Chapter 78: Chapter 75: The Ever-Burning Lord of Hounds

If his blood ran any colder, he would surely freeze to death in mute fear. The silvery haired demon that stood before them smiled with the radiance of the sun but he smelled so strongly of ash that Li Baobao thought he would sneeze. He did not look particularly grand, dressed as a farmer in plain hempen clothes with an old leather collar around his neck, the dog's head tied at his waist hung limply and a memory surged back to Li Baobao like waves on a beach.

It was the farmer from the Free City.

Everything had been too much for Li Baobao so mentally he had retreated away, observing passively in the hope that somehow he might wake up at home and everything would be a dream. His mother would come check on him and gently pull him up from bed despite her own aging limbs, brush his hair, and gently lecture him about working all night being bad for his health. Some part of him believed living in ignorance would have been a better choice.

He wished he never met Bo or Liu Xie in the forest.

"You must be Lang Lang," Liu Xie said staring at the demon while reaching for Zhu Er. Lang Lang quickly moved in front of him, blocking the other man.

"Yes I am," the other man said. His face was in a fixed frown, "who are you?"

"Liu Xie."

Lang Lang stood absolutely still, staring at Liu Xie without blinking. Gradually his brows furrowed in confused disbelief, "your name is 'bleeding'?"

Liu Xie now also looked confused. "No, it's Liu Xie."

"It sounds like bleeding," Lang Lang insisted.

"It kind of does, boss," Bo agreed.

Liu Xie shook his head. "You're both mishearing it."

Li Baobao shifted slightly, inching away from the three to go to Zhu Er. His eyes swept over to Ji Ying, who was nodding in agreement with Bo. Her eyes locked onto his and Li Baobao tried gesturing with his head towards Zhu Er. She cocked her head to one side before her mouth opened with an 'ah', and then she too began to inch around to Zhu Er.

Lang Lang's two followers were standing on either side of Lang Lang, maintaining a respectful distance from him and both seemed more focused on watching the argument evolving. This meant that Ji Ying and Li Baobao were soon on either side of Zhu Er who was watching the proceedings with apparently rapt attention.

"Listen, we just came here to get Zhu Er back," Liu Xie explained with a patient yet exasperated tone.

"Why?" The question was sharp, distrustful.

"She's my daughter. I promised that we will go beyond the Silent Mountains, into the Ancient Dynasty's land, and to the First Palace. Her mother is there, and I vowed to reunite them," Liu Xie's voice held iron in it now and he crossed his arms.

"You look nothing like her," Lang Lang pointed out. "I found her half dead on an altar, where were you? What sort of father are you, letting your daughter be kidnapped like that? She would have died if I hadn't found her!" Small drifting sparks of flames seemed to curl on Lang Lang's form, the heat rising around him. Li Baobao reached down to gently take Zhu Er's hand as he was distracted. "You don't even smell like a human. You have the stench of a celestial and a liar. You don't deserve to have a child."

Something filled Li Baobao's throat, a breath that could not escape as he watched Liu Xie's eyes widen. There was a tiny bubbling noise from the pond, and Li Baobao's eyes fell on Rui Yifu's face. He had emerged slightly from the water, just enough to allow his eyes to peer over the edge of the pond and at the arguing two.

Liu Xie's face was locked in an expression of shock, although his lips twitched with the tic of ire. As though Lang Lang's statement dug deep into him.

"You... are right, in a way. I'm not a good parent," Liu Xie admitted, the ire melting into guilt on his face. "If I had paid better attention to her and treated her like she was my daughter from the start, a lot of pain could have been avoided." Li Baobao had never seen such a depressed look on Liu Xie's usually painfully apathetic face. Zhu Er squeezed his hand and he heard a strange soft creaking noise. Li turned his head and felt his heart scrabble up his throat in panic before he could tell Ji Ying to drop her arrow.

"See, you're a sensible thing," Lang Lang said. "Why wouldn't you want her to stay here? This is a peaceful place, its inhabitants are kind and-" an amber tipped arrow ripped through his skull. Yellow and orange flames that shined like the sun burst through the wound, but Lang Lang did not fall over as his head was swathed in flames. "I KNEW IT!" He screamed through the fire that ate off the flesh.

"JI YING! WHY?" Bo yelled.

"I... I thought..." The woman seemed at a loss. "I thought he was going to-"

"We need to go," Lin's voice was raised over the crackling of flesh.

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Then Lang Lang's head fell off.

It hit the courtyard ground with a wet 'thud', the flames on it suddenly dousing themselves as the headless body stood upright. The body's hand then snatched up the dog skull from its belt and from the stump of his neck another fire grew, deep red in its color as he placed the dog head atop. The inferno consumed the skull, leaving behind the burning visage of a fierce god. The body bent downwards, the skin melting like wax as flames surged through. It was getting hot. Too hot. Li Baobao felt his skin tighten and sting in the heat.

"I don't typically fight dogs," Liu Xie said, unfazed by the burning demon. "But I guess I'll make an exception for you." He drew his sword and before Li Baobao witnessed anything else he felt a strong wet hand grab him by his collar and quickly start hauling him away.

Li Baobao did not resist, being quickly yanked away from the scene and yet his eyes still caught the painful flash as a massive dog-like thing locked its teeth against a blade that crackled with white flame. The entire group had moved as one semi-panicked blob from the courtyard into the darkened clinic before plunging down a stairway into a murky green room with several tables long enough to accommodate a person each. Li Baobao was unceremoniously released and allowed to stagger against a mercifully cool moist wall. His heart was beating at such a tempo he could barely feel his own chest. He glanced around. There were shelves and cubbyholes in the wall holding jars containing innumerable medicinal herbs, stacks of scrolls, stone slates, and books, strange instruments, and the familiar glowing coral lanterns he remembered from the City of Melting Pearls. He slumped down against the wall, looking over at the others.

"You led us into a trap! You idiots! There's no way out of here!" Ji Ying fumed, stomping her foot as she pointed at Bo and Rui Yifu. "What are we going to do down here!? Do you even know what they're planning?" She pointed at Hua Qingzhao and Lin, who both awkwardly stood together nearby. Zhu Er was at the base of the stairs, looking upwards as the floor above them rattled.

"I am not planning anything," Lin said. "If we had remained there, Lang Lang would burn us alive by accident in his anger."

"Lin isn't a liar," Rui Yifu said. He was sitting on one of the tables, nude except for the shroud of his wet hair that clung to his scarred body.

"Put on some clothes?" Ji Ying said, her anger now focusing on being scandalized. Rui Yifu's hair was long enough that anything unfortunate was quite well covered. Unfortunately it did not hide the scarring nor the inhuman qualities of his face.

The ground shuddered again. "Hua, " Lin looked over at the female ghost, "go warn the townspeople."

"Gladly," Hua Qingzhao's face was the picture of relief before she melted down into a swirling black fog that slithered out.

"Where is she going?" Bo asked.

"To the people. She'll tell them to go to the shrine for safety," Lin explained. "Lang Lang can be extremely destructive in this state." The sound of a wall collapsing somewhere above made Lin go silent until the creaking wood stopped its cries. He looked increasingly sad, and Li Baobao guessed he was despairing over his destroyed clinic. "Some past town elder who came from the Northern Kingdom originally suggested making a system of tunnels for people to hide in if Lang Lang ever felt the need to have us hide. They all lead to the shrine."

"What's in the shrine?" Li Baobao was surprised to hear his own voice.

"A statue, living quarters for those newly arrived or who can't adjust to life in the village... and dozens of sacred weapons," Lin listed things off casually, like speaking about a shopping list. He went to the wall, his long hand reaching one of the coral lanterns that he pressed his hand against. The lantern sank into a depression in the wall and with a grinding rattling sound part of the wall next to Li Baobao sank downwards, allowing the murky green light to spill into a tunnel only wide enough to accommodate people in single file. In the distance concerned chattering voices flowed like the soft bubbling of a river.

Bo moved up behind Zhu Er to pick her up, "but can't we just tell them to stop? Lang Lang seemed pretty reasonable until Ji Ying decided to try killing him." His face soured as he looked at J Ying.

"You thought that was reasonable? It was an accident, he was about to attack anyway," Ji Ying's hurried and aggressive tone just made Li Baobao sigh in exhaustion. He got to his feet with considerable effort.

"Shayu, what will you do?" Lin asked.

"I'll stay here," Rui Yifu answered. "I can't very well wander around naked, can I? You left my stuff near the pond in the courtyard, I'll be able to grab them once those two move."

"Just turn back into a fish," Bo suggested.

"I'll suffocate in the air," Rui Yifu did not look impressed with the suggestion. "Go on, I'll find you all later." Dust knocked loose from the ceiling drifted in the room, followed by a wooden floorboard that narrowly missed Ji Ying's head. Warmth and fiery light poured in from above, casting Rui Yifu in a hellish red glow, his eyes left like black coals staring out at them.

Li Baobao's arm was grabbed and he was being pulled again, Bo holding his arm with one hand and carrying Zhu Er with the other. "What is Lang Lang anyway? He's really not human right?"

Lin was quiet for a long moment as they walked. Ahead were dim shadows of other people fleeing to safety. Some of them carried lanterns, meager pinpricks on the darkness around them. "...A long time ago, there was a young lady of a scholarly family. The family's guard dog had puppies, and she chose one of them to be her own. She raised that dog under a gentle hand, and since dogs cannot gossip, she told it all of her thoughts and wishes. She adored that dog. The dog was even given a red ribbon during her wedding and allowed to sit near the door. Yet..." Lin paused in his story for a moment. "...Yet, her husband was a drunk, and a gambler. When debt came, he sold away expensive gifts given during the wedding. He sold furniture. Pots and pans. His wife's bed. But he never stopped. His debt grew larger. When he tried to sell his wife, she resisted, fighting against him. Her dog, ever loyal, came to his mistress' aide. But he was an old dog at that point. His ferocity was unmatched, but his body was weak."

Li Baobao had stopped walking under his own power. His feet were trippling over each other but Bo's strong grip kept him upright as he listened to Lin's story.

"The husband thought he killed the dog, and then his wife. To hide his crime, he burnt down the house," Lin's soft voice was loud in the thin tunnels. "But they were still alive, even just barely. The house burned around them. The young lady used the last of her life to comfort her dying dog. When the embers finally died, Lang Lang woke up alone."

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