Chapter 2

Chapter 2: That Soft, Tender Little Face Is Perfect for Wiping My Shoes

The girl didn’t flinch. No fear, no panic—only relief as she looked at Jiang Tea Tea.

Jiang Tea Tea met her gaze. Slowly, her hands turned into green tea branches. One branch lashed across the ground and dragged the girl’s lower body over. Another coiled around her head, covering her skull and leaving only her eyes exposed.

A human’s soul and merit were the best kind of tonic for cultivation. A human body was the richest fertilizer for a tree demon, and a body offered in willing sacrifice was richer still.

Under the girl’s unblinking stare, Jiang Tea Tea devoured her. Blood, flesh, bone—gone. Her branches pierced the ground, and she didn’t even spare the blood splashed into the dirt, sucking it up until nothing remained.

She took the girl’s soul, her merit—everything.

Her branches slowly returned to human hands. Her fingers were slender and pale, delicate as peeled scallions. The magic power she’d lost came surging back—not all of it, but enough. About twenty percent.

She lifted a hand with exaggerated elegance and wiped at her lips, as if there were drool there.

Then the girl’s memories slammed into her mind in a flashing reel.

The girl had the same name: Jiang Tea Tea. She’d just turned eighteen.

She lived in the Zhen Lin Empire, on the capital planet of the M31 star system. She was the Jiang family’s swapped child, a fake heiress who had never awakened any ability.

The M31 star system was a melting pot of species, with an average lifespan of 150 to 480 years: beastfolk, half-beastfolk, the insect clan, and humans.

No matter the species, once you turned ten, you awakened an ability—mental power.

Water abilities. Fire abilities. Lightning abilities. Electric abilities. Illusions. Healing abilities. A thousand strange powers, a thousand bizarre variations.

The higher your mental power rank, the stronger you became. The more respect you earned. The more society prized you.

The fake heiress, Jiang Tea Tea, had awakened nothing. No ability. No mental power. Before her identity was exposed, the Jiang family had spoiled her like a princess. If she wanted the stars, they wouldn’t offer the moon—they’d offer the whole sky.

Then her identity was exposed. The real daughter returned.

And everything shattered.

Her father stopped loving her. Her mother stopped caring. Her elder brother looked at her with disgust. Her younger sister glared at her. The real daughter humiliated her, framed her, and stole her fiancé.

For three years, she endured cold violence, humiliation, and penny-pinching cruelty. Then, at eighteen, she was accepted into the Royal Military Academy’s Human and Beastfolk Pacification Department.

Living on campus kept her away from the Jiang family. But at school, the real daughter and her fiancé still bullied her.

She had no ability. Her body was frail. She wasn’t built for combat. All she could do was swallow her anger, save what little money she could, and wait for the next break so she could annul the engagement and cut ties with the Jiang family.

Then she overheard the plan.

They were going to use her—drain the last bit of value from her—and offer her up as a “gift” to secure a business partnership.

She ran, thinking she only had to make it back to school to be safe. On the way, her fiancé and the real daughter contacted her, saying they’d left a “gift” on her flyer.

The call ended.

The flyer malfunctioned.

It crashed.

She was severed at the waist, her upper body flung out.

Jiang Tea Tea absorbed the memories and felt the lingering consciousness left behind—unwilling, furious, choking on hatred.

She bent down, picked up the lightbrain on the ground, and snapped it onto her wrist.

In that instant, she was both the green tea tree demon Jiang Tea Tea and the M31 star system’s fake heiress Jiang Tea Tea.

Only by fulfilling the fake heiress’s conditions would she fully erase the lingering consciousness and dissolve the willing-sacrifice contract.

She turned toward the wrecked flyer, smashed into scrap and still smoking. A beam of light stabbed down from the sky, blinding her.

She raised an arm to shield her eyes.

A red flyer with twin winglets dropped in front of her.

Jiang Yi Zhu—the real daughter—stepped out, her face painted with false concern. “Sister, are you okay?”

With the flyer smashed like that, she still wasn’t dead. This bitch really was hard to kill.

Jiang Tea Tea looked at her.

Inside her, the fake heiress’s lingering consciousness saw Jiang Yi Zhu and flared with rage.

“I’m fine,” Jiang Tea Tea said softly. “Thanks for your concern, Sister.”

Then she lifted her hand.

And brought it down.

Smack.

Her palm landed cleanly on Jiang Yi Zhu’s face.

The lingering consciousness inside her froze—stunned—then went quiet, as if soothed.

Jiang Yi Zhu clutched her cheek, eyes wide with disbelief. “You… you hit me? Jiang Tea Tea, you hit me?”

Jiang Tea Tea backhanded her other cheek without hesitation.

Jiang Yi Zhu stumbled back until her spine hit the flyer and she had nowhere left to go. She stared, shaking. “You hit me—”

Jiang Tea Tea walked toward her step by step, blinking those pretty, innocent eyes. “Yes. I hit you. Was I wrong?”

Humiliating a human went like this: slap their face, snatch their bowl, curse their ancestors for eighteen generations.

The steps were correct. Why was she acting like she’d never seen the world?

Jiang Yi Zhu raised her hand to slap back, furious. “You fake, cheap imitation—who gave you the nerve to—”

Before she could finish, Jiang Tea Tea slammed that raised hand onto the red flyer with a sharp bang.

Crack.

The wrist snapped.

Jiang Yi Zhu—a B-rank water-ability user—hissed and went paper-white.

Jiang Tea Tea didn’t let go. She yanked hard, dragging Jiang Yi Zhu off the flyer, then kicked her hard in the ass.

Jiang Yi Zhu flew forward and hit the ground with a heavy thud, her head buzzing.

Jiang Tea Tea stepped on her face—right on her careful makeup—and ground her sole down. “Good Sister. Your face is so soft.”

She pressed harder.

“It’s perfect for wiping my shoes.”