Chapter 135: Rolling Away

On a small hill, a figure was hunched over, fidgeting while wiggling his obese rear end toward the clear blue sky.

*Crunch! Crunch...*

The sound of chewing came incessantly from the figure, but because his head was buried into the mound, it was impossible to tell what he was consuming—whether he was devouring raw flesh or scavenging. Only when he turned his head would the truth be revealed.

"Hu Er, Hu Er..." A noisy, shrill voice suddenly sounded from a tree on the hill. It was a myna bird.

"What do you want?!" The creature buried in the dirt immediately turned to look at the tree.

He possessed a fat fox-like face with narrow, elongated eyes and a sharp, long nose—a truly comical sight. However, the sight of the large, raw wild chicken clamped in his mouth, feathers and all, made the scene appear rather sinister and bizarre.

"The serpent was killed, the serpent was killed," the myna chirped.

"The serpent that snatched our village is dead? How did it die? Was it struck by lightning?" Hu Er asked with pleasant surprise, making an accurate guess.

"Yes, yes, struck by lightning, struck by lightning," the myna replied.

"Gaga! Struck by lightning, serves it right! That stinking serpent that stole our village deserved to die like that." Hu Er tilted his thick, fatty neck and let out a strange cackle. Once he finished laughing, he called out to the myna, "What kind of lightning struck the serpent?"

"A purple bolt, cast by a beggar," the myna answered after a moment of recollection.

"What? A human cultivator?" Hu Er’s expression shifted drastically.

"Yes, yes, a human cultivator is here, a human cultivator is here," the myna shrieked.

"Don't shout so loud! Great-Grandpa and the others are still sleeping. If you wake them up, they’ll swallow you in one gulp without leaving even a feather for you," Hu Er warned, spitting a ball of fur at the bird.

The myna dodged the fur ball easily: "Missed me, missed me, you can't hit me."

"Come down here," Hu Er said, raising a chubby hand.

As if by some invisible tether from the netherworld, the myna was dragged down to the ground and then pulled into Hu Er’s fat palm.

"I told you not to—"

"Hu Er, what’s going on? Why are you making such a racket?" A gravelly, aged voice cut off Hu Er’s warning to the bird.

It was a hunched, dwarf-like old man leaning on a small wooden staff. He looked much more human than Hu Er—his appearance was essentially that of a man, save for his eyes. They were a pair of murky, bestial orbs; anyone stared at by such eyes for long would feel a sense of physical malaise, a sudden urge to find a privy, and the lingering threat of constipation for a day and a night.

"Uh... it's... it's nothing, really... just... just that we might be able to take back our village..." Hu Er stammered. He was clearly terrified, and he immediately hid the hand clutching the myna behind his back, fearing that the old man’s foxy eyes might detect anything amiss.

"What? That serpent was struck by lightning?" As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together; the old man’s thoughts were identical to Hu Er’s, lacking only the trembling of excess fat.

"Yes... that's right," Hu Er nodded repeatedly.

"Gaga... struck down well, struck down well, serves that serpent right." The old man laughed joyfully, just as Hu Er had. It was hard to tell if Hu Er had learned this mannerism from the elder, or if they had both picked it up from some duck...

"Great-Grandpa, Great-Grandpa, I haven't finished speaking yet," Hu Er carefully interrupted the old man’s laughter.

"Hmm? What is it? That serpent wasn't killed by the lightning?" The old man’s smile vanished instantly, his eyes boring into Hu Er.

"The serpent is dead, but it was killed by a human cultivator," Hu Er said.

"..." The smile on the old man’s face froze completely, but after a moment, it melted away. "Then we can finally go home."

"Huh?" Hu Er was confused.

"This human cultivator surely won't stay long. He likely left immediately after killing the serpent. So, we can go home now. Gaga..." The old man finished, laughing again.

"I’m going to wake up your Great-Grandma. You take your little bird and go scout the village in secret," the old man commanded, then vanished on the spot, dissolving into a puff of yellow smoke.

"..." Hu Er stood there, stunned, before bringing the myna from behind his back to the front.

However, when Hu Er opened his hand, he saw only a clump of meat and scattered feathers. His myna was dead—crushed to death by his own grip.

"..." Hu Er felt like crying, but had no tears.

...

Chen Jin wrapped his entire body in Yin-Sha energy. Although he could not absorb the Yin-Sha energy into his own meridians, he could still gather it around himself, much like one might gather the natural energy of the world.

"I hope this pack of foxes is a bit dim-witted," Chen Jin muttered, tucking himself into a dilapidated hut.

He had previously felt a gaze resting upon him, though the sensation had come and gone as quickly as the whim of a rake for a woman easily won.

"They won't be that stupid, though. They are already capable of cultivation; they can't be complete fools," Chen Jin mused, contradicting his own hopes.

"I'll stay here for a while. I should also study this underworld artifact carefully; it might have other uses," he added.

...

Just as Chen Jin concealed himself within the Yin-Sha energy, blending into the atmosphere of the village, a fat fox-man with a protruding belly and a heavy rear end rolled stealthily into the village.

As he rolled across the ridges and farmland outside the village, Hu Er sighed at the coolness, then frowned at the discomfort. Once he entered the village and saw the ruins burnt and collapsed by Chen Jin, his expression darkened further.

"Truly formidable," Hu Er sighed.

"Human cultivators are truly formidable. No wonder Great-Grandpa told us to keep our distance. If I ran into one of them, I’d be skinned alive," Hu Er muttered with a pained expression.

"Please don't be here, please don't be here..." Hu Er whispered incessantly.

...

Chen Jin’s hearing had long since been heightened, as had his total sensory perception. If he were to release his own Primordial Qi, it would be as blatant as shouting, "I'm right here, come if you dare!" The fox demons, who had been easily driven away by the dragon's severed horn, would never dare enter the village under such conditions. Thus, Chen Jin kept his senses at their peak, waiting to catch the fox demons the moment they appeared.

Suddenly, he felt a ball rolling along the ground, accompanied by the distinct, pungent scent of a fox.