Chapter 2 Article 4 Human Life

  Four college students followed Xie Yuxiao to the top of "Bloody Demon Peak", chatting and laughing along the way, but by the time they reached the summit, it was already pitch black.

  "We're here."

  "Are we there? Is this the peak?" The four college students threw their bags on the ground and, under the moonlight, took a circle around the barren "Blood Demon Peak". They couldn't help but feel some disappointment. Clearly, the intimidating name of "Blood Demon Peak" was far from what they had imagined.

  Xie Yuxiao walked to the side of that tall and slender girl, gazing up at the crescent moon above her head, and said thoughtfully: "You guys sitting on the cliff edge at night, blowing in the mountain wind, looking at the curved moon above your heads, savoring the beauty of imperfection, it's also great."

  "Huh? The atmosphere is actually quite good, didn't you go to high school?"

  Xie Yuxiao shook her head and sat down on a rock at the side, smiling awkwardly at the girl: "Not yet, I'm still in junior high. I heard it from my dad, he said life is like the moon, with its phases of fullness and emptiness, full then empty, empty then full, walking along an unchangeable path."

  "Little brother, what does your father do?" The tall girl came over with interest and sat down beside Xie Yu Xiao, looking up at the moon in the sky.

  "He is a painter, a strange painter, and everyone in our village says he's weird."

  "No wonder you can say something like that, it turns out your dad is a painter..."

  Listening to what this girl said, Yu Xiao felt for the first time that his father's identity as a painter had put gold on his face.

  ……

  After a lot of trouble, two tents were set up on the top of "Blood Demon Peak", one in the east and one in the west. Xie Yu Xiao looked at the two separate tents and asked a girl with a pure expression: "Why didn't they set them up together?" The girl's face turned red as she hesitated to answer: "Who knows why they did that."

  "Off you go, go to sleep!" The boy with black-framed glasses walked over and pulled up the seated girl. He looked at Xie Yu Xiao and said: "How can you sleep? I'll get some things to lay down here for you to sleep on if you want!"

  "Why don't we let him sleep in the tent with us!" The girl asked for her boyfriend's opinion.

  The boy with black-framed glasses looked displeased. Xie Yu Xiao glanced at him and thought to himself, "Pfft, it's just that little thing, is it worth it?" After thinking this, he fixed his eyes on the "Blood Spirit Stone" that was over a person tall and said to the girl, "Sister, can you help me? I want to sit on top of that stone and look at the moon."

  The girl followed Xie Yu's meaning and helped him onto the "Blood Spirit Stone".

  ……

  The new moon slowly moved to the top, quietly shining on Xie Yu Xiao who was hugging his knees and dozing off on the "Blood Spirit Stone". Xie Yu Xiao had a dream, in which he was searching everywhere for a toilet, but before he could find one, he soiled his pants, making them sticky and hot. This wasn't a good dream, and in a daze, he reached down to touch his pants, only to feel a scorching heat beneath his hand.

  "Ah, mom!" He shouted loudly, lowering his head to look at the Blood Spirit Stone under his crotch.

  The Blood Spirit Stone was shining with a steady red light, the red light pierced through his body and shot into the sky.

  "Is the Blood Spirit Stone, the village's sacred stone, angry with me because I sat on it with my butt?" He thought to himself and was about to slide down from the Blood Spirit Stone. Unexpectedly, just as he had assumed a sliding posture, he heard a loud "Boom" sound, and his body fell straight down onto the scattered remains of the Blood Spirit Stone.

  The crimson glow has vanished, and everything is calm once more.

  "Blood Spirit Stone, Blood Spirit Stone is destroyed, can't cure the village's illness anymore, what to do, what to do..." Xie Yu Xiao stared at the pile of broken stones, thinking randomly about how to explain it to Village Chief Bo. Just then, he suddenly discovered that among the broken stones, a few strands of red light were faintly shining. What was glowing? He rubbed his sore body and crawled over, clearing away the broken stones.

  The thing emitting the red glow was a strange, S-shaped stone with a thin iron chain as black as ink wrapped around it. He stared at the glowing stone for a moment before picking it up and putting it around his neck, holding it in his hand to examine it closely. Just then, a wave of crimson light flashed across the sky, and a powerful heat current coursed through his entire body. His whole body began to glow red and twist, even his eyes turned red. He fell to the ground in agony, rolling back and forth nonstop.

  After an unknown period of time, Xie Yu Xiao, who was rolling on the ground, suddenly stood up, standing upright at the top of "Blood Demon Peak", and after sweeping the surroundings with his two bright red eyes, he flashed and transformed into a red light shooting towards the tent in the front left.

  In the tent, two figures were embracing each other, sleeping soundly.

  He looked at them with a expressionless face, his two bright red eyes scanning them briefly before moving to the top of their heads. He placed one hand on each head and opened his mouth wide, biting down on the back of their necks.

  "Ahh~~~ demon, you~~"

  Two mournful cries pierced through the black night.

  "Hey, what's going on?" Another couple was startled awake by the commotion and, bolstering each other's courage, walked towards this direction.

  A hand pulled open the tent flap.

  "Whoosh ~~" With a flash of red light, Xie Yu Xiao's face turned pale white, and her mouth was full of fresh blood. She had quietly appeared under the dim moonlight.

  "Ghosts! Ghosts! Run quickly!" The man shouted and grabbed the woman beside him and ran.

  A red light flashed out of the tent, and two more mournful cries rang out...

  Four college students suddenly became four corpses with their blood sucked dry.

  Xie Yu Xiao stood motionless at the summit with a blood-stained corner of his mouth, his face expressionless. The red glow in his eyes gradually faded away.

  ……

  "What's going on? What happened?"

  Xie Yuxiao, who was gradually coming to, seemed to have no memory of what he had just done. He looked at the two corpses on the ground with a terrified expression and muttered to himself: "What's going on? Was it a wolf...?"

  "Whoosh~~"

  Something whizzing from behind a large rock in the distance shot towards Xie Yu's forehead.

  "Bang!" Xie Yu Xiao fell to the ground with a thud.

  Behind the large stone, a figure emerged, hunchbacked and slowly walking towards this direction. He glanced at the two corpses on the ground, then went into the tent to take a look, and walked to the front of the Blood Spirit Stone that was scattered into a pile of broken stones. After a moment of silence, he muttered: "Could it be true what our ancestors have passed down? Could it be true that the Spirit Master has really reincarnated? Spirit Master, our family has been waiting for your rebirth for generations, but why do you need to drink blood as soon as you are reborn..."

  The hunchbacked old man muttered to himself for a while, turned around, stroked the goat-like whiskers under his chin, and gazed quietly at Xie Yu Xiao lying on the ground. After a while, he squatted down, stretched out his hand to wipe away the bloodstains from Xie Yu Xiao's mouth, and said softly: "Child, is it still you? Is it Yu Xiao or Ling Zhu..."

  The old man with a hump on his back stood up, carried the four corpses to the edge of the cliff and threw them down. This was deep in the mountains, where ferocious wolves roamed about, and by dawn, the bodies would all be hidden in the wolves' bellies, not even leaving behind a single bone. After disposing of the bodies, he gathered up all the belongings of the four men and set them on fire.

  The mountain wind howled by, everything turned into ash, drifting away in the dark night sky.