Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
Li Ang asked softly, “What’s the background of that tiger?”
Chai Cuiqiao, who was hidden in his body, answered, “He’s the human-eating tiger of Jingyang Ridge. Later on, he fell down a cliff. Thankfully, he fell into a cave abode of an Itinerant Cultivator of the Tang Dynasty and obtained an inheritance. Thus, he no longer eats humans and he changed his name to Tai Gezi.”
What? Brother, did you go down the wrong path…
“What about that cyclops?”
“He’s mixed. His mother is a descendant of the ancient Fangfeng Clan, while his father is a gentle, frail-looking scholar.”
Li Ang, who was stunned, roughly outlined a cyclops’ build. “How can he be mixed?”
“It’s not what you think… When his father was young, he entered the capital to take an imperial examination and hid in the cave to avoid the heavy rain.”
Chai Cuiqiao went silent before awkwardly adding, “In the end, his father was very skilled. During his free time while avoiding the rain, he took out a drawing book. After the rain stopped, he walked out of the cave and continued rushing to his imperial examination.”
Li Ang raised one eyebrow. “You mean…”
“That’s right,” Chai Cuiqiao said in embarrassment, “You’d better not talk about this with that cyclops. He used a wooden club to smash a pile of demons to death during the previous banquet.”
Alright then. The great wide world was full of bizarre things. Such an odd birthing method was similar to the story of Huaxu getting pregnant with Fuxi.
The corners of Li Ang’s eyes twitched non-stop as he continued to ask about the background, nature, and strength of the other demons and monsters. Chai Cuiqiao particularly loved reading novels and was very capable of collecting information to imagine and reach inferences. Previously, she had peeked and eavesdropped about the banquet two to three times and managed to deduce a lot of information on demons and monsters through inference.
Just like Chai Cuiqiao had said, the demons and monsters who came to attend the banquet did not question the identities of Li Ang and the others. However, they curiously looked at them for a while before turning their heads back to talk with the other demons and monsters.
After all, their ability to face so many demons without getting overwhelmed by the soaring demon aura had proven that the people on the quest team were unusual people that belonged to the same race.
“We’re all here. Why is the mandrill not here yet?” the plague demon, who was full of toxic sores, yelled hoarsely.
“Why are you so anxious?” The tiger Daoist waved his fly-whisk and said with a smile, “Wasn’t he always the last one to arrive in the past? He probably has to wait until the sun sets before he arrives.”
“In that case, let’s tidy up the Hall of Great Strength.” The thin, old, crafty-looking mouse spirit chuckled and waved his robe before countless grayish-brown plump rats dropped from the empty loose cuff like a waterfall.
When the rat spirit waved its chicken-claw hands, the disgruntled group of rats by his feet rushed into the Hall of Great Strength as though they had received an order.
The countless plump rats squeezed into the area under the Gautama Buddha statue and worked as one to lift the Buddha statue. A pile of wooden boards appeared out of nowhere, stacked on each other in a slanted manner underneath the Buddha statue’s base stand. They then carried the Buddha statue and slipped out of the Hall of Great Strength before they put the Buddha statue in the empty courtyard.
The group of rats followed a certain pattern and shifted all the Buddha statues in the Hall of Great Strength as efficiently as possible. They even brought dustpans and brooms to clean up the accumulated dust. In just a few minutes, they managed to clean up the Hall of Great Strength without leaving a speck of dust. It was as bright and clean as though it was new.
This was much more efficient compared to modern housekeeping companies.
The group of demons walked slowly up the flight of steps into the Hall of Great Strength, took a praying mat, and jumped up from both sides of the mat. They sat on the praying mat upright, all of them looking like really elegant scholars attending the banquet in the human world.
Xing Hechou and the others looked at each other and found a remote place to sit down as they watched the group of rats, which was particularly proficient in moving candles out of the temple’s warehouse, lighting the pillar candle, and illuminating the Hall of Great Strength as if it was daytime.
After the group of rats moved trunks of bone china and wine cups and washed them in the mountain stream behind the temple, they placed the wine cups in front of each praying mat.
The banquet was about to start. All the demons started to make a clamor, throwing the dice to gamble or tossing darts into a slender bottle to play a game of pitch-pot.
There was no other way. Human entertainment activities in this era were nothing to write home about, and they couldn’t come up with new ways to play games. At the banquet, some people were urged to drink alcohol while some drank alcohol, did business, recited poetry, and looked at beautiful dancing ladies.
The demon banquet only involved three entertainment methods: drinking, betting, and playing games. Even the segment of beautiful dancing ladies had been omitted. After all, everyone belonged to different species and had different aesthetics.
An exceptional beauty in the eyes of the rat demons was only a crafty-looking rat in the eyes of other demons.
A peerless beauty in the eyes of the bone spirits was just a skeleton in the other demons’ eyes. At most, their bones were more snow-white in color.
The lack of entertainment meant that these fierce, clamorous demons seemed just like a group of bumpkins who had never seen the world to the quest team.
“It’s really time to let this group of demons and monsters go to a modern nightclub and let them know what ‘entertainment’ and ‘hip’ means.”
Hanging Sword for Ten Thousand Miles silently cursed but heard Li Ang say softly, “Do you guys want to earn a sum of extraordinary items?”
“What?” Xing Hechou froze and hurriedly answered softly, “Little Li, the critical moment is almost here. Don’t cause other issues to arise.”
Based on the confidential information inside the Special Affairs Bureau, all kinds of organs of demons and monsters had extraordinary qualities like the Heaven Earth Treasures grown in the wild. They could be sacrificed in the hands of alchemists in the Chinese Abnormality Institute (another extraordinary official institution) and be refined into different grades of Dharma treasures.
Even if they weren’t refined into Dharma treasures, the organs of all kinds of demons and monsters could be sold to the system’s mall in exchange for some Game Credits.
“Don’t worry, I’m confident.” Li Ang chuckled. He got up from the praying mat and stood upright before clapping his hands with all his strength.
Clap, clap, clap.
The clamor gradually quietened down and all the demons’ gazes gathered on Li Ang.
Li Ang’s expression remained the same as he smiled calmly and said casually, “Good evening, fellow seniors and guests. We are the disciples of Daoist Priest Dan Teng from the overseas Ahitubai Islands. It’s our first time on this precious land, and we are not familiar with the people or place. Please forgive us if we say anything wrong.”
Hey, hey, hey! What are you doing? When Xing Hechou saw the demons on both sides turn their heads, he felt anxious and furious. In a corner that could not be seen by others, he reached out to lightly tug at Li Ang’s pant leg with a calm expression.
“We came to the Central Plain this time to learn through experience and also barter over some local specialty items.”
Local specialty items? Some demons looked disdainful. Just like humans had confidence in the richness of the Central Plains’ products and the wealth of the people, the demons in the Central Plains also had a despicable attitude toward the land of the Four Barbarians.
What kind of good stuff could such a desolate place have to barter over?
The group of demons remained quiet. Li Ang, who was unconcerned, took a bulging snakeskin pouch out of his backpack.
He then took out of his snakeskin pouch an antique-style wooden box and opened it to reveal a green ball.
The ball was round and rough, as though it had been glued together using some kind of grass and wood debris. An inexplicable smell spread around.
Taobao’s super-concentrated catnip balls cost 80 yuan and were rich in nepetalactone pheromones, which could drive any species of the cat family crazy. No matter how cold and haughty a cat was or how ready it was to die to preserve its chastity, once it smelled this, it would obediently undress and let anyone torture it.