Ch.166: Saint Born Under the Ominous Star 2
Xie Lian was speechless looking at the mural. Pei Ming commented, “He can do that?”
“Why not.” Hua Cheng countered.
Everyone looked to him and Hua Cheng continued, “Isn’t appointing generals just bringing mortals to the heavenly realm? If he’s just pulling everyone within the vicinity of the royal capital to the heavens temporarily, and once the disaster is over, send them back, why can‘t he do it?”
“Crimson Rain Sought Flower, don’t make this sound so easy.” Pei Ming said, “My Lord should know, appointing generals takes spiritual powers. This is how many he’s appointing?”
To appoint generals in reality was to use one’s own spiritual power to ‘nurture’ a mortal in the heavens, to be used by oneself. Otherwise, if there was no restriction, why wouldn’t every heavenly official appoint all the people they want? Why wouldn’t an emperor just bring up his entire harem and his entire court, and a general might as well appoint his entire army?
“Judging by the relics left behind, the entirety of the Kingdom of WuYong was only about a hundred thousand in population. The vicinity of the royal capital was probably only about some ten thousands.”
Xie Lian said quietly, “It might be tough… but it’s still doable, though just barely.”
“Even if it’s only a few tens of thousands, there’s still no heavenly official who’d dare appoint that many. If he really went through with it, then I can’t tell if he should be congratulated on his courage or extreme stupidity. At least, there’s definitely no other like him in history.” Pei Ming said.
Xie Lian studied that bridge on the mural, completely engrossed. In his eyes, the faces of that white clad crown prince and his four guardian gods were looking more and more peculiar, more and more like his own face and the faces of his four Guoshis. He then recalled the celestial phase of that ominous star; this story that’s so much like a tale of reincarnation made him eager to learn what happened next, but at the same time, he felt perhaps he already knew.
He didn’t dare to keep looking at that mural anymore and he turned away, asking, “Has water been found?”
Ban Yue was dragging Pei Su and replied, “That gege went to look.”
She was referring to Yin Yu. Xie Lian glanced at Pei Su who had his eyes closed, and humming for a moment, he still decided to speak up, “I think, when we go onwards to the Kiln later, it’d be best if General Pei Junior should stay here.”
Pei Su was in the body of a mortal after all, inconvenient in many ways. Besides, they still didn’t know what awaited them ahead. Pei Ming squatted down and looked Pei Su over, “Yea, I agree. But will Your Highness please not tell him the reason in front of him? This child will understand. Just leave it to me to tell him.”
“Rest assured, General Pei, I understand.” Xie Lian said, “Otherwise I wouldn’t have said it while he’s still unconscious.”
Pei Su was once a young martial god with an infinitely bright future in the heavens after all, now that he was to stay behind because he couldn’t keep up, he’d feel bitter. However, mistakes must be punished; this was how exile should feel, and so he could only accept it.
They remained in the temple and discussed for another while, and Xie Lian wondered, puzzled,
“Where’s Yin Yu? How come he hasn’t come back after so long? Has he not found water yet?”
Hua Cheng on the other hand, was staring intently at a few wraith butterflies resting on his fingertips. The butterflies were very useful earlier, and now they’ve all returned to him, tucked away to save energy. He looked up slightly, “He shouldn’t take this long.”
Xie Lian grew alarmed and stood up, “Let me go take a look. General Pei, watch over things here. San Lang, come with me?”
Of course they would go together. Thus, Xie Lian left RuoYe behind and had it tie a protection circle. The two left the temple and went towards the deeper part of the underground city.
There were plenty of houses and clutter of things on the way; Xie Lian picked up a jar that he rather liked and Hua Cheng seemed to have found it funny, “What are you doing picking that up?”
“If we find water later we can use this to bring some back for General Pei Junior.” Xie Lian said.
He’s gotten used to collecting scraps after all, and he patted the jar in his hands in spite of himself, “Come to think of it, this is an antique of thousands of years old.”
Hua Cheng laughed and said, “If you like stuff like this, come over to my place after. I’ve got a few items too and you can see if you find anything you like.”
An incense time later, the two finally heard the faint sound of water flowing. Soon after, Xie Lian exclaimed, “Over there!”
There was indeed a hidden river at the bottom. Xie Lian placed that jar he picked up in the water and started washing it heartily. Thousands of years worth of ashes had already formed a thick layer of a shell, it couldn’t be washed off, but just washing off the dust on the surface the jar would still be passable for use. He filled it with water and lowered his head, ready to take a sip himself when Hua Cheng, who was surveying the area, turned and saw him, and immediately cautioned, “Don’t drink it.”
Xie Lian had already put his face to the jar, but when he heard the stop, he was confused,
“What?”
Just then, a voice said, “So hot.”
There were only the two of them on site, so where did this third voice come from? Xie Lian unconsciously looked to where the voice came from, and that voice came from the jar in his hand!
He instantly looked down, and in the jar were two small scarlet red dots, floating in the water watching him.
What’s that thing?? No matter how he looked it was a pair of eyes!
The moment those eyes matched his, that thing bolted straight for Xie Lian’s face. SPLASH SPLASH the waters splashed and Xie Lian’s hands moved swiftly, flinging that jar to meters away in an instant. It smashed against the wall and CLUNK!, the antique of thousands of years shattered. As for the thing that was hidden in it, it took no time to scurry into the darkness. In that rush, Xie Lian didn’t see what it was clearly, only that it was a big bundle of something black, “What was that thing?”
Hua Cheng was shielding in front of him, and Xie Lian was feeling a little woeful, “It wasn’t in that jar before was it?”
“No.” Hua Cheng said, “It swam into it from the waters. There are often creatures that flock together and swim in this hidden river, that’s why I told you not to drink it.”
‘But you’d let General Pei Junior drink it…’ Xie Lian thought inwardly. Suddenly, he felt chill on his back and he shouted, “WHO’S THERE?!”
In an instant just now, he heard someone cough in the distance!
It definitely wasn’t a delusion, and he immediately tensed in alert. Soon after, babbles and chatters came pouring like the tide and flowed in. From all around the two of them, pairs after pairs of red dots lit up, and surrounded them, encircling them in the middle. “Don’t worry, they’re not human.” Hua Cheng said.
‘It’s precisely because they’re not human that we have to worry, alright….’ Xie Lian thought.
Listening closely to that chatter, Xie Lian deduced what those voices were saying:
“Cough, cough, cough…”
“So hot so hot…”
“I’m burning…”
“Wuuuuu”
“I’m suffocating… Is anyone there…”
“I can’t move, can’t move!”
Those voices were tiny, but clear and full of pain, like little ants crawling into his ears. Xie Lian was just ready to reach for Fang Xin when a voice cried sharply, “Your Highness, WHERE’S Your Highness?? SAVE ME, SAVE ME!!!”
That last cry made all the hairs on Xie Lian’s back stand, and in that instant he thought that voice was calling for him. However, Hua Cheng waved his hand, releasing thousands of wraith butterflies, and they charged at those pairs of red glowing eyes!
Where the silver butterflies shimmered their light, they illuminated the countless creatures that were chattering in the dark. Sure enough, they weren’t human. They were rats!
Hua Cheng grabbed for him and said, “I’ve said there’s a lot of rats here. Let’s go!”
Xie Lian was still stunned as he walked, “Are those rats? Why do they look more like cats to me…”
It was true. Those rats were each bigger than a kitten, their hairs black like ink and thick like needles. Their little red eyes glowed aggressively in the dark, and many were perched on the walls, watching them closely, speaking the tongues of men, creepy to the extreme. Once the silver butterflies charged at them they started slaughtering one another; the red and silver lights flashed and crossed, the state of the battle unknown but very much vicious and violent.
“Yin Yu couldn’t have been dragged off somewhere by those creatures, could he?” Xie Lian wondered.
“He shouldn’t be that useless. It’s probably something else that’s tripped him up.” Hua Cheng replied.
The first part made Xie Lian relax slightly, but the last part made him tense again. “Nevermind how big the rats are, but why are there so many? What do they eat to grow so big?”
“Simple.” Hua Cheng replied, “The dead, of course. Those are all corpse-eating rats.”
Turns out, when this city was covered by volcanic ash, the people and large domestic beasts like oxen, horses, lambs, etc had nowhere to hide, but, the rats dug deeply into the underground, and depended on the air and stored sustenance in the caves in order to survive.
Once the dust had settles, they emerged from the holes anew, and scour the now hellish city for food. However, everything was destroyed; everything was either buried by lava or covered in volcanic ash. They gnawed through many things but couldn’t find food for the longest time.
Until one day, they smelled the smell of rot.
The rotten smell came from those humanoid stone statues. Some corpses were wrapped in a thinner layer of that ashen shell, and when they started to rot, they wafted a funny stench, and corpse water flowed.
Thus, the starving rats surrounded and bustled next to the statues, biting through small holes and scurried through into the holes, gnawing at the corpses within.
The lowest and scummiest of creatures were often those that survive the longest. The corpses of the dead were wrapped in those ashes, and their terror, rage, frustrations and other such powerful emotions were also wrapped within. When those rats ate their corpse bodies, those emotions were eaten too, and could start speaking the human tongue, expressing what those people had wanted to say at the moment of their death but couldn’t.
Xie Lian was enlightened, “I see, that’s why they would say those things. I was wondering why they would say such words…”
Yet unexpectedly, Hua Cheng suddenly said, “What did you say?”
Xie Lian blinked, “What did I say?”
Hua Cheng stared at him, “What did they say? What did you hear?”
“San Lang, you didn’t hear?” Xie Lian said, “It’s just “so hot”, “it’s suffocating”, “can’t move”, “save me”, and such…”
However, before Hua Cheng said anything it dawned on Xie Lian.
That wasn’t right!
What those corpse-eating rats repeated was the hatred of the WuYong people, so naturally, it would be in the WuYong tongue.
So, why could he understand the WuYong tongue?!
——–
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