Lie Huo Jiao Chou Volume 1 Chapter 20

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...about rebuilding our diplomatic relations, what do you think about it?
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　　The unlucky sword weighed dozens of pounds, it wasn't a fan that was as light as a feather. It sucked in Xuan Ji's hand, forcing his wrist to roll in one direction and twisting it into a very awkward position, basically making him unable to exert any strength.   

　　The black flame rushed toward him, and Xuan Ji had to dodge sideways. The sword was jammed by a few white bone claws, making him trapped at the same time.

　　Seeing that things went wrong, Xuan Ji said nothing further, turned his face and admitted his mistake: "Senior, I was possessed just now, I am a b.a.s.t.a.r.d and a son of a b.i.t.c.h. How about the two of us unite against our common enemy first?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan had always been gentle and courteous, so he replied: "Good." 

　　After the "good", one of them continued to attempt to break the sword, the other continued to pull the man as a scapegoat, both having a high degree of spiritual understanding of each other. 

　　No one knew where those white bones claws came from, and no one knew what caused it as well. The blood aura soared to the sky. At first glance, it looked precisely like a hard-to-deal character of a novel, however, these two people, one didn't blink even when the lightning split open the sky, the other had a heavy yang aura that could be used to ward off and subdue evil spirits. Each possessed great abilities, so at first, none paid any attention at all.

　　It was a pity that no matter how valiant their fighting strength was, it couldn't solve the internal friction between them — the pig teammate dragged the other's back, shouted "one plus one is less than two," but since they pulled each other's hind legs, it has more or less become "one plus one equals minus infinity." 

　　The cold black flame greedily surged along the sword and shrouded Xuan Ji's whole body. At this time, the black hole that stretched out of the white bones claws emitted a powerful gravitational pull, and the goatee guy, Xuan Ji, and Sheng Lingyuan, who was trapped in the sword, were all sucked in. 

　　In the original place, only the "clink" sound of Xuan Ji's e-cigarette dropping was left.

　　Luo Cuicui, who was watching the whole event close-up, had his eyes rolled back in fright. He only saw Xuan Ji with his sword, insisting to send it to the white bone claws, but the other side wouldn't accept it. He looked like an old father who was eagerly putting meat inside the bowl of a dieting brat. Finally, it was grabbed as he wished.

　　The saying "to lead one's troops in a fight" and also the saying "honor does not allow one to turn back", Old Luo felt that he was seeing them today. His whole body swayed carefree like a green radish bud,he frantically tried to get up and rushed over to the e-cigarette Xuan Ji dropped behind. His eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears and choking with emotion as he said: "Is this a martyr? This must be a martyr!"

　　The "martyr" Xuan Ji and his unvirtuous sword was dragged into the darkness. There was nothing under their feet, so they began to fall straight down. The goatee guy's eyes already turned to the back of his head and he had lost consciousness. Xuan Ji's eyes were quick and his hand was deft, he grabbed the collar of the goatee guy, and at the same time, two large wings on his back tore through his clothes and came out.

　　The pitch-black surroundings were pierced by the dazzling flames that came from the unfolded wings.

　　Sheng Lingyuan was blinded by the wings, his breath — if there was any breath — it suddenly became stagnant, and his gaze was stuck to the pair of dazzling wings. A sharp pain occurred in his head, as if someone was hammering and stirring up his brain. 

　　At the same time, Sheng Lingyuan's voice suddenly disappeared in Xuan Ji's ears. Before he had the time to be pleased, the sword in his hand suddenly started to become hot, and his palm unexpectedly sensed a burning sensation! 

　　Xuan Ji didn't react at first, he cooked all day long and he was an expert in using his hand to test the oil and the heat of the fire, and had never experienced the feeling of being "burned". For a moment, he thought that his palm was worn out by something. Then, the sword's nature suddenly changed, its density becoming close to a neutron star, and it suddenly fell down — with the hilt still stuck to his hand! 

　　The falling force could not be resisted at all, Xuan Ji was like a moth that was entangled in a spider web; since flapping his wings were also useless as it would just turn into an electric heating fan, he just let himself be dragged down.

　　He had to give respects to Sheng Lingyuan's eighteen generations of ancestors at one side while wrapping his huge wings around his body on the other side. He wrapped himself like a burning comet and slammed to the ground. 

　　Bang! He landed on his feet, and his flexible wings bounced him up, rolling out a dozen meters before stopping. Xuan Ji only felt that the shoulder blades on his back seemed to be crushed. He bent his waist in pain, and his wings suddenly disappeared. The fas.h.i.+onable sweater and jacket on his upper body became a halterneck beggar's clothing, and were also blackened. Stars were flying randomly in his eyes, and he almost fainted.

　　For a long while, Xuan Ji took a breath and found that his hand finally succeeded in getting rid of the hilt, the sword of the great devil fell at his feet. He didn't know whether the devil was dead or not, it was silent, and there was also no thoughts from the inside. 

　　The goatee guy was motionless next to him, and Xuan Ji quickly reached out and tried to test his breath. Not bad, still breathing. He was relieved, then moved his hands and feet to check whether there was any injury.

　　While moving, Xuan Ji heard a brittle sound under his foot. 

　　Eh? What was broken? 

　　He snapped a finger, and a small round flame popped up from the tip of his finger. He went down to illuminate —

　　"f.u.c.k!"  

　　Xuan Ji almost frantically jumped up. He then retracted his wings that began to unfold again, his feet already hanging mid-air. 

　　The blazing wings illuminated the ground, but he couldn't make out how big this d.a.m.nable place actually was. Wherever the fire could reach, the ground was full of human bones. One really couldn't miss it even with a glance. Those innumerable white bones were piled up on top of each other, layer after layer, and the ground was invisible.

　　Human bones of all sizes looked up to the sky altogether, and from Xuan Ji's perceptive, it looked as if the group was staring at him as the only living thing. The pitch-black eye sockets were lit by the eerie cold light of the flame. 

　　"Senior, hey? h.e.l.lo, are you still alive?" Gooseb.u.mps rose up on Xuan Ji's whole body, and his throat was somehow dry. As soon as he reached out, the sword floated from the ground, with a dozen clingy white bones still attached to it. 

　　He had learnt from his mistake, and he was afraid that Sheng Lingyuan would play tricks again. He did not reach out to grab the sword hilt, and his hand was ten centimeters away from the sword, letting it humbly hanging at the side: "Speak, speak a word, this demonic place is very scary... h.e.l.lo?" 

　　The sword didn't move for a long time. Just as Xuan Ji was doubting that the signal was bad in this demonic place, he heard Sheng Lingyuan said, "Don't make any noise…" 

　　His voice was getting farther like it was separated by something.

　　Xuan Ji tried to a.s.sume: "Wait, I can't hear what he is thinking?" 

　　There was no reaction from Sheng Lingyuan so he sat down with his guess. 

　　Sheng Lingyuan had no time to take care of these things, he was very cold. As Xuan Ji's warm and flaming wings unfolded, it roasted him even colder, as if he had fallen into an ice hole.

　　He couldn't remember anything about the wings, but it felt familiar for no reason.

　　The wings actually frightened him. 

　　It was strange since he was supposedly free from the fear of life and death, but could it be that he was still afraid of something?

　　Sheng Lingyuan couldn't think of it. Under the gaze of the bones on the ground, his headache was about to make him explode. A lot of dusty memories couldn't wait to break through, clogged up no matter what the cause and effects were. There were some screaming, weeping, howling … also, there was a person yelling sharply: "Where are you? You liar, where are you! You must not die peacefully!" 

　　The voice was torn with grief and anger, those words were just like thorns, going through his ears as if willing to rip apart his flesh and blood.

　　At this time, a hand reached out and tried to hold the hilt. Slender fingers, although not as thin as those of frail young people, wasn't thick and broad, and also didn't have a very trustworthy appearance, but the palm was dry and warm, had vitality, and gave out spirited atmosphere. With one gentle touch, it pulled Sheng Lingyuan back to reality. 

　　Xuan Ji: "Hey, our telepathy seems to be broken, do you feel it?" 

　　Sheng Lingyuan: "...Yes."

　　It was true.

　　He carefully sensed it, and he couldn't hear what Xuan Ji was thinking about, but at the same time, the desire to drink blood came out intentionally. This gave Sheng Lingyuan a vague speculation: "Be careful not to bleed on me." 

　　Xuan Ji thought for a moment: "Do you think what we did a moment ago was because of the blood? What is this theory?" 

　　Sheng Lingyuan did not say anything, only looking at the mountain of corpses and the sea of bones under his feet.

　　The biggest reason why they couldn't tolerate one another was that they were forced to communicate with each other and nothing else. This was likely to be mended now then. Xuan Ji was greatly relieved, and he was not so wary of the other person. He was probably a professional in double-dealing and backstabbing. He didn't feel embarra.s.sed at all as he rudely suggested to Sheng Lingyuan: "You see, you trapped me, and I trapped you, so it's even. I forgive you."

　　Sheng Lingyuan sneered: "You are truly generous, honored Sir."

　　"Not a problem."  Xuan Ji fluttered his wings and flew up, "Since the main conflict has disappeared, we are once again in this difficulty together, since we also don't know where this demonic place is… about rebuilding our diplomatic relations, what do you think about it?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan thought it was very good. Anyway, they both had a tacit understanding of their treachery. When things came up, they would tear it apart, and no one needed to feel sorry for anyone; easy and unburdened.

　　"I know where this is." Sheng Lingyuan said, "Hold your breath." 

　　Xuan Ji: "For..." 

　　"Shh, didn't you hear yet?" 

　　Xuan Ji quivered, he followed Sheng Lingyuan's words, holding his breath with rapt attention, and heard a whispering voice — it was like a large auditorium that could accommodate thousands of people. A handful of people whispered something together, ''humming'' in a low voice.

　　At the same time, he found that the goatee guy he had thrown in the white bones was moving. 

　　"Look, that b.a.s.t.a.r.d seemed to be standing up." Xuan Ji said to Sheng Lingyuan, but he felt something was wrong and flew up a bit.

　　The flame fell on the goatee guy's face, it was tense, and his expression was still scared. His head was tilting to the side, obviously still unconscious. Like a marionette, the goatee stiffly took a step, jumped around in the same place, and made a "giggle" sound similar to a child mischievous snicker. 

　　There was something moving in his outer coat. Xuan Ji's eyes stared at him intently. He saw the goatee guy was walking on one hand while dancing joyfully on the other. His movements got wider while dancing, and a small chunk of white bones slipped out from his cuff. The white bones hesitantly bounced twice on the ground, then moved along his trouser leg, going in again!

　　It was the white bones underneath the goatee guy's clothes that kept him moving!

　　"This is a shaman's grave." Sheng Lingyuan said softly. 

　　Xuan Ji didn't know whether if it was an illusion, but he heard a little vulnerability from the voice of the devil: "What graves did you say these ma.s.s graves are?" 

　　"Haven't you heard of it?" Sheng Lingyuan seemed to be smiling, he was silent for a moment. After a while, he said softly, "No one even remembered their names after thousands of years." 

　　Xuan Ji quickly said: "Maybe because my history is bad?" 

　　Sheng Lingyuan spoke a language that Xuan Ji had never heard before.

　　Xuan Ji: "What?" 

　　"Shaman language." Sheng Lingyuan said, "You learn to listen to them." 

　　Xuan Ji hesitated, then recalling Sheng Lingyuan's tone, he repeated the same "grunt" sound using his mouth, learning from the white bones underneath.

　　Sheng Lingyuan said strangely: "You didn't ask the meaning, how do you suddenly believe me?" 

　　Xuan Ji said shamelessly: "Oh, I am a simple person, I don't like to think too much." 

　　Sheng Lingyuan: "...…" 

　　How could this kind of nonsense come out of his mouth?

　　However, after they had a brief moment of "mutual understanding", they probably realized that they both belonged to the same path and their way of thinking was almost the same. Since they couldn't hear each other's heart, it would not be urgent to get rid of each other. If Sheng Lingyuan wanted to come out of the sword, he may have to rely on Xuan Ji to find a way. Unless he wanted to be trapped in the sword, and be used as a javelin in this ma.s.s grave, otherwise, there was no need to hurt Xuan Ji. 

　　The white bones on the goatee guy's body "listened" to this, slowly turned to Xuan Ji, and then wobbly swayed and walked forward.

　　Sheng Lingyuan: "Follow it." 

　　Xuan Ji: "To where?" 

　　"Didn't you ask me where the human-face b.u.t.terfly came from?" Sheng Lingyuan's voice sounded somewhat distant. "The origin is here. In the War of Jiuzhou*, every race had its own methods, each as distinct as the Jing and Wei rivers. After thousands of years, the bloods were mixed up. You all don't have a collective name now." 

*name of ancient China, referring to the nine divisions, previously mentioned in ch. 5 ^^

　　Xuan Ji: "Do you remember? Oh, we are now collectively called 'Special Abilities'." 

　　"Special Abilities..." Sheng Lingyuan pondered upon the word once and didn't know what kind of feeling that came out, and he didn't say anything for a while. 

　　Xuan Ji followed the swaying goatee guy and flew out a few hundred meters. There were still heaps of white bones under his feet, there was no end to it. He asked helplessly, "How many corpses are here?"

　　Sheng Lingyuan: "Forty-one thousand, six hundred and thirty-six." 

　　"... Ah?" Xuan Ji was tongue-tied for a while. "That can't be, their arms and legs are all over the place. How do you know, did you count in your head?" 

　　"I know," Sheng Lingyuan said indifferently, "I killed them myself."