He and It Chapter 158: The Serpent of Pharisee (24)

Chapter 158: The Serpent of Pharisee (24)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

As for the giant, he didn’t realize that he was the figure in the painting. After he completed the task assigned by Echidna, he swaggered back to the palace.

Individuals bred from dragon’s teeth had no liking for the outside world, which was full of sunlight, pleasant flowers and birds. They were more suited to dwell in the dim, lightless underground.

The priest extended his hand cautiously, and flipped through the paintings. He was the eyes and ears of the Gods on Earth, and knew much more than ordinary people. Moreover, the news of the era was not entirely isolated. On the contrary, the four wind gods moved freely through the smallest caves on Earth, and sunlight served as the all-knowing eyes of the Sun God ¹. In one day, he could traverse the entire world. Eris, the Goddess of Discord, had even raised a group of eloquent children who tirelessly spread corrupted truths or rumors day and night to every corner.

Echidna’s mysterious lover was rumored to be exceptionally talented, and a youth whom even Apollo felt displeased with.

The priest remembered the past, when he was a revered priest in Cilicia, and that youth was just one among hundreds of human sacrifices, destined to die tragically in fear. He had come to represent the royal family of Iolcus, and the princess there boasted that he was the “offspring of a god.” That piqued the priest’s curiosity. Even if someone were among the least favored god-children, how could their parents bear to send them to the jaws of a terrifying snake to be devoured?

Thus, he tacitly allowed the princes’ probing actions. When he saw the stone effortlessly smash the youth’s forehead and cause blood to flow freely, the priest understood perfectly well that the title of “god-child” was nothing but a boastful lie, and that the child had never been favored by any deity.

Today, however, the changes in the world were more drastic than the changing seasons. Half a year had passed, and not only had the youth not been sacrificed to the snake, but he was instead held aloft by the snake god, cherished like pearls on a crown. Echidna had stopped the age-old human sacrifice tradition, commanded art supplies, books devoid of decay, and entertaining toys to flow into the gates of Arima like water. The name “Dorus” became a taboo, and his artworks became legendary in a covert display of pride and various questions.

As the elderly priest beheld the physical paintings, the more he looked, the more astonished he felt. On parchment, the painter had crafted such a vivid world! As he flipped through them, if the earlier paintings were merely resemblances, the later works could truly be described as astonishing progress. With just a few strokes, a person’s appearance and expression vividly leapt from the paper with a radiant spirit, as if there were living souls dwelling in those two-dimensional eyes.

He dared not look further. He hastily let go and instructed his attendants to close the box, lift it onto the cart, and hurry back to the court of Cilicia.

“Phew, all packed up!” Xie Ning breathed out heavily. The fast-paced modern life had spawned the concept of “minimalism,” and encouraged everyone to discard outdated and unsuitable things, which would lead to a simple and refreshing life. After he tried it out, he had to admit, the feeling of throwing things away was indeed satisfying.

“Heartless, heartless Dorus,” Echidna muttered softly, quite unhappy. In his mind, his human’s paintings should be his exclusive treasures, so why were they packed into boxes and given away for nothing? “Why can’t you keep those paintings?”

“Doesn’t it feel uncomfortable when things are cluttered?” Xie Ning asked whimsically.

Echidna replied, somewhat surprised, “A room should be filled to the brim to show the owner’s wealth.”

Like a miserly dragon…Xie Ning chuckled wryly. He guessed it might be a conflict of nature.

“We don’t really care about that anymore.” He lay back on the cold, fine scales of the snake, and gazed absentmindedly at the darkened ceiling. “People’s lives have greatly improved. We must learn to let go to keep our homes from becoming chaotic.”

Since they had broached the subject, Xie Ning rarely talked to him about modern matters, for fear that his petty fellow might get upset. Now that he had mentioned it briefly, Echidna stroked his soft black hair and suddenly asked, “What is it like where you’re from?”

Xie Ning sat up, and supported his head with one arm to look at him.

“Do you really want to know?”

“Mm-hmm. I really want to know.”

Xie Ning thought for a while. He started with trivial details, as he tried to explain in terms that Echidna could understand. “In our world…there are no gods or spirits. We extract energy from fire, coal, wind, and electricity is the driving force for human society. We have many inventions! Like cars and planes as means of transportation. The former runs on the ground and can traverse the capital of Cilicia in an hour. The latter flies in the sky, like a very large iron bird. A plane can accommodate several hundred people, guided by a pilot. It’s fast as well, crossing oceans in just a few hours…”

Echidna pondered deeply on his words, and murmured softly, “Your era is a very capable one, but it would displease the Gods greatly. As you said, fire and lightning are powerful, but they are powers that humans cannot control. Just like Zeus, who is most famously known as the Thunderer, holds the thunderbolts and is thus hailed as the Father of the Gods. In the past, when Prometheus stole fire for humans, Zeus resolved to counteract the blessings fire brought to humans with disease and calamity. If he were to hear that people of your era were using fire and electricity for their own gain, he would surely be greatly angered.”

Xie Ning sighed, “Wow, what a killjoy! We don’t directly convert energy from lightning. We mostly use solar power and thermal power. We keep our distance from natural lightning, and we even have lightning rods on buildings…”

“Except for you, I have no fondness for humans, let alone love,” Echidna mused. “But you’re right. Those who hold great power are the most miserly and heartless!”

Xie Ning continued, “In our world, logistics are also well developed. Economies and cultures flow interchangeably. A person from a peaceful country or region can fully enjoy the fruits of labor of another country, even if they are thousands of miles apart. We also have the internet! Our era is called the Information Age, and the internet is the main foundation…”

Seeing the demon’s baffled expression, Xie Ning, not being a computer expert, had to clumsily explain, “Imagine a very large, very intricate spider web that covers the entire world. Everyone is connected to a strand of that web. Just like how a spider can sense any movement from any direction on its web, the internet is the same, but it transmits far more information than a spider’s web. In less than a second, it can deliver the entire text of Oedipus Rex to someone else. People socialize, entertain, live, and shop on this web. It can give you almost everything you need.”

As he listened to him, Echidna fell silent, and his hand gradually shifted from caressing to grasping Xie Ning’s shoulder, while his snake tail involuntarily tensed and coiled around Xie Ning’s body in loops.

“…It’s truly a marvelous invention,” the snake demon said hoarsely. “Its actual appearance must be even more magnificent than what I’ve heard. Leaving it, and leaving your familiar daily life…Dorus, do you find it dull and boring?”

His voice was filled with faint panic and obvious guilt. Echidna had done his utmost to create a good life for him, but after hearing detailed information about that era it made the demon feel sad from the bottom of his heart. No matter how magnificent the palace was, it was still a cage with no way out. With him, Dorus could hardly see the daylight, moonlight, and starlight, let alone that mysterious thing, the “internet.”

When he saw Echidna’s distraught and fearful expression, Xie Ning quickly grabbed his hand and kissed his fingers.

“What’s wrong with you!” Xie Ning chuckled as he looked at him. If the other person had dog ears, they would have drooped to the ground by now. “You are a creature of mythology. Can’t you have a little confidence in yourself? If future experts and scholars knew you really existed, they wouldn’t care about things like the internet or modern life. They’d flock here to see you, I bet.”

Echidna felt a little better. He pulled Xie Ning into his arms, and kissed him as he murmured vaguely, “I don’t need other humans. I’m content with just understanding you…”

To soothe his partner’s emotions, Xie Ning kissed him for a while before returning to their previous topic.

“Dorus, you always talk about how there are myths about us in later eras.” Echidna suddenly asked, “So tell me, how did this generation’s gods, led by Zeus, meet their end? Which god overthrew Zeus’s rule? Athena? Ares? Or was it a child born from Zeus and another goddess?”

Xie Ning hesitated for a moment, and thought about it before answering, “No…our era doesn’t record the stories that came after. Because Zeus…he escaped his fate.”

Echidna was greatly shocked, and emitted a loud hiss. His black hair projected a chaotic shadow on the wall behind him. “What did you say?!”

“It’s something like that.” Xie Ning pondered with his index finger against his chin. “His fate was similar to that of the previous god-kings, destined to be overthrown by his descendants, but…”

“Was it Prometheus who told him?” Echidna urgently asked. “The prophet Prometheus, the wisest of all the Titans, did he tell Zeus that prophecy?” ²

As an outsider, Xie Ning didn’t fully grasp his urgent and horrified mood at first. He hesitated for a long time then confirmed that his memory should be correct, and he cautiously replied, “…Maybe? I remember there was some prophecy, about Zeus having a child with a certain goddess, and that child would be the future god-king who would overthrow Zeus’s rule…but I’ve forgotten which goddess it was. Anyway, he escaped that fate, so the ‘godly lineage’ ended there, and the story didn’t continue.”

Echidna sighed deeply, filled with resentment. “Alas, Prometheus. Prometheus! You, who created humans in vain, the first prophet among the gods, how could you reveal such an important message to the great enemy who harmed you! Have you forgotten how he treated you? How your liver was pecked at for thousands of years? Is this also the instigation of the Fates? You’ve ruined me!”

Xie Ning sat up abruptly, surprised. “Ah? How did he ruin you?”

“Since Zeus’s reign began and his era never ended, it has constantly repeated itself ³ , because he’s neither Uranus ⁴, who was castrated by his son. Nor Cronus, who was overthrown by his descendants. His rule never ends, so the already long-dead Echidna, and many named and unnamed monsters, as well as demigod heroes, are born again and again in the world. This was never supposed to happen, it’s abnormal!” ⁵

He shouted in anguish, his expression fierce as his venomous fangs dripped. Before Xie Ning, he became the old demon who opposed the world again. Then he remembered that if not for that reason, he couldn’t have met Dorus, so in an instant, his expression calmed again and revealed a kind of grateful contentment.

Despite enduring so much suffering, I now receive as much, if not more, sweetness and happiness, Echidna thought. The fate of gain and loss always plays its role. Perhaps I shouldn’t cast blame or complain about it.

Xie Ning hurriedly comforted him by rubbing his cheeks. He was no longer afraid of the demon’s fierce face because he knew that Echidna was like a big ball of cotton candy with a caramel center.

“Let’s not talk about this anymore,” Xie Ning changed the subject to divert his attention. “Let’s…let’s talk about you?”

Echidna was taken aback.

“Me?”

“Yes. You’ve been here for so many years, don’t you have any hobbies?” Xie Ning said. “If you had a hobby during those difficult days, it might have made things a bit easier.”

Echidna thought for a moment. He clasped Xie Ning and swam out of the nest.

“I’ll show you,” he said.

He moved very fast as he held Xie Ning to his chest, and the torches on the hall rapidly receded. The glow between torches formed a continuous line of light that flowed backward.

Together with him, Echidna drilled deeper into the underground, then, in an instant, they arrived in front of a dark bronze door.

The snake demon didn’t speak. He held his lover in his arms and huffed a poisonous mist over the decorated door. The carved figures on the portal suddenly came to life. The bronze branches and iron leaves swayed abruptly which startled the bronze figures of people and animals, so they all ran about in a panic on the door’s surface. Then, the huge vines extended, grabbed the sturdy handles on both sides of the rock wall, and on their own, pulled open the two heavy door panels like they were moving mountains.

“Look, Dorus,” Echidna smiled at him. In the dim light, there was a hint of shyness in his smile. “This is where I used to spend my time.”

Xie Ning leaned down to take a look and was instantly stunned.

There was a strange pine scent in the air. In front of him was endless black soil, black like Xie Ning had never seen before. It was as dark as a small black hole, and absorbed the weak light from above, which was already tenuous. On the raised clumps a faint oily shine appeared.

“This is a piece of earth that Gaia nurtured,” Echidna explained to him. “Grab some, it’s fun.”

Xie Ning crouched down cautiously. The soil was so fertile that it made him tremble deep in his soul. He climbed onto the stone platform and stretched his arm as far as possible to reach the ground. His fingertips felt like they were touching a piece of densely woven velvet, soft and incredibly smooth. He carefully grabbed a handful, and it felt more like he was clutching a piece of living flesh instead of soil!

“Mold it,” Echidna encouraged him. “Don’t be afraid, I’m here.”

Xie Ning frowned, not knowing whether to feel curious or horrified. He slowly shaped it, and the soil made a creaking sound. His fingertips were instantly soaked, and the scent of pine wood burst forth. It formed an extremely rich and oily fragrance, as if it were about to materialize and flow into his organs through his nasal cavity.

Before today, if someone described such fertile land as “oily,” it was just an exaggerated metaphor. Now, Xie Ning realized that there really was such rich and fertile land that it seemed to ooze oil.

—With such farmland, forget planting rice or wheat, you could probably even plant a person!

“Here,” Echidna said eagerly as he took down a dragon skin bag from the wall and placed it beside Xie Ning. The bag fell heavily with a loud clatter, as if it were filled with gold and jade artifacts. “This is my entertainment. Look!”

With that, he reached into the bag and pulled out a handful of teeth that were curved like daggers and white as moonlight, then casually scattered them over the black soil. The soil immediately engulfed those large seeds, and then roiled like boiling water. Xie Ning widened his eyes as he saw countless fully armed giants emerge from the ground, like a school of fish breaking the surface of the sea. They had red eyes and went madly into battle as soon as they appeared, shouting fiercely and shaking the ground.

“Dragon teeth?” he asked in astonishment.

“Exactly!” Echidna said cheerfully. “The dragon slain by Europa’s brother, the prince named Cadmus, was also my offspring. That prince sowed dragon teeth in the ground, which turned into warriors, enabling him to build Thebes on the grassland. Actually, what he grew were only powerless counterfeits. Only I can unleash their true power!” ⁶

He chuckled, then he looked at the battling giants and fell silent for a while before he said, “Dorus, you see, this is my pastime. Sometimes, I make them fight each other, and sometimes, I make them treat each other like kin. I’ve built armies in the underworld and destroyed the kingdom of Cilicia. Likewise, I’ve dispatched countless laborers on those ruins to build new, stronger and taller cities. I spent a thousand years, two thousand years like this, until this place was also completely abandoned. Abandoned by me.”

“Where is there a hobby that can support immortality?” Echidna softly countered. “No matter how fun the game is, you get tired of it after one or two hundred years. No matter how interesting the fun may be, if it lasts for thousands of years, it becomes as nauseating as repeatedly chewing on residue…Look at me. That’s how I’ve lived.”

After he said those words, all those giants perished on Gaia’s fertile soil, ending their too brief lives.

The scene was too pitiful. Xie Ning’s heart was filled with sadness. He held his face in grief and kissed him several times.

“Don’t be sad,” he comforted softly. “With such good land, we can plant some flowers…”

He wanted to say “let’s plant some flowers and make this place beautiful,” but halfway through, he felt it was frivolous and shallow, and seemed ridiculous.

Echidna wagged his tail tip stealthily, and felt delighted to have earned a few kisses for free. He followed up, “No problem. As long as you’re happy, anything is fine.”

I just want to make you happy, Xie Ning sighed inwardly. However, it was fine. When it came down to it, they still hadn’t spent much time together. Being able to do ordinary things that couples do was already a very plain and rare happiness.

“I love you,” Xie Ning couldn’t help but say.

Echidna snorted, then joyfully licked Xie Ning’s lips and childishly boasted, “The extent to which you love me can never surpass the extent to which I love you. I love you more than you love me!”