Chapter 20 - Whoever Started Things Should End Them

At the construction site, the towering crane was covered with black water monkeys. Chi Xiaoduo stood at the end of the crane’s arm, with nearly fifty meters of empty space below his feet. A heavy gale blew, and lightning flashed past him from time to time.

Chi Xiaoduo couldn't help shaking. He looked at Yang Xingjie and said in a trembling voice, "What do you want...want to do?"

"I want you to remember matters from the past." Yang Xingjie's face was dripping with putrid black water, and slowly, he said, "I heard that people’s lives flash before their eyes like a running-horse lantern before they die, so maybe you’ll remember me in this way ."

"You are..." Chi Xiaoduo looked at Yang Xingjie's blind eye and said, "I... I remember now, you are that….that yaoguai in the sea caves."

"I’m called Chiwen." Yang Xingjie said, "I’m not some yaoguai. Have you heard of the nine sons of the dragons  before? I’m the ninth."

"Yes, yes, you’re called Chiwen." Chi Xiaoduo tried to calm down, "You are the dragon’s….the dragon’s youngest son, but why were you in that sea cave, your body, what I saw that day..."

Yang Xingjie stood five meters opposite Chi Xiaoduo. The faint outline of the chiwen swirled around the top of his head; its huge head poked out of the dark clouds and let out an earthshaking roar at Chi Xiaoduo! The moment it opened its mouth, half of the cracked, black tongue appeared.

"Did you... Have you become a human?" Chi Xiaoduo asked.

"Human?" Yang Xingjie started laughing, and then his laughter grew loud and crazy. "Do you think I'm human?"

Chi Xiaoduo finally calmed down and thought to himself you laugh ba, laugh ba; villains in movies always die because they talk too much. Later, Xiang Cheng, dressed in golden armor, stepping on colorful auspicious clouds, will come to save me... I need to learn from heroines in movies! Drag things out! Wait for help!

Xiang Cheng climbed out of the river and onto the shore, and he laid on the stone steps as he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Qi Wei picked him up. The van stopped by the side of the road, Elder Qu got out, and they worked together to take Xiang Cheng onto the car.

"Alert, alert." Director Lu pressed the WeChat call button and said into his cellphone, "Alerting everyone in Team 1, Team 2, and Team 3 that the situation at the Pearl River Bridge is out of control. Everyone needs to urgently assemble."

"Sorry." Xiang Cheng said.

Everyone was soaked, and Director Li asked, "Xiao Xiang nei, why do you always drop the ball at the critical moment?"

Xiang Cheng was at a loss to reply. He rubbed his thumb against the center of his eyebrows and said, "Nanzhou North Road, go to Nanzhou North Road. They are at a construction site there!"

Director Lu sent a WeChat message to make everyone gather urgently.

At the construction site, the rainstorm was getting heavier and heavier.

"I swallowed one of your people’s discarded trash cans and was poisoned. As time went on, the poison grew deeper." Yang Xingjie said, "I left where I lived and came to the South to find my father. On the way, I was hit by the propeller of a ship. My entire body was covered in wounds, but before I could die from that, I was washed into the sea cave by the tide. Do you think I still had the strength to become a human?"

"You are a devil." As soon as Chi Xiaoduo calmed down, he quickly sorted through the sequence of events and asked, "Did you recover from your injuries later?"

Yang Xingjie said coldly, "I waited for you in the sea cave for forty-nine days and nights. From start to finish, I believed in your promise to me, and I waited for you to come back and save me. You were the last human I believed in, but you didn’t keep your promise to me, Chi Xiaoduo."

Chi Xiaoduo: ".....”

"In that hole," Yang Xingjie said, "I died. This is your sin; I saved your life, but you didn't do what you promised me."

Chi Xiaoduo’s eyes went wide, and his entire body trembled uncontrollably.

"That entire time, you..." Chi Xiaoduo said while shivering.

"I was bitterly waiting that entire time." Yang Xingjie said faintly, "Waiting for a seven-year-old child to think of a way to come back and save me. Even if he couldn’t do it, and I knew you couldn’t do it, even if you came back, as long as you came back to see me, I could believe that death wasn’t terrifying...

"I thought, I saved a human child before I died." Yang Xingjie said coldly, "I don't know why I saved you, maybe it was because I was lonely and longing for a little warmth ba. Such a small creature, he would definitely come back and save me. At least, he would come back and see me. 

"But you didn't come back."

The black smoke around Yang Xingjie grew thicker, and Chi Xiaoduo's tears rolled around in his eyes.

"I’m sorry." Chi Xiaoduo remembered now.

That night, when he returned to shore, his grandmother found him and slapped him.

Chi Xiaoduo had told his grandmother and his neighbors, but no one had believed him and thought he had been possessed. The next day, due to being caught in the rain and suffering the cold in the sea cave, Chi Xiaoduo broke out in a high fever.

"I developed a high fever when I went back." Chi Xiaoduo sniffled and said, "It then got complicated by pneumonia, and I was coughing all the time, so my grandmother took me to Guangzhou for an examination. There was pus in my lungs, and I only got better after lying sick in bed for a month. Later, I went to live in my uncle's house, studied in Guangzhou, and only returned to Zhuhai ten years later."

"You got better." Yang Xingjie said, "You got your life back. You’ve experienced a taste of a body decaying away now, isn’t it full of despair? Slowly rotting away, all thanks to you, thanks to you human beings. "

"Sorry." Chi Xiaoduo shook his head slowly. "Thank you, I was wrong."

"I left a mark on your body just to find you.

"Unexpectedly, there were people lurking around you, trying to draw me out. I waited for four years; after you returned to Guangzhou, I waited for four whole years. After approaching you, I gave you three chances to live. I asked you three times, but you never even thought of me." Yang Xingjie sneered, "Whether I’m a yao or a human, you wouldn’t even look me in the eye."

"No." Chi Xiaoduo said, "I really forgot that memory. I've been confused this entire time... Don't do this, Xingjie, no, Chiwen, what's the meaning of becoming a devil? If you are tortured by pain into becoming a devil, you will only be trapped in pain. "

Yang Xingjie: "There are too many yao and gods like me in the rivers, lakes, and seas. Countless of them have died under the hands of you people. Now, all of you will repay me...

"With your lives ba——" Yang Xingjie roared. A black light shot straight into the sky, and the heavens and earth shook. Chi Xiaoduo shouted out and hugged the crane under his feet. He closed his eyes tightly and began to play his last words automatically in his heart.

Suddenly, a hole burst through the dark clouds, and dazzling stars twinkled from within. Then, thousands of golden incantations began to revolve around the hole. From the tops of the surrounding buildings, it seemed that hundreds of lights of varying intensity were shooting into the sky.

The storm was swept away, the circle of incantations tightened, and the true body of the chiwen struggled fiercely in the air. Yang Xingjie roared, and Chi Xiaoduo felt a powerful wave. Xiang Cheng was using all his might to rush towards the tower crane!

Under the onslaught of golden beans shooting everywhere up-and-down and side-to-side, the water monkeys along the crane let out plaintive whines and dissipated. Yang Xingjie exploded into black gas with a bang as he circled around the tower crane and roared while rushing towards Xiang Cheng!

Xiang Cheng looked up, met Chi Xiaoduo’s eyes from more than ten meters away, and made a gesture. Chi Xiaoduo immediately knew what he meant--run.

Chi Xiaoduo trembled as he got up and ran along the tower crane. It was nothing more than a steel skeleton, and if he didn't pay attention, he would step into empty space and be smashed into pieces on the ground. 

When the black smoke got close, Xiang Cheng let out a big yell and shook the Demon-Subduing Staff into a silver disc. Yang Xingjie slammed viciously into him, and he flew out upside down and shot into an unfinished building.

Chi Xiaoduo miraculously unleashed the pinnacle of human potential and didn’t take one wrong step. He ran all the way down the arm and came to the end. When he was about to get off the platform between the tower crane and the construction elevator, the black water monkeys underneath rose up and overturned the platform!

Chi Xiaoduo came to a sudden halt, and the black gas gathered together on the roof as Yang Xingjie's body appeared . Then he shouted wildly and rapidly shot at Chi Xiaoduo.

"Jump!" Xiang Cheng roared and also rushed towards Chi Xiaoduo.

Chi Xiaoduo took a few steps to run up and leaped into the air, jumping towards the thirteenth floor. Xiang Cheng also leaped out of the platform on the 13th floor. The two slammed into each other in midair and hugged each other. 

"Xiang Cheng——" Chi Xiaoduo threw himself into Xiang Cheng's arms and was carried on by Xiang Cheng's momentum. They again flew in a slant towards the twelfth floor of the tower crane. Xiang Cheng fell on the iron railing, and Chi Xiaoduo fell on Xiang Cheng, the two of them both grunting. 

Chi Xiaoduo was so worked up that he burst out sobbing and couldn't help letting out yells with Xiang Cheng in his arms. Xiang Cheng backed away using his arm, hugging Chi Xiaoduo with one hand while shaking out the Demon Subduing Staff with the other. Countless water monkeys came in from all directions, and Xiang Cheng dragged Chi Xiaoduo with him, staggering to the ladder and climbing to the top.

Amidst the torrential rain and endless sky, the scenery around the tower crane revolved under their feet. The chiwen gave a deathbed roar over their heads, and more and more water monkeys appeared under their feet. Yang Xingjie walked along the tower crane and stood in front of the platform.

"Don't be afraid." Xiang Cheng only said these three words.

Yang Xingjie dissolved into black gas. In the split second he shot towards Xiang Cheng, a brilliant light burst forth from Xiang Cheng’s entire body. 

In a trance, Chi Xiaoduo saw Xiang Cheng and Yang Xingjie forcefully crash into each other. It seemed that two huge monsters were roaring at each other. He was in Xiang Cheng's arms, so he couldn't see what monster he had turned into, but saw the shape of the devil Yang Xingjie had turned into——

——A chiwen with unfurled pitch black wings and blood-red eyes!

The black giant bird overturned them onto the ground, and Xiang Cheng's Demon Subduing Staff glowed strongly. 

"Capture it!" Chi Xiaoduo cried.

"Devils can’t be captured!" Xiang Cheng, holding the Demon Subduing Staff, tried his best to smash it at the center of the vortex of devil qi, and roared, "The mountains and seas shine, all devils disperse——"

The Demon Subduing Staff fought up against the howling black storm and burst into dazzling brilliance. The black smoke around was drawn in and curled back. With the sound of something collapsing, it rolled them all up into the devil's realm.

The world was quiet, with only the sound of the sea tide rushing away, as it had for thousands of years .

Chi Xiaoduo was surprised to find that he had become smaller. Xiang Cheng held him in one hand and lifted the Demon Subduing Staff in the other. The two of them stood on the beach.

Little Chi Xiaoduo: “.....”

He looked around and then looked up at Xiang Cheng's face.

"This is its devil realm." Xiang Cheng looked around and replied, "Where is the chiwen hiding? Take me there, we have to destroy it."

The tide ebbed and flowed, there were fine raindrops floating between heaven and earth, pattering away. Chi Xiaoduo asked, "Can you not kill it?"

"It's long been dead." Xiang Cheng said, "What we have entered now is just its devil realm, its obsession of many years. We must calm its obsession before we can exorcise it."

Chi Xiaoduo said, "Put me down."

Xiang Cheng: "You let go first..."

Chi Xiaoduo said to put him down, but he still held onto Xiang Cheng's neck. The two of them looked each other in the eye for a moment, then Xiang Cheng suddenly said, "You were so cute when you were a child. You’ve seen it before? Exactly what was going on here?"

Chi Xiaoduo came down, took Xiang Cheng's hand, told him the whole story, and asked sadly, "What are you going to do after seeing it?"

"Whoever started things should end them." Xiang Cheng replied, "Go and have a look at it first ba."

Chi Xiaoduo struggled to find the path between the reefs. The years had blurred his memory, but finally, by the seat of his pants, he found the original sea cave.

The rain stopped, and a bright moon rose from the horizon beyond the sea. In an instant, the sea was covered with silver brilliance, flashing for thousands of miles. Moonlight shone into the hole, the chiwen raised its head with difficulty, and its unblinded eye blinked.

"I’m sorry." The seven-year-old Chi Xiaoduo, with red eyes, stood barefoot at the mouth of the cave and said, "I didn't find someone to save you. They didn't believe me, and it was my fault."

A muffled sound came from the chiwen’s chest and abdomen, just like the last breath of an asthmatic person before they died. It struggled to prop its body up with its injured claws and stumbled and crawled towards Chi Xiaoduo. The whole cave was trembling.

"Be careful!" Xiang Cheng wanted to use the Demon Subduing Staff, but Chi Xiaoduo quickly stepped forward.

The chiwen sobbed.It opened its mouth sorrowfully and helplessly as tears fell from its eyes, and it let out a long wail that shook the world. Tiny little Chi Xiaoduo held the front end of its head, closed his eyes, and sniffled. His tears fell on its face, the green blood at the mouth of the chiwen gradually spreading out. 

Chi Xiaoduo stuck his face against the chiwen’s head and quietly hugged it, his tears falling along the chiwen’s decaying scales. Its whole body emitted black gas, and the sea cave dissolved into black smoke.

"It’s alright, Xiaoduo."

When the black smoke dissipated, a real chiwen appeared. It was a small divine beast glowing with green light, wings on its back, a fish tail, and a dragon’s head. A lonely male voice said, "Back then, I also just wanted to have a friend with me when I died, so at least I wouldn’t be so lonely."

As the black gas dispersed, the chiwen’s body finally dissolved into spots of light and disappeared. A green mote of light lingered, flew to Chi Xiaoduo, and disappeared into his pupil. In an instant, the stars rotated and the scene of the sea cave disintegrated. Yang Xingjie knelt at the end of the tower crane, shouting madly towards the sky, a jet of black light shooting towards the heavens!

The golden amulets all headed towards the center and burst out in cobweb-like lightning, illuminating the entire Guangzhou night. That night, everyone saw a strong light covering the whole city from the sky.

Blazing Thunder World-Purifying Sacred Flame!

The chiwen;s entire body was run through by one blow of the Blazing Thunder World-Purifying Sacred Flame, and it suddenly dissolved into powder. The thunder and lightning all across the sky merged into one and directly slammed downwards. 

Yang Xingjie took the brunt of it and fell down. The electricity was split by the tower crane, crazily running helter-skelter, but it avoided the three people above. Then the whole tower crane, including the black water monkeys around the building, was purified by the wrath of the heavens.

Xiang Cheng and Chi Xiaoduo held each other tightly. In the midst of the dazzling lightning, they already couldn't see where the sky or ground was. The tower crane collapsed instantaneously, and the momentum from that turned into a hurricane, throwing the two of them out.

Thunder drowned out Chi Xiaoduo's screams. They flew straight out at an altitude of fifty meters in the air, Xiang Cheng grabbed and jerked at Chi Xiaoduo's wrist, and their eyes met. Xiang Cheng’s mouth moved, and he said something. He seemed to be teasing Chi Xiaoduo, and then laughed. The sound came to Chi Xiaoduo from far away, and the strap on Xiang Cheng’s duffel bag broke, letting out a mess of magical weapons.

"What?!" Chi Xiaoduo cried.

As soon as the thunder stopped, Xiang Cheng shouted, "Umbrella!"

The two were in mid air, and as Chi Xiaoduo stretched out his hand to grasp the umbrella, Xiang Cheng's big hand came up and covered Chi Xiaoduo's palm. The black broken umbrella opened with a pala, and like a dandelion, it carried them flying away. 

Chi Xiaoduo: ".....”

In the midst of the palala roaring rain, Chi Xiaoduo hugged Xiang Cheng's neck. Xiang Cheng flew in the wind with the umbrella in one hand.

Outside the construction site, the van closed its door and drove away.

The magical lights went out in all the neighboring buildings, and the exorcists went downstairs one after another.

Chi Xiaoduo looked up, and a rib of the rusty black umbrella poked out.

"It’s too old." Xiang Cheng said, "It’s not easy to control, and it tends to drift to the right."

Chi Xiaoduo laughed loudly, his whole person hanging onto Xiang Cheng's back like a monkey. His feet clamped around Xiang Cheng’s waist, Chi Xiaoduo leaned happily against the side of his neck.

"I knew you would come and save me——" Chi Xiaoduo's voice faded away.

"En..."