Huashe: The Cocky Mythical Beast

From the very first moment noble god Huashe broke out from his egg, he had always been on the spotlight. Gods were astonished by his beautiful appearance and other mythical beasts envied his good-looks. He possessed the light-blonde hair and large expressive yellow eyes. He had a pair of wings blessed by the bird tribe that could let him fly with the same speed as legendary dragons. His twig-like sharp horns were long enough to show how powerful his magic skills were.

At an early age, Huashe didn't need to practice cultivation to transform into a human form—he was born with it. It was a pride for the serpent tribe to achieve such an offspring. His birth was celebrated seven days and seven nights, gods and other tribes went to congratulate the serpent tribe. As he grew up, he was highly favored in the tribe. It was because he possessed greater power and magical ability than an average mythical serpent would have. Different from his twin brother—Dan Sheng, seemingly treated as a disappointment, pointing out that even though he was born at the same day with Huashe, they were not identical.

The brothers were being compared to each other.

Reaching the age of 300 years old, Huashe had grown horns on his head. Dan Sheng was a small water snake.

At the age of 500, Huashe had grown wings on his body. Dan Sheng was still the small greenish water snake—there wasn't any single transformation detected from him.

Beasts from all tribes started gossiping and the word went all over to the Three Worlds. "Dan Sheng was a good-for-nothing mythical serpent, brought shame to his already appointed noble god brother, Huashe."

Though they were, by definition, twin, Dan Sheng was more like an ordinary mortal water snake—small, sparkling green, mildly venomous serpent that didn't show any signs of magic like Huashe in his early days.

Then one day, Dan Sheng ran away from the tribe. Some said that he went to the Human World to hide for feeling ashamed. Others said he went to seek the help from Goddess Nüwa, the mother of earth, to return his dignity as an offspring of the serpent tribe. But no one really knew where he had vanished to all those years.

And such trivial matter didn't bother Huashe. They were brothers bonded by birth, but they were not the closest friend—or Huashe never even cared about his brother existence. Besides, his brother had always sequestered away at every opportunity, leaving not a single chance for them getting acquainted to each other. Moreover, Huashe had been too pampered by the tribe's affection, and he was glorified.

Dan Sheng was no match for him then. Magic glistened through his fingertips easily enough like running water. He was the source of admiration by all slithered serpents. His flaming paired of wings looked beautiful and as dreadful as the late Celestial Empress—one of the four great ancient dragons, Ying Long.

That was why, when Dan Sheng suddenly came back as a gigantic mythical snake, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him—that simply the idea of his ran-away-douchebag twin brother was the direct descendant of the ancient serpent god had driven him mad. Dan Sheng had become taller than him. In fact, he was as tall as the Nine Layered Lock Demon Pagoda. But the enormous physical transformation wasn't the most frightening part. But it was Dan Sheng's magical ability that sent him frenzy.

Dan Sheng knew the same disastrous magic on how to summon a flood. The very same forbidden spell, which was only allowed by the Celestial Emperor if it was needed. And he used it to frame Huashe by bringing horrendous flood to the Human World that led mortals into chaos.

He said to Huashe, it was to let him know about his own loathsomeness. And as he said it, his eyes were brimming with grudges as though he wanted a revenge over what had happened to him. Experiencing mistreatment by his own kind, he wanted Huashe to feel the same suffering.

But that didn't end there. Banishment to leave the serpent tribe was just the beginning. A far worse nightmare had yet to happen.

The Celestial Emperor pronounced a more severe than death sentence upon Huashe for his gravely negligence. It was the order to recant his blessing for wings and to be imprisoned for 500 years.

Everything was so unlikely—his degenerate reputation, his cut off wings until his imprisonment... There was no denying reality.

And during his hellish moments as prisoner of the Eighteenth Layered of Hell's Dungeon—a place where all felonious gods and demons were banished—he met the demigoddess who was condemned to die.

She was chained to the wall with her head down. Unlike him, who detested the people of Sky Realm for arbitrarily deluded, the demigoddess seemed composed for the matter—even though her soul was about to disperse and her body would be perished. He was unable to believe such soft-spoken, exceedingly emphatic and brave demigoddess had done unforgivable sins, as he thought she was courageous enough to venture herself to death in place of her son.

For just a moment, just the slightest moment, it was as if he was called to serve her. He was convinced to acknowledge her as his sole master. She declined the offer, but he insisted. Although no blood oath was made, he clung a part of his soul to her, willing to take her orders even if she wanted his life.

And she had only given him one order—to protect the Human World for as her son was to be cleansed seven lifetimes there. Which he did as told.

For a thousand of years, he was living as a vagabond, away from the Sky Realm and the serpent tribe, protecting the Human World from getting into pandemonium.

Until recently, he was caught up in a fight with an eight-legged octopus demon. She was up planning to stir waterspout for taking in more dead victims to her hunger...

In the midst of it, a mere mortal appeared without warning. To his surprise, the female human was someone who could sneak into his head, reading his minds. No one had ever done that, no one except his master.

When a Sky Realm's celestial-being arrived shortly after the eight-legged demon captured Huashe and the mortal, he knew that man was no ordinary one. That blinding golden light that ignited from his fingertips was at least the scale of a deity. With one strike, the demon was caught ablaze and burned to ashes. If he was a deity, Huashe would have known. There weren't many deities with powers like that around the Three Worlds. What sort of identity did he possess, Huashe wondered, a god from the Sky Realm, or the Underworld?

Once they got to the shore, while still carrying the human, the celestial-being was the first to talk to him. His monotone voice unnerved Huashe. "Noble god Huashe, a pleasure of meeting you."

"At ease, at ease!" Huashe replied with annoyance.

"You don't seemed surprised," he cocked his head, flashing a conspiratorial grin.

It wasn't because of surprise. Instead, he didn't bother asking how that man knew about him. He had his own theories on how he appeared to recognize him, but he couldn't let his guard down. If the people of Sky Realm knew where he was, they would send Celestial Guards to hunt him down.

"Why? Trying to get acquainted?" Huashe hissed. "Even if I owed you one, I'm no longer serving the Sky Realm. Let me tell you, we part ways here."

"A moment, noble god—"

"Don't call me that! I'm only a mythical beast, serving only to my master." He almost forgot that they were on land as he was about flicked his tongue out from displeasure. He squinted his eyes on that celestial-being, as he expected he didn't like him. "Spit it out! Don't be like a fussy lady."

That man raised his hand and a speck of blood from Huashe's yet dry wounds hovering in the air.

His yellow eyes glared him as they turned into vertical slits. "What are you doing?"

That man looked at Huashe with a sly grin. With just a slight of wave, Huashe's blood mingled with the female mortal, merging into what was called a blood oath.

"You—!" Huashe choked his anger, unable to comprehend what had just happened. Huashe tsked at him. "You dare to play tricks on me! Ha, weren't all the people of Sky Realm this cunning."

"I was only did what I had to, exactly like what you've asked. Don't be like a fussy lady," he retorted without looking at Huashe.

He let the female human lied down, using his own Reiki to cast the healing spell onto her. In an instant, her wounds mended leaving only blood stains on her skin.

These two people relationship... the mere mortal was affiliated with him. The Human World was sure on verge of falling into chaos one more time.

There was no idyllic sort of romance between a God and a mortal. There was only romantic tragedy.

Seeing that he was now the human's familiar and to obey his master's order, he couldn't leave the mortal alone, or the disastrous event might again repeat itself.