Chương 23: The Demon Crabapple

"Demon!" Zhang Ruilin was terrified. His face should have shown fear. But the woman in the mirror showed no human emotion at all, not even warmth. So cold. It felt like countless ice snakes were writhing inside him, their chill spreading through his limbs, seeping into every inch of his body. He wanted to shiver, but his hands and body wouldn't move. He could no longer control Chen Yalan's body.

"How are you here?"

"You shouldn't be here."

"You were supposed to go into my body, the one in the coffin. I prepared it for you. A perfect, flawless vessel. That was meant for you..." By the end, Zhang Ruilin's voice was trembling. His soul was shaking.

"Why should I listen to you?" The woman in the mirror curled her lips into a wicked smile.

"This was our agreement. If I helped you, you would help me. I already helped you descend into the mortal realm. Now it's your turn to help me..." Zhang Ruilin's voice carried a plea, just like when he had begged the Hall of Eternal Life's elders not to exile him to White Flower City.

"Yes, you helped me. But I'm sorry. I don't want to help you. Hahaha..." Her laughter grew more malicious. Zhang Ruilin felt a chill run down his spine. His soul's temperature dropped lower and lower, as if he were being gnawed by icy winds in a glacier.

"Why? Why would you do this? Why did you lie to me!" Zhang Ruilin wanted to roar, but he didn't dare. The demon before him was more powerful than any cultivator he had ever seen. He didn't even have the strength to struggle.

"Because... I felt like it." She smiled.

"Yes, I lied to you. That's only natural, isn't it? Hahaha. I'm a demon, not a kind-hearted immortal. Demons are supposed to lie. What demon keeps their word? Hahaha."

"Demon Lord, please, spare me and Yalan. That's all I ask..." Zhang Ruilin could only beg. He hoped this great demon was just toying with him and would eventually go into the coffin.

"Hmm..." She frowned, seeming to consider his request.

"Fine. I'll let you go." She said.

"But I'm hungry. I need to eat first." She began chewing on nothing. Her mouth was empty. What was she eating? Air? Zhang Ruilin was puzzled, but he didn't care. He would be free soon. He would take Yalan and travel across mountains and rivers, see all the beauty the world had to offer. That would be enough. As for those old dogs at the Hall of Eternal Life, with this demon around, they were as good as dead anyway. While Zhang Ruilin was thinking, she kept chewing.

The sound grew louder and louder, like a hyena crunching through bones. She seemed to be tasting something delicious, a bloody lamb bone, sweet and fresh from the pot, still steaming hot. So hot. He saw the dead iceberg come alive, turning into a volcano as hot as his own body. The volcano spewed lava, burning with the same feverish heat. Farewell, my love, the lava said to the volcano. Our passion ends here. Freedom cannot be bound by love. The world is so big.

I want to go out and see it, to embrace the beauty of nature. No! The whole mountain blazed. It twisted and warped into the face of a weeping woman, unwilling to let the lava go. She cried: My beloved lava, my love, if you leave me, you'll die! Don't go! I'm sorry, my beloved mountain. Volcanic eruptions are a choice of nature. Blame it on the shifting of tectonic plates and the compression of continents. So cold. His soul felt like a thousand needles piercing it. There was no help for it. He had left her.

Without the transfer of heat, the temperature drop was only natural. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. But soon, inexplicably, the heat returned, an unbearable scorching that felt like it would burn and melt him. Where was this? So dark. This was definitely not the beautiful nature he longed for! He looked up and saw a crack in the sky, like a hole in the heavens, flickering between light and dark, also like a bag, and he was at the bottom of it.

He tried to reach out, to climb up the inner wall to the opening, but his arms had already melted away. He saw a storm pouring in from the opening, acid rain. The bag's inner walls also seeped acidic fluid, foul and reeking. He was drowning in it. His feet, his legs, his whole body were engulfed in acid. The pain was excruciating.

"Help... help..." He cried out, but his mouth was full of acid. He couldn't drink it. He spat it out desperately, coughing. Something caught in his throat. He spat it out and saw it was a tea leaf. So bitter. He hadn't tasted it carefully, but he knew it was bitter. It was Hehuai Mountain white tea, the tea he had drunk his whole life. The taste would stay with him into his next life. No, for all eternity. Now he understood where he was. Oh. He was in his own stomach. More precisely, in "Chen Yalan's" stomach. Oh.

He had been eaten. The wretched demon had lied to him again.

"I'll haunt you even as a ghost!" Zhang Ruilin screamed these words at the last moment before his soul was extinguished.

"Haha." She let out a mocking laugh.

"My name is Crabapple. Crabapple, as in the crabapple blossom. If you're going to come back as a ghost, don't haunt the wrong person." She said this to Zhang Ruilin. Then she laughed twice more. His soul was already eaten. How could he come back as a ghost?

"Ugh~!" Crabapple let out a satisfied burp. What a delicious soul, filled with love, hatred, and regret. It filled her stomach. There was nothing better than being full. She sat down at the vanity and began applying rouge to her lips. Every female creature cares about her appearance, and she was no different. She painted both lips red, looking like a freshly made red sausage. So beautiful, she loved it.

She kept applying, covering her entire face in red rouge, looking like a mother monkey's backside after giving birth, holding two fresh red sausages.

"Am I beautiful?" She asked her reflection.

"You're hideous." A man's voice came from behind her. It was abrupt. Crabapple's heart tightened. She moved quickly, spinning around and striking out with her palm. The man dodged easily and countered with a slap of his own. The force sent her stumbling back several steps. Crabapple steadied herself and took a good look at the man. He was the young cultivator who had been standing at the door earlier. In Zhang Ruilin's memories, he seemed to be called Zhu Youchang. No, Fang Cheng? No, neither of those was right.

"Who are you?" she demanded. Fang Cheng shrugged.

"Who I am doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm a good person, and you're a demon. Slurp..." His saliva was already dripping. He quickly wiped it away and explained, "Sorry, the hotpot I had tonight was too light. I'm still hungry." Now Fang Cheng understood why the demon sword had been quiet all this time. It was lying in wait, letting the prey come to it. Crabapple's face darkened. She scanned him with her divine sense. Ordinary.

His Divine Energy was pitifully weak, nothing but a pathetic low-level cultivator. But how was that possible?

"If you're hungry, I'll give you every living thing in White Flower City. Eat your fill. That counts as a good deed, doesn't it? I can be a good person too. Hahaha." She laughed lightly, but her face grew darker. She realized she couldn't see through this man.

"Damn demon! What makes you think you can steal my good deeds? I didn't permit you! You want to be a good person? What right do you have!" Fang Cheng snarled. Only he could do good deeds. No one else was allowed. Absolutely not!

"Ungrateful wretch!" Crabapple snorted. The man looked suspicious, but she didn't believe she'd run into any real trouble so soon after arriving in the mortal realm. He was probably bluffing. Wait, on second thought, better to be safe. She still had important things to do. Crabapple's mind waged a fierce battle. Meanwhile, Fang Cheng had already prepared his knife and fork, ready to feast. But looking at her heavily rouged face, he couldn't help but complain: "That makeup is disgusting.

You've put me off my appetite. Could you turn around and face me with your ass instead?"

"Damned bastard! I won't stand for this! I'll kill you!" A terrifying force erupted from her body and spread outward to the heavens. Over White Flower City, the sky churned with wind and thunder. A massive phantom of a crabapple blossom descended, slow at first, then faster, crashing down on Fang Cheng's head with overwhelming force! The might of heaven and earth! A Heavenly Demon! The very world gathered with unyielding fury, pressing down to punish this arrogant cultivator, to grind him into dust!

"You brought this on yourself. I was saving this for the hidden immortals and demons later, but since you forced my hand, I'll use it early." Crabapple's face was pale as paper, her aura wilting, but it was worth it. And yet. Fang Cheng only needed one sword stroke. Plain, simple, unremarkable, one stroke. He pulled it from between his legs. The posture was awkward, but the demon sword liked it that way.

This one sword stroke cut through the phantom of crabapple pear blossoms, cut through the raging wind and dark clouds, cut through heaven and earth, and cut through the entire firmament. Then another stroke at Crabapple's neck. The blade severed it and began to feast, like a newborn lamb tasting its mother's milk for the first time, greedy and ravenous, as if it hadn't eaten in years.

"Mother, what is this? It's so good."

"Child, it's my milk. Proteins and nutrients from mammary cells. In short, it's my love for you."

"Haha, so this is love? It's so delicious, so delicious I can't control myself. I want to drink all the love there is. I'll suck you dry, Mother. Hahaha." The lamb drank greedily, its face intoxicated, floating as if it were about to ascend. Soon, nourished by the milk, teeth grew. The teeth helped it feast on its mother's body, roughly at first, tearing and ripping everything in sight, like gnawing on leaves and branches. Stuffing it all into its mouth. Once in the mouth, it became elegant.

Chewing slowly, carefully, swallowing, then regurgitating, chewing again, over and over, bite after bite, until the last leaf was gone. My food, how could it be gone? I'm still hungry. I want more. More love. More mothers... Hahaha. Where are you, Mother? Don't hide from me. I love you so much. Hahahaha...