CH 121

Chapter 121: Don’t Be Afraid, I’ll Stay With You.

Legend has it that there was a mountain in the East Sea called Mount Dushuo, where a valley lay in the middle of nothingness.

That was Qi Ci’s hometown.

After Qi Ci was born, his older brother Qiu Niu, who used to hold him in his arms, went into the Ghost Domain.

After all, this was the destiny of the Nine Sons of the Dragon King.

The Ghost Domain was located at the top of Mount Dushuo, where three thousand evil spirits that were subdued by the Yellow Emperor were imprisoned.

In fear that the three thousand evil spirits in the Ghost Domain might escape and plague the Earth, the Nine Sons of the Dragon took on the extremely important task of guarding the gate.

Starting with the eldest son, Qiu Niu, every nine hundred years, a Son of the Dragon must enter the Ghost Domain to fight the three thousand evil spirits. After nine hundred years, the Son of the Dragon will be able to ascend and place themselves among the Immortal rank.

This, of course, was what Qi Ci heard from his older brother and sister from an early age.

Qi Ci didn’t know what would happen after ascending as an Immortal. All he knew was that each of his siblings had no hesitation to enter the Ghost Domain and fight against the three thousand evil spirits. After all, only when the last son of the Dragon King entered the Ghost Domain could the one before him be released and ascend to the Immortal ranks.

As the ninth son of the Dragon King, what Qi Ci needed to do was to get rid of the remaining evil spirits within the Ghost Domain.

However, he was having some difficulties with his natural talent. Such was the case that even when his fourth elder sister Pu Lao entered the Ghost Domain, Qi Ci still didn’t know how to control water.

His sharp-tongued eighth brother, Fu Xi, would pull his ears and scold him: “Stupid, how will you enter the Ghost Domain if you can’t handle your powers? How will you help me rise in the Immortal rank like this?”

Qi Ci was agitated by Fu Xi’s words. Worried that he wouldn’t be able to help his elder brother leave the Ghost Domain, Qi Ci arduously practiced every day, to the point of getting hurt.

When his fifth elder sister, Suan Ni, learned of this, she went to find Fu Xi with the intention of beating him to death. Fortunately, the seventh brother Bi’an arrived in time to stop her.

The next day, Fu Xi ran back to Qi Ci, and still with a fierce attitude, Fu Xi said: “What are you so afraid of? I’ll simply stay an extra nine hundred years and get rid of all the evil spirits for you. I just need to rest for a while and I’ll recover in no time.”

Although Qi Ci wasn’t that smart, he was spoiled by all his brothers and sisters. If he couldn’t control water or couldn’t recite any spells, he couldn’t and that was fine. Qi Ci’s siblings even discussed this issue in private, in which they agreed that when their turn came to enter the Ghost Domain, they would make sure to get rid of as many evil spirits as they could. That way, perhaps, when it was Qi Ci’s turn to enter the Ghost Domain, there would no longer be any evil spirits, and Qi Ci might be able to avoid the suffering of the Ghost Domain.

Fortunately, Qi Ci never gave up on his training, and he made sure to cultivate hard every day. That way, when his eighth brother, Fu Xi, had to enter the Ghost Domain, Qi Ci would be able to take care of himself.

When the time came, Qi Ci made a talisman for his eighth brother Fu Xi. Except for his first elder brother, Qiu Niu, each elder brother and sister received a talisman made by Qi Ci before they entered the Ghost Domain.

The amulet was a stone tablet which contained the appearance of his siblings as Dragons carved on it.

Every time Qi Ci handed over an amulet, Fu Xi mocked him for his ugly carvings.

For this very reason, Qi Ci was unsure whether his brother would want to receive his or not. He even hesitated to take out the amulet on the day they were to say goodbye.

Fu Xi, for his part, thought that Qi Ci hadn’t carved an amulet for him, so he angrily shouted: “You didn’t carve one for me?”

Qi Ci then hurriedly took out the amulet and handed it to him: “I tried to carve it to make it look nice. I hope you don’t dislike it.”

Fu Xi took it and carefully stored it away. Then, he reached out and rubbed Qi Ci’s head: “Alright, now I’ll go into the Ghost Domain to see seventh brother. I miss him very much.”

Qi Ci hurriedly said: “Say hello to seventh brother for me. I miss him very much too.”

Fu Xi stuck his tongue out at Qi Ci and said: “I won’t!”

With that said, Fu Xi walked towards the Ghost Domain. However, only after taking two steps, Fu Xi suddenly stopped and ran to hug Qi Ci back: “Take good care of yourself in these nine hundred years! You’re so stupid, so don’t be bullied! Come to me in nine hundred years, I’ll take care of getting rid of all the evil spirits in the Ghost Domain! Then you can ascend as an Immortal with me.”

After that parting, Fu Xi finally entered the Ghost Domain.

From then on, the valley in Mt. Dushuo was no longer lively. It was neither boisterous, nor was there any more laughter to be heard.

Only Qi Ci was left. All on his own.

Qi Ci would then have to survive on his own for nine hundred years, and then help Fu Xi ascend to the Immortal rank. Once that was done, Qi Ci would have to survive nine hundred years in the Ghost Domain on his own, until all the evil spirits were wiped out. Only then could he be reunited with all his brothers and sisters who had already ascended to the Immortal rank.

Although the separation filled him with sadness, Qi Ci knew that they would meet again one day. Therefore, he waited eagerly every day for the years to pass.

During that period, Qi Ci continued to cultivate arduously, until the nine hundred years finally went by. Now, he was only three months away from entering the Ghost Domain to eliminate the evil spirits.

However, all of a sudden, Qi Ci thought of something.

‘How is the world that my siblings and I have been arduously protecting all this time?’

With that thought in mind, Qi Ci decided to go out and take a look around.

Three months after traveling the world, Qi Ci returned to Mount Dushuo. However, upon waking up, Qi Ci realized that, for some reason, he couldn’t remember anything about his experiences in the human world.

Perhaps it was because Mount Dushuo was isolated from the human world, so it was impossible to bring back anything related to it. Even memories.

The only thing Qi Ci knew was that every time he thought of the human world, his chest would throb lively, and at the same time, a warmth rose in his chest. It was as if whatever he had experienced in the human world was filled with laughter and tears. At the same time, a vague and unfamiliar figure appeared in the depths of his mind.

However, before Qi Ci could think about it in detail, the day on which he would have to enter the Ghost Domain had arrived.

Therefore, Qi Ci went in with determination. Full of joy and anticipation.

Excited, Qi Ci couldn’t help but think: ‘I will finally be able to see my brothers and sisters again!’

…

In the Southeast, there was a mountain named Zhoulu, on which a tribe called ‘the Emperor Hong’s Clan’ used to live. This tribe consisted of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor. The Emperor Hong’s Clan sowed all kinds of seeds, made clothes, built ships, carriages and roads; created music, implemented the principles of medicine, and spread culture all over the world, helping outsiders to prosper like them.

Bian Zhonghua was born into that Clan.

Bian Zhonghua was so talented and was gifted with so much intelligence that he was able to become a psychic at the age of 16. Besides that, Bian Zhonghua was especially talented in medicine, music and construction.

He was a young man in the prime of his life.

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Unexpectedly, the Four Fierce Beasts made a sudden appearance in the world. From that moment on, the world was plunged into chaos and destruction, where every individual was in danger, and the numbers of deaths kept increasing.

For the sake of the world, the Emperor Hong’s Clan used all the strength of the Clan to ask the Heavens for a divination. From that divination, they got a name: Bian Zhonghua.

However, before the Clan could understand what this meant, they were exterminated by the Four Fierce Beasts.

The fire on the rooftops, the gut-wrenching screams of his Clan, the body of his father pierced by the sharp claws of one of the Fierce Beasts, and the transportation formation drawn with the blood of his mother in her last moments were part of the constant nightmares that Bian Zhonghua had to endure for many years. Although the teenager had survived the massacre, he didn’t understand the reason why he had to survive. For that very reason, the teenager desperately crouched under a tree to cry bitterly.

Suddenly, a hand appeared in front of Bian Zhonghua’s eyes.

In the palm of that hand, there were some candied plums.

The teenager looked up, only to find another teenager squatting in front of him. With strange Dragon horns on his head.

The teenager looked at Bian Zhonghua and said: “Don’t cry. This was given to me by an old woman before but I’m not willing to eat it. Do you want them?”

Yet some mere candied plums couldn’t bring Bian Zhonghua’s Clan back, nor could they bring back the warmth he once used to possess.

The young Bian Zhonghua was feeling so discouraged that he didn’t even pay attention to the young man in front of him. Instead, he continued to squat under the tree with his head hidden between his arms. A while later, Bian Zhonghua raised his head, only to find that the strange boy from a moment ago had disappeared. Bian Zhonghua dazedly looked towards a spring not far from where he was, thought for a moment, and stepped forward a few steps. With extended arms, Bian Zhonghua jumped into the spring.

The cold spring water devoured Bian Zhonghua completely, until a suffocating feeling came over him. It was as if someone had grabbed him by the throat and was viciously choking him.

Right when Bian Zhonghua began to feel pain, the splashing sound of someone jumping into the water was heard.

Immediately after, something in the water lifted Bian Zhonghua up and pushed him out of the water.

Bian Zhonghua coughed violently a couple of times, and when he looked down, he was shocked at what he saw.

A fish tail, a Dragon’s head, eyes as red as blood, and cyan scales that emitted a golden light. It was something absolutely extraordinary.

It was just that, for some reason, a blue scale was missing from the fish’s tail.

The Dragon soon transformed into a young man that carried Bian Zhonghua out of the spring. Meanwhile, Bian Zhonghua kept coughing heavily from drowning, feeling how his head exploded in pain. It took him a long time to recover.

The young man, on the other hand, stayed beside Bian Zhonghua to carefully guard him. Once the young man saw that Bian Zhonghua had begun to calm down, he took out a yellow oil paper bag tied with a hemp rope from his sleeve.

The young man said: “I thought you didn’t want those candied plums because there were so few of them. So I went to the nearest town to buy more. But I don’t know how to get human money, so I plucked one of my Dragon scales to exchange for a packet of candied fruits.”

Bian Zhonghua didn’t speak, he simply rested his eyes on the young man’s arm. There was a wound on his arm, looking as red as blood, as if a large piece of skin had been ripped off. It looked quite painful. This should have been caused by tearing off a Dragon scale.

When the young man opened the packet of candied plums, he discovered that because he had jumped into the water to save Bian Zhonghua, the candied plums were all wet. With a disgusted ‘oops’, the young man looked at Bian Zhonghua and said: “I’m really stupid, they’re all ruined. I’ll go buy you another pack. Don’t jump into the water again, alright?”

Bian Zhonghua didn’t speak, he simply took the wet oil paper bag from the young man’s hands and grabbed a handful of candied plums. Then he put them in his mouth and chewed hard.

Although the sweetness of the candied plum was soaked wet, it was still bittersweet.

As the teenage Bian Zhonghua chewed and chewed, he suddenly began to cry.

The young Qi Ci was speechless: “What’s wrong? Is it really that bad to eat? Then don’t eat.”

Bian Zhonghua suddenly hugged Qi Ci. With his head resting against his shoulder, Bian Zhonghua cried: “I have no father and mother. My entire Clan was exterminated, and I’m the only one left.”

Qi Ci hugged him tightly, trying to give him warmth and reassurance, as he patted him on the back in an attempt to calm him down. Qi Ci then tried to soothe him by saying: “Don’t be afraid, I’ll stay with you!”

Just as he said, Qi Ci stayed by Bian Zhonghua’s side for three months.

The young Qi Ci accompanied Bian Zhonghua to Zhoulu Mountain to bury the bones of his relatives. Together, they cleaned the house where Bian Zhonghua used to live with his parents. Qi Ci settled there with Bian Zhonghua, and slowly helped him out of his despair.

Bian Zhonghua thought that Qi Ci would stay with him for a long time….

Three months after meeting Qi Ci, however, Qi Ci unexpectedly told him: “I have to go.”