Black Pot also trotted all the way over, when the chaos erupted earlier, Chen Shi told everyone not to move, but no one listened to him, only Black Pot stood there motionless.
Everyone was caught by the Traction Worms, except for Black Pot who was unscathed.
Even Chen Shi’s bookcase remained beside it, undisturbed through the commotion.
Chen Shi took out ink, brush, paper, and inkstone, asking Li Tianqing to draw out the patterns on the Traction Worm’s body, while he himself prepared so Black Dog Blood ground with cinnabar.
With brush in hand, he carefully studied the patterns Li Tianqing drew, infusing the tip with True Qi. The brush moved as it wished, and with one breath, he swiftly reproduced the talisman pattern of the Traction Worm on the yellow paper!
Chen Shi pinched the talisman between his forefinger and middle finger, gave it a gentle flick, and the True Qi inside the talisman generated heat through friction with the cinnabar, setting the talisman ablaze.
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing each took a step back, both sensing an unknown force at work.
Amid the flas of the burning talisman, a strange squeaking noise arose, and then, astoundingly, a tiny Traction Worm crawled out from the fire and the ashes of the paper!
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing were stunned as the Traction Worm hit the ground, spat out a strand of silk, and stuck to Black Pot; without hesitation, it started pulling the dog towards its mouth!
It was many tis smaller than Black Pot yet sought to devour such a massive creature.
Black Pot stepped forward and bit the tiny Traction Worm, causing it to burst open, turning into cinnabar and Black Dog Blood.
Black Pot ran to the edge of the mountain stream to clean its tongue and the blood from its body. Chen Shi and Li Tianqing were still in shock, taking a long ti to snap back to reality.
The rchants each recovered their wits and were filled with gratitude towards Chen Shi and Li Tianqing, falling over themselves to thank them.
Chen Shi shook his head, driving the bewildering thoughts from his mind, "It is not yet dark and evil lurks about, the mountains have beco extrely dangerous. Everyone, you’d better leave the mountains quickly and seek refuge with the wet nurse in a village."
Li Tianqing also shook his head, finding the situation utterly unfathomable.
The rchants busied themselves, while Li Tianqing whispered, "Little Ten, the Traction Worm must be so kind of creation..."
He felt the idea was preposterous as he said it, hesitating.
Chen Shi, however, nodded and said, "It indeed looks like a creation. But can soone truly create evil like this?"
Li Tianqing added, "If one can create Traction Worms, can they not also create a Hundred Infants? Can they not create Floating Skulls?"
Chen Shi replied, "If such evils can be created, then is it possible to create evil spirits? To craft Demons?"
The two youngsters looked at each other, their hearts pounding wildly.
At that mont, from the direction of the kiln, red light burst upwards, striking the sky canopy, forming a continuous red barrier that enshrouded Qianyang Mountain.
The sky shook violently, seeming unstable.
"Sothing major must have happened at the kiln. Tianqing, let’s not ponder these things right now; we need to get to the village fast!"
Chen Shi called Black Pot over, saying, "Evil spirits appearing by day is definitely not a good sign! Lingering outside, one could die at any mont!"
Just then, a rchant began to cry bitterly, refusing to leave his goods, insisting they were ruined.
Chen Shi inquired, and soone said, "His grain is ruined, turned to porcelain, inedible. This has cost him everything, hence the uncontrollable sobbing."
Chen Shi walked over, grabbed a handful of grain, heavy indeed, all turned to porcelain rice.
Chen Shi looked up, glanced at the trees beside the mountain path, suddenly leaped up and picked a few leaves, knocking them against each other, they clinked with a ting sound.
The leaves, they had turned into ceramic leaves.
A gentle breeze blew through, stirring the leaves on the mountainside, and a tinkling, crisp sound echoed through the hills and valleys—it was a pleasing sound to the ear and quite lodious.
However, this sight made his hair stand on end.
The trees had turned to ceramic, the crops too.
What were they to eat?
Li Tianqing had co to the sa realization, and with somber expressions, the two n and their dog followed the rchant caravan towards the outside of the mountain.
They departed from Qianyang Mountain, and on the mountain road they saw villagers leading oxen; behind the oxen were carts with children and elderly seated upon them, and wives walked beside the carts, their faces etched with fear, all traveling along the mountain road.
They were villagers from the settlent, acquaintances of Chen Shi.
"Uncle Shuan, where are you going?" Chen Shi asked.
The farr replied, "We’re heading out, out beyond the red curtain."
Chen Shi looked along the mountain road and saw countless villagers with their families in tow, making their way toward the edge of the red canopy.
Suddenly, Li Tianqing thought of sothing, his face paling as he said, "This situation reminds of a demon-level disaster recorded in a book... This is indeed a demon-level catastrophe; we are now within the Demon Domain! Everyone stop! Quick, stop!"
He raised his voice and shouted, "You can’t get out! At the edge of the Demon Domain, there’s the Demon Realm Corridor; once you reach the edge, you will be sent back, cast into the air, and you’ll fall to your deaths!"
So hesitated and stopped in their tracks, while others glanced at those ahead; seeing them continue on, they lowered their heads and kept moving.
With a loud voice, Chen Shi said, "It’s almost dark! Evil spirits will co out and eat you! Hurry back to your villages, it’s not too late to leave tomorrow!"
This threat proved useful; many people stopped and began discussing among themselves in hushed tones.
Seeing this, Chen Shi let out a sigh of relief and said, "Tianqing, you know a lot, how can we exit the Demon Domain?"
Li Tianqing, pale-faced, shook his head and said, "We can’t get out. Everyone will die. Unless the demon dies, there is no leaving the Demon Domain. Judging by the rate of ceramic transformation in the Demon Domain, the old won in the villages can only sustain ordinary people for at most five or six days. After that, the average person will turn into a ceramic figure. If they’re outside the village, they’ll turn within two days, and after four days, no ordinary person will survive."
He paused for a mont, then added, "Today is the first day."
"How long will the Demon Transformation last?" Chen Shi asked.
"If the demon isn’t vanquished, it will keep getting stronger, and the transformation will continue indefinitely."
Li Tianqing knelt down and drew a circle around a ceramic tuft of grass, and then drew a larger circle outside the small one, saying, "The demon will grow ever more powerful. When it reaches its peak, the Demon Domain will expand outward, devouring more territories."
He drew an even larger circle and said, "This way, it will keep expanding incessantly. Once it expands to a thousand miles, the demon will transform into a disaster."
Evil spirit, Evil Bodhisattva, Demon, Disaster, Calamity.
The rank of a demon is third.
Transforming into a Disaster, it becos a natural calamity: a thousand miles of barren wasteland, devoid of life.
"However, no Demon Transformation has ever lasted a hundred days since ancient tis."
Standing up, Li Tianqing continued, "According to the records, every docunted Demon Transformation has ceased within a hundred days because the Outer Heaven True God will intervene."
Chen Shi let out a sigh of relief and said, "Then we’ll hold out for a hundred days!"
Li Tianqing shook his head and replied, "When the True God exterminates a demon, it is by focusing their attention. Under the scrutiny of the True God, within a hundred miles, everything will be scorched into a world of molten lava, and nothing will survive."
"The only way to survive,"
"is to exterminate the demon before the one hundred days are up, and stop the Demon Transformation!"
...
Demon Transformation, day one.
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing returned to Huangpo Village, and both of their grandfathers were not at ho.
Chen Shi planned to cook but found that the rice and flour at ho had also turned into porcelain.
"Seems like the only things edible now are dostic fowls and livestock."
Chen Shi suggested, "I’ll go borrow a duck from Granny Yu Zhu to tide us over for a al, and tomorrow we’ll hunt mutant beasts to repay them."
Li Tianqing nodded.
After a while, there was a commotion outside as Granny Yu Zhu chased a duck thief with a knife. Chen Shi, carrying a duck, fled into the yard and slamd the house door shut with a bang.
Li Tianqing’s heart raced as he listened to Granny Yu Zhu’s robust scolding from outside, feeling unbearably ashad. He had never done anything so humiliating before.
"We’ll hunt and repay her tomorrow, then there’s no need for sha."
Chen Shi indifferently said, "Tianqing, help boil water to scald the duck."
Li Tianqing hurried to make a fire.
Black Pot barked a few tis, and Chen Shi said, "It’s already late at night."
That night passed peacefully, even though the village was occasionally noisy with cries and argunts—so villagers intended to leave with their families in the middle of the night, but disagreents led to tears and quarrels.
Chen Shi didn’t intervene, and they went to sleep.
After an unknown ti, Chen Shi suddenly felt a pain in his heart, and his body convulsed uncontrollably.
He woke up at once and without hesitation initiated the Beidou Seven Refinents. Although the onset was abrupt, the episode was mild and he quickly suppressed it.
He breathed a sigh of relief, lay back on the bed, and yet found it impossible to sleep again.
So, he wrapped himself in his clothes and went out into the courtyard to look up. The sky was a sheet of crimson, indistinguishable as day or night.
Previously, one could clearly distinguish between day and night by the sun or moonlight; but now, the red veil covered the sky, like a light red pot turned upside down on the ground, making it impossible to tell whether the sun or the moon was shining outside.
Then, Black Pot barked again.
"It’s dawn," thought Chen Shi to himself.
Yet, it still didn’t look like dayti.
Demon Transformation, day two.
Their grandfathers were still not back.
Rumbling, thunderous sounds ca from the direction of the brick kiln, astonishingly gloomy.
Chen Shi and Li Tianqing went out hunting and on their way encountered a hunter from Huangpo Village nad Liu Tianzhu. He was a robust middle-aged man, often hunting in the mountains, nimble on his feet as if traversing flat land.
Now, Liu Tianzhu moved sluggishly, his greeting slow, his voice sharp as if mixed with birdsong—caused by the porcelain transformation of his vocal cords.
His vocal cords were like ceramic whistles, hence the birdsong sound.
"Tianzhu, it’s too dangerous outside. Go back to the village, and I’ll bring you the ga I catch!" Chen Shi said.
Liu Tianzhu was deeply grateful. He realized sothing was wrong with his body and he was incapable of hunting, so he turned to walk back, still at a sluggish pace.
Along the way, across the fields, many people moved slowly like this.
By noon, Chen Shi and Li Tianqing returned, having caught three wild boars, four Xinxiang mice, so wild rabbits, and an alpaca.
Fortunately, Chen Shi was strong enough to drag these wild and mutant beasts without much effort.
As they approached Huangpo Village, they saw people on the road.
Those were people who had turned into porcelain.
.Côm-cσ๓
Staying in the village could delay the porcelain transformation, but going out hunting accelerated the process.
Chen Shi continued on to the entrance of the village and saw hunter Liu Tianzhu, his face wore a smile, in a walking pose, but his body had already turned to ceramic.
"Tianqing, if we kill that Evil Bodhisattva, will they be restored?" Chen Shi suddenly asked.
"They should be,"
Li Tianqing wasn’t sure either and said, "The books describe the Demon Transformation and various ways to deal with it, but never how ordinary people survive through it. I don’t know if ordinary people can make it."
He paused, then added, "Historical records do the sa. I’ve combed through many, but there are few about ordinary people, chiefly focused on emperors and celebrities. Common folks are like the livestock kept by emperors and officials, unworthy of record."
Chen Shi entered the village, set down the ga, and turned to leave.
"But we are not livestock!"
He picked up Liu Tianzhu, taking the porcelain-transford Liu Tianzhu back to his ho in the village.
One by one, he lifted the porcelain villagers he encountered on the road, placing them properly back in the village.
"We are people, we’ve never been livestock!" he said sowhat angrily.
Seeing this, Li Tianqing stepped forward to help, and after half a day’s work, they finally finished moving all the porcelain people nearby.
Then, the two skinned the ga, sectioned it, and delivered it house to house, giving Granny Yu Zhu’s ho two extra wild rabbits.
Despite being pests, Xinxiang mice were a kind of mutant beast, whose at contained Spiritual Power that, when consud by ordinary people, could delay the porcelain transformation. Chen Shi thus shared so with every household.
"This child..." Granny Yu Zhu held the at and rabbits, her earlier insults haunting her with sha.
Returning ho in deep thought, she said to Yu Zhu, "From now on, you’re not allowed to call Chen Shi a ’dead boy’ again."
"But wasn’t it Granny who taught to call him that?" Yu Zhu was puzzled.
Granny Yu Zhu was overwheld with sha and said, "If I ever say that again, you smack my mouth with the sole of your shoe."
—Fifth update! A bonus for the Gold Alliance of Mansion Dish Master!
Twenty thousand words today, next Chapter tomorrow morning at eleven! New book, seeking monthly tickets!
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