Bamboo Crate Chapter 44: What Is a Human

What is a human?

Someone once pondered this beneath the moonlight, traversing mountains and rivers, braving wind and snow, gazing up at the starry sky beside a campfire, until a heavy downpour fell and washed away the hesitation burning within his heart.

He entered the desolate realm, carrying a fervent, beating human heart.

No one had ever witnessed such a human; no one could have ever known...

That he had transformed into a demon.

...

"Catch her! Even if it means killing her, we cannot let other tribes take her in!"

Beneath the moonlight, deep within the gloomy forest, a little girl ran barefoot with all her might.

Far behind her, faint sounds of angry roars echoed.

The little girl gritted her teeth, ignoring the sharp twigs on the ground that scratched her skin, running forward relentlessly.

The low, angry roars drew closer and closer behind her. The little girl knew she was likely to be caught.

Finally, reaching a dead end ahead, the little girl halted her steps.

She turned to face the demonic beasts that had not yet taken human form, and asked with a trembling voice, "Why do you want to kill me?"

An old demon covered in snow-white fur slowly stepped forward and interrogated, "Then why did you want to leave the tribe?!"

The little girl cried out, "None of you like me, and I don't want to trouble you anymore..."

"No matter what, you now have only two choices: either return to the tribe and never leave for the rest of your life, or..."

A strange, icy chill flashed in the old demon's eyes.

The little girl knew she had no choice.

...

Her name was Ciling. She had lived in the tribe since she was a child. Her parents had died very early, leaving her entirely unsupported and forced to rely on herself just to barely survive.

The demonic beasts in the tribe never offered her any help; after all, in the desolate realm, the innate nature of demons was slaughter, and not swallowing the little girl whole in a single bite was already considered a mercy.

Yet the little girl seemed inherently different from all other demons. Even when she was just a tiny, round ball of fur, she loved to smile.

When she encountered fellow clansmen from the tribe, she would cheerfully greet them; when she successfully hunted food, she would also smile, and if anyone asked her for a share back then, Ciling would generously give it away.

Ciling was like a fairy tale, shining with a distinct radiance within the tribe.

Gradually, her fellow clansmen grew to like this girl.

The atmosphere of mutual suspicion originally prevalent in the tribe slowly faded away, and this once weak tribe began to grow stronger. Neighboring tribes also learned that there was a little demon named Ciling who was very kind.

Kindness—how precious a word in the desolate realm.

Ever since they had arrived in this barren and impoverished land, fighting over scarce resources had become a habit, deeply engraved into their blood and passed down from generation to generation.

Ciling's sudden emergence felt novel to all of them, and the tribe began to attach great importance to her.

Soon after, an event occurred that could hardly be called an accident.

Her clansmen discovered that Ciling possessed immense talent for cultivation, and before she even realized it, she was on the verge of undergoing the transformation into human form.

Taking human form was the innate difference between the demons of the desolate realm and the humans of other worlds, as well as a massive vulnerability.

Only upon a successful transformation could a demon truly begin to cultivate in the true sense of the word.

The demons of the tribe were all extremely excited because they knew that once Ciling successfully transformed, they would soon possess a demon with genuine cultivation prowess.

By then, the surrounding tribes would have no choice but to submit!

Yet at this moment, one of the demons voiced its concerns.

Ciling was far too kind. Had she not yet transformed, they would have almost mistaken this white fur-ball for a human being. What if she refused to help the tribe wage aggression against others when the time came?

Before long, this worry materialized.

That day, the tribe captured a little demon from another clan, locking it inside a wooden cage, exposed to the scorching sunlight, without giving it a scrap of food or a single drop of water.

Such treatment was commonplace anywhere in the desolate realm, but Ciling could not bear it.

"This is going too far. It has never harmed us at heart; it was merely passing by."

She would secretly sneak food to the trapped demon and feed it water.

One day, that demon suddenly begged Ciling to set it free.

Ciling hesitated.

In the end, she refused, because she had to consider the interests of her own tribe.

The other demons in the tribe breathed a sigh of relief when they witnessed this.

Fortunately, Ciling had not grown kind to the point of utter foolishness.

Then they could rest easy.

Finally, Ciling successfully completed her transformation.

Rejoicing erupted throughout the tribe, and immediately afterward, they demanded that Ciling lead an attack on other tribes.

Naturally, Ciling refused, and instead urged her clansmen that maintaining the status quo was already more than enough—if they waged unprovoked aggression, only more people of the tribe would perish.

"No."

Despite repeated persuasions from the clan, Ciling still refused to yield.

From that day onward, the clan truly ceased any further expansion, yet her fellow clansmen all began to look at Ciling with cold disdain.

Ciling could only remain silent.

Until one day, she witnessed with her own eyes the captured demon under the scorching sun, unable to endure the agony any longer, ending its own life with its bare hands.

Ciling watched for a long time, and finally, she resolved to leave this place.

She did not belong to the tribe, she did not belong to the desolate realm, and perhaps she did not belong to any world at all.

...

In the end, Ciling's attempt to escape failed, and she remained trapped within the tribe day after day.

She could muster no enthusiasm for anything, yet she still smiled at the children.

Until one day, the tribe was attacked by another clan.

During that battle, Ciling ultimately chose to fight back.

Because she was born there, and that place was her home.

Yet Ciling was defeated, the reason being that the invading tribe also possessed a transformed demon whose realm of cultivation far surpassed her own, even though its transformation had occurred much later than hers.

Naturally, Ciling was captured and imprisoned by that victorious tribe.

Sitting within the dim, gloomy dungeon, she pondered why not a single soul in her tribe had ever truly liked her.

Those children who had once been so adorable would, upon growing up, gaze at her with strange, alienating eyes.

Ciling was utterly perplexed. She found no answers, but she encountered an interesting... demon.

It was a snow-white tiger demon, looking weak and spiritless, lying despondently in the adjacent cell.

Gradually, Ciling and the tiger demon grew acquainted. From the tiger demon, she learned that it had been born inside a dungeon and had never stepped outside even once, permitted to enjoy a fleeting moment of sunlight solely through the cracks in the wooden planks.

Ciling and the tiger demon found they had much to talk about. She felt that the tiger demon could truly understand her, and she shared many fascinating stories of the outside world with it.

"Let's call you Little White."

Ciling smiled and gently patted the tiger demon's back. The tiger demon let out a soft cry, brimming with joy.

At that very moment, the heavy door of the dungeon was pushed open, and a young man walked in, gazing at Ciling and the tiger demon with a frown.

Ciling caught sight of a purple disc inlaid with white jade hanging from the young man's waist.

"You are fortunate," the young man said. "Come with me."

Before Ciling could refuse, the jade disc at the young man's waist emitted a brilliant radiance, and in the next instant, Ciling and Little White vanished into thin air.

The young man turned around, stepping past corpses strewn upon the ground. Along the hem of his robe, faint crimson bloodstains bloomed like flowers—dangerous and alluring.

...

Ciling arrived within a vast and boundless realm, where an elderly man danced in a frenzy, muttering incomprehensible words about the past and the future.

Elsewhere, a sovereign sat regally atop a high mountain, gazing down indifferently upon all things.

At the very end, Ciling and Little White encountered a scholar-robed man standing before a massive boulder, leaning upon a traveling staff.

The man turned his head, looked toward Ciling, and asked with a smile, "What is a human?"