Chapter 55 Reasons for Debt
Tianxuan: ?
Li Chang'an took a step forward and continued walking. "Do you remember, six years ago, a spider demon appeared in a village in Jiangchun City..."
That village is Lijia Village, Li Chang'an's hometown.
*
Lijia Village is located on the outskirts of the county town and is a large village.
Li Chang'an grew up here. After his parents passed away, the uncles and aunts in the neighborhood took pity on him as a child and would give him a bite to eat.
He didn't just eat those meals for free; he would help them with chores, such as turning the soil, carrying water and manure, and cutting pig feed. He would do anything he could manage.
Two years later, the owners of the house next to Li Chang'an's house—Grandpa Huang and Grandma Li—returned.
The elderly couple were originally taking care of their grandson in the city, but fate played a cruel trick on them. A car accident claimed the lives of their son and his family of three. The elderly couple, who had lost their son, returned to their village after handling the funeral arrangements.
They saw Li Chang'an, who was all alone and always covered in dirt, and couldn't bear to see him like that, so they took him in as their own grandson.
They bought him clothes and shoes, provided him with food and drink, and supported his schooling, sending him to high school in the county town.
Li Chang'an was sixteen years old that year, and he would come back every month when school was out for break.
It was another Friday evening at the end of the month, and Li Chang'an went to the station with his packed luggage to catch the train.
For some reason, the station was surrounded by police, and those who wanted to take the bus had to board at an intersection outside.
There weren't many people at the intersection. While waiting for the bus, Li Chang'an spotted a kitten next to a trash can.
It was the dead of winter, and everyone on the street was wearing thick cotton-padded coats. The little cat, with its sparse fur, was shivering from the cold and rummaging through the trash cans looking for food.
Li Chang'an happened to have a sausage in his bag, which he usually used as a snack with his instant noodles.
He thought for a moment, walked to the trash can, peeled the sausage, broke it into small pieces, and gently placed them in front of the kitten.
The kitten glanced at him, sniffed the sausage, and started eating it right there, meowing as it ate.
Li Chang'an couldn't help but laugh. A little while later, the bus he was waiting for arrived, and he got up and left.
Little did he know that it was during those few minutes by the trash can that he was targeted by something filthy—a spider demon.
The spider demon was severely weakened, and its transformed form was only the size of a finger.
It hid in the corner of the trash can, observing Li Chang'an. When Li Chang'an got up, it climbed into his clothes and followed him back to Li Family Village.
Winter nights come early, and by the time Li Chang'an got off the bus, it was already completely dark.
He returned to his cold, empty home, put down his luggage, and heard Grandma Li calling him over for dinner from next door.
Li Chang'an agreed and, as he locked the door, felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck.
It felt like I'd been bitten by some tiny insect.
Li Chang'an reached out and tried to pat it, but missed.
Puzzled, he walked out of the courtyard gate. Just as he reached the outside of Grandma Li's house, he raised his smiling face to greet her, but his body became paralyzed.
The pain in the back of his neck became more and more pronounced, and then he could even feel a heavy object pressing on his neck.
"Chang'an!" Grandpa Huang, standing in the courtyard, exclaimed and swung his bamboo-splitting axe at Li Chang'an's neck!
However, his target was a dark shadow behind Li Chang'an's neck.
The machete struck the shadowy figure. Grandpa Huang's face contorted in rage as he poured all his strength into the machete, but it only managed to cut in by a millimeter before refusing to go any further.
A pair of red eyes appeared above the head of the shadowy figure.
Grandpa Huang was startled. He dropped his wood-chopping knife, grabbed Li Chang'an, and ran out with him and Grandma Li.
That's why Li Chang'an was able to see the dark shadow that had bitten him earlier—a spider demon.
The spider demon grew larger and larger, its blood-red eyes fixed on Li Chang'an, its mouth moving as it uttered in human language: "Such fragrant blood..."
"A little bit of blood can restore most of my demonic power, so if I eat you and everyone in this village, I can return to my full strength!"
"At that time, no cultivator or Seven Star Alliance member will be a match for me!"
The spider demon's body gradually grew to the height of a one-story building.
Its voice was sharp and eerie. After it finished speaking, it swept its long spider legs, destroying Li Chang'an's house and the houses of Grandpa Huang and Grandma Li. The collapse made a loud noise.
The nearby villagers ran out of their homes to see what had happened, but they were all so frightened by the spider demon that their legs went weak.
"A demon! It's a demon! Call the police!"
"Run! It's a demon!"
Screams and the sounds of houses collapsing and being destroyed lingered in my ears.
Li Chang'an was led away by Grandpa Huang and Grandma Li for a distance.
The two elders were exhausted, and in the end, Li Chang'an held them tightly with both hands and ran with them.
However, how could a human possibly outrun a demon?
Two long, sharp, knife-like spider legs pierced through, which Grandpa Huang, who had been looking back, noticed.
Startled, he quickly pulled away from Li Chang'an's hand and shoved him away, shouting, "Chang'an, run!"
Li Chang'an was pushed forward and fell down. He turned around abruptly and saw Grandpa Huang and Grandma Li blocking his way, with two spider legs passing through their chests from behind.
At that moment, time seemed to stand still.
Li Chang'an stared wide-eyed, his mouth agape, but no sound came out.
He could only watch helplessly as the two spider legs retracted, and as Grandpa Huang and Grandma Li's bodies fell forward and landed on him.
"Ah..." His throat hurt terribly, and he made a short, weak, dry sound.
Li Chang'an's vision blurred, and with trembling hands, he raised his hand and embraced the bodies of the two elderly people.
In the distance, the house-sized spider demon laughed a few times and pounced towards them.
The next second, a streak of fire descended from the sky, accompanied by a young girl's furious roar: "You beast! Die!"
The dark sky seemed to be torn open by the firelight. The fleeing villagers looked up and saw seven cultivators standing in front of the spider demon, riding on their qi.
Then, Li Chang'an could hear nothing more.
He knelt there, head bowed, with two corpses in his arms.
That night, the Seven Stars of the Alliance arrived just in time and sealed the spider demon—they were sealed on the mountain behind Li Chang'an's house.
In this demon attack, only the two elderly people who tried to protect Li Chang'an died.
The villagers gathered around and thanked the seven cultivators profusely.
Out of the corner of Li Chang'an's empty eyes, someone slowly walked over, squatted down beside him, checked the two elderly people's breathing, and said with a pained tone, "Child... please accept my condolences."
Li Chang'an remained silent, and his posture did not change.
Meanwhile, some villagers asked how the spider demon came to be.
The leading female cultivator spoke in a dignified and calm voice, explaining, "Around dusk, this demon's aura appeared at Pingxi County Station. We sealed off the station and searched for it, but it may have been hiding on a person, using the life force on that person to conceal its tracks and secretly followed us back."
As soon as she finished speaking, almost all the villagers' eyes fell on Li Chang'an.
This evening, he was the only one who returned from Pingxi County Station.
At that moment, Li Chang'an moved slightly.
He murmured, "So, it's because of me..."
"Child," the cultivator beside him gently comforted, "Demons are cunning by nature. It's its fault, not yours. Don't blame yourself."
After he finished speaking, he gently patted Li Chang'an on the shoulder and then stood up.
Li Chang'an looked up slightly and only saw his back.
The seven people gave a few more instructions, explaining that the area around the mountain where the spider demon was sealed was within the range of the formation, and that they could not trespass or disturb the earth. Then they all left.
After they left, the village fell silent.
Some people sobbed softly as they returned to the ruins to search for any remaining intact belongings from their homes. Others were buried under the rubble and sustained minor injuries, but thankfully, their lives were not in danger.
The villagers stared blankly at the land and crops enclosed by the array.
A child's voice, filled with unease, rang out: "Mommy, is our home gone?"
The voice seemed to have revealed something, and a series of low sobs filled the air.
Several resentful villagers walked up to Li Chang'an.
"Li Chang'an! It's you again, you jinx! Of all things to do, you had to bring a demon upon yourself!"
"You killed your parents and your brother, and now you want to kill your Grandpa Huang and Grandma Li too! Are you satisfied now?!"
Someone came up, grabbed his hair, and forced him to look ahead.
"Did you see that?! Our houses and land have been destroyed because of the demons you attracted! Those cultivators even said we can't move any more earth, we can't live there anymore! We're homeless, do you know that?!"
"It's all your fault! You jinx! Why did your two saintly parents have to do such a good deed and bring you back with them! It's because they picked you up that they died young, and they deserved it!"
The sounds of cursing and crying continued.
Even though village chiefs Li Guoliang and Li Hui came to stop them, they couldn't stop the villagers' resentment. In fact, they were punched in the face by the villagers.
Yang Rong and Li Yuliang tried to mediate, but were instead pushed to the ground by the villagers.
After remaining frozen for a long time, Li Chang'an finally moved, snapping out of his daze of the deaths of Grandpa Huang and Grandma Li.
He watched as those who had been kind to him were injured because of him, looked at the villagers in the distance who were watching him with either resentment or sadness, gazed at the distant ruins, the array of lights that flowed silently, and the crops that had been affected...
The villagers who resented him at this moment were not all people who hated him; some were uncles and aunts who had once given him a meal.
He slowly got up, properly placed the bodies of Grandpa Huang and Grandma Li, and then knelt down in front of the villagers, kowtowing heavily.
He said, "I'll pay for it, I'll pay for it... I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
"Compensate?! How much can you compensate? What are you going to use to compensate? That sounds nice!"
Tears welled up as he witnessed the death of his loved ones. Without raising his head, Li Chang'an cried out, "I'll write you an IOU, with the village chief as my witness. As long as I have the money, I will definitely pay it back! If I don't pay it back, then go ahead and sue me. I'm willing to go to jail!"
The villagers quieted down after he spoke.
The boy's body trembled uncontrollably as he suppressed his sobs.
But his voice was firm, and he repeated, "I will compensate."
After a long while, a villager finally said, reluctantly, "Alright, that's enough."
After that, the other villagers stopped making things difficult and all agreed.
A total of eighteen households had their houses damaged, including the homes of Li Guoliang and Li Yuliang, and Li Hui and Yang Rong.
They didn't want to sign an IOU with Li Chang'an, but Li Chang'an refused, saying, "Even if you don't sign, I will still pay you back."
He wasn't in a good state; he was being overly stubborn, so Li Guoliang and the others had no choice but to agree.
That night, after burying Grandpa Huang and Grandma Li overnight, at dawn in the winter, Li Chang'an took eighteen copies of IOUs, quietly left the village, dropped out of school, and threw away the phone card.
What followed was a six-year journey of working to pay off the debt.
...
When they arrived at his doorstep, Li Chang'an briefly recounted what had happened that year.
After saying that, he smiled as if nothing had happened: "So it has something to do with you guys."
Tianxuan stopped in her tracks.
He looked at Li Chang'an, and after a long while, he smiled and said in a low voice, "No wonder."
"No wonder what?" Li Chang'an turned his head to look at him.
Tianxuan shook her head and remained silent.
Li Chang'an didn't press the matter, assuming he meant to say, "No wonder you owe so much debt."
Only Tianxuan knew that what he originally wanted to say was, "No wonder he could foresee that the Seven Stars of the Alliance and Li Chang'an had some causal connection."
That's why he came to Xuanling Immortal Mountain to help Li Chang'an design terraced fields.
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