He and It Chapter 42: A God’s Marriage (13)

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Chapter 42: A God’s Marriage (13)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

“This is currency.” Sa’gya grabbed a handful of silver coins with an archaic pattern, twisted them gently in his palm, then evenly rolled them into flat, round grains of silver, which he poured into Yun Chi’s leather pouch with a jingling flourish.

“Hmm.” Yun Chi nodded obediently.

After he thought about it, Sa’gya gave him a few gold coins, and then filled Yun Chi’s belt with tiny pieces of gems.

“Once on the shore, you can’t openly show the appearance of this divine clothing,” Sa’gya said sagely. ” Human clothing that is used to protect against the cold is inevitably fragile, and can’t withstand demons or evil spirits, so I will cover your body with an illusion, and your attire will look the same as ordinary people’s.”

“Demon,” Yun Chi repeated the term. “What is a demon…? A monster?”

“Demon monsters are the spirits that breed from all things of the shadows. They may not all be evil, and compared to the position of the gods, demons do have neutrality,” Sa’gya replied. “I can’t go with you, so I’ll alert the new gods of my class. However, when you go ashore, after you pass through no man’s land, and reach the junction of the first road, take out this.”

Sa’gya pulled out a luminous sapphire and placed it in Yun Chi’s inner pocket, as he carefully instructed, “The sapphire is still a symbol of my token. When you toss this jewel, recite the divine word, and a fog will rise around you. When you see the fog, don’t move. Stand still. When the fog clears, one will appear before your face, holding the sapphire, and no matter what it looks like, it is your servant. You can tell it to do anything, and ask it any question, but do not eat any of the food it hands you.”

Yun Chi couldn’t help but ask, “What happens if you eat it?”

“When you eat the food of the demons, you are taken to their home and become their child,” Sa’gya said in a deep voice. The stardust in his eyes slowly swirled like a raging storm. “So, I will ask West Wind to carry messages for me and watch over you. If something happens, call my name and no matter where you are, whether it’s in the sky shrine of Ugo, or the Goose River of Dhanera, I will come to you immediately. I will never break my word.”

Sa’gya was as solemn as the great sea otter played and pampered himself alone in the old days. His eyes contained a stormy thunder, and every word he spat out stirred up a fearful ‘turmoil’ in the underworld.

All things responded to Him – they had to respond to the old master who once held the Scepter of the World, because He had his own beloved and cherished things, and was willing to turn the sea and land upside down again for Yun Chi.

Yun Chi was overwhelmed and said, “Yes. Yes. If anything happens, I’ll definitely call you…”

Sa’gya nodded seriously and satisfactorily, then he taught Yun Chi a complicated, almost mantra-like chant.

Strangely enough, Yun Chi was a very fast learner. Sa’gya said it once, then he said it once, and after the third time, he was able to repeat it very fluently.

For fear that he would be thirsty and hungry on the way, Sa’gya not only prepared a water bag for him, but also put a bag full of dried oyster meat and seafood in his backpack, then reluctantly sent Yun Chi to the edge of the island.

“After I finish shopping, I’ll hurry home,” he told Sa’gya. It was hard to say goodbye, but Yun Chi hugged the sea otter’s neck, because it was a shopping trip he had been looking forward to for a long time.

Sa’gya whispered, “The island will stay here for about thirteen days, and then it will slowly drift away from land. You need to remember the time to come back, and not be too playful.”

Yun Chi nodded and heard Sa’gya plead softly, “And don’t… Don’t leave me here alone.”

Yun Chi’s nose was sore and he almost cried.

“… No way!” he exclaimed. “I’m sure I’ll haunt you forever. I won’t even leave when you’re annoyed!”

The sea otter lowered his eyes and they embraced in silence for a while before Sa’gya tapped his wet nose to the side of Yun Chi’s face, and signaled that it was time for him to go on his way.

Yun Chi whispered, “Take care of yourself while I’m gone. You can’t stay in one place and sleep all the time. You have to move around more and eat well, okay?”

Sa’gya was so heartbroken that he nodded his head, unable to speak.

“So…I’m really leaving now.” Yun Chi ruthlessly, slowly put down his hand, took a few steps back, then turned around. “Remember what I said. Bye!”

Sa’gya waved his hand disorientedly. “Goodbye…”

The ice beneath his feet was hard and thick, and the sea gradually became foggy. The further he got from the island, the thicker the fog became. Yun Chi glanced back and found Sa’gya’s figure still standing in the blur, staring at him alone. He hurriedly turned his face away, not daring to take a second look.

He was afraid that if he looked back a few more times, he would immediately give up the opportunity to step on land and choose to return to Sa’gya, running and falling into the arms of the big sea otter.

No, not like that.

Yun Chi understood that he had to be determined. No matter where or when he was, he couldn’t lose the spirit and determination of an explorer. Since he came into this world, Sa’gya was all he had lived for, and he was all Sa’gya had lived for, and they depended on each other, supporting each other on the lonely island.

Sa’gya saved him, accepted him tenderly, and almost indulgently coddled all his begging moves. By Sa’gya’s side, he had nothing to worry about, exotic fancy clothes, delicious food, a bright and spacious dwelling, safe and comfortable spaces…Even the dump of the temple’s huge treasure wealth. This was almost all the happiness that human imagination could encompass – Sa’gya gave him a home where he could ask for anything.

When Sa’gya couldn’t see him for a while, he would panic and look around; when he couldn’t touch Sa’gya in the morning, he would subconsciously call out Sa’gya’s name. However this was exactly what Yun Chi was worried about: would the haven represented by Sa’gya’s island wear away his fortitude and courage over time, turning him into a person who was dependent, not independent?

Perhaps what he was thinking about now was just a worry, but…

Yun Chi sighed and said to himself, “The traps in marriage are really impossible to prevent…”

After he said that, he felt something was wrong. “Uh, no, we are not married. We are living like a couple…The more I talk about it, the more I get upset!”

The wind around him seemed to be messy for a moment. Yun Chi gritted his teeth and decided to bury his head in the sand.

He walked through the gradually cracked ice and went to the shore, which was covered with pebbles that had been polished by the sea to lose their angles.

He looked around and saw smoke not far away. He was happy to see that there was smoke. He quickly patted his backpack and walked towards the place where the smoke was floating.

Sa’gya had already used divine power to disguise his appearance. In the eyes of outsiders, Yun Chi was no longer wearing the pure and dazzling white robe, but an ordinary brown leather coat with a fur collar, while his feet stepped in lace-up animal skin boots, while a velvet hat was against his face, and behind him was bundled a traveler’s backpack.

As he plucked away the dead branches covered with winter snow, Yun Chi, wrapped in the west wind and light snow, came to the destination with the smoke of cooking.

Instead of a village, it was a temporary campfire.

The three travelers carried defensive crossbows, and had a…That animal should not be called a horse, right? Anyway, the three travelers with an animal cart were roasting food on the side of the road. They were carrying steaming jars of water and exchanging food that Yun Chi couldn’t see clearly.

Yun Chi couldn’t tell how the wind was here, but seeing that they were sharing food so amicably, it couldn’t be any worse…?

He walked over to them and called out tentatively, “How are you?”

The three travelers turned around and stared at him blankly for a moment, then panicked, threw away their glasses of water, quickly pulled the defensive weapons off their backs, drew their bow strings and aimed them at Yun Chi’s body. This set of actions down, startled the pack animal that pulled the cart and it snorted several times.

“Are you a bandit or an evil spirit? Tell us your name!”

“If you are an evil spirit, before you cast the evil spell, think of the arrows aimed at you, all coated with the sacred splendid flower juice!”

“Yes, that’s right!”

Yun Chi subconsciously raised his hands. He was shocked by the excitement of the battle.

“Whoa! Calm down, calm down, okay? I’m not an evil spirit, I’m a human being, the same as you.”

Yun Chi’s eyes quickly swept over the three travelers and found that their faces were flushed with the purple color of living in a long time in a cold region, while their bodies were wrapped in heavy coats of fur and felt, and it was hard to distinguish the color of their clothes after hard days of searching. Their belts were also filled with oil-soaked tools, and he didn’t know what they were for.

In contrast, Yun Chi was clean and neat, with a declining color and a face as white as snow. With the sudden appearance of such a strange young man in the deserted wilderness, it was no wonder the travelers overreacted.

Yun Chi defended himself by saying, “I didn’t mean any harm. I was passing by and saw signs of human smoke…”

“I told you not to start the fire, but you didn’t listen!”

“It’s cold as hell, if you don’t build a fire, you won’t be able to hold on…Besides, you didn’t mean it right away!”

“Don’t argue, don’t argue!” Yun Chi sighed. “I’ll tell you what. I won’t hold you up. I was wondering if I could see any villages or city-states along this road. I’d like to buy some supplies.”

Three people stopped and exchanged suspicious glances as if they had turned on a team voice and were privately communicating whether what Yun Chi said was true or not.

“Face the road, turn left.” The first person said stiffly.

Yun Chi was relieved that there was a way. He was just about to thank them when the second person said, “Face that way and turn right!”

Yun Chi, “?”

The third person followed and stumbled, “There is no road to face. Go straight, straight ahead.”

Yun Chi, “…”

“If you are a good and innocent person, the gods of that day will naturally bless you and guide you to the right path!” The first man said warily. “If you are an evil spirit, then ask for your own luck. We won’t lead you to the human city-state!”

Yun Chi was completely out of words. It was useless to stay here any longer. The traveller’s wariness was so strong that it made it a problem to communicate with them.

He waved his hand, which caused the bows to tremble nervously, then turned around and left. He realized that here, so-called “evil spirits” would wreak havoc, and it seemed to be more serious than expected, so that travelers had to come and go in groups, and cower like scared birds.

This was really puzzling. According to Sa’gya, as early as the existence of the second generation of the divine system, large and small villages and city-states were filled with all kinds of temples and idols, while there were fearless heroes walking in the mountains, forests and seas, that fought with monsters and evil spirits, accordingly, to obtain immortal glory.

However, as far as he could see, the actual situation was very different from that…

Could it be that times had really changed?

He stepped on the snow, and walked fast on the rough and bumpy dirt road. The west wind gently blew around him. The dead branches under the snow, ready to ambush the passers-by of the evil creatures, before he approached, the wind spirit blew away their form and soul, and they melted in the snow.

Yun Chi was human, and was unable to detect such subtleties of his encounters. Once he reached the fork in the road, he could always stop and drink water in peace.

“First, take out the sapphire…” he said to himself quietly, as he pulled out the clear jewel from his inner pocket.

He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but at first there was a constant rustling sound in the field, the chirping of insects and birds, and the breeze that wandered through the forest hitting the dead leaves, which made a constant clicking movement…However, once the gem was taken out and placed under the light of the sky, the wilderness went silent, like a dead land, and the chirping and wind chatter was completely extinguished.

Time seemed to freeze. Yun Chi stood in the road, as if was really standing in the center of the beginning of heaven and earth. Only his breathing, the scrape of his clothes, the mumbling of his lips…It was as if all the sounds in the world were created by him alone.

Yun Chi looked around, and laughed dryly at nothing, “This, such a big scene…”

He hurriedly followed Sa’gya’s instructions. He threw the sapphire into the air, as he recited the divine words taught to him by the sea otter. When the first word came out, a fog like cow’s milk gushed up around him, and instantly flooded Yun Chi’s vision.

By the time all the words were recited, Yun Chi was completely blind. He waited patiently, and after about ten minutes, his ears twitched slightly and he heard an extremely sticky, muddy sound in the distance.

“I have come in response to an ancient oath.”

The fog began to dissipate, and Yun Chi heard a vicissitudinous trilling sound that resonated through the countless bubbles that broke and regenerated.

— A mud giant, more than three people tall, shapeless and without appearance, was standing over Yun Chi. In what should be the forehead position, was set that defiant sapphire.

“I have come in response to the imperial order of that horrible tyrant, the unpredictable ice ocean, and the one who is tearing off the gods. I am willing to do your bidding, and as the most loyal slave of your line. I revere, and sincerely worship at your feet.”

Mud was lost, layer by layer, as the form smoothed out. The giant’s figure also became smaller and smaller, until finally, it became a taller version of Yun Chi with ‘waxy’ skin, but its appearance of himself.

What?

It…was he talking about Sa’gya? A tyrant, unpredictable, and the one who was tearing off the gods…? Was that the soft white sea otter that rolled in bed by itself every day, grunted while grooming, liked to eat sea monster tentacles, and taught him egg-stealing skills?

…It was slander!

“I would like to be your blade, to create the sharpest spear and the strongest shield in the world for you. Wherever Your gaze is directed, the earth and the city-state there will have the honor to be scorched by the fire of war and become a shining scorched earth under Your seat…”

No. First of all, the sharpest spear and the strongest shield was a completely non-existent condition, and needless to say, that stuff you are talking about…I am not a war monger, ah!

“… In conclusion, please give the order. Send me to achieve your great work of the next world!” The devil’s servant yelled like a bell. “My people will not fear life and death, and submit to your king!”

Yun Chi’s mouth twitched as he whispered, “Comb, comb…”

“Comb?” The demon was confused and lowered his head. “Please enlighten the foolish servant. Your servant does not understand.”

“…Comb.” Yun Chi said woodenly. “I want to buy rice and noodles, then buy combs, spices, kitchen utensils and other stuff.”

He took a deep breath, held back his inner shock and said as calmly as possible, “I see you are quite strong, so you can help carry the bags. The rest is fine.”