Duck Emperor Chronicles – Chapter 7

DEMONIC TRANSLATIONS

[Author – Blurry]

[Proofreader – Samael]

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Chapter 7: A Busy Street; Beggar girl?

Ya Jiao awakened back in his room, just as a sudden hunger struck him.

Growl. . .

His stomach grumbled miserably; it was practically hollow.

But the Duck Lord paid it no heed, instead opening the silken curtains to see that the sun had long set, before basking himself in the chilly breeze that was blowing from the North for a moment.

[Karma Swallowing Physique]

It was no wonder that Ya Jing had eaten so much. He was practically eating for over ten people, as his cultivated Qi alone wasn’t enough to fill the physique’s appetite. Ya Jiao grimaced. It was noon, and because of his possession of Ya Jing’s body, the boy probably had no time to cultivate all day.

Which also meant that the physique was starving.

Hm. That would indeed explain the excruciating pain he was currently feeling.

The sensation of being ripped apart from the inside out was quite surreal.

The Mad Duck laughed as he sat down in meditation.

His aura harmonized with Heaven and Earth, creating a funnel of flowing Qi that linked him to all of creation. The Qi of Creation then flowed through the funnel and into his meridians. Flesh and bone, his body glowed like a celestial immortal while he deftly spread the gathered Qi.

However, the Qi was not for him. 

It was merely bait for something else he wanted to find.

“Where are you, my dear physique?”

Ya Jiao muttered aloud. As his concentration reached its highest peak, the Duck Lord circulated his Qi without the aid of a single cultivation technique. The first time he had done so in this life, all of his meridians had almost snapped, though he managed to recede the Qi before it actually hurt him.

He was too used to his original body, a body that could circulate Qi even when asleep.

And so he barely avoided crippling himself.

Ya Jiao would not make the same mistake again, it was evident in the way he carefully managed the bubbling Qi, guiding it around his dilapidated acupoints like one would guide a baby duck on its first waddle and walk.  

The pain grew stronger: bone-piercing suffering, needles that stabbed into his very core.

A hungry mouth that appeared on the surface of his skin. 

The Duck Lord’s ducky eyes flashed open with a startling viciousness, and he grabbed at the sharp-fanged orifice using his bare wings. 

Drip. Drip.

Ya Jiao forced the mouth closer to his chest, ignoring the crimson flowing from his feathers. The Mad Duck showed his namesake as he dragged the physique’s core through his body by force.

He gripped the corner of the mouth, constantly pulling at it until it stopped its futile struggle. Then he repositioned the physique’s core to the centre of his chest and kept it there with two wings. Brows lined by perspiration drooped, trembling feathers barely holding through sheer will, bloody coughs accompanying each one of Ya Jiao’s breaths.

The pain was more than he had expected.

Then again, there was no way to predict how much pain duckhandling a physique would cause.

Since no sane person had ever done it before.

 “Heh. You seem really hungry, so why don’t you feed on this?”

Still restricting the physique’s movement, Ya Jiao opened his Spiritual Sea, and leaked out a bit of his powerful Primordial Spirit. 

Boom!

A peal of heavenly thunder lashed forth from the skies. Raven-ink clouds gathered for a split second, before dissipating as the Duck Lord sealed his Spiritual Sea once more. Ya Jiao looked at the shimmer in the air, that wisp of boundless, potent energy. A tiny smidgen of his Primordial Spirit. 

Brief nausea assaulted his senses as the floating wisp neared the physique’s hungry mouth.

Degraded as it may be, the Primordial Spirit of a Heavenly God possessed near infinite energy, thus making it the best nourishment for a developing [Karma Swallowing Physique].

Having said that, it was obvious that most Heavenly God would not agree to perform such a wasteful method. They’d normally opt to use other treasures or resources instead. Unfortunately, Ya Jiao was currently flat broke. A penniless duck.

Thankfully, the physique was only in its infant stages, which meant its food intake was still relatively tame compared to its matured form that could consume entire continents.

Yes, thankfully.

The Duck Lord freed the physique, quietly observing as it tentatively touched the wisp of energy. It was like watching an infant duck’s first encounter with sweetened rice grains, moments before the taste sank in and caused a frenzy. The result was to be expected.

If the physique had vocal chords, Ya Jiao was sure it’d be squealing in joy right now.

No one knew how much time had passed as the physique continued enjoying its buffet.

“Urk.”

Ya Jiao flopped onto the ground in exhaustion. He felt a wave of relief wash over him as his physique retracted, taking the wisp along with it. The pain receded.

But there was still something he needed to do.

A certain subdued hum that he needed to address. 

“Hey, it’d be great if you could stop hiding in the corner of my Spiritual Realm, it’s annoying. . .”

The hum grew loudly, and gained a nervous quality. It was as if something was rusting about.

“Motherducker, just get out here.”

The rustling stopped.

‘Sigh.’

A mirage-like vision of a white-haired youth drew itself from Ya Jiao’s forehead. Slanted eyes looking dull and depressed; his face a gaunt grimace of solitude and helplessness.

Ya Jing—the useless duck—had appeared.

‘How’d you want me to react, huh? I just got a hand shoved into my chest and my heart taken out of it by some crazy reincarnated god possessing my body, but not before realizing that there was some goddamn parasite physique inside of me draining my YEARS of hard work! MOTHERDUCK!’ 

And as coarse as ever, it seems.

“Well, I was fairly certain you wouldn’t die, since one can’t kill spirits the usual way.”

‘Fairly certain?! You ought to repay me for mental damages, you ducker!’ 

“Bah. Stop being so dramatic, it’s just the one death.”

The careless waving of a hand followed that brusque statement.

‘. . . . . .’

Ya Jiao slowly raised himself from the floor, opening up the curtains once more to a beautiful sunrise that bathed the entire Jiang River City in muddled hues of orange and red.

The procedure had taken all night.

It was fortunate that there would be no need to perform it again anytime soon.

A mere sliver of his primordial spirit could feed the physique for weeks.

The Duck Lord stretched his wings, feeling sore all over. Tch. One usually felt invigorated after their meditation, but because of how he dealt with the physique, Ya Jiao only felt shittier than ever.

Honestly. Reincarnation was such a quack.

Having all his powers taken, being beaten up, getting a noisy duck as a physic roommate, and having to now deal with a monstrous physique. . .

Ya Jiao had every right to curse and yell at the world.

And yet. . .

Why was he smiling so brightly?

The Mad Duck leapt onto the window perch, looking out at the world beyond. Morning wind rustled his feathers, flattening them against his skin. An inscrutable emotion was visible on Ya Jiao’s face, so serene and peaceful that even Ya Jing stopped his torrent of swears, entranced by the sight.

At the immense longing that lurked just beneath the white duck’s calm surface.

Ya Jiao turned back to look at the white-haired youth.

“Hey, Ya Jing. Take me somewhere fun.”

‘Fun?’

“Yes. Fun.”

“I want to see more of this world. To experience it.”

‘There’s not much to see here. Just a broken village.’

“There is always something to see, even in something that is called ‘broken’.”

“Also I’m bored and in need of a break.” He added.

Ya Jing frowned, seemingly contemplating something, before replying stiffly:

‘Alright, then. . .’

The white-haired youth smiled a bit reluctantly.

‘I think I have the perfect place.’

————

[At the outskirts of a large market.]

A duck and an invisible ghost slowly sauntered over to the bustling hotspot.

The duck looked quite chipper, while the ghost had a praying expression of ‘Oh God, oh Buddha have mercy on their souls’ plastered onto his crying-laughing face.

Having just recently been through a thoroughly traumatizing experience (death), he was feeling hints of schadenfreude towards the possibility of potentially seeing other people getting royally ducked up by Ya Jiao. Which meant they would also technically get beat by his own body.

[PR/N: schadenfreude = sadism, author won’t let me change it. *sobs*]

The thought of which gave him a giddy sense of excitement.

As a child, he’d been to this marketplace before, but stopped when he reached adulthood.

To the him of the past, it must have felt like a wonderful fairyland. The collection of stalls and shops set up to enthral and swindle the customers that fall into their trap. Sweetened candy sticks paired with burning white liquor. Sharpened blades, sturdy shields. Old relics and heirlooms that come out to be sold by the poor and poorer for a few dimes, only to be resold by a vendor at sky-high price.

Tch. Damn scammers. 

However, to the Ya Jing of the present, this marketplace was just a hive of bad memories.

Because it was a marketplace governed by the Huai Family.

Ya Jiao and Ya Jing proceeded onwards, buying a candy stick with the money Mommy Duck gave, the white-feathered duck was greeted with a deluge of weird stares and pointed coughs.

People often came and went from Jiang River Village, so the residents often forgot old faces. Having said that, the only talking duck in the village was not something you’d easily find yourself forgetting.

The white-haired youth scoffed inwardly at Ya Jiao’s initial plan to ‘stay low’.

Their cover was blown the moment they stepped foot in here!

As he lamented the odd naivety of his godlike body-possessor, Ya Jing witnessed a scene that made him raise a brow, his eyes slowly narrowing.

Three members of the Huai Family. He recognized them through their familiar black attires, paired with the Huai Family’s signature emblem of a black boar hoarding gold. It truly suited them. Curious, Ya Jing quickly urged Ya Jiao forwards, and managed to change his slow waddle. . . into a lazy stride.

The Huai Family members seemed to be kicking at something. 

Going by experience, Ya Jing could already tell that it was a person. Moreover, it had to be a little kid, since they were aiming quite low with their blows, barely even lifting their legs.

Ya Jiao seemed to understand the situation without asking as well.

‘Aigo, what a poor, helpless, and lonely child. The Huai Family truly is despicable. Sigh~’

Ya Jing abruptly dramatized and acted out an emotional play. 

‘Oh my~ to act upon such a frail thing. Aish. If only there was a brave hero around here. . .’

To be honest, he had seen his fair share of the Huai Family’s atrocities, so it didn’t really faze him. He just wanted to see if he could rile Ya Jiao into beating up more of those Huai Family bastards.

‘If we wait a minute more, the child might die! We must act, and soon!’

Unfortunately, the Duck Lord easily saw through his schemes and scoffed.

Falling for the plot of a young duckling like him? Hah. There was no way in hell.

The disappointed Ya Jing tutted at the lacklustre reaction, before grinning cheekily.

And just as Ya Jiao was about to go on his merry way—

‘Eh? Wow. I didn’t see it earlier, but this kid’s features are truly phenomenal! Like polished jade, her beauty will be astounding once she grows up, I’m sure of it!’

It was a casual observation, made by a Ya Jing who thought that he could use the allure of beauty to strike at the Duck Lord’s heart. It was irksome, and Ya Jiao wanted to beat him up for insinuating he would even have any untoward intentions towards someone so young, but nonetheless. . .

It did succeed in making him look twice.

And that single, extra glance promptly sealed the fate of those three nasty bastards. 

Ya Jing slightly flinched at the bland, but terrifying smile that slowly crept onto Ya Jiao’s face.

He had not expected his attempt to actually be effective.

“You know, all of a sudden, I’m filled with the strange urge to throw people around.”

The Mad Duck turned towards the paling duckling and laughed crazily (sounds like loud quacks).

“I said I wanted to have some fun, right?”

“So let’s have some ducking fun!”

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