Chapter 79 Boss Zhang

The hand that wrapped around her slender waist pinched the soft flesh there. The pressure wasn't strong; it was more of a ticklish sensation from the woman's touch. Ling Shu twisted her waist to avoid it, and then took a big bite out of her mouth in retaliation for the pinch.

Xian Shu let out a muffled groan, ultimately unable to bring herself to push away the rebellious girl.

Having received the benefits, Ling Shu knew her limits and didn't want her to think of her as a lecherous womanizer. After pestering her for a while, she obediently withdrew and became a well-behaved fox.

Zhuang Jinfu saw that the girl in front of her had moved away from her, but her eyes were still fixed on her, her lips slightly pursed, with an expression of lingering enjoyment. Zhuang Jinfu couldn't help but laugh: "Weaned too early when you were little? You like to eat so much."

Ling Shu's face flushed red with embarrassment and indignation. She covered her fox ears, which had been peeking out due to her arousal, and tried to retract them with magic. However, her ears were not very obedient and would pop up again as soon as she tried to suppress them: "No, don't say that about me."

“Fox ears are so cute.” Zhuang Jinfu’s eyes sparkled as he pulled down her hand and bowed his head to her. “I really like them.”

Ling Shu was taken aback. Would it be cute if she couldn't maintain her human form? Her mother said that her cultivation was not up to par and it was embarrassing to show her true form in front of people... She slowly lowered her hands from her ears and obediently said, "If you like it, you can see it." Anyway, Zhuang Jin Fu indulged her like this. She liked her, so she let her kiss and hug her. Letting Zhuang Jin Fu see her ears was fine too.

Ling Shu was aware of her beauty, but she didn't know what Zhuang Jinfu saw in her, nor did she understand why Zhuang Jinfu could be so indulgent towards her.

In Zhuang Jinfu's eyes, Ling Shu at this moment was: fluffy fox ears, a slightly chubby oval face, a pair of eyes like rippling spring water, a sweet and charming voice, porcelain-white and flawless skin, and her cheeks flushed when she was shy, like pink spreading on a porcelain bottle. Ling Shu was as fresh and beautiful as spring, and as flowing as living water, forever full of vitality.

Zhuang Jinfu loved the vibrancy of her life most.

That was the vibrant life that emerged from the stagnant pool of her life.

She likes this kind of vibrancy.

Ling Shu saw the woman leaning closer, one hand still resting on the bathtub beside her, the warm, damp air spreading around her. Meeting her deep eyes, Ling Shu uncertainly called out her name: "Zhuang... Jin Fu..."

"Yes, I'm here."

The delicate balance between them lies in Ling Shu's initiative to be affectionate, and Zhuang Jin Fu's acceptance of her advances. But the reverse is not quite right. Zhuang Jin Fu says she won't fall in love with her and only wants her to be happy. Isn't that going along with her too much and favoring her too much? If there is no love, why would Zhuang Jin Fu be so good to her? Ling Shu is uncertain. Is it a lie she made up to avoid making her feel guilty?

Ling Shu tried to decipher the emotions in Zhuang Jin Fu's eyes, but she couldn't understand them at all. So she turned her helplessness into concrete concern, pulling up Zhuang Jin Fu's open, wet clothes with both hands. As she tied the knot, it was as if Zhuang Jin Fu herself was being shut behind a door. She looked up and asked, "You're not lying to me, are you?"

"What are you talking about?"

The fact that you don't love me.

The words were on the tip of her tongue, but Ling Shu didn't dare to say them, afraid that her emotions would be pulled into a state of uncertainty. She shook her head and showed a smile: "No, not at all."

Zhuang Jinfu paused, noticing the stray hairs sticking up at her temples. He carefully tucked them behind her ears, and heard her softly part her lips to say, "I did lie to you about something."

Ling Shu's heart suddenly pounded. Should she tell the truth? But wouldn't confessing affect her cultivation technique?

"You are not the last demon in the world. I did have a purpose in saving you back then."

"What……"

"Because you are the descendant of the Demon King, you will be the only king of the demon race in the future. Demons cannot be exterminated. The Shangqing Realm is different from other realms. Here, spiritual energy is abundant, and demons live and grow freely. Every day, new demons are born, but their strength is not as great as before."

They are also beings of the Upper Clarity Realm, just like humans. If cultivators continue to kill demons, and the demon race remains leaderless, they will face eternal darkness. Humans have no reason to exterminate other living beings just to survive themselves. Therefore, I saved you, protected you, and wished for your safety, hoping that one day you can return to the demon race, give birth to the next Demon King, and protect your people, preventing the past massacres of demons by cultivators from happening again.”

Her saving her was a noble act; her love for her was an unexpected one.

At that moment, Ling Shu seemed to understand the complex thoughts in her eyes—a compassion for the fate of living beings, and a helpless feeling of placing high hopes on a person while being reluctant to let them go.

Ling Shu will eventually leave and return to her clan.

Ling Shu took Zhuang Jinfu's hands in her own; this was the Zhuang Jinfu she loved. "So you knew me before I knew you."

"yes."

"You've been secretly protecting me all along?"

"yes."

"What should I do?" Ling Shu asked, her face beaming with a troubled expression. "I like you even more now. How am I going to have a child with someone else to become the next Demon King?"

Zhuang Jinfu patted her head and smiled helplessly, "You'll always meet someone better than me."

Ling Shu smiled, revealing a pair of tiger teeth: "My God, you are a Celestial Venerable. Who in this world is better than you?"

"It will happen."

Ling Shu buried her head in her arms: "No, I only want to have a child with you."

"I can't..." Ling Shu pressed her finger to her lips, "You're not allowed to say it."

"I haven't become the Demon King yet!"

"It's too early to talk about children now!"

Yes, Ling Shu hasn't grown into a demon king yet. There's still a long time ahead, and they have plenty of time to get to know each other.

——

Evacuation in progress.

June 5th, Guimi Lane, West of Nanxi City.

"Don't hurt my daughter!" Boss Zhang fought back against the two men with a stick in his hand. One of the men, a man with a face full of scars, grabbed Yao Yao by the neck. The other man, a muscular man with a long scar on his arm, grinned slyly and said, "Our boss has his eye on your land. Either sell it, or—" He looked at the young Yao Yao and said viciously, "Sell this little girl."

Boss Zhang nearly went mad, wildly swinging her stick at the scarred man, trying to snatch her daughter back. However, she was too weak to fight off the man who was twice her size. The man grabbed the stick and took away her only weapon. Boss Zhang collapsed to the ground, and her daughter cried out "Mother" pitifully.

"What else can I do?" Mr. Zhang shed tears, steeled his heart, and said, "I'll sell."

Two months ago, Ms. Zhang returned to her hometown of Nanxi City from Wuyang City to take care of the land left to her by her mother. Unexpectedly, someone had already set their sights on her family's fertile land. On the second day after she returned home, someone came to her door saying they wanted to buy the land. Ms. Zhang thought that she had settled down in Wuyang City and would be returning home less often in the future, so she could sell some of her idle land and then go to Wuyang City to buy new land. So when someone came to her door, she agreed to the deal. However, when it came time to sign the contract, the buyer cheated and wanted to buy five of her family's fertile lands for the price of one plot of land.

Fortunately, Yao Yao was mischievous and accidentally spilled the tea, making the signed contract wet and the writing smudged. It needed to be rewritten, but when Mr. Zhang looked closely, he found a small line of text under the main clauses: "If the land fails the inspection, the buyer will be given four plots of land as compensation." Upon seeing this, Mr. Zhang refused to sign.

The buyer did not complete the transaction and left without saying much that day.

Five days later, trouble began to break out. Boss Zhang hired several Taoist priests to protect herself and her daughter. However, the thieves were cunning and dug up the ancestral graves that the Zhang family had built on the mountain. They used the corpses of her ancestors as hostages. The Taoist priests hired by Boss Zhang were filled with righteous indignation and retrieved the ancestral corpses for reburial.

This matter was not over yet. One after another, the maids and servants in the house met with misfortune. Even worse, Awei, a personal maid who had been with Boss Zhang since childhood, was murdered and her body was dumped in the wilderness. Boss Zhang could no longer bear it and went to report to the authorities, but he encountered corrupt officials. He wanted to submit his petition to the city lord, but as a commoner, he could not see the emperor's face. As a person of little influence, his petition could not be submitted.

When Zhuang Jinfu arrived in Nanxi City, he said that a dragon would rise from the earth and the city should be evacuated. This caused a lot of chaos in the distribution of the wall-strengthening talismans. City Chief Zhang Qiu was furious and wanted to punish all the officials who were corrupt, bribed, or who were stealing and selling the wall-strengthening talismans. He arrested a large number of corrupt officials, including the corrupt official who handled Teacher Zhang's case.

Mr. Zhang is a good man with loyal servants. They had all hidden themselves to avoid danger, but now that they have seen justice, they all came out to seek justice for Mr. Zhang. They found Mr. Zhang's petition in his residence, and with all the evidence, they submitted it. The newly appointed prefect was a member of the upright faction, and he accepted the case that very day. The Zhang family's injustice was redressed, except for one thing.

There is only one thing that is not perfect: Boss Zhang Yunjin and his daughter Zhang Yao are missing.

The city has a population of 65,000, and including the surrounding villages, towns, and townships, the total population is over 80,000. Every year, hundreds of people go missing, and despite the combined efforts of the government and cultivators, the search is rarely successful. Compared to the calamity that befell the entire city, the disappearance of the Zhang family mother and daughter was a minor matter, and it didn't reach Zhuang Jinfu's ears, so Ling Shu was unaware of it.

The Zhang family mother and daughter had taken Ling Shu in for a few days in Wuyang City. Ling Shu remembered their kindness, and if they found out about this, she would definitely cut off the heads of those thieves.

By June 17th, the people of Nanxi City had gradually evacuated. Today, the cultivators used their breath-detecting techniques to check if any people were still in the city. The results showed nothing unusual. The cultivators reported that all the people in the city had been successfully evacuated. The cultivators of the Shangqing Sect stayed behind to guard the city, to prevent any people from entering without knowing the situation, and to prevent bandits from entering the city and damaging the property left behind by the people.

Evacuation arrangements were made for villages, towns, and townships surrounding Nanxi City.

At 2:45 AM on June 28th, the earth shook incessantly, houses trembled, huge cracks appeared in the ground, rocks trembled, the mountains outside the city of Nanxi shook, and in the river valleys, rocks overturned, and the river was filled with rocks and mud that rolled down from the mountains. The Nanhe River was cut off and changed its course to the south.

Thirty-two cultivators flew through the air on their swords, dodging the earthquake. Zhuang Jinfu stood in mid-air and gently pushed out a palm towards the large area of ​​land that was shaking. The wall-stabilizing talisman was reinforced once again. Although the houses shook, they were able to remain stable and not collapse. However, some houses whose foundations were destroyed by the earthquake collapsed completely into the pit, as if they were swallowed by the earth.

Inside the woodshed of a house in Sanxiang Lane, north of the city.

Mr. Zhang and Yao Yao were bound hand and foot and trapped in the woodshed for many days. The woodshed was also filled with dry food and other rations. Mr. Zhang used his tongue to push the coarse cloth out of his mouth and then bit off the coarse cloth in Yao Yao's mouth. The two shouted outside, but no one heard them.

Boss Zhang concluded that the house was either protected by a barrier that blocked the outside world, or it had an isolation talisman that could block sound. He prayed that it was an isolation talisman and not a barrier. If it were a barrier, the house would collapse, and someone trapped inside would be injured without anyone knowing. They would just watch helplessly as they bled to death until the barrier sensed the dying breath inside and automatically released itself. This was the standard for the mandatory implementation of barrier magic, precisely to prevent unscrupulous people from using barriers to kill.

They weren't cultivators, so they couldn't investigate whether it was a barrier or an isolation talisman. They had no other choice but to bite into their dry rations and try to survive, waiting for someone to find them.

June 28th.

Today, we've run out of dry rations.

In the evening, the mother and daughter shared the last quarter of their dry rations before running out of food.