Chapter 89: Folklore Horror (19)
“I knew your clan didn’t intermarry with outsiders.” Jian Yuntai looked utterly confused. “What exactly were you telling me to give up on?”
Fuzhu was startled. “You knew, and yet you still…?”
“Still what?” Jian Yuntai asked.
Goose-feather snow drifted down in thick flurries. The tips of the fox’s fur turned an even deeper pink, looking strangely charming in the icy wilderness. After making a few flustered, sputtering sounds, Fuzhu muttered in a low voice, “You have no shame!”
“???” Jian Yuntai grew even more bewildered.
What was that even supposed to mean?
Did foxes think differently from humans? Why could he not understand a single thing Fuzhu was trying to say?
The situation remained tense. The demon hunters searched the nearby mountains and forests through the entire night, their encirclement steadily tightening. Jian Yuntai’s thoughts were nowhere near romance, so he removed the Celestial Fox jade pendant.
He lifted his hand and placed it back on the little fox, drawing the red cord snug with a single finger. The pendant immediately pressed firmly beneath the fox’s fur, completely concealed by the thick white coat. Unless someone carefully reached out to feel for it, they would not even know where it was hidden.
“Since this jade pendant means so much to the Celestial Fox clan, it shouldn’t be on me.”
Jian Yuntai spoke calmly. “I’m returning it to you.”
“…!” Fuzhu felt as though he had just recovered a long-lost treasure. He narrowed his fox eyes happily, thinking to himself, That’s more like it.
The livestream viewers could barely bear to watch:
“Fuzhu baby, when Jian Dadan calls you a little fool, it’s painfully accurate. You’re this happy now—just wait until later.”
“A jade pendant that took ten years to finally give away, and ten years earlier it just got returned again. Fuzhu probably didn’t even know why Jian Dadan did that—he was even happy about it.”
“When he truly understands, his heart’s going to shatter. TAT”
“Jian Dadan just felt he couldn’t bear Fuzhu’s feelings, so he gave the pendant back. Wuwuwu, why did Fuzhu have to transform into Cui Yu’s appearance? With just that premise alone, Jian Dadan would absolutely never allow himself to fall for him.”
“Not just that—don’t forget Fuzhu is an NPC too. Lin Fuxue’s lesson, Cui Yu’s lesson—weren’t those painful enough? Jian Dadan definitely doesn’t want to repeat the same mistake.”
“Sisters, I just had a terrifying thought… What if the jade pendant Fuzhu gave away ten years later is actually the very same one Jian Dadan returned right now? Then this is a loop! A causally self-consistent loop!”
“Damn… when you put it that way, that’s kind of scary.”
“If it’s causally self-consistent, that means everything happening now is moving toward the ending ten years later. Wuwuwuwu then can Jian Dadan even stop Fuzhu from having his demon core dug out?”
The worries filling the viewers’ minds had never even crossed Jian Yuntai’s thoughts. The pressure of the past two days had been overwhelming. Sometimes his eyes were clearly fixed on what lay before him, yet his mind wandered to the main quest—the Night of Gratitude.
On the Night of Gratitude, he had to find Fuzhu.
If he failed to bring him back… then he would go alone.
Without a contracted demon beast, the mortality rate would be maximized?
A C-level instance already carried an extremely high death rate. If he feared danger, he would never have entered a C-level instance in the first place.
……
……
He could feel the demon hunters’ encirclement growing tighter. Several times, Jian Yuntai had tried to take Fuzhu across the perimeter, fleeing toward areas that had already been searched.
Yet each time they ran into new teams. He could only circle back in frustration. The forest was not large. The deeper into the night it went, the easier it became to hear the noisy discussions of groups of demon hunters.
“There are shoe prints by the campfire. Preliminary guess is that a human is fleeing with Fuzhu, but we’re not sure if it’s a demon hunter. It could just be a nearby villager bewitched by a Celestial Fox.”
“Damn it! We’ve been stuck in this cursed forest for most of the night. Once dawn breaks, the Celestial Fox King will arrive. After that, even if we want to kill Fuzhu, we won’t be able to.”
“Such a good opportunity. What a waste!”
“If I catch that human, I’ll beat him to death! Kill him and bury him right here in this forest!”
“…We can’t kill a human.”
“Can’t kill him? Then we’ll at least beat him half to death. Because of him, how many pointless detours have we taken tonight?!”
Jian Yuntai held Fuzhu tightly and hid behind a massive boulder. The path was one-way. He had run straight into a group of demon hunters head-on and, in his haste, had no choice but to duck behind the rock.
Fortunately, the demon hunters did not inspect the surrounding stones. Perhaps they believed a grown man could not possibly hide there.
Tap—tap—
Tap—tap—
He patiently waited for the large group to rush past along the narrow path. After nearly five more minutes, the footsteps gradually faded into the distance. Only then did Jian Yuntai cautiously peek out.
“They’re dressed the same as you,” Fuzhu suddenly said. The black-and-gold Taoist robes stood out against the white snow. Even from far away, the demon hunters were still clearly visible.
Jian Yuntai gave a quiet hum. “They’re from my sect.”
“Aren’t you going to join them?”
“No. They want to kill you.”
Fuzhu’s gaze trembled slightly. He turned blankly to look at Jian Yuntai’s profile. The bloodstains and dirt on his face had been washed away by the loose snow, and his sharp brows and eyes reflected clearly in Fuzhu’s vertical pupils.
He treats me so well, Fuzhu thought.
He had even abandoned his fellow demon hunters from the sect. The elders always said humans were cunning and united, yet Jian Yuntai was completely different from the “humans” described by the elders.
Just as Fuzhu was about to speak, two demon hunters from the group unexpectedly doubled back. The man and fox behind the rock immediately grew alert, holding their breath and making no sound.
For a moment, there was only the soft rustling of falling snow.
And then a clear female voice rang out, filled with anger. She scolded, “You must catch that rabbit tonight! I saw it just now—it was right behind the rocks. If you don’t even dare to kill a rabbit demon, how do you expect to kill bigger demons in the future?!”
“Senior Sister?!” The other voice sounded much younger, trembling as if on the verge of tears. “But the rabbit demon hasn’t done any evil—why should we kill it?”
“Did I tell you to kill it? I just told you to take its inner core so you wouldn’t return to the sect empty-handed.”
“?! You just told me to kill it!”
“Such nonsense.” The senior sister grabbed the child by the back of his collar. Their voices drew closer. “Go. You find it yourself.” With that, she flung her arm and tossed the child in front of the rock.
Jian Yuntai clearly felt Fuzhu tremble in his arms. That rock—that rock was too close to them! Only about thirty meters away. His heart nearly leapt into his throat.
Just a few more steps, and the two would definitely discover them.
“The rabbit demon ran away!” After searching behind the rock for a while, the child suddenly shouted excitedly. Immediately after came a rapid series of tap-tap, tap-tap sounds—like a nimble little animal bounding over dry snow, heading straight toward them.
Jian Yuntai’s expression darkened. He could not help but curse inwardly. Of all directions to run, why did the rabbit demon have to run toward him?!
Seeing the child’s tearful yet laughing expression, the senior sister felt both angry and exasperated. The fury in her heart turned into frustration at his uselessness. She snapped, “It ran? Why are you looking at me? Do you think I can conjure up a demon beast out of thin air for you to bring back to the sect?”
The child’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz. “Maybe we could switch to another one…”
“What difference would that make? Killing a rabbit demon is killing. Killing a tiger demon is killing.” The senior sister could not understand him. She rolled her eyes and suddenly raised her voice sharply. “Go chase it!”
Her shout had been meant to frighten the child, but it inadvertently startled Jian Yuntai and Fuzhu as well.
While the child was still arguing with his senior sister, Jian Yuntai made a decision. In a low voice, he said, “I’ll lure them away. You stay here and wait. I’ll find a chance to come back and get you.”
With that, he prepared to stand up.
However, Fuzhu suddenly spoke up. After hesitating for a few seconds, he said, “Take the Celestial Fox jade pendant with you. That way, I can sense where you are.” After a pause, he added, “I’m not giving it to you—I’m lending it to you. Just lending it.”
Jian Yuntai froze for a moment, then laughed and shook his head. “No. That jade pendant of yours should be kept safe. You’re not allowed to give it to anyone. Wait until you find someone you truly like, then give it to that person.”
“Not even to you?” Fuzhu asked, puzzled.
Jian Yuntai nodded. In an indifferent tone, he said, “Right. The one person you absolutely must not give it to is me.”
After saying that, he did not wait for Fuzhu to process his words. Jian Yuntai swiftly slipped out from between the rocks. The icy wind mixed with snow slammed into his face with a fierce whoosh.
His limbs nearly went numb in an instant.
He ran straight into the rabbit demon. His black-and-gold Taoist robe was stained with both blood and snow, like a solemn ice sculpture standing in the frozen wilderness, frightening at first glance.
The rabbit demon immediately turned and fled.
Crack! With a crisp sound, the senior sister swung her blade and severed the rabbit demon’s hamstring in a single strike. Expressionless, she dug the inner core out of the rabbit demon’s body. After shaking the blood from her hand, her sharp gaze swept toward Jian Yuntai. “What are you doing here?”
Jian Yuntai ran forward, ignoring the stunned child at the side, and cried out to the senior sister, “I finally found you! I got greedy and ran out to play last night, then got lost in the forest…” As he spoke, he choked up pitifully, raising his hand to wipe the ice and snow from his face. His voice trembled as he said, “Senior Sister, I was so scared. I’ll never run around again. The battlefield is much more terrifying than I imagined. I want to go back to the sect. Senior Sister, will you take me home?”
As he spoke, he kept wiping his face with his sleeve.
He looked as though he was crying too hard to stop, eventually unable to even form a complete sentence.
The livestream viewers were stunned, staring blankly at their screens:
“Damn, even I believed that acting.”
“Jian Dadan crying makes my heart ache so much, wuwuwu. If Senior Sister won’t take you home, I will.”
“I just want to rub wife’s head. Don’t cry, qaq.”
Jian Yuntai’s clothes were torn. The exposed skin of his arms had turned purplish from the cold, and his face and hair were covered in ice and snow. Even his eyebrows were rimed with frost. The worst part was his hand—there was a wound on his palm so deep that bone could be seen. Blood had soaked through the crude black cloth wrapped around it, staining it an even darker shade.
Seeing how miserable he looked, the senior sister’s gaze softened. “How did you hurt your hand?”
Jian Yuntai kept wiping his eyes, his head lowered as he sniffled. With small steps, he moved closer to her and tugged at her sleeve. His voice bubbled with grievance. “I fell by accident… It hurts so much, Senior Sister.”
“Forget it. You’re still too young. The fact that you found your way back on your own is already impressive.” The senior sister sighed and comforted him. Then she turned to glare at the child nearby, her expression instantly turning stern. “And you—you’re not that young anymore. You’re already thirteen! Killing a rabbit demon makes you cry like that?”
She thrust the demon core forward and barked, “Eat it!”
“Ahhh! How could you dig out its inner core?!” The child looked at the bloodied rabbit demon on the ground and clutched his head in breakdown, almost ready to slam it against the earth. He did not even notice Jian Yuntai, though Jian Yuntai noticed him.
It had to be said, Sun Bin had grown up in perfect proportion. Even as a child, he had the same faintly broken eyebrows he would have as an adult.
Before Sun Bin could resist, the senior sister seemed to lose patience. She stepped forward and pried his mouth open with her bare hands.
Click.
She stuffed the bloodstained inner core into Sun Bin’s mouth, then lifted his jaw shut with her fingers. With a gulp, before Sun Bin could even react, he swallowed the core along with a mouthful of snow and blood.
“?!!!”
Sun Bin howled as if the sky had fallen.
The senior sister grabbed him by the back of his collar and looked at Jian Yuntai, who was still “wiping tears” nearby. “Keep up.”
Jian Yuntai hurried to follow.
After walking nearly several hundred meters, Sun Bin’s wailing was so miserable that it repeatedly startled birds from the forest. The senior sister’s ears throbbed in pain. At last, unable to endure it any longer, she dropped Sun Bin, carried the rabbit demon in one hand, and left.
Before she left, she said to Jian Yuntai, “You two are from the same generation and have always been close. Talk some sense into him. Catch up with the main group within ten minutes. And this time, don’t get lost again.”
“I won’t, I won’t. I definitely won’t get lost again.” Jian Yuntai choked out immediately. “Thank you, Senior Sister.”
Once the footsteps gradually faded away, the chaos in Sun Bin’s mind finally began to settle. He looked up at Jian Yuntai, who was still wiping his eyes, and was about to tell him to stop crying.
But before he could speak, Jian Yuntai lowered his hand. The pitiful, aggrieved expression from moments ago vanished instantly, replaced by a blank face. There was not a single tear on it.
“…………”
Sun Bin: “???”
The livestream viewers were equally confused:
“?? Wait, what? I got acted???”
“Hahahahaha, you guys reacted way too slowly. How could Jian Dadan possibly cry over something like this? I was already wondering why he never lifted his face earlier. Turns out he just couldn’t squeeze out any tears.”
“He’s the kind of ruthless guy who wouldn’t cry even if his heart were stabbed through. The moment he spoke his first line, I knew he was acting. Get used to it, get used to it.”
Jian Yuntai had fake-cried, but Sun Bin was crying for real. He was on the verge of collapse, scratching his head and wailing, “I came back for nothing! The inner core still got dug out!”
Jian Yuntai let him howl for a few moments before saying, “You weren’t the one who dug it out. Why are you panicking?”
“It doesn’t matter! Once an inner core is removed, the demon beast loses part of its memory for a period of time. The rabbit demon won’t know that I didn’t dig it out. She’ll only know her inner core is in my stomach.” After muttering to himself, he added with a complaint, “Why am I even telling you this? You’re just an NPC who doesn’t understand anything.”
Jian Yuntai fell silent for a moment, then reminded him, “I’m Jian Yuntai.”
“I know you’re Jian Yuntai. You look exactly the same as you did when you grew up.”
He still stubbornly believed Jian Yuntai was an NPC. Muttering under his breath, he grumbled several more times. “So scary when you grow up. Didn’t expect you to be this scary even as a kid. Pulling off that acting on the spot, fooling the demon hunter senior sister completely.”
“They really should let the viewers see you like this.”
As he said that, his expression suddenly paused. With tears still hanging on his face, he looked Jian Yuntai up and down several times.
Jian Yuntai: “…?”
Sun Bin patted his pants and stood up. Suddenly, he stepped forward and reached out to pinch Jian Yuntai’s cheek. Then he grinned slyly. “I’ve pinched the face of a big Boss from the Xiang’an Team.” He patted Jian Yuntai on the shoulder again. “Come on, call me Older Brother.”
“……”
“……”
Dead silence.
A long, drawn-out silence that lasted several full minutes.
The cold wind howled, and Sun Bin, who had originally been wearing a sly grin, slowly lost his smile as if some small animal sensed danger. Little by little, his expression stiffened, and he silently pulled back the hand that had been resting on Jian Yuntai’s shoulder, like an unwelcome ‘pig hoof.’
In the fearful gaze of Sun Bin, Jian Yuntai spoke.
“You seem to have no attachment left to your life,” Jian Yuntai said, looking at him with the detached gaze one would give a dead person. His tone was calm as he continued, “Once we return to the dungeon, I’ll make the hole in your belly a little bigger. I’ll even ask the priests for some salt and sprinkle it in your wound, mixing it around. Do you know how that feels? I do. But it’s fine—you’ll know soon enough.”
“W-What did you say?” Sun Bin staggered backward, his breath catching in his throat.
These simple words were laced with threats and dripping with murderous intent, and in between, three key pieces of information were conveyed: dungeon, the hole in his belly, and the priests. This meant… Jian Yuntai was also from ten years in the future! He knew everything that had happened in Mother Goddess Village!
Sun Bin immediately slid to his knees and obediently cried out, “Dad Jian!”
Jian Yuntai: “…”
Jian Yuntai had no patience to play games with him. He immediately asked, “From what time did you come?”
Sun Bin froze and looked up, confused. “What do you mean?”
Jian Yuntai answered, “I came to ten years ago at noon on the fourth day, using your Dream Entry skill.”
“Ah? Huh?!” Sun Bin suddenly realized something was wrong. His expression changed to shock. “What Dream Entry skill? I don’t remember using any skills on you.”
Jian Yuntai calmly lowered his gaze and said, “So I’m asking you, from which point in time did you come?”
“…” Sun Bin stood frozen for a long moment, then reluctantly followed the thought and said, “After Mother Goddess disguised herself as you, she tricked me into the underground palace beneath the temple. At that time, my demon core had already been taken by the rabbit demon, and while I was in the dungeon, I triggered side quest three, ‘Investigate the truth.’ I ended up using my skill to transport myself back to ten years ago, where I’ve been until now. I don’t remember meeting you.”
Jian Yuntai thought for a moment, then replied, “When I met you in the dungeon, you had already completed side quest three.”
Sun Bin froze again, then leaned back, “And then I used my skill on you and sent you back to ten years ago?”
Jian Yuntai nodded. “Yes.”
The two of them sat in silence for a moment, neither speaking.
Time was a mysterious and unfathomable thing. It was said that if you looked at distant stars right now, you’d actually be seeing stars from hundreds of years ago. Yet under Sun Bin’s skill, time had become tangible.
The time space where Jian Yuntai was and the one Sun Bin was in were ten hours apart, yet they were still able to talk.
“What did you do that night when Mother Goddess disguised herself as you and tricked me?” Sun Bin couldn’t help but ask.
Jian Yuntai fell silent again. After about two minutes, he sighed helplessly and rubbed his forehead. “No wonder you weren’t surprised when you saw me in the dungeon. You didn’t even ask where I went that night. Turns out, you already asked about it ten years ago.” After a pause, he answered, “I got lost in the underground palace.”
“Oh, okay.” Sun Bin nodded, as if listening to something Jian Yuntai couldn’t hear.
A while later, his expression changed, and his voice became urgent. “My side quest three is completed. The skill will stop soon, and I’ll return to the future! You, you, I need to remind you of something. You must remember this!”
“When a demon beast has its demon core taken, it loses its memories for a period of time. That means it doesn’t know who took its core. Only when the core returns to the demon beast’s body will it regain its memories. Different demon beasts have different memory digestion times. My rabbit demon took a whole day to recover. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had to go through so much trouble…”
As he continued, his voice grew softer. Eventually, under Jian Yuntai’s silent gaze, all the life drained from his face. He looked around the surroundings, lost and unsure.
He turned to look at Jian Yuntai, confused. “Junior Brother?”
“Another cause and effect loop!” The livestream audience nearly screamed in excitement:
“Ahhh, if Jian Dadan hadn’t met Sun Bin here, Sun Bin would probably never have brought up the idea of putting Jian Dadan into his dream. At least not so quickly.”
“So, was it because of Jian Dadan’s actions ten years ago that Sun Bin sent him back here?”
“Damn… I’m getting more and more scared. Hiss—feels like Fuzhu’s demon core might still be lost.”
“Actually, if you think about it, if Fuzhu’s demon core is kept safe and Jian Dadan sends him back to the demon clan, then he won’t meet Fuzhu again! The logic doesn’t work!”
“What if we follow a smoother logic?”
“Then Fuzhu’s demon core will still be taken… Oh my god, wuwuwu how tragic is that. Jian Dadan has tried so hard to save Fuzhu, but it still seems like it won’t work.”
“No no no, I don’t believe it. Jian Dadan can definitely do it! Maybe he can even change what has already happened!”
As the viewers discussed, Jian Yuntai picked up Sun Bin and said, “The sect is just a few hundred meters ahead. You go on ahead by yourself.”
Sun Bin asked, “What about you, Junior Brother?”
Jian Yuntai, who was already impatient with Sun Bin, wanted to get back to Fuzhu quickly. He had no patience left for this NPC. He answered distractedly, “I’ll catch up soon. You go first.”
Without waiting for Sun Bin’s response, Jian Yuntai immediately turned and began walking back.
Soon, he started running.
What the viewers could guess, he could figure out too. He had returned the Celestial Fox jade pendant on his own before, so he hadn’t thought much of it at the time.
But now that Sun Bin had appeared, the alarm bells rang in his head.
If the purpose of returning was just to complete side quest three and investigate the truth, then now Jian Yuntai had a new goal.
Keep Fuzhu’s demon core safe, and put an end to the dark and painful ten years of torture he would endure in the demon hunter sect.
Jian Yuntai worried that Fuzhu might be in danger alone, and he couldn’t trust fate at all.
What bullshit cause and effect?
Whoever wants to take Fuzhu’s demon core, let them try! He would kill them all! That should work, right?
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