Wen Kexing had no idea what the dust that Zhou Zishu had sprinkled was but he didn’t ask, as if he already knew what the other was capable of. He stood beside Zhou Zishu silently. Seconds later, the heavy breathing of the slowly approaching beast could be heard. The creature seemed to have noticed something, maintaining a slow tread. It went by a spot that was about ten feet away from them.
The creature was dog-like but as big as a pony, black all over. It panted through the nose, and in the air was a faint fishy smell. It slowed down even more, sniffing the air like it was suspicious of something.
Zhou Zishu crossed his arms in front of his chest, leaning on the wall, eyes narrowed, watching the scene intently.
There was a fleeting hint of a smile on Wen Kexing’s face; it was chilling and only there for a split second.
The beast was not far away but it had yet to notice the two’s presence. It stood still for a while then moved forward, being watched by two pair of human eyes. It followed the smell of blood to the corpses of the underwater monsters. After sniffing, it bellowed, head lowered and mouth chewing happily—it truly was able to decapitate the humanoid monsters.
Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu glanced at each other. Zhou Zishu was quietly terrified; while he wasn’t a coroner, he had been through a lot in life and his knowledge was vast, it was impossible that he couldn’t recognize a human head. Is that creature really human? He mused.
If it was, how did it come to this?
Wen Kexing poked at him, pointing at a small road. Zhou Zishu nodded, leaving carefully.
The road widened and narrowed in an unpredictable fashion. After an unknown amount of turns far away from their starting point, Wen Kexing asked, “There are other teeth marks on the bones of those dead monsters, do you think they cannibalize?”
When he wasn’t talking nonsense, his voice was low, almost like sighing with no strength to it, as if he didn’t want to waste energy; completed with a hint of indifference. He paused, then continued, “Are they human?”
Zhou Zishu looked at him, voice also low, “Forgive me, I’m just a fool with shallow knowledge.”
“Wen Kexing laughed softly, “You, shallow knowledge? Hah.”
He didn’t ask further and kept walking.
After an indefinite time, at another turn, when the rapidly flowing “Yellow Spring” appeared again in front of their eyes, Zhou Zishu called out, “Wait.”
Wen Kexing looked back at him, the irritating demeanor making a return, “What’s wrong, beautiful Brother Zhou?”
Zhou Zishu knew all too well that reacting would only goad the other on, so he ignored the gibberish. “Those underwater creatures are incredibly strong and fast, and they can move in the water naturally. The beast we saw walks on land and is aware that it has to stay away from the river; if it doesn’t hunt near the water, how can it catch the monsters?”
Wen Kexing stopped walking, examining the ground under them. It was unclear whether he was monologuing or speaking to Zhou Zishu, “How big is this place?”
Why did it feel like the road was never-ending?
Zhou Zishu suddenly spoke after falling into pensiveness. “This river flows from east to west. I remember the direction very clearly; even though we took a few turns, we’re still going in the north-south direction…”
“You mean we’re running in circles?” Sudden enthusiasm took over Wen Kexing, he blinked, “I also heard about this one story where a person…”
Zhou Zishu turned his back to him, making a mark on the wall with his fingertip; then wordlessly left to walk along the mysterious river.
Wen Kexing didn’t mind his ghost stories being ignored. He rubbed his nose, following the other with a smile.
Suddenly, they heard a roar that seemed to shake the whole cave. In the middle of it was a piercing scream that possibly belonged to a child.
Zhou Zishu stopped walking.
The child’s miserable crying began to get louder.
Zhou Zishu swiftly dashed to that direction, he was ten feet away in just a blink of an eye. Wen Kexing didn’t get to say what he wanted to, his extending arm hanging in midair. He swallowed back the words, shaking his head and following the other.
They saw under the claws of the half-dog-half-horse creature was a little girl. The big fangs were right next to the girl’s pale neck, seemingly about to bite down. Zhou Zishu propelled himself higher in the air and struck down at the monster. Ranged attack was one of his fortes, and the creature was hit right in the head, its whole body knocked and rolled to one side.
He picked up the child who was only weakly breathing.
The beast shook its head with all its might, as if it was disoriented after being hit. After a moment, it realized that Zhou Zishu had stolen its food and roared, charging toward him.
At first Zhou Zishu was going to throw her to Wen Kexing by instinct but then paused. His feet started to move around in a strange pattern, his body mysteriously able to retreat several feet away. He put the girl down and kept moving.
The beast followed, the stench from its bloody mouth was headache-inducing. Zhou Zishu jumped to a high place before landing himself on top of the beast in just seconds.
Wen Kexing stood there, completely disregarding the crying girl with an expressionless face.
Zhou Zishu used ‘The Fall of A Thousand Weight’1 to keep the beast down, but it was a smart creature, its body toppling over to roll—if someone were to roll with it, they would be crushed to dust even if they were made of metal.
Zhou Zishu immediately took advantage of that to jump down with a shout, kicking at its belly.
The creature’s back was full of tough muscles but the stomach area was really soft, and the kick nearly turned over every organ inside. It roared in pain, but could still stand up thanks to the thick skin’s protection. Its mouth widened to bite at Zhou Zishu. Its back legs were incredibly strong and despite being in agony, it was still very fast. Zhou Zishu was about to dodge when his internal strength suddenly hit a wall.
The beast’s sharp teeth were right in front of him at that moment. He pressed down at his chest with one palm and bent the elbow of the other arm, risking his life facing the attack to hit his elbow at the creature’s nose. There was a sound of its nose being broken, its claw tearing Zhou Zishu’s left shoulder, making him bleed instantly.
Zhou Zishu realized the nose was the creature’s weakness. He ignored his wound, using his hand to strike at the beast’s nose again with enough momentum to completely shatter the bones on its forehead too. It staggered a few steps and went down with a loud rumble.
Zhou Zishu frowned, blocking the acupuncture points on his shoulder to stop the bleeding. He was about to use the water from the “Yellow Spring” to clean the wound, but then remembered the half-human-half-demon creatures down there and gave up the idea. He heard Wen Kexing let out an “Oh”, then, “Do you have internal injuries?”
Zhou Zishu turned his head to glance at the other and replied calmly, “Just haven’t had enough food tonight.”
Then he bent down to pick up the young girl, patting her back and speaking to her with a gentle voice, “Where are you from, how did you get here?”
Wen kexing laughed mockingly at that. “You should rather ask her what kind of demon she is. Why did you save her anyway?”
The girl didn’t say anything, only burrowing herself deeper into Zhou Zishu’s embrace.
Zhou Zishu stopped asking, saying to Wen Kexing, “For gathering merits.”
Wen Kexing stared at his bloody shoulder in deep thoughts, then suddenly smiled, “I’ve caught you, Brother Zhou forgot to disguise the skin on your shoulder, that area looks really different from your face and neck.”
Zhou Zishu only paused for a few seconds before answering curtly, “It’s because of sunbathing.”
Wen kexing was still smiling, “Is it really? This is the first time I’ve heard that a pale beauty can have that haggard shade of skin after sunbathing.”
“Pale Beauty” Zhou Zishu was given the heebies-jeebies after those words. Still carrying the girl, he was about to say something when his eyes caught something and saw a strange scene: on the body of the dead beast, a plant sprung up, glowing then blooming… it’s a cherry blossom tree!
Wen Kexing followed his gaze, his face quickly paling.
Zhou Zishu had no time to care about that, he stood stock still, gawking at the still-growing blossom tree. In the air was an unknown fragrance. The body of the doglike beast was nowhere to be seen, and the flowers kept blooming as though absorbing magical energy; soon, it spread out wide—seemed like he could even touch it if he had reached out.
Then there was a person standing under the tree.
He was a young man with thick brows and big eyes, full lips seemingly always smiling. Blossom petals fell on his shoulders but he cared none about it, only extending his hand, lips moving. Zhou Zishu could make out what he was speaking—senior brother.
It was Jiuxiao…
At that moment, it was possible that his heart had stopped beating.
There was sudden sharp pain on his shoulder. Zhou Zishu cried out, having lowered his guard. He looked down to see the little girl in his arms opening her mouth to sink her teeth into his wound.
He acted on instinct and used internal strength to throw her off. When he pulled himself together, the cherry blossom tree and the person disappeared—in front of him now was only the dark cave with the beast’s corpse on the ground and the pile of bones that they had examined moments ago.
The girl that he threw off let out an inhuman scream. When he looked clearly, she was not at all a human girl, but actually the underwater monster!
The little monster screamed with its mouth open, staring at his bleeding wound hungrily. It was eager to pounce again, but suddenly a hand stuck out and grabbed its neck. The creature didn’t even get to struggle before its neck was snapped and it died immediately.
Wen Kexing lips curled in amusement, discarding the body without a thought. He spoke as if nothing happened, “Those underwater things still dare go on land even when they’re afraid of the beast. Seems like there aren’t just us two down here.”
All strength seemed to have left Zhou Zishu, he forced out a laugh, “Did we just go in circles and back to the original spot then?”
Wen Kexing sized him up. “Can you walk? I can carry you… bridal style is completely alright too, as long as you let me see your real face.”
Zhou Zishu smiled drily, “Thank you, but there’s no need.”
He covered the shoulder wound, lifted his spirits and continued walking along the “Yellow Spring”. Then he asked like he just remembered something, “Back then I saw a tree with flowers growing from the beast’s corpse, with prince’s feathers2 jumping and singing. What did you see?”
Wen Kexing replied from behind him, “I saw an owl—I told you before that owls laughing will only bring bad luck, and I was right wasn’t I—then I also a person carrying a bowl with red water, and the owl knocked it over…”
Zhou Zishu kept his mouth shut. He told a lie, it was fair that his companion told a lie in return.
He took the lead and didn’t look back, so he didn’t see Wen Kexing’s expression at that moment—the smile on the man’s face seemed to freeze there for a long time and his eyes were blank. It was unclear that he was looking down at the ground or at something very far away. Seeing that Zhou Zishu had no patience for his owl story, he swallowed it down and followed the other.
Footnotes.
1 A martial art move from the Cherry Blossom Pole (梅花樁) kungfu style.
2 A plant of the Polygonaceae family, also called the “dog’s tail” plant in China due to the shape of the flowers.