The real estate agent, a rotund man named Prosperity Chu, seemed almost desperately eager to show me the property, despite the early hour. He practically bounced with excessively fake excitement as he led me down the overgrown path toward Banshee Valley, his crystal lantern casting dancing shadows through the mist.

"Such a wonderful opportunity!" he exclaimed, mopping his brow with a silk handkerchief. "Perfect for a young entrepreneur such as yourself! The soil is exceptionally fertile - why, the previous owners grew the most remarkable produce before they, ah..." he coughed delicately, "...met their unfortunate end."

"Unfortunate end?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, nothing too concerning!" Prosperity Chu waved his hands dismissively. "Just a small matter of the peasant militia discovering their desiccated corpses arranged in a perfect spiral pattern in the main field. But I'm sure that was just a coincidence! Probably bandits. Very geometry-obsessed bandits."

He paused to catch his breath as we crested a small hill. Below us stretched a mist-shrouded valley, bordered by steep cliffs on three sides. A very dilapidated farmhouse stood near the center, its windows dark and empty. Several outbuildings in various states of decay dotted the property, and the remains of old crop rows could still be seen through the overgrown weeds.

"As you can see, the previous owners left everything intact!" Prosperity Chu gestured expansively. "Tools, furniture, even their prized collection of protective talismans - though those seem to have spontaneously combusted for some reason. But the infrastructure is all here!" the man bobbed enthusiastically. "Twenty acres of prime farmland, natural spring water from the waterfalls, and those cliff walls provide excellent protection from the elements and wildlife. The spiritual energy convergence is quite remarkable too from what I was told!"

He glanced nervously at the gloomy sky. "Of course, there are some... minor maintenance issues. The occasional unexplained cold spots, mysterious whispers in the walls, that sort of thing. But nothing a hardy young farmer couldn't handle! And at this price..." He named a figure that was suspiciously low for the amount of land involved.

"What's the catch?" I asked bluntly, adjusting my heavy sack of ex-Young Mistress as we approached the farmhouse. "Besides the mysterious deaths and probable haunting?"

"The screaming," the man sighed. "It usually starts an hour after nightfall - terrible wailing from the cliffs. Drives most people up the wall. The last three potential buyers barely made it through a single night before abandoning the property." He wrung his hands nervously. "But I'm sure a former cultivator such as yourself wouldn't be bothered by such minor inconveniences!"

"Does anyone else want this property?"

"Heavens no!" Prosperity Chu exclaimed. "The village council's been trying to sell it for years. They'll practically give it away at this point - they just want someone, anyone, to take responsibility for the land."

"Any guesses as to what the screaming might be?" I asked.

"A night banshee has a nest up in the cliffs as per the valley’s name," the man shrugged. "A bit of a hassle to climb up there and slay the annoying beast. Didn't bother the previous owners much. They were quite deaf. Some Immortal clapped a bit too hard near them."

"I'll take it," I said immediately.

Prosperity Chu blinked in surprise. "You... you will? Without even seeing the inside of..."

"It's fine," I shrugged. "I'm buying the land, not the dilapidated-ass buildings that I'll have to tear down.”

The man nodded excitedly.

"It's perfect actually," I continued, eyeing the steep cliffs and pretty waterfalls thoughtfully. "Remote location, natural spiritual energy convergence, and built-in security system via the screaming."

Prosperity Chu looked like he might cry from joy. "Wonderful! Simply wonderful! I have the deed right here..." He practically threw a stack of papers at me on a wooden board, along with a writing brush. "Just sign where indicated and it's all yours!"

I quickly reviewed the documents, thank heavens for Wei's memory of administrative procedures, and signed where indicated. The price was indeed absurdly low - barely a quarter of my sect severance payment.

"Excellent!" Prosperity Chu gathered up the signed papers and my spirit stones with trembling hands. "I'll file these first thing in the morning. The property is officially yours!" He shook my hand with a sweaty palm and backed away quickly, almost tripping over his robes in his haste to flee the cursed land.

. . .

I watched Prosperity Chu practically sprint back up the path before turning to examine my new property more carefully. The farmhouse was clearly a lost cause - the walls were covered in moss, the roof had collapsed and there was a tree growing from what might have been the kitchen once.

Only the half-buried small stone storage shed near the cliff wall looked promising - its walls were thick stone and the heavy iron-bound door still swung smoothly on its hinges after a small application of oil.

Inside, the shed was cluttered with dusty jars of preserved... something that I decided not to look too closely at, rusty tools and random junk. After shoveling most of the debris outside, I unrolled my bedroll in a relatively clean corner. I hung a few Qi-powered crystal lanterns across the ceiling, installed a large beam across the door to secure my new residence and then pulled out a small packet of dream-hex grass - a mild hallucinogenic herb commonly used by cultivators for deep-sleep-style meditation.

I measured out exactly 22 grams of dream-hex grass, thank you Wei's memory for herb measuring skills, rolled it into a crude smoking bundle, and lit it with a spark of Qi between my fingers. The sharp, sweet smoke filled the shed as I settled onto my bedroll, my lovely ex-Young Mistress sack propped carefully in the corner.

The dream-hex took hold quickly, wrapping my consciousness in layers of pleasant fog, sending me straight to sleep as expected.

. . .

I woke to the golden-orange light of sunset streaming through the cracks in the door. My head was quite clear as my inherited cultivator's body with wide-as-highway meridians processed the grass without any issues.

Emerging out onto the overgrown field with my trusty lucky shovel, I got to work, gradually pushing Qi into the shovel and into my eyes as the sun sunk behind the mountains. The advantage of being a cultivator was that darkness wasn't really a problem, especially in Qi-rich, definitely cursed locations such as this one.

Soon, the world became painted with the inner light of Qi, like a million silver and jade sparks dancing across every blade of grass.

There was a certain, tragic beauty to this place.

Streams of emerald-tinted Qi flowed down the cliff faces along the luminous waterfalls, pooling in the valley. Some god-level spirit beast or perhaps even a leviathan had likely perished in the glaciers where these waters originated, struck down by an Immortal cultivator long ago.

The entire valley sang the song of death, vengeance and despair. Most would consider such energies ominous, disrupting or corrupting, but I only saw potential. After all, I wasn't trying to grow normal crops here.

I selected a promising spot near the center of the field, where several cursed Qi streams converged, and began to dig. The soil was indeed remarkably rich - dark and loamy, practically sparkling with spiritual energy under the shovel. Perfect for my purposes.

Once I had a decent-sized hole, I carefully unpacked my special "fertilizer." The Young Mistress's corpse was surprisingly well-preserved, likely due to her high level of cultivation. Her skin still held that amusing purple tinge the cemetery keeper had mentioned. If it wasn’t for how cold and clammy her body felt, one could assume she had just fallen asleep.

"Well, Young Mistress," I muttered as I lowered her in the hole, "time for your spiritual essence to nurture something other than your ego."

I was just about to start covering her with soil when an unearthly shriek split the night air. The sound echoed off the cliff walls, a terrible wailing that seemed to pierce straight through to my bones.

Ah, yes. The banshee. Right on schedule. I looked up at the curtain of violet stars overhead, sensing the flow of time and considering that my newly acquired banshee would make a pretty good alarm clock.

"EXCUSE ME," I pushed Qi into my mouth and shouted up at the cliff. "I'M TRYING TO WORK HERE!"

The screaming cut off abruptly, then the clicking started, circling the western rock formation atop the waterfall.

I picked up a rock and pushed Qi into my arm, focusing as I wound up my muscles with a basic reinforcement technique.

I hurled the Qi-enhanced rock toward the approximate source of the clicking noise. There was a satisfying thunk followed by an indignant "OW!" from somewhere up in the cliffs.

"LOOK," I shouted upward again, "I JUST BOUGHT THIS PLACE. IF YOU'RE GOING TO SCREAM ALL NIGHT, AT LEAST HELP ME DIG!"

There was a long pause, then a confused "...what?" echoed down from the darkness.

"I SAID, IF YOU'RE GOING TO HANG AROUND ANYWAY, YOU MIGHT AS WELL MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL AND HELP ME BURY THIS CORPSE!" I gestured at the pile of dirt beside the hole. "I'VE GOT MORE SHOVELS IN THE SHED!"

Another pause. Then a rustling sound, followed by the flutter of wings that radiated a sense of pure despair.

The banshee was quite the spirit beast, a Jingwei to be precise. She landed next to me, circling me hungry-predator style. I held my shovel at the ready just in case, pouring Qi into my muscles.

She was unnaturally tall, lanky and wrapped in a shawl of silver and green Qi-lit feathers engulfing her entire body like a trailing shawl.

"You're... burying a body?" she asked, her voice unnaturally vibrating through the air, head tilted curiously as she peered into the hole. "In my valley?"

"Our valley now," I corrected. "I just bought the place. And yes - she's fertilizer for my new agricultural venture."

"Hrm. She was a cultivator," she observed, clicking her beak. "I can smell the spiritual energy still lingering in her bones. What exactly are you planning to grow with such... unusual nutrients, peasant?"

"People," I replied cheerfully.

The Jingwei stared at me for a long moment with burning silver-green eyes, an entire ocean of sparkling feathers rustling in the night breeze. "You want to grow... people? From dead cultivator bones? What sort of an insane peasant are you?"

"I'm a corpse farmer," I said jovially. "And this is going to be my first crop! Though I suppose I should introduce myself properly - I'm Wei Cabbage-Heart, failed cultivator turned agricultural innovator. And you are...?"

The banshee's feathers fluttered as she considered me. "Give me one reason why I shouldn't take you apart into a magic circle and eat you right now."

I swung the shovel with all of my strength into her face.

The shovel connected with a satisfying BONK, sending the Jingwei tumbling backward in a flurry of startled feathers. She landed in an undignified heap, rubbing her beak with sparkling feathered hands.

"OW! What - how did you - that freaking HURT!" she wailed indignantly.

"Of course it hurt," I replied cheerfully, advancing with my shovel at the ready. "It's a magic shovel! Well, technically it's just a normal shovel with an ungodly amount of Qi channeled through it to reinforce it, but 'magic shovel' sounds better. Would you like another demonstration?" I wiggled the shovel menacingly.

"Wait! Wait!" she scrambled backward, feathers puffed up in alarm as I advanced towards her, lifting the shovel. "You can't just go around hitting ancient spirit beasts with gardening tools!"

"Ancient spirit beast?" I looked her up and down skeptically. "Judging by how much Qi you’re radiating, you're what, three, four hundred years old at most? A teenage Jingwei throwing tantrums and making spooky noises at night? I've got socks older than you."

"You..." she hissed, retreating.

I waggled the shovel again. "Now, would you prefer another boop to the snoot or are you going to be a good farm employee?"

"I am NOT going to be your farm employee!" she squawked indignantly. "I am fear incarnate! I have terrorized and devoured all who tried to inhabit this valley for four centuries! I am Sorrow-Nightingale-She-Who-Devours-Human-Flesh-Forevermo..."

"Too many words," I slammed her face with the shovel again. "I'm going to call you... Sowwy."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

"Ouuuuuuwwwww!" She cried, silver-green blood spilling across her forehead. "Stop that!"

"Look," I said, "you're clearly bored out of your mind up here. When was the last time you actually got to properly terrorize anyone? This place has been empty for decades since you murdered the previous owners."

She rubbed her beak sullenly. "The real estate agent comes by sometimes... I eat tons of mountain trekkers, be it spirit beast or men! Wait, why am I even explaining myself to you?! You're just a..."

The shovel descended with another satisfying BONK.

"STOP HITTING ME WITH THAT BLOODY SHOVEL!" Sowwy shrieked, her voice hitting notes that probably shattered glass in the next province.

"I will when you start being reasonable," I replied calmly. "Now, as I was saying - you're clearly bored. I'm offering you steady employment as my alarm clock, entertainment, and first dibs on any failed crop experiments. Whatever doesn't work out, you can eat. Think about it - spirit-enhanced human-vegetables! Much more interesting than random hikers, right?"

Sowwy rubbed her beak with her shimmering talons, looking up at me with concern.

"You can't be serious," she hissed. "You can't just... grow people!"

"Why not?" I asked. "Are you perhaps a people-farming expert?"

"No, but..." Sowwy gesticulated wildly with her feathered arms, "because it's INSANE! You can't just... plant a corpse like seed in the ground to... grow more people... Seriously, that's not how anything works!"

"Consider it an experiment," I said. "If nothing grows out of this dead Jade Princess, in a month or two, you can eat her."

Sowwy's eye twitched.

"Did... did you just offer me a cultivator corpse as a backup snack?"

"Yep!" I beamed. "She's quite well-marinated in spiritual energy too. Though she might taste a bit purple and poisoned."

"Purple?" Sowwy peered into the hole again. "Oh, is that the Chrysanthemum Bitch? The one who kept threatening to build a 'grand spiritual formation' in Rainbow Toad?"

"You knew her?" I asked.

"Heard the village crier declare her achievements and plans all the way up my mountain," she huffed. "Bloody woke me up during the day. Flew down at night to sniff about. Failed to murder her. Far too many anti-spirit-beast wards on the Governor's mansion."

"Yeah, that's her!" I grinned. "Young Mistress Zheniya the Chryzanthine Barracuda herself. Got taken out by breakfast spiders. Want to help me plant her? Come on, you gotta hate her for disrupting your precious nap, riiiight?"

Sowwy clicked her beak thoughtfully. "She did once declare she was going to 'cleanse this cursed valley of its primitive spiritual contamination' and build some sort of pretentious cultivation resort."

"See? We're already bonding over our mutual dislike of stuck-up cultivators!" I said.

"We're not freaking bonding!" the Jingwei fluttered. "And stop looking at me like that! I am NOT going to help you with your insane people-farming scheme! I'm a night spirit beast! I eat people, I don't help plant them!"

"Being awfully uncooperative right now," I said, pouring more Qi into the shovel making it ignite with a brilliant orange corona. "You know, I could always dig up another hole over there, see what grows out of a Jingwei-banshee."

"You wouldn't dare," Sowwy hissed, backing away from my glowing shovel. "I'm a powerful spirit beast! I've eaten countless..."

The shovel flew landing with a…

BONK!

"Oweeeiiiiiii!"

“Consider this," I said, "I've got a reinforced shovel and you've got a very bonkable head. I can keep going all night long. I slept all day. This will be a very slow and painful death for you. Demise by ten thousand bonks. Do note that I can throw rocks pretty hard and pretty far too, so don't think you can just fly away."

"Fine!" Sowwy shrieked, rubbing her bonked head. "FINE! I'll help with your stupid corpse garden! Just stop hitting me with that demonic shovel already! Abyss eternal!"

"Excellent!" I beamed. "Go to the shed and grab a spare shovel and help me cover her up."

Grumbling and muttering what were probably ancient spirit beast curses under her breath, Sowwy lumped towards the shed.

I waited for her to return.

She emerged with a rusty shovel, still grumbling. "This is beneath my dignity as an ancient spirit beast."

"Wa, wa, wa," I taunted her. "I'm an ancient spirit beast and I'm too good to do honest farm work! I just want to sit on my cursed cliffside and make spooky noises all night like a discount haunted house attraction!"

"What?! I'll have you know my haunting techniques are highly sophisticated fear-magic that…”

"Oh yes, very sophisticated," I nodded sagely. "WOOOOO! LEAVE THIS VALLEY OR FACE MY WRATH! WOOOOOO!" I waggled my fingers at her in mock spookiness. "Really terrifying stuff there. Top-tier spirit beast material. Couldn't even scare away a man with a shovel. Less whining, more burying."

"That's not - I don't - UGH!" Sowwy kicked dirt into the hole with her clawed feet. "I swear I will..."

"Murder me in my sleep when the moon shards align just right? Make a cursed circle with my innards to feast on my essence?" I grinned. "Yeah, good luck with that. I've already adjusted my schedule to function at night."

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're bloody infuriating?" Sowwy muttered, angrily kicking more dirt onto the ex-Young Mistress.

"Says the angry night birb who's been living alone on a cliff screaming at people for centuries," I replied. "At least I have a business plan. Also, use the shovel, that’s what it’s for.”

We worked in silence for a while, the only sounds being our shovels and the occasional grumble from Sowwy. Once we had the corpse properly buried, I began carefully inscribing cultivation formation marks in the soil around the grave using the tip of my shovel.

"What are those supposed to be?" Sowwy asked, peering over my shoulder.

"Growth enhancement formations," I explained, keeping her at a claws distance in case she tried to nibble on me. "Modified standard spirit cabbage cultivation arrays. See how this line channels spiritual energy downward while this spiral pattern promotes growth?"

"You can't just hodge-podge different cultivation formations together like that!" Sowwy protested. "They'll interfere with each other and explode! Why are these so wide?"

"Normally, yes," I agreed, continuing to draw lines in the dirt. "They're extra wide 'cus my meridians are weird and wide - like spiritual rivers instead of little streams. Traditional formations don't work for me anyway, so I might as well experiment. Worst case scenario, it does explode horrifically and you get pre-cooked cultivator meat."

"Ughhh," the banshee retreated away from the formation. "Right. I'm just going to be over here then. Far, far over here. Where it's safe from whatever disaster this is."

"Suit yourself," I shrugged, completing the last few lines.

"You are a genuinely disturbed human," Sowwy declared from her perch on a distant boulder. "Did you fall from a cliff as a child and hit your head on a rock or something?"

"Nah," I said, putting my hands onto my formations and beginning to pour a torrent of Qi into the ground. "Died for forty two seconds. Got better though!"

Sowwy clicked her beak nervously from her safe distance. "I'm going to be very annoyed if you explode my valley."

"This isn't an explosion rune," I said. "It's a cabbage-growing rune. There's literally nothing to explode. No lightning, no fire, no wind, no compression - literally just slow growth and nurturing formations. The worst that could happen is we get some really aggressive, cursed cabbages."

"We?" She hissed. "Don't tie me into your insane plans, human. Besides, everyone knows there are at least seventeen different ways spiritual formations can catastrophically explode even without direct elemental manipulation!"

"Oh?" I looked up with interest. "Do tell."

Sowwy preened her feathers smugly, clearly pleased to show off her supernatural knowledge as she glared at me with glowing eyes. "Right then, there's:

Qi Resonance Cascade - when overlapping formation patterns create harmonic frequencies that amplify until they shatter.

Yin-Yang Polarity Inversion - spiritual energy suddenly reversing direction and violently dispersing.

Formation Core Crystallization - energy condensing too rapidly into unstable spiritual crystals.

Meridian Pattern Collapse - when formation lines crack and release stored energy.

Essence Feedback Loop - spiritual energy cycling back on itself until it overloads.

Foundation Seal Rupture - base stabilization formations failing catastrophically..."

She ranted on, listing all sorts of quirky ways things could explode.

"Huh," I said. "The more you know. Say, where'd you even learn all of this? I don't see a library up that mountain. Did you go to banshee spirit school or something? How'd you learn how to take people apart into a cursed formation?"

"I ate a lot of cultivators over the centuries," Sowwy said matter-of-factly. "You absorb some knowledge when you devour their essence. Their memories kind of... stick around for a while. Most cultivators know at least the basics of formation theory, if only to avoid accidentally killing themselves with poorly drawn arrays."

"Neat," I said, continuing to pour Qi into my experimental formation. "So you're basically a supernatural library of stolen cultivator knowledge? That's actually really useful! You can be my technical advisor!"

"I am NOT going to be your..." Sowwy began, then trailed off as the formation lines began to glow with a soft purple light. "That does not look good! STOP!!!”

"This is probably fine," I said cheerfully, even as the purple glow intensified. "Just the Young Mistress's residual spiritual energy being recycled into the growth matrix. Though you might want to back up a bit more just in case."

"Just in case of WHAT?" Sowwy shrieked, launching herself into the air as electrical arcs danced across the ground, reaching out in all directions like spindly fingers.

Pure terror, an unnatural fear of lightning gripped my soul as the fight or flight response kicked in.

This was exactly how the original Cabbage died.

Qi rushed into my legs as I sprinted for the half-underground stone shed, practically diving through the doorway as purple lightning began crackling more intensely across my experimental formation. Slamming the heavy iron-bound door shut, I quickly dropped the large beam across it and began pouring Qi into the wood and metal to reinforce it.

The formation exploded in a blast of deafening release of spiritual energy, the magic shockwave slamming through the reinforced door and sending me flying across the shed. My head cracked against the stone wall and everything went dark.

. . .

I came to with a splitting headache and the taste of copper in my mouth. Moonlight filtered through the cracks in the shed's sturdy door. Leaning on my trusty shovel, I slowly limped outside, rubbing the back of my head and pouring Qi into my eyes to assess the damage.

Where there had been overgrown grass, bushes and weeds, now there was only blackened earth radiating outward from the burial site in a perfect circle. The dilapidated farmhouse was simply gone, blown clean by the blastwave, only the stone foundations and some wall nubs remaining. Even the cliff faces showed scorch marks from the blast.

In the center of it all, Young Mistress Zheniya's corpse lay exposed in her shallow grave, eyes wide open and staring sightlessly at the shattered moon above. The purple tinge to her skin seemed even more pronounced now, lightning sparks dancing across it.

Weeping sounds emanate from below the cliffside.

"Ey, Sowwy?" I called out, peering through the darkness. "You still alive out there?"

A muffled sob came from somewhere beneath the western waterfall.

Following the sound of distress, I limped through the blast-scorched field toward the base of the cliff. The waterfall's mist caught the moonlight, creating ethereal rainbows in the darkness. Below the curtain of water, I found Sowwy crumpled against the cliff, her feathers shredded and burnt. Silver-green blood pooled beneath her twisted form.

I didn't feel too bad for the weeping banshee, after all - she ate people for breakfast.

"You know," I said conversationally, crouching next to the injured spirit beast, "this wouldn't have happened if you'd shared those seventeen ways formations can explode BEFORE I started experimenting."

Sob. “I hate you so much right now," Sowwy whimpered, trying to rise but failing to do so. "Everything hurts... my beautiful feathers... my dignity…” Sniff. “I should have eaten you when I had the chance..."

"There, there," I said consolingly. "Look on the bright side - at least we cleared all the weeds! And demolished that old farmhouse. Really opened up the space."

"Again with the WE? There’s no WE! Not an explosion formation, huh?" she hissed up at me. "Nothing to explode, you said? Just some nice, safe…. grrrrowth formations?"

"I blame the Jade Mistress," I said. "She's clearly got an explosive temper."

Sowwy wailed, her singed feathers puffing up pathetically. "H-hhh-how am I s-supposed to strike fear into the hearts of mortals looking like a plucked chicken?!"

"Your wings will grow back," I shrugged. "Probably. As long as your core is intact, you should heal. Isn't that how magic beasts work?"

"How about you go and die in a hole?" She snarled. "Blasted clueless cultivator idiot can't even use dampening runes."

"What was that?" I asked. "Did you just mention something about dampening runes?"

The spirit-beast hissed and swore at me.

"Yes, you absolute disaster of a human snack, dampening runes! Basic formation safety! Every seventh-year disciple knows to add dampening runes when working with unstable, incompatible spiritual energy!” Sob. “But nooooo, you just had to go and channel raw Qi into an experimental formation without any safety measures!” Hiccup. “And now look at me! I can't even fly now! I'm a disgrace to spirit beasts everywhere!"

"You'll be fine," I said. "It's just a little explosive lightning. I survived worse.”

The smoking spirit beast made sobbing noises and tried to claw at me, but I stepped back out of reach.

"Just a little lightning?" Sowwy shrieked, her voice cracking. "Half of my feathers are GONE! I got thunder-blasted right out of the sky! It's all your fault with your imbecilic, people-farming scheme!"

"Not exactly a formation expert," I shrugged. "Dropped out of cultivation school in third year to become a farmer.”

"Ughhhh," the banshee groaned, slumping back against the wet rocks and burying her face with her claws. "Just... just kill me now. Put me out of my misery with that cursed shovel of yours. Everything hurts so bad."

"Do you ever feel bad about eating people?" I wondered, leaning on my shovel. "Surely there's enough people-ness in you to feel something?"

"No!" Sowwy snapped. "I'm a spirit beast! It's what we do! We eat humans and absorb their essence and... and..." she trailed off, looking uncomfortable. "Well, okay, sometimes the memories are a bit... much. Especially when they had families and children and... ugh, why am I even telling you this? Just leave me here to die in peace."

"Nope," I said cheerfully. "You're my spirit beast advisor now. Can't have you dying on me before we figure out proper dampening runes for the next experiment."

"Next experiment?!" Sowwy's head shot up in alarm. "You seriously want to try that again?!"

"Of course! Science is all about learning from your mistakes. Now we know we need dampening runes. And probably some kind of containment barrier. And whatever else you can think of, my wise murder-birb."

"You can't be serious!" She hissed. "Another explosion like that and my core would absolutely shatter!"

"So help me not make another explosion," I said.

"I am NOT helping you with your insane experiments!" Sowwy declared, then winced as the movement clearly caused her pain. "Just... just leave me alone to regenerate in peace."

"That was a pretty loud noise and you're bleeding a lot," I pointed out. "And your wings are busted. Sure there's like no hungry wolves in this valley or something?"

Sowwy's eyes widened slightly. "The... the Silver-Claw Fang pack does sometimes hunt here during the new moon... but they… They know to stay away from my valley!"

"Yeah, but you're not screeching warningly now," I noted. "And bleeding all over and can't move much at all. Would be a shame if something decided to make a snack out of you while you're all helpless and crispy."

The Jingwei swallowed nervously.

"You... you wouldn't just leave me here as wolf bait, would you?" She let out.

"Of course not!" I said cheerfully. "I'll help you back to my lovely fortified shed. Where you can give me a proper lecture on formation safety while you heal. Deal?"

Sowwy glared at me with shimmering silver-green eyes filled with hatred, misery and pain, then slumped in defeat. "Fffiiiiiine.”