Chapter 6: Releasing the Tiger Back into the Wild

"Grand... grandpa... don't... cry..."

Hearing these words from me, a newborn, spoken in a clumsy and childish tone, my grandfather’s tear-streaked face forced a smile. Crawling on the ground, he looked up at the villagers standing over him and shouted with a grin, "Did you see that? Did you hear him? My grandson can talk the moment he’s born! Is he not a prodigy of the millennium? He is no curse; he is a genius! A scholar in the making!"

The villagers were momentarily stunned.

The next second, the woman known as Second Granny shrieked, "He’s a demon spawn! No wonder we haven't seen the light of day since he was born. Talking the second he hits the world—if that’s not a demon, what is!"

"Demon! Demon!"
"Demon! Demon!"
The villagers chanted again.

The village chief had already been shoved aside, held back by two young men so he couldn't intervene. Unable to watch any longer, he finally snapped.

"Enough!" he roared, pointing at the crowd with all his might. "Do you still respect me as your chief? He is just a child! He was only just born, and you treat him like this? If this were your own child, wouldn't your heart ache for him?!"

The villagers fell silent, though their expressions remained grim.

Second Granny spoke up again, "Chief, can you call this a child? Which child talks the moment they’re born? Have you gone senile in your old age?"

"You! You!" The chief was left speechless, choked by his own frustration.

Just then, a commotion broke out at the entrance. The disheveled figure of Zhao the Madman finally appeared at the door of the ancestral hall. His tattered clothes were stained with patches of blood—some red, some green. The red was ordinary, but the green blood was viscous, clinging to his ragged clothes like thick mucus. It looked utterly repulsive.

The crowd hurried to meet him.

"Zhao the Madman, you’ve finally arrived! You don't know what’s happened—there’s a demon in Old Han’s house! It’s terrifying; I was almost killed by that brat!" Second Granny poured out her grievances.

Zhao the Madman looked weary. He frowned slightly, then stepped past the woman to look at my grandfather.

Seeing my grandfather lying on the ground, his face a mixture of tears and smiles as he looked down at me in his arms with doting eyes, Zhao’s expression shifted. He pushed Second Granny aside.

"What do you think you’re doing!"

He hurried forward to lift my grandfather up, noticing his legs trembling uncontrollably, unable to bear his weight. Seeing this, Zhao cursed, "Are you all insane? Why are you attacking Old Han?"

Gone was the teasing, manic energy Zhao usually reserved for my grandfather; he stared at the crowd in disbelief. "What is going on here?"

Seeing Zhao’s anger, Second Granny lowered her head, feeling a bit guilty. "It wasn't me! I’m just a woman, how could I beat a man..."

Hearing this, the chief lashed out, "You didn't strike him, but you were fanning the flames from the sidelines! Do you think they would have attacked otherwise? You! You’re going to be the death of me!" The chief slumped onto a nearby stool, too furious to speak further.

Zhao the Madman turned his gaze. "Butcher Liao, you used your pig-slaughtering strength on an old man who’s half in the grave? You’re quite something, aren't you!"

Butcher Liao huffed, "The brat is a curse! I can’t let him live, or our whole village will starve to death!"

"A curse?" Zhao pointed at the butcher’s face. "This is the incarnation of the Yin Emperor! He is a peerless prodigy. In the future, you’ll all be begging to cozy up to the Han family, yet here you are, striking him first. You don't know a damn thing!"

Scolded like this by Zhao, the butcher didn't dare fight back, though his face remained stubborn. Butcher Liao was a man of heavy killing intent due to his profession; he usually avoided trouble, but the one time he hadn't, he’d nearly died. It was Zhao who had saved him, demanding a cow as payment. Because of this, the butcher might defy anyone, but he never dared to cross Zhao.

Seeing the situation under control, the chief asked, "Zhao the Madman, tell us what to do next. I’ve brought the five children you asked for. Let’s get to business; otherwise, no one here can rest easy."

Everyone turned their eyes toward Zhao. He let out a long sigh.

"There was an accident at Old Han’s place earlier. A few of the big ones got away. I finished off half of them, but these aren't ordinary evil spirits. They know the Yin Emperor has been born. Even if I seal the child's spirit, these creatures won't let such a once-in-a-millennium opportunity slip by..."

Hearing this, my grandfather asked anxiously, "What? You let the tiger back into the mountains?"

Concerned for my safety, he grew frantic again.

Zhao replied irritably, "It’s all because of you, you stubborn old man! You dragged your feet for so long at the start. If you’d let me seal his spirit immediately, we could have hidden him before they even arrived! Now that they’ve tracked him down and I didn't kill them all, you’re blaming me?"

My grandfather’s face fell. "Zhao the Madman, I know we haven't always seen eye to eye, and I’ve never been convinced by your ways. I admit my skills are amateurish, but for your help today, my Han family will be forever grateful! But this child must be saved—the whole family is counting on him!"

My grandfather was a stubborn man. They say wealth lasts three generations, or poverty lasts three generations, but it’s always the same. In our family, it had been eighteen generations of unbroken poverty—only ever getting poorer, never the poorest. To find a wife for my father, my grandfather and father had worked for my mother’s family for three years for free just to get their consent.

My great-grandfather’s dying words to my grandfather had been, "Our family can't stay poor anymore. If we stay poor, we’ll die out. You must make the Han family rich!"

Desperate to face his ancestors with pride, my grandfather had tried everything. But without capital, how could one get rich? In the end, he bought a book on metaphysics, hoping to change the family's fate. My father was his test subject—wearing red flowers one day, belts of green onions the next—he had made a fool of himself in every way imaginable, yet wealth never came.

My arrival had rekindled the obsession he had almost given up on. Some called him foolish, others called him a pitiable man. But to me, he was simply the grandfather who loved me.

Zhao the Madman sighed heavily. "Those big ones didn't engage me. I don't know why, but they seemed to fear something. As they fled, they all glanced toward the graveyard on the back hill. It’s strange..."

"Those creatures have centuries of cultivation. This mortal flesh can't protect the child. We can only find something... not of this world... to keep him safe."