Chapter 122
Chapter 122
Inside the Fiendish World, Eunuch Wu and the others were searching for Liu Ye when they noticed that the little Fiends had begun to disappear.
Fear immediately seized them.
“Physician Zhou, does this mean that evil being is about to arrive?” Eunuch Wu asked.
Physician Zhou was puzzled too. He took out a compass and examined it.
“No. There should still be some time before it comes.”
Even stranger, the resentment emanating from the little Fiends had abruptly weakened for no apparent reason.
Then they spotted several little Fiends crawling rapidly in the same direction.
After a moment’s thought, Physician Zhou said, “Let’s follow them.”
The group set off behind them.
When they reached a street corner, they found little Fiends packed three layers deep around something. Some had even climbed on top of one another. They made no noise, merely staring at whatever lay ahead.
From the center came the occasional sharp smack.
The group exchanged looks and decided to circle around. They climbed over a wall and saw…
Liu Ye playing marbles with a little Fiend.
Everyone fell silent.
Click!
A marble dropped neatly into the hole. Liu Ye laughed and collected it.
The little Fiend playing against him pursed its lips. Tears brimmed in its eyes as it looked pitifully at the marble in Liu Ye’s hand.
Then it spoke.
“C-can I have one back?” Its gaze never left the marble.
“No. A real man keeps his word. We agreed to play for keeps. How can you go back on the deal now? Besides, you lost to me at pogs, marbles, cat’s cradle, and the clapping game. According to our wager, all of you still owe me three thousand marbles and more than five hundred pogs.”
The little Fiends around him pouted.
You weren’t like this when you asked to join our games.
Physician Zhou and the others were speechless.
How had they managed to owe him so much?! And these were only glass beads and paper tiles. They were evil spirits! Why did they care so much?
Eunuch Wu turned and lectured the younger ones behind him.
“You see? This is what gambling does to people. I’m warning all of you now: never touch it, not once in your lives.”
He tightened his hold on the baby, worry creeping into his heart. What if his little girl grew up and married a compulsive gambler?
Liu Ye put away his winnings and addressed the little Fiends.
“Are you still playing? If not, I’m leaving. My father’s waiting for me to go home and make him soup.”
“Play! Play! Play!”
The little Fiends were clearly enthusiastic.
“But do you have anything left? I’ve already won all your toys,” Liu Ye said.
The little Fiends looked at one another, then hurried out of the city and jumped into the river one after another.
Before long, they returned with various objects raised in their small hands.
“Th-those are…”
Physician Zhou was too stunned to speak. He sensed immense yin energy within them. These were clearly treasures collected by the great Terror.
For an instant, even Physician Zhou felt greed stir. He forced it down. He was only a physician with some knowledge of Fiends. Even if the treasures were given to him, he could not use them.
Liu Ye, however, looked thoroughly dissatisfied with the pile of battered metal.
“I’m not a scrap dealer. What am I supposed to do with this junk?”
Physician Zhou’s heart tightened.
How could anyone be this ignorant? Every object there was a priceless treasure!
The little Fiends exchanged another look and jumped into the river again.
Not long after the little Fiends entered the river a second time, storm clouds smothered the sky. Thunder rolled, lightning flashed, and bloodred rain began to fall.
The drops smoked the instant they touched exposed skin, causing searing pain.
“This is bad! That thing is coming out. Cover your skin! The rain is poisonous!”
Eunuch Wu hurriedly pulled his robes over himself. Liu Ye, on the other hand, looked pleasantly surprised. The rain reminded him of home, though the rain in his village had been cleaner.
“My lord, we have to leave! If we wait any longer, it’ll be too late!” Physician Zhou shouted anxiously.
“But I promised to play with them. If I’m leaving, I at least have to tell them.”
Physician Zhou stared at him.
You’re getting along remarkably well with these evil spirits!
A tremendous crash suddenly erupted from the river beyond the city walls.
The little Fiends emerged carrying a gigantic Fiend on their shoulders.
Its overall shape resembled a dragon, but a man and woman grew where its two horns should have been. The man was hideously ugly, his body covered in pustules that constantly leaked pus. The woman, by contrast, was extraordinarily beautiful.
Their lower bodies merged into the mouth of an enormous fish, while every scale across the creature’s body was the head of a child. For now, both people and the dragon head beneath them had their eyes closed.
The little Fiends excitedly carried the Fiend Dragon toward Liu Ye, demolishing countless buildings on the way. Screams rang out from time to time.
“Ta-da!”
They set the Fiend Dragon down and pointed at him in delight.
Physician Zhou had nothing to say.
He recognized the Fiend Dragon. This was the Terror from the legend. But…
How badly do you want to play marbles?! You sold your own master for the sake of a game!
The Fiend Dragon had clearly not awakened completely. Physician Zhou immediately turned to Liu Ye.
“Magistrate Liu, we must take advantage of this moment, before the Fiend awakens, and-”
His words died when he saw Liu Ye staring at the Fiend Dragon with drool running from his mouth.
“That’s one enormous snake! How many meals could we get out of it?”
Physician Zhou stared at him.
Are you insane?! What normal person reacts like that after seeing this thing?
“Come on, let’s begin! Eunuch, all of you wait there. I’ll make you a Dragon-and-Tiger Feast!”
Then he began battling the little Fiends in earnest.
…
The Fiend Dragon had originally been a gigantic carp living in the river. After Wushenzi arrived and began preaching that sacrifices to the River God would produce sons, one infant girl after another was cast into the water.
The carp devoured those children and gradually changed. His yin energy grew stronger, and the stronger he became, the more he craved the children.
He used their dead souls to create little Fiends disguised as boys, then placed them inside the women’s bodies.
The children those women bore were both flesh-and-blood humans and little Fiends under his control.
In only three years, the Fiend Dragon’s power grew enormously. Given a little more time, he could have broken free from the river altogether, leaped the dragon gate, and become a true dragon!
That was why he sent the little Fiends to harvest the humans and accelerate the process.
Just as he neared consciousness, something began prying open his mouth.
The Fiend Dragon wondered whether the little Fiends had brought him some delicious offering.
In the next instant, an object punched through his throat and impaled his entire body from end to end.