Mu Tian Zi

Verdant Green Maiden returned along the way she had come and spotted Hong Luan flying back and forth, chirping noisily at the cave entrance. She reached out, grabbed the bird by the tail, and asked, "What's wrong? We haven't seen each other all winter. You haven't gone crazy, have you?"

Hong Luan jumped in fright. Seeing that it was Verdant Green Maiden, she let out a huge sigh of relief and flung herself into her arms!

"Stupid Snake! I thought you'd been taken off as prey!"

Verdant Green Maiden glanced at Hong Luan, then looked toward the cave entrance. A look of sudden realization crossed her face. "So that inconsiderate nuisance was you!"

Hong Luan: "..."

"Go die, Stupid Snake!"

Bird Sister stomped all over Verdant Green Maiden's hair in a fit of temper. "And here I was, worried you'd starve to death, so I even brought you fruit!"

Verdant Green Maiden scratched her head and grinned.

For two thousand years, this was the first time someone had waited for her to wake up.

It felt pretty nice!

"Where's the fruit?"

Hong Luan tossed a string of green fruits at Verdant Green Maiden with a snap of her beak. "Choke on them!"

Verdant Green Maiden, the little ungrateful wretch, caught the fruit and sniffed it, grinning all the while. She bowed to Hong Luan. "Thank you for feeding me, Bird Sister!"

"Shameless! You're two thousand years older than me!"

"What do I need that thing for?"

Watching Hong Luan turn her head away and ignore her, Verdant Green Maiden patted her shoulder and said, "Little Hong Luan, don't be mad. Come on up. I'll take you to see Hao Jing in early spring."

Hong Luan cracked open one eye and gave her a sidelong glance. With an arrogant little huff, she flapped her wings and landed on her shoulder.

Verdant Green Maiden swept her sleeves and set off toward Hao Jing. She plucked off another fruit and bit into it with her pearly teeth, juice bursting out.

She paused, her expression unchanged.

"Hong Luan..."

Verdant Green Maiden rarely called her by name with such gravity.

Hong Luan tilted her head. "What is it?"

"Next time, just let me starve to death!"

The woman and bird laughed and bickered their way to the gates of Hao Jing, only to see the people streaming out!

They clearly weren't coming to welcome them.

"Hey, hey, stop!"

Verdant Green Maiden grabbed a passerby and tossed him a handful of Coin Shells. "What's going on today? Did they find some rare delicacy in the mountains outside Hao Jing? Is everyone rushing off to dig it up?"

All that went through Snake Brain's head besides becoming a dragon was what to eat today, and what to eat tomorrow.

The man was suddenly grabbed, and his face twisted with anger.

But before he could even see who it was, Coin Shells came flying at him in a barrage.

The Coin Shells clattered down like rain!

His face was pelted into a beaming smile. He hurriedly bent down and scooped them up.

He wiped his weather-beaten face and replied, "It's the Great King! He went on a Western Expedition with the Immortal Master last year to seek immortality. Now he's returned and summoned the people to meet him in the western suburbs of Hao Jing! He must have found a True Immortal!"

Verdant Green Maiden sized the man up.

Could he be one of those all-knowing passerby NPCs from stories, the sort that every protagonist ran into?

Tsk!

So it was Ji Man. Not as good as wild game.

Verdant Green Maiden wanted to snatch the Coin Shells back.

But the man had already stuffed them into his clothes and bolted! He seemed to have realized that if he didn't run now, some shameless snake would take the money right back.

"Heh..."

Verdant Green Maiden's eyes widened, and her mouth fell open.

Hong Luan, perched on her shoulder, sighed and shook her head. "What a Stupid Snake. If you wanted to know what was going on, you could've just gone and looked. Why pay? Now you've heard unpleasant news and lost your money too!"

"I've got plenty of treasures. I don't care about this little bit!"

Verdant Green Maiden shook her head, reassuring herself.

If it came to it, she could just take a little from the Royal Palace, couldn't she?

There weren't many people in Hao Jing now anyway. Snake Girl was like a bandit who'd just ridden into a village, picking the homes of princes and nobles clean. Those people didn't produce anything; all their Coin Shells came from the people below paying tribute. What was wrong with Verdant Green Maiden taking a little?

"I'm robbing the rich to help the poor!"

That was how Verdant Green Maiden put it.

Hong Luan: "Pah! You robbed the rich, sure, but where are the poor? How are you helping them?"

"Isn't that easy?"

Verdant Green Maiden wandered through the streets of Hao Jing with Hong Luan, buying a little something whenever she saw someone she liked and paying them extra.

Along the way, she not only helped the poor but also found out what had happened to Ji Man.

It turned out that Yao Jiang had died on the way back from Kunlun Mountain!

The old fellow wasn't built for the wear and tear of the journey, let alone climbing Kunlun Mountain. He'd already left half his life behind. Then Verdant Green Maiden had angered him on the mountain, and he couldn't hold on for the trip home. He went straight to report to King Yama.

"Poor King Yama~"

Verdant Green Maiden sighed. Then the peddler told her that Ji Man was planning to give Yao Jiang a grand funeral.

He'd even ordered the whole realm to hunt down women dressed in green!

"Oh my! Noble Lady, your clothes are green too. You'd better change quickly, or you might be mistaken for a demoness and captured! The people from Tian Yuan Palace don't play fair."

The peddler spoke in a panic.

Verdant Green Maiden looked down at her dress.

It had been made from the Azure Scales she'd shed long ago, and was incredibly precious!

Change it?

She'd sooner go beat up Ji Man!

So she did!

That night, Verdant Green Maiden and Hong Luan sneaked into the Royal Palace and gave Ji Man a good beating.

To keep him from fighting back, Verdant Green Maiden even used a little poison.

Ji Man thought he'd had a dream that left his back aching. But when he woke up the next day and saw himself covered in bruises, his vision went black, and he went straight back to sleep.

Verdant Green Maiden's opinion was:

Ji Xiao Man's mental fortitude was still way too weak!

Ji Man spent a full month lying in bed before the injuries on his face healed enough for him to show it in public.

The first thing that bastard did after summoning his ministers was to sternly remind them that state affairs could wait; catching snakes was the real priority! Hurry up and catch that pretty little Snake Demon. He was going to teach her a lesson day and night!

Verdant Green Maiden was pleased that the bastard had called her pretty.

But she didn't like what he'd said.

So Verdant Green Maiden beat him up again!

Not only that, under cover of a moonless night, she hauled Ji Man to Ji Fa's grave and scolded him right in front of it. Only then did Ji Man remember the Royal Family's legend, passed down by King Wu: the Banished Immortal who would come to take the heart's blood of the last Zhou king!

"You... No, are you the Goddess, the Banished Immortal?"

Ji Man knelt on the ground and stared blankly at Verdant Green Maiden, stumbling over his words.

"Could it be... I... I'm the last ruler of Great Zhou, and that's why you came before me?"

"No... How could I be?"

"My Great Zhou has the Four Barbarians bowing in submission!"

"Why..."

Standing on Verdant Green Maiden's shoulder, Hong Luan preened her feathers and murmured, "You hit him too hard. Look, you've gone and knocked him silly."

Verdant Green Maiden fell silent. She turned to look at Ji Fa's grave.

"I didn't mean to bully your descendant. Don't come haunt me in a dream tonight. Bye-bye!"

With that, she vanished.

Ji Man fainted too.

It was normal for something to go missing from the Royal Palace, but a king? That could cost everyone their heads!

When the eunuchs discovered Ji Man was missing from the palace, they were more distraught than if their parents had died! They searched for most of the day before finally finding him at King Wu's Mausoleum. Ji Man could only explain that he'd missed his ancestor in the middle of the night and snuck out to pay his respects. He didn't dare mention Verdant Green Maiden at all.

Naturally, that explanation earned him a scolding from the ministers, who upheld the rites of Zhou!

Your Majesty!

You missed your ancestor and sneaked out alone, but did you know the eunuchs nearly went to join their own ancestors after discovering you weren't in the palace?

Was that in keeping with the rites of Zhou?

Ji Man apologized over and over, not daring to argue.

That fright Verdant Green Maiden gave him had turned him into Mu Tian Zi. The bastard feared he might be the last ruler of Zhou, so he governed with diligence and worked hard for decades, finally meeting King Wu with a clear conscience.