【Wine Ci】Ksitigarbha Statue

The current scene, no matter how you look at it, is strangely misplaced.

Shuten soon spotted the kid.

The moment he separated from Ibaraki in the sudden thick fog, he realized that he was caught in a trap.Even Abe Seimei found it difficult and weird. Although Shuten was conceited, he did not take it lightly.He knew fate came and went, so he quickly realized that this place was no longer the time and space they should be in—maybe it was just an illusion, or maybe it was really in the past timeline.

So after the mist dissipated, he followed Ibaraki's smell to find it, but when he found that it was just a human child, Shuten wasn't too surprised.

But to be honest, whether a human kid is a human kid or not, it still doesn't smell as good as Ibaraki Doji, who is a great monster.Jiu Tun found out that at the beginning, he also wanted to use this kid to break this weird situation, and then find Ibaraki to go back to Dajiangshan to drink.

The ghost king has been following the child silently for a while.

The child was dressed in rags and wandered outside the village like a ghost with nowhere to go.His hair was messy, it hadn't been taken care of for some time, and it was fluffy like a stray dog ​​in a mess.Jiu Tunfa judged how old he was, he might be five or six years old, he might be eight or nine years old, or he might already be an eleven or twelve-year-old boy; because the child's figure and facial expression didn't match very well, a rough look In the past, it was completely inconsistent with the development of the skeleton.He looked too skinny, and the ill-fitting clothes hung loosely on him; his short height and small stature made him look extremely young.But on the contrary, the expression on the child's face was calm and calm, and he already looked like an independent adult.

When Jiu Tun looked at him, the child was squatting by the stream to wash his face.

His clothes and hair were not clean, but they could be called neat.The child squatted on the big rock by the stream, his thin body seemed to be washed away by a small current if he was not careful.He stretched out his wrist to carefully wash the sand and stains from the fine wounds on his hands, and then lowered his head to wash his face.The child's eyebrows and eyes are well formed - except for the two pairs of small bumps on the forehead - Shuten knows that these are ghost horns that have not yet been born.After washing, the child looked at the water again, stretched out his hand and pressed the bump on his forehead cautiously and tremblingly.

His outline is indeed somewhat similar to Ibaraki.

But that's it.

Yes, this child has the same aura as Ibaraki; Shuten knows that he may be Ibaraki-dou's childhood when he was not transformed into a ghost.But he still couldn't equate this weak child with that guy Ibaraki.Shuten watched him from the sidelines, as if observing a deciphering game worth deliberating.

The child made his home in a narrow, dilapidated tented hut on the edge of the village.A tree that has grown for an unknown number of years, pebbles, branches, grass stems, and leaves picked up from the stream, he wanders around like an early bird, pecking branches and rocks to make up for his small and dilapidated nest .He was not too far away from the villagers, and the villagers who worked during the day just squinted at him when they saw him, and regarded him as an annoying mouse, a little monster that no one wanted to deal with; When they were exposed, they laughed and sang insulting nursery rhymes when they saw children.

"Son of ghosts, sons of ghosts, sons of ghosts who should have died a long time ago—"

The child turned his head and stared at them, his eyes were as fierce as a wild cat.The children in the village coaxed and ran away noisy: "Wow! Run! The little monster is going to eat people!"

Occasionally, there are a few bold ones, with stones in their arms, practicing slingshot games with children as targets from a distance.

Generally, it is impossible to hit a child; after all, he is too agile.But there are also unfortunate times, as long as the head is hit, it will be bloody, and what's more troublesome is that it will take a long time to recover.When the blood is flowing down, the child will dip a little bit with his fingers, put it in his mouth, and suck it like eating sugar-often his expression is very confused when he does this.But in the end, he would lick the blood he bleeds off bit by bit - he was seen by the adults in the village before, and they looked at him with disgust, like seeing a cockroach, or something even more disgusting Disgusting stuff.

"Oh my... look what he's doing—"

"It really is a devil. When will such an unknown little monster be driven out, even if it is on the edge of the village, in case it causes misfortune..."

"Why didn't this monster die the moment it was born—"

"Hey, look at the piece of cloth he pulled..."

"Oh, isn't this posted by my house! Little bastard! Let you live in our village and steal revenge?!"

So children don't stay in the village very much.He gets hurt and still can't help licking his own blood - he doesn't even understand why blood appeals to him, while others think drinking blood is wrong, scary and disgusting ; but experience has taught him to be good. When he licks his wounds, he will run far away, where no one will find him.

Even he avoided the people of the village during the day.Alone, he climbed to the hill opposite the village and sat on the hill to watch the villagers working in the fields.Looking down at the entire village while throwing small stones, I don't know what I was thinking.

Shuten-douji felt that this human child did not look like Ibaraki in any way.

He never thought carefully about what Ibaraki Doji should look like—often when he turned his head and thought about it, the image of this big ghost appeared thoroughly.So Ibaraki-douji is just like Ibaraki-douji, who is like a self-contained adjective to Shuten.Occasionally, when I drink alcohol, I feel that the pot of wine looks like Ibaraki-douji, and occasionally I feel that the weather is not good today, and I feel like the same annoying Ibaraki-douji for no reason.But what is Ibaraki Doji like?I don't know, Ibaraki-douji should just be Ibaraki-douji.

And this child is like a weak and slender grass stalk, anyone can step on it and spit - it's really not like Ibaraki.

He couldn't find any clues from the child, so Jiu Tun didn't follow him.He walked around, from this village to Ibaraki County; occasionally he smelled the smell of some small monsters, but there was basically no strong monster aura from the big monsters—also, the big monsters are not anywhere. some.

Then I couldn't get through the range outside Ibaraki Prefecture.

It's like a barrier.Whether it is the weaving environment or the time of going back, there is an end.And now it seems.This range is Ibaraki Prefecture.

Jiu Tun released a ray of monster energy, trying to forcefully break through from the edge; the ray of monster energy rushed out, but was quickly swallowed up, and lost contact with Jiu Tun.

Jiu Tun clicked his tongue, knowing that he had to find clues from this child whose birth determined the devil's fate, who might be Ibaraki Doji's childhood.

He followed the familiar breath of the child back, but this time the breath was no longer stable, and the strong smell of blood wrapped it tightly.Jiu Tun's heart skipped a beat, and he quickened his pace to go back.

It is in the mountains behind the village.

The child is confronting a clouded leopard.The clouded leopard walked nimbly, and stopped lightly on the treetops. Grinning its mouth and baring its teeth, it stared closely at the child, obviously treating this human child as today's lunch.

The bloody smell emanated from the child.He was bitten on the arm.

The moment he saw this scene, Shuten noticed that the child was completely different, as if he had replaced a person--no, maybe it wasn't a replacement, but peeled off the gentle and cowardly skin, revealing The most realistic, fangs open, the inside of a beast that smells bloodthirsty.

The clouded leopard swooped down on the child from the treetops; the child rolled and missed the fangs and claws of the gigantic feline.The clouded leopard roared and bit him again, and the child slid right past the clouded leopard's lower abdomen.He was small and fast, and at the moment of dodging, he bit the clouded leopard's throat fiercely like a child's beast, and stabbed and pulled the clouded leopard's weak abdomen with a hand holding a sharp stone, blood crackling Flowing all over the child.

The battle ended so quickly that even the clouded leopard, as a predator, would not have time to realize that it had become the prey of a human child.

The child directly bit off its throat.

He took two sips of blood.Pushing the limp corpse aside, he sat up dazedly.The ferocious aura receded like a tide.The child stared blankly at his hand, then got up, raised his arm and licked his wound, dragged the clouded leopard body aside, and peeled it from the abdominal wound with a sharp stone.He cut a bit of meat, and then gobbled it raw, his mouth was covered with blood, and he seemed to be hungry for an unknown amount of time.

For a few moments, he resembled Ibaraki very much.There are a few expressions that even coincide with the Ibaraki Doji in Shuten's impression.

Shuten jumped down from his hiding place.The child stopped moving, half stood up, clutching the stone tightly, staring at this big ghost that suddenly appeared with a pair of dark eyes vigilantly.

"Hey."

Jiu Tun called him.

The child suddenly dropped the food and ran away.Jiu Tun took some effort to catch him, the child was caught by Jiu Tun, struggling endlessly, and turned his head to bite the artery on Jiu Tun's wrist.This child's teeth were very sharp, as expected of the teeth that could directly bite the throat of a small beast, and he insisted on leaving a few deep tooth marks on the ghost king's wrist.

"Let me tell you, no matter if you are big or small, you can really toss." Jiu Tun roughly rubbed the child's hair, "Be good, don't move around."

Perhaps it was because he realized that Jiu Tun had no malicious intentions—or perhaps because he understood the disparity in strength, the child obediently obeyed.Jiu Tun carried him like a chicken, and carried the clouded leopard body on his shoulder with one hand.He found a shoal with a stream, and told the child viciously: "Stay here, it's useless to run, understand? I won't eat you."

When dealing with the clouded leopard, Jiu Tun still kept an eye on the child.But he did not run away anymore, with his mouth pursed and his head lowered, his whole body stood stiffly like a piece of wood, not moving at all.Jiu Tun lit a fire, roasted the prepared clouded leopard leg meat, and handed it to the child: "Eat."

Only then did the child raise his head, staring at Jiu Tun with a pair of black and white pupils, without speaking.

Jiu Tun was so patient that he grabbed the child's hand and stuffed the meat into his hand: "Why are you so stupid? I'll let you eat it. Whether it tastes good or not is another matter. Cooked is better than raw—what, what should I eat?" Could it be that you have never eaten cooked meat?"

The child watched the wine for a while, but still didn't speak. After a while, he lowered his head and gnawed on the meat.At first he was biting gently and cautiously, but after he tasted the meat, he was probably hungry again, so he swallowed it seriously.

Jiu Tun stared at it, thinking that this eating appearance was no different from Ibaraki who grew up to be a ghost, and his facial expressions and small movements were still exactly the same.

He looked at Ibaraki's childhood strangely, and then thought that Ibaraki is still a human being now—hey, a demon teaching a human child who eats raw meat to eat cooked food is quite ridiculous in itself.

After the child finished eating, he looked up at Jiu Tun, and when he saw the sign of Jiu Tun, he ran to the stream to wash his hands and wipe his mouth, and then looked back at Jiu Tun, without hesitation, he took off his shirt directly, revealing his bony body.The child squatted halfway beside the rock and seriously tried to wash off the blood stains on his clothes. His spine protruded, and his joints were so pitiful.

Jiu Tun looked at him, recalling the child's life for a day, he was suddenly taken aback.

Ibaraki Doji longs to be powerful, and is happy to fight as a ghost—so Shuten took it for granted that even when he was a child, when he was scolded by ghosts as a human being, he should be eager to get rid of his human identity and return to the world of ghosts. From the original state.

So when he saw this child, even though he smelled the same as Ibaraki, he still felt awkward, and even felt that this child was nothing like Ibaraki.

Because he was taking life as a person too seriously.

Despite the precariousness, despite the ostracism of the village, despite all the hostility directed at him by all humans, the kid was still trying to be a human being - even a decent human being.He tidied up the "house" that he could only hide from, tried his best to clean himself up, found wild fruits and wheat grains to eat, and observed the villagers' work; the only flaw was that he might not have seen how people deal with meat. Can keep the habit of eating raw meat.Even the remaining bit of bloodthirsty nature was suppressed by the child with all his strength.

This doesn't look like Ibaraki living recklessly.

Jiu Tun called him: "Hey, I'm calling you. Why are you so silent, can you talk?"

The child washed his clothes without looking back, ignoring him.

"It's not dumb, is it? Huh?"

The child stopped moving, and after a long while, he said in a muffled voice: "...No."

Jiu Tun said: "Okay, the uncle asked you, you remember to answer." The child fell silent again.Jiu Tun scolded himself from the bottom of his heart, it's really good, let you hate Ibaraki's chatter every day, now it's really good to change to the boring little Ibaraki.

"Let you talk? What are you doing in a muffled voice? You have to hum when you hear it. Do you understand?"

The child was silent for a long time before giving a slight "hmm".

"Okay, let me ask you, what's your name?"

The title of Ibaraki Doji obviously came after he became famous after he transformed into a ghost.It probably has another name now.Shuten vaguely remembered that he probably had another name when he was still a human being, and he seemed to have a dharma name; it's just that the time interval is too long, so he can't remember it at all.He suddenly became curious about Ibaraki's childhood name for no reason, as if he could catch some trace - but this name is probably forgotten by the current Ibaraki, so it's better to ask Xiao Ibaraki, after all, Shuten also needs it. A title to call him.

The child kept silent for a long time, Jiu Tun got impatient with waiting, stood up and walked towards him, and he replied in a low voice as if afraid of Jiu Tun: "I don't have a name."

"Huh? Then what do people call you?"

"... Devil, little beast, little monster."

Wow.It's really mercilessly bad.

Jiu Tun suppressed the evil thoughts of belonging to the ghost clan welling up in his heart, and said with a calm smile: "Then I should call you a little monster."

The child looked up at him.The eyes are wild and untamed, but it's a pity that they are too young and immature, like a cat.

Jiu Tun said: "Why, you are not happy? 'Monster' is a good word, I praise you."

"……good words?"

"It's used to describe someone who is very strong. Only those who are unreasonably strong can be called monsters."

The child's eyes lit up, he licked his lips, and swore, "I will become very strong."

Shuten looked at him, and through him, he also looked at a section of the road that was fraught with thorns and thorns, and looked at the Ibaraki Doji that Shuten knew very well.The tone and expression of the ghost king suddenly softened, and he said softly and gently: "Of course, you will become very strong. Very, very strong."