Chapter 112 The End of the Female Demon
The deathly intent of the demon suffocated Pingyu. For a moment, she wanted to detach herself from this memory, but she couldn't. The flames on the demon's body continued to burn relentlessly, but as a pile of firewood, she had long since turned to ashes. The Green Grape Fairy did not agree to her friend's request, who was heartbroken. The immortal went up and embraced her, his tears falling onto her shoulder.
"The world's fortunes have changed drastically. The seal on the Gate of Hell has loosened, allowing the twenty-four ghosts to escape to the mortal realm." Amidst uncontrollable sobs, Qingti said, "Heaven has chosen me to be reborn in the mortal world to undergo tribulations. If I can fulfill my destiny within ten lifetimes, I can ascend to become a high god."
"Green grapes, no way!"
Ba hurriedly grasped her arms, his face pale: "Celestials descending to the mortal realm must abide by the ironclad laws of the mortal world. From the moment they become mortal, they lose all their immortal powers and must learn them all from scratch. I know the Heavenly Dao favors you, but even it cannot interfere with the rules established since the beginning of chaos. The days without divine power are too bitter; I alone have tasted it, and that's enough. Besides, you only have ten lifetimes. If you fail to complete them, wouldn't that mean..."
"drought demon."
This shout brought Ba to an abrupt halt. A gentle embrace enveloped her, and Qingti comforted her, saying, "My mind is made up. There can be no new beginning without breaking down the old. Besides, Lingzhuzi has also been ordered to descend to the mortal realm; he will help me."
"Once I become a high god, I might be able to help you regain your divine power and return to heaven!" The fairy in the green grapes looked at him and said in a serious tone, "I will use my divine power to seal your limbs and deceive the heavens, so that the heavens can send rain and you will not die."
"Ba, wait for me."
She raised her finger as a vow: "I'll come back to find you, and we'll be sisters again in heaven!"
“Then share my body with these children,” Ba said, turning to smile at the frightened girls. Arno led them forward, timidly calling out, “Sister… are you leaving?”
Qingti remained silent, leaving the conversation to them. The fairy turned and addressed the Taoist priest who was tending the fire.
No matter how skilled a Taoist priest in magic might be, he was no match for a fairy born of heaven and earth. Even after his figure disappeared from the demon's sight, the Taoist's effusive explanations continued unabated: "I was merely helping the villagers drive away the demon to end the drought, what wrong have I done!"
Qingti's cheerful voice drifted over: "If the immortal says you are wrong, then you are wrong."
She raised her hand and brought the knife down, blood splattering everywhere, the Taoist priest was on the verge of death.
Amid the villagers' terrified screams, the demon covered the children's eyes and said, "Don't be afraid, your sister is here."
“You gave your sister a sip of water, so your sister won’t let you go without water.”
"There will be no more droughts in the future, and we don't need to go up the mountain anymore."
She released her hands from the children's eyes and chuckled, "It'll rain soon."
The children were dismissed; they were the innermost circle of the human ring. Ba nodded to the Green Grape Fairy: "We can begin."
The fairy chanted an incantation, and azure spiritual energy slowly enveloped her. In the blink of an eye, Ba felt her limbs being severed, and her head detached from her body and floated away. She was merely sealed away; she retained her memories but felt no pain.
Qingti instructed the girls: "Just throw these limbs into your own wells. She recognizes your souls, and you will not lack water until I return to take her away."
The fairy had important matters to attend to, so she took off on a cloud.
Everyone stared in disbelief as her figure disappeared into the world...
Suddenly, a cool breeze blew. Raindrops scattered in the wind, landing on everyone's faces. A clap of thunder boomed in the sky, and the sunlight was replaced by lightning. Dark clouds gathered, and a torrential downpour came crashing down, extinguishing the intense heat of the ground.
Ba was not lying; it really did rain after she died.
People rejoiced, felt ashamed, and embraced each other with tears of joy. The drought finally came to an end as the celestial maiden's body was sunk to the bottom of the well.
The peace lasted only for the first century before it was eventually shattered.
The body of the demon would change position as the girls were reincarnated. This time, the girl with a head and one hand was reincarnated as a twin. But the demon did not stay in the water; instead, it was retrieved from the water.
The Taoist priests of that time.
His skin was pale and covered in white hair, a sign of a resurrected corpse.
The Taoist priest lifted the demon's head and said with a smile, "I have finally found you, demon."
He died, carelessly abandoned in the mountains. Uncorrupted, he became a flying zombie, emerging from the earth as a corpse. The demon noticed blood at the corner of his mouth and its heart sank. Sure enough, two bodies lay on the ground. The child's body was shriveled and wrinkled like ruined fabric.
The demon was heartbroken and questioned, "Why did you do this! Feeding on human blood is an evil practice, and heavenly lightning will surely strike you down and reduce you to ashes!"
"They donated it voluntarily."
The Taoist priest laughed loudly: "Mortals are the most forgetful, remembering the beatings but forgetting the meals. A hundred years have passed, and no one remembers your self-sacrifice that day. They only remember you as a goddess who lost all her divine power, and only know that you brought drought. Only I remember what happened that day, and only I am still alive. For the past hundred years, whenever there has been a drought, I have said that the drought demon is here, and heaven is sending down disaster. I say that you are a demon, a ghost, the root of calamity, and who can refute me? Back then, you were a celestial maiden, and I was a mortal. I know you looked down on me. Now I am a zombie. Once I use other people's words to mold you into a demon, you and I will be the same."
"The Heavenly Maiden Ba".
He said, "You can still get away from me now."
The demon has been sealed away and is no longer able to fight back.
She only said one sentence to the Taoist priest: "Give me back their souls."
Words have power. Under the Taoist priest's slander, the demon Ba became a monster that brought drought. The flooded wells during droughts were no longer seen as a sign of celestial mercy, but as a curse. The Taoist priest, fearing the descended fairy Qingti, dared not fully reassemble Ba's body. Zombies and women were considered yin, so he lied, claiming the flooded wells were a symbol of drought, and ordered unsuspecting villagers to burn women as sacrifices. He then used magic to save them, draining their blood to refine oil candles for his own cultivation.
The memory ended there, and Pingyu opened his eyes again. The villagers were gathered around; they had already learned the whole story of the village legend from Widow Zhang. The old man's body lay on the ground, a bloody mess, like a rotten watermelon.
His still-intact skin began to rot, emitting a foul stench. Pingyu glanced at it and tossed out a handkerchief.
Just as the old man said, for Yu Fei Jiang, his kind was a tonic. Du Ruoniang's rotting hand reached out from inside and grabbed the dead old man, bones and flesh, into her handkerchief. Du Ruoniang would devour and chew him up, soul and all, thus eliminating him completely.
Fang Pa flew back into the bracelet, and she raised her head to say to the villagers, "I came here on my master's orders to exorcise the demon. Now that the great demon has been eliminated, you no longer need to offer human sacrifices."
After the old man died, the village chief's family all turned into paper figures and floated to the ground. Whether anyone died or not was unimportant; the farmers, who only knew how to worship and burn incense, were ignorant of spirits and could only anxiously watch the little girl before them. Wang Xushi, realizing that the other party already knew her motives for buying her, felt a pang of guilt and fear. Ultimately, it was for her family's sake, so she rubbed her hands together and mustered her courage to ask, "Ah... oh no, little fairy master. Then what about my Taotao..."
"Grandma, don't be afraid," Pingyu comforted her. "I know you have your reasons. You even stewed chicken for me. Sister Taotao is fine. I'll write a pregnancy-preserving talisman for her later."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, exclaiming, "That's great, that's great!" Whose child isn't their own flesh and blood? Who could bear to see them dragged away and burned at the stake at any moment? After explaining what happened next, Pingyu dismissed everyone. The demon, having recovered its strength, stood quietly in place, peacefully watching her. Pingyu turned around, her gaze towards her filled with a complex emotion.
"you……"
Ba interrupted her: "You've come to find me, Qingti."
Pingyu swallowed his words.
Over time, under the influence of rumors, Ba's body, which housed countless spirits, began to gradually turn into a zombie. The seal planted by Qingti dissipated after Ba pieced her body back together. Starting from her toes, white down was growing on the celestial maiden's skin. Through centuries of rumors, her existence had been distorted by the perceptions of others, transforming her into a demon, a zombie. Pingyu didn't know what to say, and could only stammer, "I'm sorry..."
“It’s not your fault,” Ba smiled at her. “Actually, I know you’re not a green grape.”
"Gods and immortals have no memory after descending to the mortal world. You are Pingyu now, not my Qingti."
Ping Yu lowered his head even further.
What was she doing in her past life to ruin her friends like this!
Ba: "Do you feel like you were unreliable in your past life?"
The girl looked up, her face filled with astonishment: "You can read minds!?"
"Bullshit destiny." Ping Yu muttered, "My parents died and it was all destiny. People who shouldn't have died died, but I, who should have died, am still allowed to live."
“Since it is destiny, you cannot defy it as long as you live,” the demon said. “If you follow His lead, He will not make things difficult for you. You see, didn’t you find me a thousand years later?”
“But you can’t go back!” Pingyu grabbed her, his white fur revealing a hardened, cold skin: “A zombie’s soul will forever wander the Three Realms. The Heavenly Gate won’t open for you, and even the Underworld won’t accept you!”
"So you came to save me."
Pingyu's hand was gently brushed aside by Ba. She took a few steps back, pointed to herself, and said, "Qingti, when you reached that mountain, Heaven spoke to me. It said that I had suffered for many years, but now I have another chance to return to Heaven. There will be a change of regime, and the fate of Heaven will change..."
Pingyu stared blankly at Ba. Was she talking about the war against Shang?
“This battle is related to the gods above, so you must not choose the wrong side,” Ba continued. “The zombies that cannot be burned will transform into Hou, sitting facing south and waiting for the emperor to return. I must cocoon myself before the new emperor is born, and I can only emerge from the cocoon after the change of kingship.”
"Green grapes..."
The demon called to her again: "You must lead the souls in my body away and let them be reincarnated. If I become a cocoon, they will not be able to get out."
The villagers said that the souls of the killed were used to replace the drought demon, so the souls after the human sacrifice overlapped with the demon's body. The demon protected them to this day. She opened her mouth and exhaled: countless shimmering blue spiritual particles rushed outwards.
Pingyu put them into the bracelet, and the magical artifact made a dry heaving sound as if it was about to burst.
After spitting out that mouthful, Ba coughed twice. She was visibly decaying; the hard shell on her skin became more pronounced, and her hair fell out in clumps.
“You…” Ping Yu wanted to go up and help her, but was stopped by her gesture. Ba shook her head, turned her back and said, “Qing Ti, don’t look at me.”
Pingyu heard the sorrow in her voice, and his nose stung with tears. It seemed that the celestial maiden who descended to earth to save the world only had a dignified life during her initial days in the mortal realm.
When glory fades, the selfish and cold-hearted nature of mortals is exposed. From a sorceress who brings drought to a zombie, she will eventually transform into a beast that can no longer even maintain its human form. Pingyu desperately wanted to ask her if she regretted descending to the mortal realm, if she regretted doing everything she could to help mortals. But the girl didn't ask these questions. Her old skin hardened into a floating shell, her hair and eyebrows fell out one by one, and the celestial maiden didn't want her former friend to see her current appearance.
Pingyu turned around and took a step forward. She had only taken a second when she involuntarily turned back around.
Footsteps drew closer, and seeing the terrified look on Ba's face, Pingyu hugged her from behind. The girl spoke first: "My eyes are closed, I can't see!"
Ba closed her mouth, stunned, waiting for her to finish speaking. Pingyu pressed his face against her cold, molted skin, fighting back tears, and said, "Wait for me... My tribulation is over, and I will definitely succeed in this life. When I succeed, you can call me Qingti!"
Ba waited for her for a long time.
She has waited from a thousand years ago until now, from the celestial maiden to the mythical beast Hou. Ba, she has waited for a child who has forgotten her…
In her eyes, Pingyu looked exactly like Qingti when she was little, even their habit of suddenly hugging each other was the same. They cultivated their inner power together in the sky. When Qingti was tired, she would lie on her body. When she was injured, Qingti would hug her from behind.
"OK……"
The demon's tears fell on Pingyu's tiger's mouth, and those two drops made Pingyu feel as if she had been bitten. The tears burned her skin, making it itch, and her heart ached.
Ba was used to waiting; waiting with hope was her normal way of life. She pressed her calloused face against Pingyu's hand and whispered, "I'll wait for you."
.
.
.
The demon transformed into a cocoon in the south and could no longer utter a sound.
Pingyu, carrying the soul of Manzhuzi, walked out of the village, still somewhat disoriented. Her steps were slow, almost dragging on the ground, and she didn't even notice the person walking towards her.
"Eh."
Pingyu felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up.
Lu Ya, who had been missing for several days, returned just as the incident was coming to an end. He smiled and shoved something into Ping Yu's arms, asking, "Is it resolved?"
"It's resolved..."
Pingyu looked down and saw a leaf-shaped packet in her arms. She untied the string, revealing a millet cake inside. Pingyu raised an eyebrow and asked, "For me?"
"For you."
After Lu Ya finished answering, Ping Yu began to wolf down her food. She took large, forceful bites, swallowing them whole with barely any chewing. Afraid she would choke, Lu Ya quickly snatched the pancake from her hand: "What are you doing? Aren't these people going to feed you?"
The girl covered her mouth as she chewed, indicating that she was eating. While waiting, a hand suddenly appeared in Lu Ya's line of sight. Ping Yu finally swallowed the food in her mouth, then shook her bracelet and uttered two words: "Teach me."
"Huh?" Lu Ya was completely confused.
"Salvation."
After saying that, Pingyu stepped forward and grabbed Lu Ya's arm. The girl used much more force than usual, and Lu Ya followed her forward, saying, "I know, I know, don't pull me!"
Lu Ya Daoist had been hiding around Ping Yu from the beginning, so he naturally knew what the girl meant by "salvation".
"Oh, right," he said as if remembering something, "your good friend is about to meet Jiang Ziya, so we need to catch up on our teaching schedule." Pingyu slowed her pace. She sensed that Lu Ya's "catching up" couldn't be anything good, so she asked, "How do you plan to catch up?"
The Taoist smiled at her perfectly, revealing eight large white teeth and giving a thumbs up, saying, "Perhaps..."
"Do you want to try surviving alone for three years in a deep mountain forest filled with poisonous insects, wild beasts, bandits, and fierce ghosts, with all your supplies confiscated?"
Author's Note: Ping Yu: Lu Ya, you really raised me terribly!
Finally, Nezha is going to appear in the next chapter! I'm so excited!
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[Postscript]
After Pingyu and Lu Ya left, the village quickly returned to peace. When Wang Xu returned home, she embellished the story and told it to her family. Wang Tao listened intently, and fell asleep with these thoughts on her mind. She didn't dream of Ba again and slept soundly, a rare treat. The next morning, she took a ceramic bowl and some wild fruit to the spot where Ba had been.
The bowl contained clear water, and the wild berries were covered with fresh dew.
She looked at the cocoon and whispered, "You eat it..."
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