After a Fake Death, the Emotionless Dao Senior Sister Became Obsessed - Chapter 4

But the smell of the roasted potato was simply too alluring.

Tao Miao’s feathers were sleek and soft. She raised her head, opened her beak, and flapped her wings in a begging motion, taking the potato from A Qing and crunching it down.

A Qing’s heart was fluttering. Seeing her finish, he took another one from the bag with his beak and cautiously fed it to her.

Chu Zhao watched from the water pool, simmering with inexplicable anger.

Even she didn’t know the source of her sudden fury. She had a beautiful ‘wife’ and was eating breadworms, so what was there to be angry about?

She just sulked, splashing the water and puffing up her cheeks, opening her mouth towards Pang Xie.

Pang Xie looked at her tenderly and presented the food.

The moonlight was hazy, and the scenery in the back mountain was usually dark and quiet, but now it was charged with a sense of rivalry and contention.

Occasionally, a bright little fish would splash out of the pool, flicking its tail in a challenging manner, and sometimes there would be rustling in the branches as a few leaves unfortunately fell during the beautiful bird’s wing flap.

Before long, the contest ended with both parties lying exhausted and full, bellies round.

After eating their fill, a sense of melancholy always quietly bloomed.

Chu Zhao wasn’t in the mood to look at the two birds in the branches. She quietly tidied up the pearl betrothal gift that hadn’t been sent.

Her voice was very small: “…Humans are bad, they don’t like shiny things.”

She thought again of the clumsy beauty whose figure was as clean as snow but whose spirit was as dull as a stone.

Recalling her hundreds of years of cultivation, everything had been smooth sailing, and she had never been so troublesome. Besides, a beautiful demon would usually like her with just a wag of her tail.

How much more so a human?

Chu Zhao had once sneaked into a human village, where people called her “Koi,” brought her back in a wooden scoop to a spacious tank, changed the water and fresh algae and bait every day, and tossed copper coins to her to make wishes.

Some sought wealth, others sought romance.

Chu Zhao was skilled in illusionary arts. Occasionally, when she was comfortably attended to, she would enter the dreams of these mortals and patiently grant their wishes.

Although it was an illusion, after doing this for a while, the humans’ requests to her often came true.

But a koi couldn’t grant her own wish.

Chu Zhao felt a little sad and plunged her body under the water, letting out a string of bubbles with a gurgling sound.

Through the rippling, blurred water, she looked up at the crescent moon suspended in the night sky. In a trance, it was as if the beautiful woman in a snow-white Daoist robe curved her lips and reached out her palm to her.

Hate cultivators! Like a clumsy stone.

Pang Xie had never seen Chu Zhao look so disheartened. Filled with concern, he embraced the little red fish and exchanged a look with Hai Dai.

— Should they go find the human who made A’Chu upset?

— Yes, and teach her a lesson together.

After coaxing Chu Zhao to sleep, the crab and the seaweed quietly moved, intending to leave the pool.

Unfortunately, as they approached the boundary, a dazzling, obscure talisman suddenly appeared. Pang Xie cried out in pain. Looking down, his crab claw was scorched and smoking.

Turning around, Hai Dai’s usually soft body also looked charred and stiff.

Tao Miao loved a good show and now flapped her wings in excitement. “Stupid crab stewed with kelp! Caw caw~ Hurry and call the chef!”

A demon actually dared to touch the restriction set by the Senior Disciple Sister. She could already smell the scorch.

A Qing echoed, “Gagaga, what a laugh.”

Si Jing closed the door of her sleeping quarters.

Her fingertips traced and flew in the dark. A fire talisman formed without paper, and the few candles on the peach wood table corner lit up.

After sending Shen Susu back, she had followed the guidance of A Qing’s feather and returned smoothly.

On the table were some exquisite snacks: sticky rice snow mochi, rock sugar berries, and a small plate of roasted potato.

They must have been gifts from Yuan Ling and other disciples when she was away on the mountain.

“Senior Sister liked these last time. Exorcising demons is tiring, Senior Sister, please try them!” There was a sheet of Xuan paper on the table.

The handwriting was Yuan Ling’s. The girl’s writing on the paper was fluent, unlike her stuttering speech.

Si Jing sat down at the table, pondering for a long while, and picked up the roasted potato with her wooden chopsticks.

After careful tasting, it felt like chewing on ice and drinking snow, completely flavorless.

She had always been unable to taste any food.

Perhaps since she ascended Green Summit Peak, or perhaps even earlier. She never understood why all mortals liked to linger in inns and restaurants, where the clatter of chopsticks and bowls would fill the air with bustling, worldly energy.

Even today, seeing the scene of people gathered and chatting in the transmission jade slip of Cloud Water Pavilion, she felt no ripple.

Only the little red fish in her palm, who had exerted all her strength to leap up high, complaining of hunger and begging her to bring her back.

Worldly truths that even demons understood, yet she did not.

Si Jing set down the chopsticks, her long eyelashes lowered, hiding the emotions in her eyes.

She didn’t need to eat and wasn’t sleepy, so she planned to meditate all night to regulate her breath.

Picking up the wooden hairpin beside the desk, Si Jing gathered her ink-black hair that reached her waist.

Suddenly, a pearl slipped out of her sleeve, bouncing with a clear, bright sound.

Si Jing caught the pearl and held it in her palm.

The touch was still wet, as if the image of the little red fish reappeared before her eyes, her almond-shaped eyes staring at her, demanding in a sweet voice whether she liked it.

Si Jing was silent for a moment and took out a bronze mirror from her storage bag.

The Observation Mirror (Guan Wang Jing), when infused with spiritual power and using any object as a medium, could trace its owner and glimpse the count of their features and life experiences within the three realms and five elements, observing their true nature.

Si Jing gently raised her fingertips. The pearl floated in the air, infused with spiritual power, and a pale circle of cold energy wrapped around its surface.

It quickly turned into fine powder and flowed into the Observation Mirror.

The mirror surface was originally cloudy, but now it slowly cleared, revealing an unfamiliar scene.

An desolate mountain enveloped in a gloomy atmosphere came into view. Thorns blocked the path, making it difficult to discern its location.

Demonic energy seemed extremely strong here. Demon beasts roamed freely and were unusually restless. The mountain rarely had four seasons; it was overcast all day, making one feel melancholic from afar.

Until a splash of bright crimson appeared in the mirror.

The red fish, no bigger than half a palm, flipped its belly and swam leisurely in the water.

Si Jing didn’t know the time or place of the scene in the Observation Mirror, so she just watched quietly.

The little red fish was unusually lively. Sometimes it would try to bite the withered spirit grass by the water, spitting it out with a “Pui, pui” because of the strange taste. Sometimes it would intimidate small shrimp with low demonic power, scaring them into fleeing with squeaks.

Until one day, perhaps due to the efficacy of the spirit grass it inadvertently ate, it transformed into a human shape.

Even though humans and demons were of different paths, Si Jing still turned her head away. She knew she should avoid any impropriety.

But she could still catch a glimpse of a snow-white color from the corner of her eye.

The girl was like a dumpling made of fresh snow, with white, delicate bones, looking a little conspicuous in the dark and gloomy desolate mountain.

The little fish, having just transformed into human form, didn’t understand or like wearing clothes. She still swam naked in the water, revealing her exquisite curves, gnawing on flowers and grass, completely unrestrained.

Si Jing’s gaze had nowhere to go but to the plate of sticky rice snow mochi on the table.

Her appearance… might bear some resemblance to this snack.

The scene in the mirror flickered.

When Si Jing came back to her senses, the little red fish was busy and had already opened her own underwater cave dwelling.

She had reverted to her original form for convenience in movement, painstakingly piling up treasures she had plundered into a mountain, and moving a large, jade-white seashell to use as a bed.

By this time, she already had trembling little shrimp guarding the entrance of her cave, and other demons for company.

A plump mother crab and a frail-looking seaweed.

“Wifey, kiss, kiss!”

Si Jing silently watched the little red fish embracing both of them, immersed in her warm haven every day, so delighted that even in her dreams her tail was high up, wagging happily from side to side.

“…” She averted her gaze, silently.

The little fish was never keen on cultivation, but because of the companionship of these few demons, she worried and sighed all day, fearing that some other demon would steal her lovers.

What she feared soon came to pass.

The Observation Mirror suddenly brightened, and Si Jing’s vision paused slightly.

Even though the scene presented was from the past, she could still sense that some massive, ancient creature was waking up behind the desolate mountain.

A Dragon that had been dormant for an unknown amount of time.

The desolate mountain was perpetually dim only because it was covered by the Dragon’s shadow, blocking the sunlight. When the Dragon opened its eyes, its pupils refracted light, bright as day. When it closed its eyes, the desolate mountain would be desolate and dark, silently.

Si Jing frowned, her heart tightening.

Dragons were known to be tyrannical and promiscuous, and they had been severely injured in a battle centuries ago, nearly wiping out their entire clan, and vanishing without a trace. How could one suddenly appear? Where was this mountain located?

The image in the mirror became turbulent. Because the Dragon dormant in the desolate mountain woke up, the earth shook and the mountains moved, with falling rocks like rain. The Dragon stretched its limbs, and its cloudy eyes looked impatiently towards the mountain.

Then it simply remained motionless.

The little red fish poked her head out of the mountain stream pool. She didn’t see the massive pupil suspended in the air. She was just excited, shaking her tail and leaping out of the water.

“It’s daytime! It’s daytime!”

The Dragon stared blankly at the gem-like little fish and truly didn’t close its eyes.

She tilted her clumsy head, listened to Chu Zhao complain that her cave was ugly and lacked flowers for decoration, and carefully plucked the flourishing lotuses from the other side of the mountain and brought them over.

Listening to Chu Zhao’s sleep talk that there haven’t been any good bugs to eat recently, she caught all the breadworms in the mountain and piled them at the entrance of her cave.

Later, she even transformed into a woman’s appearance, fashioned a figure named Zhu Yin, with dark skin but a robust physique, and brought a bright pearl to her cave to propose marriage.

“A’Chu.” She only knew how to call her name, unable to say a single full sentence.

Chu Zhao was an extremely wicked demon. Her flaw was that she only liked people with beautiful appearances.

So, she maliciously stepped on the woman’s shoulder with her bare foot, with a playful impulse, asking, “What do you like about me?”

Zhu Yin sputtered, unable to speak, but her face flushed bright red.

“I knew it.” Chu Zhao’s internal alarm bells rang, and she widened her eyes in anger. “You, you must have your eye on…”

“On Pang Xie and Hai Dai by my side. And is it Shan Hu too!”

Pang Xie was about to say something but held back. Hai Dai’s beautiful eyes flickered. Shan Hu was hesitant to speak.

Zhu Yin grew even more anxious upon hearing this. She clumsily didn’t know where to put her hands, and the more anxious she was, the less she could say.

Chu Zhao finally transformed back to her original form, leaped onto the woman’s face, and slapped her with her fish tail in a huff before driving her out of the cave.

The image in the mirror suddenly darkened. It had been raining in the desolate mountain for a long time.

Zhu Yin seemed heartbroken, yet unwilling to close her eyes. After that, she only dared to watch her from afar across the mountain.

The candlelight on the desk flickered. The spiritual energy flowing over the bronze mirror receded, and there were no more images.

Si Jing put down the Observation Mirror, a hint of obscurity in her eyes.

Unlike the human scenes observed while traveling the mortal world, the relationships among demons seemed to be more volatile and complex.

She had too many questions. Aside from the location of the mountain and the Dragon’s vague origin, there was more.

For example, what did the term “propose marriage” truly mean, and why was the Dragon named Zhu Yin so distraught, always staring at the little fish, not even blinking, and after being driven away, became so dejected that she frequently bathed the mountain in tears.

All these things were like a flavorless snow mochi stuck in Si Jing’s throat, causing her to feel unsettled.

She pulled out a blank talisman paper, dipped her brush in ink, and wrote the neat and elegant characters “Chu Zhao.”

Outside the window, the sky was gradually becoming bright. The sound of the wind mixed with the morning bell for daily lessons, cleansing the stillness of the room.

It was time to go to the Sword Forging Cliff to supervise and guide.

But she had been completely immersed in the absurd past of a demoness, all night long, without realizing it.

Si Jing inverted the mirror, her eyes lowered and silent.

This shouldn’t be happening.

That scarlet little fish… must have cast some kind of demonic spell to cause her to harbor unwarranted distractions.

She must not indulge this seemingly fragile demon in her wickedness and ability to bewitch minds.

She would deal with her properly herself.

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