Chapter 91: The Moon Guardian
"This is Fengdu, the forbidden zone for the living."
The bird-headed monster spoke through its beak, its voice very strange, not as smooth as a human's. "You are a living person. You shouldn't be here."
The village chief's expression was grave, but he smiled. "I am already here."
The bird-headed monster said, "If you want to leave, you must pay a price."
The village chief asked curiously, "What price?"
"Fengdu has a King Yan."
The bird-headed monster's eyes seemed to be staring at the tip of its own beak. "The King Yan has noticed you and admires you greatly. So the King Yan has a request. Agree to this request, and you may leave."
The village chief's expression shifted slightly. He asked politely, "What request?"
The bird-headed monster said, "After you die, you belong here."
The village chief pondered for a moment, then suddenly laughed. "The realm of the dead is the living world; the realm of the living is the dead world. If I can still live here after I die, why not? Life in the outside world is death here; death in the outside world is life here. For me to be able to live here after death is a good thing. I agree. But can you first answer a few of my questions?"
The bird-headed monster tilted its head. "Ask. I may not answer."
The village chief smiled faintly. "That moon boat—is it the Carefree Village?"
"No."
The village chief was stunned, then exclaimed, "If it's not the Carefree Village, then why did it attract Mu'er's jade pendant? Why did it make the pendant point here? And why did the moon boat appear here?"
The bird-headed monster frowned, its eyeballs glaring at the tip of its own beak again, clearly annoyed by his many questions. "The moon herders on the moon boat are all dead, extinct. The moon boat was sent here by the last Moon Guardian. A dead man lives on the boat. Go ask him; he probably knows."
"A dead man? Could it be the Moon Guardian?" the village chief asked, puzzled.
The bird-headed monster lifted one leg, scratched at the feathers on its neck, kicked out a golden-yellow bug from the feathers, opened its mouth and ate it, then said impatiently, "You ask too many questions."
The village chief asked, "What about the demon god that attacked me? Isn't Fengdu the territory of the Celestial Demons?"
"She's a resident here. This place belongs to the King Yan, not the Celestial Demons."
The bird-headed monster ignored him, using its beak to tidy the feathers it had ruffled. "In the future, you will live here just like her. The King Yan admires you greatly."
The village chief let out a turbid breath. He had originally thought this was a world of demons, but he had guessed wrong. It seemed the demon god he had trapped was just one of the major powers in this realm of the dead living.
He asked again, "Where is the Carefree Village?"
The bird-headed monster had completely lost patience with him. It flapped its wings and flew away, saying, "You ask too many questions. I really dislike you. Don't forget your promise. After you die, I will come to fetch you. Don't go with the underworld messengers!"
The village chief watched it fly into the distance, then looked at the moon boat. This enormous moon boat had already stood upright, dragging the moon as it wandered aimlessly.
"I've been rejected. Have I become too talkative in my old age?"
The village chief smiled wryly and walked toward the moon boat. The vortex in the sky was still there, still bleeding, and the demon god was still struggling inside, trying to break out.
"This demon god used the moon boat to attract Mu'er. She must know some secrets about the Carefree Village. Unfortunately, I can only trap her; I can't force her to tell me what she knows."
He boarded the moon boat and arrived at the hull on the toad's back. Looking around, he saw a forest of palaces, all in a state of ruin—crumbling walls, broken beams, and fallen giant weapons, most of them crescent-shaped, with some mirrors and the like.
The palaces here were enormous, not the kind of place ordinary people would live in.
He passed by a great hall and stopped to examine the sculptures in front of it.
The sculptures here were three-legged jade toads, with three legs, human bodies and toad heads—half-human, half-toad.
"Hee hee hee..."
Eerie laughter came from between the clusters of palaces. A sinister voice was singing a nursery rhyme: "Rock-a-bye, rock-a-bye, rock to Grandma's bridge..."
The village chief hesitated for a moment, then ignored the voice and walked into the hall before him. The hall was in chaos: incense burners had fallen over, incense ash was scattered everywhere, bronze sparrow lamps were smashed, folding screens were broken, and jade beds were shattered. It was clear that a great upheaval had taken place.
He looked around and then stopped in front of a mural on the wall. The mural depicted tall, slender giants in white robes herding the moon. They drove the moon boat, appearing at night.
Outside the moon boat, many powerful and ferocious monsters attacked the vessel, but the giants on the boat fought them back with bows, arrows, spears, and swords.
When day came, the darkness receded, and the moon boat would return to an abyss, which should be the moon well.
The village chief studied the mural closely. The giants on the moon boat were handsome, with a crescent moon on their foreheads.
"It seems that bird monster was right. Mu'er is indeed not a moon herder. Mu'er's forehead doesn't have a crescent moon."
He walked around the hall but found nothing more. Then he went to the area near the several thick pillars at the center of the palace complex. The massive pillars were wrapped in chains, and the other ends of the chains floated into the air, tethered to a waning moon.
As the moon boat moved, the waning moon in the sky was also pulled along. When this waning moon rolled, huge balls of fire fell from the sky—these were the rocks and stones on the moon.
This moon had been crippled. Whenever it moved, some stones would fall off, turning into shooting stars.
Some of these shooting stars didn't burn up completely and would crash into the Carefree Village, leaving large craters on the ground. It was very dangerous.
"A packet of sugar, a packet of fruit, Grandma buys a fish to cook. Head not done, tail burnt black, in the bowl it squeaks, in the belly it jumps! Hee hee hee hee hee..."
The singing grew even more eerie. The village chief frowned slightly and scanned the area, but still saw no one. A chill crept up his spine.
Then he saw the source of the sound. On the flat ground in the center of those thick pillars was a face—a huge face.
That enormous face was singing, exactly that somewhat sinister nursery rhyme. Its hair was disheveled, like a madman sealed inside a mirror, but on its forehead was a crescent moon.
"The Moon Guardian of the Moon Herder tribe..."
The village chief sighed, sat down, grabbed a stone, and carved it into the shape of the jade pendant hanging around Qin Mu's neck. "Moon Guardian, have you ever seen this jade pendant?"
"Into the belly it jumps!"
The huge face laughed eerily. "Jumps! Jumps!"
The village chief frowned. This Moon Guardian must have died after fully merging with the moon boat. He had used his last strength to send the moon boat into the realm of the dead living, but he himself had died within the hull. Even if he came back to life in the realm of the dead living, he could only live within the hull, unable to leave.
He had gone mad after death.
The village chief stood up to leave, but suddenly the face on the ground said, "The jade pendant of the Carefree Village?"
The village chief stopped and quickly turned back. "Do you know where the Carefree Village is?"
"Of course I do."
The face on the ground seemed to regain some clarity. "We Moon Herders came from the Carefree Village. The tokens of the Moon Guardians were also forged in the Carefree Village, and even the moon boat was made there... Yes, the Moon Herders, the Moon Herders!"
He laughed heartily, tears streaming down his face. "Dead, they're all dead. Their bodies can't even be pieced together. Haha, dead! I ran, I ran, I'm a coward. I abandoned them, hehe..."
The village chief frowned. "Where is the Carefree Village?"
"Grandma says I'm a good baby..."
The village chief sighed. Seeing that he couldn't get any more information, he had no choice but to leave.
He arrived at the dock and noticed that his legs and hands had disappeared again. He sighed inwardly, then saw the gold coin on the wooden pillar and smiled. "Mu'er is still the most thoughtful."
He took out the gold coin, which emitted a faint light. The village chief shook the coin at the mist, and before long, a small boat drifted over, with a lantern hanging from it.
The village chief floated onto the boat, standing alone at the bow. The small boat drifted into the mist. This mysterious place held many unsolved mysteries. Perhaps in the future, he would have the chance to explore its secrets, but that would likely be after his death, wouldn't it?
"Daoist Lingjing is much more carefree than I am, traveling everywhere and witnessing many wondrous things. Only after I die will I be able to put down the burdens in my heart, I suppose?"
He thought silently, "But by then, I will already be dead, trapped in this realm of the dead living. I won't be able to explore the unknown wonders of this world."
The small boat reached the entrance of this place. The village chief saw Qin Mu running wildly, with the Great Cultivation Demon Scripture turning into countless silver threads that wove back and forth, cutting and killing the skeletons that lunged at him. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Qin Mu saw the small boat drifting over and also breathed a sigh of relief, his heart filled with joy. He was down to his last trump cards—the Great Cultivation Demon Scripture and the Imperial Disc—and could barely hold on.
Just then, the strange world behind them suddenly became hazy and indistinct, and a loud rooster crow rang out.
"Damn! It's dawn!"
The village chief's face changed color. He quickly leaped into the air, wrapped himself around Qin Mu, and blasted outward!
The two of them rushed out of that wondrous world. Qin Mu's feet sank, landing on the surface of the Yong River. Waves lapped over his feet. They were back on the Yong River. He quickly turned to look back, only to see that world had become like a painting drawn with mist, dissipating as if blown by the wind. In an instant, it vanished completely, and even his jade pendant had no reaction.
As the darkness receded, that world completely disappeared from the Great Wasteland, as if it had never existed.
The entrance to this world would appear again on the next night, but where that entrance would drift to, no one could know.