章 5: The Hidden Expert

編集者: Atlas Studios

As the Demon Monarch drew closer, Yi Qing finally had a clearer view of it. It was being followed by a bunch of slightly smaller white silhouettes—there were other rabbit demons! There were as many as up to 20 of them.

It was a group of highly powerful rabbit demons!

Yi Qing's heart sank. One Demon Monarch had already forced him to try to bring out all his might, yet a whole group of demons…

While he was considering whether to self-destruct his Golden Core and fight to the very last breath, that Demon Monarch shook its long ears. Suddenly, it opened its mouth unhurriedly and spoke in a tone that was extremely sycophantic…?

"Hello, may I ask if Exalted Immortal Shen is here?"

"You…" Yi Qing had forced out a huge move but held it back, unsure of whether he should unleash it.

"Oh, I have a date with the Exalted Immortal at this time," the Demon Monarch explained with a laugh, sounding even more sycophantic and almost subservient. "Is the Exalted Immortal busy? It's alright, we can totally wait."

As it spoke, it turned towards the colony of rabbits behind it. With a wave of its paw, around ten of the highly powerful rabbit demons fell into a straight line in a snap. They sat in an orderly row and did not so much as wag their tails, not to mention attack.

Yi Qing was a little confused. These were… demons? What about the known fact that the nature of demons was evil and that they would eat every human they came across?

Σ(°△°|||)

"Benefactor, fear not. We are all nice herbivorous rabbits." Seemingly understanding his thoughts, the Rabbit Monarch was slightly anxious and afraid that he would misunderstand and so continued to explain, "It's true, we are different from the other demons. We never eat humans." At the end of its words, it clenched its claws and the rabbits became even more well-mannered.

"…"

"Hey, Rabbit, you're here." Yi Qing had yet to have a single clue as to what was going on when Shen Ying walked over after having washed her hands, drying them on that gray robe of hers as she said, "You're pretty early."

"Exalted Immortal." The Rabbit Monarch's body quivered as if having received an electric shock. Its originally upright rabbit body collapsed in a second and it laid feebly on the ground. If not for the fact that it was retaining a rabbit's form, this scene would actually have seemed obsequious. "As per your orders, I have already found all the manpower you need."

Shen Ying turned to scan the surroundings and asked, "Why are they all rabbits? Are you sure it will work?"

"Exalted Immortal, fret not." The Rabbit Monarch strongly nodded its head. "My rabbits and rabbit grandchildren have always been dexterous with their work. It will not be a problem to let them handle it."

"But they look…" Shen Ying took a quick glance at the sets of four snow-white paws which belonged to the surrounding colony of rabbits and asked, "Will it be convenient?"

"Oh." The Rabbit Monarch was stupefied for a moment, but then finally understood what she meant and replied, "It's alright. They are already capable of morphing but are just accustomed to the form of a rabbit."

At those words, sure enough, around ten or so rabbits stood up simultaneously as their rabbit bodies transformed. Within a moment they had manifested human forms, except… with rabbit heads.

-_-|||

Shen Ying's mouth twitched as she couldn't bear to look.

"Alright, that's tough on you." She promptly waved her hand to bring them in.

The Rabbit Monarch then led the colony of rabbits into the yard. Yi Qing was unsure whether if it was an illusion, but he kept getting the feeling that every rabbit that passed by the Benefactor seemed to quiver subconsciously.

"Benefactor, they are…" Yi Qing could not hold the question in any longer because she seemed to be the one who had invited these rabbit demons.

"Oh, I asked them to come and help out." Shen Ying pointed to the straw cottage at the back and continued, "Wasn't my house torn apart that day? I didn't know how to fix it, but luckily it didn't rain these past few days so I barely managed to make do with it. The rabbit said that it knew how to fix it, which is why I got it to help fix my house."

"…" Asked a Demon Monarch to fix the house!

Yi Qing was taken aback. Demons were not just any creatures—they had always been on opposing sides from the humans, so how could they be willing to be ordered about by a human?

But very quickly, he came to a realization that they indeed would be willing!

-_-|||

The colony of rabbit demons had already hastily begun fixing the cottage, each working on their allocated tasks: chopping trees, laying hay, and building beams. With a clear division of labor, they exhibited an impeccable sense of cooperation as if they had practiced this numerous times before.

Yi Qing was full of questions but he saw that Shen Ying was already calmly folding up her sleeves, ready to help out.

Just as she was going to lend them an extra pair of hands, the paws of a rabbit demon that was closest to her suddenly shook and the beam it was hugging onto fell to the ground with a loud thud. Shen Ying immediately caught it with her hands—just in time before it crashed down onto another rabbit.

"Are you alright?" She turned and asked.

However, all the rabbit did was to well up in tears and drop to its knees sobbing, "Exalted Immortal, please spare my life. I didn't mean it. Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

Its action of kneeling seemed to have sent some sort of signal to the rest of the rabbit demons as they followed suit, quickly dropping to their knees and beginning to frantically kowtow.

Shen Ying: "…" All I wanted was to help. Are your traumas that serious?

"Forget it." Feeling resigned, she passed the beam to Yi Qing at the back and said, "Here you go! All of you can continue, I am not going to take part…"

She turned around and walked back to the yard feeling a prick in her heart, wondering: was she really that scary?

She sat down on the stone bench in the yard and leaned forward, habitually lazing on the stone table like a slob. Forget it, she thought to herself. Since her help was not needed, she was also too lazy to budge. The sunshine was especially great for… sleeping.

╮(╯_╰)╭

Hence, within two minutes, snores could be heard coming from the stone table!

Once those sounds reached their ears, Yi Qing clearly heard the entire cohort of rabbit demons heaving sighs of relief, appearing as if they had just survived a disaster. Even their speed of rebuilding the cottage increased quite a bit.

"Thank you, Benefactor." A rabbit demon took over the cottage beam from his hands with a face filled with gratitude, obliviously treating him like a friend who had shared adversity together.

"All of you… why would you be so afraid of Lady Shen," he couldn't help but ask.

"Did you not know?!" The rabbit demon's face was filled with astonishment—wasn't he the Exalted Immortal's friend? The Rabbit Monarch had clearly stated that he had stayed in this yard for a month. "Actually… I am not very sure." The rabbit demon took a quick glance at the Monarch who was laying hay on the roof and lowered his volume. "It is because the Monarch said that this Exalted Immortal has boundless powers and nobody is her match. No one knows which stage of cultivation she has achieved. She lived in such solitude for many moons, purposely intercepting those demons who left the realm to devour humans for fun. I have heard that previously, the nine Demon Monarchs who had combined forces could not even take a blow from her. This is why our Monarch repeatedly advised us not to agitate the Exalted Immortal."

The more Yi Qing listened, the wider his eyes became. Little had he expected Lady Shen to be… No, Senior Shen was actually such a formidable character? He suddenly thought of the night when he was heavily wounded and fell here; Rui Mi had been beaten up so badly all over. Initially, he had thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him, but that was actually all real?

Upon deeper thought, he remembered that after he woke up, there was indeed no sign of Rui Mi. In any case, he was a Golden Core Fiend Cultivator, so unless one had achieved an equal stage in sword cultivation or unless a Nascent Soul cultivator came to help, nobody would be able to do anything to him. If Shen Ying were only a mortal with no cultivation, it would have been impossible to escape from that fiend's clutches.

He took a closer look at the person laying on the stone table, dripping saliva and snoring soundly, who did not seem so impressive. She still did not show any signs of possessing Spirit Qi, appearing just like a feeble mortal. Such a situation could only be possible under two conditions: one was that she truly was just a mere mortal; the second possibility would be that she had already achieved an extremely high level of cultivation, possibly the Soul Formation stage or higher, allowing her to return to the simplest and purest of forms, able to control Spirit Qi with such ease that ordinary people would not be able to tell.

According to these rabbit demons, she was obviously the latter.

Yi Qing's heart immediately began to stir with excitement, and even his Heart of the Sword that had been quiet for so long quivered with excitement. This was an expert, and one that nobody could even fathom any understanding of.

At the same time, the soundly asleep Expert Ying smacked her lips together and all of a sudden, she began to subconsciously talk in her sleep, "Heh heh, braised meat in brown sauce… Chicken with Szechuan pepper… Szechuan-style bean curd…"

Yi Qing: "…"

Oh, it must be some kind of extremely advanced Dharmic Dao. It must be!

(ˇˍˇ)

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