Volume 2 – Birth of Heaven’s First Dragon Sacrifice
Chapter K Prelude to curse
Fruit’s golden yellow fur was covered in mud and its big elephant-like ears were dangling while it was sleeping upon Liu Zhenhan’s chest.
“Shoo, shoo, go away.” Liu Zhenhan was furious. This little guy was winking at him a moment ago and now it was pretending to be asleep on his chest. Fruit woke up lazily and casually looked at Liu Zhenhan as if just woke up from a deep slumber. Liu Zhenhan was fuming with anger because this little punk had just now destroyed such a warm atmosphere built up around him and Hailun.
“Fruit-Fruit” Fruit grimaced then uttered its own name in a loud voice and stuck out his small tongue.
“Go away, or I will hit you!” Liu Zhenhan made a slapping gesture to scare it away.
But, Fruit itself had the profile of a rogue hoodlum. There was no way it was going to bother about Liu Zhenhan’s threat.
A major part of the night sky was covered entirely by a giant moon with visible craters on it. The moon was visible through the shallow canopy of the bamboo forest. While showering in cold moonlight, Liu Zhenhan and the little rascal Fruit were indulged in a staring contest. Liu Zhenhan knew that Fruit understood everything he just said but his threats had no effects on Fruit whatsoever. However, Liu Zhenhan soon realized that in response to his threat, making loud noise was Fruit’s tactic to blackmail him.
Fruit smiled strangely and rose up its small paw.
“What are you trying to do, you little rascal?” Liu Zhenhan’s speculation hit the bull’s eye.
Fruit gently poked Hailun’s waist with its paw.
“Ah” Hailun uttered a loud cry while clutching her waist then suddenly turned back and her sleepy eyes saw Fruit making a funny face at Liu Zhenhan.
After waking Hailun up, Fruit immediately grabbed the feather robe in its mouth and ran away as fast as possible like a rabbit.
“Li Cha!” Hailun was pleasantly surprised, “You woke up? When did you get up?”
“Rascal.” Liu Zhenhan looked at Fruit proudly standing on the edge of the bamboo grove.
“Oh my G.o.d! Li Cha?” Hailun’s line of sight slightly shifted downward but she suddenly froze, and it seemed if someone poured red pain on her face. Despite the fact that she had seen enough in a fairly intimate act earlier, she still couldn’t help but feel embarra.s.sed.
“Hailun? Wait, oh fuc……” Liu Zhenhan felt her gaze sweeping away and almost fainted on the spot. His first reaction was to quickly cover his ‘strategic point’ with his hand. Of course, his hand was not enough to cover it completely.
“Where’s the feather robe?” Hailun’s said in a low humming voice.
Liu Zhenhan pointed in the direction of Fruit who was still holding the feather robe in its mouth and chewing slowly. While Hailun was distracted, he used his other hand to pull out some gra.s.s from the ground and cover his son.
Fruit saw the two of them looking at it and felt proud. It started to dance with joy.
“What is it doing?” Hailun looked at Liu Zhenhan and asked.
“It’s a jumping pot village dance.” Liu Zhenhan said.
“Dance? I know that frost type Picchu beasts like to imitate but are you really sure that it is dancing?” Hailun smiled and looked at Liu Zhenhan. She also discovered that the gra.s.s actually helped in calming her palpitation rate.
“Don’t tell me you taught this dance to Fruit?” Hailun covered her mouth and giggled: “This, whatever pot dance, is too funny.”
Liu Zhenhan pinched his nose subconsciously in embarra.s.sment and could only give a dry smile.
“I did it only once and did not even know when it learned from me.”
Liu Zhenhan regretted unknowingly teaching this dance to a mischievous rascal like Fruit. If he didn’t think of Fruit as his own baby son, he was almost on the verge of silencing the witness of his crime.
“It looks similar to the praying harvest dance of our shamans.” Hailun stood up, “I will bring that feather robe for you.”
“No, no, stop.” Liu Zhenhan hastily stood up while completely forgetting to cover his strategic point as he did, “Do not take that robe from Fruit, he will be angry.”
“What?” Hailun looked at Liu Zhenhan with a big question mark appearing on her face.
“You have to say ‘Yala Suo’ and he would stop. If you do not say this, he will continue to play tricks on you.” Liu Zhenhan said like a proud father.
(TL Note: Ya = Asian; La = to play; suo = to move back and forth)
Hailun clapped her hands, leaned forward slightly to give respect to Fruit and skeptically said: “Yala ~ ~ ~ ~ Suo ~”
“O~~ come here, bud!” Liu Zhenhan’s voice rang like a copper bell.
Hailun turned towards Liu Zhenhan with a surprised look in her eyes. She knew by now that she had been fooled by this father and son duo. Then she looked at Fruit who immediately stopped dancing, rushed towards Liu Zhenhan and jumped into his arms.
Liu Zhenhan casually put on the feather robe and pinched Fruit’s small face.
“Li Cha, what is that thing on your body?” Hailun touched the clearly visible image of a scarlet colored terrifying monster painted on his chest and across his neck.
“It is a tattoo.” Liu Zhenhan also felt strange why his tattoo was not becoming invisible as it was supposed to.
“There’s one thing I forgot to tell you.” Hailun said: “In the Beamon Kingdom, tattoos and coat of arms are considered sacred. Only medals fighters are qualified to have tattoos, and since us sacred sacrifices are considered the war-G.o.d’s servants, a random tattoo would stir up rumors about you. The Beamon military may start to judge you, Li Cha. It is better to keep this tattoo hidden from everyone. ”
“Rest a.s.sured.” Liu Zhenhan shamelessly said: “I don’t plan to walk around stark naked, you know.”
The atmosphere suddenly turned a little awkward.
“Why did you suddenly tear your clothes?” Hailun stayed silent for a whole then asked. She wanted to talk to him about what happened earlier and finally got a chance to inquire.
“I don’t know.” Liu Zhenhan seemed perplexed.
“After eating the turtle egg, I don’t know how and when I felt a painful burning sensation in my body. It felt as if I was being boiled in a pot of boiling water. I was almost on the verge of going insane.” Liu Zhenhan said in an annoyed tone.
“I also suspect that Yalong egg has something to do with what happened earlier.” Hailun lowered her head as if submerged in deep thoughts then said: “Logically speaking, there should be no poison in a Yalong’s egg, but then I’m not sure about the origins of this turtle model.”
“There’s no way to say for sure but there’s a strong possibility.” Liu Zhenhan said.
“Li Cha, your symptoms appeared much like our Beamon soldiers whenever they enter berserk mode.” Hailun thought for a while then said, “Although I am not a witch doctor, I can confirm this much for sure.”
“What is this berserk thing?” Liu Zhenhan asked.
“Berserk mode.” Hailun felt as if her explanation was going to be a bit ridiculous. With a smile of self-mockery on her face, she tried to explain: “Our witch doctors can extract dragon’s blood to create ‘berserk medicine’. Since this turtle model was an ancient Yalong beast with a strong connection with dragons, perhaps its egg contained some degree of incomplete berserk component in it.”
“Berserk? I seem to have heard you mentioning it before, that special battle song which is used on Beamon soldiers to produce mutation, right?” Liu Zhenhan asked.
“Yes.” Hailun said: “After an ordinary sacred sacrifice is promoted to become a war sacrifice, they learn a variety of different types of battle songs from their mentor. One of the most complex battle songs is ‘Berserk battle song’ that can allow Beamon soldier to temporarily attain much greater strength than naturally permitted by their bodies. The enhanced strength has a certain resistance function against magic attacks. The berserk mode basically turns Beamon soldiers into slaughtering machines as they continue to fight non-stop without getting tired! This is considered one of the most important battle songs in Beamon army.”
“Continue.”
“But ‘berserk battle song’ also has obvious grave consequences on the ones it is used upon. Only a few Beamon soldiers are found compatible with it and are able to sustain its effects for a long time. However, once the berserk mode disappears from a Beamon soldier’s body, he slips into an overstrained state, and in extreme cases, this causes death as well. This is the reason why our temple worship codex has strictly prohibited the use of berserk battle song unless extremely necessary, such as in a war against humanity. Since the number of human troops and forces are too large and human magicians are too powerful, the temple group just cannot put a ban on the use of berserk battle song in war.”
Well, when we begin to study enemy’s moves and tricks, the Central Military Commission and the General Staff Headquarters also consider such changes in rules to craft better tactics and strategies. Liu Zhenhan thought as he seemed particularly interested in this talk.
Author’s note below:-
Context: Beamon Witch Doctors
There are two kinds of witch doctors in the world of Beastman. The first kind consists of witch doctors that are like wizards, they are versed in foresight and predicting strategic decisions. For example, a witch doctor had told Hailun that she would meet a man named Li Cha someday and marry him. However, the prophecy skills are mostly ineffective and do not work most of the times.
The second kind consists of witch doctors that can treat simple illnesses. Since Beamon Kingdom does not have a human priest for healing people, the existence of witch doctors is very important and necessary.
Witch doctors also specialize in refining ‘toxic’ drugs and some strange inventions. An ancient Beamon proverb says: a witch doctor’s curiosity can kill a Garfield.