Chapter 48 Give Me Your Life
The lingering shockwave from the closing of the trees sent the pearls Pingyu had thrown on the ground rolling far away.
Just before it fell into the small pit where the pottery jars were placed, it was caught by a hand.
Nezha straightened up and looked at the pearl in his hand in deep thought.
He also had eight masked figures, but because he wanted to protect Xue Yue'e from injury, it took him a little longer to deal with them. Those seemingly terrifying threats were all bark and no bite; they couldn't withstand the Qiankun Ring's onslaught. Nezha still had questions to ask, so he didn't kill them outright. The boy held the golden ring in his other hand, and these figures, like sausages, were dragged along within it. Xue Yue'e, holding the pottery jar, approached. She immediately recognized the pearl in Nezha's hand: "It belongs to Pingyu!"
Despite her worries about her daughter and husband, the woman did not lose her composure.
She composed herself: "This hairpin is stuck in her hair; I had it custom-made for her birthday. Lin Dong was holding her in his arms, so the chances of it falling off during the movement are extremely slim. If someone had pulled her hair, the hairpin should have scattered all the pearls by the time it hit the ground."
“Pingyu is nearby.” Nezha clenched his fist: “She threw this down as a marker for us.”
She used so much force that her fingertips were bleeding, and there were specks of blood on the back of the pearl.
This small wound was nothing to Pingyu. She put her scraped finger in her mouth and sucked on it; the tiny wound quickly scabbed over. She still didn't know that she and Nezha were only separated by a layer of ground; the bronze man led them to a narrow passage. This was the girl's second exploration of the underground world, where evil creatures, like maggots, could only move beneath the soil. Unlike the ghost town of Cihangwu, beneath the tree was a palace connected to roots deeply embedded in the earth.
Humans walk like worker ants, and it is unknown when they started building this densely interwoven nest.
She threw down a pearl at each bend, and after being carried around the eighth bend, Pingyu's worries changed.
The pearl hairpin in her hair was gone, leaving only the hairpin; to the touch, it was just a bare stick.
She didn't think about whether Nezha could find this place, but rather whether he would get lost after entering.
Fortunately, they stopped their endless maze-walking after the ninth bend.
It is a room.
A spacious room.
After bypassing all the walls, they arrived here, where bronze was lavishly laid on all sides.
Hanging from the ceiling by a multitude of red ropes, the round wheels were sinking downwards, casting large black spots on the copper surface of the floor. These spheres were all too familiar to them; the children who came to offer birthday wishes wore them. Cardboard heads, gloomy faces, black eyes and red lips, blown by the wind like servants inside the house, watching them with a mixture of crying and laughing.
"grown ups."
After the masked man at the head shouted this, everyone else knelt down.
They stood in perfect unison, except for Lin Dong and Ping Yu, who remained standing in place.
Why didn't anyone inform us when such an important person arrived? That's not very considerate.
Lin Dong put her down, and the two of them knelt on the ground a beat late.
Knees touched the ground, and a series of footsteps slowly sounded from afar.
"Why did you bring an old man along?"
The visitor asked.
Lin Dong turned to Ping Yu, who opened his mouth without speaking: it seemed like he was talking about me.
At this moment, Pingyu was still able to comfort his father: You will always be a boy.
Then the man said, "Raise your head."
Who's ruling like a local tyrant here?
Words have power; even though Pingyu didn't want to look up, the air tugged at her hair, forcing her to lift her head.
What came into view was a petite figure. He had a long beard that covered his entire body, and he held a strange cane that was almost as tall as himself.
Upon closer inspection, however, he was quite different from the local earth god he had encountered at the beginning.
The original Earth God had round, double-lidded eyes, giving him a kind and honest appearance. But the one in front of him had single eyelids, triangular eyes, small pupils, and large whites of his eyes, exuding the message, "I'm not a good person."
More importantly, he was wearing a purple robe.
Is the purple Earth God, whom Nezha couldn't summon, here?
Pingyu put the idea aside, not wanting to frame a Heavenly Court official.
Beside the little purple man was a chicken that had been stretched out and was hanging on a shelf.
That chicken was really not good looking. Even though its limbs were stretched straight by thin sticks, its skin was still wrinkled and piled up there.
Its skin is grayish-white and hairless, with brown spots resembling those of a chicken plague.
However, this was the first time Pingyu had ever seen a chicken with such long limbs.
The purple-clad man narrowed his already small eyes and looked at Ping Yu: "Are you the Heavenly Child who came with Ling Zhuzi?"
Upon hearing the name, Pingyu confirmed that this was the legendary, unpredictable Earth God.
good.
Those who commit crimes on the payroll will spend the rest of their lives in prison.
But what is a Heavenly Child?
This old man from the blackened land seems to know some inside information.
Ping Yu lowered his head and said, "Yes, it's me."
Villains tend to talk a lot, so let's wait until he finishes expressing his desire to share before we start talking.
"good."
Zidi nodded and peeled a piece of meat off the "chicken".
It turned out that the animal had already been drained of its blood, and its meat had been sliced into sashimi and neatly arranged.
He counted eight pieces and threw them on the ground, saying, "Well done, here's a reward for you."
The dogs swarmed forward, grabbed the items, and stuffed them into the masks.
The act of chewing, accompanied by spittle splattering with blood and flesh, is so sticky that it evokes the image of rough oral movements.
The nursery rhyme sings that when the gods come, you can get meat, and meat is lifespan.
The child who brings the birthday gift asks for meat, and the local earth god also throws meat at the gift.
After delivering meat to the elderly Taoyuan, Xue Chengan said he still had meat to return to the village.
Where does this meat come from?
It is said that eating the flesh of immortals can grant one a long life, but judging from Zi Tudi's appearance, he is not the type to cut flesh for others.
The sounds of eating meat filled Pingyu with panic, though she didn't know why.
It was clearly a chicken, yet it acted like a wild beast eating people, which made the girl empathize deeply.
To divert attention, Pingyu thought: If the deity worshipped by Balai is really the Purple Earth, then wasn't Nezha's attack just now telling the other party, "I've come to cause trouble"?
Even the most meticulous plans can have flaws; I never imagined one of my own people was a bad one.
It was comparable to bringing the Japanese invaders in.
Now that both sides knew each other's identities, Pingyu had no intention of pretending to be ignorant and continuing the conversation.
Open cards.
She asked, "I wonder what business the Earth God has with me?"
"It's been a long time. I need to borrow something from you."
Is it a classmate I haven't seen for over half a year suddenly messaging me to borrow money? That's interesting.
His face was mostly covered by a beard, and his triangular eyes with upturned eyebrows revealed a nostalgic look: "Back in Heaven, although you were a celestial child, you were favored by the gods because you were transformed from the spirit of Heaven and Earth. Countless gods came to your door every day to drink and have fun with you. You were so busy that you didn't even notice me when I came to deliver something, and you left me standing outside the door for a whole day."
First came the Celestial Child, then the Spirit of Heaven and Earth...
Aside from the Ghost Gate, Pingyu had no real sense of his "childhood destiny".
This is the first time that relevant personnel have disclosed information about her time in Heaven.
Pingyu silently noted down the two terms, intending to ask Nezha about them when Nezha arrived later.
Now, there are more important questions to ask the Earth God.
Although the few words briefly revealed the origin of her birth, the resentment contained within them outweighed the information itself.
The more she listened, the more suspicious she became. She tentatively asked, "Earth God... what does this have to do with borrowing things? You're not here for revenge, are you?"
The more popular someone is, the more enemies they make.
The girl formed a sword-like gesture with her fingers, reciting the Five Thunder Spell taught by Nezha from her mind. Her sleeves stretched into a curtain, and no one could see her breathing towards the fingers hidden in the shadows.
Purple soil has no intention of harming anyone.
He clapped his hands, and one of the masked men crawled over and braced himself on all fours.
He sat on the chair, tapping his cane with both hands, and said, “It’s related, how could it not be? We are both immortals, so why were you born on the celestial mountain in the Heavenly Court while I am stuck in this small mountain range, unable to even enjoy a little more incense offering? In terms of seniority, I am older than you, and in terms of talent, I was born in this mountain range full of immortal energy. Although I cannot compare to the spirit of heaven and earth, I am still considered top-tier among earth immortals. Even so, I can only work with those mediocre talents in this Five Claw Mountain.”
No wonder the people of the Loess Plateau always say that the people of the Purple Plateau are arrogant and do not associate with ordinary immortals.
This isn't a workplace conflict; it's a fact.
He even had a touch of kindness, but his words were icy cold and cruel: "You were chosen by Heaven to descend to the mortal realm to subdue demons, and you have already reincarnated three times. This is your fourth incarnation, and this is the first time I have seen you grow up like this. I knew that Heaven had been kind to you; the failures of the previous three incarnations have actually resulted in you being born in the same era as Lingzhuzi in this life. You are favored by the gods in Heaven, and you are still favored on Earth. Inviting you to come and chat is still as difficult as before."
"Heavenly Child, in your three previous lives you were devoured by demons, which helped the three demon kings grow stronger. In this life, why not, for the sake of our comradeship, risk your life to help me?"
He didn't think they were joking, and the masked people all turned to stare at them.
Pingyu had guessed from the beginning that her parents had come here because of her health.
Nezha's kind words calmed his heart, and it began to stir again.
Humans, demons, ghosts, immortals, and gods—whoever harbors evil intentions will behave the same way.
"Whether you want spirit or flesh, just come and get it from me!" Pingyu was so angry that her neck turned red. She stood in front of her father without caring about anything else. "Am I really such a frail and sickly little girl who won't live past twelve? Do you really think you can be so feared? If you want to take my life, you have to take my parents hostage to force them to submit!"
"I didn't call your parents here." The Earth God spoke calmly to the girl who looked like a small animal: "I only found out about your coming to my Five Claw Mountain and to Balai on the day you arrived."
"Liar!" she retorted. "The god worshipped in Ba Lai is you, and the village chief is your apprentice. He's the one who tricked my parents into coming here. If you hadn't instructed him, why would he have paid attention to my family?"
“That’s another matter, something he did on his own.” Zi Tudi shook his head and said, “No one in Balai has grown horns in a long time. His elders are the first. Why don’t you think about why it’s your mother’s collateral relatives who have horns?”
The girl choked, a look of astonishment crossing her face.
Nezha was able to find the corresponding records in the library of the Golden Light Cave, proving that the Life Horn was not unique to Balai.
She wasn't someone who was easily led into logical traps, but Zi Tudi's words struck a chord with her unease.
"Your parents came here to seek a longevity horn for you, so how can it not be because of you?"
In that instant, Nezha's past words floated before Pingyu's eyes...
"With you here, there will be no shortage of demons."
"Go with the flow, and they will come to you."
"Born and nurtured by Heaven, they are favored by Heaven alone."
The earth spirit pointed its sharp finger at the girl's brow: "Heavenly Child, fortune and misfortune both come from you."
"If you want your family to be healthy and well in this life, I advise you to give me your life as soon as possible."
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