Chapter 55 — Dying Together

Xiaowan held a skewer of newly bought candied hawthorns, eating them with relish, and said, "If that magic artifact were really as formidable as you say, how could anything have happened to the Three-Tailed Demon Fox? I'd say that Mystic Fire Mirror or whatever it is is most likely just an empty name."

Zhou Yixuan frowned. "The Mystic Fire Mirror is an ancient divine artifact—that admits no doubt. I say it is more likely that the Three-Tailed Demon Fox lacked the cultivation to unleash the full power of the Mystic Fire Mirror. And on top of that, two formidable figures from the Fenxia Valley sect arrived last night—she could not escape her doom!"

Xiaowan glanced at him. "Tell me, who ended up with the Mystic Fire Mirror?"

Zhou Yixuan shrugged. "Most likely those two disciples of the Fenxia Valley sect took it back. Never mind—ah! I had hoped to go in and see whether there was anything worthwhile, but who would have thought..."

Xiaowan spat out a candied hawthorn pit with a "pfft" and said, "So where are we going now, Grandpa?"

Zhou Yixuan pondered a moment, then said, "I hear that lately figures of both the righteous and the demonic paths have been flocking to the East Sea, though for what reason I do not know. And judging by the direction those three just took—due east—why don't we follow along and have a look?"

Xiaowan gave a little laugh. "Then let's go! It makes no difference to us where we go, anyway."

After Zhang Qingyue and the others departed, Xiaochi Town returned to its former calm, and from that black stone cave, naturally, no more monsters came out to harm the people. But strangely enough, before long many wild beasts appeared in the woods outside the black stone cave for no apparent reason, some of them of outlandish appearance, such as the townsfolk of Xiaochi Town had never seen before.

In the days that followed, of every ten people who carelessly strayed into the woods, nine never came out again. Yet these strange beasts had one peculiar trait: they would not come out of those woods. In time the people of Xiaochi Town discovered this, and no one went near the woods anymore.

As the years deepened and the months grew long, that place became ever more desolate, utterly without human habitation, and all the more did no one remember what had once happened in those woods.

After Zhang Qingyue and the others had gone, the people of Xiaochi Town, amid their sighs of wonder, later built together on the eastern side of the town an Immortal Shrine, enshrining three deities: in the center a tall, stalwart figure like a guardian warrior, flanked on either side by a man and a woman. The woman was rather beautiful, but the man was most peculiar, holding in his hand something that looked like a dark iron staff.

In the long years thereafter, later generations soon forgot the events of today, yet the incense at the Immortal Shrine in Xiaochi Town burned abundantly. Though busybodies made every effort to verify the matter, they never could guess which deities of Heaven these were; to call them the local earth gods of Xiaochi Town did not seem right either.

Whether it was because they had received incense for so long that they gained spiritual power, it is said that prayers and vows made at this Immortal Shrine were answered with remarkable efficacy. Once its fame spread, people from the surrounding villages and townships, ten li around, came to pay homage as well—some seeking blessings for wealth, some praying for official rank, and in time even pregnant women praying for sons came to worship before the images of Shitou and the others.

Who knows what thoughts would have crossed the minds of those three, had they learned of this?

Note 1: "Records of Gods and Demons · Strange Beasts" — the Great Black Leech: an ancient monstrous breed, dwelling in dark subterranean caverns. Its body is enormous, ten zhang tall, with tentacles several zhang in length; it feeds on flesh, and any who come near are seized and devoured, leaving not a bone behind.