Chen Gang clutched his head as he fled, begging for mercy the entire way.
Watching Zhang Da walk off into the distance while delivering the beating, Chu Qiguang thought to himself, 'This way, they shouldn't have the energy to cause trouble for me for at least three to five days.'
Chu Qiguang had heard from Qiao Zhi that Qingyang County had always possessed a strong martial tradition, with many taking part in the imperial martial examinations to earn official honors under the present dynasty.
Presently, there were five or six prominent clans in the county whose members served as high officials in the imperial court or had retired from office. Among them, the Hao family had set its sights on a piece of the Wang family's estate.
If the Wang family heard what he said, they would surely assume that this official maneuver meant the Hao family was about to make a move. Only after investigating and engaging in underhanded strife would they realize they had been duped, and by the time they came looking for him again, they would likely strike hard.
Still, Chu Qiguang had merely used this piece of intelligence to borrow authority and buy some time, sidestepping his immediate troubles.
That night, Chu Qiguang lay on the heated brick bed, waiting for his mother and younger sister to fall fast asleep.
His stomach felt so empty that a chilly draft seemed to dart through it, leaving him both miserable and wide awake.
After enduring it for a long while, sensing that his sister and mother ought to be asleep, he cautiously crept up.
Suddenly, a small hand grabbed him. Chu Qiguang looked down to find his sister staring at him with wide eyes. "Brother, are you too hungry to sleep?"
With that, she thrust half a flatbread into his hand. "Stop drinking cold water, Brother. If you drink too much, your belly will hurt and you'll mess your trousers again. Here, take this."
Chu Qiguang froze for a moment, surprised that she had been reluctant to finish her dinner and had saved half of it.
Suppressing the urge to gulp the flatbread down in a single bite, he pushed it back. "Eat it yourself. I'm not hungry."
His sister said, "Mother said you're the man of the house, and you need to eat more so you can work."
Looking at his sister pursing her lips and staring fixedly at the flatbread even while handing it over, Chu Qiguang gave a gentle sigh. He took the remaining flatbread and split it into two halves. "Then we'll each have half."
His sister did not refuse again, nibbling and licking her quarter of baked flatbread bite by bite, seemingly terrified it would vanish too quickly if she ate too fast.
Only after soothing his sister back to sleep did Chu Qiguang rub his belly, musing silently, 'There's no point in continuing to live like this. Things have to improve quickly. Besides, Qiao Zhi can command so many animals—it shouldn't be hard to hunt some game and eat some meat, right?'
***
On the path heading toward the rear mountain, Chu Qiguang walked while reflecting on what he had witnessed during the day.
Ever since he confronted the Wang family steward, the village head, and Zhang Da, the surrounding neighbors had acted rather strangely. When Chu Qiguang greeted them as usual, most gave no response, clearly terrified of offending the Wang family.
'Tonight, when I ask Qiao Zhi for guidance on martial arts, I'll work out a plan to deal with the Wang family while I'm at it.'
Ascending the stone steps along the same route as yesterday, he climbed toward the terrace where Qiao Zhi instructed the young monsters. But this time, before he had gone far, he heard a cacophony of cries and roars from all sorts of birds and beasts, laced with hints of terror and panic.
"What happened?"
Chu Qiguang sprinted toward the terrace. Before he arrived, he saw the two feral cats that had guided him the previous night standing before a bamboo grove, reared up on their hind legs and waving their paws at him.
Chu Qiguang ran up to them and asked, "What's going on?"
The two feral cats meowed at him several times, waving their paws anxiously. Seeing that he could not understand, they simply turned around, seemingly intending to lead the way again.
Chu Qiguang followed the two cats in another direction when a thunderous shout suddenly erupted from the stone terrace where he had originally been heading.
"Demon! You think you can talk human and sneak by? I could tell you were no human all along!"
Next came a sinister, cackling laugh, accompanied by Qiao Zhi's voice echoing across the night sky. "Daoist! What if I'm not human? Under my discipline, the monsters on this mountain have never harmed anyone again. On the contrary, when the villagers at the foot of the mountain come up, they often butcher and maim my kin. How do you have the gall to come here and talk about slaying demons?"
The man's voice replied coldly, "Humans and demons have stood irreconcilable since ancient times. When men clear mountains and fell forests, they naturally slay every demon they encounter. It is a matter of natural selection and survival of the fittest. To think an old monster like you would be so pedantic!"
Qiao Zhi snapped, "Foul Daoist! Tonight I'll let you witness this patriarch's abilities!"
As they spoke, bursts of air detonated repeatedly, followed by the continuous crashes of toppling trees and bamboo. Mingled with the distant howls and mournful cries of animals, the sounds receded farther and farther away.
The two feral cats led Chu Qiguang to a crevice in the mountain rock, where they hid.
Recalling the voices he had just heard, Chu Qiguang felt a trace of unease, uncertain of who had come to slay demons.
The two feral cats scurried in circles with agitation, their tails tucked between their legs in fear, appearing completely panicked.
After an unknown amount of time, two gleams of eerie light shone outside, and Qiao Zhi's voice drifted in on the night wind. "I've lured that foul Daoist away. You can come out now."
At those words, the two feral cats let out a joyful cry, bounding out and circling Qiao Zhi.
Chu Qiguang breathed a sigh of relief as well. Crawling out, he asked, "Master Qiao, who was that just now? Why did he fight with you?"
Qiao Zhi let out a sigh and said softly, "That is the Director of Fasts from Qingyang County's Daoist temple, known as Daoist Qingling. He oversees fasts, offerings, and rituals, and is also an expert at slaying demons. In the story you heard at the village entrance yesterday, he was the one visiting Boxing County who ran the scholar through with a single sword thrust."
'It was him?' Chu Qiguang's eyes flickered. He asked, "Master, in the tale of the corpse transformation, do you think the scholar genuinely turned his heart to the Dao and conveyed a dream to the Daoist, or was he practicing sorcery and entered the Daoist's dream?"
Qiao Zhi shook his head. "I don't know about that, but..." He narrowed his eyes slightly. "That foul Daoist carries a trace of demonic qi on him. There's definitely something wrong with him."
Chu Qiguang asked in surprise, "Demonic qi?"
Qiao Zhi nodded. "Demonic qi is the breath of yin and yang transforming into shape. It is a non-human aura born when a monstrous entity assumes human form yet has not attained perfection. It should only exist on monsters that possess human form."
Chu Qiguang knew very little about the system of monsters in this world. Seeing Qiao Zhi bring it up willingly, he took the opportunity to inquire further.
Through Qiao Zhi's explanation, Chu Qiguang learned that the monstrous creatures of this world were divided into two categories: demonic beasts and monsters.
So-called demonic beasts mostly inhabited deep mountains and great marshes. Their temperaments were largely no different from wild beasts, yet their might far exceeded ordinary predators, and they possessed intelligence on par with humans.
Upon Chu Qiguang's questioning, Qiao Zhi named several well-known types of demonic beasts, such as the Ba snake, mountain spirits, dark tigers, and Guhuo birds—all ferocious beasts prone to attacking and devouring humans at the slightest provocation.
Monsters, on the other hand, were animals born naturally clever that had awakened spiritual intelligence. If such monsters persevered in cultivating the Dao and entered the Dao, they could attain human form and become virtually indistinguishable from humans.
Furthermore, once a monster entered the Dao and bore offspring, all subsequent generations would possess spiritual intelligence from birth, and some might even possess human form.
As such monsters bred generation after generation, their growing numbers eventually formed distinct groups known as the demon race.
Having heard all this, Chu Qiguang remarked, "Since Daoist Qingling carries demonic qi, he is either a monster who cultivated it on his own or someone born into the demon race. But if he could take human form without entering the Dao, he must have come from the demon race, right?"
Qiao Zhi said, "Very likely. Who knows how a monster from the demon race managed to infiltrate a Daoist temple and even learn its martial arts and Daoist arts?"
Puzzled, Chu Qiguang asked, "Qingyang Temple regularly oversees local affairs like slaying demons. Could they really fail to see through him?"
Chapter 13