Female Demon

At the words "Qilin Immortality Elixir," Lu Yang shuddered. The qilin had vanished from the world, and the Qilin Immortality Elixir was nearly extinct as well. There had only been a few plants since ancient times, making it extraordinarily rare. Throughout history, records concerning the Qilin Immortality Elixir were few and far between. Some even claimed that there was only one such plant in the world.

The Qilin Immortality Elixir was reincarnating.

An ancient sage once proposed that qilin did not exist at all, that they had merely been imagined. The recorded sightings of qilin were actually sightings of the Qilin Immortality Elixir.

Before opening their Heavenly Eyes, people could easily mistake the Qilin Immortality Elixir for a qilin, just as Lu Yang had now.

"Uncle Ba sent me here to loosen the soil."

"Oh, so he sent you to loosen the soil. Do you know the Five Elements arts?" The little Medicine Kings were all delighted when they heard this.

At last, someone had come to work.

Lu Yang's face was filled with indecision. "I can't exactly say that I'm very good at it. I learned it by accident, and I don't know whether it counts as a Five Elements art. But I do know how to burrow underground."

Lu Yang felt that what he used was spatial magic. It was just that its manifested characteristics resembled a Five Elements art.

"Whether it counts as a Five Elements art doesn't matter. As long as you can burrow underground." The Flower of the End of Ages spoke bluntly.

After the earthworm couple went on vacation, the herbs' complaints could always be heard. They complained that the soil was too hard and growing in it was uncomfortable, that the soil wasn't breathable, and that they wanted to pull out their roots to breathe and bask in the sun. The little Medicine Kings found it all very troublesome.

Now, this problem could be solved.

Very few people in the world knew of the existence of Medicine Kings. Before this, Lu Yang had not known even a single one of them. The little Medicine Kings had medicinal properties powerful enough to defy the heavens; if they appeared in the outside world, even mighty cultivators would go mad over them.

No, there was one he did recognize.

Lu Yang recognized the sunflower in the Flower of the End of Ages' hands. Its petals opened and closed, the black shells fell away, and the jade-white kernels became nourishment for the Medicine King—it was cracking sunflower seeds.

And it had thrown the shells all over the ground.

Lu Yang had no idea whether this counted as cannibalism.

"Oh, this one is called a sunflower." The Flower of the End of Ages noticed Lu Yang's gaze and introduced it.

I know.

The Medicine Kings were all rather small. Rather than cracking sunflower seeds, they looked more like they were hugging and gnawing on them. It was clear that the Flower of the End of Ages was enjoying herself.

"King End, you're littering again! How many times have I told you? We're plants. Don't imitate humans and crack sunflower seeds. The shells can be eaten too!" The Qilin Immortality Elixir was furious, angrily rebuking the Flower of the End of Ages for blindly copying the human race.

The Flower of the End of Ages did as she pleased. "I planted the sunflower myself. I'll eat it however I want. What's it to you? Ptooey."

This thoroughly enraged the Qilin Immortality Elixir. It charged at the Flower of the End of Ages with a howl. The two little Medicine Kings started wrestling over a disagreement, one pressing down on the other, then the other pressing down on the first. They had no killing power whatsoever.

The Ginseng Baby and the Three-Leaf Stargrass were completely used to it. They shouted for Lu Yang to demonstrate how to burrow underground.

"Don't mind them. They'll stop once they get tired."

Outside the wooden house, Lu Yang saw a towering tree. Its thick roots were like two sturdy legs, and it was full of vigor. A dense crown of leaves rustled loudly.

"An Enlightenment Tree?"

Lu Yang was quite astonished. Even if he returned to his normal size, this Enlightenment Tree could absolutely be called a tree that blotted out the sky and covered the earth. Dozens of people couldn't wrap their arms around it, to say nothing of Lu Yang, who was only three inches tall now.

Daoist rhymes flowed around the Enlightenment Tree. The rustling of its leaves sounded like the voice of the Dao, as though the myriad Great Daos had gathered within it to shape its form. The Enlightenment Tree was mysterious and solemn, inviolable.

"This is the Enlightenment Tree I told you about. We all call it the Tree King. To say that its talent in the Dao is peerless would not be an exaggeration."

The Enlightenment Tree's leaves could help people comprehend the Dao. If the Enlightenment Tree became sentient, how high would its talent in cultivation be? Lu Yang couldn't imagine it.

The Medicine Kings looked frail, but in truth, each possessed their own divine abilities and methods. They were not to be underestimated.

Without life-saving skills, they could never have survived until now by relying solely on the human race's compassion.

The great tree laughed and cursed. "Ginseng King, you bastard, you're praising me to death again. If I'm peerless, then what kind of talent does that female demon have?"

"Who's the female demon?" Judging from the little Medicine Kings' tones, she didn't sound like a good person.

"Other than Little Ba, only the female demon can come into the medicine garden. The female demon is incredibly powerful. None of us can beat her. She picks whatever she wants, and no medicine can stop her!"

"She snapped off several of my old ginseng roots. It hurt so much that I had to lie in bed and rest for several days." The Ginseng Baby angrily denounced the female demon's lawless conduct.

"She picked several stars off the surface of my leaves too. Look—aren't these stars dimmer than the others? I don't even know how long it'll take for them to grow back!"

According to the little Medicine Kings' descriptions, the female demon's crimes were innumerable and too numerous to write down. Every medicine wanted her dead.

"What's even more infuriating is that she said she was going to take those things back to use in a bath. Can you imagine it? She actually bathed together with parts of our bodies! She's completely twisted!"

"Oh, right. I heard Little Ba say that the female demon has quite a high status in your Ask Dao Sect. Her name is Yun Zhi."

Lu Yang: "..."

He discovered that he wasn't surprised by this answer in the slightest. Was this a problem with Senior Sister or with him?

Lu Yang gave an awkward laugh, unsure what to say. "Well, that Senior Sister you're talking about... I think I know her. She's my Senior Sister."

The Tree King laughed heartily, completely unconcerned. "What's so strange about that? Who doesn't know that all your Ask Dao Sect disciples call her Senior Sister? Do you think that by saying you're her junior brother, we'll take our anger out on you? You underestimate us Medicine Kings too much. We Medicine Kings have lived for countless ages. How could we care about a mere member of the human race?"

Seeing how reasonable the Tree King was, Lu Yang relaxed. "That's wonderful. It seems that even if she and I studied under the same master, it wouldn't be a problem."

The Tree King's laughter came to an abrupt halt. Even the breeze brushing across its face stopped at that moment, and the leaves no longer rustled.

The Ginseng Baby waved its ginseng tendrils, a hint of feral delight appearing in its calm expression.

Stars swirled across the Three-Leaf Stargrass's leaves, like a volcano on the verge of eruption, ready to avenge itself and wipe away its shame.

In an instant, killing intent filled the air.

Lu Yang calmly explained, "Don't attack yet. Do you really think that just because I'm the female demon's junior brother, I'm on her side?"

The Ginseng Baby eyed Lu Yang suspiciously, its tendrils slowing. "Isn't that the case?"

The Tree King and the Three-Leaf Stargrass also refrained from attacking for the time being.

"Completely wrong!" Lu Yang said with absolute certainty. He clenched both fists tightly and revealed a pained expression, as though recalling a past too unbearable to look back on.

"That female demon's conduct is simply outrageous. Not only have you suffered at her hands—even I have been deeply victimized by her!"

"On the surface, I may look splendid, with a bright future ahead of me, but to whom can I tell of the torment I've suffered?"