The lavish dinner began.
The meat was tender and succulent, the vegetables crisp and refreshing.
The hot soup was also exceptionally delicious.
In this magical world, people commonly use knives and forks, but Xu Xi was more accustomed to using chopsticks, so he carved a pair for himself.
Krisha, who originally used knives and forks, somehow felt the urge to learn how to use chopsticks after seeing Xu Xi wield them.
And so,
a peculiar scene unfolded in Xu Xi’s home.
While everyone else was happily celebrating New Year’s Eve with knives and forks, the little witch was locked in a battle with the chopsticks, repeatedly picking up and dropping food in an awkward struggle.
She blinked in confusion.
“So difficult…”
Krisha couldn’t understand why, after more than half a month of practice, she still hadn’t mastered these two small wooden sticks.
They were just ordinary sticks, yet they were harder to learn than magic.
“Krisha, take it slow.”
Xu Xi reassured her, demonstrating the motion in slow motion. After another ten minutes, the girl finally managed to pick up her first piece of meat with the chopsticks.
As if she had accomplished some ultimate goal, she let out a relieved sigh.
Chopsticks, the eternal nemesis!
To avoid letting the dinner go cold, the girl eventually gave up her battle with the chopsticks and switched back to her familiar knife and fork, starting to savor the meal Xu Xi had prepared.
“Is it good?” Xu Xi asked.
“Yes, Mentor, it’s delicious,” Krisha’s eyes widened slightly.
The clinking of knives and forks against plates.
The sound of teeth chewing food and tongues rolling.
All of this happened simultaneously in that moment.
Without a doubt, judging from her expression, the girl truly enjoyed Xu Xi’s cooking.
But after taking her first bite, she suddenly stopped and turned her hollow eyes toward Xu Xi, as if waiting for something.
“Alright, I’ll eat too.”
Xu Xi smiled and began to eat as well.
Under the glow of the light, the two figures cast long shadows—the bright white light and the deep black shadows were distinctly separate yet perfectly harmonious.
The New Year’s Eve dinner for just the two of them was quiet, far less lively than the celebrations in ordinary households in the city.
But Xu Xi felt it was enough.
Delicious food and the company of someone dear—wasn’t that more than enough?
“Whoosh—”
“Whoosh—”
The fierce wind beat against the windows.
Outside, the world was blanketed in snow.
The once beautiful garden, full of blooming flowers, was now buried under increasingly deep snow, and even the withered tree had its branches weighed down by heavy clumps of snow.
Sitting inside, Xu Xi took a sip of the hot soup and felt an inexplicable warmth.
Not just from the steam flowing through the room.
But also from the girl sitting beside him.
“It feels like home…” Xu Xi thought to himself as he gazed at the snow falling outside.
For this New Year’s Eve dinner, Xu Xi had put in a lot of effort to make it a memorable one for Krisha, but for just two people, four dishes and a soup were clearly a bit too much.
Even though the girl, with her demonic bloodline, had a slightly larger appetite than most.
After half an hour of feasting.
There was still plenty of food left on the table.
Krisha stood up and began to clear the dishes, intending to wash them, but Xu Xi stopped her.
“Wait, Krisha.”
“Mentor…?”
In the girl’s bewildered expression, Xu Xi’s finger brushed over his spatial ring, and from it, he retrieved a sapphire necklace and a gold coin that he had prepared earlier.
The sapphire necklace was placed in the girl’s left hand.
The gold coin was placed in her right hand.
Her expression grew even more confused.
Xu Xi explained, “In my hometown, there’s a tradition of giving children gifts and blessings when the New Year replaces the old.”
“So, I chose this necklace for you.”
“I thought it would look beautiful on Krisha, and the sapphire in the necklace also enhances your water magic.”
“As for this gold coin, it’s your New Year’s lucky money, symbolizing a wish for your safety and well-being.”
Xu Xi spoke softly,
waiting for Krisha to accept the gifts.
But the young witch neither accepted nor refused. She just stood there in a daze, her hollow, lifeless eyes fixed on Xu Xi.
The room was quiet, but Krisha’s eyes were even quieter.
Like a fragile mirror, shimmering yet easily broken.
This mirror had shattered many times before—time and time again, so many times that even Krisha herself had lost count.
And today.
This fragile mirror, these empty eyes.
Reflected only Xu Xi’s figure.
Filling her entire world.
For some reason, Krisha suddenly felt her throat go dry. After opening and closing her lips several times, she barely managed to utter a complete sentence.
“Why… why would you… give me…”
“Do I need a reason?”
Xu Xi reached out and gently ruffled the girl’s hair. After two months of rest and care, her once dry, straw-like hair had become soft and smooth.
“But… but…”
The girl’s eyes were filled with confusion.
But someone like me, a worthless creature, doesn’t deserve gifts.
I should have been discarded, a useless, unwanted piece of trash.
Yet I’ve been bathed in the warmth of the “sun,” living in the light.
This is already enough to make me happy, enough to make me feel fulfilled. Just being able to maintain this life, the witch truly feels content.
Yes.
A flawed failure like me shouldn’t ask for more.
“No ‘buts,’ Krisha.”
Xu Xi’s words interrupted the girl’s confusion and unease.
His words carried warmth, like the flickering flame of a candle, drawing in the person struggling in the darkness, making her want to get closer.
He said this:
“In life, you don’t need to overthink things. There aren’t so many ‘whys.’”
“If you like something, do it. If you don’t, then don’t.”
“Krisha is usually very obedient and well-behaved, so I like Krisha and want to give her gifts.”
“Similarly, if Krisha likes the gifts I’ve given, just accept them. Unless… Krisha doesn’t like them—”
Hearing this,
the girl quickly shook her head, tightly clutching the necklace and the gold coin.
Using her actions to express her fondness for the gifts.
“I like… Mentor’s gifts.”
“That’s great to hear.”
Hearing the witch’s response, Xu Xi smiled.
The frail and slender Krisha appeared quiet and well-behaved, but her expressionless face and hollow eyes still made one instinctively worry for her.
However.
Compared to two months ago, she was much better now, wasn’t she?
Xu Xi’s eyes softened as he recalled the first time he had seen the girl, two months ago, in her pitiful state.
A filthy alley filled with dirty water, a body covered in wounds, a young face smeared with blood, and trembling, powerless legs.
Back then, Krisha had tried to rob Xu Xi with a small knife.
But what Xu Xi saw and heard.
Was a clear cry for help.
“Save me…” It was a plea that even the witch herself hadn’t realized, hidden deep within her eyes, in every wound, in every ounce of pain.
A desire for someone to see her.
A plea for someone to pull her out of despair.
A silent cry for help to everyone she met.
Xu Xi saw it and heard it all, so he saved Krisha that day.
He couldn’t abandon a witch who was crying out in such anguish.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
