"What... is this?"
Mu Duo stared blankly at the painting Bai Yujun had given her.
It was very simple: lines outlined a plump, white figure with tiny arms and legs, an enormous head covered in what looked like cotton-like hair, two sheep horns, and a strangely shaped tuft of hair on top. It looked like...
"It's called Lazy Goat. I drew it very seriously."
"Lazy... Goat? What is that?"
"He's a Goat Demon, a child. Let me tell you, he was especially lazy and especially greedy, so he ended up looking like this." Bai Yujun explained earnestly.
Mu Duo nodded, quietly committing the appearance of this "Goat Demon" to memory.
Bai Yujun wandered casually through the Saintess Pavilion, looking over the bed, examining the chairs, and touching the carved patterns on the windows. Though the room was quite exquisite, it was far too desolate, with an icy chill hanging in the air. Its feng shui was mediocre.
She had come to see Mu Duo for serious business.
"You said there'll be a ceremony. What do I need to do? Roar twice, or stay still and look imposing? Should I hold an alligator in my mouth to show how fierce I am?"
"Uh... no need. When the time comes, you only need to coil around the Giant Tree."
"Is that all? Easy."
There was no more conversation after that. Mu Duo's state of mind seemed as cold and bleak as the room itself—she seemed like the sort who could sit at a table for an entire day with nothing to do. To Bai Yujun, she felt more like a piece of wood, one covered in white frost in late autumn. How had such a fine young woman become like this?
She was precisely the type of woman those sour scholars and