Chapter Sixteen: A Woodcutter

"Young lady, in all fairness, there were no flaws in your words just now."

Seeing the demoness grow impatient as he pondered, with a fierce glint flickering in her eyes, Lu Chuan hurriedly offered a fawning smile.

"No flaws?"

The demoness giggled at his words, and Lu Chuan accompanied her with a chuckle.

Suddenly, the demoness's expression turned cold. She raised a foot and pressed it against Lu Chuan's chest, looking at him with Baleful Intent as she snapped, "At this point, you brat are still trying to play tricks on me. If there were no flaws, why didn't you take the bait just now?"

This woman's face is truly like the June sky—it changes whenever it pleases!

Lu Chuan sighed inwardly, feeling anxious and scorched, for he knew that whether he spoke or not, his final outcome would remain unchanged.

Better to die sooner and be reborn sooner.

If he could stall until Shen Gongbao arrived, there might be a glimmer of hope, but Shen Gongbao's delay was slowly turning his hope into despair.

"Young lady, young lady... please, do not lose your temper. Everything this humble scholar said is the truth." While stalling for time, Lu Chuan racked his brain for an escape plan.

With a helpless expression, he said, "Heaven is my witness, after hearing your heavenly voice just now, my soul nearly flew out of my body. How could I not want to come? It is just that I am under strict supervision, and I truly dare not."

The demoness paused, then asked suspiciously, "Who?"

Under normal circumstances, if she caught a human, she would never entertain such nonsense; she would simply grab them and fill her stomach.

But today, this brat had actually seen through her foolproof scheme that had never failed before—how could she not be astonished?

Therefore, she did not strike the killing blow immediately, wanting instead to clarify the flaws in her own trap.

Seeing that he had successfully captured her attention, Lu Chuan held his breath until his face turned red, then put on a shy expression and said, "My wife."

"Who?"

The demoness was stunned, then widened her almond-shaped eyes and shouted.

Lu Chuan's voice had been as soft as a mosquito flapping its wings, and she truly hadn't heard him clearly.

"My wife."

Lu Chuan raised his voice slightly, looking embarrassed as he whispered, "She... she won't let me look at any other woman... not even for a glance..."

"You..."

The demoness shook her head in deep disappointment. "So you're just a henpecked coward. No, wait..."

Suddenly, she let out a cry and sneered, "Didn't you just say you were born prematurely, and have been weak and deficient in vital essence since childhood? How could you be married?"

Lu Chuan: "..."

He hadn't expected the demoness to remember that detail. He sighed hurriedly and blurted out, "My father and her father were old family friends, so we were betrothed since childhood."

"So that's how it is."

The demoness nodded, half-believing him. His explanation was logical and reasonable; she couldn't find any fault in it.

"Young lady, you have no idea. That girl has a temper that is savage, willful, and unreasonable."

Lu Chuan complained, "Her father is a general, so she has practiced martial arts with him since she was small. She beats me black and blue every single day."

"Oh!"

The demoness gave a faint "oh," scanned Lu Chuan up and down, and smiled. "You are that afraid of her?"

Seeing the demoness's gaze, Lu Chuan's scalp went numb.

He was all too familiar with that look; it was the look of a predator scrutinizing its food, deciding which part to eat first.

He knew that since the demoness had finished asking about the flaws in her trap, she was surely preparing to feed.

However, he was not a corpse; how could he sit here and wait for death?

Thus, his self-rescue plan had begun the moment he started answering the demoness. The subsequent chatter, while seemingly aimless, was actually him digging a pit for her, laying the groundwork for his next move.

Success or failure depends on this next step.

Lu Chuan's eyes flashed, and he said with a sly smile, "Afraid of her? Heh, I won't hide it from you, young lady—I only indulge her. Who else but me could love her so much?"

"Oh?"

The demoness said "oh" again, but the meaning behind this one was vastly different from the first.

"Love?"

The demoness looked at Lu Chuan in surprise. Seeing the look of pure bliss on his face, she said skeptically, "She beats you and you still love her that much? Are you sick?"

"Haven't you heard that 'to beat is to love, to scold is to cherish'?"

Lu Chuan said, "Let me tell you, forget about me—I dare say there isn't a man in the world who wouldn't love her upon seeing her. My wife is as beautiful as a celestial being, with a face that makes fish sink and geese fall, and a beauty that puts the moon and flowers to shame..."

He used every single adjective for beauty he could think of at that moment, bestowing them all upon this imaginary wife.

As he spoke, he was secretly gauging the demoness's expression.

"Is there really such a beautiful person in this world? I don't believe it."

The demoness was stunned after hearing him, muttering to herself. Suddenly, seeing Lu Chuan observing her, she flashed a charming smile and said softly, "Young master, how does your wife's beauty compare to mine?"

"It's done!"

Lu Chuan felt a surge of joy upon hearing this; he knew his path to survival had opened up.

He feigned a serious expression, scrutinizing the female demon from head to toe, nodding, then shaking his head—repeating this cycle three times.

The female demon stamped her foot, demanding impatiently, "Speak! What is the meaning of this nodding and shaking, you little thief?"

Lu Chuan put on a solemn face. "Does the young lady wish to hear the truth or a lie?"

"Nonsense!" the female demon snapped. "Do you believe I won't kill you with a single sword stroke if you keep stalling?"

Lu Chuan nodded hurriedly, cowering. "Although your beauty is rare in both heaven and earth, it is still... just a fraction inferior to my wife's."

"A fraction?"

The female demon was incensed. With lightning speed, she reached out, grabbed Lu Chuan by the throat, and hoisted him up as if he were a mere chick.

"Brat, what did you just say?"

The female demon sneered, "Do you believe..."

But before she could finish, a gale of wind swept over Lu Chuan's head, clearly targeting the female demon.

Her expression shifted drastically. She dropped Lu Chuan and dodged to the side, while the gale swirled around Lu Chuan, preventing the female demon from coming within half a step of him.

"Which blind fool dares to ruin my business?"

The female demon glared at the gale, furious. Suddenly, a pair of fierce, yellow-glowing eyes ignited within the wind, though no sound emerged.

"Brat, who exactly are you?"

Seeing the gale protecting Lu Chuan, the female demon shouted.

Lu Chuan was just as bewildered by the wind, as he did not recognize it either.

"In reply to the young lady, as I said before, I am just someone out gathering firewood."

The female demon was enraged. "You..."

"ROAR!"

Before she could finish, a majestic tiger's roar echoed in Lu Chuan's ears. Immediately following, the gale whistled and swept toward the female demon.

Seeing this, the female demon twisted her body, transforming into a phantom dragon image, and soared into the sky, speeding off into the distance. The gale followed closely behind, chasing her through the air.

In mere moments, both the dragon shadow and the gale vanished from his sight.

The area returned to silence in an instant.

"What was that wind just now?"

Lu Chuan stared blankly in that direction; the turn of events had been far too sudden.

Originally, the situation had been proceeding according to his plan. The female demon grabbing his throat was within his control, as he had successfully piqued her curiosity and her competitive desire regarding beauty.

Next, he would have revealed to the female demon that his "wife" was also nearby.

Upon hearing that, the female demon would surely have been unable to resist going to see for herself.

There was no other reason; it was the same principle as those men who could not help but seek her out after hearing her voice.

Once this female demon heard of a woman far more beautiful than her, how could she possibly restrain herself from wanting to take a look?

But once she followed him there, she would discover that waiting for her was not another beauty, but an old Daoist priest from Yuxu.

He had calculated everything, yet he had failed to account for a strange wind suddenly sweeping in from out of nowhere, completely disrupting his entire plan.

Perhaps another demon nearby came to snatch her prey... Wait, another demon...

Lu Chuan thought to himself, and suddenly it dawned on him: with both demons gone, if he didn't bolt now, when would he?

Lu Chuan scrambled to his feet and took off running toward the dilapidated temple from his memory, not even bothering to retrieve the firewood Shen Gongbao had ordered him to collect.

However, he hadn't run for long when, as he rounded a bend, a bright light suddenly flashed before his eyes, and he felt as if he had slammed into a wall.

BANG!

Dizzy and disoriented from the impact, Lu Chuan stumbled back several steps before flipping over and crashing to the ground with a thud.