CHAPTER 8: MERMAN
To get to Lutai Mountain, you must pass Lutai town. There is a saying that many travelers and merchants like to say.
Lutai Town was famous for not just the jagged rocks of the sky-high Lutai Mountain, but also the wine that the town produced---Yellow Fruit
It's said that the wine is brewed from a unique fruit that grows at the foot of Lutai Mountain. It is sealed and put in a cellar. Then the brew is taken out after a year. The foam is removed and poured into a glass bowl. The wine's color is amber and deep yellow, and is bright and beautiful. Plus, the fruit has a unique fragrance, therefore the ancestors named it Yellow Fruit. It is very popular.
When the group arrived at Lutai Town, it was past noon. There were only a few pedestrians outside, which was quite different from the usual bustling streets. This was probably because of the demons wrecking havoc and eating the people. As a result, everyone was panicked. Even the peddler who set up a stall was frowning, mumbling that he couldn't make money these days.
Chu Lei looked around, and couldn't help sighing when seeing the depressing scene. "The demons are causing trouble again and the ordinary people will not be safe."
Dongfang Qing Qi patted his shoulder, "There is no need for Chu Younger Brother to frown and look bitter. Our purpose coming here is exactly to get rid of the demons."
As he was talking, Chu Yinghong had already inquired about the news from a little beggar and came back smiling and said, "There is no need for Senior Brother to be worried. I just asked the little boy, and he said that the two demons normally come out at night and rarely injure people during the day. Let's first find an inn to rest in, and it won't be late to go search on the mountain at night."
They nodded their heads, agreeing. Zhong Minyan saw that they were walking forward, but Xuanji was still in a daze at the snack stall, so he went over and pushed her, saying in a low voice, "Why are you in a daze! Hurry up!"
Xuanji said "oh", but wasn't anxious at all, took out a copper coin from her sleeve and pointed at the steamed cake in the pot, saying solemnly, "Shopkeeper, give me two."
Zhong Minyan frowned and said, "It's not a proper time to eat steamed cake! We will need to eat dinner at the inn! It's only you that has so much stuff to do!"
Xuanji held the paper bag containing the steamed cakes in her hand, softly took a bite, and almost spit it out because of the scalding temperature. She said vaguely, "Eating dinner......and snacks are two different things."
She made Zhong Minyan so angry that he couldn't say anything and only rolled his eyes.
Xuanji softly blew at the heat coming out of the steamed cake and suddenly saw that Yu Sifeng, who was walking in front of her, would sometimes turn his head to look at her, and even though he was wearing a mask she could still feel that the way he was looking at her was unkind. She raised the steamed cake in her hand, thinking that he also wanted to eat it, but he just rolled his eyes in disgust, then slowed down and backed up to Xuanji's side, whispering quietly into her ear, "Evil woman, you can really eat, like a pig."
She was cursed at again for no reason, but it was a pity that her mouth was stuffed with a steamed cake and she couldn't talk and could only stare at him blankly with her widened eyes.
But his mood seemed to get better. With a light smile, he quickened his steps to catch up to Chu Lei and bowed to him, "Chu Sect Leader, this untalented me, has lived in, Lutai Town, for a period of time. If you don't mind, I, the junior, am willing, to guide you seniors."
Chu Lei hadn't said anything when Chu Yinghong at his side smiled and said, "Then we will have to bother you with that. Your name is......"
"Junior is Yu Sifeng."
"Then okay, Sifeng." She said, "Bring us to the best winery in the town. We want to taste the world-famous Yellow Fruit."
"Yes, Senior, please follow me."
Huh? Aren't we going to the inn? Xuanji had finally managed to stuff all the steamed cake into her mouth and had only then discovered that they had entered a winery with a yellow flag at the door. Seeing her dumbfounded, Zhong Minyan couldn't help sighing inside. But he remembered that he had promised Master that he would take special care of his junior sister on this journey and could only say, "You, if you had half the wits Linglong has, I wouldn't be so hard to look after you."
Xuanji smiled faintly but didn't say anything.
Accurately speaking, when everyone entered the winery they thought that it would be empty and deserted like the outside, but it was actually packed with people and was very lively.
Yu Sifeng had a brief conversation with a waiter and led them to the second floor lounge. He then went downstairs again and brought up a middle-aged man, who was a hunter that lived in the town. Hearing that they were here to eliminate demons, he agreed to Yu Sifeng's employment and was here especially to show them the way at night.
"This person is Wang Big Uncle, and he has been a hunter, in the town, for more than ten years. He has seen the two demons, with his own eyes, and has participated, in the last few, killing attempts, so he should be helpful, to us."
After Yu Sifeng finished talking, he turned around to nod to the hunter, and that person said, "Speaking of this, there hasn't been anybody who has said that they will go eliminate the demons these past few days. The previous few times were just chaotic. A lot of people died, and most people gave up. Us hunters were fine, and grouped together to go up the mountain. The passing merchants had the worst of luck because there was only one road. It was okay if it was a large group with up to a hundred people, but if it was just one small merchant, then the merchant would end up in its mouth! Many people in this town cannot return to their hometown and have spent almost all of their money. Isn't this going to kill people!"
Chu Yinghong said gently, "Please don't worry too much, this Big Brother. Our purpose to come here is exactly to eliminate demons and give back the original peace of Lutai Town. We will need Big Brother to guide us out of the maze."
The hunter scratched at his tiger skin hat, then smiled dumbly, "You're so good at talking. I am a vulgar person and don't really understand. In short, you are here to get rid of the demons and this is a great help to our town, so if there is anything that I can do, please just tell me. Do not hesitate to!"
Chu Lei asked, "Then thank you for giving us the directions deep in the night. Where do the two demons often appear? Where is the nest?"
"They normally appear from nine o'clock at night to one in the morning and will go back to the nest at one. They often appear in several places, but they are all places near water, but that old bird is powerful! It hides in the water to hunt people! The Sky Dog's nest is at the back of the mountain. The old bird is smart and changes its home everyday!"
Hearing this, Chu Lei sighed silently. Chu Yinghong said, "Is Sect leader worried that we might not be able to find them?"
He nodded his head: "I didn't think that the Gu Eagle could be so sly. Even if we used saltwater to injure its eyes, I don't know if we will be able to find its nest and exterminate it."
Chu Yinghong smiled and said, "I have a solution. Because they hide secretly, we'll have to exert a lot of energy, so it would be better if we lead them out."
She clapped her hands and called over the three children with their heads buried and ordered each of them, "Xuanji, go buy three pots, as well as a jar of honey and twenty turpentine torches. Minyan and Sifeng will go together to the market and buy all of the salt and vinegar there is, then hire some brave people to help us carry all of it up the mountain."
After talking, she took out a stack of silver bills from her purse and divided it among the three then ordered, "When we were coming here, I saw a money house on the corner, so go there and change the money and then go buy the stuff needed. You must calculate the bill very carefully and don't embezzle!"
As she was talking, she started chuckling.
Seeing that she was ordering the jobs with extreme detail and seemed to be very confident, Dongfang Qing Qi couldn't help but ask, "Does Chu Hero have an excellent plan?"
Chu Yinghong smiled and said, "Not really. I'm just thinking, the Sky Dog is most well-known for being greedy, so instead of looking all around for it, why don't we roast some meat by the water and lure it out with the smell. Even if the Gu Eagle doesn't follow along, we'll at least have eliminated one demon."
She took out paper and ink from her baggage and drew a simple map that followed what the hunter had said. The three people drank the Yellow Fruit as they discussed the plans for the night.
Over here, the three children had already exchanged their money at the money bank and went their own ways. Xuanji had already bought the things Chu Yinghong had ordered her to buy. The walk back was hard as she was carrying so many things in her arms.
She was halfway there when a voice from the corner suddenly shouted out, "Come and see! A living monster! Come, come! Living monster!"
Even though Xuanji was born in a cultivating sect and had memorized the entire Book of Thousand Monsters by heart, she had never seen a real monster. Seeing that most of the people had gone over to take a look, she couldn't help but hold the things tightly and walk forward, trying to stretch out her neck and looking into the crowd.
She was short and could only see a part of glazed glass above someone's head that looked vaguely like a gigantic aquarium taller than a person, the corners covered with bronze and filled with water inside. Something was being raised in the water and was string frantically inside and splashing water everywhere, causing exclaims and sighs, but no one dared to get close.
"Woah......it's really a tail......a fish's tail......ah, it's a male!"
"He looked over here! He's looking over here!"
The crowd suddenly walked backwards. Xuanji was knocked from here to there and everything that she was carrying almost fell. The people around her seemed to be pushing forward, and she jumped left then right and only felt that she was pushed by someone from the back. The honey jar that hung on her elbow crashed to the ground with a bang--and shattered.
"Ah." She stared at the honey that was spilled all over the ground with a daze, not knowing what to do.
As she was hesitating, she heard a loud splash of water above her head. Before she could raise her head, she felt cold all over, soaked all over by the water splashing out of the big colored glass tank.
Did an unlucky star fly over her head today?
Xuanji quietly wiped off the water on her face and out the corner of her eye caught a glimpse of something in the colored glass tank dancing around, seeming to be a big white fish.
She turned her head to see a pale face. Xuanji was surprised and couldn't hold everything in her hand and the things landed on the honey.
The thing that was moving wildly in the tank was actually a person......no, not completely a person. His upper half was a normal man, with broad shoulders and a slender waist and black hair that was floating in the water like algae. His long hair makes his pale face disappear and appear, and his eyebrows seemed slightly unreal and she only felt his eyes burning like a bright star.
And from the waist down, it was the tail of a fish. The scales on the tail were silver, and the fin was like a vein, swaying slightly in the water, creating numerous bubble vortexes.
He suddenly saw her and slowly swam over, both of his hands on the colored glass tank, and looked at her quietly with his two eyes that were hidden behind his algae-like hair.
He was looking at her like this, just like this.
It seemed that he had already become familiar with her many many years ago, understood her, and looked at her with such quiet eyes. There are countless secrets and thousands of words in them.
Xuanji was frozen, feeling familiar and confused at the same time, and could only stare at him back, forgetting about everything around her for some time.