Death Scripture

Chapter 917: Once Upon a Time

She was lying on her side with a blanket covering her in bed, looking extremely listless. She didn’t use a pillow and instead stretched her head over the edge of the bed and left it dangling there. With her head upside down, she faced the little kid not far from her.

This was a very weird posture. Her body was in a twisted shape like that of a half-dead snake, which made Shangguan Cheng feel scared. It hadn’t even been three days since he had left the stone castle, but everybody he had met was different from those back home, especially this girl in front of him. His small mind couldn’t handle so many changes.

He drew back, straightening the thin rope fastened to his wrist. The rope was about seven to eight feet long, and the other end of it was fastened to Han Fen’s left wrist. She didn’t resist and just let Shangguan Cheng pull her arm past the edge of the bed.

She had been in this posture, not blinking, for nearly a quarter of an hour. An idea suddenly occurred to Shangguan Cheng. “Are you dead?”

The weird woman didn’t react. Shangguan Cheng became scared. Without his father or any other adult around him, he became much more timid. After standing there, transfixed, for a while, he took action. He tried to undo the knot on his wrist with one hand but failed due to the incorrect method he used. Then he tried to bite the knot with his teeth, which were not yet fully grown and thus proved totally unhelpful, but he did manage to wet the knot with saliva.

He thought for a while and found that he only had two options – yell and call someone outside the tent to help, or walk up to that body and trying to undo the knot at the other end with both of his hands.

If he were in Golden Roc Castle, he would without a doubt choose the first option. However, this was a completely foreign place to him. Except for his mother who had kissed him like crazy when she had first seen him, nobody else had ever shown any kindness to him. So, he had only one choice left.

“I’m not afraid.” Shangguan Cheng tried to embolden himself, but his feet refused to move forward.

“I’m not afraid,” he repeated and then tiptoed over, as if he was trying not to disturb the dead.

Half of Han Fen’s arm was exposed to the air, and there were many scars of different depths on it, which sent chills down Shangguan Cheng’s spine. He hurriedly closed his eyes, fumbled around, and found the knot. Then, with all his strength, he started trying to undo it.

The knot was too tight, and Shangguan Cheng’s strength was not enough to undo it. Frustrated, he opened his eyes and saw that the two eyes, which were upside down, were looking at him and blinking curiously.

Afterwards, Shangguan Cheng felt like he had had a hundred choices, but in the end he choose the most shameful one, which he wouldn’t be able to forget, even many years later: he cried and wet himself.

Three streams of liquid flowed from three different parts of his body. Shangguan Cheng’s wail was no different from that of any common children. If the Unique King were here to see him crying this way, he would have been deeply disappointed.

Han Fen abruptly turned around, knelt down on the bed like an animal, stuck out her tongue to make a grimace, and then smiled. “Why are you crying?”

“I–I hate you. You play–played dead to scare me… ” Shangguan Cheng sobbed.

“I wasn’t playing dead. I was sleeping.”

“But your… eyes were open.”

“Why is that strange? People can sleep with their eyes open.”

“Really?” Shangguan Cheng stopped crying, seemingly somewhat suspicious.

“Of course. I can also sleep with one of my eyes closed and the other one open. It’s just a petty trick. I can do a lot of things.”

“Then why did you get caught by my father?”

“Because I was unlucky, and your father… Who’s your father?”

“The Unique King,” Shangguan Cheng said proudly.

“Oh, I remember. You called the Unique King father.”

“My father is the toughest man alive. You can’t defeat him with your petty tricks.”

“Ha-ha, of course I can’t defeat the Unique King, but he’s not the toughest person alive. The Master Commander is.”

“My father is not afraid of elephants, and he is not even afraid of lions.”

“The Master Commander is not even afraid of the God of the Underworld and she dares to leave corpses intact. She’s definitely not afraid of the Unique King.”

These two people, one standing on the ground and the other kneeling on the bed, tried their best to widen their eyes and stare at each other. Neither of them was willing to yield.

Shangguan Cheng blinked first.

“You lost,” Han Fen said happily and laid down on her back. Then she mumbled with a frown, “It hurts so much. It hurts so much.”

Shangguan Cheng drew back step by step until the thin rope straightened. “Only cowards yell because of pain. And yet you have the nerve to say that my father is not the toughest?”

“Then what you call the kind of person who wets his pants? A ‘peeing-ghost’?” Han Fen asked with a smile.

Shangguan Cheng blushed. “That was because you scared me… ”

Han Fen pulled heavily on the rope and forced Shangguan Cheng to the bedside. In amusement, she sat on the bed and swiftly stripped Shangguan Cheng naked in spite of his objections and struggles. She then tosses his clothes to the ground, looked around, and then grabbed her blanket and carefully wrapped it around Shangguan Cheng.

“You are a little big for a kid, but you’re pretty fun. Stop kicking. I’m good at wrapping kids up.”

Shangguan Cheng finally yielded. Like an infant who had just been born not long ago, he was wrapped up in several layers of blanket. As annoyed as he was, he had to admit that he felt pretty comfortable.

Han Fen looked up and down at her masterpiece. Suddenly, something occurred to her. “No. You said that your father caught me, but the Dragon King rescued me, and he also took you here. So, the Dragon King is tougher.”

Shangguan Cheng had almost forgotten about the argument that they had just had. He thought for a while and then understood her words. “The Dragon King is a coward. He didn’t dare have a kung fu competition with my father, so he had someone else take his place… ”

“But your father didn’t fight either.”

“Father… Father is not a coward. He said that he would get me back.”

“Nobody has ever taken back anything that the Dragon King snatched. Um. The Dragon King is not the toughest person, but he’s tougher than your father.”

“The Dragon King is not tough at all,” Shangguan Cheng yelled in defiance.

In surprise, Han Fen lowered her head and looked at the little kid on the bed. “The Dragon King is not tough? He’s done so many things-”

“What did he do? Did he kill a lot of people? Are there many people at his command?”

Han Fen was even more surprised. “You don’t even know who the Dragon King is, do you?”

“Of course I know. He’s that pale-faced coward. My mother handed me over to him, but then he gave me to you. I hate you.”

“And then? Have you heard about the Dragon King’s story?”

No one had ever mentioned the Dragon King’s name in the inner chamber of Golden Roc Castle, but Shangguan Cheng refused to admit it. “He’s a guy who always has others battle for him, and he refuses to do it himself.”

“Little kid, you are lying. Let me tell you his story.” Sitting on the edge of the bed, Han Fen gently patted Shangguan Cheng. “Once upon a time, the Dragon King had a very happy family. He had a father, a mother, an elder brother, a younger brother, an elder sister, and a younger sister. Your guess was right. Their names were Daddy Dragon, Mummy Dragon, Elder Brother Dragon, Younger Brother Dragon, Elder Sister Dragon, and Younger Sister Dragon, respectively. One day, a villain showed up and killed all of these dragons except for the Dragon King.”

Han Fen stopped talking. The story had stirred Shangguan Cheng’s curiosity, so he blurted, “What happened next?”

Han Fen nodded happily, feeling that this kid had become even cuter. “You’ll never guess.”

“The Dragon King killed the villain, of course. All the heroes in the stories do that.”

“No. The villain was very powerful, and the Dragon King couldn’t defeat him in the past.”

“Then the Dragon King either asked someone else for help or found a place to hide himself and practiced kung fu.”

“That’s not true either. The Dragon King… heh-heh, infiltrated into the villain’s home and became his servant.”

“Why?” Shangguan Cheng asked with widened eyes.

“Because he wanted to get close to his foe and learn kung fu from his foe so as to avenge the murder of his dragon family.”

As surprised as Shangguan Cheng was, he couldn’t understand the Dragon King’s deeds. “He should’ve asked my father for help. My father can finish the villain off in just one move.”

“Heh, your father is the villain. He killed all of the Dragon King’s family members. The Dragon King hid in Golden Roc Castle for several years.”

Shangguan Cheng was transfixed with shock. “Nobody ever told me that… My father is not a villain.”

Han Fen didn’t argue with him but continued to tell the story. “Together in Golden Roc Castle, the Dragon King and the Master Commander grew up, learned kung fu, and killed people. I don’t know if they also slept together. Then one day, the villain – who’s also your father – discovered that the Dragon King was an infiltrator who intended to kill him, so the Dragon King and the Master Commander fled the castle.”

“Nobody can flee from the stone castle.” Shangguan Cheng began to doubt the authenticity of this weird woman’s story.

“Others can’t, but the Dragon King and the Master Commander did. They fled, and the villain sent people to hunt them down. But when one person caught up with them, they killed one person. When two people caught up, they killed two people. For some reason, the Dragon King and the Master Commander were separated, which was a pity. The Dragon King killed more and more people, and there were more and more people supporting him… ”

“Everyone in the stone castle is under my father’s command.”

“There can’t be that many people in there, can there?”

“Er… My father said that there were more outside and that it was an army with hundreds of thousands of troops.”

“Ha-ha, you saw those tents out there, right? They’re countless.”

“Hmm.”

“All the people in those tents are the Dragon King’s subordinates, and they’re only a small part of the Dragon King’s men. On the grasslands, there are more armies at the Dragon King’s command. There are several hundred thousand troops there, which is a number ten times, even a hundred times, larger than the number of troops here.”

“You’re lying.” Shangguan Cheng had no concept of big numbers. He was just unwilling to admit that the Dragon King had more men than his father.

“Why would I lie? I was in the military camp myself. There was one occasion where the Dragon King and his soldiers were fighting enemies, and I got lost in the battlefield. It took me a full day to find the Dragon King again. Can you imagine how vast the battleground was and how many soldiers there were?”

Shangguan Cheng couldn’t answer. “My father has two golden rocs. You saw it yourself.”

“You ignorant little kid. The birds in your home are dead. The Dragon King keeps a living one.”

“A living one?”

“Um. A living one. All of its feathers are black. Only the eyeballs are red. Nobody except the Dragon King can get close to it, because it – likes to peck people’s eyes out and swallow them like you swallow grapes.”

Shangguan Cheng was startled. “Is it as large as the birds in my home?”

“It’s much larger. I saw it with my own eyes. When the red-crowned giant roc descended from the sky, we couldn’t even see the sun. The gusts generated by its wings are powerful enough to down a large group of people. Everybody calls it the Devil Bird or Divine Bird, and they kneel upon seeing it. Oh, I remember. Do you know how the Dragon King and the Master Commander managed to escape from the Golden Roc Castle?”

“I don’t,” Shangguan Cheng mumbled, thinking about the black-feathered and red-crowned giant roc.

“They flew away on the back of the Devil Bird. The villain, who’s your father, and your family’s killers, just stupidly stood on the ground and watched the giant roc fly away. Their mouths were full of dirt blew up by its wingbeats and they couldn’t get their mouths clean for days.”

Han Fen only knew the general situation and had added much of her imagination to the story. While telling the story, she herself became fascinated by it. Head askew, she looked hugely expectant. “A giant bird was flying in the sky like a gigantic dark cloud while the Unique King and those Golden Roc killers were running around like ants. Hand in hand, the Dragon King and the Master Commander leaned against each other… Alas, why did they break up?”

Fascinated as well, Shangguan Cheng added more fantastical elements to the story in his head and kept silent for quite a while. The pale-faced image of the Dragon King in his mind had instantly been replaced by a brand-new one.

While the two were chatting, Gu Shenwei and a group of his men were planning to visit Golden Roc Castle again. This time they would sneak into it uninvited. He couldn’t let the golden-crowned rocs stay around that murderer any longer.