Devil

Chapter 47: Looking Across the Water
by Yue Xia Sang

“How couldn’t I recognize Hei Dan? Hei Dan looks completely different from the others,” Ji Huan said quietly as he softly wiped the tears off Hei Dan’s face.

“Our Hei Dan’s left eye is a little bigger than his right eye!” While speaking, Ji Huan lightly poked Hei Dan’s eyelid.

Hei Dan blinked reflexively. With his big eyes gleaming, he looked much better than when he stared at people with wide eyes.

Clinging tightly to his uncle’s fingers with his little claws out of habit, Hei Dan listened carefully as his uncle talked to him. Even though he couldn’t make sense out of it, Hei Dan still listened very seriously.

Before, the little devils that Ji Huan had been taking out of the cage had been scared and ran away as soon as they saw Grandpa. Now, out of all the identical-looking little devils in the cage, there was only Hei Dan left. After Ji Huan turned around, Hei Dan’s white-ring eyes fixed straight on Grandpa.

“Hei Dan, that’s Grandpa,” Ji Huan said quietly, worried that Hei Dan would be scared.

However, Hei Dan not only didn’t feel a bit afraid while facing Grandpa’s original form, he even stretched out his little claws towards Grandpa.

Only then did Ji Huan think: right, in Hei Dan’s eyes, maybe Grandpa had always been in his original form.

For little devils like Hei Dan, shouldn’t devils like Grandpa be quite scary? But in the past, he had actually given Hei Dan to Grandpa to hold.

It must have been really tough for him.

However —

While watching Hei Dan do his best to stretch his claws out to Grandpa, Ji Huan gently touched Hei Dan’s head.

“Grandpa’s tired, he can’t hold Hei Dan until he wakes up.” After he said that, Heei Dan suddenly twisted his little body in his arms and his little claws pointed at the cage. Unsuree of what he meant, Ji Huan put him down and Hei Dan then crawled back into the cage. It had been a few days and the current Hei Dan crawled much faster than before. Very quickly, Hei Dan swiftly crawled out after going straight to a corner and grabbing something.

Just as Hei Dan had crawled back into his uncle’s arms, wanting to show his uncle what he had in his little claws, he suddenly turned his head.

Facing the direction that Ji Huan had come from, the pair of white-ring eyes widened unusually large. Not only that, but Hei Dan even opened his mouth. The round mouth was like a scarlet abyss, as if it was filled with a bloody mist…

It was a very frightening expression.

His heart thumping, Ji Huan immediately looked in the direction of Hei Dan’s gaze.

The little devils, who had been in the cage before and hidden somewhere after discovering Grandpa, suddenly crawled out from all corners. They started to crawl around the room without thought in a disordered fashion; in addition, the behavior of the devils still in cages also started to grow odd. Ji Huan saw the devils in the cage closest to him suddenly start to fight with each other! Tearing at each other, the five devils that were locked up together suddenly started to fight terribly. And a little further away, Ji Huan noticed that devils in other cages were starting to vigorously ram into their cages!

Their movements were very fierce, but their voices were silent.

What was happening before Ji Huan’s eyes seemed like a silent movie. At first, his mind was blank, but he very quickly understood —

That devil had come!

For the devils in the area to have that kind of reaction, it had to be that the devil was coming!

Hastily stuffing Hei Dan into the front of his jacket, Ji Huan pulled Grandpa back up on his back. Picking up the axe that he had put on the ground, he suddenly chopped open the nearest cage with it.

When danger was approaching, Ji Huan suddenly chopped the cages in the room open!

Only a single gap was needed before the devils pushed out in all different ways. Sensing the oppressing strength of a higher level devil nearby, the first thing that the devils did once they were free was to rush towards the door to the outside.

Ji Huan ran out too, but unlike the other devils, he ran while chopping open the surrounding cages.

He quickly mastered the technique of hacking open the cages and was much faster at opening them than before, but these cages were exceptionally sturdy. He had already spent a lot of energy before he had arrived there. His right arm was still injured, and Ji Huan’s wound that had just closed immediately split open again.

Ji Huan clenched his teeth and took off his jacket to wrap around the wound before he chopped open several more cages. While doing so, he managed to pick some keys off the ground, and by using the codes on the keys, Ji Huan released a great many devils…

The devils weren’t little devils like Hei Dan, but large-looking devils were huge bodies. After they got out, they quickly started to make large movements and several cages collapsed between the crowds. A group of devils were crushed to the very bottom and let out painful howls. At the same time, some of the devils managed to struggle out of the broken collapsed cages —

This bottomless pit of imprisoned devils was boiling over!

With Grandpa on his back and Hei Dan hanging from his chest, Ji Huan escaped outward while carefully mingling with the herd of devils.

It was while passing through some middle room that Ji Huan finally saw that black devil again.

The black devil now was different than the one he had seen before: its body was even larger, but its body had also become more transparent. The remains of devils left over from its meal were still hanging from the corners of its mouth, and the black devil let out a huge roar while it was eating.

That big guy was hunting.

And all the devils in the room were its prey.

That guy is still evolving while it eats!

When he saw the black devil, that thought appeared in Ji Huan’s head.

Naturally, he might’ve been able to see it, but someone else had discovered it even earlier.

“God! That big guy is evolving! It can get bigger by eating!” A male human voice came from the northwest corner. Ji Huan couldn’t hear them, but he did notice that they were equipped with very large weapons.

Only then did Ji Huan discover that there was a group of people in the room besides that devil. The people were wearing a matching uniform and each of them looked well-trained. They were likely reinforcements that had been called by the man named Yang.

However, those people were completely meaningless to Ji Huan. On the contrary, they were quite dangerous for Ji Huan, even more dangerous than that black devil!

Those people suddenly started to annihilate the devils in the room indiscriminatly!

“There are too many devils here! Once they’ve been eaten by the target, the target’s strength will increase!” Someone fearfully cried out.

Then, Ji Huan saw the man named Yang again: with his right arm dripping in blood, he had obviously gone through a fierce battle.

“Kill them all! The devils here, kill each and every one of them, don’t leave a single one behind!”

His voice incomparably cold, he actually made such an execution order for the devils in the room!

Ji Huan couldn’t hear, but he could see!

A second after a white flash of light, Ji Huan stared blankly as the ground about fifteen feet away from him exploded! From a crowded heap of devils, there was suddenly an empty crater in its place. With black ash falling bit by bit, the devils that had been squeezed together there disappeared without a trace!

Ji Huan’s already pale face grew whiter: over there! Hiding near the feet of a few big devils were several of the little devils that had escaped from the cage with Hei Dan!

Just like that, the little devils disappeared into black ash in an flash!

Ji Huan noticed sensitively: in his arms, Hei Dan’s cold little claws were clutching him tighter. His little body shaking, he curled up into a small ball on the front of his body.

Ji Huan unconsciously patted the small ball bulging from his chest. However, in a blink of an eye, several white lights flashed in succession, and after they flickered away, a large stretch of devils had been lost.

Several devils near Ji Huan had been hit and after they disappeared, the figure of Ji Huan carrying Grandpa and Hei Dan was revealed to the reinforcements.

“There’s a human! There’s a human!” Someone with good eyes spotted him immediately and the assault of gunfire ceased for a second.

Only for a second.

“Continue the attack.” Following the cold command of the man named Yang, those who had temporarily stopped their attacks due to hesitation raised their weapons once more, and a more concentrated attack followed Ji Huan’s escape path —

Ji Huan couldn’t hear the conversation, but the increasingly concentrated barrage of gunfire at his feet let him now in an instant what their method of handling the situation was:

They really didn’t want Grandpa to live.

In that moment, Ji Huan finally understood: wanting to go home was completely delusional.

They wouldn’t give up hunting Grandpa and he wouldn’t give up Grandpa. Naturally, he was in their hunting scope.

Their peaceful life from before was gone forever. They had been completely rejected by the human world —

Running forward, Ji Huan’s mind was blank.

Within in the white fog, there was only one voice left in Ji Huan’s mind: you can’t stop, you absolutely can’t stop!

If you stop, you will die.

What was death?

Ji Huan had never thought about it.

Even after he had experienced the sudden death of his big sister, Ji Huan still had never thought about it.

Even though his outward appearance seemed gloomy, he had always been a positive and hardworking individual.

To say in a single word: he was strong.

Even when he ran into a complication, he always thought about how he could make it better in the future.

Even though work was tiring, he learned how to take care of the elderly professionally, which let him take care of Grandpa better.

His big sister was gone, but he would cherish Grandpa and Hei Dan even more in the future, living out their days together without any regrets.

Hei Dan looked a little strange, but with unrelenting effort, he finally learned to cry and laugh. As long as he continued to do things slowly, Hei Dan would be like a normal child sooner or later…

As long as he was given time, everything would be fine.

Everything would be fine!

But?

But, what about reality?

Every time he overcame a dilemma, there was an even bigger one waiting for him.

He wanted to live together with Grandpa and Hei Dan. Was it really impossibly to pay his last respects for Grandpa and to raise Hei Dan?

Ji Huan strode forward into a run, grasping Grandpa’s legs tightly and checking on Hei Dan occasionally. His footsteps became heavier and heavier. With exhaustion and excessive blood loss, his physical strength had started to decline heavily.

Ji Huan felt his eyes start to go white.

He knew in his heart that he probably wouldn’t be able to support himself for much longer.

But, if he couldn’t hold on, what would Grandpa and Hei Dan do?

Hanging on to his last bit of strength, a corridor suddenly appeared in Ji Huan’s mind.

A completely wooden corridor that made a creaking noise when you walked on it, with red paper lanterns hanging from the eaves. Further ahead was a very elegant courtyard with clean water and white lotuses. Whenever he ate biscuits there, he could smell the distinct fragrance of water lilies. Furtheer away was a low, red wall, and behind the wall was a row of trees with red leaves, and… on the ridge of the rood, a copper carving of a mythical beast…

When this image appeared in Ji Huan’s mind, he suddenly had strength.

In front of him, the copper beast on the edge of a roof overlapped with the roof ridge that appeared in his mind. Ji Huan saw a red forest and then he saw a low, red wall —

Using the last of his strength, Ji Huan pushed Grandpa over first before jumping inside.

Across from a black lake, the scene from his memories astonishingly appeared in front of his eyes.

On the moonlit night, white water lilies quietly bloomed on the surface of black water. The fragrance of water lilies was elegant and pure, and for a moment, Ji Huan couldn’t smell the blood on his body. Instead, there was only that graceful scent—

Across the surface of water covered in water lilies, Ji Huan could see a long, wooden corridor with red paper lanterns faintly lit, the half-red, half-yellow sprinkling across the floor. In the place where he usually ate biscuits, he saw a silhouette in white.

Looking across the water, Ji Huan fell into the man’s dark, drowning eyes.