Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Angry Monkey

Gu Shi Yi finished repairing the goat pen while walking on eggshells, then went back to the little monkey.

“Little” was relative. It was small, yes, but it had the attitude of a tyrant and the morals of a knife.

At least it wasn’t trying to murder her anymore. That counted as progress. Unfortunately, it still refused to eat.

The old man handed her a basket of fresh fruit—glossy red ones, plump yellow ones, pale-white ones, even a few purple ones shaped like tiny eggplants. Every piece looked so fragrant her brain went a little soft.

Gu Shi Yi had worked all day without a single bite. Her stomach was practically stuck to her spine. The moment that sweet scent hit her, saliva surged like a broken dam.

She swallowed hard, forced on her most professional face, and crouched by the cage.

“Be good… smell it. It’s so fragrant. Just take one bite.”

The monkey turned its face away like she’d insulted its ancestors.

Gu Shi Yi tried again, softer. “Come on. It’s delicious. Kids have to eat. If you don’t eat, you won’t grow tall. If you don’t grow tall, nobody will like you. And if nobody likes you, you’ll end up like your sis—a ten-thousand-year single dog.”

“Squeak…”

It bared its teeth and made a sound that was pure ridicule, lips still clamped shut.

Gu Shi Yi’s patience finally cracked.

She straightened, put on a stern face, and pointed at it like a strict aunt. “Are you eating or not? If you don’t, I’m spanking you.”

The monkey stared at her with utter contempt, like it was daring her to try.

Gu Shi Yi’s temper flared. “You little—do you even understand how good you have it? Fruit this good and you’re refusing? I don’t even get to eat it!”

She stopped mid-rant and glanced toward the main hall.

The old man had his eyes closed again, dozing peacefully.

Gu Shi Yi’s gaze flicked back to the fruit. Then to the old man. Then to the fruit again.

Very slowly, very carefully, she lifted a red one to her lips and took the tiniest bite.

Nothing happened.

The old man didn’t twitch.

Gu Shi Yi’s eyes widened. She took another bite—bigger this time. The red skin broke cleanly, and juice flooded her mouth, sweet and fragrant enough to make her knees go weak.

She turned the fruit toward the monkey and put on a saintly smile. “See? Delicious. Just one bite. Your sis tried it for you—sweet and fragrant.”

The monkey turned away even harder.

And that first mouthful vanished the instant it hit her tongue, like Zhu Ba Jie eating a ginseng fruit—gone before she could even savor it. Her mouth decided it had suffered enough.

Crunch.

She took a massive bite, nearly half the fruit.

“Mmm! That’s good!”

Now the flavor hit properly—sweet, fragrant, and…

Gu Shi Yi froze mid-chew. “What… is that?”

She took another bite and chewed slowly, brows knitting. Her expression went blank with shock.

“Meat?”

She stared at the fruit like it had personally offended her bloodline. “What kind of fruit is sweet and fragrant but tastes like meat? What is this?”

Three bites later, the fist-sized fruit was gone.

Without hesitation, she grabbed a yellow one and bit in.

“Mmm… soft, juicy… like a peach…” Her eyes almost rolled back in relief. “So good…”

Two bites, gone.

She reached for a purple one.

That was when the monkey finally realized the truth.

This woman wasn’t feeding it.

This woman was robbing it.

“WAAAH WAAAH WAAAH!”

The monkey screamed like the heavens had betrayed it and launched onto Gu Shi Yi’s head, grabbing fistfuls of her hair with both tiny claws.

“Ah—!”

Gu Shi Yi yelped, but she still wouldn’t drop the basket. She shoved fruit into her mouth, freed one hand, and yanked the monkey off her scalp.

“You won’t eat it yourself, and you won’t let anyone else eat either?!”

She flung it to the ground and bolted with the basket.

“WAAAH!”

The monkey went berserk, teeth bared, charging after her. It swung onto her arm like a white little demon and bit down hard on her wrist.

“Ah!”

The basket hit the ground. The monkey immediately snatched it up and sprinted.

Gu Shi Yi stared at her wrist. A perfect O-shaped bite mark, blood beading.

“Fuck,” she hissed. “You actually bit down!”

She lunged after it.

The monkey, convinced she was coming to steal its fruit again, screamed and scrambled up onto the roof with the basket. It found a spot and started shoveling fruit into its mouth with both hands, eating like it was racing death.

Gu Shi Yi almost saw red. She spun around searching for stones—anything she could throw.

The monkey kept dodging while eating. In no time, the basket was empty. With smug precision, it flung the basket down at Gu Shi Yi’s head.

Gu Shi Yi dodged, shaking with rage. She rolled up her sleeves, eyes blazing, and shouted up at the roof, “Fuck your mother! Don’t let me catch you! If I catch you, I’ll skin you, pull your tendons, and eat your monkey brains!”

She was still hunting for a ladder when the air blurred.

The old man appeared in the courtyard as if he’d stepped out of a shadow. He glanced at the roof, smiling faintly. Without any obvious movement, a giant hand formed in midair above the monkey. It grabbed the sky-flying macaque by the back of the neck and lifted it.

The monkey had been arrogant as hell toward Gu Shi Yi. In the old man’s grasp, it turned into a silent, obedient snowball, curling up and letting itself be carried down.

The old man cradled it and rubbed its belly, pleased. “Mm. Very good… fed nicely.”

He looked over at the three-headed bull and the goat, then nodded again. “Good. Not bad.”

Gu Shi Yi’s rage evaporated instantly, like a bonfire dumped into snowmelt. She stood there looking pitiful and harmless, smiling so hard it hurt. “As long as you’re satisfied, Elder.”

The old man’s gaze flicked to her wrist. He smiled. “It’s fine. It’s still young—its fangs haven’t fully grown, and the poison gland under its chin can’t spray venom yet. Wash the wound with clean water and you’ll be fine.”

He paused, then glanced at the fallen basket. “You ate the fruit?”

Gu Shi Yi’s face went hot. “I… I ate two…”

“What did they taste like?” the old man asked, sounding almost casual.

“One tasted like meat,” Gu Shi Yi admitted, mortified. “And one tasted like peach…”

A sharp light flickered in the old man’s eyes. He studied her for a long moment, the corners of his mouth lifting like he’d just found something interesting.

“It’s late. Come back early tomorrow.”

“Yes,” Gu Shi Yi said at once, not daring to ask why.

She slipped out of the shop and stumbled back to the boat. The moment she lay down, she passed out. She didn’t even have the strength to chat with Li Yan Er.

Li Yan Er crawled out of the oilcloth bag and stared at her best friend’s sleeping face, heart aching.

“If I’d known, we wouldn’t have gone to that shop.”

Shi Yi really did treat her with everything she had. Li Yan Er had been born unlucky—no father’s affection, no mother’s love. But having a sister like Shi Yi… her life wasn’t worthless after all.

At dawn, Gu Shi Yi woke, shoved down breakfast, and ran off the boat again. Granny Gu watched her go, baffled. She stomped over and kicked Liu Two’s cabin door.

“What have you stinking men been dragging Shi Yi out to do? She’s been gone all day these past two days, and she comes back exhausted like a dog!”

Liu Two and the others had been messing around in brothels for days and had finally burned through their stash. They were dead asleep. When Granny Gu woke them, Liu Two blinked blearily and muttered, “Shi Yi? She hasn’t been with us. We were sleeping with girls—she can’t exactly do that.”

Granny Gu’s suspicion deepened. “Then what’s she doing, leaving early and coming back late? Liu Two, are you hiding something? Shi Yi is a well-bred young lady. You can’t corrupt her. If you corrupt her… how is she supposed to get married?”

“N-no! We’re not!” Liu Two protested, miserable.

Then he blurted, half-dazed and half-offended, “Gu Shi Yi… she looks like a woman, but what else about her is womanly?!”

When it came to men-and-women business, she understood it better than they did. If she weren’t missing the equipment, she’d be better than them at paying for women.

Who was corrupting who, anyway?

Gu Shi Yi had no idea they were pleading innocence. She hurried straight to the little shop.

The old man smiled when he saw her. “You’re early.”

The little monkey on his shoulder had been dozing. When the old man opened his eyes, it opened its eyes too—and the moment it saw Gu Shi Yi, it bared its teeth and squealed angrily, gesturing like it was cursing her out.

“You nasty woman, why are you here again?”

Gu Shi Yi bared her teeth right back. The two of them glared at each other like sworn enemies. Then the monkey twisted around and hugged the old man’s neck, wearing a smug expression that clearly said: I’ve got backing. Try me.

Gu Shi Yi glanced at the bite mark on her wrist and then looked away.

She wasn’t going to argue with an animal.

The old man laughed. “Come on.”

He led her into the back courtyard and into the kitchen. He pointed at the stove.

“Boil it in spirit water. Add the gold-horn beast dung you shoveled last night. Then add these…” He nodded at three bowls of dark liquids. “And ten clearheart bamboo leaves. Simmer it for half an hour. Then your yin soul can use it.”

Gu Shi Yi stared at the ingredients and felt a chill crawl up her spine.

She didn’t know what those liquids were. She didn’t know what gold-horn beast dung was supposed to do, other than ruin someone’s day. And she definitely didn’t know what would happen if Li Yan Er “ate” it.

The old man caught her hesitation and smiled, amused rather than annoyed. “Not bad. At least you’re cautious. But if I wanted to harm you, I’d only need to rub my fingers together. Don’t overthink it.”

He wasn’t wrong. For a cultivator, killing a tiny mortal like her took less effort than blinking.

Gu Shi Yi forced a bold laugh. “You’re right, Elder. I was being small-minded.”

Satisfied, the old man nodded. “Start the fire.”

Gu Shi Yi obeyed. She lit the stove, poured in the spirit water, dropped the fish-kui beast finger into the pot, and added the contents of the three bowls and the clearheart bamboo leaves.

The steps were simple. The problem was the slow torture of simmering for half an hour—hungry, exhausted, and forced to stand there while the pot did its thing.

When the time was up, she extinguished the flame, wrapped the pot in thick cloth, and carried it into the front hall. She reached for the lid.

“Wait,” the old man said.

He flicked his sleeve. A pale, misty barrier bloomed around the shop.

“The fragrance will leak once it’s opened. I’m setting a restriction so no one outside smells it.”

Fragrance? How fragrant could it possibly—

Gu Shi Yi lifted the lid.

And froze.

Fragrant.

Insanely fragrant.

A fragrance so rich it felt like it could hook your soul by the collar and drag you straight into hunger. It wasn’t floral. It wasn’t fruity.

It was meat aroma—pure, maddening, saliva-flooding meat aroma.

Gu Shi Yi went a little dizzy.

The beasts in the cages stirred at once. Several began pawing and scrambling, restless. The little monkey on the old man’s shoulder started squealing, twisting and lunging toward the pot like it had lost its mind. The old man caught it with one hand and looked at Gu Shi Yi.

“Well? Call out your yin soul.”

“O-oh!” Gu Shi Yi snapped back to herself. She reached into her collar and pulled out the Clay Doll.

The old man took one look and winced like someone had stabbed him in the eyes. “Who sculpted this body? The craftsmanship is so bad I can’t even look at it.”

Gu Shi Yi gave a dry laugh and wisely didn’t argue. “Elder… how does she eat it?”

The old man lifted his eyelids, then flicked his fingernail.

The white steam rising from the pot’s mouth suddenly condensed into a thin white line and shot straight toward the Clay Doll’s face.

Gu Shi Yi hurriedly held the Clay Doll closer. Li Yan Er instinctively opened her mouth. The white line streamed into the doll’s tiny clay lips.

“Slurp…”

With one light inhale, the entire stream vanished in just a few breaths.

Gu Shi Yi reached out and touched the pot. A moment ago it had been steaming hot. Now it was ice-cold.

She lifted the Clay Doll to eye level and stared. Li Yan Er stared back.

“Yan Er,” Gu Shi Yi asked carefully, “how do you feel?”

The Clay Doll let out a satisfied burp. “Shi Yi… I feel so full!”

“You don’t feel anything wrong?” Gu Shi Yi pressed.

Li Yan Er shook her head and patted her belly. “It feels so comfortable.”

She didn’t normally need food, but that long-lost feeling of fullness made her feel unbelievably good.

Only then did Gu Shi Yi finally breathe again. She tucked the Clay Doll away and bowed to the old man.

“Thank you, Elder.”

The old man waved it off. “We each got what we wanted. No need to thank me.”

Gu Shi Yi still smiled and laid it on thick. “Even so, I’m just a mortal. To receive your guidance is a blessing I couldn’t earn in ten lifetimes.”

The old man looked pleased. “Mm. You know how to talk.”

He paused, then added, “Since you’ve impressed me, I’ll say one more thing.”

His gaze flicked toward the Clay Doll. “Your yin soul has been attached to a clay body all this time. She doesn’t want to cultivate the Ghost Path. She wants to seize a body and become human?”

Gu Shi Yi shook her head. “She only wants the corpse-borrowing soul return technique.”

Corpse-borrowing soul return technique wasn’t the same as seizing a body. With corpse-borrowing soul return technique, the original owner of the body had already lost all awareness. Seizing a body relied on the strength of one’s soul to forcibly kill or drive out another person’s consciousness and claim the body.

The difference between the two was enormous.