Chapter 9

"Xiaoyu, Xiaoyu! Senior Sister brought pastries back from outside, come and try them!" "Xiaoyu, Senior Brother brought you local specialties too! Look, look!" "Go away, you stinky Tang Yuan! Xiaoyu is going to eat my pastries!" "You're the one who should go away! I got my specialties out first, if she's going to try anything, she should try mine first!" "You!" "You!" On the stone steps outside the grand hall, three figures sat side by side, the little one in the middle forced to lean backward. Song Wu and Tang Yuan each held a tray of food, with Jiang Qingyu sandwiched between them, facing each other in a fierce glare as a crackling high-voltage current seemed to spark through the air between them. "Hmph!" "Hmph!" They turned their heads away at the exact same moment, uttering sounds of disdain and mockery. Jiang Qingyu had a headache. After Master took the Eldest Senior Brother away, the two of them had very enthusiastically dragged her out to appreciate the scenery of the main peak. Where there is beautiful scenery, there must naturally be good food, so the two of them had pinned her down on the stone steps, one on her left and one on her right, stuffing her with food. At first, it was normal—tanghulu, crystal pastries, all the food she could accept—until Senior Brother Tang Yuan pulled out a plate of... balut. Help, how could such a modern black-technology item appear here?! Following the appearance of the balut, the Third Senior Sister also produced her ultimate killer move—cilantro sweet cakes! Possessing the most unique fragrance in the world, those who loved it cherished it like their own lives, while those who hated it treated it like dirt. Clearly, Third Senior Sister was the kind of hardcore fan who would plant the whole world with cilantro the moment she became rich! The dispute between the two had reached a fever pitch. Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva once said: "If I do not enter hell, who will?" That being the case! "Senior Sister, Senior Brother, stop arguing. Xiaoyu will try both, I'll try both of them!" The two turned their heads back in unison, their tacit coordination comparable to a pair of biological siblings from different parents and mothers. Jiang Qingyu managed a forced smile. Between the two of them, she decisively picked up the cilantro sweet cake and took a small bite. The taste of cilantro exploded in her mouth! "Blech—!" "Xiaoyu! Are you alright?" Song Wu supported her with a light touch and asked with concern. "I'm fine," Jiang Qingyu swallowed the bitter taste and gave a conscientious review: "A novel flavor; as the saying goes, tastes differ." Song Wu pouted, put the remaining pastry aside, and picked up a piece to savor carefully: "Cilantro cakes have a special flavor, and few people like them. Still, thank you, Junior Sister! Just as you said, tastes differ!" Tang Yuan sneered: "Apart from you, Senior Sister, who else likes pastries with this flavor?" Maximum sarcasm. Third Senior Sister was so angry she stamped her feet, turned around, and sulked by herself. He pulled out his routine for dealing with children, half-coaxing: "Be good! Let's ignore her. Xiaoyu, hurry up and try the specialty Senior Brother brought. I accidentally ate a few too many on the way back to the sect, and this is the only plate left," he then swore solemnly, "Don't worry, Senior Brother won't snatch them, they're all yours!" "Ha, haha!" Then I really have to thank you, huh? Her right hand trembled as she looked at those balut beckoning to her like little demons, unable to bring herself to take one. "Ah, I know!" Joy welled up in Jiang Qingyu's heart—Senior Brother actually saw that she was reluctant! However, she discovered that things were not that simple. Fourth Senior Brother's pale, jade-like hand picked one up, cracked it open, peeled off the shell, and handed it right beside her hand: "It's all my fault, I forgot to peel the shell. All better now! Hurry up and eat, Junior Sister!" The corners of her mouth twitched violently, saliva pooling in her mouth. Knowing she couldn't escape, she still took only a tentative nibble. "Blech—gag—ugh! Blech—" An electric current struck straight from the soles of her feet to the crown of her head! With this indescribable texture and the soul-ascending fishy smell, Jiang Qingyu felt like crying without tears. At least sprinkle some barbecue seasoning on it! Tang Yuan leaned in, extremely excited, his eyes shining astonishingly bright: "Is it good? Is it really good?" Jiang Qingyu's stomach spasmed, stomach acid secreting uncontrollably. Her eyes were full of tears, her throat swollen. She feared she might have been poisoned, as she couldn't say a single word. She weakly signaled with her eyes: Tangyuan Senior Brother, please open your pearl-sized eyes wide and look at me! Does this really look like the expression of someone eating delicious food? Tang Yuan indicated that signal reception had failed and chattered away: "Let me tell you, Xiaoyu, I specifically asked my friends down below to bring this! It's the only one of its kind in the entire Cultivation World! Underworld specialty live duck eggs! I've been saving them..." Underworld—specialty?! Jiang Qingyu's eyes rolled up, and she suffered another round of frantic retching, almost kneeling on the spot right then and there! She thought it was down-to-earth, but it turned out to be down-to-the-underworld! With a single bite of balut, she was as weak as a thread: "Fourth Senior Brother..." "Xiaoyu, I'm here, speak!" "Promise me, cough, cough..." "Uh-huh, I promise, I promise!" She raised her hand toward Tang Yuan, motioning him to lean closer. Tang Yuan did so, and Jiang Qingyu's face turned pale as she revealed a faint smile: "In the future, keep any more good things like this for yourself. Otherwise, every time you eat one, there's one less left. Okay?" The next moment, a heavenly sound came to rescue her from fire and water! "What are you doing?" "Eldest Senior Brother!!!" Jiang Qingyu practically lunged toward Baixin in three steps and two bounds.Baixin furrowed his brow tightly. He had only been gone for a little while, so how had things turned into this wretched, unghostly mess again?

His gaze fell upon the hairy eggs and the cilantro-flavored pastries, and the dark history of his past torment gradually grew clear. A vein throbbed on his temple.

"How old is she even?! Do the two of you want to poison Xiaoyu to death just so you can inherit her homework?"

Seeing Baixin approach, the two who had just been acting like rival kings spontaneously straightened their posture and stood in a neat row under their senior brother's lukewarm greeting.

Faced with Baixin's thunderous interrogation, no one dared to make a peep. The bird that sticks its neck out gets shot, and the local bully gets cut down first!

Whoever spoke up first would obviously be a complete fool!

The two of them arrived at the exact same thought in perfect synchronization, and Song Wu, with great wisdom, guessed what Tang Yuan was thinking.

Rather than waiting around, it was better to take the initiative.

Instead of consuming oneself from within, it was better to consume others from without.

As the saying goes: better a dead fellow daoist than a living poor me!

Junior brother, have a safe journey!

Song Wu extended her wicked right hand from behind her back, grabbed the soft flesh at Tang Yuan's waist, and gave it a gentle twist.

"What the—!?" The curse word slipped right out.

Baixin narrowed his eyes.

Tang Yuan immediately changed his tune: "I supe—r love these hairy eggs! I can eat four of them in a single meal!"

"Fine, then finish that entire plate of yours. Don't leave a single one."

Tang Yuan clutched his waist with one hand. Song Wu was truly black-hearted and hadn't held back at all; by now, that patch of flesh was probably eighty percent bruised!

Sporting a baby face with very little intimidation factor, he bared his teeth viciously at Song Wu, as if he could bite her back just by doing so.

His behavior was utterly childish!

"Why aren't you going yet?"

Tang Yuan's delicate body gave a shudder. He briskly picked up the plate, popping one into his mouth with every step, glaring at the culprit the whole way.

Song Wu covered her mouth to hide her unbridled smile, secretly gloating over his misfortune.

Before she even had a chance to make a run for it, the voice of doom rang out: "What are you laughing at? Do you think I'm blind? You go too! Don't come see me if you don't finish every last bite."

"Senior brother, let me sophistry—"

"You're still trying to sophistry!?"

"No! It's an explanation!"

"An explanation is just cover, and cover is—"

"The truth!"

Before he could even finish speaking, his sentence was hijacked, and another round of throbbing started up on Baixin's temples.

"Right, I'm going right now!" Before his senior brother could completely flip out, he scurried away smoothly, not forgetting to shove a cilantro pastry at Jiang Qingyu before making his escape.

The way the third senior sister and fourth senior brother got along was truly entertaining, except that it tended to catch innocent bystanders in the crossfire.

"What are you smiling at?"

Jiang Qingyu's smile froze on her face. She raised her head and blinked innocently.

"Just letting them run amok? You deserve to be poisoned to death!" Baixin completely unleashed his true nature—to hell with senior brotherly dignity!

"Huh? Me too?"

"Go swing your sword!"

"…Oh~"

Indiscriminate attack; even a passing dog would have to take a beating.

"Wait!"

Jiang Qingyu turned back, and a small porcelain bottle came flying through the air. She jumped up and caught it with her right hand—it was a full bottle of Qi-replenishing pills. She waved the pill bottle with a smile: "Thank you, senior brother~!"

The three of them were packed off to mind their own business.

Her ears finally grew quiet.

Baixin put his hands behind his back and walked over to the stone steps where the three of them had been sitting. Following their order, with an extra space left open next to Xiao Yuan, he sat down at the very edge. The master's five disciples fit together just right.

The mountain breeze blew past, lifting his spirits, and his cultivation realm began to loosen in a way it hadn't in a long time.

...

It was far too difficult for a half-demon to make a name for himself in this cultivation world. Back when he was just a little kid who had sneaked out of the sect to play, he saved a human-looking cultivator. He had thought the fellow was a good person, but in the blink of an eye, that person had unleashed a torrent of verbal abuse, calling his half-demon identity lowly and threatening to sell him into the beast-fighting arena. Fortunately, he had a reliable way to escape.

Ever since then, he had harbored a lingering trauma, carefully hiding his ears and tail every time he went out.

Later, when Master took in disciples, he assumed the role of senior brother, terrified that his junior brothers and junior sisters would be just like that cultivator—hating half-demons, finding half-demons disgusting. He had ruthlessly sealed away his demonic nature, never once transforming back into his true form to run wild through the Wuya Sword Sect, leaving his cultivation stagnating at the Divine Transformation stage.

Just now in the purple bamboo grove, when Master asked him why he had suddenly changed his mind, the very first thing he thought of was the little kid.

He thought of how she had earnestly told him that everything about him looked good, saying that his face was the best bewitching technique.

He thought of how her eyes would sparkle when she looked at his tail, always trying to sneak a touch. He would carelessly flick his tail over, and her little hand would touch it for a split second before pulling back immediately, terrified of being caught, quickly hiding behind a book and pretending to read diligently.

The little kid seemed to have some inexplicable obsession with his demonic body.

He knew that human children all loved fluffy animals, so he had started worrying that he only fit the little kid's hobbies.

Finally, the night before, he had opened the barrier, letting her interact with Mei Niang and watching the two of them chat happily.

He thought to himself that it was time to let it go.

Xiao San and Xiao Xiao were a pair of bickering enemies; arguing and snapping at each other was just part of the daily routine~