Chapter 47
Chapter 47: Take It or Leave It
Should she spare it once?
Jiang Li Sheng hesitated, torn. They’d spent enormous effort to trap it and strangle it.
And she’d paid for that effort—the Universe Bangle was cracked, nearly ruined.
She didn’t have many treasures to begin with.
Chen Liu An saw the hesitation on her face and went cold. “Junior Sister Jiang, don’t go soft. A beast is a beast. You can’t trust its words.”
“Mercy toward demons hurts everyone,” he added, voice hard. “Including you.”
Shan Gao seized the opening like a drowning thing grabbing air. “Please, don’t kill me. I’ll let you out of the Grand Array. My master left treasures behind—I can lead you to them!”
“If we kill you, we’ll still get out,” Chen Liu An said flatly.
Shan Gao shook its head frantically, pain and fear twisting its face. “No! If you kill me, you still can’t leave the Bitter Mountain Grand Array. My Heart-Devouring Oath is the method to open it. Only if I swear willingly will the Grand Array release you.”
Jiang Li Sheng froze. “You’re telling the truth?”
“Yes! Yes!” Shan Gao’s voice trembled. “I swear it’s true!”
Jiang Li Sheng turned to Chen Liu An, uncertainty tight in her chest. “Senior Brother Chen… do we trust it? Just for now?”
Chen Liu An’s jaw clenched. “Demons are cunning. Ruthless. They break promises as easily as breathing. You can’t believe this thing completely.”
Jiang Li Sheng nodded, then faced Shan Gao. “Then swear the Heart-Devouring Oath right now.”
Shan Gao panted. “Only if you promise not to kill me.”
“Then you promise to let us out.”
“You promise first, and I’ll promise,” Shan Gao insisted, bargaining even now. “And you give me all your food.”
“No.” Jiang Li Sheng’s answer was immediate and fierce. “Not a chance.”
Shan Gao’s eyes filled with tears. “I’ve been trapped here for tens of thousands of years. Nothing but dead forest. No food. Nothing. Your snacks smell so good…”
Jiang Li Sheng’s face twitched. Truly, this demon was relentless.
Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to stay cold. “I’ll give you one pack. One. And only after you swear the Heart-Devouring Oath, open the Grand Array, and let us out. Otherwise, if we can kill you once, we can kill you twice.”
“Two packs,” Shan Gao said, staring.
Jiang Li Sheng’s brows lifted. “One pack. Take it or leave it. If you refuse, we kill you.”
“If you kill me, you can’t get out,” Shan Gao sobbed, swaying like it was about to collapse. “You stingy little ghost… you won’t even give me two…”
Jiang Li Sheng went silent for a heartbeat. It wasn’t wrong. Her snacks weren’t endless. In this place, they were precious.
Then she hardened again. “One pack. If you don’t want it, we’ll kill you first and figure out the rest.”
“You really can’t get out if you kill me,” Shan Gao cried. “My life is tied to the Bitter Mountain Grand Array. Otherwise why would I have been trapped here for tens of thousands of years? My master ascended. He hated that I loved to curse, so he didn’t take me with him. He left me here to guard the mountain—and he left treasures behind, saying they were for the fated.”
Its voice shook with bitterness. “I waited tens of thousands of years, and I finally met you.”
“Us two,” Jiang Li Sheng corrected sharply.
Shan Gao sniffled and jabbed a paw toward Chen Liu An with obvious disdain. “He didn’t have any good food. When he fell in, I looked at him and lost interest. That’s why I ignored him.”
Chen Liu An’s mouth twisted. “Wow. Thanks. I don’t need you ‘interested’ in me.”
After being chased, cursed, and hunted, he’d rather Shan Gao never looked his way again.
Jiang Li Sheng glanced at Chen Liu An, then back at Shan Gao. “Senior Brother Chen… it cries more than I do. Should we trust it? Just this once?”
Chen Liu An’s eyes narrowed. “One pack. If it won’t take it, we kill it and deal with the rest later.”
Jiang Li Sheng nodded, then snapped at Shan Gao, “Did you hear him? One pack. Take it or leave it.”
Shan Gao collapsed into louder sobbing. “You two heartless things… I guarded this place for tens of thousands of years, and I ended up with you two dog things… wuwuwu…”
Jiang Li Sheng’s lips pressed tight.
Chen Liu An’s voice cut like steel. “Curse us one more time and you’re dead.”
Shan Gao immediately choked off the cursing.
Chen Liu An pointed his sword at it. “Swear the Heart-Devouring Oath. Now.”
“Let me go first,” Shan Gao wheezed.
Jiang Li Sheng didn’t hesitate. “Fine. We’ll release you. Senior Brother Chen—release it.”
She stepped back three paces, then swallowed more spirit-replenishing pills to prepare for whatever came next.
Chen Liu An gritted his teeth and withdrew his weapon ring, retreating with Jiang Li Sheng.
The moment the pressure eased, Shan Gao swayed and collapsed to the ground. Air whistled through the bloody hole under its jaw as it panted. “You’re… surprisingly trustworthy.”
Chen Liu An snorted. “And you?”
“Of course I am.” Shan Gao sniffed as if offended. “Humans are often cunning, but I’ll reluctantly trust you.”
Chen Liu An rolled his eyes.
Shan Gao touched the wound at its neck with a massive paw and stared at Jiang Li Sheng. “What kind of weird thing did you use? It actually stopped my wound from healing.”
“Not telling you,” Jiang Li Sheng said bluntly.
“Bad thing,” Shan Gao muttered.
Jiang Li Sheng pointed at the empty air beyond them. “Stop stalling. Let us out.”
Shan Gao’s face crumpled. “Why are you in such a rush? Can’t you stay and play with me for a few days?”
For one dangerous heartbeat, Jiang Li Sheng almost wanted to say yes. Outside this place was unknown danger. Here, at least, they’d found its weakness. They’d proven they could kill it.
But she knew Chen Liu An wouldn’t agree. He’d come to train, not to linger.
She snapped, “Do we look idle? No.”
Shan Gao sniffled again and whined, “Then give me food. If I can’t taste it, I feel awful and can’t think up the Heart-Devouring Oath.”
Jiang Li Sheng’s jaw tightened. Then she pulled out a pack and tossed it.
“Here.”
Shan Gao caught it instantly and began crunching like it was the finest treasure in the world, the hole under its jaw apparently doing nothing to stop it.
After a few greedy bites, it lifted its paw, suddenly bargaining again. “If you obtain the inheritance of the Grand Array cultivation method my master left behind, leave a message for future entrants. Tell them to feed me. If they don’t feed me, I won’t swear the Heart-Devouring Oath for them.”
Jiang Li Sheng frowned. “You said you waited tens of thousands of years before meeting us. What’s that about?”
“Don’t know,” Shan Gao said with a shrug. “Master said the inheritance goes to the fated.”
It looked at them with disgust. “I waited all that time and only got you two little brats.”
Jiang Li Sheng glared. “We were headed to Da Gui Mountain. Who knows how we fell in here? You think we wanted to come?”
Shan Gao fell silent.
Jiang Li Sheng pressed on, voice sharp. “Not everyone loves mortal world snacks like I do. Most cultivators don’t eat ordinary grain. And now that the Grand Array is opening, are you still going to stay trapped here?”
Shan Gao grunted, unwilling.
“Stop stalling,” Chen Liu An warned. “No tricks. No more conditions.”
Shan Gao muttered something under its breath.
Chen Liu An’s eyes narrowed. “Did you just curse us again? You dog—”
He didn’t finish.
The dead forest vanished.
It was like a curtain ripping away. The sky shifted. The air changed. Where skeletal trunks had stood, living trees rose—lush and vigorous, their round leaves layered thick, their yellow flowers bright. Fruit hung from their branches like Lan fruit—oval, wrapped in husks that had three ridges… some with six.
The ground was no longer ash and rot. Green spread in every direction, a low grass carpeting the mountain, its round leaves dense, stemless, flowering red across the slope.
One tree. One herb.
Yellow and red woven across the whole mountain, revealing Bitter Mountain’s true face at last.
Jiang Li Sheng stared, breath caught. So this was Bitter Mountain. It really was Bitter Mountain.
She remembered what she’d read in Records of Mountains and Seas. This tree was called yellow-thorn tree. Eat its fruit, and you would never bear children.
And that flowering herb—no-goiter herb. Eat it, and your neck would never grow a goiter.
Back when she lived at Qing Xu Sect, she sometimes went down to the mortal world for snacks. She’d seen plenty of commoners with swollen goiters on their necks—uncurable, even when cut away, always returning.
If they ate this, it would end it forever.