Killing the Dragon King of the East Sea with One Slash

"This humble woman pays her respects to the immortal master."

The demoness greeted the man she regarded as an immortal master, then said hesitantly, "I saw that the immortal master had not yet woken from his peaceful dreams, so I took the liberty of cooking a pot of porridge..."

"No need to stand on ceremony."

Chen Du waved a hand, then asked, "You can cook too?"

"This humble woman knows a little about cooking."

Chen Du saw the confidence beneath her pride and nodded inwardly. In ancient legends, cooking and needlework did seem to come standard with fox immortals.

Of course, he still had no idea what kind of demon the woman before him was.

"Did you sleep well last night?"

"Thanks to you, immortal master, I slept very well."

Aside from being jolted awake by a nightmare, she really had slept well.

She had woken the day before yesterday only to run into the Awakening of Insects and be chased by thunder. After fleeing to this Daoist temple, she had gotten another terrible fright and barely dared sleep that night. Yesterday, she had spent the whole day on tenterhooks, exhausting herself mentally. Only in the afternoon had she felt reasonably sure the immortal master probably wouldn't punish her. Though it had rained that night, there had been no more thunder, and with her body and mind worn out and the bed so comfortable, of course she had slept well.

At the thought, a faint smile appeared on her face.

Before falling asleep four hundred years ago, she had worried about what would happen when she woke up. She had once thought herself overly anxious, like the man of Qi who feared the sky would fall, but the changes had turned out to be greater than she had imagined. Whatever the case, she at least had a patch of ground to stand on in this unfamiliar era.

Who said her luck was bad? It was clearly excellent!

But no sooner had her smile appeared than she heard the immortal master say:

"Last night, around midnight, I think I sensed something happening outside while I was asleep."

Yunzhi's heart skipped a beat!

"Immortal master, do you mean..."

"I think something flew out. Did you see it?"

Chen Du glanced at her impassively.

The woman was startled.

It was a very minor spell, hardly different from a whispered conversation, and it had caused very little disturbance! The immortal master had seen it even in his sleep. Just how extraordinary were his divine abilities?

Her room was in the temple's front courtyard, while the immortal master lived in the back courtyard, with half a courtyard and a shrine between them. On top of that, the night had been dark, and the wind and rain had rustled the bamboo.

Perhaps nothing that happened in this temple, or even on this mountain, could escape his discerning eye.

No wonder the earth had quaked and the mountains had shaken yesterday just as she was about to leave after sneaking back to steal the precious trash.

But it wasn't as though she had done anything foolish.

For one thing, she had been born in the Dharma-ending age and had seen few immortals or great masters to begin with. For another, she had only sent a message to an old friend and believed she had done nothing to offend the immortal master. Even when mentioning what had happened after she woke, she had spoken of him with considerable respect, and had felt there might be no need to hide it.

Now that the immortal master had brought it up, he clearly wasn't asking a question but giving her a warning. Perhaps there was something she had failed to consider after all.

For now, she could only admit it openly.

"I wouldn't dare hide it from you, immortal master. Last night, when Yunzhi had a moment to spare, I thought of an old friend. I met her while traveling the world years ago. Since we were both demons and spirits rarely seen in this world, we came to appreciate each other. Later, we both fell asleep. I feared she would be at a loss when she woke, so I sent her a message telling her how the world had changed. I didn't dare reveal any specific details about you."

Last night's dream had actually been real!

Had he awakened some special ability? Or had this Daoist temple or the mountain itself also "awakened" some function with the resurgence of spiritual energy, making this some kind of defense mechanism?

Chen Du thought the latter was slightly more likely.

That did make him feel a little more at ease about the demoness.

Of course, he couldn't rule out the possibility that she had done it deliberately.

There were many and varied stories passed down from ancient times. Many demons were cunning, while many others were sincere, and it was hard to tell them apart.

"Impressive skills."

Chen Du offered a word of praise.

Not counting yesterday's earth-shaking event, this was the first spell he had ever seen in his life. Curious, he casually asked, "What spells do you know?"

"You flatter me, immortal master. Yunzhi's cultivation is meager and her abilities shallow. With neither master nor father in the Dharma-ending age, I found only a handful of spells, even after traveling the world. Besides 'Sending Spring Afar,' I know a spell that can create illusions for people. Many demons know it, and call it 'Like a Dream' to make it sound nice. I also learned a method of traveling at night to use with my innate talent, called 'Night Tour of the Palace.' And there is an orthodox spell that lets me communicate with most creatures of the mountains, called 'Gathering Beasts and Summoning Birds.'"

Yunzhi dared not conceal a thing, and her voice was ashamed:

"Other than that, there are only the various means demons are born with. Before you, immortal master, they can hardly be called skills."

That was all she could do?

Could she be hiding something?

Chen Du nodded without commenting, then casually asked, "Is your old friend a demon or a ghost, a spirit or a monster, a god or an immortal?"

"How could Yunzhi have the ability to make the acquaintance of a god or an immortal? She is merely a spirit born and raised by heaven and earth." Yunzhi quietly changed the way she referred to herself from "this humble woman" to "Yunzhi," making it seem less distant.

It was a little trick of hers.

"A spirit, huh."

Chen Du nodded and asked no more for the moment. He simply walked into the courtyard to check on the temple's treasure tree.

The fruit on the tree was already the size of a peanut.

It really changed by the day!

He still didn't know what kind of tree it was, but at least the fruit wasn't far from ripening.

The porridge had just finished cooking too.

Chen Du used the twenty-yuan egg steamer he had bought on Pinduoduo to steam three free-range eggs. He also brought out a jar of fermented tofu and a packet of pickled mustard greens, then peeled two eggs for himself and gave one yolk to the cat.

He didn't like egg yolks; they stuck in his throat. As it happened, the cat loved them. They were a perfect match.

Meanwhile, he pondered.

He still couldn't be sure of the demon's true nature, and his identity as a "great master" remained his protective talisman. As a "great master," he obviously couldn't ask her elementary questions, so he planned to find a suitable opportunity and opening to have her guide his cat in cultivation.

At most, he would give her a spirit fruit as payment.

He would listen in on the side.

It seemed his cat was the key after all!

He then remembered how the cat had gone out of its way to catch and carry over two big, fat rats yesterday, one for each of them. Though Chen Du hadn't taken his, he had still been very pleased. So he fetched a can of cat food and opened it for the cat as a reward.

The cat purred nonstop as it ate.

"Look at her. She eats all sorts of grains without being picky, and she can even cook. But you? You've gained intelligence too, yet you're still catching rats to eat." Chen Du pretended to scold the cat, laying the groundwork for asking Yunzhi to teach it later.

As expected, the cat ignored him completely, not even lifting its head.

Yunzhi, meanwhile, kept glancing at the glass jar the immortal master used for the fermented tofu. In her experience, she had rarely seen glass so clear. She imagined it must be quite valuable and hadn't expected it to be used to hold something as cheap as fermented tofu.

There was also the packet of pickled mustard greens. It looked like paper but wasn't paper, like silver but wasn't silver, yet it was used to hold pickled mustard greens.

"They're all little things from this age. None of them are worth much." Chen Du seemed to see her confusion. "I'll turn on the television for you in a bit, so you can have a look at this world."

"Television? What is that?"

"It's the thing on the wall in the sitting room. It lets you know what's happening in the world without setting foot outside."

"As you wish, immortal master."

Yunzhi had too many questions. She felt more and more ignorant, and the inferiority and helplessness of a poor demon arriving in the city grew stronger. She dared not ask too many questions, yet didn't know where to begin.

After the meal, Yunzhi took the initiative to wash the dishes, even cleaning out the cat's empty food can before coming to the sitting room.

"Sit."

Chen Du pointed to the armchair in front of the television.

The temple had one television and only one, in the sitting room. It had been bought secondhand for just a hundred yuan.

"Yunzhi wouldn't dare!"

Yunzhi spotted a meditation cushion nearby and immediately went over and sat down on it, holding her back ramrod straight. Her horse-face skirt spread out beneath her like a flower.

Chen Du picked up the remote and turned on the television.

It was an old television and slow to start.

Yunzhi saw a red light appear on it for no apparent reason and immediately realized it might be some kind of treasure that the immortal master had activated. She concentrated and stared fixedly at it. But the plate of flawless immortal fruits on the wooden table truly drew her gaze. She didn't know what they were, why they had been sitting there without spoiling, or why all their fragrance was contained within them.

She was distracted for an instant, and the television came on.

"After cultivating to become a Great Firmament Golden Immortal, he returned only to have his engagement broken off. The young man drew his flying sword on the spot, leaving everyone dumbstruck!"

Yunzhi's eyes went round.

"That's an ad."

The immortal master's voice came at just the right moment.

"No job, no money to spend? Turn to Youqianhua! Running a business and need cash flow? Turn to Youqianhua!"

"Still an ad."

When I can afford it, I'll definitely buy a television with fewer ads.

Once the ads were over, Chen Du switched to a news channel. "Watch. This is the news and current affairs. These are things happening in the human world down the mountain right now."

Yunzhi had no time to wonder how sounds and moving images had appeared on the wall. She immediately focused all her attention on the screen.

"In today's news, our country's astronauts traveled aboard a new-generation crewed spacecraft and landed on the surface of the moon to conduct scientific exploration and technological experiments, realizing the Chinese nation's thousand-year dream of reaching the moon..."

"At eight o'clock local time this evening, Earth Fire Country's guard forces deployed multiple attack drones to strike a local White Shore Country base..."

"Sandalwood Hill Country test-fired an intercontinental missile..."

"A space computing power center..."

A gigantic machine flew toward the moon, drones crossed the sky to bring destruction, and a comet swept past above the ocean, leaving a trail of cloud like a divine sword. Even in the depths of the starry sky, wonders had been built.

Yunzhi watched in a daze.

Chen Du stole a glance at her from the side and was very pleased.

This was exactly the effect he wanted.

Suddenly, the tone changed completely:

"Kill the Dragon King of the East Sea with one slash and get the Phoenix-Wing Purple Gold Crown, the Golden Chainmail Armor, and the Lotus Fiber Cloud-Stepping Boots, with a one-hundred-percent drop rate! If you're lucky, you might even get the Ruyi Jingu Bang! Come play now!"

Yunzhi was even more shocked. She turned her head stiffly to look at Chen Du.

"Don't believe it. An ad."

Chen Du was used to it by now, and said as much.

Yunzhi nodded again, her expression blank.

The question was, what was an ad?