The Demon Lord and I: Frenemies - chapter 36

Chapter 36

After being interrupted by him, Chu Zaishuang actually forgot all about the Heavenly Treasure Weasel. She stood where she was and said in a gentle tone, “I have to explain something to you…”

“Forget it, you don’t need to say more. Go with them.” Fei Wanghuai picked up a book, closed it casually, and promised, “I won’t open it.”

Chu Zaishuang widened her eyes: “You’re brushing me off. That tone means you don’t trust me. Do you still think I’m that kind of person?”

“I’m not brushing you off.” Fei Wanghuai clicked his tongue lightly. “If you insist on making up an excuse, I can listen.”

Seeing his indifference, Chu Zaishuang realized he had already made up his mind about her. No matter how she explained, it would be useless. She took a deep breath and shrugged. “Make up an excuse? What for? There’s nothing to make up.”

“Indeed, explanations are just cover-ups. I also think you don’t need to waste your time.”

“Right, you’re absolutely right. I am exactly the kind of person you think I am.” She replied in a self-deprecating tone, then lifted her chin slightly and accused, “But I’m a Female Cultivator. What’s wrong with reading a few idle books? You’re a Male Cultivator, talking about these things every day-don’t you think that’s improper?”

Fei Wanghuai saw her acting so self-righteous and raised his eyebrows, questioning, “It’s not me reading them. How am I improper?”

“I read privately to broaden my knowledge, to the point of wearing out the bindings. That’s just my studiousness-nothing wrong with that.” Chu Zaishuang shot him a sidelong glance. “But you bringing it up on your own is wrong. That’s flirting, deliberately… deliberately doing something. Anyway, it’s not what a proper Male Cultivator should do!”

“?”

Hearing her speak so righteously, he was actually amused by her twisted logic. “Do you really think what you’re saying makes sense?”

To think there could be someone so shameless in the world-she secretly read books and still managed to blame him!

“It makes perfect sense. If you bring this up again in the future, I’ll assume you’re doing it on purpose. You’re the one being improper, yet you accuse me of flirting with you!”

“…”

“I’m being improper?” Fei Wanghuai tossed the book into the bamboo basket, gripped his fan handle, and made as if to walk toward her. “I think I’ve been too tolerant with you today, which has made you lawless and unrestrained.”

Seeing him approach, Chu Zaishuang hopped backward, suspicious. “What are you doing with that fan? Let me remind you, disciples aren’t allowed to fight inside the sect.”

He raised the fan handle, smiling gently. “Who said anything about fighting? I’m just attracting butterflies.”

The white butterfly before him had been provoking and annoying him for a long time. He had to knock her on the head to make her remember.

Sensing danger, Chu Zaishuang turned and ran.

The sky was pale blue, ripples danced on the water, and tiny insects skimmed across the mirror-like surface, leaving a string of lively footprints.

The two of them chased each other around the pond. She was chased by him for a whole lap, and only when she loudly called for a truce did their play end and they finally got down to business.

They had wasted too much time and hadn’t packed anything. The area under the tree was still a mess.

Each bamboo basket was set upright one by one. Chu Zaishuang gathered the scattered items on the ground and dumped them all in, urging, “Hurry up, hurry up! We’ve played around too long-they’ll be back soon.”

Fei Wanghuai frowned at her method. “If you throw things in like that, won’t it be hard to find them later?”

“They’re all things from ages ago anyway. We probably won’t need them for a while.”

Fei Wanghuai stared at the messy basket, picked out a clay jar, and asked, “What’s this? An Elixir?”

Chu Zaishuang glanced at it. “Oh, no, that’s roast duck seasoning from Aunt Sun.”

“How old is this roast duck seasoning? Isn’t it hard for mortals to keep food for long?”

“I forgot, but I hadn’t joined the sect yet back then. I didn’t have to go to the Lecture Hall at that time.”

Fei Wanghuai took out the clay jar and tossed it aside, deciding, “We can throw it away.”

“No, no, who said to throw it away? Just put it back.” Chu Zaishuang picked up the jar and tossed it back into the bamboo basket. “What if we need it someday?”

“What could you possibly use it for?” Fei Wanghuai clearly disapproved and picked up the jar again. “Do you think it’ll still be usable by then?”

But Chu Zaishuang was stubborn. She put it back again. “Maybe one day I’ll want to get diarrhea-then it’ll come in handy.”

“…Do you have to argue like this?”

Fei Wanghuai was helpless against her logic. He couldn’t be bothered with the seasoning jar and patiently continued tidying up. He picked up a little figurine made of animal hide and paper and asked, “What’s this, then?”
“When I was watching a show at Mortal Dust Marsh, someone gave me this shadow puppet figure.” Chu Zaishuang took the little stick and began to fiddle with the puppet’s limbs, delighted. “It’s really nice, still looks brand new, hasn’t changed at all.

“If I may ask, what’s the point of keeping it?” Fei Wanghuai pondered for a moment. “I can barely understand you keeping spices after learning to roast duck, but you haven’t learned shadow puppetry, have you?”

“I haven’t, but it’s fun.” She put the shadow puppet back. “That’s why I want to keep it.”

Fei Wanghuai was at a loss for words. He glanced around, then pulled out another item: “What about this fishing net? There’s even a hole in it. At least the others are intact, but this one’s already broken. There’s no reason not to throw it away.”

Chu Zaishuang mused, “But my brother made it. What if he wants it back someday?”

“No, Senior Brother Chu definitely doesn’t want it anymore. He’s probably forgotten all about it.” Fei Wanghuai straightened up, took a deep breath, and realized, “Suddenly, I think there’s no need to keep any of this.”

“Why?”

He replied calmly, “There’s no reason to keep these things. You should’ve gotten rid of them long ago. Keeping them serves no purpose.”

The bamboo basket was filled with junk useless to cultivators; she simply hadn’t bothered to throw them away, so the pile kept growing.

She hurriedly protested, “Who says so? Who says so? They do have meaning, I still need them!”

He spoke unhurriedly, “It’s all just a pile of rubbish. What use do you have for it?”

Chu Zaishuang was suddenly at a loss for words, stammered for a moment, but couldn’t answer. She lowered her eyes and said, “I don’t know what use they have, but I just feel I shouldn’t throw them away. Why must something be useful to be kept? Does everything people do have to be valuable? Haven’t you ever done something meaningless?”

Fei Wanghuai answered firmly, “I never have.”

“How straightforward.” She pouted. “You must’ve been talented in cultivation since you were little.”

“I have. So what?”

“So you’ve never worried about being useless, and never thought you’d do anything meaningless.” Chu Zaishuang sighed deeply. “Others get confused, but you never do. Just like throwing away old things-you’ve never hesitated.”

He always made choices based on results, never caring about the memories old things carried. If he couldn’t use them, he’d toss them out without a second thought, nothing worth reminiscing about-completely different from her.

Of course she knew these odds and ends were useless, but she just couldn’t bear to part with them. Once she formed a connection, she couldn’t easily let go.

Maybe she still hadn’t grown up, preferring to let things pile up rather than face ‘loss.’ As long as she held on tightly, she couldn’t let go of even a little bit.

Fei Wanghuai was taken aback, seeing her sneak a glare at him, cheeks puffed up, showing that familiar look of resentment-angry but not daring to speak out.

He thought for a moment, then suddenly felt moved, unwilling to argue further. He said gently, “If you put it that way, my answer wasn’t complete. It’s not that I’ve never hesitated. If you really want to talk about meaningless things, I’ve done one or two.”

Chu Zaishuang was curious, “What were they? You do meaningless things too?”

“The most meaningless thing I’ve ever done was running back to save you.” He teased slowly. “That’s why you get to annoy me every day now, and use your messiness as an excuse.”

“???”

A moment later, Fei Wanghuai helped her toss all the junk into the basket, no longer bothering to sort it. He said, “If you insist on keeping it, then put it in your Storage Bag. You won’t be coming here often anymore-it’s not like before you joined the sect.”

Chu Zaishuang used to nest under the tree playing chess, but now she followed the others to climb towers and refine elixirs, rarely getting a chance to visit the pond. She thought it made sense, so she used her Mustard Seed Ring to store the entire bamboo basket away.

Just then, Li Jingjie and Su Hongli hurried back, bringing with them the listless Heavenly Treasure Weasel. It lay limply on Li Jingjie’s shoulder, unable to even lift its little paws, looking like a wandering soul.

Chu Zaishuang poked its little head, puzzled. “What’s wrong with it?”

Li Jingjie said, “Probably completely exhausted, it won’t even eat Elixir now.”

“It ran around like crazy for several laps, then suddenly screeched and lost all its strength,” Su Hongli said. “I think the medicine wore off and it got weak all at once.”

Fei Wanghuai examined it and analyzed, “This medicine draws out its vitality in advance, making it hyperactive. Naturally, there will be side effects.”
Su Hongli lowered her head to record the results of the medicine test and said regretfully, “If even the Heavenly Treasure Weasel reacts like this, then it probably can’t be given to people. Otherwise, there will be endless troubles.”

The Lotus Flower Sect’s alchemists have always had a bottom line: if they know an elixir has adverse effects, they generally won’t let others test it, unless the alchemist tries it themselves.

“Looking at it now, it probably needs a couple of days to recover and can’t go out on missions,” Li Jingjie said, glancing at the exhausted Heavenly Treasure Weasel. He continued, “By the way, does your sect have new disciples go out to ‘clean up’?”

Su Hongli replied, “You mean the village where something happened recently, right?”

“Clean up?” Chu Zaishuang asked doubtfully. “What do you mean? I’m basically left to my own devices now, so I don’t know about this.”

Su Tingyun hadn’t shown up for a long time, and Tingyun Lake was always loosely managed, so it was common to miss news from within the sect.

“‘Clean up’ is a euphemism. It’s said that several villages have had incidents recently, with all the villagers dying mysteriously, some even burned into charred corpses,” Fei Wanghuai explained. “The sect is thoroughly investigating this, but the scenes are so tragic that ordinary people can’t handle them. So, new disciples are sent to bury the exposed charred corpses. Some people just call this ‘cleaning up.'”

The charred corpse incidents were clearly the work of Evil Cultivators. The villagers were burned with spellfire, so it was most appropriate for Lotus Flower Sect disciples to handle it.

“It’s just pure grunt work. I heard that senior brothers and sisters don’t have to do it; it’s always the newcomers from each peak taking turns,” Li Jingjie said mournfully. “There have been similar tasks in previous years. If you don’t do it, it affects each peak’s score and impacts the sect’s evaluations.”

Su Hongli said, “I’ve heard about it too. Senior Brother Shan He said it’s not mandatory, but it seems like everyone does it.”

Li Jingjie glanced at the other two. “Don’t you two have to do it?”

Fei Wanghuai replied, “I haven’t had time lately.”

Chu Zaishuang said, “I didn’t even know about this. No one told me. Maybe Tingyun Lake’s score is so low that whether we do it or not, we’re always at the bottom.”

“That’s true. I heard there are very few disciples at Tingyun Lake, and Lone Star Mountain only has a few more,” Li Jingjie mused, then suggested, “If you two can’t find partners, why not wait a couple of days until Xiao Tian recovers? The four of us can form a team and get it done quickly, and that’ll be the end of it.”

“Anyway, when you accept the task, they don’t look at your sect. Only when you submit it do they count the points by peak. It’s fine even if we’re not from the same master.”

The other three had no objections after hearing this and agreed to the plan.

“Sounds good.”

*

Wangyue Marsh. The doors and windows of the house were tightly shut, and a single candle flickered.

Chu Chenyue stood in front of the table. Sensing something, she turned around and saw a shadow through the crack in the door. She spoke, “Come in.”

“I wonder what the Sect Leader wants with me.”

As the door opened, a hunched shadow was cast on the wall, and a sharp voice rang out, making one’s scalp tingle.

“Yao Wensheng, why has your voice changed again?” Chu Chenyue was startled. “It sounds like someone is strangling your neck.”

It was indeed Yao Wensheng who entered. He coughed twice, trying to adjust his voice, but when he opened his mouth, it was still grating to the ears. “Took the wrong medicine.”

“Never mind. I have some medicine residue here and need your help to identify it.” Chu Chenyue took out a jade-white vessel and placed it on the table but did not lift the lid. “The charred corpses were burned to ashes, leaving no trace even in their stomachs. Only one body was soaked in water, barely preserving some medicine residue, which they managed to recover, but it’s still badly damaged.”

“I’ve thought it over. Maybe if you take a look, you might notice something unusual-perhaps it’s some kind of elixir formula.”

Yao Wensheng lifted the lid. Staring at the pitch-black residue, he sighed, “Sect Leader, even though I’ve tested countless medicines, when it’s burned like this, it’s really not easy. At least if I knew one or two of the spiritual herbs, I’d have a direction to deduce from.”

“This is a map of Qiandu Island. Take a look-maybe you’ll get some ideas,” Chu Chenyue handed over a sheet of paper. “Lu Hengzhou never does anything without profit and even wants to turn Mortal Dust Marsh into a Herb Field. There’s no way he’d plant useless spiritual herbs on the island. There might be something more to it.”

“This map looks ordinary at first glance, but if you examine it closely, you’ll find that several types of spiritual herbs are planted in large quantities. They’re not the main ingredients for common elixirs, but rather rare auxiliary materials. He doesn’t refine elixirs on the island, but he’s secretly researching something.”