Chapter 185 — Mad Dog

The savage beast demons roared and at last could hold back no longer; they pounced. Two dark shapes swept up a stench of blood in the shadows, and with them came Xiao Wan's cry of alarm.

The Wild Wolf Daoist's throat went dry and his legs trembled faintly; by instinct he turned to run—but, but, his body, startlingly, hurled itself forward, at those savage beast demons, like

a mad dog!

The outcome was decided in an instant: the two beast demons' four claws all but at once tore into the Wild Wolf Daoist's body, and the Wild Wolf Daoist's fang artifact drove into the breast of the beast demon he had wounded before.

Beast demon and Wild Wolf Daoist cried out in agony together, and Xiao Wan's cry of alarm had turned to a wail.

Blood sprayed; the Wild Wolf Daoist felt his whole body like to burst, as though he had been torn in two, and he staggered back. In his confusion he saw four bloody gashes on his body, and the blood came surging out like a spring.

Ahead, the beast demon roared a few times, then its legs gave way and it fell to the ground. The other beast demon gave a mournful cry and, forgetting to pursue the Wild Wolf Daoist, stayed by its dying companion's side, ceaselessly butting and pawing at it. But that beast demon's wound was a fang driven straight into the heart; after a few last struggles, its head sank to the ground, and it died.

"Pat"—a soft sound—and the Wild Wolf Daoist too gave way at last, dropping to his knees. His upper body was near soaked through with blood, a sheet of red; he gasped in great breaths, his dog's face ashen.

That sound roused the one beast demon left. Seeing its companion dead, it seemed on the verge of madness; it howled to the heavens, its fangs like blood, and came charging again.

Just as the Wild Wolf Daoist was about to die beneath the beast's claws, all at once the ground blurred, a yellow light flashed, a few talisman papers fluttered in the air, and the Wild Wolf Daoist was simply gone; the beast demon's lunge caught empty air.

The beast demon was stunned for a moment, but in no time at all there came a cry of "Aiyo," and Zhou Yixuan, together with the blood-soaked Wild Wolf Daoist, came tumbling down out of the sky, a few talismans still clutched in his hand.

This was, of course, Zhou Yixuan working those ancestral immortal arts he was always boasting of. A moment ago the beast demons had ambushed the two of them, grandfather and granddaughter; the change had come all at once, and in but a moment the two had been subdued. Beneath the beast demons' great bloody maws, what chance had they to work any trick? Luckily the Wild Wolf Daoist, hot-headed, had come charging in to the rescue, and that had given them a moment's opening. They had meant to use it to escape—but then the Wild Wolf Daoist's life hung by a thread, and in his helplessness Zhou Yixuan had to save him first.

Only his few arts seemed to be but the clumsiest sort of trick—something like what the Daoists call "the Five Ghosts Move House," a strange art that shifted the Wild Wolf Daoist away through the air. But the spell was only half worked when somehow it slipped from his hand, and the two of them came tumbling down out of midair, in a most wretched state. And luckily, as they fell, the Wild Wolf Daoist landed atop Zhou Yixuan; otherwise the force of that fall would surely have killed him.

But there was no time now for them to think of much; the beast demon, discovering them in a blink, was in a fury and already charging again. Zhou Yixuan and the Wild Wolf Daoist had fallen and were dizzy and dazed; the Wild Wolf Daoist was somewhat better off, but gravely wounded, and could not dodge in time either. In their helplessness they could only wait for death. Across that dog's face of his a flicker of bewilderment stole; he turned his head to look back—as though hoping to see something?

But in that flash of lightning and spark of fire, a figure dashed forward and stood before the Wild Wolf Daoist and Zhou Yixuan, and the voice was crying, "Grandfather... Daoist..."

Beneath the beast demon's cold, keen claws and fangs—Xiao Wan's face, despairing and weeping, yet calm!

In an instant the Wild Dog Daoist felt a hot blood surge straight to the crown of his head, his whole body boiling as though scalded; he gazed at that figure, that frail and lovely shadow!

"Boom!"

With a great crash, two figures collided.

Xiao Wan staggered and fell to one side, all covered in mud, but she paid it no mind at all; she turned to look, and saw the Wild Wolf Daoist, who had pushed her aside, hurl himself forward and grapple with the beast demon, bearing it down to the ground. In its fury the beast demon thrust out its claws and clawed and stabbed madly at the Wild Wolf Daoist's back; in an instant flesh and blood flew, and yet the Wild Wolf Daoist clung to the beast demon with all his might, not the least sign of letting go.

Xiao Wan and Zhou Yixuan were both ashen now, and behind them the crowd was stunned senseless with fright. After a moment, someone—no one knew who—suddenly shouted, and all who could move rushed forward, surrounding the beast demon, snatching up whatever they could lay hands on, and where there was nothing, using their own palms and legs and even their teeth, flailing desperately at that savage beast demon.

At first the beast demon still roared aloud and fought desperately, but after a while its voice grew gradually fainter, sinking lower and lower, until at last there was no sound at all. And the people around it seemed to have gone mad too, beating ceaselessly at the beast demon's body.

Until Zhou Yixuan was the first to come to his senses, and hastily called everyone to stop—saving lives came first—and only then did the others slowly halt. And at that release of breath, in an instant many of them collapsed to the ground.

There were a few spots of blood on Xiao Wan's face too, but she paid them no heed at all; she hurried to pull with all her strength at the beast demon's carcass, meaning to drag the Wild Wolf Daoist out from under it. But though she pulled a long while, the beast demon and the Wild Wolf Daoist could not be parted; Xiao Wan was frightened and frantic, and nearly wept aloud.

In the end it was Zhou Yixuan who kept his head; after a careful look he found that the Wild Wolf Daoist's two hands had actually pierced through the beast demon's tough hide and gone straight into its breast, wedged in there—no wonder they could not be parted. Having found this, Zhou Yixuan hastily called the others to help, and with the aid of such of them as still had strength, the Wild Wolf Daoist's two blood-soaked hands were at last drawn out of the beast demon's body, and the two bodies separated.

Xiao Wan, her flowerlike face gone pale, laid the Wild Wolf Daoist's body on the ground and was about to ask how he was, when suddenly her face lost all color; she put her hand before his nose and mouth, and in an instant stood dumb as a wooden fowl!

"He... the Daoist, he..."

Zhou Yixuan said urgently, "What's happened to him?"

Xiao Wan's lips trembled faintly, her eyes brimming full of tears, and she wept, her voice shaking: "The Daoist... he's stopped breathing."

Zhou Yixuan too was struck dumb for a moment, and stood woodenly, unable to speak.

In Xiao Wan's mournful sobbing and choking, in the faint glimmer of the darkness, on the Wild Wolf Daoist's strange face—amid all that look of agony—there faintly lingered a smile, twisted in the midst of pain.

He was dead, like a mad dog that had died!

In this world, who has ever been clear-headed?