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Translator: Tamon
The dog didn’t know when it started thinking. All he remembered was the name the Snake Village called him, Evil Dog, a rotten name for sure. He was an expert in stealing beggars’ food, biting people left and right, and eating corpses. He was the meanest stray there was.
He’d lost count of how many corpses he ate, but never those two. The man and woman swaying on the tribute table of a shabby shrine.
Since then, he could think and human knowledge popped up now and then.
“Ha-ha, those dumb humans bury their dead? A golden opportunity!”
The dog was over the moon, starting his grave desecration journey by robbing them of all their flesh and bones.
Last winter was the most memorable when thirty villagers died and he didn’t even have to dig to reach their crunchy bits.
Alas, all good things come to an end. Spotted at some point, the authorities hounded not just him, but all the other strays, killing any they found.
The dog escaped one crisis, but now he couldn’t return to the village, forced to gnaw on a random grave in the wilds.
“Ins’t there a new cemetery built outside Chen Town? I should check it out.” The dog mused.
But then, his sensitive nose picked up a faint scent from a bush.
“A snake?”
He’d eaten his fair share of snakes these days too, but the dog was sharp when it came to sensing danger, bristling.
“Danger, danger! Run!” The dog trusted his instincts, they kept him alive all this time.
He bolted on the spot, forgetting the freshly dug grave.
“Running just like that?” Xu Hei was stunned in his hiding place.
He was a hundred meters away, yet the dog discovered him before he even showed himself.
“Is a dog’s nose that sensitive? Let’s check.” Xu Hei used Earthen Motion to catch up.
Living for so many years around Snake Village taught him many things.
He could tell at a glance that the black dog wasn’t a wild animal but a stray expert in picking leftovers.
Xu Hei was intrigued by how such a dog turned into a demon and had such sharp senses.
He was even more astounded that the black dog could tell Xu Hei followed. He sped up and darted left and right to shake him off.
[How is it smelling me when I’m underground?]
The chase took the dog to a steep decline. He jumped and turned into a ball, picking up speed as he rolled down the slope.
Xu Hei dived faster to catch him.
The dog sensed Xu Hei was closing in, his entire fur standing on end. He landed on his paws and shouted:
“Murderer! Help! A snake demon!”
The dog spoke human!
The shrill tone and the precise terror in the voice alerted the villagers nearby.
“Shit!” Xu Hei blurted.
He thought only crows knew how to speak, not some random dog. And he even called for help? What the hell?
The black dog was now in the villagers’ sight and Xu Hei halted.
He could’ve caught up, but the risk wasn’t worth it. It was only curiosity that got him to chase the dog.
“Look, it’s that black dog!”
“The one digging up our graves?”
“Curses, get back here!”
Two villagers chased him with their hoes and the black dog fled the other way.
The dog was strong enough to kill a couple of humans with ease, but he’d only known to eat corpses, not kill.
The dog was also smart, knowing the authorities would sic Celestial Monitoring Bureau once he took human lives.
Xu Hei watched from a distant hill as the black dog was chased down, escaping through the Snake Village’s alleys.
“The black dog is famous? Why haven’t I heard of him? Did it appear this year?” Xu Hei wondered.
It was obvious the dog was just like him, sentient. This was the first time Xu Hei met another demon who was as smart as him.
[But why did it happen? What’s tying us together?]
[Did he also eat some human pill?]
Xu Hei shook his head.
“No, not a chance. The human pill was the Daoist’s advancing pill, a rarity. It has to be some other reason.”
Xu Hei knew there had to be another reason at play for him to gain sentience.
It was the same reason that got the black dog to become aware as well!
Xu Hei gave up thinking. He’d know after catching and asking the dog.
But the black dog was hiding in the Snake Village, giving Xu Hei a headache.
Should he go in and grab the dog in the middle of the street?
The dog was sure to bark and draw people and, worse, the Celestial Monitoring Bureau.
That was an official organization, something Xu Hei would never ever touch.
“Humph, you love to dig graves, don’t you? I’ll just wait for you in one!” Xu Hei plotted.
…
In the forest, outside Xu Hei’s territory, two people reached the edge the mountain.
Chen Daoling squinted at the compass. “There’s a snake demon aura around here.”
As a veteran snake catcher, he fought snake demons his entire life. He got so accustomed to them, that a single glance, or sniff, would tell him which snake among countless was a demon.
His eyes turned to the pack of wolves that came from beyond the tree line and surrounded them.
Behind the pack stood a tall Moon Wolf, with black and white fur, and a crescent moon on its forehead.
“Awo!” The wolf king signaled the charge.
The pack jumped the two men. Chen Daoling just stood there, leaving it to Mu Lei, who lifted a Thunder Seal. It released a lightning bolt and struck the pack right in the middle.
Boom!
Five wolves were blown into charred bits, with two turning to ash.
The wolf king fled as he witnessed the devastation.
“Die!”
Mu Lei shouted, activating the Thunder Seal again at the fleeing wolf king.
The wolf king reached a cliff and jumped just as the lightning bolt blew three inches behind. Its tail was destroyed and wailed as it fell in pain.
Mu Lei got to the cliff edge and saw the wolf king just lying below.
He hesitated.
“Let’s go. I can feel the Flood Dragon’s nest nearby.” Chen Daoling checked the compass.
“Yes!” Mu Lei cupped his hands.
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