Chapter 22: Di Jun, where is your wife?
The rain of arrows released by Hikigaya fell instantly into the vast sea of light. Upon contact, the latter was completely overwhelmed. Before the arrows infused with the power of the ten suns, they vanished in swathes.
In mythology, unless it's someone like Apollo who halfway through switched careers to become the sun, the bows and arrows held by solar deities mostly symbolize their reproductive powers, and their capabilities are also related to fertility. For example, Hou Yi's bow and arrows were his strongest weapons to destroy and usurp the opposing forces of fertility. Although Hikigaya did not gain the power to usurp reproductive strength from Hou Yi, the ten suns themselves represent a power that suppresses abundance.
Suppression is dominance, while usurpation is violence. Which is superior is obvious at a glance.
Indeed, the ten suns represent the ten periods of the sun in agricultural terms, but they also carry another meaning: the order of heaven and earth.
There are ten suns in the sky, and ten ranks among people. The lower serve the upper, and the upper serve the gods. Kings have ministers, ministers have nobles, nobles have retainers. This was the worldview of hierarchical order from the Shang to the Spring and Autumn periods. The heavens and men reflect one another; the divine and mortal hierarchies form a complete celestial and earthly order. The human king governs all nations with power, and the divine emperor commands all gods with divine might, each performing their duties.
Now, Hikigaya uses arrows as symbols, ten suns as their core. Where the arrows fall, even the heavenly sun dims.
But the next moment, the erased light was restored.
In the sky, the air currents materialized from reproductive power flowed back into the suns, making them shine even more brilliantly, instantly replenishing the losses of the sea of light.
Hikigaya's gaze pierced through the light and Emperor Jun opposite him, landing on those ten constantly rising and sinking suns.
Even for a god slayer, engaging a deity in a war of attrition is never a good idea. For Emperor Jun, unless the suns are destroyed, he can always recover.
Due to his own personality and preferences, the divine powers Hikigaya has usurped so far have always targeted the core nature of the deities. That's exactly why he understood this all the more clearly—Emperor Jun is absolutely not a foe to be worn down. Time only makes him stronger.
But that doesn't mean he has no weakness—that is the ten suns themselves.
Flapping his wings once more, creating a storm, this time Hikigaya did not evade Emperor Jun's light. He charged straight in.
"You cannot defeat me, God Slayer" Emperor Jun met him head-on. "I am the heavens. Above and below must obey my decree."
Emperor Jun's wings too created winds. Two storms clashed and sliced against each other as he blocked Hikigaya, engaging in fierce battle.
As the primordial supreme solar deity and divine bird, every move of his carried immense power.
His claws could shred gods, his wings shook the firmament, and the radiant flame feathers became heavenly fire meteors.
The earth groaned, mountains wavered on the brink of collapse—only Phoenix Mountain stood firm under the protection of the Fusang Tree.
"You may have created all things, and granted power to your divine sons, but they are ultimately not you," Hikigaya retorted sharply. Stripped of the hymns in mythology, the god before him wasn't as flawless as claimed—at least, as a husband, he was rather a failure.
"Even your wife betrayed you, didn't she?" Hikigaya laughed heartily. "Hou Yi's wife was Chang'e—everyone knows that."
Indeed, in Hikigaya's view, the love story of Hou Yi and Chang'e was a messy family drama of the Emperor Jun clan.
As a fertility god, Hou Yi was a woman-chasing and flirtatious deity. Perhaps the ancestors hoped to express their desire for abundance and harvest through Hou Yi's many marriages. But the later inclusion of Chang'e into Hou Yi's love story was, to Emperor Jun, a direct insult.
From textual origins, "Chang Yi" evolved from "Xi He." "Xi" and "He" were celestial officials managing the four seasons. In the Book of Documents · Canon of Yao, it is said: "Thus he ordered Xi and He to observe the heavens, calculate the sun, moon, stars, and constellations, and instruct the people on time." By the Warring States period, Records of the World · Works Section stated: "The Yellow Emperor had Xi and He divine the sun, and Chang Yi divine the moon," dividing sun and moon responsibilities. This was the first appearance of the name "Chang Yi," now associated with the moon. Thus connected to "Xi He," Chang Yi is actually the Great Moon Mother Goddess "Chang Xi" who bore twelve moons for Emperor Jun in Shang dynasty mythology.
In the end, she became Hou Yi's wife. Even though she later fled to the moon, to Emperor Jun it was an unbearable disgrace—an overwhelming shame he couldn't cover.
Thus, just as Hikigaya finished mocking him, Emperor Jun swung a wing at him.
This was completely different from before. If earlier wing flaps were just spicy chicken wings, this was like a full-on holiday bucket—within the brilliance, a patch of darkness was violently struck out, deathly aura engulfing Hikigaya, as if Emperor Jun's rage had taken physical form.
However, Hikigaya had perfectly simulated the power of the ten suns from Hou Yi. Setting aside Emperor Jun's miscellaneous powers, in this aspect as a deity of the heavens, Hikigaya was now no different from him. Even if there were some abilities he couldn't use, he wouldn't be harmed either.
Thus, he flew nonchalantly in the domain of darkness, letting the deathly aura flow around him.
Truly worthy of being a Shang dynasty god—his emotions were nearly indistinguishable from those of humans.
But Hikigaya needed Emperor Jun to get even angrier. Right now, although enraged, it was still not enough. He couldn't yet use that bow—the Sun-shooting Bow granted by Emperor Jun to Hou Yi.
That might be the only thing that can truly destroy his earthly incarnation. It symbolizes Emperor Jun's authority as patriarch of the solar deity clan and represents his terrifying power to shake or even shatter the cosmic order. Otherwise, how could it have defeated the overseer of the ten suns—the Great Solar Mother Goddess Xi He, who once rivaled Emperor Jun in ancient legend?
Thinking this, Hikigaya—shrouded in black deathly aura—completely emerged from the darkness and reappeared before Emperor Jun.
But this great deity clearly no longer had any thoughts of "what a pity it would be to kill Hikigaya." Now, he fully displayed the capriciousness and fury of ancient gods, without a trace of the benevolence of a creation god—only killing intent overflowing to the heavens.
That murderous aura was constantly transforming into other things—one of which struck Hikigaya with a sense of déjà vu.
And when he saw the gradually manifesting gray air in the sky, he remembered.
It was the power of disease—Voban had used it against Hikigaya before, but Emperor Jun's version seemed even more dangerous. And it definitely wasn't just disease.
Being a god of wind didn't mean one could only blow wind. Many nature deities possess all kinds of unnatural, bizarre powers, and solar gods—who once symbolized the laws of the universe—were the epitome of this.
Thinking this, Hikigaya became more alert than ever. This was nothing like fighting Voban. That had been a sparring match with limits. But this god before him… after that last bit of mockery, there's no way he would hold back now, not like before.