BB | Chapter 2

The World Below the Mountain is Even More…

Cultivators are meant to exorcise demons and uphold the way. After descending the mountain, Shen Canglan clutched his slender sword, feeling both eager and anxious. He hoped to encounter a troublesome magical creature to showcase his skills, yet feared he might not be able to defeat it.

Fate favored him, and soon Shen Canglan encountered the first wild magical creature of his life.

At that moment, Shen Canglan was standing in front of a bun stall. The buns in the town below were generously filled with meat but expensive, costing three copper coins each. Shen Canglan hesitated for a long time, clutching his money pouch, while the stall owner smiled and greeted him, “Little Taoist priest, would you like a bun?”

“I…” Shen Canglan replied, “I need to save money.”

“Three coins for one, ten coins for three. How about that?”

Shen Canglan: “…”

Isn’t that still one coin more expensive?

Do I really look like a fool?

He glared at the owner, who just smiled and added, “I’ll also give the little taoist priest a side of our homemade pickles.”

Shen Canglan: “…”

He handed over ten copper coins and received three large buns and a small serving of pickles from the owner. He could have saved seven coins.

Who would have thought the world below the mountain was so dangerous? Even a small bun stall owner understood such advanced marketing tactics as bundled sales.

Thinking this, Shen Canglan bit into the bun with a mix of regret and happiness.

…

To be honest, the luxury buns were indeed delicious.

A paw tugged at Shen Canglan’s pant leg just then.

Shen Canglan looked down.

It was a squirrel.

With golden-red fur, it wasn’t even as tall as Shen Canglan’s boots, standing upright like a human.

The moment their eyes met, the squirrel suddenly spoke in human language.

“Little Taoist.”

Shen Canglan furrowed his brow tightly and stepped back: “Magical creature!”

His hand gripped the hilt of his slender sword.

Shen Canglan remembered his duty as a cultivator. He asked the squirrel, “Where are you from? Do you have any accomplices? Have you harmed anyone?”

The squirrel wagged its tail: “Accomplices, yes.”

Shen Canglan was taken aback.

In storybooks, magical creatures are always deceitful, evil, and ugly. But this one was cute, honest, and easy to talk to.

Shen Canglan crouched down and asked seriously, “Where are they?”

The squirrel glanced at the bun in Shen Canglan’s hand and said, “Follow me.”

With that, it turned and walked forward.

Shen Canglan: “…”

This wasn’t how he imagined exorcising demons and upholding the way.

Shouldn’t there be a fierce battle first, followed by redemption through love?

And then the unrepentant magical creature would weep and confess?

Honestly, it was too simple, and that made it a bit boring.

The squirrel swayed its fluffy tail as it walked ahead, but its legs were too short, and it barely moved from its spot.

There weren’t many pedestrians on the street, but none were afraid of the magical creature. Some even tossed a small fruit from afar, which the squirrel immediately ran over to pick up in its mouth.

Shen Canglan frowned.

The squirrel rubbed the fur on its belly and asked Shen Canglan, “Can I ride on you?”

“I am a cultivator,” Shen Canglan said. “There’s a difference between cultivating and magical creatures.”

The squirrel lifted a paw to show Shen Canglan: “But my foot is injured.”

Indeed, there were signs of injury on the slender paw, explaining why it walked so slowly and seemed to limp.

Shen Canglan paused: “Alright.”

The squirrel flicked its tail and climbed up Shen Canglan’s pant leg to his shoulder, its fluffy fur brushing against his face.

It perched on Shen Canglan’s shoulder, guiding him, “Left, right, right, no, no, it’s left.”

After a lot of twists and turns, they still hadn’t reached their destination. Shen Canglan asked warily, “Are you leading me in circles?”

The squirrel rubbed its face: “Circles, yes. The road is winding.”

Shen Canglan: “…”

He couldn’t explain to a squirrel the difference between taking a detour and getting lost.

Fortunately, after walking a bit more, the squirrel finally had Shen Canglan stop: “We’re here.”

It was a dilapidated courtyard, seemingly uninhabited for a long time. The lock on the gate was rusty and had fallen to the ground, with various leaves and grass piled together.

The squirrel jumped off Shen Canglan and burrowed into the pile of leaves.

What was it doing?

Could there be a tunnel leading to the outside world beneath, like the ones he dug to rescue Ye Xuezhu?

He crouched down to investigate but heard faint voices from inside.

“Mom’s here.”

“Mom.”

“Mom, mom, mom—”

“…The accomplices you mentioned, are they your children?” Shen Canglan asked.

The squirrel emerged from the leaves, its bright black eyes looking at Shen Canglan, its fluffy tail swaying.

Shen Canglan: “…”

He felt like sighing.

A squirrel that couldn’t distinguish between “detour” and “lost”—how could it tell the difference between “accomplice” and “companion”?

Culture.

The importance of culture.

Shen Canglan reached out, gently brushing aside the leaves. When he saw what was inside, his pupils shook.

This…

What was this?

Five small creatures huddled together, the size of squirrels, but with chicken beaks and feet, and a hint of scales at the base of their tails.

…

Each chicken beak was open to the sky: “Mom, mom—”

So noisy.

So ugly.

So bizarre.

So ugly.

So strange.

So ugly.

Shen Canglan asked in a daze, “Is the father a rooster demon?”

The squirrel lowered its head bashfully.

Shen Canglan asked again, “Where did the scales come from?”

The squirrel said, “Their grandfather is a goldfish.”

Shen Canglan: “…………”

He hadn’t expected the world below the mountain to be even stranger than above.

What had happened to this world?

Magical creatures that didn’t look like magical creatures were one thing. But interspecies romance? And the offspring combining features of multiple species?

Was it possible that he had gone mad, and everything he saw was just a dream he had while insane?

Shen Canglan pinched himself, and it hurt.

He dutifully continued questioning the squirrel, “Have you done anything bad?”

The squirrel nervously clasped its hands together and asked, “Does stealing shoes and food count? Little Taoist, I know I was wrong.”

Faced with such an innocent, naive, and uneducated squirrel mother, Shen Canglan felt that exorcising demons and upholding the way was far from easy.

First, they had intelligence, could speak, and their voices were cute.

Second, they hadn’t done anything unforgivable.

He couldn’t bring himself to act against them.

In the end, Shen Canglan sighed.

He left the buns for the squirrel and its ugly children and even treated the squirrel’s injured foot. Shen Guanqi’s animal medicine was indeed excellent; as soon as it was applied, the squirrel said it felt much better.

However, it wasn’t all for nothing.

The squirrel told Shen Canglan that deep underground, there was an underground palace, the location of the Demon Realm, where many magical creatures without intelligence resided. Although it didn’t know why Shen Canglan was looking for magical creatures, he could find them there.

Shen Canglan asked, “Where exactly is it?”

The squirrel gnawed on a meat bun: “Below, just below. Little Taoist, don’t you know the way?”

Shen Canglan: “…”

He left empty-handed, having lost two meat buns and a bottle of wound medicine.

Long after Shen Canglan left, the squirrel remained in place, eating and gazing in the direction he had gone.

After a long while, it finally put down its front paws and crouched to the ground.

“Little Taoist,” it murmured.

As its voice fell, a strange male voice suddenly came from behind the squirrel: “Huh? How did you know I was here?”

The squirrel was startled, its tail fur standing on end. It jumped up to flee but was caught by a hand and lifted into the air.

The half-eaten bun in its paws fell to the ground, and its bright black eyes stared blankly at the person in front of it.

The young man appeared to be eighteen or nineteen, with eyebrows like swords extending sharply to his temples. He wore a black uniform with red trim, standing tall and spirited like bamboo.

“Are they your offspring?” The young man noticed the five small magical creatures on the ground and couldn’t help but sigh, “My goodness.”

The squirrel said, “You’re not the little Taoist. The little Taoist has left.”

The young man raised an eyebrow: “What?”

Seeing that the young man didn’t seem to mean any harm, the squirrel’s previously drooping tail slowly regained its vitality and perked up again.

It said, “The little Taoist went to find magical creatures. To exorcise demons and uphold the way.”

The young man was taken aback: “Huh?”

He placed the squirrel on the ground and stood up.

His high ponytail swept past his waist as he crossed his arms, pondering aloud, “Didn’t you say that everyone in this world of three thousand only cares about romance? Where did a cultivator wanting to exorcise demons and uphold the way come from?”

A thin voice echoed in his mind: [Uh. In this book “Love on the Cultivation Path,” the author wrote 78 couples, and at least dozens of them are taoists. There’s too little information, and I can’t remember.]

The voice paused, then tentatively asked: [But since you’re not interested in people who only talk about love, shouldn’t you be interested in someone who wants to exorcise demons and uphold the way? How about it, want to give it a try?!]

The young man tugged at the corner of his mouth: “No thanks. Who knows if it’s just another new tactic to attract people for romance?”

He snorted: “…I said I’m not interested in your system tasks, nor in romance or finding a dao companion. I just want to ascend quickly, shatter the void, leave this bizarre world of three thousand, and return to where I belong.”

After speaking, the young man looked down at the squirrel again: “Which direction did that person go?”

The squirrel pointed its tail in the direction Shen Canglan had left.

The young man glanced at it; the path the squirrel indicated was wide and open, yet not a soul was in sight.

He thought for a moment, took two pine cones from the pouch at his waist, tossed them to the squirrel, and walked in the opposite direction.