Short, Light, Free

Chapter 100: Mountain, Sea IX: Pixiu

Her food, seasoned with only salt and no chicken essence or MSG, had a distinctive taste.

I ate my heart out, which flattered Xiaoqian.

“How old are you, Xiaogou?”

“23.”

“You’re young but that’s good. What do your parents do?”

“I’m an orphan,” I answered.

“That’s good, no need to run about during Chinese New Year. You can come here in the future.”

“Are you misunderstanding something, Aunty?”

“You’re Baize’s colleague, are you not?”

“No, no, I’m his disciple. Kind of,” I corrected.

“That’s good. I doubt he’ll agree if it’s a colleague.”

“Wait, wait. I think you’re really misunderstanding something. Help me explain, Xiaoai...” I turned to her and held back a yelp of surprise.

Her face was beet-red, her eyes blinking non-stop.

I turned back to Xiaoqian, starting to understand her questions.

I got up and sighed. “I’m full, Aunty. I’ll take a walk outside.”

Xiaoai stood up as well and said, “Wait for me, I’ll go with you!”

We walked down the mountain slowly and I thought about making a trip to the Buddhist temple.

I had seen it on the television and I was curious about how it looked in real life.

I walked toward it as Xiaoai shouted from behind, “Wait for me, will you, Brother Xiaogou!”

When we arrived at the temple, I saw that it was empty inside and there was nothing on the stage.

I asked Xiaoai, “Why isn’t there anything? No offerings and statues?”

“It got stolen a long time ago. A gilt Buddha, I heard.”

I nodded. “What about the village?”

“Do you wanna walk there? Or do you want me to fly you there?” she offered with a cheeky smile.

“Let’s fly!” I said eagerly.

She rose up and grabbed my arm, leading us further down the mountain.

“Is this... is this easy to learn?” I asked, smiling as I looked down at the view we were passing by.

“I think it’s slightly easier than riding a bicycle.”

“Can you teach me?”

“There are prerequisites, Brother Xiaogou. It’s better if you get my father to teach you. There’s really not many that can fly. Uncle Pu Lao, Sister Wind Fox, and Brother Kylin are all unable to fly,” she explained.

I sighed dejectedly in response. I could only watch her enviously as she concealed us with a layer of fog.

As we floated above the village, I realized the reason she was looking at me strangely.

Because the villagers weren’t in contact with the outside world, inbreeding was common. The villagers looked different, which was why Aunty had to disguise herself when visiting.

Houses were made of clay and mud, nothing like those in the 80s.

There was a big building not far away, but even that was made from bricks.

The walls were mud-colored except for the middle, where red bricks formed an eye-grabbing cross.

“That’s the hospital you were talking about?” I asked Xiaoai.

“Yes, it was built last year.”

“What about the electricity? I haven’t seen any cables and poles.”

“Actually, only our house has electricity,” she said, pointing at an empty field.

I drew in a cold breath.

On a massive stage stood a few hundreds of electricity generating pedals, half occupied by villagers who were pedaling diligently.

The generators were connected to an accumulator, which sent electricity straight to the mountain peak via a thick cable.

I pointed at the crowd. “This is the 80s technology you were talking about?”

“It is an 80s invention, isn’t it?” she said self-righteously.

“Wait, so these people are supplying your family with electricity for free?”

“When did I say that? Their hard work is valuable,” she retorted.

“How do you pay them?” I asked cynically.

“This is a medicine box so there isn’t any rain. Whenever they generate enough electricity and the accumulator’s light goes off, I’ll give them rain. The harder they work, the more rain they receive.”

“And whose idea is that?” My voice sounded bitter.

“My father built those and they’ve been functioning well for decades now. The villagers work in shifts to maintain the electrical power. The whole village will pedal if they want rain,” she explained.

“You said that only your family gets electricity. Why do you need a whole village to supply electricity for just one family?” I asked in disbelief.

“My dad rears fishes and after some modifications, the water in Black Mountain became recyclable but oxygen-less. 80% of the generated electricity goes to supplying oxygen underwater, which is why there must always be villagers pedaling at all points in time.

I looked down at the villagers, slogging away and gasping for air. How frightening it would be if I were in their shoes, completely kept in the dark.

“We’re almost there. Dad’s asking us to get ready to leave,” Xiaoai informed me.

I nodded and closed my eyes, feeling her pull me back up into the sky.

I opened my eyes and found myself in a factory that produced safe deposit boxes.

Kylin transformed into a human and Baize asked, “Where is he?”

“Upstairs,” Kylin answered as he led us to the third floor.

We stopped before a metal door that was about thrice as thick as the others.

“Inside,” Kylin said.

Baize pointed at me. “He’s coming in with me. You’ll wait outside with my daughter. Only come in if I give five knocks, three loud and two soft.”

Kylin nodded in agreement.

I asked curiously, “What’s inside? Why’s there a need for a code?”

“Pixiu, a crazy beast that eats humans.”

Thinking that I might’ve heard him wrong, I started, “Excuse me? Pixiu?”

“Yes. This factory’s opened by him,” Baize replied.

“Wait. Pixiu and Kylin are brothers?”

“Pixiu is my boss,” Kylin said.

“Nine sons of the dragon phoenix... why is Kylin the lackey of the ninth son, Pixiu?” I asked.

Kylin inquired, “He doesn’t know these stuff?”

Baize shook his head. “He’s only been at this for three months. I haven’t taught him well, my bad.”

“No problem. We don’t have time for this, it’s more urgent inside,” Kylin said, undoing the locks on the door one by one.

I took a closer look and saw that there were more than 10 locks.

Baize spoke softly to me, “There’s a little misunderstanding here. The dragon is the real dragon. Years ago, when building superstitions, rebels called themselves the sons of Kylin. The five mythological creatures are actually the azure dragon, white tiger, vermilion bird, black tortoise, and the yellow dragon. They make up metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Kylin was actually an auspicious animal, the pet of the mythological creatures. Don’t say anything though, Kylin can still tear you to shreds.

“Did you really think we were afraid of him? I just had to bring you along to replenish the soul because I saw you two outside the window earlier.”

“Replenish the soul?” I was confused.

“I’ll tell you when we’re in there. Give him the ruler, Xiaoai,” Baize told his daughter before turning back to me. “I’ll draw Pixiu’s attention while you knock his head out with the ruler to buy me some time.”

When all the locks were undone, Kylin opened a small doorway.

Baize placed the medicine box on the ground before pulling me into the room.

Darkness.

“Kylin isn’t harmful at all, but Pixiu is a different story,” Baize warned me.

With a wave of his right hand, the whole room was lit up with bright white specks.

The doorway closed.

Pixiu immediately pounced on Baize, knocking him down to the ground.

The white specks gave me a good view of what was happening.

I slapped the ruler on Pixiu’s head, effectively stunning it.

Another slap and he stood paralyzed.

I hit him on the head repeatedly as Baize crawled out from underneath his body. “Don’t ever stop. I’ll use the soul-splitting chopsticks now.”

I continued slapping Pixiu on the head as he stared at me sluggishly.

Baize fished out over ten chopsticks from his pocket and pierced them into different parts of Pixiu’s body.

When there were only two chopsticks left, Pixiu snapped out of his daze and slammed his claw onto my left arm, sending me flying backward. I hit the wall behind me with a loud bang.

With a quick wave, the ruler flew into Baize’s hand.

After dodging two claws, Baize managed to land a smack on Pixiu’s head.

“Are you still alive? Get up and continue! We still have two left for his skull and bum,” Baize shouted.

I forced myself to get up, taking note of the three blood streaks on my left arm. The wounds were healing fast but blood was still pouring out. “Wait, I feel dizzy. Where do I poke them? Bum, you said?”

“Skull first then bum. Quick, I can’t hold on much longer. I’m a vet, I don’t do battle,” he yelled.

I picked the chopsticks up from the ground and moved closer to Pixiu. I held onto one and kept the other in my pocket.

Using both hands, I stuck the chopstick I was holding onto his head. It didn’t work.

“Why isn’t it going in?”

“Use more force!” Baize demanded.

I held my breath and got ready to try again, right at the same time that Pixiu regained consciousness.

A claw came sweeping toward me and I dodged away. It was useless, though, since another three blood streaks appeared on my chest.

My vision started to go blurry from the blood loss.

Pu Lao’s voice rang in my ears: You’ve learned nothing in these three months...

Suddenly, out of my control, my right hand raised the chopstick high up and drilled it into the center of Pixiu’s head.

I then felt myself doing a flip over him to get to his bottom. After stabbing the last chopstick in, Pixiu collapsed onto the ground with me panting on top of him.

I couldn’t control my body anymore and I was falling unconscious.

Baize said, “There were only two Pixius at the start. The male’s called Pi and the female, Xiu. They were a loving couple, never once separating from each other. Once, in a chaotic battle, Pi pushed Xiu away to receive a fatal blow on her behalf. Unable to let go, Xiu had Pi attach his soul to her body.”

Baize plucked the silver chopstick out from Pixiu’s head before continuing, “That time, the real dragon was still around and felt sorry for Xiu. He gave Kylin to Xiu as a little brother since Kylin resembled Pi.”

When he was done explaining, he stuck the silver chopstick into my head.

Whatever pain I felt dissipated and a series of images appeared in my mind.

“No one noticed that Pi’s soul was in Xiu’s body, but it became apparent that Xiu’s personality had turned strange. She calls herself Pixiu, starting the misconception that Pixiu is a single creature. At first, she was suffering from a split personality, but by the time we found out about this, their personalities had already blended together. Everything is fine normally, except for a relapse that happens once or twice a year.”

As he spoke along with the images that were flashing in my mind, I started to feel deranged.

I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or living in reality. I couldn’t tell if the images I saw were part of my real experiences.

“We’ve tried a few times, some effective and some not, to extract Pi’s soul from her body. However, a dragon’s son has more than just three immortal souls and seven mortal forms. We also discovered that a part of Xiu’s soul was completely fused with Pi’s. When I saw you, I thought about giving that piece of soul to you since you are lacking in that aspect. It’s a win-win situation.”

He removed the chopstick on my head before removing the rest from Xiu’s body.

I lay paralyzed on the ground as Pixiu gradually transformed into an unconscious woman.

Baize removed his coat and placed it over Pixiu’s body before leaving the room.

After three loud and two soft knocks, Baize exited without me.

The white specks disappeared along with him and I was left motionless on the floor.

It was pitch-black all around and I couldn’t do anything since I wasn’t still completely conscious.

A long time later, I heard a female voice.

Because it was too quiet, I could even hear the brushing of sleeves.

I felt her hands grabbing my head and pulling it into her embrace.

A warm sensation took over my body.

“Is that really you, Pi?”