Chapter 33: The Price of Bathwater: A Heated Negotiation

Silence fell between the human and the demon.

“My apologies…”

“Why apologize…?”

“I am truly sorry…”

“There’s no need to apologize…”

“I am deeply, truly sorry…”

“Seriously, there’s no need to say it again…”

Both the human and the demon instinctively lowered their heads. Bai Jiujiu, realizing her blunder, hung her head in even greater shame.

Controlling the Demon-Binding Rope draped over the clothes rack, Bai Jiujiu brought their dinner in from the doorway.

As she ate the steaming soup dumplings and prepared to pick up the Hu La Tang, rich with condiments, her eyes caught sight of the white gluten floating within. Suddenly, she had a vision: a white serpent, stewed into a snake soup, its eyes XωX, lying there.

Hiss

Maintaining a placid expression, Bai Jiujiu handed the bowl of Hu La Tang to Tong Qiu, casually taking the soup dumplings from her hand.

She had already developed a phobia, but what had just happened with the stew transformed that shadow into a gaping black hole.

As for why last night’s porridge hadn’t scared Bai Jiujiu? Heh, when one was ravenously hungry, who cared about phobias?

“Hey! Senior, shouldn’t this be split equally?”

Tong Qiu was stunned. She had just consumed two bowls of soft-shelled turtle soup; how could she possibly have an appetite for two bowls of sour and spicy soup?

“Exactly. I’ll eat this bag of soup dumplings.”

“Fine, whatever. You’re paying anyway. I’ll just add it to your tab now.”

Just as Tong Qiu pulled out her ledger, Bai Jiujiu swiftly stuffed a small dumpling into her mouth.

“You’ve eaten too. Now this dinner is shared.”

“…”

Bai Jiujiu wasn’t stingy about a few silver coins; she simply didn’t want this human constable to take advantage.

She was determined to cure this human of her habit of seeking petty gains!

Those unruly disciples of hers had developed a host of bad habits, eventually escalating to the egregious desire to monopolize their master.

Bai Jiujiu opened her mouth wide and crammed a dozen soup dumplings in at once. Then, under Tong Qiu’s incredulous gaze, she swallowed them down her slender throat into her stomach.

“What are you staring at? Don’t you know snakes can devour food several times their size? Let alone these soup dumplings; I could even swallow a whole Tong Qiu if you put us together.”

“I certainly don’t want to be swallowed by you…”

Tong Qiu averted her eyes, shrinking further into her blanket roll.

The two continued their conversation, resuming from the incident where Tong Qiu’s clothes had burst after drinking Bai Jiujiu’s bathwater.

Later, Bai Jiujiu brought Tong Qiu to Lianlin City, the closest urban center to Cloudfall Mountain. There, they encountered students from an orphanage on a study tour. The team leader, Mr. Song, was a Core Condensation realm cultivator whom Tong Qiu had found after washing a senior’s socks at the Demon Suppression Bureau for a month.

Though his cultivation talent was ordinary, he possessed considerable expertise in education and was quite renowned within the cultivation world.

Before long, Tong Qiu led Bai Jiujiu to the inn near the orphanage students, paying with Bai Jiujiu’s silver notes.

Bai Jiujiu understood the subsequent events clearly: Tong Qiu had purchased numerous medicinal herbs to help Bai Jiujiu recover her body.

“Later, I’ll have Xia Ya buy some clothes for you. This expense is on me, consider it my repayment for helping me break through to the Core Condensation realm.”

“Ahhh! Stop talking! This snake was almost stewed into snake soup!”

“Simply being stewed for a little while allowed an Aperture Opening realm cultivator to advance to the Core Condensation realm, the most difficult breakthrough. If the Demon Suppression Bureau and the Seven Great Sects knew about this, wouldn’t they go mad trying to seize this pot…”

No, if they knew about this medicinal soup, every cultivator in the world would frantically try to snatch it.

Many noble descendants were currently stuck between the Aperture Opening and Core Condensation realms, and their backing forces would undoubtedly salivate over this medicinal soup.

If this medicinal soup were sealed, taken away, and then sent in batches to an auction, how much would she earn…?

Given the nature of those wealthy patrons, a single bowl of this medicinal soup would fetch at least ten thousand gold ingots.

This large pot would contain at least several million bowls.

She’d be rolling in money, absolutely rolling in it!

Tong Qiu immediately intended to sell this pot of medicinal soup. Although Bai Jiujiu provided ten million gold ingots annually, no one would ever complain about having too little money.

After all, their relationship was merely a collaboration, and Bai Jiujiu was a wanted demon. Relying solely on a demon’s wealth was inherently unstable.

Moreover, a portion could be handed over to the Demon Suppression Bureau, or used to bribe superiors to reinstate her position. It might even allow her to be promoted to a mid-tier constable of the fourth or even fifth rank, thanks to her Core Condensation realm cultivation and this merit.

According to the Demon Suppression Bureau’s regulations, every newly promoted constable could make one reasonable wish to the Bureau.

At that point, Tong Qiu could relocate the orphanage from the Great Chu Kingdom to the jurisdiction of the Demon Suppression Bureau, allowing those children to develop within the Bureau in the future.

Therefore, this pot of soup was a must-have for Tong Qiu!

“Hey! Don’t you dare think about drinking that again. This medicinal soup absorbed the demonic energy I leaked. Your human cultivators’ bodies can’t withstand such potent effects. It’s better to just pour it out.”

“Eh, eh, no!”

Bai Jiujiu was about to command the Demon-Binding Rope to find a random place to discard this pot of ‘black history,’ but Tong Qiu quickly stopped her.

This was worth millions of gold ingots; how could she let Bai Jiujiu simply pour it away?

“Do you need it?”

Bai Jiujiu looked at Tong Qiu strangely. Why was this constable so reluctant to part with her bathwater?

While it was a stroke of luck that the medicinal soup had led to a breakthrough to the Core Condensation realm, if Bai Jiujiu hadn’t intervened later, Tong Qiu certainly wouldn’t have been able to leave that room.

“This kind of medicinal soup is extremely useful for us human cultivators to break through to the Core Condensation realm. I’m going to auction it off, and I’ll give you a ten percent share of the proceeds.”

Selling the medicinal soup that had cooked a snake?!

Upon hearing this, Bai Jiujiu was outraged.

Who was she? The master of Cloudfall Mountain, an eight-thousand-year-old great demon of the Demon Residence realm! If other demons found out she had colluded with a human to sell her bathwater, how could she ever show her serpentine face again?

What normal demon would let others sell their bathwater?

“This is far too dangerous. If not for me, you would have nearly exploded and died. Let me dispose of it…”

If other demons, especially those unruly disciples, found out she was colluding with someone to sell her bathwater, those rascals would surely mock her with disdainful looks, then fight each other to snatch her bathwater.

Even worse, there might be a group of men who bought this medicinal soup, perhaps even fat and ugly immortal scions, who would then reverently drink it, stirring the soup with their tongues to savor every drop, savoring her bath…

Ahhh!

She couldn’t bear to think about it!

Goosebumps erupted!

Too shameful!

Especially considering Bai Jiujiu had been a man in her past life; thinking about it this way made it even more humiliating!

“Senior, precisely because this medicinal soup is exceptionally dangerous, it should be entrusted to our Demon Suppression Bureau for safekeeping.”

‘Rest assured, I’ll hand over a portion to the Demon Suppression Bureau!’

‘As for the rest, she would sell it off. Consider it double compensation for the three gold ingots she had been docked!’

“I can give you money if you’re short!”

“Money isn’t the point; this is about the children’s future!”

“I paid for the medicinal ingredients in the soup; it should belong to me.”

“But aren’t you still in debt?”

A roll of egg white, a roll of egg yolk.

One was Bai Jiujiu, a heavily wanted criminal. The other was Tong Qiu, a respected constable of the Demon Suppression Bureau.

Now, the two of them would engage in a lifelong showdown!

Hey!

Ha!

The two blanket rolls collided, then separated.

Bai Jiujiu crashed into the headboard, her red pupils sharpening.

“Very well, let’s decide it with this! Whoever shoves the other off the bed first will determine who gets this pot of medicinal soup!”

Tong Qiu was left dizzy from the impact, but upon hearing Bai Jiujiu’s words, an unyielding flame ignited within her heart.

“Good! I often play this game with those little rascals!”

The two tacitly chose not to use cultivation techniques or magical artifacts, simply rolling their bodies and crashing into each other on the bed.

“Give up! With your human body, how could you be my opponent!”

“You scoundrel, don’t underestimate my resolve to earn money and get promoted, you bastard!”

Tong Qiu didn’t know why, but despite the childish nature of the game, she felt exceptionally excited and happy.

It was a game only children in the orphanage would play…

“Hmph~”

Taking advantage of Tong Qiu’s distraction, Bai Jiujiu stealthily rolled in front of her, extended her bifurcated tongue, licked Tong Qiu’s ear, and then blew a puff of air into her ear canal.

“Ah~”

Instantly, Tong Qiu’s body went limp and soft.

Bai Jiujiu seized the opportunity, aimed at the pot of medicinal soup, and activated her fire manipulation art, burning the entire pot clean.

Ultimately, the pot of medicinal soup was forcefully destroyed by the dominant Bai Jiujiu using fire magic.

Someone played a trick, and there was nothing to be done.

Black history had to be burned!

Tong Qiu’s eyes instantly lost their light. She retreated into her blanket in disappointment, drawing circles on the quilt to curse Bai Jiujiu, who had enforced her will violently.

‘My money is gone~’

‘I watched my money vanish~’

But she quickly realized that the medicinal soup had supposedly been produced by boiling Bai Jiujiu. The key was Bai Jiujiu herself.

So, there was a possibility that this medicinal soup could be recreated!

All she had to do was throw Bai Jiujiu back into a large pot and stew her again!

This information absolutely could not be revealed to anyone else.

Bai Jiujiu’s ability to allow an Aperture Opening realm cultivator to break through to the Core Condensation realm was enough to elevate a low-tier sect to one of the world’s top sects.

Once this talent was exposed, it wouldn’t just be constables participating in the bounty.

Tong Qiu recalled that last night, in the portable house, Bai Jiujiu had mentioned taking Su Ling’er as a disciple.

She suddenly had a conjecture and needed Bai Jiujiu to confirm it.

“When you adopted Su Ling’er, did you know about her talent?”