CG Chapter 185: Uncle, Will You Play with Me?
The young boy stood there in front of them as if detached from reality. Despite his worn outer attire, his face wore only an innocent smile as he gestured with his small, playful hands.
At the same time, the boy slowly approached them; each of the duo had a completely distinct reaction.
Li Suyin watched the young boy with disbelief. A look of disappointment flashed before her eyes for a second before she craned her head toward Aretius, her mouth wide open, wanting to shout, before she closed it as she saw Aretius's reaction.
In that face, she did not sense the slightest hint of dread or trepidation. Instead, she witnessed a man who was more curious about what lay within that creature than disgusted by its outer shell.
Aretius's curious eye fell on the boy's face for a second before shifting to his abdomen. A long thread extended from the boy's navel, stretching endlessly into the sky. As his concentrated stare locked into this thread, he caught the true presence, a dark, opaque umbilical cord.
Aretius's focus was drawn away by the boy's singing once more.
"The sun is bright,
Mother said go play,
Father is far away,
Where is sister?
Where is... sister?
There is no one to play."
"Yue'er, where are you? Yue'er?"
The boy's face suddenly switched, glancing around, confused and in a panic, searching for a certain person, not appearing to notice what floated behind him.
The umbilical cord wrapped around the neck of a weeping girl's fetus, her short hands tugging at it, as if it were suffocating her, tearing the air from her small lungs before she had the chance to take her first breath. The cord at the other end was formed from the fetus's very own navel.
Aretius's detached gaze eventually fell on the girl fetus's skull. The traces of an unnatural dent, much akin to those caused by a hard object or a forceful strike, stood out to him.
Finally, the boy turned his confused gaze at the duo, asking in his innocent tone, "Uncle, will you play with me?"
Hearing the request, and without a second thought, Li Suyin yelled at Aretius, "We must leave now! These are the... the misplaced siblings."
However, Aretius did not seem to hear her shout. Instead of dashing away, he stepped forward, extending his hand toward the boy as if he wanted to play.
Unlike his outwardly kind appearance, Aretius was, internally, putting the pieces together: a consumption of life forces that had failed miserably, forming the oddity of interconnected bodies by a single umbilical cord that lay before him. To the people of this world, this might seem like a masterful immortal's work, but to him, he saw countless flaws.
The boy stepped forward toward Aretius. Each step generated a muffled clank as his small footsteps struck the soft ground of the mound. He unconsciously dragged the girl's fetus, unaware of whether the man in front of them was another beast.
During this time, Li Suyin glanced at this scene. A deep sense of hesitation welled within her heart as she wondered what her next move should be. She considered running away and leaving Aretius behind, but she simply couldn't.
Stranded between two choices, neither of which looked advantageous, she remained stranded, frozen in her place. She looked back at her life thus far, reflecting on what she recounted to Aretius during their walk. Her face shifted.
A solemn expression, a smile, and loss. Her eyes were dazed for a moment before she laughed out. Her laughter was akin to that of a fairy; coupled with their surroundings, she appeared as if she had fallen into complete and utter madness.
She murmured in a low tone, "The bird's cage. A bird in a cage."
Aretius's gaze flickered toward her for only a second in interest before shifting back toward the boy who now stood in front of him.
The boy's small hand pulled at Aretius's stretched palm. He examined the hand, much bigger than his own, in disbelief and doubt. A man's hand that wanted to hold theirs?
During this brief moment of daze, Aretius's other hand flickered, grabbing the boy's small head. He clenched it as if he were about to shatter the boy's skull. Unexpectedly, the boy did not fight back. He had a resentful sensation emerge from within his hollow eyes.
Yet Aretius did not strike; his hand rested peacefully on top of the boy's as he began to chant.
"Heaven and Earth, Sacred and Divine.
The Six Springs are Supreme, the Seven Soils Eternal.
The Human Dao is Perishing; the Immortals are Blind.
The Three Po are Everlasting; the Yin is Devouring.
All between Heaven and Earth are One.
Gate of the Lower Realm, heed my command!
Seal away all who dare step into the upper realm.
We command the winds to blow, and the rain to stop."
This was the second seal that Aretius had developed from watching Li Wuyou's one move: the upper gate for breaking through the barriers of the yin realm, and the lower gate for sealing and devouring these creatures.
Aretius would not have stepped into the Li Clan's territory without having a backup plan to deal with their strongest force. Thus, the gates diverged into two, much akin to the separation of yin and yang from chaos.
The boy and fetus appeared in sync for a moment; they sensed that this force was attempting to subdue them rather than devour. The boy was filled with a peculiar sensation.
The feeling of someone wanting them after so long: he did not mind why or how Aretius wanted them, but that he did. He would not have minded even if a devil were the one standing in front of him. After all, he was not far from such a creature now.
Li Wuyou's brief words were everything Aretius needed, allowing him to comprehend that brute force was meaningless before the profound and bizarre.
It was not those with the strongest fists that would triumph against such beings, but those with a piercing gaze, who could see through the rules and regulations that restrained these beings.
He surmised that a mere mortal could seal the mightiest of anomalies if they possessed such insights. Yet, if even a person raised amongst such anomalies like Li Suyin was blinded to the rules of the enigma in front of him, how could an ignorant mortal ever hope to see through them?
Far away, a young man was carefully clamping his own mouth shut, forcing himself to remain calm as he witnessed all of this. He could not push himself to escape earlier, as his curiosity overwhelmed the fear as he scrutinized the masterful sealing art of Aretius.
This man was none other than An Ku, who had snuck into the Soul-Sealing mound to pocket some death ki-infused objects for his own experiment, unaware that his existence had long been caught by a beast that saw him as a potential lackey.
With this, Aretius and Li Suyin stepped toward the gates of the Soul-Sealing mound; only this time, an additional pair was following behind them.
An innocent child's voice echoed, "Uncle, will you play with me once more?"