The Slayer of Gods, Xu Ying

Xu Ying stood dazed in the street of Jiangjiatian Village as panicked villagers scattered and fled in all directions. At a nearby corner, the black-and-white patterned snake demon pointed at him with the tip of its tail, screeching piercingly as it watched the fleeing villagers, its tongue dangling long from its mouth. The villagers had long been scared out of their wits. Some scrambled and crawled away to report the matter to the authorities; others gathered their wives and children into their homes, bolting their doors tight and shivering in fear. The braver ones hid behind windows or doors, peering secretly outside. Xu Ying stood alone in the street, the corpse of the Green-Robed Deity right beneath his feet. After a moment, the youth finally came back to his senses and looked around. The villagers he had known so well—who used to joke with him, affectionately call him Xiao Ying or Ah Ying, and tease him as Xu the Softie—now feared him as if he were a deity. "I stood up for you all. You shouldn't be afraid of me..." Xu Ying thought silently to himself. It was one thing to be oppressed by the mandarin officials, but these gods of carved wood and sculpted clay ate their food, drank their drink, and enjoyed their offerings, yet still oppressed them. They treated the people like livestock, but they truly were not beasts! They were human! They could resist; they could take revenge! "Yet why are you afraid of me?" Xu Ying could not understand. After a moment, Xu Ying stepped over the Green-Robed Deity's corpse, walked behind the altar table in the ancestral hall, and sat down. Without saying a word, he grabbed the roast chicken and roast duck from the altar and began to eat. He ate carefully and deliberately—a habit born of being a snake-catcher. To catch snakes, one needed patience and plenty of courage, but most critical of all was never to go hungry. Going hungry meant lacking physical stamina; lacking physical stamina led to mistakes, which could cost a snake-catcher his life in the fangs of a viper. Xu Ying had stirred up colossal trouble, and he could not leave on an empty stomach. He had to eat and drink his fill. He ate a whole roast chicken and half of the roast duck, stuffed the remaining half into his breast, ate several pieces of fruit, and pocketed several more. Xu Ying stood up, dipped his fingers in Squire Jiang's blood, and wrote a line of words upon the wall: "The Slayer of Gods is Xu Ying!" Xu Ying wiped the blood from his hands onto Squire Jiang's corpse, left the ancestral hall, and returned home. His home was bare to the four walls, devoid of any real possessions. There was barely any rice in the jar, only some roasted rice flour to serve as dry rations. Snake-catchers venturing into deep mountains and old forests naturally had no use for raw rice or flour; they only needed dry rations. Xu Ying packed three days' worth of rations, glanced at the scriptures and scrolls he had collected, hesitated for a moment, and decided against bringing them along. He left home and headed out of the village. When he reached the village entrance, his eyes suddenly stung. Turning back, he dropped to his knees facing Jiangjiatian Village. "Over all these years, thank you for looking after me. Xiao Ying has... brought trouble upon you all!" He kowtowed deeply. Xu Ying rose and turned to leave. "Ah Ying—!" A girl's call echoed from behind. Xu Ying looked back to see a young woman in bridal clothes sitting at the entrance of the ancestral hall, cradling Jiang Lu's corpse in her arms. "Ah Ying, thank you!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "You have to live on!" "Take care!" Xu Ying waved his hand and walked away from Jiangjiatian Village. *I was an orphan,* he thought quietly. *My foster father raised me as his own son, and the villagers treated me well.* *I would slay a god to repay their kindness.* *And for their safety, I will leave.* *Once I go...* *I will never return!* "Hey—" A voice suddenly called out to him. Looking toward the sound, Xu Ying saw a large serpent with alternating black and white bands poking its head out from a willow tree by the roadside—the very snake demon he had captured. Xu Ying glanced at it, but did not stop, marching straight ahead. "Xu Ying, wait for me!" The snake demon hurriedly slithered down from the tree, swaying its tail as it swiftly kept pace with him. It chuckled, "You killed a god—you're done for! Let me tell you, every god around Lingling takes orders from Lord City God! When Lord City God learns that you killed a deity, there's no way he'll tolerate you! As vast as the world is, there won't be a single place for you to hide!" Xu Ying turned a deaf ear and kept walking. The snake demon had once pitted its stamina against his; Xu Ying had pursued it through the mountains for three days and three nights before wearing the great serpent down and capturing it. At this moment, shaking off the serpent was no easy task for Xu Ying either. Keeping pace with him, the snake demon grinned. "You killed Squire Jiang, so the government won't let you off either! And you know about the authorities—within their ranks hide the most terrifying people in the world, figures known as Nuo! Those who wield Nuo arts—heheh, not to mention you and me, even the gods are terrified of them..." At the word "Nuo," Xu Ying could not help but frown. The *Offices of Summer* in the *Rites of Zhou* stated that those who opened the secret depositories, communed with heaven and earth, commanded ghosts and gods, and drove away pestilence and malevolent spirits were known as Nuo; later generations referred to them as Nuo masters. Successive imperial courts placed great weight upon Nuo masters, selecting the preeminent among them to serve as officials across prefectures, commanderies, and counties. To ordinary mortals, the Nuo masters among the imperial officials were beings far more terrifying than gods and demons. *Better to provoke gods and demons than to cross an official Nuo.* Cross a god or demon, and they would kill you at most; cross a Nuo master, and even if you turned into a ghost, you would have to die all over again! "The government will definitely send Nuo masters. You've offended the gods and provoked Nuo masters—you're a dead man!" the snake demon chattered relentlessly. Xu Ying flared up with rage. "If you keep following me, believe it or not, I'll cure you into dried snake jerky!" The snake demon chuckled, "Cure me into dried jerky so you can pay your taxes with it? You've got murder on your hands now; walking into the yamen would be throwing yourself into the net." Xu Ying strode swiftly, but was unable to shake it off no matter what. He could only suppress his impatience and ask, "Why are you following me? What do you actually want?" The snake demon beamed with delight—though of course, it had no eyebrows—and chuckled, "I want you to teach me the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist." Xu Ying did not pause his stride, but blurted out in surprise, "I only just started practicing the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist, whereas yours is a treasured art handed down through your lineage! Why on earth would you need me to teach you?" The snake demon fell silent. After a moment, it said, "I've practiced it for a hundred and twenty years, and so far I've only reached the third tier, never able to attain the fourth. My father, my grandfather—neither of them could train the Elephant-Strength Bull Demon Fist to the fourth tier either." Xu Ying retorted peevishly, "You lot have no hands and no feet, so it's only natural you couldn't master it! Stop following me!" The snake demon chuckled, "As vast as heaven and earth are, do you have anywhere to lay your head, Xu Ying? My Qinyan Cave makes a pretty good hiding spot, after all." Xu Ying's eyes lit up, and he broke into a smile. "Brother Snake, Elder Brother Snake, which way to Qinyan Cave?" *** On the first day of the lunar month, the Lingling City God Temple coincided with market day. Many pious devotees came to offer sacrifices to Lord City God, making the scene exceptionally lively. The City God of Lingling was named Xue Lingfu. He, too, had revived from his statue state, manifesting a body of flesh and blood to enjoy incense and sacrificial beasts. Suddenly, a plume of azure smoke welled up from beneath the ground, coalescing into a two-foot-tall Earth God. Trotting over in a flash, it leaped onto City God Xue Lingfu and whispered a few words into his ear. City God Xue Lingfu flew into a violent rage. "To kill a commissioned officer of my Nether Court is to violate the heavenly laws! Such a trend cannot be allowed to spread—Xu Ying deserves ten thousand deaths! Pass down my command: across the eight hundred great mountains, the five hundred water systems, and the one thousand two hundred villages and towns of Lingling, all deities great and small are to search for Xu Ying and execute him on the spot as a warning to others!" "Wait!" A voice rang out from outside the temple. City God Xue Lingfu turned to look toward the sound, only to see Zhou Yang, Magistrate of Lingling County, charging aggressively into the temple leading a retinue of officials. An official stepped forward and said, "Xu Ying is among the living. Having committed a crime by killing Squire Jiang, he naturally falls under the laws of the mortal realm. This case belongs to the jurisdiction of the Lingling County Yamen! City God Xue, you may retract your order!" City God Xue Lingfu sneered, "Xu Ying killed a deity of my Nether Court, violating Nether Court law. He must naturally be punished under Nether Court law! Magistrate Zhou, take your leave." County Magistrate Zhou Yang burst into hearty laughter, flicked his sleeves, and turned to walk out. Pausing at the temple gates, he turned his head sideways and said, "Ever since the Prince of Dongping rebelled, the Nether Court has encroached on the mortal realm step by step, sticking its nose into more and more! But in this small acre of Lingling, this has always been my Zhou family's domain, and the Nether Court shouldn't even dream of meddling! Men!" The officials under his command bowed one after another. Zhou Yang's expression turned chillingly cold. "Capture Xu Ying and bring him to justice! Should you meet resistance or interference from outsiders—be they god or mortal—kill without mercy!" "Understood!" The officials departed swiftly. City God Xue Lingfu let out a cold snort and waved his hand. Understanding at once, the Earth God on his shoulder leaped down, turning into a wisp of azure smoke that burrowed into the ground to trail after Zhou Yang. Before long, County Magistrate Zhou Yang led a host of bailiffs to Jiangjiatian Village. When the villagers saw the bailiffs, they were even more terrified than when facing the Lord Deity, falling to their knees on the ground and not daring to lift their heads. Zhou Yang led the bailiffs past the kneeling villagers, studying the statue of the Green-Robed Deity on the ground with keen interest. He raised a hand to trace the gaping hole in the statue's forehead. "A mutated demonic art that causes the body to expand dramatically—a martial path method," he murmured with a quiet chuckle. "This Xu Ying, a mere commoner, actually cultivates a demonic art. How intriguing." Zhou Yang waved his hand to dispatch the bailiffs to their duties, while he sat down on a villager's back, asking with pleasant amiability, "Uncle Yu, how was the harvest this year?" Jiang Yubo was the village head of Jiangjiatian. He replied with utmost caution, "This year's harvest was decent; we harvested an extra three dou of grain." Zhou Yang nodded, his face wearing a warm smile. "And how are the crops growing?" "The crops are all very fine," Jiang Yubo said with a fawning smile. Zhou Yang's face darkened, and he barked, "The harvest is decent and the crops are fine, so why are the taxes from your village so hard to collect? Are you trying to keep this official from living comfortably?" Jiang Yubo lay prostrate on the ground, not daring to utter a word. Zhou Yang snorted. "When this official collects dues and taxes, do I collect them for myself? No! It is for the imperial court! Could this official possibly take a single grain of millet from you folks? Never! This official's salary is paid by the court! What this official eats and drinks is bought with that salary; never have I taken a scrap from you common folk!" Jiang Yubo nodded subserviently, kowtowing repeatedly. "Your Honor is pure and upright!" At that moment, a bailiff stepped forward, his arms laden with scrolls of various sizes. "Your Honor, Xu Ying has fled and is not at home. Your subordinate found these." These scrolls were precisely the guiding techniques Xu Ying had collected, which he had left behind in his haste. Zhou Yang picked up a scroll at random and flipped through it. Initially careless, the moment he noticed the annotations Xu Ying had inscribed on the scroll, his expression changed abruptly. He surged to his feet, snatched the remaining scrolls, and flipped through them rapidly. Every scroll bore annotations written by Xu Ying, critiquing the merits and flaws of various demon techniques alongside his own insights. Every word was like a polished gem—terse, precise, and profound! The villagers dared not even breathe aloud. "This Xu Ying... I thought he was merely a brute who slayed a god, but to think he actually cultivated demonic arts, and collected so many demonic scriptures!" Zhou Yang was furious. He sneered, "This scoundrel harbors intentions of throwing the world into chaos! If he is not eradicated, he will become a dire menace! Pass down my order: whenever Xu Ying is encountered, do not capture him alive—kill without mercy!" The bailiffs received their orders and sped out of Jiangjiatian to hunt down Xu Ying. The villagers looked at one another in shock. Could the person Magistrate Zhou was talking about truly be the Xu the Softie they knew? Zhou Yang returned to the county yamen with the remaining texts. In the rear courtyard of the yamen, an old man sat sipping tea beneath a pavilion. Zhou Yang placed the texts annotated by Xu Ying beside him and stood respectfully at attention. The old man picked up a scroll, turned a page, and said with a smile, "These texts are merely demonic Qi Harvesting stage techniques without any subsequent methods. Why bring them to me, Yang'er?" Magistrate Zhou Yang said hurriedly, "Father, look at the annotations at the end." Surprised, the old man, Zhou Yihang, flipped toward the back. Sure enough, seeing Xu Ying's annotations, his expression gradually turned solemn. He quickly skimmed through one scroll, immediately picked up another, swept through it rapidly, and reached for the next! In mere moments, Zhou Yihang had scanned every scroll. His face was grave as he said, "The person who annotated these scrolls possesses an extraordinarily deep understanding of demonic arts—I fear even the elders of our Zhou family dedicated to this path cannot compare to him! Where did you get these scrolls? Who annotated them?" Zhou Yang said, "A fourteen-year-old youth. A snake-catcher." Zhou Yihang looked up in astonishment. "A fourteen-year-old youth?" Zhou Yang added hastily, "This person is a snake-catcher from Jiangjiatian named Xu Ying. For some unknown reason, he managed to cultivate demon techniques and killed the deity worshipped by Jiangjiatian. He is currently on the run. When I went to investigate, I found these scrolls annotated by him." Zhou Yihang rose, disbelief written across his face. "In order to study demon arts, the elders of our Zhou family braved forbidden zones and excavated ancient abodes at the cost of heavy casualties! Yet their insights might not even rival this fourteen-year-old snake-catcher's! Yang'er, you must find this person and bring him back alive!" Zhou Yang replied cautiously, "The City God is also hunting him. Fearing he might fall into the City God's hands, I issued an order to kill him on sight." "City God Xue Lingfu?" Zhou Yihang's expression shifted slightly. He pondered, "If he were to fall into the City God's hands, then killing him would indeed be preferable, though it would be a shame to waste such talent... Since the City God has been alerted, I shall handle this matter personally. Capturing Xu Ying alive would be ideal; if that proves impossible, I will slay him myself. Under no circumstances must he fall into the City God's hands!" Zhou Yang bowed in assent. Zhou Yihang drifted away like a phantom. Straightening his back, Zhou Yang wore a puzzled frown, muttering, "Are demon techniques truly so important? Why are our Zhou family's ancestors and elders so obsessed with them?" Ancient antiquity lay in a distant past beyond historical verification, leaving behind few written records. In today's world, the human race primarily cultivated secret depositories. The human body possessed six great secret depositories; opening even one allowed a person to become a Nuo master and wield unbelievable power. The Zhou family was precisely such an aristocratic clan of Nuo masters, one of the most powerful families in the world today—which was why Zhou Yang found the ancestors' deep study of demon arts utterly baffling. *It's one thing for our Zhou family elders to care so much about demon techniques, but the City God is an underworld deity—why is he so invested as well?* he mused inwardly. He had heard rumors within the clan that the Zhou family ancestors used demonic techniques for mysterious research, which some whispered held the secrets of ascension! However, Zhou Yang was merely a member of the clan's outer circle, and knew little. *** Jiangjiatian Village. As the villagers were picking up the pieces and sweeping the streets, a wisp of smoke curled up from the ground inside Xu Ying's home. Out of the smoke emerged a squat, short-limbed little figure wearing a tall hat and holding a stag-headed cane—none other than the Earth God from the nearby Earth God temple—clutching a scripture scroll in its hand. When the bailiffs came to search earlier, the Earth God had snatched a scroll and, terrified of being spotted, hurriedly hid underground, not daring to emerge until the bailiffs had left. Barely two feet tall, the Earth God unfurled the scroll with a snap, twirled its beard, and shook its head as it read. It squawked, "Utter nonsense! Xu Ying's annotations are absolute rubbish! I'll take it to the City God to show him!" Carrying the scroll, it bounded into the earth and vanished. Not long after, in the Lingling City God Temple, City God Xue Lingfu unfurled the scroll annotated by Xu Ying. His expression flickered, and after studying it closely, he snapped the scroll shut. "Xu Ying wrote these annotations? What profound insight!" City God Xue Lingfu instructed the Earth God, "Relay my order immediately to all deities surrounding Lingling: capture Xu Ying, but do not kill him. I want him alive!" The Earth God replied hastily, "Most of the deities around Lingling have already set out to hunt for Xu Ying. They are not at their shrines, so contacting them will be quite difficult! What's more, the Nuo masters under Magistrate Zhou have mobilized and are searching for him too!" Frowning, City God Xue Lingfu rose from his shrine pedestal and walked outside, murmuring coldly, "Very well, I shall go in person. Xu Ying is of utmost importance. If the Zhou family desires him as well, then I must ensure that even if he dies, his corpse must never fall into their hands!"