"What do you mean the bathtub broke?" Shi QingXuan couldn't get angry as it was not in his nature. But he was rather dumbfounded. The homeless people with him lives under a broken temple.
He was pretty much leader of them. His friends knew that he has kind of phobia from river or sea. So he never went to any river to take bath. They had somehow managed to steal a broken bath tub for him. But now they were saying some gang broke the bathtub. The river wasn't much far from the temple that they were living under. But Shi QingXuan still never went near the river. He usually takes bath once in a month probably. But a few days ago he was extremely sick. Now when he got out of sickness, bath was a must. Washing the clothes were important as well. Otherwise he might fall sick again and die.
Seeing his almost grieve expression the people around him didn't know what to say. But Shi QingXuan composed himself and laughed, "Haha, good that it's broken. Now I should go and face reality. For the sake of our future gang haha." As he laughed people around him got comfortable. They didn't know Shi QingXuan actually had a dark past with water. They thought it might be a small phobia.
After putting many thought Shi QingXuan together with a few homeless children prepared to go to the nearest river.
......
He Xuan didn't wear any fancy or eye catching cloth. Well he doesn't have any except the robe of earth master. He was walking steadily on the busy royal pavilion road. He was always good at hiding and spying. No one noticed him.
As he was walking he could smell many kind of street foods which brought saliva in his mouth. He stole a few pieces and quietly left the sight. As he was walking he was planning for his next step.
Although he was a supreme, his spiritual power was greatly damage in the battle with Xuanwu power. If he was near any water the Xuanwu might actually smell his presence and attack him. He didn't want to be attacked again without any solid plan or when his spiritual power was in it's low. Besides he had already left a great amount of spiritual power in his domain to protect the creatures, spirits there. But no matter how much he wanted to stay away from water, it would still attract him. He was deeply missing the feeling.
As he was distracted without thinking he reached for a food and the owner quickly catches him. He Xuan snatched his hand away, but he was feeling really dizzy right now.
One he was not used to hot temperature like this, the sun was soaking out energy from him. Two he was away from water for almost one full day and his body couldn't adjust with the situation.
"You fucking thief, tryna steal my food and get away," the owner yelled.
"Da-ga someone steal from my stall too, it's must be him."
"Yeah, mine too."
He Xuan noticed that many people whose food he didn't even touched were also blaming him.
He never came to busy mortal world alone after his death. It would be with Shi QingXuan or he would sometime walk in dark alley.
He Xuan was about to just exchange a few moves with them and would dash away. But suddenly he panicked. As his spiritual power was draining, his true appearance was coming!
He forgot about moving exchange and tried to hide his face but people were already crowding him, some people was throwing things as well. He could care less, he tried his best to hide his face. Suddenly he heard a voice, "I say big brother what prove do you have he stole from you?"
The voice was youthful and had a cheery appearance which would easily attract people.
"I saw him extending his hand to took the food, he didn't say he won't pay. And the others what prove do you have hu?"
He Xuan widened his eyes and as he hid his face in his outer robe he felt that people was actually listened to the youth and was moving away.
"Aiyoh, Ol' Feng , aren't you a nosy one? We were just interrogating him a bit. Look how suspicious he is acting."
"Yes yes."
"Big brother, let go of him. He might be uncomfortable. Let go of him. Let me take a look," Shi QingXuan said as he saw the man hiding himself.
Hearing the voice getting close to him, he Xuan didn't know from where he got the strength but he pushed away the person who was blocking his path and dashed away. He was pretty good at running and as he was running madly he left everything behind soon. He could hear the sound of water and he ran toward the direction but he was weak, sick physically and exhausted. He felt himself losing control of body and could feel his real appearance were popping up. Right before he lost his conscience, only one voice was ringing in his ear.
"Aiyoh, brother why are you running?!"
Thump ~
.....
Shi QingXuan looked at the mad run of the youth and didn't mind much. He could tell anyway it was a thief.
"Gege, it's so hot. Let's go take bath," one of the child tugged his cloth and he smiled and said with a enthusiastic voice, "Let's go and take bath like our last time."
Hearing the sentence people looked at him like he was crazy. The children didn't seem too pleased either. Shi QingXuan didn't mind and laughed madly, " Hahah."
But he sighed in his heart. It's been almost year he went to near any river or sea. He took a deep breath and reached the river.
It wasn't a big river. Very small and local. And as it was hot weather the water level was very low.
Shi QingXuan looked at the water flow, his heart tucked. He felt like he will just fell apart right now. The children beside him happily jumped into the river and started swimming madly.
Perhaps children could actually relax one and spread warmth among people. Shi QingXuan thought to himself, it's just all past. And slowly he took one step, two step, three step and finally put his feet in the water of river. But as he was going to take a deep breath again someone dragged his feet. He couldn't help but let out a scream, "WHO IS IT?!"
The children started to laugh.
"Feng gege, I can't believe you're this afraid of water. Haha haha."
"Feng gege is a scaredy cat. Haha haha. And he thinks about leading gang. Hahaha."
It took quite a long moment to catch his breath and he instantly scolded the kids.
"How could you do that? Do you know how many water ghouls and spirit can be hidden under the water. You foolish kids. Once they take you away no one can save you except me. And I will sit here eat my foot and would watch ghouls taking you away."
Although eating his own foot was something extremely funny specially a limp leg, but none of the kid could laugh. They were pretty much scared of water ghouls.
Seeing their scared face Shi QingXuan felt quite pleased and they started to take bath. He washed his cloth and wore them. He didn't have any other pair of clothes so he would have to wear wet clothes. He didn't mind. The weather was hot anyway.
The kids were done quite earlier than Shi QingXuan. They actually didn't dare to hang out on the water lest water ghouls would really eat them.
Shi QingXuan was just about to get out of the water when he heard a kids cry from the road across the river.
"WHAT A UGLY MONSTER!"
Shi QingXuan quickly ran toward them.
"Move move."
As he saw the thing they were circling, he saw a youth lying lifelessly in the middle of the road.
His face was very pale. And sweat drop could be seen in his face. He wore a black robe. His body had quite good shape.
But what made the kid call him ugly was the scars on his face. Not one scar, not two scars, not three scars. His left side temple had 5 big scars and almost 20 little scars. It went from his temple to all the way toward under his eyes to his cheeks.
How his eyes weren't harm was a mystery but his eyelids had some scratch as well.
The scars were almost black, as if it was cut more than one time. Shi QingXuan felt like he could still see the flesh under those scar. But the more eye catching thing was a few characters that were written directly under his left eye. Shi QingXuan read the word. It was one word.
"Ugly"
......
As Shi QingXuan came with a person in his back no one was surprised. It's not their first time seeing Ol' Feng trying to help some helpless people.
They couldn't understand why Shi QingXuan would help people. They won't even have anything to give him. But no one could deny they secretly admired him for it as well.
"Ol' Feng do you need any help?"
"No no, I'm fine. But do you have any food left?"
"Your portion from yesterday is still left to eat."
"Thank you thank you. Then can I have that? This brother needs it."
"What about you?"
"Ah! I'll go fetch some fish later."
They didn't argue. It was nothing new.
Shi QingXuan had a special place in the temple. One of the corner which was pretty much hidden from the outside. It could be called a very small room. He put the youth in the torn mat and tried to look for the pills.
The pills were given to him by Hua Cheng. He didn't need all the pills. It's not like he needed to use spiritual power with daily life works. He rather didn't like to use it as well.
But he still kept them. And thank goodness it came handy.
Of course Shi QingXuan could tell it was a ghost. It didn't have any heartbeat or pulse. But he could tell from his last encounter that the ghost used too much spiritual power and due to uncontrolled emotional state or other matter they fell unconscious.
It was funny how ghost could have emotions as well. Shi QingXuan fed two pill and the cold porridge to the ghost and waited for the ghost to wake up.
The pills Hua Cheng gave were extremely high quality product. So two pills had enough spiritual power to save the ghost.
"Ol' Feng I heard the person is very ugly?"
Shi QingXuan was alert and he hid the youth's face with the black robe and said with a nervous life, "Hahaha, who said so? I guess he is pretty handsome. Hahah."
"Really? I heard from the kid," the elder woman said.
"Grandma, stop believing those kids. They see a slightly tanned skin or pale skin people they call them ugly haha. They are kid now so they look handsome. Once they grow up they will see true ugliness haha haha."
"En. A-feng. You need to laugh less hu? It is becoming quite fake nowadays."
Hearing the sentence Shi QingXuan looked at the elder woman who sighed and put her hand over Shi QingXuan's head.
"I don't know what happened that you had to abandon your godhood and live a lowly life like this. But .... you don't need to pretend like you're happy and satisfied all the time. You're still so young, you need to eat properly as well."
Hearing those words Shi QingXuan didn't know what to say. He laughed awkwardly and said, "Grandma do you really believe my bullshits haha. Don't worry too much. I'm fine. Hahaha. Don't you know I'm planning on leading a gang. Hahaha."
The elder woman didn't say anything and sighed. She slowly turned and went away. .
Shi QingXuan sighed.
He looked at the unconscious youth and took off the cloth from his face.
Under the sky there was a handsome youth but the scars were ugly. Too ugly.
Shi QingXuan's one arm was broken. And one leg as well. He didn't know how he managed to carry this heavy youth. Although the kids helped a bit but it wasn't much.
He slowly moved his hand and put them on the youth's cheeks. His finger slowly traced the scars and finally the word that were curved their forever. "Ugly".
Suddenly Shi QingXuan felt his arm was tightly held by a strong hand. And he saw a pair of deep black ocean eyes were looking at him so intensely that Shi QingXuan felt his body going numb from his head to toe.
He shivered slightly. The hand tightened around his wrist, and Shi QingXuan felt like his bone will crush. He had only this healthy hand left.
He cried out s bit in pain. And heard a dark deep voice, "How dare you!"