The clouds continued darkening above the mountain, making the people at its foot wonder what was happening. The local news hadn't predicted any weather phenomena, and seeing the clouds darken so fast was strange.
But some of the older locals, who had seen this a few times before, smiled, whispering under their breaths.
"The sky blesses us with another protector."
Local legend had it that at the top of the mountain, a lesser deity resided, and once every few decades, it would gather the sky's wrath and bless a lucky warrior with the strength to fight back against the world's evils.
Of course, this was all legend, and no one had ever seen a demon in their lives. If only they knew how close to accurate the legend was, and the very reason they had yet to see a demon was that the Zhong Kui had been killing them from the shadows for millennia.
But everyone's day would go on as usual, regardless of what would come in the next hour.
