Old Zheng: You're the worst class of students I've ever taught

Ten Thousand Flowers Cave Dwelling, back kitchen.

With her hands and feet bound behind her back, Qin Siyu lay on a flat stone platform, listening to the "swish swish" of the two little demons sharpening their knives, the crackling of the burning firewood, and the bubbling of the boiling water in the pot. She began to wonder why she had ended up in such a predicament.

Regardless of whether that "senior" was Yaomo or not... he had saved me at least twice, so why would he send me into the Yaomo's kitchen at this critical juncture?

Does that mean that saving me was just to let me die here?

Why go through all this trouble? With your senior's strength, it shouldn't be difficult to just grab a fresh Martial Artists on the spot, right?

Could it be that something I said earlier upset my senior?

She twisted her body slightly, then looked at the two little demons sharpening their knives—the two demons were not very powerful; judging from their heads, they were probably two rabbit spirits, and their figures were roughly those of twelve or thirteen-year-old children.

They held cleavers almost as tall as themselves, their blades gleaming coldly and quite intimidating.

When Qin Siyu looked at the two rabbit spirits, the two rabbit spirits also stopped sharpening their knives, turned around, and looked in Qin Siyu's direction.

Its scarlet rabbit eyes stared at Qin Siyu, and its protruding fangs were as cold and sharp as a cleaver—even though it was a rabbit, it was still extremely ferocious and terrifying after transforming into Yaomo.

The two of them, carrying cleavers, approached Qin Siyu, their faces revealing greedy expressions.

"Hehe, it's still better to follow the Great Demon, at least there are Martial Artists to Blood Food!"

"Yeah... it's a pity there's not much meat on these Martial Artists, they're all skinny and dry. Even if we sneak some from the kitchen, we won't be able to steal much!"

"It's alright, it's alright. The King will surely reward us with flesh and blood later!"

"That's true, hahaha!"

The two rabbits walked to the stone platform while talking.

The two of them walked to the bench beside the stone platform, stood on it, and raised their gleaming, cleavers high.

At this critical moment of life and death, Qin Siyu finally stopped thinking about Lin Yu's intentions. The instinct for survival overcame everything, and her body moved involuntarily.

Despite being bound hand and foot, Qin Siyu used her skillful lightness skill to leap off the stone platform and then kicked a rabbit spirit on the head with her bound feet.

"Bang!"

"Ooh!"

The rabbit spirit groaned and then collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

The other rabbit spirit was horrified when it saw Qin Siyu suddenly attack. It was about to shout out and raise its cleaver to slash at Qin Siyu.

But...

Before its blade fell, even before it cried out, Qin Siyu turned to the side and flicked a long steel needle with her bound hands—the needle accurately pierced the rabbit spirit's open mouth, smashing it through its head and pinning it to the stone wall.

After Qin Siyu finished doing all this, she looked at the cleaver that had fallen to the ground, then squatted down after finding the right spot and laboriously brought the rope binding her hands to it.

Although the rope seemed to be made of the sinews of some kind of demon and extremely resilient vines, and was also soaked in some kind of demon oil, making it very strong, the bone-chopping knife that could be used to cut down Martial Artists was no ordinary weapon either. Qin Siyu sharpened it a few times and quickly broke the rope.

Then, she picked up the cleaver and untied the ropes binding her feet. She then hung one cleaver at her waist, held the other in her hand, and stabbed the rabbit spirit on the ground, whom she had kicked unconscious, through the throat. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Phew... Now I'm finally free... No wonder those two were only busy cooking in the kitchen, they were food themselves."

She moved her hands and feet; after being bound for so long, the blood and qi in her limbs weren't flowing smoothly, and she needed to relax.

And...

Although the immediate crisis has been resolved and there are no more monsters in the kitchen cave now, he is still, after all, inside the Cave Dwelling of a Great Demon.

Qin Siyu was also pondering what she should do.

She looked toward the stove, where a huge iron pot was boiling water, and an old man with white hair was hanging upside down on the pot, being suffocated by the steam and smoke.

Above the old man was a chimney—this stone cave used as a kitchen seemed to have a natural skylight leading to the outside world, which, after being slightly polished and widened, became a chimney.

"Should I run out through this chimney...? It's a bit narrow, but I've learned the Bone-Shrinking Technique, so squeezing out shouldn't be a problem," Qin Siyu pondered, rubbing her left shoulder, which felt strangely heavy. "But this chimney looks so dirty..."

And...

Although the Great Demon's Cave Dwelling is "dangerous," danger and opportunity coexist within it.

"Should we try our luck somewhere else?"

"Perhaps it's better to play it safe... and leave this Cave Dwelling first."

And when Qin Siyu was talking to herself like this...

A voice came from above. "Little girl, won't you consider putting me down first?"

Qin Siyu looked up when she heard the voice and saw the white-bearded old man hanging upside down from the ceiling, which surprised her.

"Holy crap, you're not dead?!"

The white-bearded old man opened his eyes, his pupils gleaming with a sharp light.

"What are you saying? Can a dead person talk?"

Qin Siyu opened her mouth wide, then said, "That's not right... Why didn't I hear your breathing or heartbeat just now?"

The white-bearded old man proudly replied, "It's nothing special, just the 'Tortoise-Breathing Technique'... I happened to have learned this Fang Techniques with a friend many years ago."

Qin Siyu looked at the white-bearded old man with deep respect. "Senior, you are actually Daoist Mage?"

"Not really, but I do know a little about Fang Techniques."

The white-bearded old man said leisurely.

"If you're not only Daoist Mage but also possess Fang Techniques, then you're truly remarkable," Qin Siyu said, pausing for a moment, "But... why are you still hanging here?"

Upon hearing this, the white-bearded old man's face stiffened, and he then said in a low voice, "Alas, I was careless for a moment... I'm not good at dealing with Yaomo, and the Martial Artists I hired this time was a complete incompetent..."

"But we can't blame him. Who would have thought that such Great Demon would exist in the outer areas of Nine Cold Mountain..."

He muttered to himself, then looked at Qin Siyu: "Anyway, I've just had bad luck... but luckily I've run into you now, so please put this old man down quickly!"

Qin Siyu was about to agree when she suddenly heard a voice.

"Don't rush to save him. There's something strange about this old man. Let's try to get more information out of him."

Then, Qin Siyu was somewhat surprised to find...

That sound was coming from within myself.

She immediately looked around alertly, but then the voice rang out again—only this time, Qin Siyu felt as if the voice was coming from within her own consciousness.

"Hey, hey, stop looking, I'm on your left shoulder—you can touch me if you reach out."

Qin Siyu was startled and raised her hand to touch her left shoulder, where she felt something that was somewhat elastic and soft.

Before Qin Siyu could scream in fright, the voice rang out again.

"Don't call me that, little girl—I was sent by your 'senior,' and I'm a perfectly good person."

"Just consider me a 'Magical Artifacts' for now. I am a very Wisdom artifact spirit, can you understand?"

"You can just say what you're thinking in your mind, and then I'll hear it."

Upon hearing this voice, Qin Siyu, somewhat skeptical, silently wondered, "Really?"

"It's the real deal, why would I lie to you... Haven't you read those kinds of stories? I'm the kind of person you call a portable old man—though I'm not old at all."

Qin Siyu had tentatively come to believe the other party, and then continued to mutter to herself, "Then... why didn't you show yourself when I was about to be killed?"

The voice sneered, "You think you can kill me with those two little demons you took down in one move?"

"I've always been curious why you haven't made a move... Even with your hands and feet tied, as a notorious thief, don't you have any means of escaping?"

Qin Siyu felt somewhat embarrassed upon hearing this.

After hearing what the other person said, she realized that although she had been tied up, she did have many ways to escape.

However, at the time, she was too concerned about the senior's intentions, which limited her thinking.

"So... you trusted my abilities, which is why you let me come to the kitchen alone?"

The voice in his head mocked helplessly again. "What else? Does he really want to see what you're like?"

"Although tonight's situation is indeed either a 'Diviner' or Great Demon, and there's basically no way you can handle it, even if the owner of this Cave Dwelling is Yaomo with a price of Twelve-Guans of cash or more, but... these two rabbit spirits in the kitchen have gotten you stuck here. Aren't you a bit too slow on the uptake?"

"Fortunately, my boss doesn't completely trust your abilities, so he still sent me along—even if you had really made a foolish mistake just now, I would have helped you."

Hearing the voice repeating in her mind, Qin Siyu rubbed her temples. "So that's how it is... Thank you so much... Uh, senior... how should I address you?"

The voice thought for a moment, then replied, "Just call me Mr. Zheng."

"Mr. Zheng, you're actually Human Race?"

"Or rather... were you Human Race before?"

Qin Siyu was surprised by the stability.

"Don't pry too much into my affairs," the voice in my head, Old Zheng's voice, rang out again. "You just need to know that I'm your strategist, your backup, and that I'm probably more knowledgeable than anyone you've ever met."

Old Zheng spoke, Qin Siyu stopped asking Old Zheng questions and instead spoke up.

"So, what exactly does the senior intend for me to do in this kitchen?"

"Of course, you should use your old skills... and empty this place out."

That's what Old Zheng said.