"Meet Lady Caizhi, the captain of Guild Squad 121, my Dao Instructor."

Qing Ya gave a cursory bow at the flamboyantly dressed woman and sent a pointed glance toward Han Xuhan.

It was perhaps a cue for him to follow her actions and bow, but Han Xuhan was so overtaken by the shock that his Earthly instincts once more began to act up. Instead of bowing, he performed a sloppy boy-scout salute to show his respect.

"Lady Caizhi wishes to be the one to speak to you about the matter between me and Mu Ran," Qing Ya said through tightened lips.

"I'll be waiting outside."

As she took her leave quickly, Han Xuhan felt like a mouse trapped with a cat. No matter how hard he tried to concentrate on Lady Caizhi's face, his eyes couldn't help but flicker toward the writhing mass of olive-skinned appendages below her dress.

For half a minute, the chamber remained silent. Lady Caizhi observed him from head to toe at an excruciatingly slow speed while his pupils jerked right, down, left, down, up, down...

"I hail from a mixed race of underwater creatures, a well-established faction in the Superbeast Society. This isn't my natural form. It simply makes it easier for me I communicate with humans."

Her gravelly voice brought him out of the stupor. For the first time, he managed to focus properly on her face, which was quite ordinary by human standards. He couldn't see any signs of something extra in her features. As long as he didn't look down, it was easy to treat her as a human.

"Thank you for answering my unasked question. I am Han Xuhan, a disciple of the Crimson Snow Sect under the tutelage of Elder Kong Ye. Pleased and awestruck to meet you!"

He added an honest, shy smile at the end of the introduction. Her subtle nod at that made him feel at ease, finally.

"Elder Kong Ye? I'm not sure I'm acquainted with him. Anyway, I shall not waste your time. Your martial brother Mu Ran...what is your impression of him, youngling?"

Han Xuhan's brows creased. "How did you know he's my martial brother, lady Caizhi?"

The woman flashed him a rather inhuman smile.

"I'm a cultivator, youngling. My eyes and ears pick up lots of things that ordinary humans cannot."

That explained fucking nothing...But Han Xuhan knew better than to make a fuss over it.

"My impression of my martial brother is very simple. I think of him as a strong-willed, unpredictable, driven, confident, resourceful leader. He's the best friend a talentless cultivator like me could ask for!"

Due to his long experience in slathering his boss with praises, Han Xuhan's answer came as naturally as any truthful reply.

Lady Caizhi didn't look quite convinced, for some reason. Eyes narrowing, she said, "A normal friend's answer to a question like that would usually contain traits like honesty, loyalty, kindness, and virtue. You call him unpredictable, but not clever. You call him strong-willed, confident, and driven, but not charismatic or thoughtful. Confident, resourceful, all of these compliments sound rather backhanded to me, youngling. Is it intentional?"

Seeing her eyes gleaming sharply, Han Xuhan swallowed audibly.

"You're reading too much into it, Lady Caizhi. I didn't mean to insult him through my compliments. Those are just my martial brother's most notable qualities."

Lady Caizhi snorted.

"Do you know why that doesn't convince me, Han Xuhan?"

He shook his head, increasingly feeling that something was odd here.

"Because your martial brother is an absolute scourge, a being made for destruction, suffering, and hungry rampage upon this world. Not killing him was the biggest mistake our master ever made. So it makes sense that as someone close to him, you'd compliment him in a backhanded way."

"...."

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Han Xuhan's expression was indescribable. He took a long time to process her words, his face shifting every moment.

This was stupefying. He had been jarred to his very core. What the hell was this woman talking about?

In the end, he could only say, "Goodness! That's so far off my impression of him that I'm not sure we're talking about the same person here."

"Then let me show you," Lady Caizhi replied fiercely. Before he could react, one of the tentacles below her dress sprang at his neck and coiled around it in the span of a decisecond.

Han Xuhan's scream was killed in his throat. The head of the tentacle reached around and faced him closely like a sentient creature. With a terrified shiver going down his spine, Han Xuhan realized that the top of its head was opening up, revealing a star-shaped, toothless mouth.

"Mphmph!"

That yelp marked the end of his struggles, because the mouth of the tentacle clamped over his head, reaching as far as his eyes in one bite.

The bite didn't hurt, but it made him inexplicably dizzy.

A vibration shook his consciousness as if his thoughts, senses, and perception of reality were being infiltrated, polluted by a foreign insertion.

Suddenly, the damp darkness his eyes were being forced to adapt to disappeared, replaced by a bright light. His senses began to perceive an array of inputs that vastly differed from his current situation. He couldn't feel the tentacle wrapped around his throat, trying to swallow his head. What he could feel was warm sunshine on his face, a ticklish sensation under his feet, and the dull torrent of thoughts flooding his mind uncontrollably.

He was familiar with this feeling!

This felt just like that memory transfer technique that Kong Ye had taught him. He could only use it inside his dao tower, on his minions with whom he shared a deep mental connection. But this Lady Caizhi was doing it in the real world!

His eyes gained focus. He was standing in the middle of a field, watching several children playing around cheerfully. Each time his eyes focused on a child, a wave of data appeared in his mind.

Ning Xueshi. Six years old. Daughter of widow Ning. Not much talent for cultivation. Loves to play with dolls and recite small poems.

Bai Ling. Eight years old. Daughter of the village carpenter. Already learning her father's craft. Despite her poor aptitude for cultivation, she is extremely intelligent and perceptive to supernatural activities around her. Probably the result of a recessive bloodline factor due to her ancestry.

Qing Ya. Seven years old. Daughter of the rich merchant next door. Extremely talented, with a special physique that enhances her potential further. But to make full use of it, she needs a person who has a physique that compliments hers. The ancient records label this as the Twin Devil Physique.

Mu Ran. Seven years old. The second son of the Mu household. The Mother died at birth, the father was killed mysteriously soon after. The boy often displays bizarre behavior whenever things don't go his way. But the most important thing about him is his talent. Simply a peerless aptitude for cultivation, be it his ancestry, his physique, his soul stability, his perception, his character, or his intelligence when it comes to dealing with the world beyond mortals.

For several years now, 'she' had been slowly experimenting on them, testing them in the hope of finding her next disciple. Between Mu Ran and Qing Ya, she couldn't choose, often thinking to herself that she'd take in both of them eventually.

"Ya! I found something! Look!"

Mu Ran's juvenile voice attracted many of the children. However, he hid it from everyone and rushed towards Qing Ya, fists clutching whatever he had discovered in the grass.

Qing Ya curiously approached him. "It better not be another dead grasshopper!" her voice shook as she recalled an unpleasant memory.

"No! Look, it's a weird...fat leaf. I found two and ate one because it looked so juicy like the starfruit leaves. It's even more yummy than the starfruit leaves. Try it!"

The little boy looked on with great enthusiasm as Qing Ya put the leaf in her mouth and began to chew slowly.

Han Xuhan, or whoever it was whose memory he was experiencing, was about to look away, but suddenly, a small, weak stream of information appeared in her consciousness.

This information set felt different from its predecessors. It was harder to process, nearly incomprehensible, but the words that uncontrollably spilled out of her mouth in reaction to the information helped Xuhan.

"That's a leaf of an Ageing tree. How did he find it in the middle of this field? That accursed thing would've sucked out the vitality of everything around it for miles!"

Half a second later, her consciousness poured over the field, scouring every inch of its soil. The stream of data appearing in Xuhan's mind informed him that her search hadn't borne any fruit.

Instantly, she was standing behind the two children, a hand grabbing the remaining part of the leaf for a second look before she could confirm her suspicion.

"Little Ran, did you really find it over there?" she asked in a sweet, motherly voice.

Mu Ran looked up at her with a pair of bright, innocent eyes, appearing confused.

"Yup!"

"And you ate the other one?"

"...Yeah!"

She caught the slight hesitation. He's lying. Why?!

The more she observed him, the more she realized that his body didn't show any of the side effects of eating a leaf from the Ageing Tree. In the meantime, Qing Ya was already starting to look dizzy on her feet.

"I'm feeling so hungry. I'll go ask Mother for something, Ran! Bye!"

Her departure was quick, and even Han Xuhan could see the lack of vigor in her footsteps as she trotted away, heading home.

Mu Ran waved at her, seemingly not aware of the intense gaze observing his every move.

What's this supposed to be?

Han Xuhan was confused. He couldn't see the point in this memory.

But the scene changed once more. The bright sunlight was gone, replaced by the weak radiance of two half-moons.

'She' was standing on top of a thatched roof, her eyes tracking a three-storied building not too far away.

A lone silhouette was climbing up on the third floor of the building. The data stream in Xuhan's mind informed him that this was Mu Ran, and the house belonged to the rich merchant next door.

Mu Ran reached a small balcony on the third floor and knocked on the door to the room adjacent to it.

Suddenly, Han Xuhan felt the stream of data in his mind increase in terms of volume. There were way more sets of data suddenly in the stream.

Immediately, his ears began to pick up sounds from that building, as well as every other house nearby.

So this data stream really was just the input signal by 'her' perception! She must have used some technique to enhance her auditory senses. Since she could now hear more, the input signal was naturally bigger.

'She' directed her focus on Mu Ran's silhouette, blocking out the rest of the sounds from her mind.

"Brother Ran? What are you doing here?" came a whisper from inside the room on the third floor.

"Ya, I heard you were sick. So I brought you this secret medicine from my father's collection. Take a spoonful before each meal, and you'll be totally fine in a couple of days!"

Mu Ran didn't give her an opportunity to protest and left, leaping out of the balcony. His climb down didn't look hesitant or careful. Clearly, he had done this before.

Before the door to the balcony could open, 'she' appeared there and held up a hand to block the door. Then she cautiously examined the bottle left by Mu Ran.

Qing Ya attempted in vain to open the door on the other side.

A new stream of data appeared in Han Xuhan's mind as she finished her examination.

A mixture. The contents were; a paste of Ageing Tree leaves, digestion enhancement solutions, essence of several rare body-nourishing fruits, a weak toxin, and some miscellaneous elements that she couldn't identify.

A mixture like this, coupled with her previous observation, opened her eyes to the only plausible conclusion.

"Mu Ran is trying to awaken her Twin Devil Physique in advance!"