Chapter 267 Taotie

One of the Four Fiends, Taotie.

Recorded in the *Classic of Mountains and Seas*, Northern Mountains.

"On Mount Gouwu there is much jade above and much copper below. There is a beast there, which looks like a goat with a human face, its eyes are under its armpits, it has tiger teeth and human claws, and its voice is like that of an infant, named Pao Xiao, which eats people." This so-called Pao Xiao is Taotie.

The vast and boundless Mountain and Sea Wilderness teems with ferocious beasts far more powerful than the human race.

Among those ferocious beasts, many devour humans.

In fact, this is a basic skill.

Among the ferocious beasts, there are also many existences that can cause the earth to crack, the sky to rain fire, and spread disease for thousands of miles.

But only this one is recorded in the Four Fiends.

Actually, at first, Wei Yuan didn't have such a great sense of vigilance towards Taotie. When he was traveling in the Mountain and Sea era, when Qi and Yu talked about this terrifying ferocious beast, Yuan was using a newly made pottery pot to make soup for lunch, and casually asked:

'Isn't it just a gluttonous ferocious beast? Can't we just feed it?'

At that time, King Yu was stunned, and then exchanged a look with Qi, holding back his laughter, he asked a question that Yuan remembered for a long time: 'Gluttony is not a big problem, for example, I am also very gluttonous, and wasting food is not good."

"But, Yuan, how gluttonous do you think one has to be to be considered one of the Four Fiends by all the races of the Mountain and Sea?'

What kind of atrocity.

Could it surpass countless ferocious beasts and desolate gods, and solely with gluttony and greed, become one of the Four Fiends?

From that day on, Wei Yuan understood.

Taotie's gluttony seems harmless, but thinking carefully, this guy is eerily strange.

If all the fierce gods in mythology were gathered together for a grand review, it would probably be as follows.

Question: How did you get called a ferocious beast?

Fei Yi: I have six feet and four wings, and when I appear, there will be a great drought in the world, with red land for thousands of miles.

Zhu Yan: When I appear, there will be great wars, and the wars will not stop.

Sheng Yu: When I appear, the country will be flooded with water for thousands of miles.

Each one is more impressive than the last.

Even the Western Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse could be brought back.

Everyone wields similar powers.

Pestilence, war, famine, death.

Then it came to Taotie.

This guy's style was unique to the extreme.

Oh, it's nothing.

I just eat a lot.

What kind of gluttony could directly surpass pestilence, war, death, water, fire, and famine, and give it the infamous title of one of the Four Fiends? The Western pantheon has Beelzebub, the sin of gluttony, but a mere glutton, if he encounters Taotie, should be very congenial, and then be eaten by Taotie as a snack.

Zhang Ruosu frowned, his gaze falling on the letter written in ancient characters, especially on the phrase "ten days later," and then looked at Wei Yuan's back.

The latter had previously abandoned his defense and forcibly endured a nuclear radiation storm. If he couldn't solve this problem, ten days later, he probably wouldn't be able to exert even half of his current strength, and would almost be in a dying state.

Moreover, before that, he had targeted Taowu.

At that time, the largest equivalent of thermal weapons was used. Only when the equivalent reached the level sufficient to initiate the destruction of human civilization could the temperature of the sun's core be reached in an instant explosion, posing a threat to mythological life. Small-yield nuclear bombs of conventional armaments were of no use at all.

The temperature was not high enough.

The equivalent could not be pushed to hundreds of millions of degrees Celsius, the high temperature at which ordinary matter instantly vaporizes.

It simply couldn't hurt the gods.

And it was under such circumstances.

Several sun-level offensives in a row, in a situation of surprise, Taowu was only injured.

In the end, the Tai'a sword qi luck on the golden pillar of fortune in the far west suppressed the part of Taowu that belonged to the descendants of Zhuanxu, allowing Wei Yuan to unexpectedly kill him with the Xing Tian battle axe. If it were a different place, or if Taowu hadn't wanted to subdue the remaining status of Qiongqi at the time, and hadn't come into contact with the golden pillar of fortune, and been affected by the Tai'a sword in the opposite direction.

Wei Yuan's axe would not have been able to hit Taowu at all.

Then Taowu could have escaped in an instant and made a comeback.

Moreover, Zhang Ruosu didn't think that the Four Fiends were fools.

With Taowu already demonstrating in person.

Taotie would never give Wei Yuan another chance to use the combination of a high-yield nuclear explosion and the Xing Tian battle axe.

Unless he was crazy.

Suddenly thinking of the legend of Taotie eating himself.

Zhang Ruosu pondered.

Perhaps, he really was crazy.

He might even choose to eat the nuclear bomb.

"Taotie..."

Across the rift in the mountains and seas, the voice laughed heartily:

"I heard that your cooking is very good, but it's a pity that I never had a chance to see you before. Now that I have such an opportunity, I must not let it go, hahaha, ten days later, I will come to the human world and fight you."

"You've experienced so much, your cooking must have become even better, right?"

Zhang Ruosu was stunned.

Feng Siyu's face was strange.

The little Taoist priest A Xuan next to him was also dumbfounded.

This...isn't this supposed to be a fight?

Could it be that he's just a fanatic fan?

Wei Yuan's expression sank slightly.

He still remembered Yu's words about Taotie's sin.

He also had love and hate, affection, admiration, and love for his people.

It's a pity.

Taotie only had one way to express all these emotions.

The laughing voice fell, and he said, "I heard that chefs can taste the food first when they cook, to see how the seasoning is done, and to taste the first bite, which is the chef's right."

"Then from ancient times to the present, you should have eaten countless delicacies."

"You, who have eaten countless delicacies, should have absorbed all the nutrition and deliciousness of so many delicacies, hahaha, so it seems that you yourself are the most delicious ingredient in the world... hehe... hahahaha..."

A burst of laughter, interspersed with the sound of swallowing saliva.

And the sound of chewing.

Undisguised malice.

"Ten days later, ten days later..."

"I want to taste your flavor, Your Majesty of the human race."

"God of War, God of War... I haven't eaten it yet, I haven't eaten it yet..."

"Father, Jinyun... he cut off my arm, I failed, he is Xuanyuan Emperor's strongest warrior, I am very curious about the taste, but I didn't succeed..."

Next, there was a strange sound of breaking bones, mixed with flesh and blood being swallowed. Wei Yuan tapped the armrest with his fingers, and the sound of sword cries mixed with the roar of dragons and tigers, suppressing this oppressive force full of malice. The female general of the Daughter Kingdom exhaled and stood beside Wei Yuan and the Old Celestial Master with her sword in hand.

Zhang Ruosu flicked his sleeves, and the horsetail whisk flowed, as if it contained a galaxy.

After Wei Yuan suppressed the sound, he said calmly:

"You want to wait until ten days later to compare."

"You even sent someone to test my physical condition in advance."

"Taotie."

His voice paused.

He crossed his fingers, leaned back slightly, and said calmly:

"Are you scared?"

………………

The voice was not loud, but the tone was light.

Even the female general of the Daughter Kingdom, who was ready to fight with all her might, couldn't help but look at the weak man next to her.

Although Taotie's appearance already indicated that this person was extraordinary.

Just being able to say this sentence.

This courage was enough to shock people.

And the unrestrained yet somewhat mad voice, which was even more fierce and majestic, was like a heavy slap in the face, and came to an abrupt end. For some plans, Taotie had also understood human culture, and of course understood the meaning of this sentence.

The laughter subsided slightly, and he said, "...It's too late to say anything now."

"Ten days later, I will go to the human world to find you."

"This time, can you still use that kind of method unscrupulously?"

The calmed Taotie spoke gently, and finally left with a loud laugh.

The rift in the mountains and seas also slowly disappeared and calmed down.

Wei Yuan lowered his eyes and frowned slightly. Taotie was more difficult to deal with than he had expected. After figuring out his physical condition, he did not hesitate to play, and was less like Qiongqi. After being angered, Qiongqi would fight for dignity and face, and Taowu would disregard everything because of hatred.

Taotie didn't care about that.

Zhang Ruosu sighed in a low voice, "...His words are organized, cunning as a fox, swift as a tiger, and gluttonous as a wolf. Taotie is not what I imagined."

Wei Yuan said, "It has something to do with his father, right."

"The Jinyun Clan."

Zhang Ruosu said, "Is that the great general during Emperor Xuanyuan's time?"

Wei Yuan gave him a strange look and shook his head, "No."

"When Emperor Xuanyuan ascended the throne, there were auspicious clouds in the sky, so he used clouds as the representative of the officials who recorded events. The meaning of the Jinyun Clan is actually that he was the official who recorded and handled events in the summer. Strictly speaking, he should be a civil official. There were also Qingyun, Baiyun, and Heiyun."

"Although it is said that later the summer season was considered to be as fiery as invasion, which also had something to do with him and Zhu Rong."

"The fact that the Xia official later evolved into the Ministry of War is also inseparable from the two of them."

"But he was indeed just a record official."

"When the Yellow Emperor received his mandate, there were auspicious clouds, so he used clouds to record events. The spring official was Qingyun, the summer official was Jinyun, the autumn official was Baiyun, the winter official was Heiyun, and the central official was Huangyun. However, only the descendants of the Jinyun Clan have survived among these five, the Yun Clan."

"It's probably because he was better at fighting."

Wei Yuan sighed, "At that time, it was more chaotic, and other people who couldn't fight probably disappeared."

"Moreover, in ancient times, everyone used stones and iron plates to record events."

"The Jinyun Clan held iron plates and stone blocks of unknown weight in one hand to record major and minor events in the summer, and held a stone carving knife in the right hand, carving thousands of words on bluestone slabs every day, without a single mistake. That palm strength, that finger strength, a slap could probably kill a ferocious beast."

"To be honest, since there was paper, the combat ability of civil officials has declined too quickly."

"In those days, everyone was left hand stone slab, right hand carving knife, never letting go of their books."

"Whether it was Confucius, Mozi, or even Aristotle."

"Those who could write books could all fight, after all, ordinary people couldn't even carve ten characters a day, let alone write books on stone slabs. Even bamboo slips were good. A bamboo slip was so heavy, and you couldn't write many characters on it. Scholars held a dozen pounds of bamboo slips in one hand every day, shaking their heads and swaying all day long, and they had to use their fingers to move the bamboo slips. You couldn't study without some strength."

"If you wanted to write an article, you had to carve it frantically with a carving knife. At that time, it was still traditional characters, and you had to exert all your strength for every character."

"Why do you think both Eastern and Western scholars wore loose robes at first? It was because their arm muscles were too developed, which was not elegant. Military generals were not so diligent. I suspect that after Confucius got used to carving books, he could directly carve the military generals of the time with his carving knife."

Zhang Ruosu: "............"

What you are saying is too far-fetched.

But why does it make sense when you think about it?

The old Taoist sighed helplessly, "What kind of heresy is this?"

"The reasoning of civil officials."

Wei Yuan smiled, shrugged his shoulders, and reached out to pick up the letter of challenge.

The old Taoist said, "...Ten days later, you..."

Wei Yuan said slowly, "Don't worry, this matter has given me a decision."

"Ten days later, I should have the strength to fight."

After all, gods fighting sometimes consumes divinity, which is like throwing money.

Kunlun Mountain.

A big dog of a household.

There's definitely enough divinity.

Wei Yuan waved to the frightened little ones, and then looked at Feng Siyu, who was looking forward to it, shrinking behind the little Taoist A Xuan, making the little Taoist's face flushed, and said helplessly: "Okay, you stay here too, remember to take online classes."

"Yay!"

The girl jumped up.

She hugged the little Taoist next to her, and then the little Taoist's face was completely ripe.

Zhang Ruosu sent Wei Yuan down the mountain, chatting along the way.

"Recently, something went wrong in Sakura Island. It is said that many monsters from Divine Province have appeared."

"They previously insisted that Divine Province should be responsible, and they were arguing fiercely."

Wei Yuan asked curiously, "What about now?"

The old Taoist stroked his beard and said strangely:

"Now..."

"Now there is no Sakura Island anymore."

"There is a new force called Yingzhou Island in the world, using Divine Province's clerical script."

Wei Yuan's face was strange.

The old Taoist shook his head and said:

"Forget it, let's not mention this for now. There seems to be some movement in the ancient Indian pantheon."

"It seems that gods are descending into the world. Tsk, it's been so long, I don't know if the gods of the ancient Indian pantheon still recognize these descendants who have always been conquered. In short, the world is becoming more and more unstable. Wei Yuan, be careful, these children are in Longhu Mountain, don't worry, I will protect them."

"Okay."

………………

In front of the Longhu Mountain Taoist temple, the female general of the Daughter Kingdom slowly sheathed her sword, watching the old Taoist priest return from afar.

After hesitating for a long time, she finally couldn't help but ask, "...That Tu Shan Yuan, apart from the Tu Shan surname, what did he do to get this disease?" During this period of time, she had been busy with the alliance with the human world, and since Wei Yuan had rejected the marriage proposal, she had not gone to learn about him.

The old Taoist was surprised, and then stroked his beard and smiled: "It's nothing."

He said lightly:

"That is, after fighting with Chaos."

"And he killed Taowu by the way."

The female general of the Daughter Kingdom's expression slowly solidified, and she was as dumb as a wooden chicken.

The Old Celestial Master smiled and nodded, and strode away.

A Taoist robe, light and breezy.

Great!

In the museum.

Wei Yuan took out his phone.

He dialed out a message.

"Let's go to Kunlun today..."

He said, "The third trial."

ps: Today's first update... four thousand words.

Thinking about the plot, I'm having a terrible writer's block. Give me a few days to adjust my schedule and lie down...