The continuous drizzle continued.
Zhong Chengshuo, drenched from head to toe, returned to the room and lit the oil lamp on the table. He couldn’t use magic, so he could only sit on the edge of the bed, wet and dripping. Raindrops trickled down his black hair, leaving dark traces on the rocky ground, resembling blood.
The red cloth was made up of solid seals and didn’t absorb water. The water flowed over Zhong Chengshuo’s skin, from his neck to his toes, dripping incessantly, as if it would never stop. Zhong Chengshuo sat on the edge of the bed as the candlelight danced in the eyes that didn’t belong to him. In the play of light and shadow, he looked more like a statue than any deity in the Fu family’s ancestral hall.
He didn’t even breathe.
…Until the remaining five members of the Shian group arrived.
They were covered in wooden tablets inscribed with purification spells and seals, resembling peculiar raincoats. Zhong Chengshuo didn’t close the door and his gaze didn’t budge an inch.
Leading the way was Fu Xingchuan.
The white dog stood at the doorway for a long time, making sure Zhong Chengshuo showed no unusual reaction before stepping inside. Huang Jin transformed himself into the size of a ping pong ball, with his body sandwiched between wooden tablets inscribed with purification spells and seals. Like a desperate sandwich, Huang Jin weakly clung to Fu Xingchuan’s fur.
When Fu Xingchuan shook his fur, he nearly flung Huang Jin away.
With a sheltered roof, the Shian group resumed their busy activities. Lu Xiaohe carefully examined the interior decorations, unable to take her eyes off the wall of books. Fu Tianyi’s face turned purple, afraid to breathe too heavily and blow away the precious dust from the “Great Celestial Master’s former residence”.
Only the practical Ge Tingting started a fire in the stove. She squatted down, tending to the fire while curiously watching Zhong Chengshuo.
At this moment, Zhong Chengshuo’s reaction was even worse than an ordinary puppet. The members of the Shian group were bustling around, yet he didn’t even move his eyeballs. Seeing his stance, Ge Tingting didn’t dare to speak first and instead leaned toward Lu Xiaohe.
Lu Xiaohe had already started rummaging through the books on the Great Celestial Master’s bookshelf. The more she read, the more twisted her expression became. In the end, she started flipping through the books faster and faster. In less than two hours, she had actually gone through all the books on the shelf—if only counting the first page.
“How is it?” Fu Xingchuan, who was by the stove, looked up.
“Half of them are the most popular folk tales from various eras, a quarter of them are miscellaneous records and recipes, and the remaining quarter has a bit of everything, except for any proper books.”
Those recipes and folk tales were nearly torn apart from being flipped through, and she even found two well-hidden colorful books*. It was unknown who that guy was hiding them from in this unlucky place.
*Explicit.
Fu Xingchuan: “…Hmm.” He wasn’t particularly surprised.
Lu Xiaohe put all the books back in their original places. She took a step back and surveyed the small space in front of her. The crackling of firewood echoed in the room, and the smoke rose through the chimney to the outside. The dim flickering of the fire illuminated the odds and ends beneath the bookshelf, casting a golden hue on the cloth tiger in the woven basket.
The chaos was orderly, so ordinary that it made one uncomfortable.
The Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi was the title given to Yin Ren by the world. Here, compared to the so-called residence of the Great Celestial Master, it looked more like an ordinary mortal’s room.
The legendary Great Celestial Master, an elusive anomaly… At the end of countless identities, all they saw was an ordinary person.
“I’ll keep watch tonight. Everyone should go to bed early. We’ll continue reliving the memories tomorrow,” Fu Xingchuan said, standing up from his huddled position. On his head, the Yellow Millet ball had already turned into a puddle, fast asleep.
Zhong Chengshuo, for the first time, made a move. He stood up from the bed and made room for others. Then he leaned against the edge of the bed, gazing at the pouring rain outside, once again freezing into a statue-like form.
Ge Tingting glanced at Zhong Chengshuo with a bit of concern, but even Fu Xingchuan didn’t dwell on the puppet’s loss of control, so she didn’t know what to say. The young girl leaned against the wall next to the stove, slowly closing her eyes.
…..
When the Shian group began reliving the memories again, the rain in the memory world hadn’t stopped.
With the recovery of their main performers, Huang Jin and Zhong Chengshuo, more details of the memories gradually unfolded.
Everyone saw the boundless “black lake” from Yin Ren’s perspective, as well as the peculiar and inexplicable black rabbit.
Countless fragments of memories revolved around the appearance of the rabbit. The scene was like a shattered mirror, projecting various fragments associated with the black rabbit in front of them.
Yin Ren’s life in the Valley of Remains was short and dull. He would only return briefly during the height of summer and the depths of winter. The desolation of the Valley of Remains remained unchanged for a century, and the darkness below the cliffs was forever calm and undisturbed. The peculiar black rabbit was the only variable in this place.
The earliest encounter was when Yin Ren was building his house in the Valley of Remains.
At that time, Yin Ren’s red clothes were a bit rough, as if he had casually tied a few pieces of red cloth with hemp rope. He was in a better state than now, exuding vitality between his brows and eyes.
In the scene, Yin Ren was carrying a bundle of long straws and holding several plump rabbits as provisions.
Coincidentally, all three rabbits were black and their fur glossy. They had round eyes that had lost their luster, and they were tied together with ropes, forming a furry bundle. After finishing the construction of his house, Yin Ren skinned one of the rabbits on the spot and roasted it over a crackling fire.
The rabbit meat was roasted until it was crispy, golden, and oozing with oil. Although it was likely imbued with a considerable amount of Evil Force, Yin Ren clearly didn’t care. He stared intensely at the roasted rabbit and took out a wrapped package of spices from his pocket with a solemn expression as if he were doing something earth-shattering.
The flesh of beasts was gamey, while that of birds was scarce. Rabbit meat was tender and easy to carry, and the leftover skin and fur could be used as well. Yin Ren seemed to have a strong preference for this kind of food.
At this moment, there was a slight movement on the nearby cliff.
Yin Ren didn’t pay much attention at first. The concentration of Evil Force in this area was severe, and birds passing through here were occasionally affected and fell to their deaths on the rocks. There were quite a few bird carcasses nearby. The movement just now was probably caused by an unlucky wild goose falling.
However, as Yin Ren flipped the rabbit over to cook the other side, he noticed something moving in his peripheral vision.
Yin Ren finally lowered the flame, and out of curiosity, he reached out and grabbed a rabbit leg, leaning in to take a closer look—
A black rabbit.
A rabbit that couldn’t be called a rabbit at all.
Yin Ren gasped. The rabbit had seven or eight rabbit feet protruding in all directions, and a giant eyeball grew on one side of its body, with several ears sprouting from the ends of its legs.
Yin Ren’s hand holding the rabbit leg trembled slightly. He was on the verge of writing “Is this retribution for eating too many rabbits?” on his face.
After hesitating for a moment, he picked up a bird bone and poked the thing that looked like a rabbit.
The creature immediately tensed up, as if it had been greatly stimulated, and its entire body twitched uncontrollably. Unfortunately, the interest of the Great Celestial Master came and went quickly. After poking it for a while, Yin Ren returned to his beloved roasted meat.
Occasionally, strange and grotesque anomalies would arise in the Valley of Remains, but in an environment with such a high concentration of Evil Force, newly born anomalies had a hard time surviving. Building the house was still more important than dealing with an unidentified and non-threatening creature.
Yin Ren no longer responded, and the black rabbit slumped down in a dejected manner. Eventually, it squeezed its way into a crevice and disappeared.
……
The second encounter took place while Yin Ren was sitting on the cliff edge.
The Evil Force within his body was constantly eroding him, causing Yin Ren to hunch his back and tremble slightly. His gaze was fixed on the darkness below the cliff as he made an effort to regulate his breathing and state of mind.
The peculiar-looking black rabbit returned again. Its body was still in disarray, although the number of legs had reduced to four. If one didn’t count the dozen or so eyes, it could be considered progress.
It wriggled like a worm and wobbled towards Yin Ren.
Yin Ren glanced at it sideways. “Still alive, huh? You’ve got some skills. So, are you the Rabbit King who has come for revenge on behalf of your subjects?”
The thing showed no reaction.
Yin Ren momentarily forgot about the pain. He tried a few simple spells, but the effects were just basic loud noises and bright lights. The wriggling thing on the ground remained unaffected and steadily advanced towards Yin Ren.
It was a bit unnerving.
“Invisible, inaudible… reacts to vibrations, perhaps still has some sense of touch. What on earth are you?” Yin Ren muttered to himself, shifting his butt away, clearly reluctant to touch this strange rabbit.
The rabbit seemed to sense something and suddenly stopped, beginning to kick its legs in slow motion.
Yin Ren: “…” This thing was simply too bizarre.
He shook himself and quickly walked back into the house. The rabbit, in a state of confusion, drooped its previously perked-up ears, and its round eyes darted around.
Once again, it seeped into the crevices and disappeared.
Third time, fourth time… Every time Yin Ren returned to this place, this peculiar black rabbit would inevitably appear and slowly advance towards him. If it were an ordinary person, they would probably be frightened out of their wits. Fortunately, the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi had seen and experienced much and only kept a cautious distance from it.
The change occurred during their sixth meeting.
Yin Ren was once again sitting on the cliff edge, and when the rabbit approached, he didn’t avoid it.
“Do you know?” Perhaps because there was no one else around, he no longer concealed the weakness brought about by the pain. “The more Evil Force I seal, the more the ordinary people out there fear me… Cultivators revere me, ordinary folks fear me, and it makes me quite uncomfortable.”
The speed of the rabbit’s wriggling slowed down.
“Now, I can only go back to my hometown once a year to catch a whiff of the scent of smoke… The people there firmly believe that I am their family and would never harm them. That way, even though I’m separated by a door, I can still talk to them and taste the sweet fruits and meals of the mortal world.”
“But if my condition continues to worsen, will there come a day where I’ll hurt them? If those people all left me, I would be no different from the wild beasts in the mountains. To be honest, every time I go there now, I’m incredibly nervous.”
Yin Ren spoke softly. The peculiar rabbit, lacking five senses, was an excellent listener.
The rabbit stopped at a fist’s distance from Yin Ren, seemingly unsure whether to continue forward. After observing it for a while, Yin Ren extended a finger and slowly pressed it against the rabbit’s fur.
The sensation was very strange, hard and cold, nothing like that of a living creature. On the other hand, the rabbit seemed to be burned by Yin Ren’s fingertip and began to tremble frantically in place.
“As expected, just as I thought.” Yin Ren brushed aside his obstructing red cloth. “You can’t be worse than the Evil Force, little one.”
The trembling of the rabbit subsided.
After hesitating for a long time, it wriggled a couple of times and slowly pressed against Yin Ren’s palm. Its horrifying blind eyes on its body slightly closed, as if genuinely acting cute.
An icy, lifeless touch.
But it was the only living creature in this place.
Yin Ren stayed stunned for a while. He closed his fingers, gently stroking the strange rabbit a couple of times.
“That’s good.” He smiled at it. “Seems like you’re not very afraid of me.”
This time, Yin Ren stayed longer. He carved a small spirit weapon from a piece of wood, which could convert sound and vibration into each other and hung it on the black rabbit.
“Me.” Yin Ren guided the rabbit to touch himself. His voice was transformed into specific vibrations by the spirit weapon and directly transmitted to the rabbit.
“You.” He poked the rabbit again.
The rabbit froze in place, without any reaction.
“Me.” “You.”
“Me, you…”
Perhaps he wanted to confirm the intelligence of the strange rabbit. Yin Ren patiently repeated it over and over again, from sunrise to the darkness when the sun disappeared.
“Thank you.” Finally, Yin Ren rubbed the rabbit’s ears. “With you here, my body doesn’t hurt as much. It’s a pity if you had intelligence…”
“Me.”
A very weak sound came from the spirit weapon on the rabbit. It carefully simulated the received vibrations and carefully reproduced that word.
“Me, me, me… Me, me… Me.”
The fist-sized giant eye turned towards Yin Ren, as black as a thousand-year-old cave.
“Me.”
Strange and distorted sounds emanated from the spirit weapon.
……
Year after year, even if only fragments flashed by, this memory seemed particularly lengthy.
Anyone could see that the rabbit had consciousness. Unfortunately, its severe lack of senses made communication extremely difficult. As time passed, its cognition was no better than that of a three-year-old child.
For example, it took it over a decade of meetings to truly understand the true meaning of “me” and “you”.
Fortunately, the Great Celestial Master was exceptionally long-lived, and a century flew by in the blink of an eye. In the end, they could even engage in some simple conversations—
“Rain, dislike.” The rabbit made a great effort to produce sound through the spirit weapon, but its speech was unclear.
“Hmm… I quite like it,” Yin Ren said. “Why do you dislike it?”
“Rain, too much.” The rabbit started answering with words that were difficult to understand.
“If I get a chance, I can make a nest for you.” Yin Ren poked the rabbit’s fur. At that time, he was in pain, his body curled up, but his voice still carried a hint of laughter.
The rabbit: “Ah?” It froze again, perplexed, forming a ball beside Yin Ren’s head.
Their conversations followed a similar pattern, limited to everyday topics. Yin Ren was like conversing with a baby who never grew up for hundreds of years. Anything slightly more complex, and the rabbit wouldn’t understand.
“I’m leaving.” But every time he left, Yin Ren would bid it farewell.
“When do you… return… here?” The rabbit asked in a muddled manner.
“Half a year later.” Despite answering this question countless times, Yin Ren still responded patiently.
Rabbit: “Ah.”
At this moment, the rabbit would shrink its body, remove the translating spirit weapon, and present it to Yin Ren at his feet. And Yin Ren would pat its head—although every time, the position of its head was not very fixed, and there was usually nothing on top of it.
Strange, purposeless, inconsequential companionship.
But it was important.
Important to the point that, in the end, even the Great Celestial Master sincerely remembered it.
Memory fragments were indeed fragments of flashbacks, and the time had finally come to the rainy night after Yin Village’s destruction.
Having sealed the last Evil Spirit, Yin Ren’s physical condition worsened. His face was so haggard that it was somewhat frightening. The Evil Force had corroded his skin, and fresh blood continued to seep out. Despite this, as soon as he regained consciousness on the bed, he immediately found that simple translating spirit weapon.
In the illusion, the rabbit finally got the number of organs a rabbit should have right. Apart from the misplaced positions, nothing else was wrong.
It appeared as usual on the edge of the cliff, patiently waiting for Yin Ren. When the latter approached, raindrops above the rabbit’s body were intercepted by an umbrella.
It was an old umbrella stained with fresh blood.
“I’m back,” Yin Ren said.
“No more rain.” The rabbit was happy. “Nest, nest.”
“There is no nest.” Yin Ren crouched down. He had intended to stroke the rabbit, but upon seeing the bloodstains on his fingers, he withdrew his hand. “You have to leave this place.”
“Leave?” The rabbit froze skillfully.
“There will be many enemies coming here,” Yin Ren said softly. “You can withstand the Evil Force, but you may not be able to withstand the weapons of an army. Killing is the most effective way to ward off evil, a principle even children know.”
The rabbit continued to freeze.
“Anyway, you have to hide and not come to see me again.”
The rabbit finally understood and tried to interpret Yin Ren’s words in its own way. “You… leave.”
Yin Ren’s expression instantly became somewhat complicated. Regret, reluctance, and ultimately profound sadness.
“Yes,” he said. “My life ends here. I’m going to die.”
“Die?”
“Die. I remember we discussed similar questions.”
“Oh.”
The black rabbit twitched its ears and lightly tapped its four feet.
“When will you… come back?”
Yin Ren remained silent.
He reached out his hands and, for the first time, embraced the rabbit. The black cord-like line behind the rabbit hastily became thinner and hid deep within the crevice.
After all these years, the rabbit had learned his warmth, and it had become warm itself. However, the tactile sensation remained poor. Perhaps, for a “being” with only a residual sense of touch, it had done its best.
“I won’t come back,” Yin Ren calmly replied.
“Won’t come back.” The rabbit pondered. “Won’t come back.”
“Never mind, it’s okay if you can’t understand. It doesn’t matter whether you can escape or not.” Yin Ren looked towards the dark horizon where it met the sky. Facing the rolling dark clouds, he slowly closed his eyes. “I can at least protect you, that’s something I can still do.”
The rabbit half understood.
The Gouluo Army had always intended to make this mountainous area their stronghold, and they arrived swiftly. Perhaps, for this army, it was merely a temporary adjustment of their route to eradicate an evil being and seize the hidden treasures it held.
Just like those long-standing legends.
Weapons to ward off evil, sealing techniques. Under layers of protection, the army entered the Valley of Remains like a colony of ants.
At the peak of the mountain, Yin Ren, stained with his own blood, drew layers of arrays. The rabbit stood there blankly, unable to see or hear, only sensing the air gradually becoming stagnant.
“I should have sent you away earlier,” Yin Ren said. “I was selfish, not wanting to face that moment alone.”
Rabbit: “Oh.”
“There are more people than I imagined. But thinking about seeking revenge for it, it doesn’t feel so bad…” Yin Ren paused, taking a breath. In his hand, the Evil Fruit emitted a faint light. “Don’t worry, you will be safe.”
Rabbit: “Oh.”
Yin Ren smiled helplessly, adding the final stroke to the array.
He had spent a full three days and nights drawing this blood array. Tirelessly, without sleep, Yin Ren appeared more like a corpse. The brilliance of the spell extended down to the cliff, and the aura of warfare grew stronger.
At this distance, he seemed to understand the chanting of the spells and the clashing of armor. Dust flew like living creatures, and the ritual of purification emitted a gentle white light, illuminating the dark rainy day as if it were daytime. In the billowing smoke and dust, countless golden phantom figures surrounded the cliff, creating an atmosphere that approached divinity.
Yin Ren calmly stood up, carrying his small companion, and walked step by step towards the door. The sound of the enemy’s footsteps resonated through the valley, but Yin Ren didn’t even spare a glance.
Every rock on the cliff was covered in runes, and at the end of the cliff, there was an inconspicuous object.
It was an empty altar.
Temporarily constructed from earth, stones, and wood, it looked extremely rough. Behind the altar, there were only rolling clouds and darkness. Yin Ren gently placed the deformed rabbit beside him and sat down in front of the altar.
Then, he took out the apple from his pocket.
The alluring crimson apple emitted a stronger fragrance than the previous days. However, Yin Ren’s lips were already dry and cracked. He coughed from time to time, and even swallowing the blood in his mouth became difficult.
After gazing at it for a moment, Yin Ren took out the Evil Fruit and calmly cut the red apple in half. He placed one half on a plate in front of the empty altar. With the remaining half, he offered it to the rabbit.
“I’ve never seen you eat anything,” Yin Ren said. “If you can eat, give it a try.”
The rabbit was currently huddled under the umbrella, with its mouth open on the left side of its neck. It seemed to have some difficulty understanding the concept of “eating”, but Yin Ren had already offered the apple, so it tentatively opened its mouth.
As the apple entered its mouth, the rabbit froze again, and a glimmer of astonishment appeared in its misaligned eyes.
“Good.”
It emphasized.
“Good.”
“Haha.” Yin Ren laughed. “Unfortunately, the previous offerings weren’t enough for the children, and it inconvenienced you. Next time…”
Halfway through speaking, Yin Ren’s smile disappeared, and his expression darkened again. The army was approaching. The ground nearby began to tremble causing the delicate bones of dead birds to slide on the rocks, and raindrops bounced along with them.
Yin Ren withdrew his gaze. He used blood to write a powerful flight symbol on a piece of fine silk, then tightly wrapped the fruit in it. After securing the knife, he tightened the rope on the silk and hung it on the rabbit.
This time, he didn’t retrieve the translation spirit weapon from the rabbit. The rabbit continued to munch on the apple, oblivious to the surrounding circumstances.
Yin Ren took a deep breath, changed his posture from sitting to kneeling, and lit the incense in front of the altar. In the rain curtain behind him, the silhouettes of the vanguard troops were faintly swaying.
A smile gradually curved at the corners of Yin Ren’s mouth.
“When the red light is on and the green light is burning, every household closes their door. At midnight, when the fruit ripens, be careful what you say with your back to the door. Pray for tranquility, wish for good fortune, and shut your eyes so you can’t see. The rooster crows, with footsteps far away, and comes back next year to report the peace…”
He hummed the tune intermittently amidst the enemy’s roar that gradually became clearer.
“I’ve traveled the world for many years—never have I seen a deity, nor have I ever sought one. Usually, it’s only mortals who seek me, and I have always fulfilled their so-called wishes on my own. But now, at this moment, I am ultimately incapable of being in multiple places at once.”
“Blood vengeance, I will personally exact, but as someone like me, I cannot accumulate the obsession to become a ghost after death, unable to wander the world again. Let me offer a prayer for trivial matters after my departure, let it be a wish granted.”
Yin Ren rambled on as the three incense sticks burned persistently in the rain. The half-eaten apple in the offering plate was soaked with rainwater, its skin shining bright like blood.
“Whether it’s the supreme deity of the Heavenly Court or the wild spirits sought for sealing, as long as they can fulfill my wish, I am willing to recognize their divine status and offer this body as a sacrifice…”
The rabbit’s chewing motion came to a halt, forgetting about the apple.
The author has something to say:
By the way, the spirit weapon can have an effect on the rabbit (Xiao Zhong) because it essentially translates vibrations, not directly casting spells on Xiao Zhong. Just a little clarification—
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