The Burning Chronicles Chapter 2

The cause of the whole story is Piper Xiao’s serious illness.

The old woman took the boiling medicine pot and poured it into a clean small bowl, then said tiredly, "My surname is Yue, and I am the seventh child. When I was young, people called me Qi Niang. Now that I'm old, you can call me Grace Qi. Piper Xiao is my only granddaughter. Her parents died when she was three years old... She is a poor child." After a pause, the old woman continued, "Piper Xiao is very obedient and well-behaved. She never pesters me for her parents, nor does she blame me for not letting her eat and dress well because I'm poor. Instead, she often comes to comfort me, saying, 'Grandma, don't miss your dad. Piper Xiao will take care of you on your behalf.' People in our Qingshui Town also like her, and because of her, they often send us some fruits and food to help us..." At this point, Grace Qi glanced at Luke Lu, and seeing that Luke Lu was looking at her quietly, she suddenly realized something and stopped talking, "This... I'm so sorry, young man. I can't stop talking about the past, and I made you laugh... Later, Piper Xiao fell ill, and she got sicker day by day... At first, she was just in a bad mood, didn't like to laugh, and didn't like to talk. Then slowly she couldn't get out of bed, and even talking was difficult. I looked for doctors everywhere for her. The doctors in Qingshui Town couldn't cure her, so I went to other towns to find one. Everyone was also trying to find a way to save Piper Xiao, but no matter how much money she spent or how many prescriptions she took, she didn't get better. Finally, I thought, maybe God really liked Piper Xiao's cleverness and insisted on taking her in to be a virgin, so I gave up hope... But then one day, when I went to cover Piper Xiao with a quilt in the middle of the night, I found that Piper Xiao's illness was not arranged by God, but caused by that evildoer!"

"Monster?" Luke Lu frowned when he heard it.

---That night, Grace Qi, who was afraid that Piper Xiao would kick off the quilt, came to Piper Xiao's dormitory in the dark. When she reached the door, she felt something strange: a little light was coming through the half-open door.

She had clearly blown out the candle for Piper Xiao, so where did the light come from? Did Piper Xiao light it himself in the middle of the night?

Thinking of this, Grace Qi bent down and looked into the gap. When she saw it, she was almost frightened to faint!

---There was no candlelight in the room, only a gloomy green light!

Piper Xiao, who was sleeping, was leaning on the couch with a pale face, smiling and full of joy. In front of her couch, there was a short creature, holding a lamp, twisting its deformed limbs, and dancing up and down.

The lamp seemed to have been discarded by someone. It was dirty and old, and even the light-blocking glass cover had a big hole in it. The light inside was not as orange and warm as an ordinary candle flame, but instead emitted a faint green color... There was no wick in it, let alone lamp oil!

The thing was completely black, without even fur. Its strange shadow was projected on the wall. Everything was silent, except for Piper Xiao's weak laughter...

Who wouldn't be horrified seeing this scene in the middle of the night? !

Grandma Qi shuddered, opened the door and rushed in, "You monster, how dare you confuse my Piper Xiao, I will beat you to death!" The old woman picked up the broom in the corner and hit the monster without thinking.

The monster was frightened by Grace Qi's sudden intrusion. It seemed not very agile. Seeing Grace Qi approaching, it could only put the broken lamp in its arms. Then it turned its back, and Grace Qi's broom hit its thin back hard!

"Grandma! Grandma, stop it! Don't hit it, I beg you not to hit it!" Piper Xiao immediately shouted loudly. Her limbs were weak. After struggling to stand up on the couch, she lost her balance and fell off the couch! The thin little body rolled on the ground with the quilt wrapped around her, and she couldn't move anymore... However, even so, Piper Xiao still shouted at the monster, "Run away!"

Seeing her granddaughter in such a miserable state, Grandma Qi no longer cared about the monster. She dropped the broom and picked up Piper Xiao. She was worried and angry and said, "What are you doing?! Have you been deceived by the monster? You are actually speaking for it!"

"Grandma, Brother Zane is not a bad person, Grandma, please don't hurt him! He is Piper Xiao's friend, not a bad person!"

"It's not a human being at all!" said Mrs. Qi angrily.

As they were talking, the little monster had already climbed up to the windowsill in two or three steps, holding the lamp, and stood hunched over on the windowsill. Finally, it turned around and looked at Piper Xiao reluctantly.

"Get out!" Grace Qi yelled again.

The little monster was frightened again and jumped off the windowsill, then slowly climbed down along the crabapple tree.

The dim green light that filled the entire room suddenly disappeared, and darkness enveloped the bedroom again.

In the silence, Piper Xiao's intermittent sobbing could be heard.

Grandma Qi hugged her frail granddaughter tightly, her whole body trembling. Only at this moment did she feel a surge of fear.

All this happened at the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

"Later, I learned that the little monster had been here for a while. Every night, it would bring its magic to confuse Piper Xiao. Piper Xiao was still young, and didn't know what magic it had used on her. She kept begging for mercy. Oh, she said that the monster was a human, could speak, and had a name... Xiao Langjun, tell me, if Piper Xiao wasn't possessed by the evil spirit, what else could it be?" At this moment, Grace Qi had already poured the medicine soup. She called Luke Lu, "Xiao Langjun, let's go upstairs to see Piper Xiao." After saying that, without waiting for Luke Lu's consent, she went up the stairs by herself. As she walked, she recalled, "Piper Xiao's illness became worse day by day. She couldn't move, couldn't open her eyes... Even though she was dying of illness, the evil spirit would still come in the middle of the night, light the lamp, and suck Piper Xiao's energy bit by bit."

Grandma Qi was afraid that Piper Xiao would really die, so one night she moved her to another place and stayed alone in the empty bedroom.

At midnight, the monster came on time. It climbed up the lush crabapple tree slowly like a tree lizard. Then it held up the terrifying green light and knocked gently on the window.

"Knock, knock, knock."

The sound is small, but extremely clear.

And Grace Qi, who was in the dark, secretly reached out for the sharpened hatchet beside her.

Hearing this, Luke Lu said, "Old lady, please forgive me for interrupting. Monsters are formed by some chance, or after a long time, or due to some essence, or perhaps, they are formed by their own enlightenment... In short, it is not easy for monsters to take shape, so when some people want to hurt them, they may protect themselves at all costs. Old lady, there is no sorcerer around you, so it is really dangerous to do this."

Grandma Qi smiled and said, "Qingshui Town is surrounded by mountains. It's not easy to find a sorcerer who can subdue demons. If Piper Xiao dies, I will have nothing to live for. It's good to die with the demon. This makes Xiao Langjun worried. In fact, the demon didn't hurt me that night."

Because of the sound made by Grace Qi, the monster on the other side of the window immediately knew who was inside, and suddenly began to tear the fragile window with all its might. It usually moved slowly, but now it was very powerful once it got angry. In a short while, the window was torn to pieces. It limped in with a lantern in one hand, but it didn't expect that Grace Qi, who had been waiting on the side, had raised her hatchet high...

The bright moonlight shone in from the broken window, extending a distorted trace.

There was a puff and scarlet blood splattered on the light and shadow.

The hatchet was off target when it chopped down, and only hit its arm. Even so, the little monster still let out a hoarse and ugly scream, covered its arm, and fell to the ground.

With the help of the light, Grace Qi finally saw the appearance of the monster clearly - no word in the world could describe its ugliness: its body was charred and wrinkled, without fur or muscle, only scars running across it, as if it had been burned by fire, with pits and holes everywhere. Its limbs were twisted into a strange shape, as if all the joints were misaligned, and it moved slowly, probably because of the bones.

It had a small, almost shriveled head, no ears, no nose, no lips, and even one eye was missing. When it was injured, it raised its head angrily and looked at her viciously. Its mouth was just an empty black gap, without teeth or tongue, so it muttered and muttered something vaguely.

As a mortal, I naturally don’t know what it is talking about.

Just as she was about to chop it off again to end its life, she discovered that the little monster's eyes suddenly changed when it looked at her.

Its single eye was light brown, like quicksand, and its pupil was so large that it could even clearly see Grace Qi's figure - that was perhaps the only good-looking part of it. Just now it looked at Grace Qi with hatred, but now it seemed to have suddenly realized something, and its bright eyes were suddenly filled with sadness and confusion.

It was an almost human-like emotion.

Although Grace Qi killed the man in order to protect her granddaughter, she was an old woman with a kind heart after all. Seeing this scene, she did not chop down with the raised hatchet.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the monster held the big broken lamp in its mouth, and with blood all over its body, it struggled to get up from the ground, limped up to the windowsill, and fled in panic.

At this point, Grace Qi turned around and looked at Luke Lu, saying, "What the young master just said did not happen. After the evildoer escaped, he never came back... and Piper Xiao's illness does not seem to be getting better."

In desperation, she suddenly remembered an ancient witchcraft -

Legend has it that if you use a pen soaked in spring rain, ink dried by the summer sun, paper blown by the autumn wind, and an inkstone covered by winter snow to write down the depression in your heart, and then burn them in fire, you can dispel this suffering.

If she hadn't been desperate, she would never have tried such an illusory method. But when she threw the paper into the fire, it didn't burn. Even when the fire in the brazier burned out, the paper remained. Seeing the strange situation, the old man took out the paper with courage, and saw a few unfamiliar words appearing under the paper: I have seen the words, Luke Lu!

Grace Qi thought that it must be the work of a demon, so she angrily tore the paper into pieces and threw it far away!

What she didn't expect was that the mysterious man named Luke Lu actually showed up at her doorstep the next day.

As she explained the reason like this, Grace Qi had already led Luke Lu upstairs.

The second floor was quite spacious. Grandma Qi pushed open a wooden sliding door covered with green gauze paper and saw that the furnishings inside were clean and simple, with just a cabinet, a table, and a couch.

There was a small figure lying on the couch, wrapped in a thin blanket, seemingly sleeping, as fragile as a cocoon.

"Piper Xiao, come and take your medicine." Grace Qi said softly, but there was no response from the bed.

As if she was used to it, Granny Qi picked up the small black porcelain bowl of medicine with a bitter look on her face and blew gently into it. Then she gently held the sleeping child in her arms and fed him the medicine while muttering, "Good child, drink the medicine and you will be fine... When you are well, you can go out to play. Haven't you always wanted to pick crabapple flowers? When you are well, you can go out and pick them..."

As he spoke, tears welled up in the old man's eyes.

Human emotions are so rich. There are many things that fragile people in this world cannot withstand, such as birth, old age, sickness and death, failure to obtain what one desires, inability to let go... Any one of these things can defeat such weak creatures.

Luke Lu squatted beside the couch, observing Piper Xiao carefully. The child's face was unnaturally pale, and she was frighteningly thin. Purple blood vessels were clearly visible under her skin. She closed her eyes and pursed her lips tightly, and she was about to wither and die. Luke Lu saw that the white flame on her chest, which symbolized life, had become smaller and smaller, and was already shaky like a spark.

Luke Lu stretched out his hand and touched Piper Xiao's forehead. His sleeves were much longer than those of ordinary clothes. When he lowered his hands, his entire arms and even his palms were invisible. Now that he raised his hands, the long sleeves naturally fell down. Grace Qi saw that on his slender and clean wrists, there were many silver rings. They were not bracelets, because the styles of bracelets would not be so small and delicate. The rings were densely engraved with characters from unknown ethnic groups, like tadpoles, and each ring was different. Just a cursory look at the silver rings on his hand showed that there were ** of them!

Luke Lu seemed to be very averse to others seeing these rings. After lightly touching Piper Xiao's forehead with his hand, he quickly withdrew his hand and covered it with his long sleeves as usual.

"Young man, what happened to her? Can she be saved?" asked Grandma Qi anxiously.

Luke Lu smiled slightly, "It's not difficult..." But suddenly, he frowned again, "It's just that this herb is really hard to pick..."

The old lady was anxious and said, "Whatever herbs you need, I will spend all my money to buy them!"

Luke Lu shook his head, "This herb cannot be picked by ordinary people... Only spirits and children can see it."