"It took us quite some time to catch that flying demon and get the truth out of his deceitful mouth, huh?" Young Master Quan whispered as they hid behind a pillar.
They have found themselves inside this enclosure made of several pillars of ice. There seemed to be 13 in total. And in the middle….
Was a woman tied up in chains at a bed of ice. She was facing the moon above, fear-stricken and struggling to get her limbs free. Her brunette hair cascaded up to the bottom of the ice block, and her large green eyes were open wide like an owl's.
The moon illuminated her figure and the bed of ice. It was very large and red tonight, almost as if it would swallow the world whole. This bed of ice has some carved drawings in them that shone with the crimson moon's glow.
Curious, Quan Neng zoomed his vision to see what it was.
"It looks like… Pangu created the world from Hundun on one side. And on the other, there is a serpent god beside humans. Could that be Nuwa? No, it has a masculine figure, so it must be Fuxi. What does creation have to do with the sacrifice of a mortal's life?"
In the Chinese creation myths, for 18,000 years, the world was a chaotic force where everything was mixed into a cosmic egg. Pangu emerged from this egg as a hairy man with horns in his head, very much primitive and almost ape-like. With his ax, he separated yin and yang, and created the earth and skies.
To keep them separate, Pangu pushed up the sky from the earth for another 18,000 years. As time passed, Pangu died.
His breath became the wind and clouds, his voice was the thunder, his left eye the Sun, his right eye the Moon, his head the mountains and peaks, his blood the rivers, and his muscles became the fertile land. His facial hair became the Milky Way and the stars, his fur became the forest, his bones and bone marrow the minerals and precious stones, and his sweat was rain.
And as for humans and animals, they were usually said to be the fleas and parasites from Pangu's body.
But there were also the versions where humans were created from clay by Fuxi and Nuwa. After Pangu's death, Huaxu was born. She gave birth to these two who had a human head and snake bodies. They became a couple and formed the humans from muddy soil. They also gave them the knowledge of survival.
Before Quan Neng could move to observe the other two sides of the ice block, the heavy sound of footsteps came. The demons had arrived, marching. Demon cultivators that were both born monsters and humans, from what Quan Neng could tell.
There was often a quote that the Hui Xin sect has about An Xin:
'Even if you were born as a human, once your heart has darkened, you become no different from the monsters and beasts.'
His attention was drawn to the palanquin that some of them were carrying. There was a shadow of a person inside, covered by red draperies.
Young Master Quan Neng could already tell this must be An Xin sect's leader.
The woman continued to trash in terror as the demons came to her. They licked their lips hungrily, acting quite wanton despite the presence of their leader.
A tiger-like demon smacked his lips. "Can I have the feet afterwards!? She has such beautiful feet, Master. We only need to bleed her dry as the Blood Moon shines over her!"
"I'll have her hair! Oh, please let me have her hair!" Said a balding woman.
Quan Neng muttered to himself while invisible and immaterial. "Right, the Blood Moon is shining tonight….."
The lunar eclipse. There were many beliefs about bad fortune due to the Blood Moon.
A very deep and low voice came from the palanquin:
"You can do whatever you please with her after the ritual. I do not care. What matters is that the Great Bright One receives the sacrifice. We will know once his star shines brightly in the morning."
He turned to Junior Fu. "Wasn't Tai Hao also the name of the serpent god Fuxi? Do you think that this Great Bright One they would sacrifice the girl for was him—"
He only now noticed that his adoptive brother was in complete daze, as if frozen in place. His eyes were wide and empty, and he could hear his heart pounding erratically. It felt like his qi would deviate any time soon.
Young Master Quan patted him on the shoulder. "Junior Fu, what is it? Your blood flow is becoming unstable."
When he felt the touch of the young master's hands, he jolted out of it and pushed the hand away. Moving half a li away from him.
"I….. I am fine, young master. What should we do now?" His voice shook a little. "The woman…. They must be preparing to strike her with that ax…."
Young Master Quan turned back to the sacrificial maiden. The demons were preparing an ax that shone bright red with malicious energy. It seemed to be a replica of Pangu's own ax that separated the yin and yang of Hundun.
And now they were preparing to use it to slice the woman in half, from the head to between her legs.
The herald of the demons, the one that called them forth like a harbinger, grinned wide with sharp teeth as he proclaimed:
"The Blood Moon is upon us! Soon it will shine directly over the sacrifice! Let the Destroyer heed our call as he coils around the Creator, and begin his new rule upon this world! He who was forsaken by the Creator, the one who was the First and yet abandoned…."
He ended his passionate speech with: : "Let him take his vengeance! And with him, we creatures of the earth will rise up and reign over the creatures of the skies!"
They all cheered, and he offered the ax in front of the palanquin….
Yet before the man inside could step out, Junior Fu went in without warning and took the maiden!
He was nothing but an invisible wind, and the woman's eyes were wide with shock. Even Young Master Quan was surprised. Junior Fu rarely moves on his own, and especially without hearing his orders first.
He followed after him, who seemed to be in such a hurry just to leave behind the ice pillars and the demonic sect.
"Shidi, you are frightened. What is it that bothers you?" He said as he joined him in this run.
Junior Fu gritted his teeth, and simply handed the woman to him.
"Young master, I apologize for my actions. But now their plans were foiled as the Blood Moon had already passed over their ritual grounds, and we can return this woman to her home. She was a priestess and a healer from a tribe in Albion, her name was Joan."
Quan Neng frowned. "That is not the answer to my question."
But he could tell that something was deeply troubling Junior Fu, and he was never one to open up on his troubles. He could only give him space as usual.
Young Master Quan sighed, taking the woman with him. "Fine. I will bring her to her home. But once I return..."
"You must swear to me that you shall give me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)reeweb(n)ovel.com