Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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Jiang Lan understood the key, and his disgust for Sanshui Village deepened.
His eyes flashed red in the darkness, and his pupils turned into thin lines. After getting to know the origin of this black tower, he was reluctant to stay in it. This place always made him a little restless.
He decided to make a quick decision: “Stop hiding, I saw you.”
Only his voice echoed in the black tower.
Jiang Lan narrowed his eyes and glanced around. After a while, he suddenly strode towards the corner farthest from him. There were many tattered bamboo baskets piled there. He kicked them over and grabbed the thing that wanted to run away.
“It’s really you.”
The only person who could make him feel uncomfortable was his former friend and one of the Four Preils, Táowu[1].
“How did you become like this?” Jiang Lan held a bamboo basket, which was not much bigger than a normal bamboo basket and shook it roughly.
The yellow and black fur on Taowu’s body exploded. His tail, which was longer than his body, curled tightly around Jiang Lan’s hand. He bared his non-threatening fangs and growled: “Let go!”
Jiang Lan let out an ooh, then let go, and the unsuspecting Taowu fell into a pile of broken baskets.
He got up in embarrassment and roared that he wanted to fight Jiang Lan.
Jiang Lan held him down with only one finger and said in a cool tone: “You couldn’t beat me before, but now you’re not even as tall as my calves, and you still want to beat me? Believe it or not, I’ll skin you and make you into a tiger leather blanket?”
Taowu’s body stiffened and stopped moving.
He was still cursing: “It’s only been a few years since I last saw you. Not only have you become smarter, but you’ve also become more eloquent.”
In ancient times, Taotie, Hundun, Qiongqi, and Taowu[2] were collectively referred to as the Four Perils. They had extraordinary backgrounds, one was more powerful than the other, and they were all known for their rough-and-tumble temperaments. Almost no monster dared to take the initiative to provoke them.
Because the situation was similar and the strength was almost the same, the Four Perils often hung out together. If we use an analogy, they were like four rebellious and runaway playboys who shared the same odor with each other and joined together to form an evil force that bullied men, dominated women, and caused trouble.
Taotie was the last one to join, and it was Taowu who took the initiative to let him in.
Taowu originally thought that he was not smart and tricked him into being a thug. Who would have thought that he became a thug, but this thing was stupid and ferocious, and all he could say when he opened his mouth was that he was hungry. If he didn’t have anything to eat, he might be so hungry that he’ll even bite his own people. Taowu couldn’t beat him, and he was chased and bitten by the extremely hungry Taotie several times.
He couldn’t beat him and was angry, so he bullied Taotie for his inability to use his head and tricked him into eating his brother who he didn’t want to mess with, hoping to make him kick an iron plate and receive a lesson.
As a result, his Brother was chased and bitten by Taotie, and he almost became Taotie’s Chinese meal. Huang Di[3], who came after hearing the news, was furious when he saw this. He felt that Taotie would bring disaster to the world sooner or later if he allowed it to continue, so he took action to seal him.
Jiang Lan grabbed Taowu by the back of his neck and lifted him up, with a fierce look in his eyes, and said quietly: “Maybe after being deceived too many times, one should learn to be smart.”
Taowu felt guilty and dared not speak.
Although he had no conscience, he still felt a little guilty after learning that Taotie was sealed by Huang Di, his grandfather. He also visited the sealed place and tried to see if he could secretly release Taotie. Unfortunately, Huang Di used the Xuanyuan Sword to suppress the seal, and there was nothing he could do.
Taowu raised his neck: “If you want to eat, just eat and stop talking nonsense!”
“Such a small one, it would be better to eat dirt than to eat you——”
Before Jiang Lan could finish speaking, a peal of thunder suddenly flashed across the dark sky, and thick lightning fell, instantly splitting the black tower into pieces. Jiang Lan jumped away quickly, but Taowu, who was thrown away by him, was not so lucky. The hair on his buttocks was burnt black, and he let out a heart-rending howl.
Jiang Lan got up and gloated at his bald butt.
There was no way, the relationship between the Four Perils was just so plastic.
Taowu was so angry that he howled loudly and shouted: “I’ll kill you!”
As he spoke, his body suddenly grew in size, becoming the size of an adult tiger, and he suddenly threw Jiang Lan, who was unable to react, under him——
Ying Qiao had just heard from Party Secretary Huang the news that Jiang Lan might not be dead. His mood was in a state of ups and downs, and he hurried to the cemetery. Unexpectedly, as soon as he arrived, he saw a scene that made his eyes split open.
——The little monster covered in blood was held down by the sharp claws of a monster without any resistance. The drooling fangs were less than a punch away from his fragile neck.
His eyes suddenly sharpened, and a swift bolt of lightning tore through the miasma and struck straight at the tree. Taowu ducked to the side, but the lightning turned around as if it had eyes and struck him hard.
Taowu vomited out a mouthful of blood and lay on the ground charred black, unable to move.
He was already very weak and usually reduced his size to save energy, but today he was struck by lightning twice in a row and was completely disabled. He turned his head with difficulty, wanting to ask Taotie to help him.
As a result, he saw Taotie being picked up in a hug.
Taowu thought inwardly, times have indeed changed, and the ferocious beast Taotie can be hugged at any time. If their former enemies find out, will their dignity be lost?!
There was a loud sound in his throat, and he wanted to tell Taotie that all the reputations of them Four Perils has been ruined by you!
But he was so injured that he couldn’t speak at all.
Instead, the conversation between the two came into his ears clearly.
“Sorry, I’m late.”
Ying Qiao carefully held Jiang Lan in his arms. Seeing that he was covered in blood, he couldn’t even check his injuries for fear of hurting him.
Jiang Lan was still a little confused and stared straight at Ying Qiao.
Ying Qiao thought he was frightened, so he raised his hand to cover his eyes and whispered, “Don’t be afraid, it’s okay.”
The eyelashes under the palm of his hand trembled, Jiang Lan finally reacted from the shock, he pulled down Ying Qiao’s hand covering his eyes, and said calmly: “Don’t worry, I’m not injured, this is not my blood.”
With that said, he struggled up from Ying Qiao’s arms and tore off his torn and dirty clothes to prove to him that he was really not injured.
When Ying Qiao saw that he was indeed not injured, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief, and his frown relaxed a little. He placed his palms on the top of Jiang Lan’s hair and rubbed it, and the joy of regaining him gradually emerged.
“As long as you’re not injured, you have a good rest and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Jiang Lan immediately remembered his previous heroic deeds. His eyes were rolling, thinking about how to make things right.
Ying Qiao had already started to check the cemetery. In fact, except for Taowu who only had one breath left, all the monsters here who could breathe had been killed by Jiang Lan.
The corpses of the Dilong were hidden among the ruins of the black tower, but the corpses of the three members of the Gu Diao family were hung on the dead trees.
Ying Qiao’s expression gradually became confused, and his tone became hesitant: “Did you kill the Gu Diao and the Dilong?”
Jiang Lan shook his head as if he was frightened and quickly said, “No, they killed each other.”
He vividly told the story of a Gu Diao coming to eat him, the Dilong eating the Gu Diao, and Taowu eating a Dilong again. He tried his best to open his eyes wide to show his innocence: “Xue Meng and I hid separately, but this monster found me after killing the Dilong…”
He pointed at the charred tree and said with lingering fear: “Fortunately, a thunderbolt suddenly struck from the sky and hit him right on top.”
Jiang Lan didn’t know that the thunderstorm was caused by Ying Qiao. He just thought it was Taowu’s bad luck, and he felt a little gloating about his misfortune.
Taowu: ???
He struggled hard to show his dissatisfaction.
Time was really a butcher’s knife. The Taotie who could only open his mouth to shout that he was hungry could now actually tell lies with his eyes open!
Jiang Lan seemed to be startled by his movement and hid behind Ying Qiao: “He’s moving!”
Ying Qiao kicked him over and said gently: “Don’t move now.”
Taowu who passed out without taking a breath: …
Jiang Lan patted his chest, looked at Taowu who was motionless, and showed a reassuring smile.
He looked around again, “Are you the only one here?”
“The boss and the Taoist priest next door are also here.” Ying Qiao explained what happened in Sanshui Village, and then said, “I was worried about you, so I rushed here first.”
His expression was solemn. Jiang Lan looked at him for a moment, lowered his eyes with some guilt, and whispered thank you.
“No need to say thank you.”
Ying Qiao’s eyes were soft, and he took his wrist and said, “Let’s go out first. Things here will be taken care of when the boss comes. We don’t need to worry about it.”
Jiang Lan nodded and was about to follow him, then suddenly remembered something and said “Ah”: “Xue Meng is still hiding in the coffin.”
Then he strode over, lifted the lid of the coffin, and asked, “Are you okay?”
Xue Meng, who was in the coffin the whole time and listened to Jiang Lan’s lies, was humbled: “Can I come out?”
Jiang Lan blinked at him and stretched out his hand to pull him out.
Xue Meng followed him like a little quail, not daring to ask or say anything. He just silently sighed in his heart that the world of the boss was so complicated.
The three of them were just about to leave when they saw Chen Hua running from the woods, yelling: “Ying Qiao, calm down! Don’t do anything stupid!”
Ying Qiao paused and looked at him indifferently.
His eyes looked like he was looking at an idiot.
Chen Hua who stopped hastily: ???
He slowly opened his mouth wide, looked Jiang Lan up and down, and said in a strange and relaxed tone: “Nothing happened to you…”
Jiang Lan smiled at him: “I made you worry.”
Chen Hua snarled and thought to himself, forget about worrying. He was afraid that some dragon would not be able to bear it.
He glanced at Ying Qiao sadly and suddenly felt very tired. He sent them away out of sight and out of mind, and then sent a message to ask people outside to come in and clean up.
The three of them talked while walking towards the village.
Jiang Lan thought of Party Secretary Huang and was a little worried that he would expose him. He rolled his eyes and asked, “Did you meet Party Secretary Huang when you came here?”
Ying Qiao said he saw it: “He was scared crazy.”
He woke people up and asked for a long time, but only got some confusing information. Based on this information, he speculated that Jiang Lan might still be alive and had gone to the cemetery.
Jiang Lan felt even more relieved after hearing this.
Xue Meng also said happily: “He deserves it. He wanted to harm us. This is all retribution!”
After saying that, he suddenly remembered the suicide note he left and screamed strangely: “My mobile phone is still in the house! There is still a suicide note recorded on it. I have to get it back quickly.”
Jiang Lan was extremely puzzled: ???
“Why did you leave a suicide note?”
Xue Meng whispered: “Didn’t I think you were eaten by a monster before…I thought neither of us would survive.”
He said and became happy again: “I am indeed the chosen one. I should not die. If I survive a disaster, I will be blessed later!”
Ying Qiao suddenly glanced at him sideways and pursed his lips: “…”
The author has something to say:
Film Emperor Taotie: All bad things are done by Taowu, and I have witnesses.
Taowu: ??? I’ll kill you!
——————
Why are you just looking forward to him losing his horse? Could it be that when Longlong discovers love, it wouldn’t be fun to see them fall in love?
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[1] In ancient China, there was said to be a monster called Taowu, a creature that looked like a tiger but had a human’s face, a tiger’s feet, a pig’s teeth, and a tail as long as eighteen feet.
[2] In the Zuo Zhuan and the Shanhaijing, they are defined as:
- the Hundun (Hùndùn; ‘chaotic torrent’), a yellow winged creature of chaos with six legs and no face;
- the Qiongqi (‘poor and strange’), a monstrous creature that eats people, consider the same in Japan as Kamaitachi
- the Taowu (‘stupid stump’), a reckless, stubborn creature;
- the Taotie (Tāotiè; ‘greedy glutton’), a gluttonous beast.
[3] More widely known as the “Jade Emperor” outside of China, Yu Huang Dadi is the Taoist ruler of heaven. Unlike other cultures, though, he is not the supreme deity in Chinese myths; some traditions even regard him as a mere representative of the Three Purities. Within Chinese fantasy stories and sagas, the Jade Emperor typically represents oppressive traditional social hierarchies and taboos.