After eating fast-growing polar tomatoes for several days in a row, Mo Xuan's eyes rolled back and his face turned ashen whenever Xu Milu mentioned the word "tomato."
“Madam Xu, as the saying goes, ‘Even the most fragrant meat loses its flavor after being cooked three times.’ These exotic fruits and vegetables from foreign lands are delicious, but you can’t eat them every day. These past few days, Xiao Long has felt a sour taste in his mouth and his stomach is churning. It’s probably because he’s eaten too much of these fruits; his tongue is practically melting.”
His expression turned even more desperate when he saw wisteria branches carrying baskets of fresh tomatoes out of the backyard storeroom.
"It seems the food I used to cook was too good, which has made your tongue quite discerning, you silly dragon."
While directing Dai Zi to continue moving baskets towards the shop entrance, Xu Milu took a moment to reply:
"Don't worry, these fruits are not for you to eat. The monks of Huasheng Temple in the surrounding area have been very kind to the restaurant. Half of these fruits are sent to Huasheng Temple as offerings, and the other half are to be distributed to the neighbors. We should thank them for their help over the past few days."
—This fruit is naturally round and cute, and its bright color makes it very popular with some spirits. When Hu Silang's fox family heard that it was a spiritual fruit, they were overjoyed and bought four whole cartloads of it from here.
"But I think everything my senior sister cooks tastes delicious. There are so many ways to cook tomatoes, and the flavors are wonderfully unique—"
Chenxiang walked in through the front door, carrying a basket of water chestnuts still covered in mud, and casually caught a basket of tomatoes from the swaying wisteria vines.
"Senior sister, this was sent by Lady Yin. She said that it rained the night before last, and many new bamboo shoots sprouted in the bamboo forest outside the city. She didn't know how to prepare them, so she asked me to bring them back."
"Did Sister Yin go dig it herself? Didn't she bring anyone else with her?"
Xu Milu was slightly surprised. Yin Wenjiao rarely went out. Apart from grinding tofu at home, she would stay indoors embroidering and sewing. The last time she went to the underworld for a feast was because of the monk Sanzang. She was rarely seen going out.
Chenxiang shook his head, then suddenly remembered something and said:
"Yes, we brought it. Lady Yin took Bai Tuan'er with her."
A white ball?
Then there's no need to worry about Yin Wenjiao getting into trouble.
Xu Milu had seen Bai Tuan'er before. She was petite and delicate, with skin as smooth as milk. She had a small nose and a small mouth. When she spoke to people, she would lower her eyebrows, look up at people timidly, and speak in a soft, gentle voice.
Although Xu Milu knew she was a demon, she couldn't figure out her origins. She only knew that she was a spirit sent by the monk Sanzang to accompany his mother and fulfill her filial duties, and that Yin Wenjiao liked her very much.
Mo Xuan clicked his tongue somewhat nonchalantly and said:
"That little white ball is clever, but she's as timid as a mouse, even less so than Huang San. She'll cry for ages if there's a rumble of thunder in the sky. She's really disgraced us monsters. If Lady Yin encounters any villains, do you really expect her to help us?"
Xu Milu rolled her eyes, shoved the bamboo basket she was holding into his arms, and shooed him away without a word.
“Chenxiang has already come and gone several times. Are you still going to slack off? You have a lot to do today: Prince Moang of the West Sea, the Third Prince's Palace at Qiantang Pass, and the Purple Bamboo Forest in the South Sea. Don’t blame me for not reminding you. I’m going to cook a new dish tonight, the ‘earth dragon’ meat that I brought back from a foreign land a few days ago.”
Before promoting her giant tomatoes, Xu Milu wanted to share the joy of the harvest with her few friends.
She even hired several crane spirits to deliver goods to Flower Fruit Mountain—as for Sun Wukong, only heaven knows his whereabouts.
"really?"
Upon hearing that a new dish was to be made, and after confirming several times that it wouldn't be made with tomatoes, Mo Xuan's entire dragon seemed to glow with brilliance, wishing it could grow an extra leg and rush back immediately.
"What's so difficult about that? It might be quite a distance for others to get from here to the West Sea, but for me, it's just a matter of a little effort. Little Dragon hasn't been cultivating for nothing these past few days; he's even transformed a Dragon Pearl into a new one—I'm off!"
After saying that, he rolled on the spot, transformed into a cloud of mist, and carried the bamboo basket on the ground away into the clouds.
"...Should I ask him first if Dragon Balls can grow back?"
Xu Milu remained silent for a long time, clearly her values had been shaken.
—————————————————————————————————————
On the desolate road to the underworld, the biting wind blows through the air, and the chill emanating from under the Bridge of Helplessness almost seeps into the bone marrow. For every day that a wandering soul lingers here, unwilling to be reincarnated, it suffers from the bone-chilling wind. Over time, even they themselves forget why they are so fixated on their past.
Xu Milu is not a ghost, but she has recently become more and more proficient in the method of "communicating with the underworld," so she can follow the trail of the small ailanthus tree to the underworld without the help of anything else.
On the road to the underworld, shadowy figures can be seen everywhere, dressed in black and white. There are also ghost messengers riding on the hooves of oxen and horses, escorting souls through the underworld. There are many Black and White Impermanence, Ox-Head and Horse-Face in the underworld, but only a few can be called the "Ten Great Underworld Marshals".
Xu Milu even saw the spirit that had guided her last time, but it looked dazed and seemed to have lost its own consciousness long ago.
After passing through the Yellow Springs Road and crossing the Looking-Home Terrace, one arrives at Evil Dog Ridge and Golden Rooster Mountain. All souls escorted from the mortal realm must enter Fengdu City from here. If they are evil souls, they will be torn apart by vicious dogs and pecked by golden roosters. If they are benevolent souls, they will walk on flat ground.
Xu Milu's destination is here.
"It's so bitter... so bitter..."
"It hurts—it hurts so much—"
"Waaaaahh ...
"Ouch! Ouch!"
It was the familiar scene of a hundred ghosts moving mountains and a millstone grinding flesh, but Xu Milu had grown somewhat accustomed to it. She glanced at the underworld official who was using evil spirits to start a fire, and was about to ask someone for help when the official saw her and dropped what he was doing, turning and running away in fright.
"The Queen is coming! The Queen is coming!!"
In an instant, the little ghost tending the fire and the great ghost guarding the sinful souls all showed fear, scattering and fleeing as if they had seen some monster. Some souls, missing limbs or limbs, even had their flesh falling off as they ran. One little ghost even tried to pick up his own head, but was picked up and carried away by an old ghost.
"Do you want to die again?! I heard that the Queen Mother eats souls alive, and she can devour little devils like you one bite at a time!"
Xu Milu's outstretched hand froze in place.
What kind of weird title is "Queen of Women"?
Who exactly spread this rumor?
...
...
"Haha, it turns out it's Madam Xu who's come to visit. We've been so unwelcoming."
The horse-faced creature with the enormous horse head paused, its eyes on either side of its head scrutinizing Xu Milu, seemingly unsure of her intentions.
"Grandpa Sage's fame has long been known throughout the underworld. Madam Xu is Grandpa Sage's personally taught disciple, so these little ghosts are naturally... terrified. It's a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding."
The ox-headed man beside him exhaled a long plume of white mist from his nostrils, and then continued from where the horse-faced man left off:
"May I ask what brings Madam Xu here?"
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