recounting the past
Ren Xiangxiang stayed in Liuwu Forest for two days, feeling disheartened. During this time, she was constantly met with Shui Buyun's sarcastic remarks urging her to get married as soon as possible so that her master and parents could rest assured.
Her master always managed to precisely avoid their confrontations, which made her hold back for two whole days. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore, so she grabbed a jar of wine and a bottle of healing medicine that her master had asked her to take to Shiqiaoyan, and stormed off in a huff.
After Ren Xiangxiang carried Caowa and ran away from Liuwu Forest, Shui Buyun poked his head out of the kitchen with a spatula in hand.
"Did I overdo it? He left without even eating?" he said, looking at Shu Huixin.
Shu Huixin faced the direction of the mountains, seemingly muttering to herself, "Qiling Mountain... is about to change..."
Logically, Ren Xiangxiang should have taken a detour back to Liuwu Forest. Since the Six Palace Immortals all reside on the outskirts of Qiling Mountain, she would have to return via the same route if she wanted to enter the mountain.
Under the scorching sun, Ren Xiangxiang ran to the stream and washed her face. The stuffiness in her chest had dissipated considerably. The cicadas chirping in the trees were annoying, so she plopped down in the shade.
"Xiangxiang, where are we going? To Yang Palace?" Caowa couldn't help but ask, looking at Ren Xiangxiang's dark face.
The more she asked, the more annoyed she became, until Ren Xiangxiang wanted to cry but had no tears left.
"If you don't want to get married, why don't you just make it clear?"
"It's not that easy. You don't understand my mother!" Ren Xiangxiang said with deep emotion.
Inside the Yang Palace are three demon elders: the Demon-Controlling Ancestor, the Demon-Slaying Ancestor, and the Demon-Refining Ancestor. Among them, the Demon-Slaying Ancestor's senior sister is none other than her mother, She Liuying.
Her demon-slaying weapon is a bow passed down from her ancestor, named Godslayer. It is extremely ferocious, and only a few fearless individuals with extremely strong willpower and constitution can inherit it. This Godslayer has killed countless demons. Apart from a few powerful demons, the lesser demons in the mountains dare not even look at it. If they see it from afar, they will run away and disappear without a trace.
"...When I was very young, my mother still took me to the Yang Palace. Back then, rumors spread that I was a demon, and no child wanted to play with me. My mother was a bit fierce, but she couldn't bully a child just because she was older. She couldn't silence the gossip! Helpless, she took me away from the Yang Palace and moved outside the mountains." Ren Xiangxiang said, glancing in the direction of the Four Seasons Cottage. She had to admit that the courtyard full of grapevines held most of her childhood memories. She was quite happy during those years chasing chickens and dogs, but...
“I have no friends.” Before Caowa could even catch his breath and ask her, Ren Xiangxiang pressed his head down. “Do you understand? Although Mother can give me anything, I don’t have a single decent friend outside the mountains…”
"Only once, a little boy from the flying squirrel tribe picked some fresh fruit to give to me, but he was scared away by a look from my mother. Since then, all the demons outside have avoided me, and I talk to dogs, cats, flowers, grapevines and such every day."
"Your mother... she's gone too far... not all demons are bad!"
“Yes! I said that too! But... I secretly saw her hugging her older brother's clothes and wiping away tears. After that, I stopped talking about it and just played by myself. I know she hates demons, it's anger, regret, and fear.”
Grass Child tilted his head back, quietly watching the breeze blow through the girl's long hair. A few strands stuck to the corners of her eyes, and were inadvertently brushed behind her ears as she lowered her head and smiled bitterly.
"Later, she probably realized that if I continued to grow up so recklessly and arrogantly, I would eventually run into problems. So when I was seven years old, she took me back to Yang Palace. But this time, I was being kind by not bullying anyone. Anyone who dared to talk nonsense to my face would be guaranteed to be unhappy for less than three days."
When Caowa saw the fierce look on Ren Xiangxiang's face for the first time, his heart skipped a beat, and he shrank back into the bamboo basket. It turned out that the gentle and kind Xiangxiang before was all a lie.
Xiangxiang is such a big liar!
"...Are you insulting me?" Ren Xiangxiang suddenly looked down at Caowa with a blank expression.
Caowa shrank back, vehemently denying it, "How could that be! Xiangxiang is the best! What happened after that? Did anyone bully you?"
“Yes!” Ren Xiangxiang blurted out, “It’s that unlucky guy, He Wenwen, who’s rumored to be the illegitimate son of the Demon Refining Ancestor. We didn’t get along at first sight. He called me a half-demon, and I called him an illegitimate son. The next day, I went and destroyed a beehive and threw it in while he was relieving himself. You can’t imagine the noise… tsk tsk… He crawled out covered in filth, and you could smell it from far away. As a result, my mother gave me a good beating, and I was forced to learn some methods to treat bee venom. I had to take care of him for a long time…”
Even Caowa Guang felt a pang of stench and pain from the smell, and instinctively covered his nose.
Seeing this, Ren Xiangxiang chuckled, "These are all things we did when we were young and didn't know any better. We made up later."
She continued, "After that incident, I was always on guard against He Wenwen, afraid that he would order me around. You don't know, he was notorious there for being someone you couldn't mess with, and he was just as bad as me. In the end, no matter how much I tried to guard against him, he still pushed me into the lotus pond. I'm not good at swimming, and as soon as I fell in, I swallowed a mouthful of water. He was still laughing on the shore, but he reacted quickly enough and pulled me out of the water."
Ren Xiangxiang sighed, "I was so angry back then! I wanted to pounce on him and bite him, but he was terrified. His face turned pale, and he cried and begged me not to die, which made me laugh in anger."
"And then? You made up?" Caowa listened attentively, and Ren Xiangxiang couldn't help but recall more and more. "Not entirely. He apologized to me, and I also felt that I had gone a bit too far, so I forgave him and we became friends."
After Ren Xiangxiang finished speaking, she recalled her master's words. Back then, when the Demon Refining Ancestor saw her studying pharmacology, he suddenly said inexplicably: "If all else fails, just leave her with me! I think she's a good prospect for Demon Refining Ancestor."
She remembered that He Wenwen had mentioned this to her later, saying that her master had agreed to take her as a disciple and asked her to stay.
But even if they were willing, she was powerless to help them!
Ren Xiangxiang has lost her temper again.
Seeing her dejected look, Caowa assumed she was troubled by her marriage and comforted her, "Xiangxiang... since you can't run away, you'll have to go back sooner or later!"
Ren Xiangxiang shook her head and asked, "Do you know that my master is also a demon-refining master?"
Caowa, not understanding, nodded.
"The old lineage of demon refiners all started as pharmacists. In Xujia Town, almost every household had a furnace core bone." As Ren Xiangxiang spoke, she pulled out a fist-sized lump from somewhere. It was neither stone nor wood, dark yellow and dull, and its texture was rough. If she hadn't told what it was, no one would have given it a second glance if she had just thrown it on the roadside.
"Here, this is it." Ren Xiangxiang handed it to Caowa. Caowa touched it carefully, and seeing that there was no reaction, he boldly took it in his hand and played with it back and forth.
"This core bone is a waste product left over from when the Demon Refining Elder used demon bones to refine things. It's useless on its own, but it can create a Demon Refining Furnace. Can you believe it?" Ren Xiangxiang looked at Caowa's astonished expression, as if he had never seen anything like it before, and felt very satisfied. "There are tons of these things in Xujia Town, but some people might be a pharmacist their whole lives and still not be able to grow a Demon Refining Furnace. They hang this thing in their houses, and if it encounters a destined person, it will change color. At first, it's a light red, and eventually it turns deep red. But from the moment it starts to change color, the family members will take turns wearing it for a period of time to determine who the core bone will choose."
"Xiangxiang... why didn't yours change color?" Caowa held up the furnace core bone and brought it close to Ren Xiangxiang's dark face. Ren Xiangxiang ignored him and continued the previous topic, "When the furnace core bone turns completely red, the holder will bury it in the soil. In a day and a night at most, it will grow into a demon refining furnace. It is neither stone nor iron, and it is extremely hard. Only then can one have one foot in the door of the demon refining master."
“My master has it, but I’ve never seen her use it. The ashes from her demon-refining furnace are three feet thick, and she’s always kept in the small warehouse in the back. I used to think she was a demon tamer, and I kept pestering her to teach me demon-taming techniques. I never expected that she would actually teach me… Sigh…” Ren Xiangxiang sighed heavily again. Her master taught her demon-taming techniques by reciting from the book, but she couldn’t use them herself. She never expected that they would become demon-borrowing techniques in her hands. She thought she had gained more skills and went to show off, but she was not only scolded, but also forbidden from using demon-borrowing techniques again.
In the vast Qiling Mountain, everyone, from humans to demons, has their own unique skills, but she, neither human nor demon, can't learn anything well.
Thinking of this, Ren Xiangxiang became even more dejected, and even her sighs sounded exhausting.
Caowa stuffed the furnace core into the bamboo basket, opened his mouth, but didn't know how to comfort her. After racking his brains, he managed to squeeze out, "But Xiangxiang's medical skills are amazing!"
Upon hearing this, Ren Xiangxiang was on the verge of tears. It turned out that after all she had said, Caowa still couldn't understand what she was so tired about.
That's enough. The other party is just a grass spirit with the mind of a child, not even as old as her at seven. It's enough that she can be a quiet listener and let her pour out her troubles. What more could she ask for?
"Let's go!" After resting enough, Ren Xiangxiang carried her bamboo basket and walked down the mountain path.
Caowa stayed in the bamboo basket for a while, but still couldn't resist handing over the hearth bone. Ren Xiangxiang calmly put it away and asked, "Did you just ask me why my hearth bone didn't change color?"
"...If you don't want to talk about it, then don't. Caowa won't ask. Xiangxiang is the best!"
Ren Xiangxiang chuckled, "It's nothing. The reason I couldn't become an apprentice back then was because my mother knew that I had half demonic energy. The Demon Refining Ancestor and the Demon Slayer were originally from the same family. To be precise, there wasn't originally a Demon Slayer lineage; it was a branch that separated from the Demon Refining Ancestor. The demonic weapons they forged were specifically designed to counter demons. Ordinary little demons would run away at the sight of them. How could the Furnace Heart Bone possibly react to me? Back then, it was just that the Demon Refining Ancestor took pity on me."
"Then Xiangxiang... how did you become your master's disciple?" Caowa blurted out, then subconsciously covered his mouth after speaking.
"It's nothing. Meeting my master is my good fortune. It's just that my mother couldn't control me anymore. She always wanted me to learn something so I wouldn't cause trouble all the time. I'm terrified of her Divine Annihilation Weapon. I can't touch any powerful demon-slaying weapon placed in front of me. In that respect, I'm quite like a demon. So my mother forced me to go to the Misty Forest..."
She remembered that she had only been in the Misty Forest for a few days and was learning to identify herbs when, one day, a group of little demons about her age suddenly rushed in. One of them even threw mud at her face. Who was it? She couldn't remember.
"Xiangxiang, this doesn't seem to be the way we came from?" Caowa suddenly interrupted Ren Xiangxiang's thoughts.
Ren Xiangxiang snapped back to her senses, glanced at the chiseled cliff face, grabbed a protruding rock, and suddenly used it to jump up.
"I don't want to take a detour, I'll show you a shortcut."
After saying that, she stood precariously on a tree branch, gripping the protruding rock face. She sighed inwardly, thinking that although a half-demon was not as powerful as an extreme demon, she was still much stronger than a human. She looked down and saw the bamboo basket on her back shaking like a sieve.
"Are you afraid of heights?" Ren Xiangxiang asked, before she could finish speaking, she jumped up again. "Then close your eyes, we'll be there soon."
After she finished speaking, she used both her hands and feet to quickly grab the rock wall and squeeze through the gap between the two mountains.
The mountain wind howled, and the sun blazed down. Ren Xiangxiang clung to the rock face, hanging halfway up the mountain, looking down at the towering peaks, ancient trees, pines, and cypresses, their branches strong and leaves lush and verdant.
Ren Xiangxiang narrowed her eyes. "Hold on tight."
"Huh?" Just as Caowa had mustered the courage to peek out halfway, Ren Xiangxiang suddenly let go, and he fell down.
The boy screamed in terror, the world spinning around him. It took him a while to regain his senses and find his trembling head. "Xiang..."
Ren Xiangxiang landed safely and patted the leaves off her body.
"save……"
In the half-foot-deep layer of fallen leaves, a hand desperately reached out, as if grasping at a lifeline, and grabbed the ankle of the girl who had just landed.
"Ah!" Ren Xiangxiang screamed.
The young man, buried under the fallen leaves, rolled out. His face was ashen, and he trembled with despair as he reached out to the panicked girl, crying, "Help...help me...help..."
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