The Flute Demon

Chu Caiwu was devastated. The entire fennel leaf had wilted. She hadn't even had a few days' supply of immortal blood before she was about to be sold out by Chi Ce.

If only Yin Zhuo were here, she wouldn't have run away.

Chi Ce opened his palm and stared at Chu Caiwu in his hand, puzzled: "Why are all the leaves wilted?"

Chu Caiwu was too lazy to speak because it would waste his spiritual energy.

Yin Zhuo was not here. If she continued to consume her energy, she would probably starve to death again. So she chose to continue to be a withered fennel and stay motionless.

Chi Ce activated the golden light spell in his hand, and Chu Caiwu was swept up by a thrust and slowly turned back into human form.

She staggered two steps and fell in front of the girl.

Chu Caiwu supported himself on the stone ground with both hands, feeling a sharp pain. He raised his palms and saw that they were covered with bloodstains, from which bright red blood beads kept oozing out.

As soon as Chu Caiwu raised her head, she wanted to glare at Chi Ce, but she stopped at this moment.

Before my eyes was the azure coat, the girl, the person...

Chu Caiwu felt embarrassed and wanted to crawl into the crack of the ground. Although she had eaten all kinds of delicious food in the human world, she had never transformed from fennel into a human form in front of mortals.

Chu Caiwu mechanically raised the corners of his mouth, smiled, and looked up: "Hello... hello, what's your name, young lady?"

Unexpectedly, the girl did not scream or retreat.

Chu Caiwu tried hard to raise the corners of his mouth, but he only dared to frown in his heart: Isn’t that girl afraid?

Chu Caiwu looked up at the girl. She was wearing a blue jacket and a red scarf. The outfit was ordinary, but the combination of the colors was too eye-catching.

The girl belatedly touched her veil and took a few steps back slowly. "My name is Feng Di, and you are? Anise Essence?"

Chu Caiwu didn't want to admit that she was a fennel spirit, but Chi Ce directly exposed the whole process of her transformation.

Chi Ce said: "Yes, she is the fennel spirit I caught. She is a little spirit with little skills. You don't have to be afraid of her."

Caught? A weak one? A little goblin?

Every word Chi Ce said touched Chu Caiwu's heart deeply.

Chu Caiwu agreed sullenly, "Yes, you don't have to be afraid."

Chu Caiwu didn't know if it was intuition or what, but she felt that the girl was not afraid of her at all. If a mortal saw a monster, they would have run ten miles away.

What’s more, you see a fennel plant suddenly transform into a human form in front of you?

But the girl just now was so scared that she only realized it belatedly and took a slight step back.

Feng Di nodded timidly: "Please ask the two benefactors to go to my medicine shop for temporary accommodation."

Feng Di looked at Chi Ce from bottom to top, and Chu Caiwu also followed her gaze. Chi Ce was holding a big knife, and it was obvious that he was a martial artist.

Chu Caiwu glared at Chi Ce at this moment. Not only did she ask her to transform into a human form in front of mortals, but she also scolded her as a little goblin with shallow Taoism and a fennel without spiritual intelligence.

Chi Ce smiled indifferently and reminded: "You are about to be sold, so take care of yourself."

Chu Caiwu suddenly remembered that the girl had said that the flute demon wanted fennel essence...

The girl just now called Chu Caiwu a benefactor. Chu Caiwu shuddered. She couldn't bear the thought of being called a benefactor. She glanced at the girl secretly and found that she had been looking directly at her.

Chu Caiwu was suddenly hit on the shoulder by Chi Ce's elbow and came back to his senses in pain.

Chi Ce was tall and strong, and he could just put his arm on Chu Caiwu's shoulders. "How do you feel about selling you?"

Chu Caiwu had no feelings. Once she was starved to the point of being emaciated, she would be able to escape without being noticed. By then, Chi Ce would not be able to catch up with her, let alone sell her out. This would be a joke.

Moreover, Chi Ce, who was usually nonchalant, suddenly spoke in such a literary manner, which made Chu Caiwu feel uncomfortable.

Chi Ce shook Chu Caiwu's shoulder: "Speak quickly."

Chu Caiwu: "...it's okay to sell it."

Chu Caiwu was very sure that as long as she tried to escape, she would starve to death and Chi Ce would not be able to catch up with her at all.

Chi Ce suddenly choked, and coughed while laughing: "Hahaha, as expected, it is indeed fennel without spiritual intelligence."

Chu Caiwu gave a signature fake smile and looked at Chi Ce as if he were a fool.

As they were talking, the three of them had already arrived at the pharmacy. The girl didn't say a word along the way.

Chu Caiwu and Chi Ce followed the girl into a woodshed, which had a very simple layout.

A small table full of cracks, a gray and worn teacup. The only thing with a bit of color in the whole room was the painting. The paper was wrinkled all around, and the painting showed a little boy... His eyebrows and eyes were extremely similar to the girl's.

Chu Caiwu looked at Feng Di, then at the painting. The two people looked very similar.

Feng Di looked bitter: "This, this is where I usually work and live. Please excuse me for sitting here for a while. I will go and ask the boss for money." Feng Di folded her hands, gave an awkward salute, and hurried out.

Chu Caiwu looked at Feng Di as she walked further and further away, then turned to Chi Ce and said, "Don't you think this girl is a little strange?"

Chi Ce listened with one ear and ignored it with the other: "I didn't notice."

Chu Caiwu stared at Chi Ce, who looked nonchalant. Chu Caiwu gritted her teeth in anger and said, "Forget it, give me back the eight roast duck legs."

Chi Ce made a gesture and gold powder flashed. On the uneven table, a large bag of roast duck legs appeared. When the gold powder fell on the roast duck legs, white steam came out and the smell of burnt food wafted out, which was extremely inconsistent with this simple house.

Chu Caiwu couldn't help but feel his taste buds were aroused. He swallowed his saliva and said with some relief: "It's quite satisfying."

Chu Caiwu picked up the roast duck leg that was already brown and dripping with oil, took a bite, and it was crispy and crackling, and his mouth was full of the aroma of roasting.

Chi Ce boasted: "How are my cooking skills?"

Chu Caiwu swallowed the duck meat in his mouth and waited for a long time before speaking: "This was made by the restaurant, not by you."

Chi Ce waved his hand: "Without me, can you eat your fill? You won't even be able to eat a hot roast duck leg."

Chu Caiwu:?

Chu Caiwu had been so angry at Chi Ce that she laughed a thousand times. She didn't rely on food to fill her stomach, so even if she ate eight thousand plates of roast duck, let alone eight roast duck legs, Chu Caiwu would still not be full.

Of course, you will never be full if you rely on Chi Ce.

Chu Caiwu followed up, "Right, right, right. Without you, this unintelligent golden dragon, I, a fennel plant, would never be able to eat my fill."

Chi Ce stopped arguing, as he found these words very helpful.

Just when Chi Ce was quiet for a moment, he heard a burst of cursing coming from somewhere.

"You dare to ask for the first three months' wages? What? You want to get married and have children so you can leave me? You ugly thing! Can you get married?"

A man's shouting and cursing echoed throughout the yard.

"In the beginning, I advised the boss not to hire female workers! Not to hire female workers! Now that you're gone, where am I going to hire anyone?" The curses became more and more harsh, mixed with the screams of being whipped.

Feng Di cried out in pain until the whipping stopped. Then she shouted, "I won't marry. I have a scar on my face and I can't get married! I just want the wages to buy two jackets!"

Chu Caiwu's ears were buzzing from the stinging. She looked at herself. She was wearing a light green silk dress, with her arms exposed in the air, without any cloth covering them.

Chu Caiwu turned his head and glanced at Chi Ce. His clothes were even thinner, and the clothes on his hands and feet were tied up.

Chu Caiwu hesitated and said, "That girl, isn't she going to buy coats for us two?"

Chi Ce nodded casually: "It seems so."

Chu Caiwu felt very unhappy. Whether it was the coat or the money, to them... they were easily obtained and worthless.

Chi Ce raised his eyebrows: "Feeling sorry for the mortals?"

Chu Caiwu looked at Chi Ce's calm expression and felt unhappy: "Feng Di only asked for the wages to buy a coat for us."

Chi Ce replied seriously, "No immortal, demon, or spirit can interfere with the fate of a mortal. This is what she deserves, her destiny."

Chu Caiwu shook her head fiercely. She didn't believe in fate and retorted, "It's all in our hands. There's no such thing as what we should or shouldn't suffer. If you help her save her brother, isn't that interfering with her destiny?"

If Chu Caiwu believed in fate, she would forever be curled up in a small dark room, undergoing surgery and having her blood drawn.

She would never be able to see how beautiful the mountains and rivers of Southeast Xiangguo are, and how warm the wind is; she would never be able to see the vast and whistling snowflakes filling the sky in Dingbei Town.

Chi Ce shrugged: "I don't believe in fate either. I just wanted to broaden your horizons and let you hear the common sayings of the immortals."

Chu Caiwu breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing Chi Ce's nonchalant look, he didn't seem like someone who would obey the rules.

But who is actually broadening the horizons for whom?

Ever since Chu Caiwu could remember, he had been hearing the Immortal Clan leader nagging about these things, such as accepting one's fate and destiny.

Chu Caiwu did not grow up in the demon world. She was a fennel spirit that grew up in the fairy world. Chi Ce certainly didn't know, and no one would even believe, that the fennel spirit grew up in the fairy world.

Chu Caiwu was too lazy to tell Chi Ce, because even if he told her, he wouldn't believe it.

Chu Caiwu grabbed Chi Ce's wrist with both hands and said, "Come with me to save Feng Di."

Chi Ce's chassis was very stable, not moving an inch: "I don't care about mortal matters."

Chu Caiwu shook Chi Ce's arm and said, "Then why did you agree to save her brother?"

Chi Ce's expression was complicated, and he replied, "Because of the flute demon, it involves the internal affairs of my demon clan."

Chu Caiwu didn’t understand what the relationship was between the flute demon and the demon clan. She was only focused on saving Feng Di and didn’t care about anything else.

Chu Caiwu picked up her skirt and strode out of the woodshed, almost tripping over the threshold. She left a sentence: "If you don't save me, I will!"

Chu Caiwu rushed forward.

The man's obscene laughter became clearer and clearer: "If you can't get married, marry me!"

Chu Caiwu felt a sharp pain in his heart, as if a cold iron hand was holding his burning heart and squeezing it hard.

The sound of the jacket tearing permeated Chu Caiwu's entire brain. The sound was obviously not loud, but it was harsh. Chu Caiwu ran forward. She wanted to run faster and faster.

Chu Caiwu gasped for breath and finally rushed to Feng Di's side. Feng Di's belly was exposed, bloody, and covered with a mixture of new and old scars.

The man raised the whip and hit Feng Di hard on the stomach.

Chu Caiwu slipped into the gap between the two of them, shielding Feng Di with his entire body.

Chu Caiwu felt waves of severe pain on his back, his skin and flesh cracked repeatedly, and it felt like water was flowing down his back...

The whip kept hitting Chu Caiwu, becoming more and more fierce.