for you, let you be clear about it —— Back in the shaman tribe grave I have said that if I die, the fire of Chiyuan will ignite once again. I didn't say it to fool you and protect my life. We are the 'Fire Guardian', we protect not any of those 'white fire', 'red fire', phoenix fire, or even Li fire —— that 'fire' we protect refers to the fire of Chiyuan." 

      Sheng Lingyuan looked at him with extreme complexity. Unfortunately, their 'bluetooth' was now disconnected, and Xuan Ji couldn't hear what he was thinking.

      "I was born in Chiyuan, and I was born a clan chief because we are the tribe in which, only when the previous generation dies, the next generation can be born —— don't ask me why, I don't know either. Maybe they don't want to help kids with their homework, so they use their life to pass on their knowledge when they're about to die instead. Everyone has to die in the end, this saves trouble and cuts the useless crap.

      "Our inborn mission is to protect Chiyuan, that is, not to let the fire of Chiyuan which had been extinguished for more than three thousand years to be ignited again, dying for the cause when necessary. The bloodshed and grievances of the two battles of Pingyuan are sealed under Chiyuan. You know, from three thousand years ago until now, every time there was a major natural disaster, war, or human-made disaster, Chiyuan would always resonate with it. I was born in during the second battle; the former chief used himself as a sacrifice to calm down the Chiyuan fire that was about to ignite. You asked me what spiritual being I am, too bad, I don't know, maybe I'm not any spiritual being, just a monster."

      Only the worst devil could suppress the other devils, gods would only become a sacrifice, letting them devour their own shares.

      Whoever took on the role of 'god', they were in for eight lifetimes of bloody misfortune.

      "But then again, this 'sacrifice oneself for the greater good' twisted thing, who wants to do it can go ahead, I'm not going to do it," Xuan Ji turned the tap on, using cold water to wash his hair half-heartedly. Not caring if anyone was watching, he immediately took off his shirt in front of Sheng Lingyuan, then carelessly picked up a hoodie from the paper bag on the side and put it on. "Sorry, this 'glorious' tradition had already mutated when it fell into my hand, I don't believe it that way, I don't want to take responsibility, much less planning to be a 'sacrifice'. If something happens, I can only do my best to stop Chiyuan. If that's still not enough, then whatever happens happen —— can I be that straightforward? Are you at ease? We haven't had any conflict in viewpoint so far, have we?"

      Sheng Lingyuan's lips moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but Xuan Ji only felt that the tender and affectionate face was purely a mask; no matter how beautiful and pleasant-looking it was, once he remembered the personality inside, he was too lazy to entertain it.

      He grabbed his wallet and cellphone before also taking the fast food bag —— Bixia was disgusted with junk food anyway —— and forced the door open: "Bye bye then."

      Greatness and vileness didn't have conflicts.

      Great accomplishments shone for thousands of years, but it could not shine through Bixia's virulent heart of thousands of years.

      Some people ended up alone with nobody to rely on because of their tragic fate, while others truly deserved it. Such douchebag like this Sheng, he was depicted as good in history books, but truly, there was no need for him to have intimate human connections. 

     Xuan Ji planned to go downstairs to the front desk and get himself a different room. Just when he got into the elevator, the phone rang again; it was still Xiao Zheng.

      Xuan Ji angrily answered, "Can't you leave me alone? I just finished working overtime, will letting me relax for two seconds choke you to death? How much does the office give me for overtime… What?"

      As soon as Xuan Ji left, the hotel room was suddenly empty, and there was a burning smell in the air —— the chains left an ashy dent on the snow-white wall.

      Sheng Lingyuan stood still for a long time, stretched out his hand and brushed the ashes, which immediately fell off from the wall and dropped slowly onto in his palm.

      "How could he be..."

      Xuan Ji said he didn't know what demon he originated from, but Sheng Lingyuan saw briefly in the memory and recognized the bone with the character 'Seal' —— it was carved by his own hand.

      He closed his eyes gently, the hand holding the ashes shook a little. 

      The history books said that the Jiuzhou War was started by Emperor Ping, who only played two roles in the stories that the later generations told: either a scary looking man full of ambitious greed, or an ignorant idiot who thought of himself too almighty.

      But truth be told, for a war that lasted for a long time and made thousands of people miserable, it couldn't be attributed to one mortal.

      Three thousand years ago, Chiyuan was not called 'Chiyuan', but 'Nanming Valley,' where the vermilion birds resided.

      The Divine Bird, the vermilion bird's status was very unique. On one hand, it was respected among the demon tribes, on the other, it was also regarded by the people as the protector of the southern land. For many generations, there were temples built to worship them and they were included amongst the Four Divines*.

*Four Divines refers to the Four Divine Beasts: Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, and Vermilion Bird.

      There was a fiery ground lava at the bottom of Nanming Valley, and its temperature was extremely high. Except for the flaming birds, people and demons alike couldn't approach easily, it became akin to a natural moat. The people and demons were divided by this ravine, with clear boundary, to each their own.

      However, natural disasters never follow people's wishes.

      The Jiuzhou War, which was the first battle at Pingyuan, started with a great earthquake in Nanming Valley.

      It was said that this earthquake had turned the whole Nanming Valley upside down. From the north to the capital of the human tribes, to the south of demon cities, all felt the violent tremor. During the winter of that year, the ice in the demon capital was more than two inches thicker than in previous years, by the next year, it was already April, yet the willows in the demon land still haven't bloomed.

      The demon king was terrified, they personally presided over the sacrifice for heaven, unfortunately, heaven did not take it.

      By the third year, the high temperature of Nanming Valley had lowered, the demons' spiritual energy depleted for some reason. The demons were different from the humans, they were not the type that just needed the ground to stay alive no matter the struggle. For the demon tribe —— especially for some of the more noble ones, having children to continue the bloodline was already difficult. Because of the great changes in the demonic environment and the loss of spiritual energy, more than forty percent of demons born that year became stillborn.

      Right after Nanming Valley had cooled down, many demon tribes wanted to migrate to the human territory to stay alive.

      However, the human tribes also faced the same problem; although humans didn't need 'spiritual energy', they still had to eat.

      The climate changed dramatically, and there was a natural famine in the fields.

      When everybody had abundant food and clothing, foreigners were like 'friends coming from afar' but when everyone had nothing to eat, the foreigners naturally became 'uninvited guests'. Moreover, the difference between the humans and the demons was great, and they have been isolated from each other for thousands of years, they didn't pee in the same pot, so conflicts were unavoidable.

      Since the Divine Bird, the vermillion birds of Nanming Valley were in the middle of the two races, they were caught in a double bind.

      The chief of the vermilion bird tribe didn't have any option. Seeing the two sides fight every two days and there was a risk of a great war, they had to 'request' for a Li fire of the tribe and forcibly ignited it in Nanming Valley in order to separate the humans from the demons.

      At that moment, Emperor Ping did an immoral act, this was why the later generations often buckled the shit pot of the war of Jiuzhou onto his head —— he created a 'subjugation army' from human cultivators, aiming at the demons who had immigrated through Nanming Valley and were unable to return because of the closed passage. Relying on being on his own territory and having more people, he started to massacre and hunt down the demon tribes, even letting out the words: If the demon tribe steps into the palace, they will be killed.

      The demon king was enraged, and the whole demon tribe was boiling in anger; their war intention flared up.

      The vermilion birds might have eaten incense for too long and really thought they were gods; even at this point, they still wanted to use their own strength to try to go against the natural course of events at that time, refusing to give way.

      The demon king used both soft and hard tactics on them, all of which went to naught. He then decided that the vermilion bird tribe didn't have a clear stand, pretending to give up and visiting them, creating a trap to kill the entire vermilion bird tribe. This went into history as the 'God Annihilation Campaign'. 

      The collapse of the 'gods' officially opened a chaotic era full of rampage.

      The blood of the Divine Bird stained Nanming Valley and opened up the first tragic war of Pingyuan. Hundreds of thousands of humans and demons tribes died in it, including Emperor Ping. From then on, Nanming Valley was renamed 'Chiyuan'.

      Then, the human cultivators who had been worshipping in the vermilion bird temple beside Chiyuan for thousands of years used some forbidden techniques. 

      What forbidden techniques were used, no one knew; whether it was a success or not, no one was sure either.

      At that time, nine rows of thunder struck down, and eighty-one of the human cultivators' bodies were gone without traces. The temple also collapsed in the fire, leaving only a burning vermilion bird statue.

      The statue became powder the second it met the rising sun. Then, a person who carried the Li fire, the great and remarkable emperor advisor Dan Li was born, the connection between these two events made people can't help but think.

      Twenty-one years later, the Jiuzhou War ended with the fall of the demon king, but the wrath of Chiyuan was still burning.

      After the young emperor brought peace to the land, in five years, he congregated all the power, killed Dan Li who was the root of it, beheading him in the countryside. But it was  still not enough, he turned and poured his remaining anger on the head of the vermilion bird tribe. He first sent down a decree to destroy all the vermilion bird temples on the human territory, then led people to strip down the Divine Bird's ancestral graves, taking out some bones that the fire of Chiyuan didn't finish burning, carving thirty-six bones with a sealing decree to guard Chiyuan.

      That little devil was... the thirty sixth vermilion bird bone.

      Sheng Lingyuan stood in disbelief. He would never have thought in a million years that the vermilion bird bones he had trampled on actually had consciousness, and here after three thousand years, they still faithfully continued their responsibility at Chiyuan... 

      Always protected his corpse that laid in Chiyuan. 

      "Why?"

Chapter end