The Book-Eating Worm (Thanks to "Zhen Bu Er Sheng" for the Alliance Leader!)

The black-and-white cat had no idea what was going on. Assuming things were the same as usual, it jumped onto the desk as soon as it entered the study, sniffed Chen Du's cup, then stuck its head inside to drink, paying no mind to anyone else.

"Come out!"

The sudden words startled it. It pulled its face out of the cup and turned to stare at Chen Du in bewilderment.

Chen Du was holding a treasured sword, his expression grave.

People in Daoist robes were always the most high-strung.

So the cow-patterned cat thought as it stuck its head back in.

"Still not coming out?"

The Daoist raised his voice considerably and drew his longsword with a hiss.

The cat was so frightened that it jumped straight into the air. Turning its head, it saw that its Daoist looked stern, his gaze fixed coldly ahead, the longsword in his hand giving off a chill.

It could not help looking in the same direction.

There was nothing there.

But it already sensed something was wrong, so it put its grand plan to drink on hold. Standing on the desk, it copied its Daoist, turning its head to scan the room and sniffing the air for anything strange.

"Meow?"

There was nothing there.

The cat turned to look at the Daoist, even more puzzled.

"This is your last chance!"

For all his concentration, Chen Du had not spotted anything unusual in the study either. Fortunately, there was only him and his cat here. They knew each other inside and out, so losing face in front of it once was no big deal.

So he calmly took a stone talisman from his person.

"If you come out now and we talk things through, there can still be room for compromise. If you still refuse to come out, I'll continue to assume you have ulterior motives. If I have to force you out, things won't end well for you. I imagine that, even if our positions were reversed, you'd think the same."

The words "Suppress Demons, Subdue Devils" were written on the stone talisman.

Besides, there were brushes and bluestone on the desk. Even if one attempt failed to bring it out, trying a few more times and switching methods might work.

Even if that failed for now, he could still use stone talismans to seal the study. Given time, there would always be an opportunity.

But there was still no movement in the study.

The cat was utterly bewildered. Once again, it could not help twisting around and scratching its head frantically with a hind leg.

Was this really not some new act the Daoist had put on to stop it from having a normal drink?

Just then, it seemed to sense something amiss.

It turned toward the bookshelf-

"!"

The cat immediately sprang over a meter into the air.

As soon as it landed, it raced to its Daoist's side and stood shoulder to shoulder with him before turning to look.

At some point, a little person had emerged onto the bookshelf behind them.

The little person looked about fourteen or fifteen, dressed like a book attendant from ancient times. His round face looked somewhat youthful, and he was tiny, shorter than Chen Du's index finger. An ancient thread-bound book stood upright beside him for comparison. It was about as tall as an ordinary book, while he was only a third of its height.

His proportions were similar to a human's, and he was considerably slimmer than a finger. Without magic, even a rat would probably spell disaster for him. Given his cat's appetite, Chen Du reckoned it would take five or six of him to fill it up for one meal.

"Spare... spare my life..."

The little person spoke nervously as he came out.

Chen Du breathed a sigh of relief. A moment ago, he had even begun to suspect he had simply been mistaken.

Even so, he did not truly relax. Instead, he tightened his grip on the treasured sword.

Once the cat had found its footing, it was astonished. It rounded its eyes and stretched its neck to look at the little person on the bookshelf, turning every so often to glance at Chen Du for comparison.

Clearly, some of the notions in its small, smooth brain were being sorely challenged.

"Who are you?"

"Daoist Master-ah, no, Immortal Master..."

The little person was clearly intelligent. Looking at the cat on the desk below, eager to jump up, he could not help trembling. "Could you ask this one... to move a little farther away... for the moment...?"

Judging by their sizes, the cat could kill him with one bite and swallow him whole in no more than three.

"Side-Swept Bangs," Chen Du said, "stay away from him. But if he tries to run, catch him and bring him back."

The little person immediately shuddered in fright.

Catch him and bring him back?

One bite from that cat's mouth, and at most only his lower legs would stick out. Given a cat's hunting instincts and playful nature, once it had him in its mouth, could it resist chewing a couple of times?

"Immortal Master, my surname is Shu, and my name is Yidu. I have been in this Daoist temple since the Great Ming."

He had been in this Daoist temple since the Ming dynasty?

Chen Du was taken aback.

Fortunately, he soon continued.

"Back then, spiritual energy was abundant here, and the Daoist arts were profound. I accidentally ate an immortal's books and attained the Dao, becoming a spirit. That also angered the immortal, who punished me by sealing me away on the back mountain."

So that's what happened. I thought you were a senior.

By your account, that Door God had also been on this mountain since the Ming dynasty.

"You're only this big?"

"Only this big."

Holding his treasured sword, Chen Du also found it quite strange.

A study and a little person-a classically fitting combination.

As he understood it, many tales from China and abroad alike featured "little people." In ancient China specifically, there were stories of the Jiaoyao, as well as rat people, ant people, the citizens of the bee kingdom, and so on.

In legends, some little people often hid in the walls of homes or in holes beneath beds, coming out to forage and go about their business while people slept, much like mice.

Others hid in studies. When someone grew drowsy while reading, they would come out and discuss poetry with them. Or, hearing someone recite utterly nonsensical verse, they would speak up to mock or refute it.

Some possessed other peculiar abilities, building villages or even kingdoms around people's homes.

All in all, they were quite wondrous.

So the moment Chen Du saw this little person, it was as though the familiar yet strange air of a tale of the supernatural had washed over him.

But there were more pressing matters now.

"When did you wake up and come here to hide?" Chen Du wanted to know whether he had been spying on him all along.

"..."

The little person named Shu Yidu clearly knew this was important too. After a nervous pause to gather his words, he said,

"I woke up a month ago and stumbled through a gap in the barrier, escaping by accident. I had nowhere to go and didn't dare run away, so I returned to the temple study."

"A month ago?"

Yunzhi had not yet arrived then.

He had still been writing in his diary.

So this demon knew he was a fake Celestial Master.

"Immortal Master, please hear me out! I did think of telling the temple's immortal right away, but, but I found that there were no immortals in the temple anymore. I was afraid I'd be tortured as a strange creature, or kept as a pet, and I was also afraid the cat would eat me. That's why I stayed hidden in the study. As it happened, a hole had rotted through the inside of the bookshelf, giving me somewhere to shelter..."

"And then you just kept hiding?"

Chen Du's tone grew noticeably heavier.

"It really was a coincidence!"

The little person continued,

"I had meant to tell you on the day the Three-Pearl Tree grew in the temple, Immortal Master. I could have helped you as well. But that very night, a demon came to the temple. I can't even beat a praying mantis, so I really couldn't help with the demon, and I couldn't imagine how you, with your mortal body, could get through that predicament. So, so I didn't come out..."

He spoke haltingly.

Chen Du thought it over briefly. It seemed to make sense.

A mortal was guarding a plainly extraordinary mountain and a plainly extraordinary Daoist temple, with a precious treasure tree growing inside. Then a demon in human form came calling under cover of night. Even now, looking back on it himself, he thought it had been extremely perilous.

At the very least, there was no way he could have subdued Yunzhi by force.

If the little person had jumped out and taken his side then, only for Yunzhi to kill him and seize the temple, how would that have been any different from swearing loyalty to the old emperor on the eve of a change of dynasties?

"Why hide in the study, of all places?"

"I attained the Dao and took form here back then. Also, the study's barrier has awakened again. Once the door is shut, sounds inside can't be heard outside, so it's a good place to hide. There are books here too, and they're my food."

"Hmm..."

Chen Du nodded. That was more or less what he had thought. "Why did you keep hiding after that? You hid for so long!"

"Because, because even though your wisdom was unmatched and your courage extraordinary, Immortal Master, and you really did subdue that ancient demon and get through it, I, I was still afraid..."

The little person heaped on the flattery, stumbling over his words.

"You realized you knew my secret-that I'd used lies to bluff Yunzhi-and were afraid I'd worry you would reveal it, so I'd kill you to silence you?"

As Chen Du spoke, he thought, Just as I suspected. The little person had been watching him in secret all along, witnessing the entire process of him posing as an expert and fooling Yunzhi.

Well, this really is...

At first, a wave of discomfort rose in his heart, but he soon came to terms with it. What he had done that night was an act of self-preservation. A true man acted with full awareness of what he was doing, so what was there to be ashamed of?

Immediately afterward, he also breathed a small sigh of relief.

At least for now, this little person did not seem to be an evil fiend, nor did he seem to be a great demon with a high level of cultivation. Even if it was an act, it at least showed that he was not confident he could defeat Chen Du now, which was why he was trying to lower his guard this way.

Before entering, Chen Du had truly feared that a vicious demon was hiding here, one he would struggle to handle and who also knew his true circumstances.

"Have you read my diary?"

"Earth Sage above! I absolutely have not!"

"Do you think I believe you?"

"Please see the truth, Immortal Master! I dare swear it to the Earth Sage!" The little person seemed genuinely afraid that Chen Du would kill him to silence him. "Please spare my life, Immortal Master! I can still be of use to you!"

The cat on the desk watched in a daze.

Chen Du's heart gradually calmed, though he remained on guard.

"What use?"

Chen Du asked, Frost in hand.

"Before I was sealed, I lived in the Daoist temple for a time and know some things about it. I also ate some of the temple's pages, so I have several classics in my mind."