“A deal?”

Jiang Chen’s brow arched like a drawn bow; he couldn’t read the woman’s currents. “What kind of deal?”

“You demons want the mortal world, right? Give me the Phoenix Bird, and I’ll take you across.” Her words fell clean, like beads on a string.

Nana Toki didn’t waste breath. She swept the violet flames from the bamboo grove like tide-water withdrawing, then glided toward Jiang Chen, arrowing straight to the point.

She’d meant to stride into the demon realm, beat the Demon King like thunder on a drum, and ask where the bird was; looked like she wouldn’t need to.

“You’re of the mortal world; why should this king trust you?” Jiang Chen watched the crescent hook of her smile and felt it snag; this woman’s oddness bent like a crooked shadow.

Demons couldn’t step into the mortal world easily. Between realms, a pressure like grinding millstones crushed everything, making passage for demons brutally hard.

The higher the cultivation, the heavier the grind; enter the mortal world and it only gets worse.

One misstep, and the pressure between worlds wrings you like wet cloth until you die.

That’s why most invaders under the Demon King were at the Golden Core Stage; the truly strong got shredded mid-crossing, and the rare lucky ones arrived half-dead, no real combat strength.

Even the Demon King himself had will but no leverage, like a bow without string.

Conversely, those of the mortal world needed higher cultivation to enter the demon realm; otherwise they’d drown in its chaotic currents like leaves in a whirlpool.

“I get why you don’t trust me.” Nana’s obsidian eyes rested on Jiang Chen, her smile sharpening like a blade polished bright. “I can take you first. Then you give me the Phoenix Bird.”

Saving trouble was sweet as clear spring water.

Nana Toki hated hassle the way cats hate rain.

“...”

“The deal’s fine, but the Phoenix Bird’s not.” The offer tugged at the Demon King’s heart like a hook, but the bird tugged harder.

Its phoenix flame nourished ten thousand fires like sun to dew; in the demon realm, it was a once-in-ten-thousand-years treasure. Trading it away in one stroke made his gut ache like a pulled tooth.

Besides, the demons had hidden the Phoenix Bird like a pearl in mud. How did a mortal woman know?

“I only want the Phoenix Bird.” Nana weighed each word like a stone falling. “Nothing else.”

“You think you can bargain with this king?” Jiang Chen’s brow folded like storm clouds; her hard edge grated like sand under teeth.

Since he’d sat the throne, no one spoke to him like that; her swagger blazed like a banner in the wind, making him wonder who exactly this woman was.

“What now? You want to capture me alive? Force me to work for you?” Nana’s gaze skimmed the forest; she felt the hidden demon soldiers like wolves behind brush.

Realms ranged from Xu Shen to Ning Ti to Dong Xu, a whole ladder of shadowed strength stacked like mountain terraces.

She didn’t care. Her courage burned like a brazier in winter.

“Try me.” Her tone was flat as frost, and under her brow lay a cold killing intent like a winter moon; Jiang Chen felt her presence seep into bone, a chill from the soul’s well.

When did the mortal world birth a woman like this?

He feared her violet flames like a reed-raft fears rapids; war loomed, and any wound to him would ripple through the army like winter wind through grass. He couldn’t risk it.

“Fine. I’ll give it, but you must take me across first!” Jiang Chen bent like a pine in snow; trading one Phoenix Bird for victory stung, but now wasn’t the time for haggling.

“Good.” Nana’s smile warmed like spring sun through bamboo. “If we can avoid needless deaths, you do know how to make a deal.”

Jiang Chen: “...” This woman was wicked as a fox; he didn’t feel like bantering with Nana Toki at all.

“Call your people out. I’ll take you.” Her focus snapped like a fan closing; right then, the System’s transport function would shine like a hidden talisman.

System: “...” I really shouldn’t have revealed free teleport.

Jiang Chen understood. He lifted a hand like a banner, and demon soldiers poured from the forest like shadows turning to flood, wrapping Nana and him in a ring.

“We salute the Demon King!” The shout boomed like drums in a canyon; Nana’s eardrums ached like struck metal.

She rubbed her ear with a wince, looked at Jiang Chen with dead-fish eyes and a heap of disdain. “Do you always deploy this loud? Doesn’t anyone complain about disturbing the peace?”

Jiang Chen: “...”

Demon soldiers: “...”

“Come on—no more fluff.” Nana snapped her fingers; a vast white six-pointed array blossomed under her feet like frost-flower, leaping out to cover the demon soldiers like snow over a field.

Before anyone could blink, the array caught them; those inside felt their vision blur like rain over lantern light.

When the world steadied, the scene had changed like a painted screen turning.

“This… is the human realm?” Jiang Chen walked past the bamboo to a cliff’s edge; his eyes widened like stars. Below, mist curled like silk, mountains stacked like folded fans, streams ran clear as jade; up close it felt like a hermit’s wood, far off like a mortal paradise.

Wonder buzzed in his chest like bees, and Nana’s method pricked his heart like ice.

With one blink, she’d carried him and a hundred soldiers from demon realm to mortal world; what a terrifying strength, like lightning grasped in a bare hand.

He didn’t dare imagine her as his enemy; that road looked like cliffs and knives.

He could only hope she wouldn’t be. He sighed in her direction like wind through pines.

“Ah!!! Who… who are you?!” A sharp cry cut from behind like a knife; Nana knew that voice like an old bell. She turned. Several demon soldiers had ringed a delicate girl like wolves circling a deer.

That was Shuiqin Lin, no question.

Oh crap! This is the Purple Bamboo Grove?!

Nana gaped. The System had dragged the enemy right to her village gate like a cart stuck in the threshold!

Bad rating. Bad rating!

Didn’t the System have any sense of her master’s and junior sister’s level? One misstep and they’d be gone like ash in wind!

Shuiqin Lin was unlucky. She’d finally gone down the mountain to buy staples like a squirrel gathering nuts, and on the way back she’d run into demon soldiers teleported by Nana.

Under their terrifying pressure like storm weight, Lin could barely breathe, chest tight as a drumhead.

Didn’t Master say this place was hidden like a needle in felt and no one could find it?

Where did these big shots with unreadable cultivation come from?! QAQ

Master lied. QAQ

“Spare her!” Seeing blades about to flash like cold rain, Nana threw up a dramatic stop-hand and shouted, voice cracking like a whip.

“Uh… cough, cough… this girl… is my junior sister.” Demon soldiers stared; Nana really didn’t want to say it, but the trembling girl on the ground, QAQ face and all, was Shuiqin Lin.

Only—two hundred years gone, and her junior sister was still just first-stage Nascent Soul.

Nana’s lip twitched like a string plucked; Lin’s snail-pace cultivation almost made her keel over with anger.

No need to guess. She’d probably slacked off like a cat sunbathing for years.

“Senior Sister?!” Surrounded, Lin’s eyes were sharp as sparrows; she spotted Nana past the demon soldiers. “Oh! It’s really Senior Sister! You didn’t die! I missed you so much, Senior Sister!”

Whether her nerves were thick or just fearless, Lin ignored the nearby Xu Shen and Ning Ti ranks like pebbles on the path and scrambled up, rushing to tackle Nana with joy bright as lantern light.

Nana: “...”

Instinct flicked; Nana sidestepped like wind, and Lin didn’t catch her—she crashed straight into Jiang Chen’s chest.

Silence fell like a stone in a well.

Jiang Chen: “...” Where did this woman come from?

Holding the girl who’d just flung herself at him like a flying fox, Jiang Chen’s mouth twitched; shove her away or not? Either way felt like stepping on thin ice.

Around them, veterans at Xu Shen and Ning Ti watched their lord—single for centuries and cold as iron—suddenly holding a girl; the old soldiers almost wept like rain on old tiles.

Good. Their lord’s orientation was straight as an arrow.

No more sleepless nights worrying.

As for Shuiqin Lin…

“Mm… Senior Sister, you’ve changed. You’re using handsome guys to fob me off now.” Lin pulled back, lip-quiver like a river ripple, then stepped to look at Nana like she’d suffered oceans.

Nana: “...” Girl, you hugged the Demon King and you’re still dissatisfied.

Jiang Chen: “...” Seriously, who is this woman?

After a bit of chatter like sparrows in bamboo, Lin led Nana and Jiang Chen’s group deeper into the Purple Bamboo Grove.

When they reached the little house nestled within, Shrine Water sat under a shade pavilion, sipping tea like mist over a lake. He looked up and froze like a statue.

Who the hell were these people with cultivation he couldn’t read, thick as fog?

And—were his eyes playing tricks? He’d just seen his disciple.

“Hi~ Master…” Behind Lin, Nana raised those lifeless dead-fish eyes and greeted her master like tossing a pebble into a pond.

Shrine Water’s gaze rolled like a wheel; he nearly fainted like a candle in wind.

If Lin hadn’t been quick and caught him, he’d have gone down like a falling leaf.

“Luo’er, you—” He steadied with effort, hands trembling on the teacup like leaves in breeze. He looked at Nana, then at Jiang Chen and the others.

After centuries, he still couldn’t see through his disciple’s miraculous antics; they were clouds over a mountain.

“Ah… this.” Nana lifted a finger like a reed, then pointed. “Let me introduce. This is the Demon King of the demon realm. He’s here to occupy the mortal world.”

Shrine Water: “...” Wait—did his disciple just say something wildly absurd?

“Handsome, want tea?” Lin peered at Jiang Chen like a curious bird. He didn’t want to indulge this silly girl; he gave a slight nod, a cool “mm” like frost on steel.

“So handsome guys are all this cold now?” Lin muttered under her breath like a bee.

Jiang Chen: “...”

Were all women in the human realm this good at pulling aggro like moths to a flame?