Chapter 52
Chapter 52
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Translator: Ace
Chapter:
Chapter Title: Demon Change: Days One and Two
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Blackie Pot came trotting over. In the chaos just now, Chen Shi had told everyone not to move, but no one listened to him—only Blackie Pot had stood there without budging.
Everyone had been caught by the Wire-Pulling Worms. Blackie Pot alone was completely unscathed.
Even Chen Shi's book case was still right beside it, safe amid the chaos.
Chen Shi took out brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. He had Li Tianqing sketch the pattern on the Wire-Pulling Worm's body while he himself fetched some black dog blood to grind into cinnabar.
He lifted the brush and carefully studied Li Tianqing's drawing. Channeling true qi into the tip, he let the brush follow his intent. In one fluid motion, he swiftly replicated the Wire-Pulling Worm's talisman patterns on a sheet of yellow paper.
Chen Shi pinched the talisman between his index and middle fingers, giving it a light shake. The true qi embedded within sparked intense heat through friction with the cinnabar, setting the talisman ablaze.
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing each took a step back. Both sensed an inexplicable force coming into play.
From the flames of the burning talisman came a sudden squeaking noise. Then, a tiny Wire-Pulling Worm crawled out from amid the fire and the ashes of the paper.
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing froze. The worm hit the ground, spat out a thread of silk that stuck fast to Blackie Pot, and without hesitation began dragging the dog toward its mouth.
It was many times smaller than Blackie Pot, yet it sought to devour this massive creature.
Blackie Pot lunged forward and crunched the tiny Wire-Pulling Worm in one bite, bursting it into a mess of cinnabar and black dog blood.
Blackie Pot ran to the mountain stream to clean the blood from its tongue and fur. Chen Shi and Li Tianqing remained lost in shock, unable to snap out of it for a long while.
The merchants had each clawed their way back from death's door. Overflowing with gratitude toward Chen Shi and Li Tianqing, they offered hurried thanks.
Chen Shi shook his head, chasing the wild thoughts from his mind.
"The sun hasn't even set, and already Evil is prowling. The mountains have become extremely dangerous. Everyone, you'd best leave the mountains at once and seek shelter with a village Godmother."
Li Tianqing shook his head too, finding the whole thing utterly unbelievable.
As the merchants busied themselves, Li Tianqing whispered,
"Little Ten, that Wire-Pulling Worm... it has to be some kind of artificial creation."
Even as he said it, he found it absurd and hesitated.
Chen Shi nodded, however.
"It does seem like one. But... can Evil really be created by human hands?"
Li Tianqing added,
"If Wire-Pulling Worms can be made by hand, then could Hundred Infants? Could floating heads?"
Chen Shi said,
"If these Evils can be fabricated, then... could demons be fabricated too?"
The two boys locked eyes, their hearts pounding wildly.
At that moment, a red glow shot upward from the direction of the Kiln Works, slamming into the sky dome and transforming into an endless crimson curtain that enveloped Qianyang Mountain.
The sky dome shuddered violently, unsteady.
"Something huge must have gone down at the Kiln Works. Tianqing, no time for what-ifs—let's get to the village, fast!"
Chen Shi called for Blackie Pot.
"Evil and Spirits showing up in broad daylight? That's no good sign at all. Linger out here, and death could come any second!"
Just then, one of the merchants broke into sobs, clinging to his wares and refusing to budge.
Chen Shi asked what was wrong. Someone explained,
"All his grain's ruined—turned to porcelain, can't eat it. Total loss. That's why he's crying his heart out."
Chen Shi stepped over and grabbed a handful of the grain. It was heavy—porcelain rice, sure enough.
Chen Shi looked up at the trees lining the mountain path. He leaped into the air, plucked a few leaves, and clacked them together—ding, ding.
The leaves had turned to ceramic too.
A gentle breeze stirred, rustling branches and leaves across the hills and valleys. A chorus of crisp dings rang out, pleasant and melodic.
Yet the sight sent chills racing across his skin.
Trees turning to porcelain. Grain turning to porcelain.
What do we eat?
Li Tianqing had the same realization. Faces grim, the two boys and their dog trailed the caravan out of the mountains.
They emerged from Qianyang Mountain to find villagers on the road, leading oxen hitched to flatbed carts. Children and elders rode atop, wives walked alongside, faces etched with fear as they trudged along the path.
Gangzi Village folk—Chen Shi knew them.
"Uncle Laoshuan, where you headed?"
The farmer replied,
"Out. To beyond the red curtain."
Chen Shi peered down the road. Villagers by the score fled with their families toward the crimson sky curtain's edge.
Li Tianqing's face paled as realization struck.
"This... it matches what I read in a book about demon-level calamities. This is a demon-level calamity. We're inside a demon domain right now! Everyone, stop! Stop now!"
He bellowed at the top of his lungs,
"You can't get out! The demon domain's edge has a demon corridor—you'll get teleported back, dropped from the sky, smashed to bits!"
Some hesitated and halted. Others glanced ahead at those still marching on, then bowed their heads and plodded forward.
Chen Shi shouted,
"Sky's getting dark! Evil and Spirits will come eat you alive! Back to the village—tomorrow's not too late!"
The threat hit home. Many stopped, murmuring in huddles.
Chen Shi exhaled in relief.
"Tianqing, you're the expert. How do we escape this demon domain?"
Li Tianqing's face was ashen. He shook his head.
"You don't. Everyone dies. Only way out is if the demon dies. At this porcelainization rate, even village Godmothers can only buy ordinary folk five or six days. After that, they turn to porcelain people. Outside a village? Two days tops, then four days in, no ordinaries left alive anywhere."
He paused.
"Today is day one."
"How long does a demon change last?" Chen Shi asked.
If the demon isn't slain, it grows stronger, and the change drags on forever.
Li Tianqing crouched and drew a small circle around a patch of porcelainized grass, then a larger one outside it.
"The demon strengthens until peak power, then the domain expands, swallowing more land."
He sketched an even larger circle.
"Like this, endlessly outward. At a thousand-li radius, it evolves into a disaster."
Evil. Spirits. Demons. Disasters. Cataclysms.
Demons ranked third.
Evolve to disaster: heavenly calamity, a thousand li of barren wasteland, life extinguished.
"But no demon change in history has lasted a hundred days."
Li Tianqing rose.
"Records show they all end within a hundred, thanks to intervention from the true gods beyond the heavens."
Chen Shi breathed easier.
"Then we tough it out a hundred days!"
Li Tianqing shook his head.
"True gods slay demons with a focused gaze. Under that stare, a hundred-li radius becomes a molten hellscape. Nothing survives."
One way to live.
"Kill the demon before the hundred days are up. Stop the change..."
Demon Change, Day One.
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing returned to Huangpo Village. Neither boy's grandfather was home.
Chen Shi meant to cook but found the rice and flour all turned to porcelain.
"Edible stuff now? Probably just livestock and poultry like chickens and ducks."
Chen Shi proposed,
"I'll borrow a duck from Grandma Yuzhu's. Get us through today—hunt exotic beasts tomorrow to repay."
Li Tianqing nodded.
Moments later, chaos erupted outside: chickens scattering, dogs barking. Grandma Yuzhu chased the duck thief with a cleaver in hand. Chen Shi bolted with the duck, slammed through the yard gate, and banged the door shut.
Li Tianqing's heart raced. Grandma Yuzhu's vigorous curses rang out—he'd never done anything so mortifying.
"Pay it back with tomorrow's hunt. No shame then."
Chen Shi shrugged it off.
"Tianqing, help scald and pluck."
Li Tianqing rushed to stoke the fire.
Blackie Pot woofed a few times.
"Already deep night," Chen Shi said.
The night passed safely, though the village echoed now and then with arguments and wails. Some wanted to flee with families under cover of dark; kin refused, leading to tears and shouts.
Chen Shi stayed out of it. The boys slept.
After some unknowable time, Chen Shi's heart seized in agony. His body convulsed uncontrollably.
He snapped awake and immediately circulated the Big Dipper Seven Refinements. The seizure hit abruptly but mildly; he suppressed it swiftly.
He sighed in relief and lay back down—but sleep wouldn't come.
He draped on his clothes and stepped into the yard. Tilting his head skyward: crimson red everywhere, impossible to tell day from night.
Sun and moonlight had once marked the hours clearly. Now the red curtain shrouded it all, like a vast pale-red pot clamped over the earth. No telling if sun or moon shone beyond.
Blackie Pot barked again.
Dawn, Chen Shi thought.
Though it still didn't look like day.
Demon Change, Day Two.
The boys' grandfathers still hadn't returned.
Thunderous booms rolled from the Kiln Works, muffled and ominous.
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing set out hunting. They spotted a fellow hunter en route—a Huangpo villager named Liu Tianzhu, a brawny middle-aged man who prowled the mountains like flat ground.
Now Liu Tianzhu moved sluggishly, dawdling. Spotting Chen Shi, he tried to greet—but his voice dragged too, laced with shrill chirps like birdsong. Vocal cords porcelainized.
They sounded like porcelain whistles.
"Tianzhu, too dangerous out here. Head back to the village—I'll deliver whatever I hunt."
Liu Tianzhu nodded gratefully. He knew his body betrayed him, unfit for the hunt. He turned back—still plodding slow.
Roads and fields crawled with such sluggish figures.
By noon, Chen Shi and Li Tianqing returned, hauling three wild boars, four New Village Rats, a clutch of hares, and a sheep-camel.
Chen Shi's strength made dragging the wild beasts and exotics a breeze.
Nearing Huangpo Village, they saw figures on the road.
Up close: porcelainized people.
Village Godmothers delayed the curse—but hunting outside sped it up.
Chen Shi pressed on to the village mouth and found Liu Tianzhu. Smile frozen on his face, mid-stride pose—but his body fully ceramic.
"Tianqing, if we kill that Evil Bodhisattva... will they recover?"
"Should, I think."
Li Tianqing hedged.
"Books detail demon changes and countermeasures—but never how ordinaries survive them. No clue if they can."
He paused.
"History tomes are the same. I've pored over plenty. Scant word on commoners—pages full of emperors and elites. We're just livestock to them, not worth the ink."
Chen Shi entered the village and dropped the kills. Then he turned outward.
"But we're not livestock!"
He hoisted Liu Tianzhu and carried the porcelainized hunter home, setting him gently inside.
Trip after trip, he shouldered the roadside porcelain folk back to the village, placing each with care.
"We're people. Never livestock!"
He was angry.
Li Tianqing pitched in. Together they worked half a day to retrieve every nearby porcelain person.
They skinned and portioned the kills, delivering house to house. Extra wild hares for Grandma Yuzhu.
New Village Rats were pests, true—but exotics, their flesh rich in spirit power. Eaten, it could borrow that aura to stave off porcelainization. Chen Shi doled shares to every home.
"This child..."
Grandma Yuzhu clutched the meat and rabbits, morning's curses fresh in mind. Shame washed over her. Back home, after long thought, she told Yuzhu,
"No more calling Chen Shi that dead child."
"But Grandma, didn't you tell me to?"
Grandma Yuzhu flushed with guilt.
"If I do it again, smack my mouth with a shoe sole."
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