9.
By the time I led Trần Linh outside, the sky had changed.
The sky had been fairly clear at first, but now it had grown gloomy, as if it could rain at any moment.
In the Demon Realm, this could only mean that its master was furious.
As soon as we ran out of the courtyard, we ran straight into Minh Uyên. He was wearing his groom’s outfit and looked very handsome.
He was holding two limp paper effigies. He hurried over to me. “Careful—the paper effigies have started attacking people.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than several more paper effigies rushed out from all sides, their sharp nails and upturned mouths crowding toward us.
Minh Uyên and I shielded Trần Linh behind us, formed hand seals, and unleashed our powers.
“All things revere the Fire God; let the demons and ghosts around us turn to ash!”
Countless golden talismans burst into flames and shot toward the paper effigies.
The talismans stuck to the effigies’ foreheads, and flames immediately devoured their bodies. Their agonized screams rang out as the paper effigies turned to ash.
“Oh my God… That’s amazing.” Trần Linh hid behind me, stunned, her eyes wide as saucers.
Minh Uyên was using fire attacks too. They were clearly effective, keeping the effigies from getting close.
But even though they were weak, there were just too many of them!
One effigy fell, and thousands upon thousands more immediately sprang up.
We were gradually wearing ourselves out.
“Ha ha ha!”
An evil laugh rang out from above. A yellow weasel leaped onto the roof, stood upright like a person, and put its hands on its hips.
“That’ll teach you to bully me! And you even stole my bride!”
He pointed at me. “Paper soldiers, obey my command! Tear that woman to pieces!”
As soon as he finished speaking, the number of paper effigies doubled.
If this kept up, we wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.
“Minh Uyên, hold them off for a bit.”
I looked up at that detestable yellow weasel. “To catch the bandits, first capture their leader. I’ll go tie him up!”
I tossed out a handful of golden talismans, clearing away the paper effigies in front of me, then jumped onto the stone table in the courtyard. I pulled the demon-binding cord from my belt and hurled it at the yellow weasel.
The yellow weasel’s laughter abruptly stopped. It dropped to all fours and instinctively tried to run.
But my demon-binding cord was faster. Its end caught on his hind leg and, using its momentum, wrapped tightly around him.
I jumped onto the roof and crouched in front of him, lightly tapping him on the head. “Aren’t you so pleased with yourself? Go on, laugh. Keep laughing!”
He struggled violently. “I’m warning you, don’t hit me again! Or else, or else I’ll make you regret it!”
“Oh.” I laughed at that, then raised my hand and slapped him again.
The air fell silent for a moment.
The little yellow weasel stared at me wide-eyed. A few seconds later, he opened his mouth and burst into tears…
His sobs echoed throughout the courtyard. The paper effigies stopped attacking and stood there dazed, their bodies trembling uncontrollably, before turning and fleeing in all directions.
In the blink of an eye, they had vanished without a trace.
Trần Linh’s head poked out from behind Minh Uyên. “Huh? Why did they all run away?”
“Dad! Someone hit me!”
The little yellow weasel wailed miserably. “Dad, hurry and save me!”
Minh Uyên frowned and looked up. “Ruyi, get down here, now!”
I didn’t ask any questions. I grabbed the little yellow weasel and jumped down.
As soon as we landed, the ground behind us began to shake violently.
“An earthquake?!” Trần Linh staggered and had to grab my arm to stay upright.
I sensed something and looked up in the direction of Minh Uyên’s gaze. A colossal black shadow was slowly rising from the ground. It blotted out the light, plunging the entire courtyard into darkness.
Two lantern-like eyes slowly opened, and the pressure suddenly intensified!
Trần Linh trembled. “S-so… so huge… that yellow weasel is so huge!”
Minh Uyên said in a low voice, “This is the true master of the Demon Realm.”
10.
“Dad!”
The little yellow weasel stopped crying and waved his claws excitedly.
The colossal black shadow raised a claw toward me. “Give me back my son.”
I shuddered, tossed the little yellow weasel, still bound up like a sausage, into the air, then kicked him away. “Here, take him back!”
“Aah!!!”
The golden blur cried out in pain, tracing a beautiful arc through the air.
Trần Linh asked, “Y-you’re just letting him go like that?”
I tilted my head and whispered, “It’s fine. That kid can barely fight, so he’s nothing to worry about.”
Freed, the little yellow weasel immediately grew arrogant and hopped around on top of the shadow’s head.
“Dad! Kill that stinking woman for me and avenge me! Take back my bride—I haven’t even consummated the marriage with her yet. And that pale-faced guy, too. He’s so handsome it’s annoying. Skin him for me, Dad. I like his skin!”
The colossal black shadow brushed him off its head and stomped on him.
At last, the world fell silent.
Minh Uyên looked at it, his voice utterly calm. “Hoàng Tiên. It’s been a long time.”
I turned to him, slightly stunned. “What? Is this the Hoàng Tiên you told me about?”
…
Long ago, before Minh Uyên was sealed away, he often took me around to admire the mountains and rivers and told me all kinds of stories.
Once, as we passed a mountain shaped like a half-moon, Minh Uyên told me that its spirit was a yellow weasel.
Yellow weasels are clever and can cultivate themselves into human form.
When one reaches a certain level of cultivation, it goes to ask a local, “Do you think I look human?”
This process is called “asking for a title”* or “requesting a title.”
(*“Asking for a title” roughly means asking to be granted a title.)
If the other person answers, “You do,” then it counts as passing the test, and the weasel can take human form.
But if the other person answers, “You don’t,” all its efforts go to waste, and it has to cultivate all over again.
This Hoàng Tiên had cultivated to a high level, but he was unlucky.
After cultivating for hundreds of years, he asked for a title dozens of times, and failed every time.
Eventually, Heaven and Earth could no longer bear it and appointed him a mountain spirit—the spirit of the mountain.
The locals called him “Hoàng Tiên.”
By now, he had cultivated for a thousand years. No wonder he could create a Demon Realm.
11.
“Dragon King Minh Uyên?”
Hoàng Tiên stared at Minh Uyên, his tone mocking. “Weren’t you sealed away?”
Minh Uyên smiled. “I was lucky enough to get a little freedom.”
Hoàng Tiên hated it when anyone said the word “luck” in front of him.
At that, he let out a cold snort.
“Minh Uyên, I have no desire to fight you. I can let you and your wife leave.”
“But her.” Hoàng Tiên turned his head, his gaze fixed on Trần Linh.
“She can’t leave.”
Trần Linh was so frightened she nearly fainted.
I gripped her hand tightly and looked up at him. “Why can’t she?”
Hoàng Tiên smirked. “She’s the daughter-in-law I chose for my son. Of course she can’t leave.”
I froze for a moment, then found it absurd. “Your daughter-in-law? Did you even ask what she wanted? She doesn’t want to be your daughter-in-law.”
Hoàng Tiên’s tone shifted. “What she wants? When humans blast apart mountains to build roads and slaughter the creatures in the forests, do they ever ask what we want?”
Its demeanor changed. “The half-moon-shaped mountain where I lived was leveled. I had to lead the creatures of the forest through one migration after another. It was hard enough finding a good place to live, and less than twenty years later, this place was turned into a historic-town tourist attraction. Those enormous machines ravaged the forest and even injured my son, who had only recently taken human form!”
We all looked at the stupid little yellow weasel.
It had snot running from its nose and was struggling beneath Hoàng Tiên’s foot.
Hoàng Tiên’s voice was anguished. “He’s my most talented, most spiritually gifted child. After a hundred years of cultivation, he finally succeeded in requesting a title and took human form. But when he went to save a woodcutter who’d gotten lost in the forest, people mistook him for a demon harming humans and beat him so badly that he lost a hundred years of cultivation. They even damaged his brain, and his cultivation has been stuck at this level ever since. Now all I want is to find him a wife. What have I done wrong?”
He spoke with such righteous conviction, as if we were the ones ruining someone else’s marriage.
I sneered. “A wife? What about Trịnh An Kỳ? She was the first girl you brought here. Why did you hurt her?”
Hoàng Tiên snorted. “She’s no longer pure. How could she be worthy of my son? I only took two of her souls as punishment.”
I could only frown at that. Now I saw it clearly: this yellow weasel liked to stand on the moral high ground and lecture everyone else, yet refused to admit he’d done anything wrong.
He really was pitiable, but he was also truly detestable. Trịnh An Kỳ was still lying in the hospital, and her parents had gone half gray overnight from grief. Who would take responsibility for their suffering?
His words had agitated Trần Linh, too. She shook her head again and again. “I don’t agree! I don’t agree!”
Terrified, she backed away step by step, then turned and ran toward the main door.
She didn’t know what the Demon Realm was, or that there was no way she could escape.
All she wanted now was to find a way out.
Hoàng Tiên swung his hand, striking toward Trần Linh in an instant.
“You ignorant little brat!”
I stared at her. “Trần Linh! Stop right now!”
Trần Linh didn’t hear a word I said. She just charged ahead.
Hoàng Tiên slammed his hand down, and in the blink of an eye, Trần Linh was caught in his grasp.
“Ah! Help me!”
“This is bad!”
I pulled out the demon-binding cord and hurled it with all my strength toward the massive hand as it closed. At last, the cord wrapped around Trần Linh’s ankle.
Clutching the end of the cord, I soared into the air. Carried by my momentum, just before I was about to collide with them, the Fire-Thunder Seal formed.
“Let go of her right now!” I shouted, and the Fire-Thunder Seal struck Hoàng Tiên’s hand squarely.
He roared in anger. His hand hurt, and he let go.
I quickly wrapped an arm around Trần Linh’s waist and flung her straight toward Minh Uyên. “Take care of her.”
Then I turned and charged at Hoàng Tiên.
Damn it, I’d hated that old Hoàng for a long time.