22. lion cub son

With roles being changed in miliseconds, Xiao Xiao could finally see his face.

What appeared before her was a lion cub with a pure youthful appearance of an age no more than 12.

He had a very slim body despite being a carnivore of the corrupted ones. It was easy to guess that he wasn't fed well, judging by his strength being weak enough to not be able to overthrow her.

His pale brown cat eyes were widened out of fear, hair was the color of faint white. He had them styled messily pointy alongside with a complimenting red headcrown. There were also red straight line marks on either side of his eyes and cheeks, as a face accessory.

He sucks in a breath,

"A- alright...you're powerful. All of you are. And there's no use begging for mercy as for you my life isn't worthy, because I'm a low life demon...right? That's why you killed us!? Then just continue being cruel and kill me like the way you killed my whole people!! YOU CURSED CULTIVATOR!"

Upon noticing how he began trembling from dread while at the same time trying to act tough that he would even desperately ask for death , Xiao Xiao couldn't help it when her heart softened at the scene of him cursing her.

In fact for a second, this young cub suddenly made her remember of her dead son, Xiao Bo.

"This child looks like my son. If Xiao Bo was alive...he would have been around the same age as this cub. So I can't. This...This is just a child..!! He's no different than any other children in the world... He wouldn't understand. It's okay to throw out your anger."

Letting go of the knife in defeat, Xiao Xiao realized that it was no doubt just a misunderstood young cub of the felidae demon species, who seemed to grieve over his people that were cruelly killed by her. She wouldn't gain anything by getting rid of him.

Piling up hatred and revenge, the boy, once free, took the opportunity to strike by throwing himself at her.

It took Xiao Xiao in surprise, wasn't ready for the obvious attack.

Things were happening so fast when they both fell on the ground on their bottom, his hands immediately wrapping themselves on the jade rabbit's neck. He thought he would start off by choking  the woman first.

"You- Argh!!!"

It only made him act fearlessly bolder when hearing what he wanted to hear right now, that is othe teacher's unexpected yelp and struggling underneath.

Thinking that if she would just hold onto him with a death grip as a a last warning he might let go, but to Xiao Xiao's surprise the boy only held her further down on the ground. Now trying to squeeze her neck harder with his smaller hands. The jade rabbit, then could only begin  contemplating on what she should do. This kind of encounter, after all, was one of the few.

So with gritted teeth, she chokes on a cough, feeling her breath shorten,

"Let go, Y-you...this kid dares to!!"

But then she innerly reminds herself as tears gather up her eyes in pain.

"He's still young. Too young to understand. I can't murder children. But I can't have him have his way either, can i? He's not very strong like this so if I just suppress his powers by kicking onto his core, maybe I can tame him and make him obey me!"

"CURSED CULTIVATOR!!! I HATE YOU!!Die- DIE, DIE!!! You are UNFORGIVABLE-"

Not giving him another chance to yell any further, Xiao Xiao, with all the strength remaining, brings her legs forth to land a powerful kick on his core, forcing his grip to part away with him crashing onto a wall.

"Cough- cough..."

Catching on her breath with a pained throat, Xiao Xiao heaves a sigh after seeing him motionless leaning to the wall.

"He looks very weak then where the heck did he get that much strength from? He's definitely not an ordinary child... If I didn't move faster he could have choked me to death there!"

wiping her tears away, she brings out a hand to feel her now bruised neck, hissing,

"Should I just end his life? I can't let the corrupted demons live to cause further destruction to our peaceful land..."

When walking up to the injured boy Xiao Xiao prepared her sharpened claws to attack, she was about to jump at him but pauses the second the said boy struggled to pronounce,

"Why...why do you people have to get rid of us? Kill us!?? Just what did we do wrong to you!!!!!?"

She almost snorts,

"Why!?? You're asking me why!? Don't you see that you guys all are a threat to our society!???! Just look at what you've done with these helpless rabbits who had only one life to live!! You've cruelly slain those innocent souls and even eaten them!! Do you seriously don't think that all of this what you demons are doing is wrong!???"

Tearing up, the lion cub tries to retort,

"Well, I-,I... I didn't ask to be born like this!!! It's not my fault!!! it's not, I didn't want to.... I didn't ask to have parents and family from all of the corrupted demons kind. if I had a choice I wouldn't-, i didn't want to be turned out this way- !!! Do you blame me, is it my fault!??"

He then adds as he brings his head up to look at her with wronged eyes full of tears,

"You...y-you guys aren't even any BETTER!! Demons!! You all are cruel!! Yet you all think you are holy spirits and us as sinners!??"

" it's because you all treated us this way that it reached up to this point..."

Seeing him weeping as his body was injured to the core covered in blood, the jade rabbit could only furrow her eyebrows in regret, reconsiderating her previous actions.

"That's right...What did I do...I shouldn't have kicked him this hard!!! I- ugh, He's just a helpless child and how cruel was I to him!?? Hurry!! I need to hurry up and save him before it's too late!!"

When Xiao Xiao hurriedly reached out in an attempt to try to hold him in order to heal him, the next words the lion cub cried out made the rabbit completely freeze up on spot.

"I d-didn't want any of this to happen...I only...i-i just want to get back to my mom."

Heart starting to rapidly beat , Xiao Xiao struggled to pronounce as her mind starts to hallucinate, the cub using the dream demon technic to make her see what she desires to see the most.

"Get back to y-your mother..? You, you want your mom back? You want...me?"

Out of nowhere tears started to roll down her eyes as grievous memories flashed through Xiao Xiao, especially of her infant slowly passing away on her very own hands.

That very day shattered her soul completely.

The respected teacher then begins to weep painfully looking at the hallucinated scene of her dead son now being in front of her and alive, which in reality was only the lion cub.

The woman hiccups, choking on her tears, as she cried out,

"Xiao Bo... Bo Bo, do y-you really mean what you said? You don't blame mom anymore? Do you really...forgive mom and want to come back to me?"

"Just as I predicted. Her weakness is being a mother of a child...she must have done something to feel guilty about for her to be in this state."

The lion cub thought on the inside as he watches in silence the woman's body shaking from unsteadiness of shock.

Despite being in utter pain his frown turns into a wicked smile.

The corrupted demon child was about to say something in the name of her son as an act, but when he was suddenly pulled into a tight hug that was filled with only desperation,

he found himself in as state of loss for words.

???

"Huh-"

"Mommy will take care of you from now on...You are not alone anymore. So don't be afraid, alright? Mom loves you the most, Xiao Bo. No matter here or not, you will always be a part of me, flesh and bone..."

Xiao Xiao coaxed as she runs her fingers through his messy hair in a soothing manner.

The illusion was so vivid and strong that it clouded her mind, making her further weep in agony of a child loss for so many years.

The lion cub, knowing that this was just her hallucination that made her act this way, felt his insides curl at her embracing him oh so tightly.

It even felt very warm in this cold night.

Oh how long has been since someone has hugged him so tenderly and with so much love..

The child didn't know where to put his hands and whether he should push her away and break off the illusion, but one thing he knows is that he didn't want this to end.

So while he feels butterlies in his stomach, he curses.

"This woman is so pathetic...what exactly is this mother child relationship that she's grieving over for so badly."

He didn't even notice that this jade rabbit spirit was also slowly starting to heal his injuries that were caused by herself as they remained in a one sided motherly embrace.

While that was happening, on the other side of the room a arrow was pointed at Xiao Xiao.

"That devil...finally this will be the death of yours and I'll get back everything lady has taken away from me."

The elder demon, who survived the burn of the jade rabbit's divine weapon, commented as he angles the arrow right at her head.

He had burn marks throughout his whole body, making him look horrifically terrible yet his avengeance was greater than his pain.

Right when he was about to let go of the arrow to strike at her from afar, a boyish voice came right behind him, that said,

"How the heck did you survive the burn? You should have died there from that attack!"

The elder corrupted demon smirks, dropping the arrow as he turns to look at the merman boy,

"That's rich coming from a corrupted demon as yourself. Why are you alive and on top of that you're married with that cursed cultivator, huh? Can't believe I gave you my blessing. "

Not minding the first comment about him turning into a corrupted demon, Wang Yi spits,

"Who are you calling a CURSED CULTIVATOR when you are the one with the weird rabbit killing fetish or whatever that you all have!!"

"What?"

"It's obvious with the way you're obsessed with them. What's with you all and your grudges towards freaking rabbits!? This whole place reeks of dead rabbit meat! How great is your hunt for these creatures, huh!? What do you have to do with them!!!"

"Tsk, dumb fish. Even killing off the whole rabbits in the world won't be enough to fill my thirst of hunting rabbit spirits...Don't you see yourself how she treats you? Why are you standing up with her when you should be one of us, you moron!!"

"One of you?"

"That's right. I bet you were hated on for being a predator and on top of that a corrupted one while walking around the humans, especially that cursed woman over there."