Inner Demons

Chapter 135: The Divine Dragon Cult Master

The three of them were talking outside a teahouse on the main street of the town.

The teahouse owner had ordered tables and chairs from the carpenter and they were on good terms. So he even brought them tea and snacks, telling them to rest well. He also picked up the child to play with him, saying that if they didn't dare to go home tonight, they could stay at his place for a while, and then go to the Dragon King Temple to pray tomorrow—or he had heard there was a Taoist priest on Jun Mountain, perhaps they could ask him for help.

The onlookers, seeing that the story had been mostly told, were starting to lose interest and were about to disperse.

Because the sun was about to set behind the mountains, the street was shrouded in shadow. The last rays of the setting sun bathed people in a dark red light, and a slight breeze had picked up.

It was at this moment that the child, in the arms of the teahouse owner, said with clear articulation, "My time has come."

Although it was a child's voice, the tone was calm and steady, the pace unhurried, as if it had come from the mouth of an adult.

At that moment, the owner was turning his head to greet the people who were about to leave. Hearing this voice, he turned to look—

And saw that his "little nephew" was perfectly calm and composed, and his expression…

Instantly reminded him of what the carpenter and his wife had just said. Fear surged up from the bottom of his heart like a tide, his arm trembled, and the child slid out of his arms!

The carpenter and his wife didn't hear what the child had just said. Seeing her son fall to the ground, the woman hurriedly reached out to help him up.But she saw the child take two steps back, avoiding her hand.

Such a pink and chubby child, wearing a dudou, took two steps back and stood there with a solemn expression.

He bowed to the carpenter and his wife and said calmly, "My time has come."

The onlookers finally saw all this clearly. It was as if a cold current had swept through the crowd…

The people who had been noisy just a moment ago instantly fell silent.

A chill slowly crept up their spines. Everyone stared wide-eyed at the child.

They saw him say to the equally dumbfounded carpenter and woman, "I was originally a dragon prince from the Vast Sea, my true form is Chiwen. I snuck out of the dragon palace to play and was reincarnated into your family. I was supposed to die when you gave birth, but my father, the king, took pity on me being bored in the Vast Sea and allowed me to play in the human world for four years."

"The Chiwen who appeared in Weicheng a few days ago was my true form. Today, the time has come. Yesterday, it was my elder brother who came to fetch me, but seeing your love for me, he delayed it for a day so I could bid you farewell."

By this point, the chill on people's spines had slowly faded. Although they were still so shocked they didn't dare to breathe loudly, they finally knew it was a "dragon prince" and not an "evil ghost," so they weren't so afraid.

But some people were already trembling with excitement and thrill—

To be in such close contact with a "god"!!

The carpenter and his wife were also dumbfounded. The woman wanted to cry but dared not, wanted to hold him but dared not, only covering her mouth, tears streaming from between her fingers.

The child continued, "But to repay you for raising me for four years, I have buried a golden statue of myself under the loquat tree in your yard. If you worship this statue in the future, I will be able to receive your incense offerings."

"I am a divine dragon, my magical powers are boundless. You can also revere me as your cult master and establish a Divine Dragon Cult. When you worship me, chant 'Divine Dragon Cult Master, may your celestial fortune be everlasting, your life as long as the heavens,' and it will show your sincerity. In a few days, there may also be a Black Dragon Envoy, a White Dragon Envoy, an Azure Dragon Envoy, and a Crimson Dragon Envoy who will appear—you must not neglect them."

After saying all this, he cried out, "Enough, enough, enough, I go now!"

Then he collapsed to the ground and moved no more.

When the woman saw this, she immediately burst into tears and threw herself on him. Checking his breath, she found that the child had indeed stopped breathing. Only then did her husband dare to step forward and hold the child, seemingly unable to cry, with other things on his mind, frequently looking towards their home.

The crowd then exploded like a swarm of flies, buzzing with discussion. Some believed and were about to worship the child's corpse. Some were half-believing, shouting to hurry to the carpenter's yard to dig and see. Others quickly ushered their own children away, saying that a newly dead child had heavy baleful energy—

Meanwhile, Li Yunxin used the iron chain to lock the child's small soul, but he still couldn't see what was wrong with this soul.

Many demons and yin-spirits could temporarily draw a person's soul out—but unless it was a great demon with powerful magic, it was very difficult to truly take a person's soul away.

—More than a zhang away from the body, the soul would only wander near the body.

Therefore, when many sprites harmed people, they just made the person's soul leave the body. It was easy for a Taoist priest with some cultivation to guide it back.

The iron chain in Li Yunxin's hand had been given to him by the White Yama King. A single touch to a person's body could draw the soul out. As long as he had this chain, the soul had to follow obediently.

Right now, he used the iron chain to lock the child's soul and left the crowd.

Following the instructions in the booklet, he first looked for a locust tree nearby—there was none.

So he walked a little further, found a place where yin energy gathered, and led the child's soul there.

Then he shouted at it, "The time has come, why are you not leaving yet?!"

The soul trembled and disappeared into the yin energy.

Actually, Li Yunxin really wanted to follow it in and take a look—to see what the underworld was really like. But he was afraid he wouldn't be able to return, so he had to give up the idea.

When he returned to the street, the crowd was gone—they had flocked to the carpenter's house.

By this time, the sky had already darkened.

People lit torches or lamps and gathered around the tree to watch the carpenter dig for the golden statue.

Originally, the death of the carpenter's only son would have been seen as a sad event by everyone, but now that they knew he was Chiwen, the dragon prince, it felt like a miraculous and joyous event. The carpenter himself didn't seem sad anymore, but was instead…

delighted by the prospect of "possibly having a golden statue."

Even if it was a small statue the size of a fist, even if it was hollow…

It was worth a lifetime of his labor.

Amidst the clamor and strange joy, only the woman sat in the darkness under the eaves of her own house, wiping her tears, holding the already cooling corpse of her child. After crying like this for a while…

She suddenly noticed that the people had abruptly fallen silent.

Two breaths later, a collective gasp of amazement erupted, and then, almost everyone in the courtyard fell to their knees.

Her husband, with his already graying temples, stood under the loquat tree in the courtyard, in the dim yellow light of the torches…

Holding a glittering golden statue, smiling with joy.

But the shadows on his face made this smile look somewhat ferocious.

The woman stared blankly at her husband for a while, then suddenly lowered her head and cried even more heartbrokenly.

Shouts rang out, people were chaotically shouting "Dragon King," "Divine Dragon Cult Master," "Chiwen Dragon's Son," and the like.

But these sounds were blurry in the woman's ears, and the golden statue and the torchlight were also blurry in her eyes. Her whole world was just this small corpse—only this one clear and real thing.