Chapter 15: A CITY-WIDE MASSACRE OF DOGS
Grandparents passed out under the torture of illness, and Hu Cang Cang was also sleepy and tired as he lay down on the side of the bed and fell into a deep sleep. Pi Dan carried a quilt to cover Hu Cang Cang while he heard Mr. Mo's voice reaching his ears, "Come here. I have something to say to you."
Pi Dan came to the small courtyard alone, and under the moonlight, their shiny black dog fur shone with a blue luster, and his deep blue eyes glowed with a ghostly light. A shadow gradually walked under the moonlight from the darkness, with black fur so beautiful that it did not contain a trace of mixed colors; compared to Pi Dan, Xuan Mo, a ten-thousand-year-old Heavenly Roaring God Dog, had a more stable and lofty temperament.
"Found out?" Pi Dan asked.
"Well, it's Chu Tianming, a lizard spirit that goes around waving and cheating, very cunning and vicious; I've been looking for him for hundreds of years. Today, I finally found him."
"Then why can't you put him on the spot?"
"Heaven's order is hard to disobey. Thousands of years ago, the Heavenly Emperor had an order that no matter whether it was an immortal or a demon, they could not cast spells in the mortal world, and even less could they interfere with the fortunes of the human beings in the mortal world. This plague is a calamity that the Dongchuan Kingdom must suffer. There is nothing I can do about it. If I act against Heaven, how many spells I cast will be countered by how many spells I cast, and more importantly, the people saved by the spells will also be doomed."
"But you say this plague is demonic magic? Then how come the lizard spirit is allowed to do evil?"
"Of course, he was being revolted, and to alleviate the pain caused by the disgust on his body, he did more and more vicious things. He hunted and killed rare birds and exotic beasts all over the place to increase his mana over the past few hundred years, and then he even targeted the birds and spirit beasts of the Demon Race and the Divine Race. He captured some of the small immortals and small demons that were still just beasts, skinned them, drank their blood, and finally dug out the spirit beads in their bodies. I saw him using jars of so-called elixirs in the royal palace today, but they were all spirit beads of those divine race demons, and he used one of those spirit beads to 'save the life' of that human monarch's noble consort."
"Saved alive? He's so powerful that he can bring the dead back to life?"
"What raising the dead, the Book of Life and Death is in the hands of the King of Hell, how can he still say he's alive and dead? Do you think the King of Hell is a freeloader? That consort is still dead, only that skin relies on the power of the spirit bead to sustain it for a moment. It's a real walking corpse."
"Then what is he going to do? How do you need me to help you?"
"That goblin has seen me before, and he escaped after being injured by me last time. This time, he came to have an audience with the ruler of Dongchuan, and he even wanted to take the heart of a black, hairless male dog as a medicine guide. Hmph, this demon, I will not spare you!" When Xuan Mo was Mr. Mo, he seldom had any expression. Now, as a dog, his eyes were filled with a ruthless and murderous aura, "He wants to catch dogs all over the city, so you let him catch them, probe his details for me, and try to circumscribe him as much as possible. I will check his lair, and as long as I leave the mortal world, I can deal him a fatal blow!"
"Leave the mortal world? Is it hard to go to the sky?"
"Yes, in the sky, in the water, or to the top of Dongchuan Mountain a hundred miles away; as long as the mortals can't get there, I can't cast spells in front of the humans; just safeguard this and leave the rest to me. And don't be afraid. I'll protect you in secret."
"Okay, I'm not afraid. This goblin has caused my grandparents to become so sick, and I will spell out my life to catch him! Just.
"PiDan looked at the sleeping young girl in the room. "Hu Cang Cang doesn't remember she's a Fox Little Fairy now, and she doesn't have much ability to protect herself; what should she do if I'm not by her side?"
"You can't be by her side forever. Even though it wasn't supposed to be my place to say this, I still have to remind you since I've been the teacher of the two of you. You and she are both going through your respective lives, and your respective destinies are meant to be fulfilled on your own. You can help each other when you cross paths. But you are you; she is she, and no one can replace anyone. Those truths and knowledge I taught you before, as well as the martial arts and swordplay that I taught her, even if they have not yet reached the point of blending in, she will have to rely on herself in the future. Alright, you go keep her company again!"
As usual, Pi Dan gently walked to Hu Cang Cang's front, leaning over and licking her sleeping face. After hesitating for a moment, Pi Dan licked Hu Cang Cang's mouth, a place it had never touched before, and suddenly, a different kind of sentiment arose: had he kissed her?
Since Ni Zhong came to this world, Hu Cang Cang has been the object he wanted to protect in this life, and also has always been accompanied by a close friend; even like his sister, why now is a kind of indescribable feeling in his heart spinning? Thinking that if he was captured according to Xuan Mo's plan, would she be sad? He quietly looked at her for a long time and fell asleep, leaning on her side.
Woof woof woof~ woof woof woof~
"Quick! Quickly catch it! Don't let it get away!"
The noise gradually awakened Hu Cang Cang. She rubbed her eyes and realized that it was already dawn. Hu Cang checked her grandpa and grandma; her breath was weak, and her fever hadn't gone down yet, but fortunately, her breathing was steady, and she was sleeping heavily, so her life wasn't in danger for the time being. She rubbed her arm, which had gone numb, and realized Piebald was missing. She whispered the name of PiDan; in the past, as long as the gentle call, PiDan would come to the side; how come today, after calling several times, did not see its trace?
Outside, the noise is getting louder and louder; many people are shouting something, and the dogs are desperately barking everywhere. Hu Cang Cang felt very strange, put on a piece of clothing, and went out to watch.
It turned out that many people in the village were catching dogs. Some of them were directly putting their family dogs into bags. Some of the dogs were severely beaten while running for their lives and even beaten to the point of fainting with their heads broken and bloodied before being thrown into the bags. There were quite a few bags that were stained with blood and were dragged all the way and thrown into a vast caged cart. Hu Cang Cang did not understand why the dogs were arrested and hurriedly stopped an older woman from the same village to inquire.
"Oh girl, ah, you do not know? The king ordered the whole city to catch black male dogs without a single hair to give the master of the country medicine to save the city's people. Take the dog's blood, dig up the dog's heart, and make it into medicine; then, the plague can be eliminated! By the way, doesn't your family have a dog like this?" The aunt hurriedly shouted to the official leading the dog capture, "Hey! Sir, this family also has a black male dog!"
Hu Cang Cang's mind reacted quickly as if it was electrified: catching the dog, the black dog, her dog, her leather egg, her best friend! Then, grab the dog as a medicine guide; it can cure diseases and save grandparents and the whole city! No, how can that be? Keeping her grandparents would require killing her other closest family member. How could this be?
"No, don't catch my Pi Dan, it's not a dog, she's my family!" Hu Cang Cang panicked and grabbed the older woman's hand to stop her from summoning the dog-catching officials.
"Hu Cang Cang, have you learned to be stupid, or have you learned to forget your roots? A dog is just a dog. Is it not better than your grandparents, who raised you and sent you to school? Are you so ungrateful and heartless? Get up~" The aunt unceremoniously pushed Hu Cang Cang to the side and continued to greet the officials loudly.
"Don't! Don't!" Hu Cang Cang continued to block; she saw that stopping was impossible, rushed home, and locked the door tightly. Looking around for Pi Dan, she wanted to find it because she was afraid of losing it, and she didn't want to see it because maybe Pi Dan Witty had already escaped. She took out the peach-core whistle she had been wearing and blew it. It was a whistle that only she and Pee-wee could hear and an organ that she stumbled upon later, a little secret that belonged to her and her best friend, Pee-wee.
After looking around, Pi Dan came out of the kitchen and looked at Hu Cang Cang quietly. Hu Cang Cang cried and hugged Pi Dan tightly; she was scared and sad; on one side were her grandparents who raised her, and on the other was her best friend; she could not give up either side, and she could not give up!
Pi Dan wagged his tail and licked Hu Cang Cang's cheeks as if he were saying goodbye. Pi Dan looked at Hu Cang Cang and silently said to her, "Silly girl, don't be afraid; I will be fine; you have to take care of yourself, take care of your grandparents, and wait for me to come back!"
After so many years of companionship, Hu Cang Cang has been able to read many things through this puppy companion's eyes, and she is reluctant to give up, "You will die; I don't want you to die ..."
PiDan continued to look at her, "No, wait for me to come back, believe me!" Then turned around and went to the kitchen to bring a basket with fresh and still dewy flowers, which PiDan had gone out to pick in the morning - a parting gift for Hu Cang Cang.
The clamor outside grew louder and louder, and the gate of her house, which was initially made of ordinary fence, opened with a strong push from an outside force. People shouted to grab Pi Dan. Pi Dan gently broke away from Hu Cang Cang's embrace and gave her a quiet look. Then, it changed into a fearful, wolf-like, fierce look that made people's hearts flinch.
There are a few prominent men with sticks and hoes, thinking that this animal wants to fight with them, tightly clutching the weapons in their hands, but their hearts are very nervous. This dog is too famous, except for the Hu family. No one can be subdued. Fighting is also too potent. All the dogs and thieves in Zhuo Yi City are afraid of it. But what they didn't expect was that Pi Dan didn't fight with the people. Instead, he slowly walked up to the official's cage car alone, calm and collected but with awe-inspiring pressure around him.
Pi Dan stood in the cage car, staring at Hu Cang Cang for a while, suddenly calling out and giving her a big smile. Pi Dan always comforts Hu Cang Cang. Hu Cang Cang watched the cage cargo. She wanted to carry PiDan down, but she could not. Pi Dan and Hu Cang Cang were always glued together. Hu Cang Cang chased after her and cried until the cage car left the village and disappeared at the end of the road. Is this the difference between life and death? Hu Cang Cang finally could not restrain themself and heartbreakingly shouted Pi Dan's name, crying on his knees.
Just as Hu Cang Cang fell to her knees at the entrance of the village, sobbing uncontrollably, the teacher, Mr. Mo, walked behind her, looked at her twitching and shaking back, and whispered: "Cangcang, you have to be strong, the more this time the more you have to be strong. Your grandparents need you, Pi Yan needs you, and I, too, need you."
"But the teacher, I ..." Hu Cang Cang raised his head to answer the teacher what the results of a lookup behind a shadow are not, only that a "need" still stays in the ears, reverberation I'm not going to be able to do that.
Yes, they need me. Hu Cang Cang got up from the ground, wiped away her tears, and quickly ran home. She now had the responsibility of taking care of the two older men and saving them from the brink of death. She also had to think of an excellent way to know where PiDan was being held. She must find a way to save it. It couldn't die. She forbade it to lose its life in such an unexplained manner. Who said that animals could be slaughtered at will? Who says that the lives of livestock should be inferior to human lives? Hu Cang Cang does not recognize this absurdity!
She returned home and fed her grandparents soup and food. Changing into a compact practice outfit, she took the short sword Mr. Mo had given her. She ran furiously to the grassy hall to find her teacher, Mr. Mo. But when she arrived at the academy, she couldn't find any sign of her teacher even after searching inside and out. Where did the teacher go? Her heart is extraordinary, but the time can not be delayed. She is about to go out when, suddenly, a dart from behind her flies towards her; she relies on these years of hard work and training to practice the body, but decisively dodged away from the body, the dart is fixed in the door post, there is also a note on it.
"Quickly come to the Moon Picking Pavilion in the city."
Hu Cang Cang recognized that it was her teacher's words, and although she didn't understand why her teacher had asked her to meet her there and why she couldn't show up now, she still made her plans. She trusted her teacher as much as she trusted Pi Dan, and he must have reasons for doing so. At this moment, it is not the time to panic; the only way to have a chance to break the situation and turn it around is to calm her mind and act carefully.
Inside the city, there are still a lot of people who died because they could not wait for the "life-saving medicine" of the national teacher. Weeping, praying, and cursing were all over the place. Every street and alley was set up with mourning halls, and in some areas, the coffins could not be placed in the mourning halls, so they had to be placed on the streets. The entire city of Zhuo Yi was shrouded in a sad, depressing, and bizarre atmosphere.
After being appointed as the State Master, Chu Tianming told the king, "I need a secluded place to gather the spiritual energy of Heaven and earth and set up an altar to perform magic. On the one hand, I pray for blessings from Heaven; on the other hand, I make medicine to cure the plague for the people."
For such a reason, the king could not refuse and quickly asked: "Where do you want to choose as a Taoist temple for praying to the gods and refining medicine? I will grant it."
Chu Tianming smiled faintly and pointed to the Moon Picking Pavilion directly south of the royal city. Although the Moon Pavilion is the royal family dedicated to the safety of the people of the whole city, the Dongchuan king where dared not agree, not only so but also gave the master of the country a few competent ministers to assist in the point. Chu Tianming thanked him again and raised his eyes to look at Yuan Guifei, sitting beside the ruler, with a slight smile on her face. Then, she turned around and left the hall.
Ever since the king of Dongchuan ordered the whole city to catch dogs and gave Moon Pavilion the honor of being the State Master's training ground, countless caged carts of dogs have been rushing to Moon Pavilion with dogs caught from all over the city. The large and small pharmacies in the whole town also followed the prescription given by the State Master and worked overtime to see medicines and make soup. Some old masters read the prescription and frowned slightly; this is just an ordinary treatment for typhoid and cold syndrome, relieving the surface and dampness; it has no practical effect on the patients suffering from the plague. But since the country's king ordered it, the ordinary people didn't dare to disobey it, so they could only send more workforce to catch up with the work silently.
Not long after, the whole of Zhuo Yi City was filled with a strong aroma of herbs, and this aroma just covered the strong bloody odor of Chu Tian Ming's slaughtering dogs and digging out hearts.
Many officials brought the dogs and opened them up to see that a number of them had already been beaten to death and that dogs of whatever color, breed, and age had come.
There were a thousand dogs that were supposed to be killed to be used as medicine, and were there more than a thousand sent as alternatives? For people now, no matter what, whether you were a black dog, flower dog, male dog, or female dog, just the dog would give you to catch, can use, can not use, the master of the country said. Some of them are even little puppies, cowering in fear behind the bitch, with their little tails under their asses trembling and shivering. These countless dogs were wailing in agony and despair, yelling and praying for forgiveness. Some were so scared that they were incontinent, while others fell to the ground and frothed at the mouth. They don't understand how they were having a good time with their master's family last night, but today, they are abandoned here, at the mercy of the unknown. When had fate ever been fair to such weak beings?
A few errand boys respectfully bowed to the State Master. Chu Tianming expressionlessly pointed out the selected dogs and had them sent to the uppermost floor of the Moon Picking Pavilion. There were still quite a few left, so an errand boy asked how to dispose of them.
"There's no need to bother sending them back again. I am a bit hungry, so these remaining thousand earth dogs will be good for me to eat.
The people present needed help understanding what this meant. Only to see that suddenly, the State Master opened his mouth wide, and a fishy black whirlwind swept across the entire compound. In moments, however, the black wind turned into a black and red rain of blood, and the land within the courtyard of the Moon Picking Pavilion was dyed scarlet. All the dogs were sucked out of their essence blood on the spot and fell to the ground.
Most people were so scared by what was happening in front of them that they fled in a hurry, but there were also a few who, although they fell to the ground with weak legs in fear, watched as if they were hooked to their souls. When the State Master finished enjoying himself, these few people asked with flattering and greedy faces, "State Master, are those dog corpses able to be bestowed upon them."
Chu Tian Ming glanced at them disgustedly and said, "At your disposal."
Several people frantically divided and grabbed the mountain of corpses piled up with that dried dog meat.