The gatehouse of the Jade Void Palace stood wide open. A tiny girl, as delicate as a porcelain doll, toddled in on her short legs. Two tufts of hair stuck straight up from her head, and her face and hands were plump with baby fat, as if the slightest poke would leave a dent.
Inside the room, two green monsters sprawled limply on separate recliners, lifeless and glaring at each other in mutual defiance. Seeing them, she asked in a childish voice, "Great Green Root, what's wrong with you?"
After a while of playing the Great Green Root imposter game, she had grown used to addressing them as "you."
"It's all because of him!" one of the green monsters suddenly sat up, its branches flailing and pointing at the other.
"Hmph! Who's the one who spent more?" the other shot back. "Who's to blame for us ending up like this?"
The two Great Green Roots bickered back and forth. A few breaths later, they suddenly came to their senses and turned to look at the little ancestor. Her tender little face was full of bewilderment, and she was chewing on her right thumb, utterly unable to understand what was going on.
The original Great Green Root sucked in a sharp breath, afraid the little ancestor would come up with another earth-shattering idea. Putting on airs, it sighed. "Miss, there's something you don't know. Alas, so long as living beings harbor emotions, evil spirits can never be eradicated. No matter how the world fares, whether it's fair or beautiful, jealousy, anger, pride, greed, despair, and other such things are bound to arise, nourishing evil spirits and wicked gods. Alas, I was influenced by the Devil Lord and Nine Chaos Heavenly Venerable, and couldn't rein in my greed. I squandered my life's