He and It Chapter 226: Inquire Here (54)

Chapter 226: Inquire Here (54)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

 

“Stop jinxing us,” Liu Fuguang scolded, then sighed in helplessness. The air felt like it was burning, and a severe drought was ravaging the land. Yan Huan might actually be right. “We’ll have to wait and see after we get there,” Liu Fuguang added.

Yan Huan chuckled, “I’ll listen to you.”

They crossed a vast desert. Liu Fuguang expanded his divine sense, and scanned the sky. There was no sign of the sun, but the sky glowed a bright red, like molten iron. The air was thick with a scorching, poisonous heat. Any mortal who lived here would surely combust after only a few breaths.

“There’s not even any life,” Liu Fuguang said. “Where are the good and evil fighting?”

“Water sources are often hidden beneath the desert,” Yan Huan replied. “The inhabitants of this place must be living underground.”

Liu Fuguang nodded. “That makes sense.”

They raced across the sand sea, and for some reason, Liu Fuguang kept thinking of the words Li Muxing said before they left. She mentioned the nature and instincts of dragons…It was still a very new topic for him. All along, Yan Huan’s Supreme Evil attributes had overwhelmingly suppressed his dragon nature. Many strange behaviors had only emerged after he separated from Internal Demon.

For example, Yan Huan often thought he was stealthily sniffing his scent, so when they were together, there was a deep rumbling purr that went from his throat to his chest. There was also the increasingly severe dragon-like nesting habit, and his obsession with feeding and hoarding. Yan Huan hunted, cooked, and seemed to thrive the more Liu Fuguang ate and the more he accepted things from him. It made him feel happier, more relaxed, and completely satisfied.

Even when they rested, or whenever it was time to leave, Yan Huan would sneakily revert to his original form, stretch out his dragon horns and expose his belly, the rub against Liu Fuguang’s pillow and bed. Liu Fuguang knew that the scales of a dragon’s belly held scent glands, and the aroma was as strong as the sea breeze. It carried a rich, blood-like fragrance that nearly made him sneeze.

If Liu Fuguang wanted to get upset, he’d have to leave first. If he said nothing, the air would still be filled with the desperate longing of a dragon in heat. It made his palms itch, and he almost wanted to slap Yan Huan’s face…Yan Huan even believed Liu Fuguang hadn’t noticed! Or perhaps, given his twisted mindset, even if Liu Fuguang outright scolded him, it wouldn’t matter. He might even become more happy.

It was as if, when they married, Yan Huan hadn’t been so shameless, sniffing and marking his territory like a wild beast.

Could it be that the intense consumption of the Supreme Evil’s power, like the ebb of the ocean tide, was now clearly revealing the true form of the sand?

Lost in thought, Liu Fuguang suddenly stopped, and raised an eyebrow as if he’d discovered a new book.

“Look here,” he mumbled. “An ancient battlefield.”

Yan Huan looked up. The day was drawing to a close, and strong winds howled across the endless wilderness, like the cry of thousands of herds. Even as night fell, the world was still bathed in that same fiery red sky, only slightly dimmer.

“It’s very old,” he said as he stepped on the sand and bent down to pick up a piece of twisted metal from a weapon, eroded by the wind and heat. “Even the lingering killing intent is gone. What did you find?”

Yan Huan looked at him in surprise, curious about what had occupied his lover’s thoughts to the point of being so immersed.

Liu Fuguang raised his gaze, and tossed the weapon fragment aside with a sheepish “Oh,” as if embarrassed. “I was just…lost in thought.”

In front of him, the yellow sand swirled in the air, but with his vision, he could clearly see how the storm changed the landscape of the desert. As the tornado moved, the sand dunes shifted and fluctuated, so the size of the battlefield seemed to change with the tides of yellow sand.

“Did you see that?” Yan Huan asked. “The battlefield’s quite large. Maybe the whole desert is covered by it.”

Liu Fuguang muttered, “A battle this big must have left a lot of problems behind.”

The wind raged on, intermittently through the night, and only gradually quieted down. Liu Fuguang took a deep breath, stared at the distant horizon, and suddenly said, “I think we’ve found the natives’ location.”

Yan Huan followed the direction of his gaze, then heard the heavy sound of mechanical gears turning. In the distance, it looked like several round butterfly wings were rising from the sand.

He understood what it was. As he’d said, the natives couldn’t withstand the ground’s scorching heat and had moved to live underground. Despite their frailty, they found a difficult path to survival. They pressed large metal doors into the sand, then when the night winds blew and removed the heavy sands, the doors would open automatically, and allow ventilation into the underground area.

The two of them crossed the desert and arrived at the location where the doors opened. As they entered the underground, the surface was burning hot, while beneath, it was ice-cold, with a chill that seeped into their bones. Liu Fuguang used a pearl to light their way. They saw a village and farmland, which looked no different from anywhere else, but the houses were silent, the fields sparse, and the air was thick with the stench of rotting corpses.

Liu Fuguang quickly entered the village, and checked house by house. Inside the mud huts, long-dead bodies lay, their blood completely drained.

“How could this…?” Liu Fuguang murmured. “Not a single survivor.”

Yan Huan made a shushing gesture, and covered the pearl in his hand. Liu Fuguang fell silent. He, too, heard the faint rustling sound from nearby.

Yan Huan gently tugged him into the shadows. They melded with the darkness.

Liu Fuguang focused his attention, and then heard two soft “thumps.” A small figure bumped into the high threshold and nimbly flipped inside.

The underground was cold, and all the huts had extra layers on their foundations – fragments of wood, layers of mud and lime mixed together to form the solid ground. The small figure fell from the threshold and landed on its back.

Liu Fuguang could see clearly that it was a small puppet with rough features and its mouth stained with blood. Its hair, arms, and legs were all sewn, and its clothes, once fabric, had long since turned a brownish color. Remarkably, it was alive. The puppet struggled and moved its limbs, before it slowly pushed itself up and spun around the room, breathing audibly.

“What do you think it’s doing?” Liu Fuguang asked in a low voice, from his position pressed up against Yan Huan’s chest.

Yan Huan’s mind was elsewhere, with his chest close to Yan Huan’s back. A rumbling purr started deep in his throat.

He couldn’t help but be drawn to that warm sensation, the soft neck, the scent of his lover’s bare skin that drove him wild. The unique energy from his lover’s flesh was intoxicating.

He inhaled deeply, again and again, never feeling satisfied. His hungry saliva dripped from his fangs, always wanting more.

Yan Huan couldn’t help but imagine his taste, how the floral scents of wood, milk, and pine mixed with the heat from his lover’s skin and created an alluring aroma. His lover’s veins throbbed as the blood coursed through him, a gentle, powerful tide that called to the dragon in Yan Huan.

Unable to control himself, he imagined the taste, how it would melt on his lips and tongue…

“They’re looking for us,” Liu Fuguang’s warning sounded like a clear bell, and echoed in Yan Huan’s mind. “Focus.”

Yan Huan snapped back to reality, like waking from a beautiful dream. He pouted and closed his mouth with a look of mild frustration.

“…Oh,” he muttered. “Okay.”

They had been talking without any regard for the puppet, but it hadn’t noticed them at all. It had been moving in circles, unable to locate where the living beings in the room were. Its painted eyebrows rose in anger, and its two blurry eyes flickered uneasily. In the pitch-black space, it appeared eerily ominous, and added an extra layer of sinister energy.

It froze in the center of the room, and suddenly let out a high-pitched, childlike wail, “Mom! Mom! I’m scared! Where are you?”

“You little beast,” Yan Huan muttered. “Howling here like that. Aren’t you afraid of turning to dust?”

Liu Fuguang said, “It’s trying to lure us out. Still, I feel like I’ve seen this puppet before…”

His thoughts shifted, and with no interest in watching the dark ritual any longer, he walked up to the puppet and grabbed it by the neck.

As soon as the puppet came into contact with Liu Fuguang’s pure, virtuous energy, the blood-soaked soul within it was nearly destroyed. Liu Fuguang flipped it over and, upon exploring its material, suddenly understood. “Zhangliu God! Cypress wood represents the brother spirit, and willow wood represents the sister spirit…How could there be a Zhangliu God here?”

The practice was forbidden. The Zhangliu God was created by sinister practitioners seeking profit through divination. They sacrificed young boys and girls, cut off their noses, lips, tongues, ears, and eyes to extract their life force. Afterward, they cut open their stomachs, removed their hearts and livers, dried them in the sun, and ground them into powder. The boy children were sealed within cypress wood puppets, while the girls were sealed within willow wood ones. The puppets were then dressed in five-colored silk clothes, to create Zhangliu Gods. Those gods could be sent to cause mischief or be used to divine the future.

Once Liu Fuguang revealed its origin, the Zhangliu God could no longer remain silent. It screamed loudly, “June’s gathering of thunder bugs, the mountain rocks will shatter and the copper mountains will melt! Several beds of scorched earth, dry crops roll, the wind howls! The drought people…”

Unable to tolerate the noise any longer, Yan Huan grabbed the puppet’s head. A surge of malevolent energy poured into it, and caused the Zhangliu God to scream in agony, as it cried uncontrollably. Yan Huan restrained the urge to torment it and whispered, “Shut up.”

Liu Fuguang sighed. “Listening to the chant, it seems like it’s reciting a poem about the drought. Why not let it finish?”

Yan Huan released his grip and said, “It’s deliberately howling like a pig being slaughtered. I think it really wants to die.”

Liu Fuguang ignored him and questioned the Zhangliu God, which uncovered a troubling truth.

As Yan Huan guessed, the drought demon not only existed in the world but was it the greatest catastrophe of the present time. To warn of the presence of the drought demon, the village witch had somehow learned the dark arts and had sacrificed an entire family, using the children’s bodies to create a Zhangliu God.

However, the drought demon was elusive, and the Zhangliu God had to be constantly worshipped. Over the years, the villagers had grown reluctant to offer their precious food to the eerie and terrifying puppet, especially as the harvests became more meager.

Now, the dried corpses scattered both inside and outside the village were the consequence of the Zhangliu God’s hunger.

“They told you to warn of the drought demon,” Liu Fuguang said. “How did you warn them?”

The Zhangliu God fell silent for a moment before it screamed again, “June’s gathering of thunder bugs, the mountain rocks will shatter and the copper mountains will melt!”

Its scream grew louder and more terrifying. Liu Fuguang frowned in silence. As the noise reached its peak, the Zhangliu God’s body broke open with a sharp snap. A deep crack ran from its head to its feet.

Liu Fuguang’s hair stood on end, and he threw the puppet aside. The radiance of the Sun Pearl collided with the attacker in an instant.