"Hey, wake up!"
He Xi shook the vine cage, trying to wake the small figure that had fainted.
What exactly had happened in that instant just now?
He had merely used his wand to push aside the leaves blocking his path, and the little thing had rolled her eyes and collapsed stiffly onto her tiny moss-covered bed.
Now, he finally got a clear look at the inside of the cage. It was a little creature no bigger than his palm, with two pairs of translucent wings drooping limply behind her.
Her pale golden hair was scattered across her face, and she wore a dress sewn from unknown petals and leaves.
Some kind of fey?
Thinking that, he gently shook the cage again.
Though one of the purposes of this trip was to contract with a fey creature, he did not even know what species this one was.
Besides, his teacher had specifically warned him to be especially careful when dealing with fey creatures.
Not because offending them would make it impossible to form a contract—quite the opposite. Fey creatures loved making contracts with others far too much.
But these little creatures who adored freedom had no desire to become someone else's beasts of burden. They usually made contracts only to have more fun themselves.
Unlike devils, who enjoyed playing word games with the terms of a contract, these little creatures preferred using all sorts of tricks to deceive you into unknowingly completing strange contracts.
For instance, they might ask, "Would you trade tomorrow's shadow for the sweetest honey you can eat today?" Once you agreed, your shadow might truly come alive the next day and run off to gather honey for them, while you landed yourself in serious trouble for losing it.
And they had no concept whatsoever of an