He and It Chapter 79: Dark Sky Sanctuary (14)

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Chapter 79: Dark Sky Sanctuary (14)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: GaeaTiamat

The hoof was a delicate thing, with tendons and ligaments connecting the bones, pads, and joints. The inner workings of the hoof, in contrast to the hard walls and soles, demanded extra care and attention.

Yu Mengzhou was able to hammer out the outer copper nails but was unable to remove the nails that were already embedded in the hoof sole.

Catastrophe’s hoof crusher was a gruesome machine, but the core of its support was a long, thick beam, which was basically halfway to success if it could be worn down. However, the instruments of torture on Ether’s hooves were all independent, so while Catastrophe might only have to endure the excruciating pain once, Ether would have to endure it many times over.

Yu Mengzhou sighed for the umpteenth time. It’s a good thing they were all demon horses and could withstand such deadly torture…

“Ether?” Yu Mengzhou thought out loud. “Have you ever, I mean, you’re all born from the magma in the center of the earth and can control fire, right? Have you ever tried to melt these nails?”

“Tried,” Ether said sullenly. “Everything you can think of, we’ve tried, but once the spell nails are struck, there’s no way to break them free with an outside force, except for their owner’s willingness to give them up.”

Yu Mengzhou nodded his head, then first pried the spell nails off his hooves one by one.

Ha, he was getting more and more skillful in dealing with the spell nails. According to the custom of hell, he should be given a title like “Conqueror of Curse Nails” or something like that, right?

“Try again now?” he asked. “The rest of these nails, they’re in your bones…you can’t touch them and they’re long dead to my touch anyway, so if you burn them, maybe you can melt them?”

Ether hesitated, “Then you have to get out of the way.”

Yu Mengzhou complied and stood far away, on one of Ether’s front hooves, a white-golden fire instantly flared up. Its temperature was so high that even the surrounding flowers and trees shriveled up, and the wetland quickly dried up and cracked.

The copper nails made an unbearable, creaking melting sound, and Yu Mengzhou’s sharp eyes immediately saw that they were showing signs of softening.

“There, there! It’s working!”

The flames gradually died down. He braved the afterglow of the rolling heat, and rushed up with the pliers in the attitude of a fireman’s charge, then, as if clamping a piece of easily molded fudge, Yu Mengzhou tugged at the red-hot copper nails and drew them out with only a little force and a sharp jerk.

“Not bad,” Yu Mengzhou exulted. “That worked!”

Ether wagged his tail, his spirit was very excited. Yu Mengzhou took a closer look at his hooves and found that after removing the spell formation formed by the copper nails, there was a circle of densely-packed holes left on top of it, which was still in the shape of the magic formation.

However, this was much easier to deal with. He took out his hoof knife and plowed over the hoof surface refreshingly and thoroughly, as he smoothed out all the pitted holes caused by the torture device until he revealed the shape of a trimmed hoof toe, then polished it to a curved shape that wasn’t sharp, which would make the hoof’s movement on the ground easier and quicker.

As for the remaining three hooves, he and Ether split the work and were soon done.

The chlortetracycline ointment had long since been used up, and the medicine the horses found for him was a turquoise-colored translucent ointment. Yu Mengzhou tried to rub it on his hand, and it felt very cool, so it should be a good medicine. He wasted no time in squeezing a bunch of it into the wound, and then wrapped it up with a thin, light gauze that had been cut into strips. The palace is full of that kind of floating fabric like white fairy yarn. Yu Mengzhou was really happy to see it. It was good, and the bandage would work well!

“In the next two days, the wound should not be exposed to water, nor…” While bandaging the wound, he habitually instructed the demon horse, but before he could finish, Ether took over, “And no running or jumping, so as not to let the wound heal badly, right?”

Yu Mengzhou laughed, “Yes, you’re right.”

After releasing the shackles that had existed for thousands of years, the bad-tempered and bad-mouthed demon horse immediately arched into his arms, and gratefully rubbed his chest and cheeks. Yu Mengzhou couldn’t bear such a strong force and laughed as he leaned back and sat down on the stone bench, then stroked his big head.

The demon horse’s fur was like tight, fine satin. If they hadn’t endured so many inhumane tortures, it would have covered all their bodies, and when they ran in the light, they would shine like the waves of the sea.

“Will you stop trying to leave?” Ether lay prone and rested his head on his knee. He tilted his head and looked at Yu Mengzhou with one side of his wide eyes. With the flames extinguished, the pupils of the demon horse’s crimson eyes actually looked watery for a few moments. “Just stay here…Stay with us, okay?”

“Me?” Yu Mengzhou was dumbfounded. “How am I going to stay? This is not my world.”

“Isn’t it good to be here?” Ether puffed hot air. “The Demon Realm is not a world for mortals, but it has everything. You can have whatever you want. Look at the palace here, if you think it isn’t fitting enough, there must be a more perfect dwelling than it! Everything you desire can be realized here…Why do you still want to leave?”

Yu Mengzhou sighed, not knowing what to say.

“You see, as you also said, my world is the world of mortals.” He stroked the demon horse’s forelock. “That’s the problem. As far as I’m concerned, time is an unbridgeable chasm. It is only a hundred years for a man to live and die, but for you, a hundred years is only the gap between the blink of an eye.”

Ether said anxiously, “That’s not a problem either. If you’re willing to become the master of a demon horse, you can absolutely take Angola’s place and be promoted to Prince…”

“And then what?” Yu Mengzhou tugged Ether’s horse ears in amusement. “I’m a human who came to be the Prince of the Demon Realm. Am I out of my mind?”

“Even a lowly villain like Angola could, so why can’t you?” One of Ether’s eyes looked pleadingly at Yu Mengzhou, while the other eye, which had spun and frantically rattled around in the shadows a few times, refracted a spiteful light. “If you can become the Prince, we will all be very, very happy…”

Yu Mengzhou shook his head, looking at him regretfully.

“I’m a man with no great ambitions,” he said. “My dream in this life is just to save up enough money to go to a place with fewer people to start a farm and raise a few cows and horses, and not ask them to produce milk or pull carts. Just as long as they’re happy and keep me company in my old age. I don’t even want to think about having children or marriage. Some people are just not born for marriage…”

The youth whispered, “Look. Suppose, and I mean suppose, I stay here, and be the master of the herd, and become some kind of prince. Then what next? My dream, Yu Mengzhou’s dream, who is going to help him realize it? The person who has turned his back on his dreams is pitiful because he is tantamount to overthrowing himself in the first half of his life, and when that happens, will you all still be able to recognize me and continue to like me?”

Ether didn’t say anything.

Yu Mengzhou quietly stroked its eyes. Stripped of their cumbersome and tired battle armor, they were actually very beautiful creatures as every demon horse had long and thick eyelashes.

“Actually, it’s been worth it in my life to meet you guys and experience this incredible encounter,” he murmured. “I might not even be able to dream about anything else in the future.”

“Alright,” Yu Mengzhou snapped back to reality as he smiled. “I have to go look for Falchion…I haven’t forgotten what he was trying to mention to me last night.”

Ether silently raised his head, and let the human rise. With a final scratch of his chin, the youth left with his toolbox.

All was silent in the garden. It was a long time before Ether said huskily, “Did you all hear that?”

In the shadows, in the sky, among the trees and grass…The demon horses revealed themselves, staring morosely in the direction Yu Mengzhou had left.

“I heard you, so what?” Deathstar spoke succinctly, his voice hoarse and coarse, as it scraped the ears.

“Is it hard to believe that you guys still want to leave him behind by force?” Blasphe whispered silky smooth. “The words have been coaxed to this point. He does not aspire to it.”

“What is there to keep when humans have soft hearts? He would never have the heart to tell us no if I were to cry my eyes out,” Striker said calmly. “Then again, blindness is worth it if it keeps him here. It’s not like it can’t be cured.”

Iron Scepter shook his head. “Let’s see what the chief wants. Don’t do anything rash.”

“The chief?” Sevenfold Eyes slowly chewed on a blade of grass on the ground then tediously spat it out again. “It’s the chief that’s the scariest of us all. We’ll have to pick someone who can  tell him the news politely. Blasphe?”

Blasphe asked coldly, “Me again? Really want me dead don’t you?”

“You go ahead,” Noel said softly. “The chief will definitely not have the time to take it out on you when he hears this news.”

On the other end, Yu Mengzhou circled around several rooms in the huge palace without seeing Falchion’s figure, so he simply stopped looking and chose a place similar to a study to rest his feet. After he realized that he had disappeared, Falchion would come looking for him.

He sat down on the sumptuous gold-threaded upholstery and surveyed the study’s construction from side to side. The black jade desk was understated and beautifully crafted, and when the light shone on it, it reflected sparkling ripples. The parchment on the desktop was strewn about, the gold pen was still stuck in the bright red ink bottle, and the crystal ball was foggy, irregularly clustered, and scattered…It was as if the owner of the study had not traveled far, but had only left for a moment.

However, Yu Mengzhou knew clearly that the other party would never come back.

He curiously picked up the half-opened parchment scroll on the desk, and was surprised to find that just as he could understand the language of demons, he could also read demonic writing.

“Let’s see…A collection of stories? Yo, the illustrations move. Pretty advanced.” He skimmed through the table of contents. “The Sea God of the Ice Sea and the Bride of God…Damn, the Sea God looks like a sea otter and is bigger than a human! Wait, this bride is a guy, right?” he wondered as he looked down. “And the serpent-demon of a foreign land, named Echidna…I think I’ve heard that name before in some myth, sharing the life span with his priest…The priest is a man too, right?”

“And, ooh, antlers and a snake. Isn’t that the Dragon of the East? Let’s see, the foreign dragon that carries the evil of all the worlds, with the prince of a fallen kingdom…”

“Blasphe said you were looking for me?” Falchion’s voice suddenly rang out in front of the door. Since Yu Mengzhou was reading intently, he couldn’t help but be startled and dropped the parchment scroll in passing.

“Ah, yes!” He looked over at Falchion. He got the feeling that Falchion’s eyes, as they gazed at him, seemed darker than usual.

“Nothing else, really. I was just wondering what you were going to say to me last night?”

The massive demonic warhorse gazed at him for a long moment, and suddenly let out a sound that bordered on a laugh.

“Oh,” Falchion said, “You do realize that a demon’s horns are not to be touched?”

When he heard him say that, Yu Mengzhou panicked a bit.

“What?” he asked nervously. “I didn’t know! I just casually pushed it last night. I didn’t offend you, did I?”

“It’s actually fine,” Falchion hung his head and said melancholically. “It’s just that for demons, horns are very important organs, and touching them is the same as establishing a temporary master-slave contract…”

Yu Mengzhou was shocked, “What?!”

“Demons value their horns, and because I trust you so much, I have no defense. It’s just that you were unwilling to serve as the herd’s riding master again, so it was inevitable that I would be disappointed…But this master-slave contract doesn’t last long, so it’s fine.”

Falchion unconsciously pawed the ground with his hooves and said in a low voice, “…It’s really fine.”

Yu Mengzhou was genuinely flustered. What’s fine, isn’t this the same as taking the liberty of stating that you want to be the horse’s rider, and then abandoning the horse at will! If someone did that on a horse farm, the horse could get depressed, ah!

“Sorry, sorry, sorry!” Yu Mengzhou jumped up violently. “I didn’t know about this! If I did, I definitely wouldn’t have touched it!”

While terrified, he couldn’t help but be thankful in his heart that apart from Falchion, it was fortunate that he hadn’t touched the horns of any other demonic horses, or else he really wouldn’t have been able to say anything about it.

“You…How are you feeling?” Yu Mengzhou hurriedly inquired. Falchion was usually quite calm, and from yesterday to today, he couldn’t see anything unusual. Perhaps he had been keeping those unpleasant emotions bottled up in his heart and disguised?

“I don’t know.” Falchion lowered his head. His thick mane almost dropped to the ground in frustration. “Because I heard about it, your wish is to return to earth, to have a territory of your own, to raise many horses on it…”

Yu Mengzhou swallowed his throat and said dryly, “Yes…yes.”

“What if I said that we would like to return to the mortal world with you?” Falchion lifted his head and gazed at him silently. “Don’t raise any other horses. Just us.”

Yu Mengzhou was taken aback again.

“You mean…”

“When this is over,” Falchion said. “When our vengeance and resentment is over, we can go back to your homeland together and live there…I think that it would be far from the killing, isolated from bloodshed, and every day would be filled with peace.”

Yu Mengzhou simply did not know what to say as he froze, “…Thirteen horses. It would probably take a very large farmstead to fit you all.”

“We don’t lack wealth,” Falchion looked at him with pleading eyes. “You said that human life is short, that’s not a problem. We can accompany you until the…the day you die, then we will return to this world, to the Demon Realm.”

Yu Mengzhou was speechless. The temptation offered by Ether was nothing more than a joke to him, the Prince’s position was too far away from him, and he was already quite content to have something within his reach.

But Falchion’s offer?

They could come back to earth together and have enough money to buy a horse farm – heaven have mercy, there would be countless treasures in this palace – and then until the day he was too old to walk, these beautiful, divinely handsome magical horses would still be with him. Yu Mengzhou was unable to comprehend that it would take a lot of time for them to get to the palace, and he still would be with all of them until old age.

Yu Mengzhou realized with dread that it was too difficult for him to open his mouth and refuse Falchion’s request.

“May I?” Falchion pleaded. “You’re still my riding master now. Please…Please don’t leave me behind, leave us behind. You don’t have to become a Prince, you just have to become a farmer.”

If Yu Mengzhou wasn’t wavering, then he was lying to himself.

“Let me think about it, okay?” He also begged Falchion. “I…This matter is hard to decide. I need a little time to think.”

A spark of snowy light swept through the depths of the demon horse’s pupils.

The prey was within reach. Falchion paced slowly around his sweet trophy, just waiting for the perfect moment to take a bite.

“No problem,” he whispered. “I just hope you think fast. You know, this contract really disturbs me.”

Yu Mengzhou nodded his head, all in disarray. “Yes, yes. I understand, completely.”