Duck Emperor Chronicles – Chapter 8

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  • DEMONIC TRANSLATIONS

    [Author – Blurry]

    [Proofreader – Samael]

    — — —

    Chapter 8: Huai Family Three Brothers.

    Huai Chengji.

    Huai Xiguan.

    Huai Maobing. 

    [PR/N: IT’S M(ORBING)AOBING TIME.]

    The triplets were the byproduct of very poor choices and even poorer protective measures, growing up in the ruthless environment of the Huai Family. As such, it was no wonder that they turned out to be wicked evildoers who revelled in the torment of others. This was, after all, how they were raised.

    Becoming a villain was almost an ancestral tradition in the Huai Family.

    From small fries all the way up to the big bad, the so-called Huai Family more closely resembled an organized crime syndicate than an actual ‘family’.

    And on this fine day, the three hooligans were coincidentally strolling around the Wangxiang market, looking for any people they could harass. The marketplace was one of the few legitimate businesses run by the Huai Family in collaboration with the Qian Family.

    Having said that, it was practically the only market within 1000 miles of Jiang River City. This meant that everyone needed to go through the market for food and supplies. 

    The Huai Family took advantage of the situation, and made it a no-man’s-land for any person who’d previously offended the Huai Family. Merchants were ripped off or kicked out, and some patrolling Huai Family members would usually beat up blacklisted customers.

    No one could say anything about their tyranny. 

    Anyone who protested risked being targeted themselves.

    Eventually, it escalated to the point where even non-blacklisted people might end up bloodied and bruised if they didn’t carefully watch their mouths.

    The child laying on the ground was one such unlucky individual.

    “Stupid f*****g kid, you think you’re some sort of hero, huh?! Standing up to us like that?”

    “Was that your aunt or something? To think you’re sacrificing yourself for her while she’s already run away as fast as she could! Idiot!”

    “Hur dur. Children, uh, feel good to kick. . . Huai Chengji likes!”

    Huai Chengji was often dropped on his head as a baby.

    “Sob, sob. . .”

    The kid quickly curled up into a ball, as kicks continued raining down on her.

    Around her, the people of the village went about their lives, their eyes cast downwards.

    But fortunately for her, and unfortunately for them, the power-tripping trio would find themselves kicking a spiked metal wall this time, instead of the soft persimmon they had intended to bully.

    And it all started with a pointed duck beak to the crotch.

    The goon with a severe acne problem, Huai Xiguan, suddenly noticed something suspicious.

    “Hey, First Brother? Am I going blind or is there a duck coming near us?”

    “A duck? Are you crazy? Why would there be—”

    Huai Maobing suddenly smacked the two across the head.

    “Ow! First Brother that hurt!”

    “Hur. . . why did First Brother hit me. . .”

    The eldest Huai brother pointed towards the duck and whispered.

    “That’s the duck on the top spot of our blacklist! The one that hurt Fourth Young Master Huai Dan and made him stupid like Third Brother Chengji!”

    “Hurr?”

    Huai Chengji looked aggrieved, like a bullied puppy. The image really didn’t mesh well with his stocky body that kept kicking at the crying child even as he teared up. 

    “Ah, nevermind that! I’ll deal with it. You guys just focus on teaching that brat a lesson.” 

    “Okay!”

    “Hehe. Huai Chengji will kick. . . child, hehe. . .”

    Huai Maobing stared blankly at his third brother for a moment before storming off.

    ‘F*****g idiots, the both of them. I’ll wrap up this bounty myself. Since it’s the duck from the top of the blacklist, they’ll definitely be good rewards for its capture, haha.’

    The Huai Family often gave out an assortment of various prizes for harassing or capturing individuals on the blacklist, ranging from martial art scriptures to cultivation resources to official positions in the family, all based on how high up the blacklisted person was.

    For a mere duck to be the new No.1 Most Wanted. . .

    ‘We really needed this. What a goddamn steal.’

    Laughing inwardly, Huai Maobing walked towards the duck who was watching nearby. He slammed his foot down and squatted in order to glare into the white-feathered waterfowl’s beady eyes. The man and duck stared at each other for a solid few seconds.

    The Huai Family member spat on the ground.

    “Pa-tooey! The f**k you looking at, damn duck.” 

    “You oughta curse your bad luck for running into me. This Huai will make sure to capture you and get the bounty, and you can’t do anything about it. Goddamn duck.”  

    The sunken-eyed goon reached a hand out. The duck remained silent.

    As the shadow of the hand covered the sky, suddenly—

    Chomp!

    A sound that was not a sound escaped Huai Maobing’s wide mouth.

    And somewhere in the village, an old woman accidentally dropped two eggs on the ground.

    Crack.

    ————

    ‘Oh my ducking god why did you bite him in the—!’

    ‘I don’t ducking know either! Is this some ducky instinct or something?!’

    ‘What ducky instinct do you have that I don’t?!’

    ‘Also, duck you! That’s my beak you’re using, you absolute duck-head! You’re making me nauseous! Let go of that b*****d before I puke all over the floor!’

    ‘A ghost can’t puke!’

    Crunch. Unbeknownst to Ya Jiao, their heated argument had only made his ducky vice-grip stronger.

    Huai Maobing screamed in agonizing pain. 

    “ARGHHHHHHHHHH!”

    The duck and the ghost screamed alongside him.

    ‘Agggggghhhhhhhh!

    ‘Ughhhhhhh—hurk, blargh!’

    Imaginary vomit splattered all over the ground.

    Unable to withstand the torment any longer, the Huai Family member directly knelt on the ground, passing out immediately, as a white-feathered duck continued to hang onto his loins.

    A brilliant mixture of red and yellow discoloured Hua Maobing’s pants.

    Finally regaining his wits, Ya Jiao extracted himself from the damage, spitting wildly as he did.

    “Ptui, ptui! Duck! Ugh, so gross!”

    The disgusted duck kicked the bleeding man away.

    Unfortunately, this kick landed exactly on the poor goon’s crotch, further cementing his grizzly fate.

    Huai Maobing woke up from the sheer shock, before subsequently passing out once more.

    It was about this time that Huai Chengji and Huai Xiguan finally noticed something amiss. The Huai Family lackeys’ mouths nearly hit the floor as they watched their brother crumple into a ball at the webbed feet of a white duck, lying prone in the middle of an ever-growing pool of bodily fluids. . .

    “First Brother!”

    The bull-headed Huai Chengji rushed forth. His eyes were bloodshot, massive frame heaving as he unleashed a strong palm strike towards Ya Jiao.

    [Thousand-Catty Strike]

    A force of nearly a thousand catties slammed down upon the duck, yet it remained unperturbed and indifferent, as if dismissing the powerful attack altogether.

    Ya Jiao didn’t even need any techniques to accept such a low-calibre blow.

    {Apotheosis}

    The perfection of movement. The pinnacle flow. Unfettered and unobstructed, as if a swallow on its dive, or the circulation of Yin-Yang Koi. It was the harmonization of self with Heaven and Earth. 

    Every cultivator in the Heavenly Warlord Realm and above possessed knowledge of Apotheosis, but their interpretations of it—and efficiency while using it most important of all—varied wildly. Elusive and ephemeral, it was more like a state of being instead of a technique.

    There was no way to learn it from another.

    No way to glean its secrets from some mystic scripture.

    And no way to cheat your way to it.

    It was the accumulation of experience, the droplets of effort and persistence that grow into a river.

    A river that culminated in Ya Jiao halting the heavy palm with just a single feather.

    Boom!

    Dust clouds rose from the muddied land, as the duck effortlessly blocked Huai Chengji’s momentum. 

    He had possessed the same state when fighting Long Aotian, albeit much stronger than this, it was a state so unparalleled that if Empty Void Buddha had not intervened, the blood of his enemies would have flowed into every corner of the Heavenly Realm that day.

    The deliberate loss of his arm, the lingering poison in his veins—they did not matter.

    His Apotheosis was second to naught but one.

    Huai Chengji simply never stood a chance.

    Ya Jiao casually returned the force two-fold, sending the snorting bull flying. 

    “Urgh—!”

    Huai Xiguan, who was standing on the sidelines, shouted in shock:

    “I-Impossible! That duck is a Bronze Body Cultivator?!”

    Correct. Utilizing the dregs of Natural Qi left over from dealing with the Karma Swallowing Physique, the Duck Lord Ya Jiao had officially broken through to the Bronze Body Realm.

    Reaching the first baby steps of cultivation.

    And he had achieved it with such ease that it left Ya Jing in shock for a while.

    ‘Heh. What a poor, reckless duckling.’

    But there were many more shocking things to come.

    “Huai Chengji! Get up, you big oaf, we need to gang up on him! First Brother, please get up!”

    Unfortunately for the acne-riddled man, those two had already promptly passed out.

    Huai Xiguan hastily backed off as Ya Jiao waddled over. His pupils trembled and his hands shook, the fear of pain and suffering clearly reflected within his watering eyes. Was it not oh so interesting that those who liked to inflict pain the most. . . never seemed to ever like suffering it themselves?

    “G-get away from me!”

    The scrambling man threw a fistful of earth. Rocks and sand.

    The white-feathered duck merely walked straight through it, untouched.

    His head whipped about. Was he perhaps looking for help? From the people in the marketplace? The same people who cared not that a child was being viciously beaten up in front of them? 

    As expected, the villagers all lowered their heads silently.

    It was then that his desperation finally hit him.

    Pouring whatever Qi he had left into his legs, Huai Xiguan crazily launched himself towards the child, picking her off the ground. He pulled out a short, serrated dagger out of his sleeve. The surrounding crowd visibly stiffened as the acne-riddle goon then held it to the young girl’s neck.

    “Don’t come a step closer, or I’ll kill her!” 

    Ya Jing recoiled in shock as Ya Jiao paused in his tracks.

    The white-haired youth looked a tad pale as he nervously glanced at his ducky companion.

    However, Ya Jiao only seemed more and more intrigued by the unfolding situation.

    ‘H-hey, Ya Jiao?’

    “How interesting. You’re asking ‘me’ to not come closer?”

    The goon shuddered at the indifferent tone. His blade pressed deeper into the girl’s neck.

    A child, dressed in rags, who was still sobbing uncontrollably.

    “Even though I’m not the threat closest to you?”

    A child who had no injuries on her body at all.

    Huai Xiguan’s eyes slowly widened.

    “Sob, sob. W-why are you people so evil? What did I ever do to you? I just. . . wanted to help that old lady. . . was that enough of a reason for you to beat me up so badly?”

    Like a chiming bell. That was what the child’s voice sounded like. A heavenly bell that tolled from the sky, devoid of impurities, clear and lucid. A divine tone that also carried grievances and anger.

    A heavenly bell that struck down upon the mortal realm like a meteor.

    “Shush! Shut up, kid! I need you to—”

    Huai Xiguan could no longer make a single noise. The elbow that had snuck its way to his solar plexus had stolen all his breath, along with the rest of his stamina. 

    Crack.

    The hand holding the knife creaked as its bones almost broke from the young girl’s grip. 

    She snatched away the knife, pushing the gasping goon onto the dusty ground. 

    Her eyes were like two bottomless voids. Pure, but containing a horror unimaginable.

    Or perhaps. . . it was ‘because’ she was so pure, that it made her actions all the more terrifying. The little girl muttered under her breath. A tinkling of sound not unlike the dripping of raindrops.

    “My m—guardian always said. . .”

    She lifted the knife. Dropped it. And then picked up a large rock instead.

    Her eyes were like swirling stars as she finished her sentence:

    “That bad people don’t need to procreate.”

    “Because they will only create more bad people, and more, and more.”

    The small girl lifted the big rock into the air.

    “Yet one cannot kill the still innocent children, so the only reasonable answer to this dilemma—”

    The rock fell.

    “Is to not let them procreate at all.”

    Crush. Splatter.

    Huai Xiguan skipped the phase of screaming for his life and leapt immediately to unconsciousness. It was probably his only relief, the one silver lining in a sky full of storm clouds.

    Ya Jing—and many of the male spectators—covered their private parts in synchronized sympathy. 

    [PR/N: The PR sympathizes as well.]

    Ya Jiao merely shook his ducky head. His gaze was weirdly solemn as he watched the young girl walk carefully towards the fainted Huai Chengji, bypassing Huai Maobing entirely. Her features were calm and almost distant as she raised the rock high above her head once more.

    The gaze she looked at Huai Chengji with was filled with neither malice, nor the burn of vengeance.

    As if it were natural. As if it were her duty. The young girl looked at him with pity and nothing else.

    Swoosh—

    “Wait!!!”

    The rock hovered barely above Huai Chengji’s crotch, half an inch from connecting, half an inch from smashing two whole eggs into mashed eggs. The young lass turned her head to glance at the source of that coarse voice. 

    A young man with blood dripping down his torn pants.

    Huai Maobing had finally regained consciousness.

    “U-ugh. Please. . . don’t hurt him. He’s just an idiot following orders.”

    He knelt onto the dusty earth beneath his feet.

    His head lowered to the floor.

    “There’s no reason to punish someone who knows no better, who was just unlucky to be born in this damn hellhole and raised by his shitty elder brothers.”

    “Our youngest is simple-minded. He always listens to us. If we weren’t born in that Family, if we had raised him right. . . maybe he could have been a better person than he is now.”

    He crawled over to the little girl, ignoring the pain in his groin.

    “We were just trying to survive in the only way we knew how to.”

    He held onto her foot. His words were becoming disorganized and choked.

    “And he’s just a fool. A helpless kid raised by rotten eggs born from parents who threw us away.” 

    Huai Maobing begged and pleaded for his bull-headed brother.

    “I am the eldest brother. I’ll take the punishment in his stead.”

    “So please. . . have mercy.”

    This time, even Ya Jiao had to raise an eyebrow in surprise. 

    The little girl hesitated for a moment. She glanced at the white duck, who smiled in response.

    “It’s your choice. Not mine.”

    Another period of hesitance. The thud of a heavy rock hitting the earth broke their tranquil silence. The sound made Huai Maobing heave a sigh of relief as he collapsed almost immediately after, his wary gaze never leaving the little girl, who had now sat down beside his youngest brother.

    She looked as if she was pouting in confusion. The girl was sniffling again.

    The white duck went over and patted her head, before leisurely waddling over to them, to the Huai Maobing who was trying his hardest to drag his bear of a youngest towards his Second Brother.

    He arrived just as the three Huai Family goons finally reunited.

    Ya Jiao opened his beak:

    “What an interesting statement and plea.”

    The white duck struck several acupoints on Huai Xiguan and Huai Chengji’s body, relieving the pain and waking them both up. It was so fast that Huai Maobing could not even see his movements.

    The three brothers huddled together in fear and trepidation.

    “Truly. A marvellous, moving scene. It almost makes me want to puke.”

    “That kid is benevolent. A bit too forgiving. Me? Not so much.”

    His left wing rested on the eldest brother’s neck.

    “I would have killed you all regardless.”

    Cold sweat ran down Huai Maobing’s back. His brothers were trembling in place.

    Ya Jiao smiled faintly.

    “But I was in a good mood today, so I’ll give you all a chance.”

    “Answer my question. Agree to my conditions. Then, and only then, might you manage to live. I can give you my word for it, if you want. ”

    The white-feathered duck had an inscrutable expression.

    “It’s a simple question. Just raise your hand.”

    The Huai Family brothers huddled together to deliberate. That said, the ‘deliberation’ was really just the two other brothers pestering the youngest to raise his hand if they do, no matter what.

    Their discussion soon ended.

    “Ready?”

    A trio of shivering heads nodded fervently.

    Ya Jing cast his gaze silently at the ground beneath his feet.

    “Who here wants to live a new life?”

    Ya Jing began actively sweating bullets.

    A clamour occurred, as three arms shot towards the sky, one of them a beat slower than the rest.

    “Me!”

    “Me!”

    “Uh. . . me?”

    Ya Jiao’s smiling expression suddenly turned ferocious as his Qi flowed wildly into his left wing.

    “Then you should take some goddamn responsibility for your own actions.”

    A horizontal slash.

    Three unidentified objects flew through the bloody air.

    — — —

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