“Waiter, ten more jin of beef, ten jin of pork belly, a hundred ducks, and twenty pork knuckles!”
Wen Li waved her hand grandly before burying her head back into her food.
Inside a restaurant in Yongdi City, waiters hurried back and forth carrying basin after basin of food. The restaurant had even suspended normal business just to cater exclusively to these three.
“What in the world... It's one thing for that adult to eat like that, but those kids—one thirteen and the other four—are eating just as much! Are they reincarnated starving ghosts?” The shopkeeper watched with a slack jaw, wiping cold sweat from his forehead, terrified they might eat themselves to death and leave him liable for damages.
Yet as he observed them, the three ate cleanly and rapidly, their bellies barely bulging at all. Compared to Wen Li and Yao Dai, it was the tiny toddler, Xie Tinglan, who possessed a stomach like an ox's. Over half of the food ended up in his mouth alone.
After all, he was an Ancient Soaring Serpent. Having been imprisoned and abused in the past, he had been lucky just to have anything to eat, never getting the chance to sample delicacies like these. Look at how starved the poor child was—he had even been starved into having baby fat.
The three ate from dawn till dusk, continuing until the restaurant literally ran out of ingredients.
“Shopkeeper, check, please.”
Yao Dai asked in confusion, “Master, since when are you so generous?”
“Those six cultivators—I technically saved them, so taking a little protection fee is entirely reasonable.”
Yao Dai was astonished. When had her master acted? Hadn't Master told her to just kill those six heavily injured cultivators to silence them and take their treasures?
“Want to learn?” Wen Li asked, seeing her eyes light up.
Yao Dai nodded repeatedly. “Mhm!”
“Wait until your cultivation is higher.”
“Why?”
“So you don't get caught and get your legs broken because you couldn't run fast enough.”
“...”
“Heh.” Having eaten his fill, Xie Tinglan let out a snort of laughter, a sneer gracing his tiny toddler face.
Yao Dai glared at him. “What are you laughing at? You ate using Master's money too! If you're so capable, pay for it yourself!”
“...” Xie Tinglan's expression turned cold, and he turned his head away. “Mind your own business.”
Seeing that the two couldn't get along, Wen Li paid the bill and scooped up one in each hand before leaving, acting as a human barrier to keep them from fighting.
“Woman, I can walk on my own!” The four-year-old Xie Tinglan's face darkened as he barked an embarrassed order.
Wen Li chuckled inwardly. Look at him, acting like some overbearing CEO.
She lifted Xie Tinglan in front of her face, her expression cool and aloof.
“First, call me Master. Don't be rude.”
“Second, don't speak to me in a commanding tone. Say what you want properly.”
“Third, I am a woman, but I have a name. Calling me 'woman, woman' all the time—are you so dissatisfied with that extra bit between your legs? I can chop it off for you and fulfill your wish to be a woman instead.”
A hint of crimson flashed deep within Xie Tinglan's disguised black pupils, full of defiance. “How I call you is my business! You are only my master in name. You're weaker than me—what right do you have to teach me?”
He was still a child at heart, his words carrying a trace of childishness.
However, Wen Li knew better than to buy into the nonsense of “he's just a child, why hold it against him?” Children were actually sharper at reading people than anyone else. If a tree grew crooked from the start, it would only be harder to straighten later. If he didn't take her seriously now, establishing authority later would be impossible.
This was especially true considering Xie Tinglan's original plotline.
He possessed the bloodline of the Ancient Soaring Serpent. Because of this special bloodline, he had been captured as a child by the Beast Taming Sect—one of the top forces in the Southern Province—who used him for experiments, gouging out his eyes, severing his limbs, and draining his blood. As he grew older, his appearance became bewitchingly attractive, to the point where he was almost violated.
He endured years of humiliation before eventually slaughtering the Beast Taming Sect in revenge, leaving behind rivers of blood and millions of corpses, turning him bloodthirsty and volatile. Later, during a heavenly tribulation, he was saved by the female lead. He transformed into a small snake to stay by her side and fell in love with her.
However, the female lead feared his murderous, beastly nature. As she fled, he pursued her and even forced himself upon her, making her hate him. Later, when the female lead fell in love with the righteous male lead, Xie Tinglan lost his mind, beating the male lead half to death and imprisoning the female lead.
Xie Tinglan deliberately lied to the female lead, claiming he had killed the male lead. Hearing this, the female lead drew her sword and slit her own throat, leaving Xie Tinglan helpless no matter how desperately he tried to save her.
Afterward, Xie Tinglan forcibly broke into Soul Heaven Hall in the Central Province in an attempt to resurrect her, only to be suppressed in the Cold Prison for ten thousand years, ultimately dying with his soul destroyed, filled with guilt toward the female lead.
In short, he repaid kindness with enmity.
Someone kindly saved his life, and while unrequited love wasn't a crime, repaying her kindness with harm and forcing her was unpardonable.
Then he "killed" her beloved, gleefully bragged about it to her, and drove her to suicide.
Reading this back then had made Wen Li roll her eyes in sheer speechlessness—he was an absolute psychopath, even crazier than her!
Looking at Xie Tinglan's defiant expression, Wen Li actually set him down.
“?” Xie Tinglan's tiny face tensed with suspicion, convinced she was up to no good.
“Looking down on my cultivation, are you? Do you also think that being one hundred and ninety years old makes you mature and formidable, and that you'll settle scores with me sooner or later?” Wen Li stopped pretending, her tone indifferent.
Xie Tinglan knew he was in the wrong, but he couldn't bring himself to back down. He simply crossed his tiny arms and stood with a cold expression, waiting for Wen Li to give him an out.
After all, Wen Li had begged him to become her disciple. He was an Ancient Soaring Serpent; becoming her disciple was already gracing her with immense honor.
Wen Li saw right through his arrogant, disdainful mindset. Letting out a cold sneer, she grabbed Yao Dai and turned slightly.
The next second, she stepped onto her sword and soared straight into the sky.
“Since you feel so wronged, fine. Our teacher-disciple bond is severed—go play by yourself.”
“Oh, right. The people from the Beast Taming Sect happen to be in Yongdi City right now. You have three seconds to run.”
“?!”
Tiny Xie Tinglan's eyes widened in shock. She really just left like that?
She didn't want him anymore?
Hearing the second sentence transmitted into his mind via divine sense, his small face drained of all color. He clenched his small fists, hesitating as he wondered if she was just bluffing.
“Heh, found you.”
A voice transmitted via divine sense echoed right beside his ear.
That raspy, withered voice, like a specter hunting prey, was painfully familiar. Xie Tinglan's tiny body shivered instinctively, deep terror and hatred flaring in the depths of his pupils.
Without a second thought, he turned to flee.
But unexpected to him—
In the very next moment, four black-robed figures appeared above the roofs not far away. The compass needles in their hands twitched as the four descended, speeding directly toward him.
The crowded street below buzzed with lively noise, yet his ears fell frightfully silent.
For a moment, his ears even rang wildly.
Xie Tinglan's pupils trembled violently. Images swam before his eyes—memories of his true form being bled and carved up. They had even wanted to scoop out his internal organs; if not for his young age and their fear that he wouldn't survive it, he likely would have been dismembered.
His breath caught. A streak of brutal crimson flashed across his eyes. He prepared to fight to the death—at worst, he would self-detonate his body to drag them down with him.
Just as the four black-robed men closed in on him—though the dense noon crowd going home temporarily shielded his tiny four-year-old body—
“Whose money did I find? A High-Grade spirit stone!”
Suddenly, a loud shout sent a surge of excitement through everyone. Seeing an afterimage hurled toward the four black-robed figures, the crowd instantly surged forward in a frenzy.
“It's mine! It's mine!”
“Bullshit, that's clearly mine!”
It was equivalent to someone dropping a million dollars right in front of you—who wouldn't scramble for it?
In an instant, the already shoulder-to-shoulder street turned into utter chaos, the panicking crowd turning into a blur where no one could be distinguished.
The four black-robed figures frowned and immediately flew upward, the compasses in their hands vibrating violently.
It showed that the target was extremely close.
Rate on N.U.
